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#( by the end of the day he's still a VERY dangerous and unpredictable being )
pinknipszz · 1 month
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Hi! I like ur shogun sukuna fic so much.
May I get a Headcanon with sukuna where reader and him have an argument and reader decides to not back down in the argument?
I LOVE YOUR WORKS 💋
HII and im sooo happy to hear!! <3 i think shogun!sukuna is a silly little guy who’s incredibly strong, wildly unpredictable, and really bad with feelings. everything you want in a man. ILYT!
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shogun!ryomen sukuna who’s as stubborn as he is strong, a dangerous quality that fans the flames of his fervor. you think that he rose through the ranks in one day? no way. it took months, if not years of fending for scraps at the bottom of the food chain, training every second of his life, serving feudal lords to fabricate a reputation, and navigating through the nation’s social network. sukuna is just an exceptionally ambitious man who’s dead set on doing things his own way. so expect to get into a lot of arguments with him.
shogun!ryomen sukuna who doesn’t take you very seriously, with one reason being you’re a woman. despite your status as the seishitsu of the house, which nearly makes you of equal importance to the shogun, sukuna still hides details about his work. he makes you sit beside him during meetings, orders you to sit still and stay quiet while he does all the talking, before carrying on with his day while you’re left completely in the dark. and it alarms you. it’s one thing to be bound to a despotic man for life, and another to live it blindly. 
shogun!ryomen sukuna who’s unimpressed by your sudden outbursts. he’s not entirely stupid to the way he’s treating you. if anything, sukuna is hoping that you’ll eventually conform to this lifestyle like an obedient wife, but of course you’re making it difficult for him and yourself. when you talk back to him for the first time since your wedding, nearby servants count the seconds before he rips your head off. or maybe trades you in for someone else. but it’s all for naught when he merely states, rather boringly, that you won’t be eating food for a week. 
shogun!ryomen sukuna who thinks that starvation is enough to gain your compliance. surely you’ll crawl towards him on all fours, begging for food with desperate pleas that teeter towards the edge of an apology, but sukuna is pleasantly surprised to find the complete opposite: you, sitting on the engawa and braiding loose strands of hair, seemingly unphased by the hunger that gnaws your stomach. he wants to test something and decides to mock you a little, expecting you to hide your in shame at how a woman of such status is feeling a hunger akin to that of a pauper's, but you only bite back. it’s enthralling.
shogun!ryomen sukuna who treats it like war and refuses to be on the losing side. and that's exactly what it is. a war. a never-ending battle between him and a worthy opponent. you want to give him the silent treatment? be his guest. you want to find company somewhere else? have fun trying to make friends around here. he knows not a single soul will dare to get too comfortable with his wife, even if said wife doesn’t want to acknowledge it yet. sukuna knows your stubbornness and his are a lethal combination, no doubt a double-edged sword for marriage, but he wouldn’t have chosen you if it had been any other way. 
(masterlist)
taglist: @yoontaedotin , @lzaj19
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genshin-scenarios · 3 months
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A Flower Made of Playing Cards (Lyney x Reader)
Summary: A highschool idol AU commissioned by a very kind and patient anon!
It's mostly inspired by this headcanon post, where Lyney spends his civilian life starting to pine after you (a classmate) while keeping his idol life as 'Felis' a secret.
Content warnings: reader is implied to be at a height where Lyney can spin them under his arm?? That's pretty much it! Still gender neutral as usual
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Preparing for the Stage:
When Lyney was first asked what he wanted to base his idol concept on, he decided on the magic of luck — something unpredictable and frankly, he wouldn’t bet on most of the time — but if a black cat of all things could disguise itself as a charming magician who made dreams come true, Lyney thought that could be the truth threaded within his performances. 
His luck in gaining a family as supportive as his own. His luck in being chosen out of many candidates to debut, and…
Suppose a bit of rotten luck could play into his concept too. The kinds where props or staff go missing on the day of his nationwide tour, and miracles come into play to get him out of a tight spot.
But like a cat landing on its feet, Lyney — as Felis — would always come through in the end with a smile.
There is comfort in the mysterious and ethereal. The audience places their faith in idols to remain as an untouchable being, talented and charming till the end; while the idol repeats their tricks and illusions, learning them down to a science of well-orchestrated plans.
With the right people to support him behind the curtains, Lyney is sure there is little he can’t do.
But at the end of the day, Lyney is still just a teenager. And when faced with you, who’d unknowingly puppeteered his heartstrings to skip at the quirk of your lips, eyes crinkling with laughter from your seat a few rows away…
No one said that stars couldn’t fall in love. In fact, the ways they do so might be more beautifully devastating than ever. And Lyney is nothing if not someone who burns as brightly as he shines onstage.
-
On the other side:
You’ve always thought of Lyney as a regular classmate; one who gets along with others but otherwise keeps to himself. And sure, he’s also really cute, but Lyney’s always just been a nice presence to hang around with, especially after you learned he has a knack for magic tricks and was willing to teach you a few, skilled fingers sifting through a deck of cards.
You’re starting to think that Lyney’s not just a friend to you anymore.
Despite your best efforts to keep your feelings at bay, you’re more than aware that the nerves building up in your stomach whenever he’s near spells out a crush. As you get to know him, Lyney’s somehow went from cute to pretty, and you know you're not crazy when you notice his quiet charm shifting into something more extroverted. 
There are no seating plans during the breaks between classes — particularly if it’s this week, where your science teacher has packed off to accompany a sports team to a tournament — so you spend the hour finishing your substitute work with Lyney by your side. Except once you’re both done, he takes to scrolling through his phone and showing you the posts on his feed every now and then, and you swear his chair has been shifting closer and closer every minute.
With quiet words, Lyney leans towards you with a quirk to his lips. You wonder if he realizes how dangerous this is to your wellbeing. 
“This cafe’s menu is themed after wizards! See the cauldron?”
“Maybe you could get a part-time job there as an entertainer.” You suggest.
Lyney hums. “But I only like to perform magic for my friends. Which totals to three people, including you.”
“Are the other two Lynette and Freminet?”
“Bingo!”
“I don’t know if your sister would be happy to hear that.” She’d probably say he sounds like a loner.
“Nevermind if that makes her cringe — she’s stuck with me anyways. But I’d like to think at least Freminet would be happy.”
“He’s a sweet kid,” You try not to get distracted by Lyney’s hair tickling your shoulder. “Maybe you should take him there with you.”
“Just between us, I think Freminet would be more comfortable if you were there too.” Lyney shrugs, eyes meeting yours with a clarity that tells you this is a genuine offer. “He’s a bit more chatty around you, which is saying a lot.”
“Maybe that’s just because you’re too much for him?”
“Whatever do you mean? I’m nothing if not quiet, introverted, shy…”
“Shy.” You repeat in disbelief. You might’ve believed that once upon a time, but certainly not now. “A shy person wouldn’t offer to teach a stranger how to do card tricks.”
“Maybe I was just enchanted by you.”
“You avoided me unless we were talking about magic.” You remind him, to which Lyney bumps his shoulder against yours with a huff. “Maybe at that time you were a little shy, but I highly doubt you’d be like that towards your brother.”
“I’ve let you talk too much to my siblings…” He’s pouting. “Your impression of me is ruined now.”
“There’d be nothing to ruin you with if you haven’t done anything.” You tap your chin. “Is there another big secret that I should ask them about?”
You don’t notice, but Lyney’s eyes widen before he tears his gaze away from you, trying to stop the blush rising on his cheeks. If he wasn’t sitting so close, he’d probably slap his face to snap out of it.
Which secret? His crush — or idol career?
Just the thought of you knowing about his feelings is enough to make him combust, but the idea of you realizing he was the idol Felis? You’ve already told Lyney you weren’t that interested in idols since they were real people, compared to 2D characters who you could headcanon about to your hearts’ content. 
A part of him is relieved this means that if you fell for him, it’d be for himself. But another part feels like it’s a waste of the possibilities floating around his head; what if he surprised you by inviting you to a concert, then watched as the understanding enters your face when he steps onstage? What if he dedicates one of his performances to you, or asks you to sneak out with him after a show?
He’s even wearing just one side of his earphones so there’s an opening to offer you the other; it’s less about the music at this point, and instead the little gestures that tell him he has a chance.
He’d take any interaction if it has to do with you, but only within the safety of his own home would Lyney allow himself to daydream — his imagination causing a burn on his cheeks.
Lynette tells him he’s been reading too many mangas, but an idol can dream. Lyney just hadn’t expected you to become one of said dreams so fast.
-
Rehearsals:
Somehow, practicing how he’d confess to you is harder than any other rehearsal Lyney’s done. Perhaps it’s because he knows he looks like an idiot, speaking to the wall-length mirror after he gave up on Lynette and Freminet as helpers.
…The things he’d like to say to you remain private, anyways. There’s no way Lyney could bring himself to sound so sappy to anyone’s face but yours.
Seeing as it’s off-season, the only idol work Lyney has is related to magazine and advertisements shoots. It’s nothing much compared to when he first did an overseas tour, so he has the chance to steal some time for himself — going for a coffee run after he dons a mask and large sweater, then a cap which hides most of his hair.
Today Lyney had to model for a limited-edition pocky series. It’s strawberry and something-flavored, so the dress and makeup people had the bright idea to add a ribbon to his hair. It’s fanservice, it’s cute, and Lyney doesn’t think much of it seeing as he can’t see himself, until he spots you outside of the cafe where he’s waiting for his order. 
He’s always been light on his feet, but Lyney doesn’t think he’s ever ducked into a corner so fast, quieting himself in an attempt to become invisible.
You haven’t seen him without his glasses before, so maybe you wouldn’t…?
“Order for Felix!”
Of course it’s his turn now that you’re here. He considers taking off the ribbon before thinking better of it, hoping it isn't visibly poking out from underneath his cap.
“...Here!” Lyney tries not to cringe as he goes up to the counter. On most days he gives the cashier a random name — sometimes ‘Felix’ because it could be his idol alias read wrongly — but right now it almost gives him a heart attack when he hears his not-name, because it’s followed by you accidentally bumping into him and apologizing for almost spilling his coffee.
“I’m so sorry! Are you okay?”
“It’s alright, nothing’s spilled.” Lyney realizes too late that you might recognise his voice, and starts to speak in a muffled tenor. “No worries at all. Thank you for your concern.”
“...Felix, was it?” You look at him in confusion. “Is your throat okay?”
Before you can look at him any closer, Lyney’s turned away from you and started to speed-walk out of the cafe like his life depends on it. 
“Perfectly fine, enjoy your day!” He says a bit louder to not appear too rude. He’s quite sure his ears are red as he makes his retreat, and by the time he makes enough distance between himself and the cafe, Lyney realizes something.
He didn’t even get to hear your coffee order!
-
Back to your side:
Out of all strange incidents that could happen over the weekend, you didn’t expect an encounter with some ‘Felix’ guy to linger in your mind until now.
To be honest, it was less about the stranger and just the ribbon you spotted in his hair when he ran away. As you listen to Lyney ramble about a magic trick he’s figured out recently, you watch the way his ash-blond locks sway with every motion.
…That pink ribbon from the stranger's head might look cute on Lyney. With how the breeze is playing with his hair, you can imagine the ends of the ribbon floating, threatening to fall loose and fly off the school rooftop you’re loitering at.
Lunch finished and forgotten, Lyney stands up as he’s reminded of something. He spins on his heel to look at you, hands linked behind his back.
“You know, over the weekend I saw a dance go viral.”
“The one on tiktok?”
“Yep! Want to try it?”
Lyney’s not usually this energetic, but it’s not so out-of-character that you’d start to find it odd. Instead, you’d like to preserve the easy smile on his lips while you still can — it’s a rare sight to see him this excited, steps light and gaze playful.
“I’m not a good dancer, though…” You hesitate, before Lyney comes closer to pull you to your feet with both hands — and how could you say no when your fingers are still loosely linked between you?
Lyney’s cheery demeanor slips into something more calm. With a content hum, he takes a small step away from you and positions his feet. You mimic him as he explains each move.
“Okay, so now you have to do a turn from this side.”
“How should I when you’re still holding onto me?”
“Like this,” Lyney urges you to turn, and as naturally as momentum brings you, he lets go of one of your hands to twirl you under his arm. “See? It’s easy!”
“I’m quite sure the dance didn’t involve a partner.” You can’t keep your smile down, peering up at Lyney when you stand in front of him again. “Trying to set a new trend, are we?”
“Only if you’ll let me record us. I won’t post it anywhere though, since my manager might get mad at me.”
“Your manager at work?” You ask, confusion furrowing your brow. “Did you accidentally sign an extra clause or something? They shouldn’t be able to control how you act outside of your shift!” Lyney bursts into laughter, earning a light hit on the shoulder from you. “Hey! This is serious — what kind of part time job did you get yourself into?”
“I wouldn’t say it’s a regular side-gig.” Lyney calms down, expression dusted with a pink blush as he looks at you fondly. “I’m a bit of a public figure, though I don’t normally dress that way when I’m at school.”
“Well then, Mr Popular.” You play along. “What should I be calling you instead then, when I see you during your job?”
“...Most people call me Felis, if that rings any bells.” He glances away. “It’d be pretty embarrassing if you didn’t recognise my name. But I do have to sing, dance, and…”
“You’re an idol.” Your eyes widened, the words spoken so quietly, you had to repeat them just to make sure they didn’t slip away. “You’re that idol, aren’t you? The sparkly-looking guy on the billboards!”
“Not so loud!” Lyney hushes you, grabbing your shoulders in reflex before stopping. He clears his throat, taking a step away. You would’ve minded the distance more, if it were not for the sight of Lyney bashful in front of you. “...It’s a bit of a secret, just so I can still live peacefully as a civilian. I asked Lynette and Freminet to make sure no one could overhear us here. They might be as nervous as me about your reaction, I’m sure.”
“I find that a little hard to believe.” If anything, they might be more worried about Lyney recuperating. You speak tentatively, raising a hand to tuck a strand of hair behind his ear. “Now that I’m checking properly though, you do have the same look.”
It takes everything in Lyney to not squirm at your touch, and it’s even more terrifying that he wants to keep you there. “I would hope so, seeing as we’re the same person.”
“I bet Felis doesn’t spin his fans under his arm,” You quirk a cheeky smile. “Unless there’s something else you have to tell me?”
“Of course not, that’s only reserved for the best of…” Lyney trails off, the word ‘friend’ dying on his tongue. Not that you aren’t one, but— “I thought it’d be important to tell you about my job, before I ask you the real question I have on my mind.”
Giving him a nod, you tell him you’re all ears.
“...If you’re free next week, would you want to go somewhere together? As a date, I mean.” He lets the question sit in the air. “I understand if not, of course, whether it be because you just see me as a friend or find the whole idol thing too much—”
“I’ll make sure I’m free.” It takes a moment for your answer to register in Lyney’s head before his eyes light up. “Rather, you might have to make sure I don’t mess anything up for you. Like… should I call you by another name? Do I also need to wear a disguise?” If you had a net right now, it’d be very helpful in catching the butterflies in your stomach, to keep you focused on what you’re saying.
Just you would be perfect. “As long as we dress casually, it should be fine.” Lyney’s smile is contagious, now that he’s settling into the fact you said yes. “Sunday afternoon?”
“Sounds good!” You’re cut off by the bell. Remembering that you have PE and haven’t changed yet, you curse under your breath and quickly apologize to Lyney. “I’ll see you later— or text, if not!”
By the time your sentence ends, the door to the rooftop has shut, and Lyney is left standing with the tiniest of smiles, looking at the ground to try and control his expression before his siblings can bombard him with questions.
Lyney has never felt nervous while singing love songs before, but his manager recently commented that he feels younger than usual. Like an actual teenager in love.
It checks out, considering how fast his heart races when he starts to associate lyrics with you. Gone is the Felis who shines like an untouchable star, and here enters an idol who might just be human.
He enjoys it, as afraid as he is at the same time. To place one’s heart in the hands of another is terrifying, but he’d rather it be you than anyone else.
…But maybe you shouldn’t attend any of his concerts for now. He doesn’t know what he’d do if his brain short-circuits at the sight of you within the crowd. 
His own little secret within a sea of people entrusting him with their dreams — what a thrilling thing indeed.
-
Speeding up:
After that day, you noticed that Lyney has loosened up more around you — in a way that means he’s more likely to smile and cling to you during conversations. If he had cat ears, you can imagine they’d be standing proud every time he managed to fluster you, watching for every micro-reaction as if his career depended on pulling that expression from you as he might with a crowd of adoring fans.
Except you think that Lyney’s adapting to this too quickly. How is it that he was the nervous one that day at the rooftop, but has been going on the offense ever since the next morning?!
Lynette apologized to you in advance, telling you that once Lyney has his eyes on a goal, he’d be merciless in trying to charm your heart. You just didn’t think it’d affect you this much, though that might have more to say about how quickly you’re falling rather than Lyney’s approach. 
Every time Lyney calls your name and decides it’s time to hang around you like sunshine to a flower, you’re reminded of the clips of Felis you’ve watched after learning of his job. It was a mix of curiosity and puzzling out what Lyney’s other side might be like…
But god, does he have to constantly sport a smile like that? You find out through a promotional video that the coffee shop stranger actually was Lyney, and the ribbon does look very cute in his hair.
It’s a shame you’re only seeing the whole design through a screen. And even worse is the way he’s blowing a kiss to the camera in this one music video—
“What’re you watching?” Lyney’s hands rest against the back of your seat as he leans to look over your shoulder, prompting a panicked noise from your throat. You fumble with your phone, flipping it over so he can’t see. The little smile Lyney’s wearing tells you he has an inkling, but he does you the favor of not spelling it out. “Must’ve been a pretty good video if you didn’t hear me coming over.”
“You snuck up on me!” Sending him a glare, you power off your phone protectively. “...And if you must know, I was just listening to a song.”
“Can I hear?” Despite his playful tone, Lyney does give you the space to deny him as he adjusts his glasses. “But of course, I understand if you don’t like to share headphones.”
“I don’t mind, but there’s something else I’m wondering about.” You tilt your head up to peer at Lyney more closely, reaching a hand out to graze against his fingers. “Are these real?”
“My hands? I’d hope so.”
“Your glasses.” You retort quietly, trying not to roll your eyes. “Despite how I had to make a reality check about you too, I do know in fact that you’re real.”
Lyney laughs, raising a fist to his mouth. “You flatter me. But to answer your question — yes, these are actual glasses. Though the prescription isn’t too bad, so I only wear contacts if needed elsewhere.” With a serious pause, Lyney meets your gaze. “I wear these to school though, because I need to look at the board from behind and admire you clearly.”
You prop your chin against your palm. “I’m starting to think you’ve gotten too flirty recently.”
“Would you believe me if I said I’ve been holding back?” He hums, pulling a chair to sit beside you and mirror your pose. “I wanted to make sure you were comfortable with me romantically at first, but after that…”
“...You’re lucky I find you cute.” You sigh in jest. “At this rate, you might wear me down before we even go on a first date.”
“There’s still a lot about myself I’d like to share with you.” Lyney quietly admits. “I just hope we’ll be able to talk with more freedom. And if you decide you still like me after that — I suppose I’d feel like the luckiest guy in the world.”
The softness in his words somehow hits you harder than his previous flirtations. 
It’s me who should be feeling incredibly lucky.
Rather than one persona being more genuine than the other, you were starting to understand Lyney’s balance between the schoolmate you knew and the charming idol onscreen.
You see the truth of his smile underneath the blinding lights and exchanges in the hallways; the adorable way he fiddles with his pen during class versus his confident choreography.
It’s all Lyney. You just have to learn more about him and put his trust to good use.
He’s not the type to pull just anyone into his world, after all. Lyney has always held back just a little, so as to not let his secrets show from behind the curtains to even his familiar friends.
And now that he’s allowed you in, how could you possibly take his excitement for granted? You’d be lying if you said you weren’t looking forward to it too.
-
The date:
When Lyney greets you at the start of the date, the last thing you expected is for him to sneak a pink rose into your hair in place of a bouquet.
He claims it’s more discreet, especially considering the way he’s dressed with a mask and hat to hide his features, glasses also present. Despite these, Lyney is expressive enough that it doesn’t affect your conversations, and you allow him to take your hand as he leads you to the aquarium. It’s lunch time, so you’re going against the regular flow of people and enjoying the exhibits while it’s less populated.
Beneath the walkway tunnel where various rainbows of fish swim by, you gaze up in wonder at the shadow of a shark passing through.
Fontaine is nothing if not abundant in sea-related attractions, even if the main city is on land. You haven’t visited this aquarium since you were a kid, so it was nice to relive traipsing through a world washed in soothing, gentle blue.
“I think when we were younger, me and Lynette would talk about catching these fish if we were allowed into the tanks.” Lyney muses. “Perhaps that’s why our father says we’re like cats.”
“If we were in the wild though, catching fish for dinner would be a pretty good idea.” You gaze up. “But… if I was able to breathe underwater, I think I’d just spend all day escaping my troubles.”
“Would you have space for a partner in crime?”
“Only if they’d be able to help, by whisking us away from pursuers, for example.” You smile when Lyney starts swinging your hands lightly between you. “It’s stressful business when I have to worry about two of us getting caught, instead of just one.”
“I’d take the heat so you can get away first.” The conversation is childish, but Lyney’s sentiment makes a frown pull at your lips.
He’s confused when you stop walking and turn to face him. “No self-sacrifices! We either run together or get caught together. Nothing in-between.”
Something flickers in his eyes before he replies, tone warm. “Alright then. I’m at your mercy.”
“A bold claim, when you surprised me with this in my hair.” You point towards the rose Lyney’s managed to secure to your shirt with a pin, after his initial sneaky reveal. “...I’m just trying to make sure you’re not the only one giving between us, but it’s hard to keep up with all…” You gesture vaguely at him. “This.”
“You just signaled to all of me.” 
“That’s right!” You huff, crossing your arms across your chest. Lyney resists the urge to reach out and entwine your fingers again. “You’re too pretty, and nice, then I find out you can sing and dance too—”
“But I like surprising you.” Lyney chirps back, a laugh in his voice as he notices the way your face is darkening with a blush. He does you the service of hiding this from passersby — if any actually entered the walkway now, empty as it is — with his hands cupping both of your cheeks. “Maybe it’s because I’m a workaholic, but I want to make sure your eyes are only on me.” It’s the most dangerous thing he could say to you, in public or not. “So maybe I should apologize for dragging you into my selfish whims.”
“...But you don’t intend to stop.” You say, feeling lightheaded.
“Of course not.” Lyney hums, eyes bright with a smile. “There are a lot of stars to compete with in the night sky.”
And you said we're in this together, did you not? It's not the first time someone's told him he doesn't have to do things alone, but… it means a lot, coming from you.
“I hope you don’t say this to all your fans,” you sigh, relaxing into the softness of his palms. They’re smooth, and you realize Lyney’s always felt a little warm to the touch. 
“You’re a fan?”
The lilt in Lyney’s voice tells you you’ve made a mistake in your choice of words. He’s much, much too happy that a previously-disinterested person like you has now seen enough of his idol content to make such a slip.
“A fan of Lyney Hearth.” You try to salvage your pride, gaze trained onto the ground.
“Oh… I see.”
Lyney’s eyes widen before he catches himself, suddenly glad he’s wearing a mask for a different reason.
God… What is he going to do with you?
-
After attempting to feed penguins, seals, and exploring the open pool where you’re allowed to touch reef creatures, you and Lyney make a beeline out of the aquarium and towards the main shopping street, where many cafes are abound.
Since you were working against the usual rush schedule, you managed to grab a seat at a local favorite which also served meals; corner of the cafe and out of sight.
The meal passes by without issue, and next you browse some stores nearby while slowly heading towards the park. You were in a hobby shop when a group suddenly exclaimed the name Felis, causing Lyney to flinch and pull you with him behind a shelf.
“Oh my god, they do have idol stuff!”
“Yeah, but we already have this! It’s not new merch, y’know.”
Lyney lets out a relieved sigh, slumping against the shelf of comics. “Nevermind, false alarm.”
“Are you always this jumpy?” You whisper back, resisting the urge to look around him and see what said Felis merch was as the group moves to another end of the store. Lyney doesn’t seem to realize his arms are still wrapped around you, and that if you simply tilted your head a little, your faces could touch.
“Only because I’m more distracted today.” With you. “It’s nice to know that people are having fun though. My manager would classify that as a good review.”
“Yes, but also, um…” You clear your throat, causing Lyney to finally turn his head and freeze at your proximity. “Not that I mind, but you’re still holding on to me.”
“...Am I too close?” He sheepishly asks.
Yes.
“Not at all.” You swallow your nerves. “But if the staff find us like this, we’re definitely going to get kicked out.”
-
One shared crepe and a walk in the park later, you reach a quiet area hidden between the trees that’s lit by the evening light. Lyney explains that he and other trainees would often come here to hide out and practice choreography together, when the training rooms became too suffocating. In hindsight, he’s quite sure this spot had eventually been bought out by their company, seeing as they never ran into any press or strangers here.
“We’d prop our phones on water bottles and record ourselves, since there was no mirror.” Lyney recounts. “It was mostly to catch our mistakes, but some managers encourage us to pretend we’re doing vlogs too, to get used to presenting our personalities to the camera. Whatever does get uploaded is screened, though.”
“Do you still have those videos?” You’re sitting on a bench, legs crossed and facing one-another. “The ones that didn’t get posted, I mean.”
“...Maybe? They’re really embarrassing though.” He chuckles, and almost moves to take off his mask before he thinks better of it. “And I think I only did those to update my family on how I was doing. They don’t believe my words entirely when I say I’m fine.”
“You are too good of a talker, so I’d be wary too.” You laugh, glancing up at the sky. The clouds are parting for purple and orange. “I think once upon a time, I might’ve dreamed about doing something creative too. Like singing, fashion, or etcetera.”
“Not every interest has to be placed in the public eye.” Lyney takes off his hat, giving you a wink. “Guess what’s inside.”
“A dove? More roses?”
“Take a look.”
Once you lean closer, Lyney raises the cap to shield your faces from one side, then pulls his mask aside to block the other. It’s over in a moment, but he brushes his lips over your cheek, and the one image that clings to your mind is the blush adorning his face and the clear look in his violet eyes.
Eyes that are trained on you — holding your attention until something flickers in the corner of your vision, and Lyney reveals a rose made of playing cards.
You look down to check for the flower pinned on your shirt: no longer there, and presumably transformed by Lyney’s trick of the senses. He allows you to take the handcrafted rose with a satisfied smile.
“I was nervous it might’ve fallen apart after walking around all day.” He admits. “It’s not as romantic as a regular rose, but I hope it holds its charm all the same.”
It’s very him. Lovely and careful in the ways he opens up his petals to you, but hiding a puzzle of spells underneath.
“It’ll last a lot longer, too.” You smile, storing it carefully to take home later. “How long did you spend on preparing that?”
“What do you mean? I transformed it in a second.” He muses. “Besides, I don’t want to spoil the magic. It took a lot of practice, but normally just with an audience that looks at the hat, instead of…” Lyney trails off, clapping his hands together as if to signal the next topic. “I can teach you to fold a flower like that though, if you’d like.”
“In the library as usual?” You allow the shift in conversation, if only because unlike Lyney, you do not have the solace of hiding your expression behind a disguise. “I’m starting to wonder if your skillset will ever be exhausted.”
“Well, I’m quite adept at interviews, modeling, and learning things by sight.” For his idol work, he means. “But I will admit I’ve been curious about baking. Maybe one day we could try that together.”
“Collecting points in more categories, I see. Maybe you can teach me how to dance, too.”
Lyney surprises you by swinging his legs off the bench and standing. He gives you a little bow, a glint in his eyes as he extends a hand towards you. “One of Felis’ you mean? I could do that now.”
Right now?!
“Don’t you trust me to?” Lyney pouts. “I’m a good teacher, I promise.”
“M… Maybe next time?” You’re not too sure, suddenly feeling intimidated by the idea of proper choreography. By instinct, you still take Lyney’s hand and get to your feet. “I need to mentally prepare— Whoa!”
Before you can finish, Lyney’s spun you around and lowered you into a dip, hands supporting you at your back and waist. He keeps it shallow and helps you back up — lips quirked as you’re suddenly pulled closer to him with the momentum, bodies and faces inches apart.
His pupils are dilated.
Your indignation quickly forms into surprise. There’s a quiet tension surrounding the air — a question asked, and your hand reaches up to take off Lyney’s mask in reply as he steals your breath away straight from your lips. 
You’ve been wondering when you’d finally get the chance to stop his honeyed words with a kiss.
After you get home, you find a playing card that Lyney’s slipped into your pocket. On it is his familiar scrawl, and a few simple words:
‘Thank you for today.  Love — your number 1 fan.’
You get a feeling that this wouldn’t be the last time you exchange messages upon a suit of hearts. Maybe you’ll start investing in a deck of your own, just for him.
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book-place · 1 year
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Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Warnings: various marvel movie spoilers, cursing, violence, drinking, weapons, death, let me know if I missed any :)
Pairings: Avengers x reader platonic
*not my gif*
Summary: You became an avenger at a young age, and grew close with your team
A/N: Welcome to book place’s one year event!!
Inspired by: Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears For Fears
Please don’t plagiarize my work, you may reblog if you like but I’m asking that you don’t steal my hard work
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Welcome to your life
Your eyebrows shot up as you let out a low whistle and turned on your heel, taking in your surroundings, “This place is nice,” You commented.
Tony smiled proudly from beside you, placing his hands on his hips, “I designed it myself.” He announced.
Natasha scowled, walking up from behind him and efficiently delivering a harsh slap upside his head, making the man yelp and grab onto the back of his hair, eyes filled with betrayal.
“Don’t let him fool you,” She said calmly, “Pepper did most of the work, he just likes taking the credit.”
You chuckled lightly at their antics, still taking in the sight of Avengers Tower in all its glory.
“Yeah, yeah,” The man scoffed before turning to and regarding you once more, “Come on, we’ll show you up to your room.”
Being recruited by the Avengers was the very last thing you had expected after a lab accident gone wrong, one that ended up giving you the power to create force fields around yourself and others. But it happened, and now you were being welcomed with open arms into your new home, even though you were just a teenager.
The three of you rode side by side up an elevator. A machine that though simple and common, was even fancier than almost anything you had ever seen.
Everything you looked at was ten times more expensive than anything you had ever even been allowed to look at in your life.
It came to a stop on a floor too high for other buildings and your two newly found teammates allowed you to exit before them.
You had already met the rest of the team, so you weren’t overly nervous about running into any of them on your first day.
“-and this is your room,” Tony concluded his tour of the floor that consisted of all of your rooms and a living room and kitchen, as well as a dining room.
He had explained to you that it was considered the living floor, but there were many others identical to this one if a case or purpose ever arose for it.
Yet again, you couldn’t help but allow your jaw to drop as soon as Natasha gently pushed the door open, revealing a room that could be an entire floor of the house you used to live in.
Tony walked off, calling over his shoulder about having JARVIS alert you of when dinner would be ready, but the redhead stayed behind.
She smiled gently at you, reaching out and squeezing your shoulder gently, “Welcome to the Avengers.” She said softly.
You exhaled a long breath when she began to walk in the direction Stark had just left in, and you tried to wrap your mind around what your life was becoming. The new life you were beginning to lead.
There's no turning back
All of it was too overwhelming. Too loud. Too dangerous. Too unpredictable.
You couldn’t breathe, you couldn’t see, you couldn’t even hear yourself think.
It was your first mission as an Avenger and of course, it was going horribly. It was nothing like all the training and simulations you had been put through, or even the sparring you had done with Steve.
This was real- this was deadly. The gunshots wouldn’t just momentarily stun you, they would take away your life in a second, without hesitation.
You could barely even register the arrow that whizzed right past your head, narrowly missing you in such a way that had to be done purposefully, and ending up in the chest of a soilder you had been too distracted to even notice charging at you.
For the first time since the battle had begun, the first clear thought fought through the fog of your brain and became clear to you.
You needed to get out of there.
There were no further thoughts after that. No regret or guilt for leaving your team to fend for themselves. No shame for being a coward on your first time out in the field. Just the rapid, uneven, rising and falling of your chest and the constant ringing in your ears that wouldn’t go away.
Somehow, you had been coherent enough to stumble behind a flipped over vehicle that gave you shelter from the fight.
You sank to the ground unceremoniously and automatically brought your knees up to your chest and your hands to your hair, pulling harshly on the roots.
“Hey, hey-“ Clint dropped into a crouch by your side, placing a hand on your shoulder as his eyes swept over your face in concern, “What is it, kid? What’s wrong?”
All you could manage to do in your pathetic state was snap your eyes up to the man as your breathing came in and out unsteadily.
Suddenly, a look of realization overcame on his features and he reached his arm over and began to gently rub your back up and down. Much to your surprise, his expression was entirely void of the anger and disappointment you would have expected to see there after being found cowering pathetically away from the fight.
“I remember my first mission,” He spoke softly after a moment, eyes still scanning your surroundings for any sign of danger, “It wasn’t even as an avenger- mine was a whole hell of a lot less pressure than yours is. I was just some rookie shield agent on a mission that mattered, but wouldn’t have devastating effects if it went sideways.”
Slowly, your body unconsciously began to relax under his comforting hand and gentle words. He continued with a small chuckle to himself, “I couldn’t even hold my bow correctly. My hands were shaking too much- I’m pretty sure I shit my pants.”
That, at least, made a shaky smile make its way onto your face. It was small, but it was still something.
“It’s okay to be nervous and scared,” Clint spoke again, “Hell, I still feel the fear every time I step into one of these things. But I promise you,” He ducked his head so he could look you in the eyes, “We wouldn’t have picked you to be on our team if each and every one of us didn’t think that you were more than capable of doing this.”
“Really?” The question came out quietly. You hadn’t known that it had been their decision about whether or not to let you onto the team.
The man clapped your shoulder gently, “You’re an avenger, kid. We would never force you into a mission, especially one like this, but we could always use your help. So do you think you can go back out there and help us kick ass?”
A wave of confidence surged over your body and you straightened up and strongly nodded your head once.
He cracked a grin, standing up and helping you to your feet, “That’s what I like to hear.”
Even while we sleep
“Y/n, Y/n, come on. You have to wake up.” Steve shook your shoulders gently but firmly, “We have a mission.”
An incoherent grumble left your lips and you pushed your face farther into the pillow, refusing to open your eyes.
He sighed, “It’s in Sokovia,” He continued to shake you, “And it’s really important, people are counting on us.”
That finally caught your attention, and you reluctantly opened your eyes and threw your blanket off of yourself. You sat up and stretched your arms to the ceiling, “No one told me being an Avenger would mean waking up in the middle of the night,” You whined.
The blond man smiled at you sympathetically, “If we don’t do it, then who will?”
We will find you
“Shit!” Tony exclaimed through the comms, no doubt dodging something as extreme as a missal as he spoke.
“Language!” Steve chimed back instantly, almost as if it was second nature, the sound of his motorcycle revving sounding in the background.
You laughed loudly as you threw up a forcefield around yourself, successfully stopping a round of bullets from penetrating your skin.
“Wait a minute,” Tony chimed back in, “Is anyone going to comment on the fact that Cap just said ‘language’?”
“I will!” You cackled, punching a very confused soldier in the face, “He’s such an old man!”
Laughter from the rest of your team came through your ears as Steve let out a small huff, an explosion coming from the general direction you knew he was in, “It just slipped out,” He defended, “Plus, there’s a kid here.”
A gasp of offension left your lips and you could hear Clint take over your cackling from over comms, Nat even snickering a bit.
“I’m not a kid, Rogers!” You whined in a very child-like manner.
Turning your head to the side, you saw a large group of people rush their way over to Clint, no doubt hoping to overwhelm and overrun the man with their numbers.
With a slight tut of your tongue, though, you threw your hand out in his direction, making a force field form a protective barrier around him, to give him the time he needed to prepare for their attack and take them down with ease.
He turned his head to you with an appreciative nod and you called over with a playful grin, “We’re even now!” Referring to your first mission, merely a few months ago, that he had effortlessly saved you.
It was a joke between the two of you, everytime one of you would save the other, you would say that you were either even with one another or they owed you one, even though you had both long since lost track of all the saves.
Acting on your best behavior
You let out a loud cheer, raising your pool cue in victory with a large grin adorning your features, laughing as Steve let out a playful groan.
The blond man’s friend, Sam, laughed loudly and clapped Cap on the shoulder, “I can’t believe she beat you, and it’s her first time playing!”
Steve jokingly rolled his eyes, reaching over and ruffling your hair in a way that made you scowl.
“Hey! What’s with the long face?” Tony strode over and swing an arm over your shoulder, “It’s a party! There’s no negativity allowed at my party! What did Rogers do to you?”
Said man adopted a look of mock offense as he flitted his eyes over, “Why would you think I did something, Stark?”
“Because it's always you,” He replied simply before steering you away and towards where Bruce and Nat were at the bar with a laugh.
You got there and leaned your forearms against the counter whilst giving the two members of your team smiles of greeting.
“Want a drink?” Tony asked, sliding one across the surface towards you.
Just as your eyes lit up and you began reaching for it, Nat scowled and snatched it just before your fingers could brush against it, “Absolutely not.” She was glaring dangerous daggers at Tony.
“What?” He asked innocently, holding his hands up in surrender, “I was sneaking them at parties when I was way younger than her!”
“And look how you turned out.” The redhead retorted.
Tony’s smile dropped and he let out a noise of offense, but before he could open his mouth and snap back, a large hand clamped down on one of your shoulders.
“Lady Y/n!” Thor's voice boomed, causing you to spin around on your heel with a grin, “Are you enjoying the festivities?”
“I am, Thor, what about you?” You laughed.
“Well, it’s no Asguardian party, but you humans know how to have a much better time than I thought you did.” He exclaimed, eyes still shining with excitement.
Only a little while later, the guests had slowly but surely simmered out, leaving only you and your fellow avengers, along with Doctor Cho and Maria Hill, to lounge around on a couple couches.
“But it’s a trick!” Clint insisted, leaning his head back against the couch while twirling a drumstick in one hand.
“Oh no,” Thor laughed, taking a drink from his glass, “It’s much more than that.”
“‘Whoever be he worthy shall haveth the power!’” He mocked in a deep voice, guestering dramatically to where Thor's hammer rested on the coffee table in the middle of everyone. Clint scoffed, “Whatever, man! It’s a trick!”
You laughed from where you sat on the floor by Nats feet, the woman unconsciously running her fingers through your hair softly.
“Well, please, be my guest.” The Norse god seemed thoroughly amused by the entire situation and waved a hand in his hammer's direction.
“Come on!” Tony encouraged, clearly slightly buzzed from the drinks he kept pouring himself.
“Really?” Clint’s eyes widened, he clearly hadn’t expected to actually have his words entertained.
“Go Clint!” You cheered, pumping a fist in the air as your team chuckled all around you at your words.
Barton pushed himself to his feet and strode over, trying to appear to have much more confidence then he actually was.
“Oh, this is going to be beautiful,” Rhodey snickered, and you nodded in agreement.
“Clint, you've had a tough week, we won't hold it against you if you can't get it up.” Tony called to the man. Everyone laughed again.
“You know I’ve seen this before, right?” He thought it was just a parlor trick.
As soon as he placed his hand on the handle and moved to lift it though, he was met with much more resistance than anticipated.
He turned to Thor and blinked once before moving back to sit down, “I still don’t know how you do it.”
“Smell the silent judgment?” Tony snickered at his own words.
“Please, Stark, by all means.” He gestured towards the table.
“Oh, here we go.” You mumbled in amusement.
You watched as one by one, almost every member of your team tried- and failed- to lift the ancient object off the table, all while you sat back, cackling at their attempts.
“Lady Y/n,” Everyone’s attention was turned back to you, “Why don’t you give it a try?”
You glanced back at Nat, who shrugged with a small smile and took a sip from her beer, before shrugging yourself and making your way over to the table.
Readying yourself, you wrapped your hand around the handle and began to use all your strength to try and pull it up.
Perhaps you had been imagining it, maybe your mind was playing tricks on you, but you could’ve sworn that you felt the object shift slightly under your fingers.
But before anything else could happen, a loud screeching noise rang out through the room, making everyone flinch and divert their attention to where a robotic looking figure came limping through a doorway.
Turn your back on Mother Nature
You turned your head and gave Pietro a firm nod, who smirked at your signal before running at full speed through a row of robots, destroying them in the blink of an eye.
When he did so, you let out a whoop of celebration and stuck a hand out for him to rush back over and high five you.
The twins had realized their faults with being on Ultrons side and immediately rushed to assist your team. And as much as you loved the avengers, and while the Maximoff’s were both technically older than you, it was nice to have people closer to your age again. The three of you immediately clicked.
“Nice one!” You cheered, throwing your hands out to create a force field around the two of you just in time to stop some debris from falling over and flattening you.
“As glad as I am that the two of you are getting along,” Cap grunted through the comms, a background sound of clambering metal coming through, “Please keep your focus.”
“Why, we are very focused, Captain America.” Pietro’s thick accent rang through, sending you a cheeky smile.
Nevertheless, the two of you did get back to taking everything more seriously, and you quickly rushed to aid a panicked group of people who were trying to get to the helicarrier to get them out of the city.
You threw your hands up again and created a force field around all of you and you ushered them towards more help, “This way!” You called over the nearby sound of gunfire.
Waving off the cries of thanks you received from them after handing them off to some other helpers, you began jogging over to where you knew Wanda to be- wanting to check in on the girl- all whilst taking down Ultron's soldiers along the way.
“How’s it going?” You asked when she came into view.
A small smirk made its way onto her face, one so similar to Pietro’s that it left no doubt in your mind that they were twins, and she quickly sent out a beam of red energy into an incoming bots chest. It shattered into a thousand pieces upon impact.
“I think I’m handling it well.” She replied.
You laughed, wrapping a forcefield around one that was close to you just as it sent a bullet flying at you, making it bounce back at itself.
“Y/n?” Clint’s voice suddenly came through the comms, making your head snap up, though he was no doubt at least a few streets away, “I need some backup over here.”
With one final nod to Wanda, you turned on your heel and began racing to where you knew he was positioned, “On my way.”
After only one slight misstep in an alley that almost caused you to tumble into an ever collapsing brick wall, you pushed your way into a clearing and came to a sudden halt, breath catching in your throat and eyes widening at the sight before you. You could have sworn that your heart had even stopped beating all together.
It all happened in a slow motion fashion, only about ten yards away, Clint was in a squat position, cradling a kid to his chest and using himself as a shield to protect him. One of Ultron's robots hung in the air, aiming all of its available weapons at the man.
Without your mind even beginning to register what it saw, your body jumped into action and you leapt forward at full pace, throwing your arm out to send a shield the duo's way.
You were too slow. Too slow. Too slow. Too slow. Too-
Pietro got there before you could, before his faster than light brain could even compute that you had already gotten them out of harm's way, and he stood in front of them. His arms were stretched out to the sides as he used himself to barricade them from the incoming round of bullets.
He fell to the ground less than a second later, mumbling something that you weren’t able to hear over the ringing in your ears.
Immediately, you fell onto the ground beside him, your defenses collapsing as you did so, and a sob ripped through your throat as you hurriedly turned the boy over, searching for the lost cause of any sign of life.
You didn’t know how long you sat there, crying out and rocking his body back and forth. A boy you barely knew, yet felt so connected to. Someone who deserved to live.
Everybody wants to rule the world
Collateral damage.
You never liked those words. It always insinuated that something was broken, something that could no doubt be made whole again. But that word was too often used for people. People that could never be fixed- be brought back. People that could never be replaced.
This was the first time you ever experienced losing someone on your own team while out in the field, let alone someone you would consider a friend.
The rest of your battle with Ultron had been done numbly, your brain having gone into autopilot mode and leaving you to not even be able to think about what had just happened.
But then it was done, and you and the avengers were left to patrol Sokovia while everyone else was safely taken off, just in case something else were to occur.
Immediately, you had wandered off and found a quiet spot near the edge of the floating city and plopped down a safe distance away from the end, pulling your knees up to your chest.
The sound of soft footsteps made you look up, only to come face to face with a tear stained Wanda.
Guilt pooled in your stomach when you automatically came to the realization that you had been mourning a boy you barely knew while his own twin sister was left to suffer with it alone.
“Wanda, I’m so-“
“Shh,” She shushed you as you began to cry again, tears of her own slipping out of her green orbs, “I know, I know.”
She sank to the ground beside you and you held each other, both crying over the boy who hadn’t had enough time.
“I should’ve saved him- I should’ve noticed him there.” You hiccuped, clinging tightly to her shirt.
“It’s not your fault.” She whispered, resting her head atop your own, “You did nothing wrong, it wasn’t at all your fault.”
You were the only one that seemed to care- really care- about what happened to her brother. And not just that, but you were still just a kid- a kid that blamed herself for what had happened to him. Something that was completely out of your control, but you still took on the burden of the incident anyway.
Despite what you may think, Wanda could never hate you after today. If anything, it made her like you even more.
It's my own design, it’s my own remorse
“Are you getting a sense of deja vu? I’m getting a sense of deja vu.” Tony rambled.
“What do you mean?” You turned to him with a single raised eyebrow.
“You, me, Romanoff.” He gestured to the three of you walking in a line through the newly built Avengers Compound, where you and your team would all be staying now.
The redhead shared a playfully suspicious look with you, “What about us, Stark?”
The man grinned, as if having been waiting for the question to be asked, “This is just like the first time n/n moved into the tower.”
Nat chuckled when she realized what he meant and she threw a fond smile at you, “That’s true.”
“You were so little back then,” Tony teased, reaching over and ruffling your hair.
You scowled slightly at the action- no real anger behind your expression, though- and sidestepped his hand while moving to fix your hair.
“I was not.” You grumbled.
“I mean, you still kind of are.” Natasha smirked a little as she spoke.
Your mouth dropped open in betrayal, “Hey!”
Help me to decide
“Which color?” Wanda asked with a wide smile, holding up the different vials that all varied wildly in shades.
You quieted, eyes jumping from one to another as you thought it over for a moment before pointing to the middle one excitedly, “That one!”
“I’ll do the red.” Nat piped up from behind you, sinking down onto the mattress by your side.
“Perfect,” Wanda cheered, taking out your designated colors and one for herself as you all got ready to paint each other's nails.
The three of you had claimed to the rest of the team that you needed a girls night, before quickly retiring to Natasha’s room and promptly closing the door in Tony’s face, who had pouted and whined about not being invited.
You sighed happily, relaxing against the bed's backboard as Nat painted your nails and Wanda braided the woman’s hair, “This is nice, I needed this.”
“Believe it or not, I’ve never had a girls day,” Natasha had a slightly amused tone as she spoke.
“Me neither!” Wanda chorused.
“Same!” You piped up. The three of you fell into laughter, “But this is how it looks in the movies! So I thought, why not give it a try?”
Help me make the most of freedom and of pleasure
“Voila!” Tony announced dramatically, throwing his arms out to the side to present what lay inside the dining room that had been practically untouched for the first few months of living in the compound.
Everyone looked around in shock, even Nats lips parted a bit.
Covering the table in the center of the room where foods of all shapes and sizes. All different kinds, with desserts and fast food bags, and even some food that looked homemade.
“What is all of this, Stark?” Steve looked around at the sight before him.
“Dinner.” Tony replied in a ‘duh’ tone.
An excited squeal left your lips and you latched your hand onto Wanda’s and quickly pulled the girl over to the table, taking a plate and beginning to fill it with food.
The girl chuckled along with a couple other members of the team at your antics, before the others quickly followed on your tail, filling their plates to the brim before taking seats around the vast table.
For the most part, everyone ate alone on their own times, so this was the first time that you were all doing it together since moving in.
You watched with a wide smile as everyone interacted, telling stories and filling the space with laughter. This- this is what you would picture if someone ever brought up the idea of a family dinner.
Nothing ever lasts forever
You didn’t like this- not one bit.
The heavy stare of Secretary Ross made you squirm uncomfortably in your chair. His gaze held enough accusation and judgment to make you more than a little bit uneasy.
“The world owes the Avengers an unpayable debt,” The man continued a spiel that you and the rest of your team sat through in a heavy silence, it felt like you were children being lectured by a teacher for doing something wrong in class, “You have fought for us, protected us, risked your lives . . . but while a great many people see you as heroes, there are some . . . who would prefer the word ‘vigilantes’.”
The word made you cringe slightly, but you stayed silent, eyes trained ahead. You didn’t even look away as you felt Steve and Tony’s eyes both flicker towards you simultaneously. You sat between the blond man and Natasha with the rest of the team spread out around the table.
“And what word would you use, Mr. Secretary?” Nat tilted her head to the side, eyes narrowing slightly in a way that promised danger, though her tone was as innocent as it comes.
Ross scoffed, “How about ‘dangerous’?” His eyes swept back and forth over each and every one of you, “What would you call a group of US-based, enhanced individuals who routinely ignore sovereign borders and inflict their will wherever they choose and who, frankly, seem unconcerned about what they leave behind?”
Your hands tightened around the arm of your chair, knuckles whitening slightly from the sheer grip you had on the wood.
When all of you stayed silent, he sidestepped to reveal a large screen behind him. He pressed a button on a small remote he held.
“New York.” He spoke as news footage from years prior flashed onto the screen.
The Chitauri Leviathan crashing into skyscrapers. Citizens running around in a panicked frenzy. Bruce in his Hulk form smashing into buildings.
“Washington DC.”
The three Helicarriers from that day firing at each other, crashing into one another. Massive waves caused by their crashes engulfing nearby citizens.
“Sokovia.”
The city rising from the ground. Citizens screaming a crying. Fires erupting across various buildings. A brief clip of you and Pietro fighting side by side.
From the corner of your eye, you watched Wanda’s head fall at the sight on the television, and anger immediately began flickering in a small flame in your stomach at Ross for making her watch that.
“Ireland.”
Your eyes immediately snapped back over to the news footage playing in a horrifying montage across the screen.
Ireland had been where you were for your first mission. The one that you had frozen up on, where it took Clint to snap you out of your daze.
You had later learned that your mess up had cost many lives of innocent civilians, and that was something you had to live with to the day.
Clips of dead bodies littering the streets flashed across the monitor.
Painfully, you ripped your eyes away, unable to look at it any longer in fear of throwing up at what you saw.
“Okay. That’s enough.” Steve immediately sat up straighter when he noticed your pained look, his voice coming out as a demand to the Secretary.
He didn’t argue, clicking off the screen, as if he knew he would get that exact reaction out of all of you, “For the past four years, you've operated with unlimited power and no supervision. That's an arrangement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate. But I think we have a solution.”
A nearby aide shuffled over and handed him a thick document that he immediately passed to Wanda, who briefly glanced at it before sliding it over to Rhodey.
“The Sokovia Accords. Approved by 117 countries . . . it states that the Avengers shall no longer be a private organization. Instead, they'll operate under the supervision of a United Nations panel, only when and if that panel deems it necessary.” He explained as if it were as simple as that.
Your ears were ringing. This was starting to become too much- everything about this ‘meeting’, and you were beginning to get to the point where you didn’t know if you could handle it.
“The Avengers were formed to make the world a safer place. I feel we've done that.” Steve argued.
Almost as if he anticipated that, Ross didn’t miss a beat, “Tell me, Captain, do you know where Thor and Banner are right now?”
Your head snapped up at the sounds of their names and you met the Secretary’s eyes.
“If I misplaced a couple of thirty megaton nukes . . . you can bet there'd be consequences. Compromise. Reassurance. That's how the world works. Believe me, this is the middle ground.” He finally tore his eyes away from you to address the rest of the team.
“So, there are contingencies.” It wasn’t a question, Rhodey already knew the answer.
“Three days from now, the UN meets in Vienna to ratify the Accords.” He glanced at you once more, “Talk it over.”
Just as he was about to turn to leave, Natasha’s voice drew him to a halt, “And if we come to a decision you don't like?”
It was silent as you all waited for him to answer, and he gave her a plain smile, “Then you retire.”
It wasn’t too long later that you were all sitting around one of the many living rooms in the compound, you on one of the couches with your head in your hands as Steve read and reread the Accords from beside you.
Sam and Rhodey were arguing back and forth about what to do, while everyone else silently mulled it over to themselves.
“Secretary Ross has a Congressional Medal of Honor, which is one more than you have.” Rhodes pointed out, as if that would be the deciding factor in everything.
The other man shot back his retort that only lead to more bickering that you couldn’t be bothered to even try to listen to, some other teammates of yours getting roped into it as well.
This was not good. Your team- your family- were going in circles as they argued with each other about the fate of the Avengers. This could very well be the day that they ended, because if the Accords weren’t what teared you apart, it would be the endless disagreements that were coming with this whole thing.
You sat back and watched as your family was slowly pulled apart by the seams.
“Tony, you chose to do that- if we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there is somewhere we need to go, and they don't let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own.”
You had no idea who you agreed with, which side you were taking- it was all too much at the moment for you to properly think it out- but you had to admit that Steve did have a good point.
“If we don't do this now, it's gonna be done to us later. That's the fact. That won't be pretty.” Tony’s voice had almost shifted to one that resembled begging. He didn’t want you all to split up over this anymore than you did.
“You’re saying they’ll come for me.” Wanda whispered, her arms moving to wrap around her stomach.
“We would protect you.” Vision automatically assured her.
“Both of you.” Tony added, locking eyes with you as he said it.
You bit down on your bottom lip and cast your eyes downwards.
Even though you didn’t know your own viewpoint on the matter, you didn’t understand why your team couldn’t pull together- now more than ever- to come to an agreement on something. At least to ensure that you would all stay together.
The bickering just kept going and you couldn’t take it anymore, you pushed yourself off the couch and hurried out of the room, not paying any mind to how the team quieted behind you and sadly watched you go.
Everybody wants to rule the world
“So,” Tony strolled over, leaning forward and resting his forearms on the railing before bumping his shoulder against yours playfully, “What’s going on in that head of yours?”
You were out on a balcony, standing there and overlooking the compound grounds as you thought, “I don’t know what to do.”
“That’s okay,” He assured you, “You’re just a kid, you don’t have to know what to do about all of this.”
You bit down on your bottom lip gently, “I hate it when you all fight.”
Tony sighed, shoulders sagging and head dropping a little bit, “I know, I hate it too.” His voice was quieter than before
“Why can’t we just keep doing what we’re doing?” You asked softly, eyes trained somewhere in the distance, “Why can’t we just go back to the way things used to be? Without the government dictating what we do.”
The man’s head turned to you in surprise, “You don’t mean that.”
You shook your head, “No, I do.” You were finally getting a sense of what you thought about everything going on.
“Listen, I know you’re upset about everything, but you don’t have to-“
“Why would we let them control us?” You turned to face him as well, “That’s not how we’ve always done things, why would we change now? We’ve been fine on our own.”
“I know you think that,” He tried again, eyes and tone growing slightly desperate, “But signing these Accords and letting the government have a little bit of control over us will be what keeps us together. Not signing them will tear us apart.”
Again, you shook your head stubbornly, “No, the UN will just tear us apart. Things will change. I’m not ready for things to change.”
“You need to sign these Accords, n/n,” It almost sounded like Tony was begging at this point, “I promise, once you do that we can figure out everything else.”
You looked at him sadly, “I’m not ready for them to control us, Tony. I’m not ready for things to change.”
Before he could even open his mouth again, you turned on your heel and went back inside, searching for Steve to let him know of your decision.
Tony dropped his head into his hands from behind you.
There's a room where the light won't find you
Your eyes swept back and forth, going over the plan again and again, letting Steve’s previous words ring out in your head.
Though you tried to keep your face neutral, you knew that your nerves were portrayed through your expression, showing everyone in the airport how scared you really were.
As you looked over the faces of those who signed the Accords, you couldn’t find it in yourself to blame them- as much as you tried.
At the end of the day, they were just doing what they thought was right, just like you were. Except their methods didn’t involve going back to the way things used to be, theirs included being controlled by people who had no idea what being an Avenger was really like- what it took.
Before you knew it, both sides began charging at one another, forcing you to do the same.
You didn’t like this, the thought of fighting against your loved ones made you sick to your stomach, so you had come up with a plan beforehand. All you would do was protect those around you by channeling your powers to generate force fields around them and come to their aid when necessary.
Before the fight had even begun, you relayed this to Steve, who had nodded in understanding.
So that’s what you did.
When T’Challa automatically sprang forward to lunge at Bucky, you threw a shield around the man, sending the king flying backwards upon impact.
You cringed a little, “Sorry, your majesty!” You called.
That wasn’t exactly how you pictured your first interaction with the king of Wakanda going.
You ran around, helping others when they needed it before moving on, making sure you were constantly rotating to be there at any given moment for anyone.
Your steps faltered though, when Tony flew down in his suit and touched the ground only a few yards away.
“What are you doing, kid?” He asked sadly, “Please get out of here, you’re going to get hurt.”
“I need to help them, Tony. I’m not going to leave them behind.”
“Listen-“ He lifted his hand subconsciously as he spoke to you, not meaning anything by it, but he froze when you flinched at the gesture and threw your hands up to create a force field all around yourself.
You realized what you had done too late, and you swallowed thickly as a deadly silence settled between the two of you, both completely tuning out the sounds of chaos from the battle going on around you.
“Did you-“ His words came out slightly stuttered, “You didn’t think that- that I was going to shoot you, did you?”
You didn’t. You really didn’t. But that didn’t explain why your body had worked by itself to try and naturally protect you. As if you had been in any danger in the first place.
Before you could even try and open your mouth to speak, Visions voice cut you off, calling out from a far, “Mr. Stark!”
Steve and Bucky were making their way to the hanger that held the quinjet, the blond man desperately trying to get your attention to flag you down and get you on the plane with them.
You realized though in that moment that getting over there wasn’t in the cards for you, but you could distract Tony so the duo could make their escape.
Subtly, you shook your head, and you watched Steve’s face drop in slight horror, but you didn’t allow yourself to dwell on that as Bucky gently took his best friend by the shoulder to continue to steer him out of there.
Taking Tony’s distracted form to your advantage, you threw a shield around him just in time to stop him from moving to go after them, keeping him stuck in place.
“I’m sorry, Tony,” You spoke, “But I can’t let you do that.”
Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down
“Y/n.” Your head snapped up and you sprang to your feet, hand already moving to the gun you had concealed under the table.
You froze in place though, standing in the middle of your kitchen, staring at two of the people you quite honestly didn’t know if you would ever see again.
After what happened in Germany, Cap had freed you and the others from prison, thereby forcing every one of you to go into hiding for what you had done. He had begged you to come with him- all of them begged for you to go with at least one of them- if only for the fact that they could look after you. You were still just a kid.
But after everything that had gone down between the team- not that it could even be called that anymore- you had been too full of pain and betrayal to even handle being around any of them at the moment. So, you refused assistance from any of them and slipped away the first chance you got. You couldn't stay with them, not then at least, you had to go out on your own. You had to take time to process everything that had happened.
You had somehow ended up in a small town in Ireland- maybe it was to stay in touch with a small part of who you used to be when you had still been an Avenger- but you were old enough at that point to get a job and buy your own apartment. It was by no means a luxurious life, not like the life you had been living in the tower or the compound, but it was peaceful and quiet. Exactly what you needed to lay low and sort yourself out.
But now, you stood face to face with Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff and you didn’t know what to do. You could physically feel your heart contracting in your chest and you found it hard to breathe.
Limply, your hand fell away from your gun and the three of you just stared at each other in silence.
Steve cleared his throat, “Something big’s about to go down. In Wakanda.” It was like he wanted to say something else, but forced himself to get those words out.
“Why come to me?” Your voice was scratchy, the question pained you to speak aloud.
They both had sad looks on their faces, “We need you.” Nat spoke softly.
You shook your head back and forth, “You don’t need me.”
You knew it. They knew it.
“Of course we do.” Steve insisted, “You’re a vital part of the team.”
An incredulous laugh left your lips, you couldn’t help it, “Team? What team?” Your eyes hardened, “There hasn’t been any team in a long time.”
“N/n, I know you’re hurt-“ Rogers moved as if to come closer to you.
You took a stumbling step back, an expression full of pain overcoming your face. You had thought you moved past this, with all the time you had, you really did, but seeing them again, it opened up new wounds you had thought long since closed.
“Don’t.” You spoke firmly, doing everything in your power to keep your voice from wavering.
He stilled, releasing a small sigh through his nose.
“There’s a threat,” He spoke from afar, “Far greater than anything any of us have ever faced. And he’s coming here. We need your help to stop him.”
“What kind of threat?” As hurt as you were, you still felt as if it was your responsibility to protect the world, and you couldn’t just back away after hearing that it was in danger.
“His name is Thanos.” Nat informed you, hesitantly taking a small step forward, continuing when you didn’t flinch away, “A lot of us are going to Wakanda to hold him off, he’s trying to get to the mind stone.”
“Vision?”
True, you had both been on opposite sides of the fight in Germany, but that didn’t mean you didn’t still care about him.
The nod of confirmation you received from both of them was enough to make you suck in a breath.
“He’s dangerous, we can’t let him get that stone.” Steve spoke.
Finally, you locked eyes with the blond man, taking a moment before speaking again, “Fine, I’m in.”
You would be fighting with the Avengers again. Side by side with your family, having each other's backs and looking out for one another. Just like the way things used to be. The way things should be.
Nat smiled softly, taking the final step to reach you before lifting her hand and gently cupping your cheek, “You’ve grown up so much.”
Subconsciously, you leaned into her touch before bringing your arms gently around her for a long overdue hug.
After her, you moved to hug Steve too, biting down on your bottom lip to try and stop the incoming tears, “I’m sorry.” You whispered.
“You have nothing to be sorry for.” He reassured you softly, knowing exactly what you were apologizing for, “You left because it was the right thing for you to do.”
They ushered you into the Quinjet they brought to get you shortly after, and you finally piped up again once you set a course for Wakanda, “How did you find me, anyway?”
Natasha briefly looked over her shoulder at you, “We tracked you down shortly after you left, but knew that we needed to give you your space for as long as we could.”
You swallowed, “Oh,”
“Tony knew where you were too,” She explained, “He kept tabs on you.”
Your eyebrows furrowed, “He knew where I was but he didn’t have me arrested again?”
Steve looked at you, “You know he never wanted to do that to you in the first place.
You nodded slightly, you did know.
Slight embarrassment took over you though, you thought you had been good at covering your tracks, but apparently not against an assassin and billionaire.
After a while, the quinjet landed and the three of you exited. You sucked in a sharp breath when you saw Wanda, Bruce, Vision, T’Challa, and Bucky all standing near the ship, smiling welcomingly at you.
Though you didn’t know Bucky or T’Challa that well, you gave the former a small hug in greeting and the former a polite wave before moving to tightly hug Wanda, Bruce, and Vision.
“It’s good to see you guys,” You said after pulling away.
Wanda smiled, “It’s good to see you too, n/n.”
“I hate to interrupt,” The king of Wakanda did in fact sound very guilty, “But we must be going.”
“Y/n, I want you to stay here with Wanda and Vision, help protect the stone.” Steve addressed you, and you nodded in affirmation.
So there you stood, watching with a worried expression from the windows as your team along with hundreds of Wakandan soldiers marched into battle.
You cast a glance at Wanda after a few moments, “I can’t just stand by and watch.” You whispered.
She smiled, nodding and reaching over to squeeze your shoulder, as if she had been expecting you to say that, “I know,” She admitted before nodding her head out the window, “Go. We’ll be fine.”
After one last bit of hesitation, you spun on your heel and took off running outside, joining in on the fight that had already begun. Your first fight back as an Avenger.
When they do I'll be right behind you
Not once, but twice your team had been ripped apart. Once by their own undoing and once from the hands of Thanos. You didn’t know which hurt more.
What had happened? What had made the universe decide to leave you alive and well while half of the Avengers- half of the universe- got snapped to mere dust and blown out of existence?
How cruel could the world be that you were forced to sit there, screaming and crying until your throat was raw as you watched your family be teared away from you while you sat back, completely unharmed?
You should never have left Wanda in the first place, you should have stayed like Steve had specially told you to to protect the stone. Everything might have turned out differently if you had.
You didn’t know how long you had been there, collapsed in a heap on the ground in the spot right next to where Wanda had gotten snapped away and Vision's dead body lay off to the side, until Natasha and Steve had broken through the trees, eyes frantically searching every which way.
When her gaze landed on you, the woman let out a breath of relief and rushed to your side, falling to her knees and scooping you up into her arms, holding you tightly against her.
So you sat there, hands desperately grasping at her clothing and cried into her chest while she rubbed your back up and down, tears of her own swimming in her eyes.
“I know, I know.” She spoke gently, rocking you both back and forth.
Steve dropped onto his knees beside the two of you, a look of pure exhaustion and despair on his face as his tearful, devastatingly blue eyes locked with your own orbs.
“I’m sorry,” He whispered as if it was his fault. A million different apologies laying behind his eyes.
I’m sorry for dragging you back into this. I’m sorry that we lost. I’m sorry I couldn’t stop him. I’m sorry-
You threw yourself into his arms, wrapping your own around his neck and continuing your crying as he hugged you back tightly.
You had lost.
So glad we've almost made it
“It’s my fault.”
It had been five years since that day in Wakanda. Since half the universe had been erased from existence.
Only twenty days after the battle, a woman named Carol had showed up with a ship that held none other than Tony Stark, a man you thought to have been snapped away with everyone else.
You, along with Nat, had lived in the compound, desperately trying to keep together a world that was no longer there.
It was almost always quiet, nothing to report, nothing going on in the world. Most of your days consisted of sitting around with Nat, waiting for something that might never happen.
The woman looked up from her breakfast at you in surprise, “What do you mean?” She asked.
You sighed, this was the first time you were going to open up to her about the guilt that had been eating away at you about what had happened.
“I left Wanda and Vision,” You whispered, eyes clouding over with sadness. You learned long ago that you had almost no tears left in your body to cry. “Even after Steve specifically told me to stay and protect the stone, I left them and Thanos got to them.”
Nat looked startled, never had she thought you were blaming yourself in that way. Sure, everyone that hadn’t been blipped felt some form of responsibility for what happened, but after all this time, how could she not have noticed just how much of the burden you took upon yourself?
“That wasn’t your fault,” She spoke immediately, “Nothing about that was your fault. Thanos would have gotten what he wanted, whether you were there or not.”
You quieted after that, neither of you bringing the conversation up again, allowing the day to pass without mention of it again.
Pretty soon though, Steve showed up, Scott following shortly after- a man who had supposedly been blipped away.
The three of you were quick to usher him in and demand that he explained himself, only to come to the realization that for the first time in five years, a tiny flicker of hope was set off within you. For the first time in five years, there may be a chance to set everything right. To bring everyone back.
Only one thing was left to do, you all had to pay a visit to Tony and convince him to go along with the plan.
Almost right after getting back, Tony had slipped away, and you let him, figuring he just needed a little time, but you hadn’t seen him a single time in these five years. The only form of communication going between the two of you was the occasional text to make sure the other was doing alright.
You took a deep breath, stepping out of the car and gently closing the door behind you, taking in the sight of Tony’s house, which- even in the middle of nowhere- was beautiful.
The man stopped walking on his porch when he caught sight of the group of you, and the two of you briefly made eye contact before you watched him break it and heave out a sigh.
You all walked up to him, and he pulled you in for a hug, planting a quick kiss on the side of your head before turning to address everyone else, “What is it?” He cut right to the chase.
So Scott began explaining it to him- everything you had been told earlier.
“In Layman's terms, it means you're not coming home.” Tony sighed, running a hand down his face.
“I did.” Scott argued.
“No, you accidentally survived.” Tony immediately shot back, “It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull off a... What do you call it?”
“A time heist?” You offered- no doubt- unhelpfully.
Nat looked down to hide her smirk at your words.
“Yeah, a time heist. Of course, why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipedream?” Tony’s sarcastic words had a bite to them.
Your amusement, along with Natasha’s, immediately dropped and you averted your eyes to the ground.
“The stones are in the past. We can go back and get them.” Scott never gave up, you would give him that.
“We can snap our own fingers.” Nat continued.
“We can bring everyone back.” You whispered, eyes lifting to meet Tony’s, and you saw the briefest flicker of hesitation for the first time since arriving.
Then, all at once, the hesitation was gone and the incredulousness was back, “Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?”
“I don't believe we would.” Steve sounded like he truly believed his words, and that made you feel better.
You began tuning the rest out after that, when they still kept bickering back and forth. It was bringing back too many memories of the Accords.
“Tony,” Steve spoke softly, “I get it. And I'm happy for you, I really am. But this is a second chance.”
“I got my second chance right here, Cap. I can't roll the dice again. If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch.” He seemed genuinely sad.
Everyone turned to leave, but Tony called to you, making you pause, “N/n, wait up.”
You exchanged one glance with Nat before pulling yourself to a halt and letting the others part way and you turned to Tony.
“I really am sorry,” He said, “I just can’t risk it.”
You smiled a soft, understanding smile, and reached over to squeeze his hand, “I know, Tony, it’s alright.”
He shook his head, averting his eyes, “It’s not that I don’t want to bring them back- of course I do. I would do anything to be with them again, but I refuse to let my family become in danger because of it.”
“Tony,” He turned his gaze back to you, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll figure out another way.”
He bit down on his bottom lip before slowly nodding his head and letting his hand drop from yours, “Alright.”
With one last smile, you turned yet again to go, but he stopped you again.
“N/n?” You turned your head, “You’re always welcome here- always.”
So sad they had to fade it
You couldn’t believe it, you could hardly breathe as your head whipped around in shock.
For the first time in five years, tears of happiness and relief instead of despair and regret filled your eyes as all around you, Wakandan soldiers, Avengers- your family- that had all been snapped away filed out of portals every which way, joining you, Steve, Thor, and Tony to fight against Thanos and his army.
You could have sobbed in relief when your eyes landed on Wanda, Bucky, T’Challa, Stephen, Sam, and so many more of the ones you lost came to stand by your side, all looking exactly as they did the day they were torn away.
You didn’t even get to reunite with any of them though, as everyone began charging forward and beginning the fight.
More than anything, you wished that Nat was still there with you, that she hadn’t sacrificed herself for that damned stone and she could see that she hadn’t given up hope for nothing. That what she had died for was worth it- it was all worth it. Everyone was back and it was all because of her, because of her sacrifice.
Forcing those thoughts out of your mind, you purposefully shifted your attention so you could focus solely on the fight at hand.
Immediately, you placed a force field around yourself as a Chitauri lunged at you, stumbling slightly at the sheer force it used as it continued to claw at you, before you quickly thrust your hands out, sending it flying backwards into some other nearby aliens. They all went tumbling to the ground upon impact.
That continued, Chitauri after Chitauri, before another one coming at you was swiftly thrown to the side by a familiar red wisp of light. The same kind you never knew if you were going to see again.
Your head quickly whipped to the side where Wanda stood, eyes glowing red and hand outstretched.
Choking back on a sob, you dropped all your defenses and flew across the couple of yards separating you and jumped into her arms, pulling yourself tightly against her.
“Wands…” You cried, hugging her as tightly as you could despite the ongoing battle around the two of you.
“Hi,” She breathed out, hugging you with the same amount of desperation that you held her with and you quickly realized why.
For you, it had been five years. For her, it had been just over five minutes. Five minutes since she was forced to kill Vision, the man she loved, and lost against Thanos.
When you pulled away, you caught T'Challa's eye, who was only a short distance away, and exchanged a nod of greeting with him.
“We’ll catch up later,” She moved to cup your cheek and look you in the eyes before placing a gentle kiss against your forehead, “Be careful.”
You smiled, leaning into her touch, “You too.”
Quickly, you spun on your heel and rushed off, taking down soldiers left and right.
“My, my, that’s an interesting talent.”
For a brief second, you froze before turning to face Thanos, the person responsible for every piece of pain you had felt in the last five years.
His unnerving eyes were trained solely on you, and you couldn’t help but feel a wave of rage hit you and you let out a scream, charging at the man with outstretched arms, immediately encompassing him in an unbreakable force field.
Thanos’s eyes flickered with surprise and he swung his sword out to your shield, only for it to bounce back and narrowly missing his arm.
Slowly, you moved your hands together, making the shield shrink around his large frame in the process, forcing him to condense his body to try and fit the space growing increasingly smaller and smaller. It would only be a matter of seconds before it crushed him entirely.
You made the fatal mistake of being too distracted with extracting your revenge that you hadn’t noticed the Chitauri that was creeping behind you until it tackled you to the ground.
A small scream escaped your lips as you went crashing against the hard floor and Thanos smirked as your concentration was dropped, bringing your shields down with it. He rose to his full height and stalked over to you, picking you up by the neck, effectively cutting off your airway.
You began gasping for breath immediately, trying to thrash around in his hold, trying to do anything to make him drop you as your feet barely even touched the ground.
Dots began to dance around your vision and you could tell that it was all about to go black in less than a second, before the hand swiftly dropped you, and you fell into a heap on the ground, coughing violently.
“Lady Y/n!” Thor immediately sank to your side on the ground, “Are you alright?”
Steve and Tony, who- along with Thor- had knocked Thanos off of you, continued to go after him, hitting him with blast after hit in hopes of making any sort of damage.
With one last cough, you took a gasping breath and shakily looked up at Thor, “I’m alright.” Your voice was scratchy and you moved to stand up.
The man’s eyebrows furrowed and he gently held you down, “You are in no state to go on with this fight.”
Your eyes widened, “But, Thor-“
You cut yourself off as you caught sight of something over his shoulder, and you paled further than you thought as possible, becoming nauseated.
“I am inevitable.” Thanos’s voice traveled and he snapped his fingers.
You tensed, eyes immediately whipping around as you looked for any sign of yourself or others to be dusted.
But nothing happened, and your gaze slowly dragged over to where Tony was, collapsed to his knees on the ground, and a scream left your lips at what you saw.
His was in physical pain as energy surged through him from all six of the infinity stones sitting on his armor, and he briefly made eye contact with you.
It’s okay, is what his eyes so desperately tried to relay to you.
Tony Stark turned back to Thanos with a hard look, “And I… an Iron Man.”
He snapped.
Everybody wants to rule the world
Pepper walked by all of you with a sad smile, tightly grasping onto Morgan’s hand as they went by.
You were frozen, stuck with a stiff form as you watched the woman placed a wreath memorial to Tony in the lake. It was a small tribute to the man, it had his first arc reactor placed in it.
Everyone stood around you, tears of their own laying unshed in their eyes, only for a few of them to drop when Pepper took in a sharp breath and stepped back.
You were yet to move, even after everyone had slowly disbanded and began muttering amongst themselves, you just stared at the wreath as it moved slowly from side to side in the rippling waves.
All at once you had lost Tony and Natasha. The first two people to introduce you to your new life as an avenger. You lost two family members at the same time and you were so numb inside that you could hardly feel much of anything.
The numbness had come after the searing pain that had taken place in your chest at their loss, now nothing but a dull sting that you knew was bound to come back in full swing at any moment.
“Hey, kid.” Clint greeted gently, coming over to stand beside you.
You couldn’t even manage a hum of acknowledgment.
Wanda moved up to your other side, extanching a glance with Hawkeye as she did so. But you paid no mind to their concerned looks.
Wordlessly, the woman wrapped her arm around your shoulder and pulled you to your chest, perhaps trying to comfort and receive that same comfort.
It dawned on you suddenly, something you had never thought about before that moment.
After everything you had gone through all these years, you were nowhere close to being the same girl that had first wandered into Avengers Tower in awe.
You were older, wiser. You were stronger, more broken.
For so long, you had been scared of change, of everything and everyone you had loved moving on from the times that you were a happy family, fighting side by side. All while you were completely unaware that that life was almost nonexistent. It had gone on for a little while, then disappeared through your fingers while you so desperately kept trying to cling onto it. Unaware that all you were holding onto was empty air.
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claudemblems · 10 months
Text
Zzz | Dan Heng
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Summary: Your nap with Dan Heng is cut short by the realization that it's dinner time, but you have no intentions of giving up your place in his arms.
Notes: I'm writing for Star Rail now 🤭 Can you tell who my favorite character is lol
⋆ ˚。⋆୨♡୧⋆ ˚。⋆
“[Name], it’s time to get up. The others are expecting us.”
Who cares? you thought to yourself, not daring to move a muscle lest you should let your boyfriend know that you were, indeed, very much awake. He would have chided you for your remark despite inwardly agreeing with you. Someone has to be the practical one in this relationship, he’d told you once, but becoming your boyfriend had to be the least practical of decisions he’d made in recent years. With your insatiable curiosity and heroic soul, you always ran yourself head first into the unknown without a single thought of what danger could lie ahead. But you were a magnetic force that even Dan Heng could not repel, and like a moth to a flame, he found himself drawn to you–every part of you–and if that meant setting himself ablaze, then so be it.
Dan Heng being so hopelessly in love with you meant that you could get away with a few more minutes of “sleep”, right…?
Not quite.
“[Name].” He gently shook your shoulders, sighing to himself when you showed no signs of waking. “March is going to give me another one of her punctuality lectures if we don’t get to dinner on time, which is ironic coming from her, but still.”
You nearly let out a laugh before catching yourself, quickly disguising it as a disgruntled snore. March 7th already annoyed Dan Heng enough as it was, but nothing unnerved him quite like when she chastised him as if she were his big sister. The disdain on Dan Heng’s face could be seen plain as day to everyone around, but, much to his dismay, his friends found themselves entertained by his so-called misery. But he was used to the antics of his fellow passengers by now…mostly.
Still, he would have liked to avoid a lengthy scolding from March if possible.
“[Name]...”
After a few moments of silence, Dan Heng breathed out a sigh of defeat. Not one to go to dinner alone (not since you entered into the picture), he decided to join you in catching up on some sleep. He situated the pillows of his makeshift bed into a more comfortable position before laying down beside you, and carefully, as to not wake you, he wrapped his arms around your back, pressing you close to his chest. You were glad that he couldn’t see the obvious flush to your cheeks—not only to spare you your own embarrassment, but also because your cover would have been blown. Sleeping people don't blush at their lovers' touch, after all. You already Dan Heng right where you wanted him, and you weren’t about to let anything come between you and your bliss.
That was, until a hot breath fanned against your neck and you jumped.
“I knew you were awake.”
“Dan Heng,” you hissed, instinctively hiding your face in your hands. “I just wanted some more alone time with you. Are you really going to get mad at me for that?”
“I’d never be angry with you,” he assured, using his elemental powers to ruffle your hair, something he only did when he was feeling particularly affectionate. “Maybe a little annoyed, but you can make it up to me by being on the receiving end of March’s lecture this time.”
“All right, fine,” you sighed dramatically, but you couldn’t hold back the smile forming on your face. “Looks like I win again.”
“And what did you win, exactly?”
“Your attention. I’m keeping track of how many times you choose to give into my impulsivity over your practicality. So far, I'm on a winning streak.”
“You really are as unpredictable as that stellaron you have.”
“And like a star, my gravitational pull is too strong for you to resist.”
“How cheesy.”
“You just wish you had a stellaron that made people so captivated by your presence.”
Dan Heng smiled and pressed a gentle kiss to your hair. “Stellaron or not, my heart would still find its way back home to yours every time, My Starlight.”
“Dan Heng—! You can’t just get all mushy like that all of a sudden, I…”
“Flustered?” he asked, and just by the tone of his voice, you knew he was grinning.
“I’m telling March that our absence at dinner is your fault after all.”
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pix3lplays · 1 month
Note
okay hear me out
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screwllum x reader x sam ??????🤩🤩
TWO robots?!?!!!!
It’s interesting because I think Screwllum wouldn’t really Mind sharing but he can’t in good faith willingly let you involve yourself with a dangerous individual like a Stellaron Hunter…
And Sam just wants you all to himself. He thinks you need to fully commit and join the Stellaron Hunters.
They’ll give you some time to think it over though…
That’s where the fun is…these two robots trying to convince you to be with them instead of the other.
Screwllum would be so direct with you I feel…you’ll be visiting him on his planet and while he’s taking you out and treating you so well he’ll just be blunt with you. Frankly, he’s concerned about your well-being. Stellaron Hunters are dangerous. Unpredictable. He has no interest in telling you what to do, but he does want you to be safe.
Also they treat you so, so differently, haha…
Screwllum knows you’re perfectly capable of standing on your own, and he expects you to, but he treats you very nicely, treating you to fancy dinners, operas, he’ll even take you to his important Genius Society parties…you never have to lift a finger when Screwllum is around…
Sam doesn’t really take you on traditional dates…he’s pretty…rough around the edges. To him, dates are when you spend time together. So he’ll just take you on missions that are safe enough for you to accompany him on. But if you can’t come, he’ll bring you back a souvenir of sorts, usually something that you’d literally never be able to use but looks pretty cool on your shelves! They’re typically trophies taken from his enemies but…they look neat!
Screwllum doesn’t usually get jealous or possessive, literally ever, but when Sam is involved…it’s pretty surprising to hear Screwllum get bitter and passive aggressive about your relationship with Sam…
At least he won’t deny it if you call him out for being jealous. He’d be very, “of COURSE I am concerned when it’s you involved, my dear.”
Sam on the other hand will absolutely deny that he’s envious of your relationship with Screwllum. He acts like he doesn’t care at all what you do, but you know he’s going to absolutely take it hard if you pick Screwllum over him…
Like. Okay. If you choose Sam, Screwllum will express his disappointment and concern, but he’ll be CIVIL about it, respect your decision, and wish you the best.
But if you wanna pick Screwllum…you’re better off just…cutting off all contact with Sam and doing everything you can to avoid him because oh my gosh you do NOT wanna deal with that-
Do whatever you can to prevent Screwllum and Sam meeting if you’ve chosen Screwllum…even if it’d be really really entertaining to see what might happen…
But yeah…you can choose Screwllum and a life of wealth and mental stimulation, with a robot who is SUCH a gentleman…
Or you can choose Sam…a life of adventure and travel, with a genetically engineered warrior who will treat you like a fellow Stellaron Hunter…
Choices, choices, but at the end of the day you walk out with a robot husband heh~
Also oh my gosh the difference between a Screwllum wedding and a Sam wedding…it’s got me THINKING.
For Screwllum it’s a MASSIVE affair. He’s the owner of his own PLANET. It’s probably broadcasted for the majority of the galaxy, it must go PERFECTLY, you have to follow a lot of rules, you even go through multiple practices of the wedding and you’re pretty tired by your actual wedding day, but still very excited. Screwllum is so worried for you, constantly apologizing for all the trouble you have to go through in order to marry him, but of course you don’t mind at all. You’re just happy to be marrying him~
The wedding itself is huge too, with so many important guests, representatives from multiple planets and organizations…it’s a little overwhelming, and the wedding gifts you receive or extraordinarily expensive and grand…you feel a little bad accepting them. But at the end of the day, you’re married to Screwllum and you couldn’t be happier~
Sam’s is a much more private affair, pretty much only attended by his fellow Stellaron Hunters…oh my goodness imagine them all dressed up for your wedding that’s so cute…Kafka probably had to force Blade and Silver Wolf to dress nicely though…
But yeah it’s a small affair, very personal though. Each Stellaron Hunter gets you a very thoughtful wedding gift too, definitely based on their own interests but still very sweet~
The wedding is simple, to the point, just the way Sam would have it, and Kafka especially is a great helping hand to you in making sure the wedding went smoothly.
I uh. Think I got distracted but YEAH. Marry the robot. Do it.
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mapleejay · 3 months
Text
i mentioned it in the tags of another post and some people wanted me to elaborate so. life series winners but I assign them periodic table elements (keep in mind I'm not a chemist I just think chemistry is fun)
grian- gold! specifically id like to assign him a radioactive isotope of gold, like gold-195, which has a half life of about 185 days. gold is an extremely malleable metal while also having a very high melting point. I think it would also be funny to associate him with pyrite although pyrite isn't an element itself.
scott- bismuth! the most stable isotope of bismuth, bismuth-209, was once thought to be the largest stable natural isotope. later on, though, it was found to be unstable through alpha decay. it has a half life of about 19,000,000,000,000,000,000 years. bismuth can be used in some compounds to treat digestive problems, but too much can be very toxic. I think the colors of bismuth fit scott really well and the long half life could reference how he's usually able to survive pretty long!
pearl- radon (you have no idea how hard it was to resist the urge to assign her mercury just bc it's my favorite)! a colorless and odorless radioactive gas with a very short half life, usually produced through the decay of radium. radon is most dangerous as it's often found in poorly ventilated homes due to the breakdown of uranium in the soil (fun fact, Minnesota has pretty high levels of radon, about 3 times the rest of the US). when inhaled it doesn't directly cause damage, but the elements it breaks down into can cause damage to lung tissue over time. I think the fact radon is near impossible to detect without equipment is like how pearl enjoys sneaking up on people. the radioactivity and short half life are a little like double life pearl to me, being very unstable, plus the fact radon is found in homes reminds me of her tower. the fact it isn't radon directly causing damage reminds me of how pearl usually uses threats and her own reckless actions to scare people.
martyn- lithium! a very light element that's highly reactive and a good conductor of heat and electricity. this is one of those elements that corrodes really quickly and explodes when you throw it in water. I think this would fit martyn considering the mean gills base being around water and his behavior being unpredictable especially towards the end of limited life.
scar- chlorine! another very reactive element, though is mostly found with sodium in the form of salt. chlorine is an essential element for life used to create hydrochloric acid for digestion or in the blood or other fluids to balance positive ions. it's also used in many household cleaning supplies. chlorine gas is incredibly toxic and has a pale greenish color. I think the fact chlorine is highly reactive and toxic while still being necessary for life could relate to how scar often tries to mess with people and start conflicts while still being a central player in the life series. chlorine being used in cleaning supplies is sort of irony considering scar's. well. not so great organization skills.
again I'm not a chemist, I took basic chemistry like two years ago and the rest of what I know comes from my own research so it might not be perfectly accurate. I'm also not the best at explaining why I associate things with each other but hopefully these kinda make sense \o/ !! I love chemistry I love isotopes I love learning the properties of different chemicals
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daegutowns · 4 months
Text
your person (csc)
tags: gn!reader, brother’s best friend!cheol, uni!au, he is definitely in love with you, you had a REALLY big crush on him when you were younger, he was your first love, you work at a cafe, your older brother is jeonghan, cheol is very protective!
💌 thank you for the request, anon!
you were not new to the feeling of danger that sometimes came with working the night shift. you really couldn’t help it. your classes were during the daytime, so it left you having to work weekends and nights on the weekdays. the nighttimes could get crazy — drunk people from the bars down the street, guys who didn’t know any boundaries, and just a lot of unpredictable problems that occurred after the witching hour. 
it usually wasn’t a problem. your older brother jeonghan would pick you up on nights you worked late, since the buses around there stopped running around ten o’clock pm. but, jeonghan had an ill-timed meeting with his supervisor at his work. he had started his first paid internship (which was a very big deal!), so there was no way that he could get out of that one scot-free. he was usually good at asking you if you had another ride besides him, but that internship was kicking his ass. he was working even later than you. 
and, well, it was nearing eleven o’clock pm. the manager had an unexpected emergency and had to leave a bit early, so he left you with the keys. you were working the opening shift the next day, so he didn’t see a problem with it. but, now, it was just you and your other coworker chan. he lived right around the corner, so he would be walking home. 
your apartment wasn’t far from the cafe either. it was only a five minute walk to the subway then a quick 3 stops until you got out and had to walk another 5 minutes to your apartment building. it was not that bad for the city you lived in. the close proximity to your apartment was what drove you to apply to work at that cafe. 
in the last hour of your shift, the cafe was closed to the public and you were cleaning with chan. your friendly coworker had offered to at least walk you to the subway station and wait with you, but it was in the exact opposite direction of his apartment, so you declined. just for tonight, you would have to suck it up. you hoped that you could at least catch the last train 
as if the universe wanted to prove you wrong, the familiar sound of your ringtone chimed from your back pocket. the contact name ‘seungcheol’ glared up at you. choi seungcheol, the person calling you, was one of your brother’s childhood best friends (the other being hong joshua). he was one of the nicer one of your brother’s friends that included you in their fun. joshua just liked to make fun of you with jeonghan. 
holding your phone up to your ear with your shoulder, you answered the phone while you continued to wipe down the tables. (chan was doing the dishes in the back.) “hello? what’s up, cheol oppa?” 
“hey y/n, just wondering what you were doing,” he answered. 
you couldn’t help the blush that crept up to your cheeks, no matter how hard you tried to fight it back down. yeah, he had been your first love growing up. it was hard to forget about your past feelings that you gave up on as you grew older. it was even harder to forget when he would say things like, “just wondering what you were doing.”  ugh! 
“i’m still working right now. i’m about to clock out and leave soon, though,” you told him. “i guess you’re really bored if you’re calling me.” 
“ah, stop it,” seungcheol laughed on the other end of the line. “i can’t wonder what you’re doing? anyways, tell jeonghan when he picks you up to come over to my place. i made way too much food, so you guys should come eat it.” 
you tried to ignore the butterflies in your stomach. “liar,” you said in a teasing voice. “just say you wanted company. anyways, jeonghan’s working late, so he’s not picking me up.” 
“who is? did he ask shua?” he asked you. 
for a second, you debated on whether or not to lie to him and just say chan or your [nonexistent] manager was taking you home so he wouldn’t worry. you decided against it. “mmm, no. i’m just going to take the subway. it’s not far, and--” 
your words were cut off by his. “nope.” you had to pause, wondering what he was talking about. his words continued through the line. “you are definitely not walking alone on those streets at night,” seungcheol told you, his tone suddenly becoming stern and serious. you could hear the rustling on his end and the chiming of his keys. “you wait for me, got it?” 
“oh wait, oppa, you don’t have to,” you said to him, panicked. “i’ll be fine.” 
“yeah, you’ll be fine, my ass. i’m the one who won’t be fine,” seungcheol grumbled. “stay put, okay? i’m coming.” 
the line went dead, and you stood there to take it in for a second. you pursed your lips while you closed your eyes, fighting the grin that threatened to hijack your face. your ears were red hot, and your body was suddenly filled with energy, despite having worked a busy closing shift. 
when you and chan locked the doors, seungcheol’s car pulled up to the street right in front of the cafe. he rolled the windows down and said with a smile, “hey, i’m here.” 
you completely forgot about chan. your eyes could only gravitate towards him, a soft smile on your face. “hey, thanks for coming. you didn’t have to, you know.” you climbed into the passenger seat, only then remembering to wave ‘bye’ to your coworker. the smell of his cologne surrounded you as you sat next to him. “i could’ve called mina and asked her too.” (mina’s your best friend.) 
“it’s okay, you have me,” seungcheol replied, smiling over at you before his eyes quickly went back to the road. “you’ve always had me.” 
“yeah, i do, don’t i?” you said, smiling into your lap. you couldn’t fight it off this time. 
“y’know, my offer for some food at my place is not off the table,” seungcheol said. “we don’t even have to invite jeonghan.” 
“really?” you mused. “you like me that much?” 
his car stopped at the red light. his head turned to you, your eyes meeting under the ambience of the city lights and the sheen of soft red on your faces. you almost got lost in them, but the surprise from how serious and truthful he looked brought you back. 
“yeah, i like you that much.” 
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blueraineshadows · 10 months
Note
Thank you so much for responding to my request last time, it was so good! I have another concept that's also inspired by something else if you don't mind?
Sebastian and MC are married, but he goes missing (due to his dangerous job) and is thought to be dead for years. MC is still grieving, but trying to move on. She gets engaged to another wizard, but Sebastian finally returns after trying his best to get back to her. They have a huge fight when Sebastian finds out (it'd be nice if it had a happy *smutty* ending, though).
"Where do you get off letting him think he can have you? You're mine and I'm yours. That's it!"
Great Request! 😃 Thank-you 💜
This has angst! It's also long! NSFW 🌶 🔥
Sebastian Sallow x F!MC (Mrs Sallow) as adults.
My beloved, Sebastian,
They tell me you are gone, forever, lost to me...dead. I haven't seen your face for over two years now, and my deepest fear suspects they may be right. But in my heart, safe for always, you will remain. As much as it hurts me, I could never let you go completely, for that would mean the end of me also.
I know our friends mean well, they wish to see me happy, at peace perhaps. But it has been hard to hear their insistent pleas for me to move on. Of late, I have had to succumb to their pleas. I'm not sure I can handle another visit to the morgue to identify another poor soul, the guilt of my relief that it is never you under the cloth, but some other lost loved one. I don't envy their family's pain, but it is another desperate scrap of hope that you are still alive.
We are holding a ceremony for you, to say goodbye, to let you go. I cannot say goodbye, merely farewell, for one day I know we will be reunited. How could we not? Whatever awaits beyond the mortal realm, I will find you there, my whole soul is destined for it. It always was.
It breaks me that you had to go before me, and all I have left are my memories, precious moments that are a comfort during dark, lonely nights.
Forgive me for having to let you go, if only for a time. I will love you forever, just as I promised you.
Wait for me. I will wait for you.
Your wife, MC.
Six months later...
"Matthew has proposed," MC said. Her fingers clutched her teacup a little tighter. The words sounded so terribly real when said out loud.
Poppy paused as she went to take a sip from her own tea cup, her eyes widening. She quickly put down her cup and put a hand on MC's arm. "Oh my goodness," she said. Concern clouded her face. "How...I mean...what did you say?"
"I told him I needed to think about it," MC said. Which was the truth. She looked down at her left hand, the silver band symbolising her eternal promise to Sebastian still there on her finger. Her voice became a whisper. "I can't help but feel like I am being unfaithful."
"Oh, MC," Poppy said. "I know it must feel strange, and of course it's so very difficult. But, you deserve to find some happiness, MC. And, Matthew is so lovely, I know he would take care of you."
MC nodded. "That's what makes it so difficult, Poppy. Matthew is wonderful, so understanding. He told me to take all the time I need to think. He would make a wonderful husband, but..."
The pause lay heavy between them. Poppy nodded knowingly. "He isn't Sebastian."
MC took a swallow of tea to loosen the restriction in her throat. She took a deep breath. "However, I did make a promise to try and move on, didn't I? Maybe a new beginning would be the best way to go about it."
"I agree," Poppy said. "It would gladden my heart to see you happy again, MC."
....*....
The fire crackled and dipped in the hearth. MC sat cross legged before it, her eyes watching the flames dance. Passion, and heat, unpredictability, fire had always reminded her of Sebastian.
A hand on her shoulder made her look up. Matthew smiled down at her, handing her a wine goblet. She took it with thanks. He folded to sit on the rug beside her. "Are you cold?" He asked. He wrapped an arm about her, rubbing her arm with his hand.
"No, just unwinding," she smiled. She leant her head against his shoulder. He was sturdy, safe, comforting. Traits that had made her gravitate towards him. It kept the edge off her loneliness.
He pressed a kiss to her head, his thumb making lazy circles on her arm. He had never pushed her to be physical with him, knowing how fragile her heart was. He had been an exemplary gentleman, and she was grateful for it.
She sipped her wine, the firelight glinting off the diamond she wore on her ring finger. She had accepted his proposal. Sebastian's ring was now on a chain around her neck, close to her heart. She rubbed a hand absently against it through the fabric of her blouse.
"I thought perhaps we could take a boat trip tomorrow," Matthew suggested. "We could get some fresh air, maybe take a picnic. It would be good to escape the city for a while."
"That sounds perfect," she smiled. She looked up at him. He had lovely, blue eyes, blue like the sky. His hair was fair, neatly trimmed. He was nothing like Sebastian, and that was how she wanted it.
Matthew's gaze was warm, loving. He tightened his hold a little, his gaze dropping to her lips. MC felt a little breathless and wondered if perhaps she had drunk too much wine. His kiss was soft, testing. He did not want to pressure her.
MC felt her body respond. It was weak, just a flutter, but it was the first time she had felt anything remotely close to desire in years. She kissed him back.
As the kiss deepened, the warmth of it seemed to ease back the cavern of loneliness that had carved itself in her chest. So, she let him lay her back on the rug, his mouth claiming hers more deeply.
There was a war going on inside of her. Half was opening up, reaching out for the closeness, the warmth, after so long in the dark. The other half of her was screaming, no, this was all wrong. She was wrong, a betrayer, she was betraying Sebastian.
She pulled back from Matthew's kiss, her hands flat against his chest. She could feel the pounding of his heart.
"Are you alright?" He asked. The concern in his gaze made her want to scream and rip at her own hair. She was being so unfair to him. She would be a terrible wife. He deserved so much better.
"A little overwhelmed," she breathed. She winced. "Forgive me. I think I need a minute."
"Of course," he said. He immediately sat up, adjusting his trousers.
"You must think I am a terrible tease," she grimaced. "That is not my intention."
"No, MC, I don't think that at all. I think you have suffered a terrible loss, and I do not ever expect to fill the hole Sebastian left behind." Matthew said. "I wish I could take the pain away for you, truly I do. I only hope that, one day, you can love me even a fraction of what you felt for him."
MC felt her heart squeeze painfully. Matthew was a good person. She did not deserve him. She reached out and took his hand. "How are you so perfect?"
A sharp rap on the front door made them both jump and turn. "Who on earth could that be at this hour?" MC asked.
Matthew frowned. "I will see to it." He got to his feet and MC couldn't help lift her eyebrows. He was sweet for thinking that she needed protecting, after all, she was a far more powerful witch than most.
She heard the door open and the surprise in Matthew's voice. "Ominis!"
MC immediately got to her feet. It was very unlike Ominis to call upon her so unexpected like this. Her heart kicked up a notch and she twisted her fingers together as he appeared in the living room doorway.
"Good evening, MC. I am sorry to call on you so late, but this couldn't wait," he said. He looked grave, a little flustered even. He tilted his head trying to locate her.
She went to him, reaching for a hand. "Ominis, I'm here, it's alright." He squeezed her fingers, his usual cool fingers hot and sweaty. She swallowed. "What is it?"
"I don't know where to start," he said. He pressed long fingers to his brow. "I had word through the Ministry that a stronghold of slavers has been discovered in America. There were many prisoners, witches and wizards from all over the world, Aurors, Unspeakables..."
MC felt his grip tighten on her fingers, his bones grating against hers. She didn't even feel the pain. Her vision was starting to tunnel. All she could see was his face, her eyes fixed on his lips as the words came out. "Go on," she urged.
Ominis took a deep, shuddering breath. "The list of survivors, the ones they brought back..."
"Ominis," she said. Her voice was a strangled plea. She was clinging to his hand, her other hand reached out to grab the front of his immaculate robes. Hope was being dangled in front of her eyes. Years of agony were twisting harshly in her chest and her ears were screaming for what he had to say next. Oh, Merlin, please!
He nodded and got a hold of himself, his eyes blinking back the sudden shine in them. "His name was on that list, MC. Sebastian...he has been found."
She could hear someone wailing, a terrible, wrenching sound and then all was quiet. Soothing blackness wrapped around her and then there was nothing else.
....*....
She blinked. Once, twice, the living room swimming into view. She felt heavy, sluggish, her mouth glued shut. MC tried to sit up on the settee, and then hands were there steadying her shoulders. Matthew's face was a picture of worry.
She turned her head, and there in the wingback chair sat Ominis, looking anything but his usual composed self. His fingers were clutching the arms of the chair, his face rigid, his hair a little ruffled.
They had found him!
"Is it true?" She croaked.
Ominis turned his face her way, his lips trembled, and he nodded. "The survivors were brought back to England three days ago. I made some enquiries and Sebastian was placed in a safe house. I had trouble believing it myself, and so I made arrangements to go and make absolutely sure it was true."
Her heart was a wild thing in her chest, it hurt to breathe. "You've seen him?"
He nodded. "Yes," he said. "I saw him not two hours ago."
Her breath left her in a rush, a tear slid from her cheek. She shook, uncontrollably, and shifted, fully facing him now. "Can we...can I," she gasped. She put her fingers to her lips. "Is he alright?"
"He is alive, and not badly wounded. I can't say much about his state of mind, of course. He is...understandly, traumatised. But he did ask for you. It was one of the first things he said to me." Ominis said. He hesitated, his fingers flexing. "He wanted to know everything...about you. I...filled him in a little. I apologise."
She flinched and slid from the couch to her knees, literally crawling across the floor to clasp Ominis' hand. "Take me to him, please."
Ominis held her hand, but his head turned in the direction of Matthew, a pained look on his face. MC gasped and swung her gaze around to Matthew, horrified that she had completely forgotten he was standing there. She began to stutter out an apology, but he held up a hand to stop her.
"Don't say another word," he said. His eyes were sad, but his mouth was firm. "Go, go to him. It's only right." He faltered. "He is your husband, after all."
....*....
Ominis and MC Apparated to the location of the safe house. The road was dark, quiet, a chill breeze tugging at the trees. Set back from the road was the house, an Auror standing guard near the door. A light glowed in a downstairs window.
MC was clinging on to Ominis' arm, too afraid to let go lest she just collapse to the ground. None of this felt real. He led her through the gate and towards the door, her feet stumbling along the path.
"Are you sure you're up to this?" Ominis asked.
"I will crawl through that door if I have to," she said through gritted teeth. "I need to see."
The Auror guard gave a nod to Ominis. "Gaunt," he said, respectfully. His eyes took in MC. "Mrs Sallow, I take it."
"I think Mr and Mrs Sallow need some time," Ominis said. "By all means, keep your guard, but perhaps at a distance. I will be nearby as well, but they need some privacy just now."
"Understood." The Auror gave the door a long look before he made for the gate. "I will be along the front of the property."
"Why are they guarding him?" MC asked.
Ominis frowned. "Not all the slavers have been caught yet, and every survivor is a witness. It's for Sebastian's protection."
"Anyone coming for him will have to get through me first," she growled. It gave her some of her strength back to think that anyone might be about to snatch him away from her again, and she hadn't even seen him yet.
Ominis held her close for a moment. "I don't doubt it," he said. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, and she looked up at him in surprise. Ominis was not one for overly displaying affection. "Will you be alright, now?"
"Yes," she said. "And thank you. Thank you for bringing me here."
"It's only where you belong, MC," he said. He moved from her grip and knocked on the door. "I doubt you will need me, but I won't be far away. He...he did not take the news well that there is another gentleman in your life."
MC could well imagine it. Sebastian wasn't the sharing type, especially when it came to her. But then, she would have felt just the same if another woman had laid a hand on him. She opened her mouth to reassure Ominis, but the latch sounded on the door.
The door opened, the light from inside spilling out onto the front step. MC stared, eyes wide, heart pounding as Sebastian stepped into view.
"You have a visitor, brother," Ominis said. He gave MC a gentle nudge forward.
Sebastian and MC looked at each other for the first time in almost three years. Her eyes devoured his face, ogling the shape of him, lines and angles she knew so well, but they were oddly strange to her now. He looked leaner, shadows under his eyes making him look weary, and there was a scar on his forehead that disappeared into his hair line.
Her name whispered from his lips. She took a faltering step towards him, and then another. He just stared, his eyes trying to comprehend that she was truly there at all. Her hand reached up, her fingers trembling so badly, that she missed on her first attempt. But then, she was touching him.
Her fingers trailed from his forehead, down over his nose to brush against his mouth. "You're real," she breathed. "It's really you."
A tear slid from his eye, rolling over his cheek. Her lips trembled. And then she was in his arms, crushed against him, as a sob ripped from her throat.
He held her so tightly that she could hardly breathe, but she didn't care. She squeezed her eyes shut, breathing him in with small gasps, her fingers gripping at whatever she could get a hold of. He was solid, he was warm, he was here, alive.
Ominis slipped quietly away into the shadows, leaving husband and wife to find each other again.
....*....
The inside of the cottage was sparsely furnished but warm, a fire burning in the grate. The remains of a half eaten meal was on a tray, and a blanket was hanging off the edge of the settee.
MC wandered in behind Sebastian, her eyes constantly checking he was still there, feeling a little adrift since he had released her from that choking hug. He hadn't looked at her since, his face tense as he began to pace before the fireplace.
"I can't believe you're actually here," she said. "It's like a dream."
He spun to face her, his eyes hard. She flinched as he strode towards her, snatching up her hand to look at Matthew's diamond on her ring finger. He dropped her hand as if it burned him. "Some fucking dream," he hissed.
"Sebastian..."
"Do you have any idea what it was like!" He snapped. His face was so harsh, so cold. "Night after night, the screams, the beatings. An endless loop of nothingness. I thought I was going to go mad, I felt myself slipping away, but I kept hanging on. It was you! Your face, my memory of you, that kept me going. And now, now I find out that you replaced me! You're wearing another man's ring on your finger instead of the one I gave you!"
His voice had reached a pitch that made her press her fingers to her face, the fury in his eyes so much to bear that she gasped, her heart breaking into a thousand splinters.
He growled viciously and kicked out at a chair at the table. It clattered to the floor.
"I'm sorry," she gasped. "Let me explain..."
He glared at her. "Does he touch you? Does he make you feel good?"
MC remembered the kiss her and Matthew had shared mere hours ago and flushed, but she shook her head. "No, Sebastian, please..."
"You're lying," he spat. He began to pace again, his hands raking through his hair. He swore harshly.
MC gritted her teeth. Her own shame at accepting Matthew gnawed at her, had she not felt like she was betraying Sebastian? She had not wanted to let him go, but had tried to, tried to please her friends, tried to be happy.
This was not how she had envisioned a reunion taking place. She watched Sebastian pace, his fury darkening his face, the pain flickering in and out in his eyes. "Stop this," she said. "I never stopped loving you."
He lunged for her arm, holding her hand up between them. The ring shone brightly in the firelight. "This says different."
His face was close and her heart ached for him. She felt the sting of tears. She fumbled her chain from out of her blouse, his ring hanging from it. "I never let you go, not really," she said.
He eyed the ring and then her. He shook his head. "You were all I thought about." He sounded broken.
He released her arm and turned away.
"I had to bury you!" She wailed.
He stiffened.
Her hands curled into small fists. "We had a ceremony, each of us saying how much we loved you. We put momentoes in a box and buried it because there was no body to say goodbye to. I wrote you letters, hundreds of them, but I had nowhere to send them. I had to bury them in the ground, with all the hope I could barely hang on to that you were still alive."
He turned to face her. She was really crying now, huge, fat tears of despair. She jabbed a finger at him. "You were gone. I was alone, so fucking alone, and I tried to find you. Searching, begging, pleading, driving everyone mad with my nonstop hope that you would be found. I almost threw myself into death's arms at one point, I thought it might be the only way to escape the pain of you not being there when I woke up every day."
Sebastian swallowed, some of the fury fading from his face. "You...you were going to kill yourself?"
She was panting, sucking in deep breaths, chest tight. She swiped the tears from her face and turned away from him, her cheeks colouring with her shame. She had never admitted that out loud until now. She calmed herself, smoothing her hands over her hips
"How was I supposed to go on without you? It was a really low point, but I was lucky. I had friends who cared enough to pick me up. And then...and then I met Matthew."
Sebastian scowled. But MC continued. "He was kind, he tried to help me. He works at the Ministry and he tried to help in my search for you. He took care of me, he never pressed me for anything in return."
"Sounds like a right hero," Sebastian muttered.
"Maybe he is," she said, whirling to face him. "He was certainly there for me. After we all said goodbye to you, he asked me to marry him. I agonised over it, but eventually accepted. But do you know what he said when Ominis came to get me tonight? He told me to come to you, that it was only right that I did. He didn't try to stop me."
"He wouldn't have got far if he had tried," Sebastian growled. He stalked towards her, his hand catching hold of her chin, forcing her to look up at him. "How could you ever think about letting him touch you?"
MC was breathing hard and fast again, her heart hammering in her chest. Their gazes were locked, the fire in Sebastian's eyes shifting from fury to pure desire, a hunger so deep and vast she was starting to drown in it. A flame flickered into life deep inside her, trails of fire spreading thick and fast through her veins.
He could still do it. After all this time apart, he made her blood sing, made her melt into the merest touch. "We didn't...he hasn't..." She swallowed hard. "I wasn't ready."
He lowered his face to hers. "Good," he breathed into her mouth. "You're mine, and I'm yours. That's it!"
MC lowered her eyes to his mouth. Slowly, agonisingly slow, he leant in and pressed his lips against hers. A moan, relief mixed with need, sounded in MC's throat.
He gripped her hair at the back of her head, kissing her deeply, stumbling back towards the table with her. Desperate groans fell from their lips as he lifted her skirt, parting her legs as she sat up on the edge of the table.
He stroked his fingers against her heat, finding it pleasingly wet. "Oh fuck," he groaned. He shifted, opening his trousers and pulling his arousal free.
Need came before anything else. He pressed inside of her, thrusting deep, greedily. She cried out at the immediate stretch. It had been a long time, his thickness burning along her walls, but she didn't stop him. Instead, her hips lifted to meet him, needing to feel him fill her up. His eyes were glazed, drunk on the very feel of her, he began to thrust, deep, desperate, like a man starved.
His fingers dug into her flesh, his lips were parted and his breaths came harshly as he fucked. He wasn't violent, but neither was he gentle. His release came hard and fast, his hips bucking desperately and a growl tearing from his mouth as he collapsed over her. She held him, her hand stroking through the unruly locks of his hair, calming him.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. His head was buried against her chest. "Did I hurt you?"
"No," she said, shaking her head. It felt so good to be holding him again. It had been a long time, she had understood his need, let him take what he longed for.
He straightened and took hold of her hand. "Come on," he said.
"Where are we going?"
He smirked. Her heart glowed at the sight of it. The memory of that smirk had haunted her dreams, but there it was, for real. "I'm taking my wife upstairs to my bed," he said. "I am far from done with you."
....*....
MC couldn't have told a soul what that bedroom looked like when she first entered it. So intent were they on each other, removing every barrier of clothing, tossing it all to the floor without a care, just desperate to feel skin against skin.
The blanket was cold against her back, no fire up here, just the moonlight gleaming through the window. She arched her back, welcoming the feel of Sebastian's lips as he kissed her breasts, learning every curve again like it was the first time.
Her heart beat for him, her pulse skittering madly as he sucked at her neck, his hands exploring the curve of her waist. Her nipples brushed against his chest hair, hardening into desperate peaks. Fuck, she was aching with the need for him, it was almost a pain that only he could heal.
"Sebastian," she whined.
"I know," he whispered. He kissed her, his teeth tugging on her bottom lip. "Patience, my love, I need to taste all of you. Trust me, I will give you what you seek, and more."
MC moaned, her fingers seeking greedily through his hair, massaging his scalp, drawing moans from his lips. Every sound he made was a balm against the pain in her chest. He was alive. He was here.
Her fingers traced new scars on his chest, hurts he had endured so far from home. She kissed them, her tongue trying to soothe the pain inflicted on him. She caught a nipple in between her teeth and tugged, his cock twitching and dripping onto her thigh.
She reached for him, teasing fingers drifting up the silky hardness. "MC..."
She smiled against his skin, breathing in the scent of him, feeling like she was finally at peace. She began to stroke up and down his length and his hips bucked. He groaned and pressed her back down onto the bed. "No," he breathed. "It's your turn."
His mouth worshipped her stomach, his tongue dipping into her navel, swirling hotly. She found herself lost in a haze of fire, only his mouth, his hands, the sounds of his breathing mattered. She reached up to grip the blanket behind her head, her thighs separating, her hips grinding as his hot tongue slid luxuriously up her slit.
Oh, he knew what she liked!
Waves of delicious flame circled hotly at her core as his tongue swirled over her clit, his fingers teasing cries from her lips as he fucked her, slow, and with a knowing touch. She whimpered, her thighs beginning to tremble, as her release began to build.
Three years without him, three years of yearning, and now he was here, driving her over the edge again, sending her spinning outwards to see stars. Her fingers gripped his hair, holding his head right where she needed him most as her climax hit.
She was shaking, tears flooding her eyes, and he held her. His kisses warmed her cheeks, her neck, his hands smoothing up her back and over her hips. "That's my girl," he whispered. "Gods, I have missed you."
Barely having caught her breath back, Sebastian rolled them, settling her above him. "Fuck me," he begged. "Show me how much you missed me. I want to watch as you fuck me."
Aftershocks tingled through MC, her cunt pulsing with a need to feel him deep inside her. She caught his arousal in her hand, pumping him softly, her thumb sliding over his tip. He held her hips, his hungry eyes watching as she lined him up against her soaked entrance. He parted his lips, anticipation thick on his tongue, a delicious groan leaving him as she slid on to his cock.
She rolled her hips, her head falling back, her hair trailing down her back, the moonlight soft against the sweat on her skin. He let her move at her own pace, licking his lips at the sounds coming from her throat, at the hot slickness of her walls sliding along him.
MC still had a hunger for him, a need to feel out of control, lost in him. She angled her hips, ensuring that his throbbing tip was stroking just where she needed him. The pressure began to build and she began to bounce harder. His hands caressing her breasts as they jiggled with her efforts.
He was appreciating every move she made, his hips bucking to meet her, his own fire building to the limit. "Cum for me, MC," he said. He slid a thumb to press against her nub. She cried out, her hips twitching. He looked down, saw the slick shining on his cock. He licked his lips. "Mine, all mine."
She clenched around him, desperate cries echoing around the room. Sebastian knew the Auror was still outside. He hoped he could hear her, let the whole fucking world hear what he did to her. She was his wife, his love, his fucking everything. He wanted everyone to know it.
Driven mad by his utter need to claim her again, he flipped her, her hair fanning out across the blanket. He grabbed her hand, tugging the diamond free and letting it tumble across the bed. He linked their fingers, his eyes roaming over her as she panted below him. He saw his ring, attached to the chain around her neck, pooling in the dip of her throat.
He bent to catch it up into his mouth, rolling it on the tip of his tongue. He bent to kiss her, softly, his cock aching to fuck her, the ring caught between their mouths.
"I love you," she breathed. "I've never stopped."
He smiled, the ring slipping to fall onto the bed near her ear. He would be putting that right back on her finger where it belonged. But first...
He slid into her, rolling his hips, revelling in the way she clenched around him, sucking him deeper. He couldn't hold it off any longer. He fucked her, hard, unforgiving, burying her into the mattress under the fire of his need. She clung to him, her nails scraping against his flesh and he savoured every scratch.
The sweat dripped from his face, the room was filled with the slap of their skin, the grunts and cries of their pleasure, and then he squeezed his eyes shut, hips bucking. Hot release spilled into her, and she squeezed her muscles, drawing every last drop from him.
They collapsed into a breathless heap of limbs, mouths seeking and finding each other in a long, slow kiss.
As their breathing calmed, and their flesh cooled, he drew the blanket over them both, holding her close. She looked sleepy, content. He kissed her forehead. As he settled onto the pillow beside her, holding her warmth close, he thanked every star for letting him get back to her.
His nightmares hovered over his shoulder, but he grit his teeth, willing them to stay away. Let him have tonight, just tonight, to hold her, to remember.
Tomorrow, the healing could begin for real.
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sepublic · 1 year
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“I gave you the draining spell! I taught you magic stronger than anybody’s!”
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All right so Ipad Kid is a funny reading of the Collector and also totally true, but! But! I don’t think that’s all there is to him. Because as we’ve all guessed, the Collector embodies a lot of ideas and parallels in this show, particularly the idea of an estranged kid who is seen as too dangerous or unpredictable, a lonely kid who just wants to have fun but gets carried away in disregarding others. Like early-S1 Luz, or King.
But a common thread amongst Luz and King and other ostracized characters is that they’re actually really smart and knowledgeable about certain subjects, and rather dedicated fans of them too; And it’s already canon that the Collector taught Belos some VERY arcane magic, of only which they were privy to; Why else would Philip seek them out, tolerate them, of all people? 
Not only did the Collector know about a spell capable of harnessing the power of the eclipse to commit mass genocide, but he likely gave Belos knowledge on all of the other weird and inexplicable spells we’ve seen him perform; Particularly, things like Belos’ unusual red magic, which is able to manifest an entire worm demon from scratch, grant clarity to Eda’s mind during the curse, and even bypass the magical protections of Luz’s witch’s wool cloak. And a lot of the Collector’s knowledge could just be attributed to being VERY old, but consider;
The Collector is a BIG nerd. They hyperfixate. They can ramble all day long about magic. They know various secrets of the universe and think they’re super cool. As another parallel to Luz, they wanted to learn a LOT more, though in the Collector’s case, they may have hurt or disregarded in others in messing around with magic and experiments. They’re like a young Eda; A precocious little kid yet INCREDIBLY talented and a prodigy breaking ground in many ways. 
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Imagine them being so excited to infodump about magic to Philip, someone who’s finally asking to listen; Only to be a bit disappointed when Phil cuts him off at times, only focusing on what he strictly needs because he really does not like nor care for this kid. And the Collector is disappointed because why stop there? But all right, he’ll play by Philip’s ‘rules’ of the game and focus on the specific lessons that Belos finds relevant. 
Imagine the Collector possibly befriending Luz and the others, and if even if they lose their power, they might still retain their knowledge; And thus use it to teach and herald a new age of magic, unrestricted by Belos and boosted by the Collector. Knowledge that could help people overcome the coven bindings, or at least work around them; Knowledge as reparations for the draining spell that could’ve left permanent damage to bile sacs. The Collector isn’t Head Empty, No Thoughts; They’re very much a neurodivergent kid with a LOT of shrewd passion on the workings of the universe. 
They aren’t dumb, just isolated and naive, and even then they guessed at Belos and King using them for their own ends; They just consider otherwise because it’s the only option they can believe in. They ARE a kid after all, and underestimating the Collector like that is like underestimating Luz; And we see how someone like Belos suffers for that. And we might just see how our protagonists suffer, too... A lot of the Collector’s power may very well stem from just knowing things and how to use that knowledge, and not just raw inherent power. And there’s likely so much more even they don’t know, but are more than willing and eager to learn, alongside another if they cared about magic for magic’s sake!
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vickyvicarious · 1 year
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A take on outside perspectives on the Crew of Light, arranged from most to least suspicious:
Jonathan Harker - I don't think Mina or Mr. Hawkins were spreading the news about his disappearance, so aside from his closest friends it seems like he left on a work trip and then came back months late newly married and acting very different. Much more world-weary but doesn't talk about it. Inherits money and the law firm but immediately just fucks off after being chief mourner at the funeral rather than taking care of what he's been given. Obviously he got sick and then his boss died and it's very sad, but someone said they saw him wandering around London buying drinks with various workmen and there's a lot of paperwork to be done here at the firm! Not to mention, was that him scribbling away into that notebook on the train? Couldn't have been, Jonathan was always a friendly and mild-mannered man, and that person had a dangerous aura and a very large knife, not to mention shockingly white hair. Still, he looked just like Jonathan...
Arthur Holmwood - The poor young Lord Godalming had had a very trying end of summer to be sure. That said, he has responsibilities as the new Lord. He only spent a few days at home mourning his father and fiance before leaving on the evening of what was meant to be his wedding night and coming back deeply shaken. Then he went off again the next morning and came back far worse, staring at his trembling hands, sobbing behind closed doors. The third time he left, he hasn't come home, but his messages are progressively odder. He's spending money all over the place, in very odd ways. He's hiring people for unusual jobs, he's sticking his nose in all sorts of people's business, what is going on with him? It's probably the bad influence of his American friend.
Jack Seward - Hennessey has been sort of wondering when his boss would have a mental break. He's been looking more and more exhausted/making questionable decisions over the past few months, and everyone knows he was first rejected by, and then failed to save the life of, the girl he loved. Also, sometimes he phonograph diaries with his door open; the man is sad. The loss of his most interesting patient appears to have been the final straw, and now he's gone off on some sort of hopefully healing vacation with all his odd friends and that professor he's always raved about. It's pretty inconvenient timing but hopefully he gets some rest.
Mina Harker - She obviously has friends other than Lucy but they don't seem as close. So the sudden marriage abroad is a little surprising but then again she and Harker have always been mad for one another, and apparently he's gotten promoted so it makes sense. Quitting her job is expected, and her withdrawal from much public life for the period right after her wedding/when her husband is either very busy or going mad, only makes sense. A little worrying that she hasn't been writing lately but not too alarming, especially given her best friend's abrupt death.
Van Helsing - With the many hats this man wears, frequent and unpredictable travel doesn't seem out of the ordinary for him. Nor does going down an esoteric research binge or being out of touch for a while. The garlic flower orders were a little odd, admittedly, but hey, easy profit. He probably had some kind of experimental treatment in mind. Maybe he has a unique private patient.
Quincey Morris - No one who knows Quincey has any idea what he's up to at any given moment, unless they are physically in the same room as him. Sometimes not even then. Equally, no one who knows Quincey will find "visited a friend in London, fell in love, got rejected, hung out for a while, started shooting bats, went vampire hunting with some new bosom friends" difficult to believe coming from him.
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ryuichirou · 7 months
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Ryu, I really have to say, I absolutely adore the way you portray the octavinelle trio! especially Azul! Most of the time, the fandom tends to mischaracterize the 3 of them ;/,
for example, in Azul's case, making him a crybaby bottom. In Floyd's case, a lot of people in the fandom forget that he's actually really smart?? or that his "squeezes" are just harmless hugs. in Jade's case, they forget that he can be just as chaotic and unpredictable, just like Floyd. They're twins, after all!
Anyway, I really like reading your headcanons about them! and I was wondering if you have more headcanons you would like to share about these 3 ? Not ship wise, but more like general headcanons about each of them? 🤌🏻
Anon! It took me a while to get to your ask, but every time I sat down to write some replies, I took a look at it and smiled. I am so happy to hear that and so grateful.
These three are indeed often the victims of mischaracterization. Even in general, I feel like people often forget just how dangerous they are, and not only because of sheer power, but also because of how smart and cunning all three of them are. We had another reply about Azul not being crybaby just the other day, but just like you said, the tweels also get misinterpreted a lot. But this is not a post about the mischaracterizations… this is a post about headcanons!
I mentioned it at some point, but I’ll say it again: we love these three and their interactions so much that we would gladly watch a sitcom about them scheming and doing other stuff. They are such a fun trio with so much potential for both comedic and dark scenarios.
So, here are some headcanons about them! We also have a post with more headcanons about them, but in our Mafia AU specifically.
They have an unspoken rule that there shouldn’t be any sentimental moments between them, but Azul is the only one who takes this rule seriously. If Jade and Floyd want to hug each other or Azul and say nice things, they could easily do it and no ban would ever prevent them. But then again, it’s also because Jade and Floyd know that such behavior would piss the other two off and make them embarrassed and annoyed as fuck, so it’s worth it.
They are both closer to each other and further from each other than Azul thinks. It’s not like Azul has no impact and no value in the tweel’s life whatsoever; he kinda changed their life’s trajectory forever, because they would have never left the Coral Sea if it wasn’t for Azul’s ambitions. But also, their experience together doesn’t really give Azul any immunity in case he stops being amusing to them.
The dynamic in their relationship always shifts. There are moments when Floyd is “the sane one” of all people; Azul and Jade actually can get very annoying when both of them are focused on some great plan….
There are days when Azul gives the tweels the same vibes as their dad. Papa Leech doesn’t nag as much as Azul does, but the contract-oriented part with annoyingly high attention to details is certainly familiar to Jade and Floyd. If you told them that, they would disagree though, because come on, their old man is much more fun-loving. 
Floyd actually has quite a lot of videogames, but sometimes he spends months not touching any of them. And sometimes, when he’s in the mood, he can spend an entire week playing the game and skipping classes just because he is so focused and wants to finish the game as soon as he can. He likes fighting games a lot, but Jade and Azul are worse at videogames than him, so he can’t play them much. And looking for someone else to play with is bothersome…
They actually enjoyed playing music together. A lot of time it ended up in complete chaos because of Floyd’s desire to reenact the final scene of the movie “Whiplash” (which he hasn’t seen by the way), but still…. Sometimes Azul thinks than when the Mostro Lounge stuff gets more independent and doesn’t need as much of their help and control, they could play for their customers. One time he even said that and instantly regretted it, because he can’t just show these two piranhas his vulnerability like that. The tweels replied with “you’re a control freak, Azul; we’ll never get to that point”, by the way.
That school/camp they went to when they were learning how to operate on land was actually the greatest bonding experience for them. It was the first time when Azul saw the tweels being vulnerable. Probably the last time as well…
Azul taught Jade and Floyd the basics of cooking. It was brutal... Azul was learning at the same time though, because cooking on land and cooking underwater are two completely different things :(
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wordbunch · 9 months
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Their love song (Taylor Swift edition) > The Rings of Power characters
a/n: welcome to my little self-indulgent celebration of 700 followers! 🥳 EVEN IF you're not a fan/don't know the songs, I hope you can still like and support this fic - a lot of time and love went into it! and by all means come talk to me about it or suggest your own songs! love you all so much and thank you for reading my stories and being a wonderful community 💕
HALBRAND ♡ cruel summer
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Please look at these lyrics and tell me it isn't just perfect for him!! You never really planned on falling for him, ever, but alas, something captivated you - his eyes looking down on you from a height difference, the way he seemed to understand you more than anyone else in certain moments, and how he was adamant to be around you. He was very cocky and confident when you admitted it at last.
ARONDIR ♡ peace
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Maybe you come from different backgrounds, but there is nothing that you wouldn't do for each other. He is very protective of you, but he is also cautious because he never wants you to be in danger because of him. Although your relationship can be judged negatively, the only important thing is what the two of you feel for one another - true love.
ELENDIL ♡ labyrinth
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Things haven't exactly been easy after his wife suddenly died, and he had mixed feelings about moving on; somehow, with you it was kind of effortless and unexpectedly natural. He struggled with it within himself for some time, but you were understanding and supportive the whole time, and he began feeling much better when he accepted his developing feelings for you.
CELEBRIMBOR ♡ lover
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Honestly, he kind of is a magnetic force, and he would also be a total romantic to his partner and spoil them in so many ways. Admittedly, he's lived through a lot of things and challenges, but ending up with you seemed like a reward at the end of everything, and he never wants to let you go.
GALADRIEL ♡ daylight
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She certainly has her struggles and her mind can be a very occupied place, so she really didn't expect to find captivating romantic love among all the mess. You bring brightness and warmth to her life like nobody else, and she lights up when she is around you, especially when the two of you are alone.
ISILDUR ♡ blank space
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He is still quite young and impulsive, and everything else that comes with it, and also naturally curious and a bit of a troublemaker - never a dull moment. When you two first met, you didn't think it would go anywhere, but quickly you fell for his reckless charm, and decided to give it a go anyways. It's a passionate and unpredictable relationship which can end at any time, but he is so wrapped around your finger that you highly doubt it.
VALANDIL ♡ sparks fly
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He is also crazy, young and exciting, but something won't let you let him go. He is aware of his strengths and he knows how to play them exactly right to keep you on your toes and crazy about him. Maybe it isn't the most stable of relationships, but hey, as long as you're having a good time!
GIL-GALAD ♡ gorgeous
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He is so royal and classy and naturally, captivated your attention within mere seconds in his presence. At first you might have been a little intimidated (who wouldn't be?) and you had mixed feelings within yourself - he surely already had someone, so you decided it would be best to wait for him to approach you. Years and years later, you both like to jokingly reminisce on those moments.
BRONWYN ♡ new year's day
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Life can be tough, and people can be difficult to deal with, but the two of you have each other's back through it all. While you have your arguments and disagreements occasionally, and maybe someone judges your relationship, at the end of the day there is nobody else that the two of you would rather share your troubles with.
ELROND ♡ you are in love
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This sweet soul had to get this song assigned to him! Your love bloomed steadily over centuries of close friendship and understanding, you shared a quiet, unspoken bond, and it was just the most natural thing ever. It eventually became difficult to pinpoint when exactly it turned into something more than platonic, because for so long it had been the two of you together, side by side.
✨ taglist my beloved ✨ @lotrnonsense​​​​​​ @starlady66​​​​​​ @queenmeriadoc​​ @entishramblings @thesolarangel @silversword7000 @friendofthefellowshipsnerdblog @averys-place @valkyriepirate @emmaarenstarr @noldorinpainter @asianbutnotjapanese @adamgetawaydriver @fenharel-enaste @ironmandeficiency    @starryeyedrogue​​ @dinofromspac3 ​​  @wisheduponastar @lady-of-imladris @frodo-cinnamonroll @unethicallypleistocene @deadlymistletoe @suncran @high-sea-husbands @asianbutnoteastasian @aidansloth @sweetpea-thoughts
I TAGGED EVERYONE CAUSE IT'S A FOLLOWER SPECIAL OK <3
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soupthatistohot · 1 year
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How did Chuuya react to Dazai defecting?
My thoughts on the matter ;)
In the Stormbringer author’s note Asagiri-sensei alluded that Chuuya’s reaction to losing his partner isn’t necessarily as presented (he includes it in a list of things that happened to Chuuya that perhaps he’ll expand upon one day), but what exactly does that mean?
I have my own headcanons based off my interpretation of the character, but of course everyone is entitled to their opinion, this is just mine!
Firstly, skk shippers love to bring up the ‘89 bottle of Petrus, and I see a lot of people who say that he didn’t drink it as a celebration, but rather in mourning of Dazai’s defection. I… half agree with this. In my opinion, Chuuya is telling the truth, and at the same time he isn’t. He absolutely thinks that he drank that wine as a celebration, but in reality there’s a part of him that he repressed how he felt about Dazai leaving. Maybe he just told himself he was celebrating enough that he came to believe it, or maybe he doesn’t really believe it but it’s too late to go back on that now. Either way, for as emotional and intense as Chuuya can be, he’s certainly not above repression, especially after losing so much at that point in his life.
I also believe that Chuuya never thought Dazai was dead, that’s something he wouldn’t lie to himself about. He knew Dazai too well to actually believe he got murdered or finally successfully committed suicide. Perhaps he entertained the idea for a moment, but in the end he would’ve come to the obvious conclusion: Dazai just left.
And on that topic, here’s another way in which I differ with some people on this subject— I don’t think Chuuya was particularly angry. In fact, I don’t think he would have been all that surprised after the initial shock of learning of his partner’s defection. I think he was well aware that Dazai wasn’t a loyal individual, and he’s not stupid enough to be blind to the fact that Dazai was a danger to Mori. All of this taken into consideration, Dazai defecting from the PM isn’t really all that unpredictable or uncharacteristic. What probably surprised and frustrated him more was finding out the bastard worked for the ADA years later.
This isn’t to say he still wasn’t upset by the circumstances. At the end of the day, the partner who he trusted his life to and had an inextricably deep bond with suddenly disappeared. Especially after all he went through with the sheep, the flags, Verlaine and Rimbaud, and other unnamed friends he lost (his biological family, the PM members referenced in DA), it would have hurt. Yet, at the same time, it’s because he previously endured all this that he would be compelled to subconsciously repress this hurt— especially because it’s Dazai of all people! It’s quite easy to pretend not to be upset about the partner you constantly feuded with and who was objectively a horrible person leaving your life. And on the other hand, it’s far more difficult to come to terms with the fact that you actually care for him and perhaps even miss him.
So do I think Chuuya had some big mental breakdown after Dazai left? No. Do I think he truly didn’t care at all, just as he says he did? Also no. I think he had very complicated feelings on the matter, most of which he subconsciously repressed under the guise of being glad his rival was finally gone.
The only thing is… now that Dazai is back in his life, will any of these buried emotions unearth themselves?
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newkatzkafe2023 · 2 months
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@lara-legomonkiekid
What if Monkey Y/N was a wanted by the celestial realms and Monkey Y/N has a dangerous weapon that only she can use.
Now this is different😯 let's begin this is monkey (Y/N)'s Weapon 👇
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(Lmk Wukong) Excaliborg the Most dangerous weapon in all of heaven and earth. If anybody worth their celestial power knows about this weapon it's unpredictable. Not to mention very picky about It's users. Has been used for many violent deaths across the Centuries of the world. This weapon sent shivers down his spine Because of how it was even able to kill a immortal. If that's how powerful is at one day the So that's still around what's turned on its head when it disappeared one day Everybody searched for it but it was never found. And everybody lived in fear ever since. So you can imagine his shock when he finds his monkey. Queen with the bat that was missing for Centuries and the fact that you are able to use it any time you want. Wukong Is better be careful around you or else He's going to know what Macaque felt when he died😨
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(Mk Reborn Wukong) He was frozen. He just stood and stared at you and at that cursed bat. He knows very well What that bad is anybody anybody worth their celestial power knew what it is. Excaliborg. He would never admit this, but he was shaking Inferior just looking at it was one of the most powerful weapons known on the Earth. Nobody know where it came from and a fact that, His monkey queen can use it at will at any time with an absolutely no problem at all. He would never tell you directly but he had every right to love and fear you. Because if you feel any kind of negative way you could absolutely end him😨
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(HIB Wukong) You would think he had ptsd With the look he gave you When you showed him your weapon for the first time. He thought that was A freaking Myth, a Legend, A horror story that the jade emperor would use to keep his subjects in line. But no, he saw it, he saw it in person and he has never been so afraid in his entire a immortal life. And his queen is Is using it and nothing is happening to her. That was the day he truly knew who was more powerful. For what is a king to a goddess😨
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(NR Wukong) Yo he flat out freaked out. He heard the legend of Excaliborg Is a mysterious but deadly weapon Nobody knows where it came from nobody knows who made it And most importantly nobody knew how to use it. And his queen was using like it was her weapon in the Place. He knew of the countless amount of deaths that Is cursed bat had brought to the world. At first he thought the celestial realm was joking about it being able to kill an immortal Now he hopes he won't ever have wants to find out😨
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(Netflix Wukong) Even though he vaguely heard about it, he immediately felt the fear whenever anybody bought it up. He heard all kinds of spooky stories about a Excaliborg And all it the conspiracy theory is about can imagine the look Is pure terror on his face He found his Queen taking out a bunch of demons with that. It was a freaking Blood bath something he can never understand and you may not know it But he learned if he knows what Good for him to love respect and make you happy Like his life depends on it because if there was one rumor that stood out That he never wants to find out is If it can really kill an immortal😰
FEEL FREE TO REBLOG😇😈👍
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The Flip Side Part 6
Pairing: Wanda Maximoff x reader
Word count: ~9.5k
Summary: Your motivation to continue working as a mobster in Chicago is dwindling after the birth of your daughter.
A/N: So glad to be going home soon! I can go places on my own and I can wear shorts without being stared at! Yayy! Will reread this later to look for the damned flipped dialogue🙄. Enjoy!
Warnings: angst, smut, being arrested, threats of violence
Unfortunately, Wanda was no stranger to stress and anxiety. Even before meeting you, she’d been an anxious person who’d often lose sleep or hair over certain things that brought her stress. She would say; however, that since meeting you this had gotten a lot worse. Your lifestyle and your very existence was a dangerous, unpredictable one that Wanda had accepted into her life without fully understanding it. She’d learned quickly that in order to cope with the stress, she had to practice both mindfulness and blissful ignorance.
Despite how well these have served her in the past, she knew that this wasn’t an option tonight. She’s not sure if she’s ever felt this stressed, and she’d ended up taking one of your meds when you told her about what was going to happen to you tomorrow. The idea of you being sent to jail for an indefinite amount of time for a crime you didn’t commit was making her blood pressure skyrocket. 
You’d told her everything that Bucky and Nat had shared with you. She knew you didn’t do this because you’d been with her the entire day that Jacobs was killed. She hadn’t realized that you had planned to target him, but now that she did, she wondered the same thing as you and the rest of your friends. 
Who wanted to beat you to it so badly just to frame you? 
The idea of anyone putting in that much work to get you in jail and out of the way was a little daunting, and no one wanted to consider the significance of this. Once your friends leave, you and Wanda are left sitting at the dining room table in silence as your wife tries to process the bad news. Boone is sitting by your side because he can tell you’re anxious and he goes between licking your hand and laying his head on your leg to comfort you. Natalya is asleep at this point, but Wanda has the baby monitor sitting on the table in front of her as she pets Fat Louise as she purrs in her lap. 
“How confident are you that your attorney can get you out of jail?” 
Under any other circumstance you would say that you had no doubt that your friend Gavin could get you out within hours. He was a brilliant attorney who was well-respected and you’d rarely seen him lose. That said, given the number of unknowns with your situation, it’s hard for you to determine what factors, or rather people could be working against you. This means that something that seems easy and straight forward might take a little more time and effort. You don’t want to tell Wanda this because she’ll worry with you, but she deserves to know the truth. You don’t want to tell her you’ll be out soon and take days to actually be released. 
“Hopefully within a day or two.” 
Wanda’s frowning as she mulls this over before shaking her head. She’s not going to stress about this particular detail for too long, at least she’s going to pretend like she won’t. She hates the idea of you being away from her, and being vulnerable in jail all by yourself. She also, belatedly, realized that you won’t be around to make her feel safe in her own home. The security system and the personnel downstairs were still there of course, but they weren’t you. You answer her next question before she gets a chance to ask it. 
“I’ll make sure that someone is keeping you as updated as possible. If Gavin’s busy then maybe Bucky or Steve will keep in touch.”
Wanda just nods in silence as she thinks about how much she hates this. She’s so stressed about all of this that she understands why it triggered a panic attack for you. She takes a deep breath and puts Fat Louise on the ground with a groan. You’re breathing deeply as you try to figure out how to deal with the antsy feelings that’s come over you. You’re just waiting around to get arrested, and the lack of control over the situation made you want to binge. 
You realize what you have to do as soon as you remember that Yelena had left a full bottle of wine behind. Wanda had asked her to because she’d considered drinking it, but now she knew it wouldn’t make her feel better. If anything, she’d be paranoid that she would miss you leaving. Wanda looks up as she watches you stand and head for the kitchen without a word. She’s not sure what’s you’re doing, but when you grab a knife and a bottle opener, Wanda’s on her feet. 
“Y/n? What are you doing?” 
Wanda walks towards you and just watches as you cut the metal off of the top of the bottle to reveal the cork before starting to open it up. You can’t remember the last time you did this and your hands are practically shaking in anticipation. You shake your head as you finish up and pull out the cork, but you don’t let Wanda fret for long. 
“I’m getting rid of this so I don’t think about it all night. Unless you wanted some?” 
Wanda shakes her head before watching as you pour the entire bottle of 0.5% alcohol wine down the drain. She watches you relax slightly once it’s gone and you put the bottle in recycling before taking another deep breath. You’re bracing yourself on the counter and you turn to Wanda with an apologetic look that she appreciates but doesn’t know what to do with. 
“I’m sorry, Wands. I don’t know how this happened, but we’ll figure it out.” 
After checking on Natalya and the dogs one last time, you and Wanda end up in bed exhausted but not anywhere ready to sleep. You know that as soon as you wake up, you’re going to have to leave your wife and daughter for a stuffy interrogation room followed by a cold jail cell. You resist the urge to text Gavin again just to be sure he’s on standby. He’d texted earlier just to reassure you that he would be ready to come to your aid, and after thanking him you’d had to tamp down the urge to share all of your fears with him. Instead, you put your phone away and make sure that everything is set up for your wife. 
You’d long ago given her access to your bank accounts and given her power of attorney. You’d insisted she keep her money from the restaurant separate for legal purposes, but you also made sure that she knew where all of your important documents were including your will and the numerous deeds for the buildings you owned. They weren’t in the bank or in the penthouse that might be searched tomorrow depending on how things went. You try not to worry about the many weapons that are hidden around in the various rooms of your home. You turn to your wife and wonder if she’d be willing to hear what you feel you have to say. Luckily your time together has been enough for her to be able to read you like a book. 
“I know what you’re going to say, Y/n. I’ll make sure that everything is taken care of. “
You’re still frowning by the time you lie down next to your wife. You hate the idea of cops in your house. You just hate cops period, but the idea of them searching for something in your house makes you nervous. Other than weapons they’re not much else of value. You have a safe with money, extra magazines and some jewelry. You hope that Gavin keeps them from coming here, but you’ll have to worry about that later. If they did end up here, you’re at least glad that you have the dogs to keep an eye on them. 
“Can you come over here, please?” 
A few seconds later you’re in your wife’s arms on her side of the bed. You sigh happily as Wanda kisses the top of your head. She’s very stressed right now, but she knows that there’s nothing she can do about it. She just has to let this run its course and once you’re arrested, she’ll talk to Gavin and figure out what his plan is. Then maybe their friends can figure out who’s behind all of this.
” I know this is scary, detka, but we’ll figure it out.” 
You’re still frowning after Wanda says this and she sighs in defeat before turning slightly so she can look at you. You speak up before she gets a chance to ask, and you meet her gaze with a worried one. 
“I hate that I have to leave you and Nat.” 
Wanda won’t lie. She hates this too. She can’t remember the last time you went away on business and left her in the penthouse alone. Definitely not since having Natalya, and that made the idea even scarier. She knew where all the weapons you kept in their home were, and she had five, well really three dogs that she’s sure would protect her and Natalya if necessary. She hopes it doesn’t come to this, and she reminds herself that she won’t be completely alone either way. She still has your friends and her brother. 
“I do too, but we’ll have Pietro to keep us company until you come back. Don’t take too long though.”
This brings a smile to your face which is what Wanda was aiming for, and she smiles victoriously. You know that she’s only partially kidding because despite loving and appreciating her brother’s presence he can be a lot sometimes, and she’d prefer your company on most days. You just hold Wanda for a while and try to relax, but you keep thinking about what could happen to you once you’re in jail. You hate it but you’re a pessimist and you have no idea how long you’ll be in there for. You know how risky it is for you to be locked up because it only takes minutes for your enemies to figure this out and try to use it to their advantage. 
The most important thing to you is your family, and you were going to ask Bucky or Steve to keep watch on them regardless of if Pietro comes to stay with Wanda. You don’t want to risk anything happening. You tighten your grip around Wanda’s waist without realizing it and she sighs slightly before squeezing your hand to get your attention. She can easily tell that you’re fretting, and she wants to help you feel better, if possible. She knows that this is not a situation that she is really prepared for. 
“You’re stressing yourself out, Y/n. Is there anything I can do to help you relax?” 
You want to say a lot of things that might help you relax. Only a couple are viable options given that you’ve quit drugs and alcohol so you just shake your head as you move as close as possible to your wife with a ragged sigh. 
“You being here with me is all I need, Wands. Thank you. For earlier too.” 
Wanda’s hold on you tightens as she kisses your head with a smile you don’t see, but you can hear clearly. Wanda’s more than happy to just hold you all night long. Especially since she’s not sure when she’ll be able to have you here again. She feels the same way about pulling you out of your panic attacks. As much as she hates them, she loves the feeling that she gets when you come back to yourself. It’s a combination of intense relief, pride, and a smidge of sadness. Regardless of how difficult things could be, she’ll be here for you tomorrow, the next day, and every one after that. 
“I love you, detka. You don’t have to thank me for that.”
You wholeheartedly disagree, but you’re not in the mood to argue with your wife. You just want to cherish the rest of the night that you have together. You look up at her and kiss your way to her mouth. Your first attempt is on her chin because you can’t see in the dark, and the second is on her cheek. When you finally find your wife’s lips you initiate a chaste kiss that eventually becomes heated. 
“I love you too, Wands. I don’t deserve how good you are to me.” 
Wanda’s protests are cut short as your hands begin to wander down from her waist to her hips. She hisses as you squeeze her thighs with a groan. Your wife’s thighs are probably one of your favorite parts of her body. You shift so you’re able to get a better hold of them as you continue to kiss your wife. Wanda’s breathing is slightly labored when she breaks your kiss and reaches down to catch your wrist as your fingers brush her inner thigh. 
“You don’t have to, Y/n.” 
No matter how much Wanda would love to do this with you she doesn’t want you to feel obligated. She also doesn’t want this to turn into something too desperate. She refuses to believe you won’t come back to her soon. She’ll make it happen somehow. It doesn’t matter who she has to go after. 
Your smartass response is paired with a smile as you try to pull your hand free. You never feel put upon with Wanda, and you would certainly never see sex as an obligation. 
“I know I don’t, Wands. I don’t have to do anything technically.” 
You don’t get the reaction you’d expected, and you frown as Wanda’s grip on your wrist tightens as she shoots you a stern look that’s lost to the darkness. She shakes her head before leaning in so she can speak directly into your ear. She feels you shudder as she speaks, and she feels you nod almost immediately. 
“That’s not true. You have to come back to me and Natalya, Y/n. No matter what. We need you. “
You feel tears welling up in your eyes as you nod again in understanding mixed with relief. You’ll make sure you’re back to your wife and daughter as soon as possible. No matter how much Wanda feels that she needs you, you’re certain you need the two of them more. You’re not sure where you would have ended up without Wanda. 
“I always will. You don’t have to worry about that, my dear.” 
Instead of offering a verbal response, Wanda kisses you again and she releases your wrist with a sigh. You don’t take this as permission to continue though, and you break apart for just long enough to ask. 
“Can I touch you, please?” 
Wanda doesn’t have the willpower to tell you no when she really wants you to do just that. She nods before she’s reaching out for your arms, squeezing your biceps with a smile as she parts her legs slightly. 
“Yes, please.”
You waste no time reaching between your wife’s legs to see if she’s ready. She jumps slightly and hisses as your fingers slide through her heat over her shorts. Wanda curses as you start to suck and bite her neck. You’re not shy about it but you make sure that it won’t leave marks as you sneak your hand past the waistband of your wife’s too small shorts. 
“Oh shit!” 
Wanda gasps as you slide your fingers through her wet folds, dipping them inside just enough for Wanda to tense up in anticipation. You moan at the fact that Wanda is practically dripping against your hand. You want to drag this out and do this right, but it’s late and you do need to sleep to prepare for tomorrow’s shit show. For this reason, you don’t hesitate long before you’re pushing your fingers deeper as you curl them against the soft spot that makes Wanda mewl desperately. She doesn’t hold back the loud whine as she starts to rock her hips toward you silently urging you to go faster. 
“Fuck, oh-oh God!”
Wanda tenses further as your free hand squeezes her breast. If you had more time, you’d take off her shirt, but you’re almost positive that if you stopped what you were doing to get better access to her chest, Wanda would not be happy. With this in mind, you continue to push and curl your fingers as Wanda’s breath starts to hitch. When her movements become more desperate, you use your thumb to circle her clit to push her over the edge. 
You muffle her loud moans with a kiss, and Wanda bites your lower lip with a groan as she takes in the feeling of her orgasm hitting her hard. She’s still panting when you pull your hand free, and she immediately reaches out for your hand before you can take it too far away. 
“That was amazing,” 
When you feel Wanda’s mouth around your fingers, you groan loudly and feel the pressure between your legs intensify. You wish more than anything that you could see what Wanda looks like as she sucks your fingers, but your imagination and previous experience are enough to get you painfully turned on. When she releases them with an audible ‘pop’ you imagine that she’s smirking at you in satisfaction. 
“But now it’s my turn, detka.” 
When you wake up the next morning, it’s earlier than you thought, but later than you could have hoped for given the circumstances. You leave your wife briefly to check on Natalya, but when you confirm that she’s still resting soundly, you decide that you need to take a shower. It seems silly given that you’ll undoubtedly get dirty, maybe even bloody in jail, but you want to face the police looking your best. You don’t want to appear as intimidated as you’re sure you’ll feel. 
Returning to your room, you see that Wanda’s still sleeping peacefully and you smile before retreating into the bathroom with an inaudible sigh. You’re not sure how much time you’ll have so you take a relatively quick shower, and immediately check your phone when you get back to the bedroom. You have no new messages and that makes you more nervous than you thought it would. 
Despite planning on staying home until the cops came to find you, you didn’t intend to let them up to the penthouse if you could help it. You don’t want them near Wanda, your daughter, or your dogs. Despite their lack of training for this particular behavior, your shepherds really didn’t like cops. Boone once barked and tried to lunge at one that you walked by, and Rogue actually bit one who was trying to grab you. 
“Hey, detka.” 
Wanda’s watching as you fluff your hair with a towel while looking for a change of clothes. She feels her smile widen when you turn to her with both of your towels in your hand. She doesn’t have time to sit up before you slide onto the bed to greet her. She giggles at you before meeting your lips in a quick kiss. She wonders how long you’ve been up, but she waits to ask this as you sigh before rolling onto your side. You close your eyes and reach out to pull your wife closer. 
“Morning, Wands. How did you sleep?” 
Surprisingly well despite knowing that she would be waking up this morning with very little time with you. She’s actually a little surprised that she didn’t have to wake up earlier to say goodbye. She’s at least grateful that they’d waited. She tells you some of this and you smile widely before considering your options. You’re a little hungry, but you wouldn’t mind staying in bed for a little bit longer. 
About ten minutes later you and Wanda roll out of bed to get dressed. You dress up a little more than you typically would, but you’re expecting company and Wanda seems to realize this as well. She wears her normal clothes before promising to meet you in the kitchen after she checks on Natalya. 
The dogs are fed and let outside by the time that Wanda wakes up Natalya. You’re warming up a bottle while juggling eggs and orange juice as you grab a pan from the cupboard. 
“Hey, I have her breakfast going. I was just getting started on ours.” 
Wanda nods before stepping in to help you and this time you don’t protest as she helps you cut the time down by half. You don’t want to show it but you feel slightly rushed and want to make sure you can eat and spend a little time with your wife and daughter before being carted off to jail. 
Boone’s sitting beside you as you eat when your phone vibrates beside you. You can’t help but stiffen and start to sweat until you grab it and see that it’s Bucky. Your feeling of relief only lasts for a second until you read the message. 
They should be there in about 15 minutes. 
You sigh heavily and type out a quick reply before setting your phone down. Wanda’s looks to you expectantly and you just nod before standing up to clean the dishes. 
“They’ll be here in 15 minutes.” 
Wanda isn’t surprised by the feeling of dread that overcomes her at this news. She’d been waiting for this moment for over 12 hours, but she hadn’t realized how ill-prepared for it she was. How did one really prepare to send their wife off to jail, even if only for a bit? Thinking back to last night, she’s not sure she’d change anything about it. She just wishes this moment wouldn’t come. 
You realize that your wife is tense with anticipation and you frown before abandoning the dishes for now. You set them back down before moving so you’re kneeling at Wanda’s side. You look to Rogue who is now at eye level on Wanda’s other side before putting a hand on her leg with a sigh. 
“I know this is scary, love. I’m not sure there’s much I can say to make it any easier, but just know that I’ll be back, okay?” 
Wanda reaches out to squeeze your hand as she wipes tears from her eyes. You hate how upset she is and you kiss her hand before giving her all the reassurance you really can right now. 
“I will be back, Wanda. I promise I won’t leave you.” 
When you and Wanda manage to get around to cleaning the kitchen you hear the obnoxious buzzer go off only a minute after you sit down on the couch with Wanda. You reluctantly pull away from her and Natalya to confirm that this is your entourage. 
“Hello?”
There’s a pause as you lift your finger off the button, and you turn down the volume quickly when a booming voice comes through the speaker. You frown at the familiar voice and the use of the word ‘we’. Of course, this wouldn’t be without excessive force. As per usual. 
“Y/N, Y/L/N this is Chief Donner with the Chicago PD, we need you to come down to the lobby.”
You hold back the strong urge to sass him and tell him that you’ll be down there at some point, but not anytime soon. You look to your wife who’s holding Natalya tightly in her arms. She’s gotten up at this point and you just take a deep breath before deciding to get this over with. Dragging it out would only be fun for you, but you’re sure Wanda would rather you cooperate so you don’t get into any further trouble. You’re not even going to bother mentioning how many times this man has threatened to come after you. He’s probably near gleeful to finally be able to knock on your door – so to speak. 
“I’ll be right down, Chief.” 
You walk over to where your wife is fretting, and you offer her a smile before leaning over to kiss your daughter. 
“I love you little one, be good for Mommy while I’m gone.” 
Wanda can’t help but tear up again and you quickly wipe them away with a serious look. You love both Wanda and your daughter more than you could put into words. You’re not sure what you’d do without them, and you’re not about to find out. You’ll be back soon, and you’ll figure out who the hell is after you. Maybe even while behind bars. You just needed Wanda to be careful while you were gone. 
“I love you so much, Wanda. I’ll be back soon.” 
You kiss your wife like you’re just going out to the store, but Wanda doesn’t accept this and quickly deepens it. She pulls you closer to her side so you don’t squish Little Nat, and you wrap your arms around the duo carefully. When you have to take a break to catch your breath, Wanda pushes you away with a sigh. This isn’t easy for her and she knows that if she doesn’t get you to leave now, she’ll be dealing with however many cops are downstairs coming up to find you. She turns away before shooting you a sad look. She steps back toward you when she realizes you’re frowning, and she kisses you one more time before smiling tearfully. 
“Go, detka. I’ll see you soon.” 
The ride down to the lobby seems to fly by and you regret leaving your phone with Wanda. You didn’t want them to take it from you and she’d agreed to keep it. Now, you wish you’d texted your friends to tell them what was happening. You assume that Bucky did it, but you couldn’t be sure. When the elevator dings as you arrive to the ground floor you take a deep breath before preparing for the doors to open. You put on as brave a face as you can as you stand up straighter. 
You’re not surprised to see the crowd of almost half a dozen cops waiting for you. You nearly roll your eyes, but the sight of your friends standing between them and you, makes your heart soar. You smile slightly as they turn to face you and you walk out of the elevator as if you own the building. Which you do. 
“Good to see you guys, at least some of you.” 
Steve, Bucky, Nat and Yelena had all wanted to make sure that you weren’t alone for this stressful, slightly traumatizing experience. You haven’t been arrested since you got sober and they have a feeling this won’t be a pleasant experience for many reasons. Bucky had already contacted your lawyer and he was already on his way down to the station. Yelena had volunteered to follow you once you’d been taken away just to make sure you got to where you were supposed to go. She wouldn’t put it past the cops to try and get some time alone with you. Given how long you’ve been in this business, you know all of the high-ranking officials, some of them on a first-name basis. 
You’re very grateful for your friends’ presence because it gives you just enough confidence to keep it together. You can do this. You’re not alone. Your friends, your family will be there for you. They’ll get you out of jail. 
“What can I do for you gentlemen?” 
Unsurprisingly they tell you what they found and then one of them moves forward to handcuff you. You don’t say a word, and you shoot your friends a smile before following them out to your ride. Your anxiety is building and it’s in this moment that you realize you forgot to take your meds. Well, you’ll either get them in prison, or you’ll just have to make do. 
“Y/N, Y/L/N, you are under arrest for the murder of Senator Jacobs. You have the right to remain silent…”
Wanda’s grateful for the fact that her brother shows up only 15 minutes after you leave. She realizes that someone’s briefed him of what’s going on because he doesn’t even ask about it. He asks if she’s okay, and she really doesn’t have a good answer for this so she just shrugs from where she’s sadly slumped on the couch.
Pietro frowns at his sister before he takes a seat beside her. He looks over to Natalya who is resting in her crib beside the dogs. He wonders if she’ll miss your absence, and if so how long it will take. You’ve been home more recently. But Natalya’s got to be used to you disappearing occasionally. 
“I know what you’re thinking, Piet.”
Pietro knows that despite his feelings towards you, there’s a good reason for what happened today. He doesn’t think that you killed anybody because not only do you leave that to your minions, but you wouldn’t be dumb enough to leave a gun for the police to find. The only reason you’d do that is if you wanted to get caught, or if you were drunk. Given that Wanda hadn’t told him about any concerns she had, he figured that something else must be going on. 
Last time he’d talked to his sister about you things hadn’t gone well, and to avoid having another argument about you he quickly shakes his head. He’d like to stay on his sister’s good side, especially if he’s going to hang out here for a few days, or however long it took for you to get back here. 
“Do you? Because I was going to say that everything will be fine. Y/n didn’t do this and she’ll be back before you know it.” 
Understandably, Wanda looks a little dubious as she turns to study her brother. She knows that he’s not your biggest fan. Hell, he’d tried to stop them from getting married, but Wanda had hoped that he’d come around sooner rather than later. She supposed this was later if he truly did believe this and wasn’t just telling her what she wanted to hear. She wouldn’t be surprised given that her wife was in jail for murder leaving her alone with their daughter. And their many fur children. 
“Oh yeah? How do you know that? “
In the back of her mind, Wanda knows that she’s giving Pietro a hard time, but she can’t help it. She’s still miffed that her brother has so little faith in you and she feels the need to be defensive about it. You’re not here to defend yourself, not that you would if you were. You’d stopped trying to fight with your brother-in-law a couple years after marrying Wanda. It never ended well and you felt defeated and Wanda always got annoyed, so it wasn’t worth the hassle. Pietro would believe what he wanted about you, and you could only do so much to change his mind. Wanda’s thinking about the last fight you had with her brother when Pietro responds with a sigh. He realizes he probably should have been more understanding of what you’ve gone through. He was trying to be better now, but he still had a very long way to go. 
He risks reaching out for his sister and putting an arm around her as you had done earlier this morning. Wanda sighs in defeat because she can’t be mad at Pietro right now. She doesn’t have enough energy to dedicate to worrying about you and staying pissed at her brother. 
“Well, Y/n has always been good at accomplishing whatever she sets her mind to. Especially when it involves you, so I have no doubt that she’ll come back to you soon.” 
Wanda turns into her brother so her face is against his chest. She sighs as she tightens her hold on him and considers what he’s saying. He’s right about you always doing your best to make sure she was happy. Whether that was by staying out of trouble as much as possible, or making sure that she had an attentive wife, you always did your best to show your love. This would be no different hopefully. Despite several factors being out of your control, Wanda believes what Pietro says. You have an amazing lawyer and a wonderful group of friends that would step into the line of fire for you. 
“You’re just being nice to her because I’m upset.” 
Pietro admits that this was his initial motivation when mentioning you, but he was serious about trying to treat you better. It was only about 6 years too late, but he was going to prove to his sister that he could get along with her wife. He didn’t dislike her, he just had trouble letting go of his instincts to protect his sister from pain and heartbreak. Unfortunately, he was so determined to do this that he failed to realize how it tended to make things worse and his relationship with his sister-in-law was nearly non-existent because of it.  
“No, Wanda, I mean it. She’ll be back, and once she is she’ll eventually leave for—”
Pietro trails off before he can finish his thought and he suddenly panics at his misstep. He hadn’t meant to say this and when he feels Wanda sit up, he realizes he should have just kept his mouth shut. Wanda frowns as she shoots her brother a confused look. Why does he seem to think you’ll leave her for good? You would never do that to her and Natalya. Her frown turns into a scowl as she crosses her arms in annoyance. Just when she thought Pietro was going to try to be decent towards you. 
“What the fuck does that mean? Why do you think she’ll leave?” 
Pietro’s eyes widen in fear and confusion because he hadn’t expected Wanda to get this mad about it. She had to know that you were trying to take a very large step back from the business. As in you were trying to set things up so you could leave altogether. This is a long-term goal certainly, but now that you and Wanda had Natalya, he couldn’t imagine that you wanted to return to your larger, more dangerous role. He scratches the back of his neck as he tries to figure out how to address his sister’s ire in the most efficient way possible. 
“I just mean that she’s taking small steps away from the business so she can leave for good. “
Wanda’s anger evaporates like smoke once she realizes that she and her brother are talking about something completely different. She shakes her head at her own insecurity and doubt towards her brother before offering him an apologetic look. Things are a little tense right now, and she couldn’t deny that watching you leave this morning had felt like a goodbye. She wanted to believe that you would be back soon, but there were no guarantees in life, no matter how rich or influential you were. 
“Sorry, Piet. I thought you meant something else. I guess that is a good thing.” 
That’s putting it lightly, but Wanda doesn’t have the capacity to think about that right now. No matter how much she’d like you to retire and just spend your time with her in the restaurant with Natalya. She knows that you couldn’t do that any time soon, and trying to would be riskier than any of them were prepared for. 
She misses her brother’s frown as he attempts to work out what Wanda had thought he’d meant. It only takes him a few seconds, especially when he noticed how flushed his sister is. Wanda gets up to check on Natalya to distract herself from what she’s sure is coming next. She briefly wonders how long it will be until she has news on you. 
You’re exhausted already and it’s barely 10am. The clock on the wall of the tiny interrogation room you’re in ticks annoyingly loud as each second passes. After being brought to the station, you’d promptly gone through the booking process that brought back bad memories. You’d been strip searched, had your fingerprints taken, and gone through a too invasive health check before being told that Gavin was here to talk to you. You’d said nothing on the way here, but as you sit in this uncomfortable chair with your arms and legs in shackles you wished you’d been a little less compliant. 
You think you’ve been waiting for an hour, but the clock tells you it’s only been 15 minutes before Gavin walks in to the room looking as calm and collected as usual. Thank goodness for him. 
“Y/n, sorry for the hold up. They had a lot of silly questions.” 
This comment is directed toward one of your guards that is standing in the corner of the room. You fight the urge to smirk at this as you shake your head and insist that it’s fine. You’re just glad that you’re not having to sit in silence anymore. You’re also very grateful when the duo leaves you alone with your lawyer. 
“I appreciate you being here, Gavin.” 
Your friend offers you a smile before he gets right down to it. He’s helped you multiple times in the past, but this is the first case of yours that you’ve been charged with murder. There has never been sufficient evidence to get you in a room like this more than a couple of times. He was sure that you were innocent because he believed you when you said you were at home with your wife and daughter when Jacobs had been murdered. This had also been corroborated with your building’s security team, but this wasn’t enough considering the fact that they’d found your prints on the murder weapon. 
He says all of this and watches as your frown deepens at the news that this case is not going to be as straightforward as you’d hoped for. You knew that DNA was always tricky to get around, but it wasn’t impossible. You wonder how they’re going to do this for only a second before Gavin fills you in on his progress so far. 
“We’re having the lab try to age the fingerprints, but that can take 24 – 48 hours. The only thing we could think of is that the prints were old, and maybe someone else used that gun to frame you. Hopefully once we get that information, we can prove that you didn’t do this and you’ll be out of here.” 
You like the sound of this plan, but you don’t like how long the timeframe is. It’s relatively short all things considered, but any time away from your family and in this hellhole is too long. However, you know you can’t complain because this is the best that Gavin can do. You’re impressed and you ask if he has anything else you should know, and he hesitates for a moment before saying no.
“Why did you hesitate?” 
Your friend frowns as he considers how to best break the news to you. Despite being a high-profile individual and the inherent risk that lies in housing you with other inmates, you’ve been denied solitary. You can’t stop the slight panic you feel at this and you are already thinking of ways that you can defend yourself. 
“You’re going to be housed with two other women.” 
You groan under your breath before nodding and pretending like this wasn’t going to bother you. 
“Thank you, Gavin. Let me know when we have more answers, please.”
When Gavin leaves, you’re escorted by your babysitters to a holding cell that, as advertised, has two women in it. You don’t even look at them at all as you figure out how you’re going to get out of this mess, or at least to a more private cell. 
“Why do you think that Y/n will leave you?” 
It didn’t make any sense to Pietro why his sister would think this. He’s focused more attention on your flaws than he should have, but he’d be blind not to notice how much you love his sister. You’d been through hell and back with her by your side, and you’d told your friends that sometimes you think you’d only been able to do it because of her. Having a definitive goal and proper motivation to recover had been enough, and for you that was your fiancée and your desire to have a life and a family together. You’d shown no indication that you were no longer interested in that. 
Wanda shakes her head as she picks up Natalya and wanders over to where the dogs are sitting on the floor in front of the couch. She smiles as she pets Rogue and Boone before sitting back down. She and her brother sit in silence for a while as Wanda rocks Nat back to sleep. 
“She’s doing so well right now, but I guess I always have this fear that she’ll relapse and our life together will go down the tubes.” 
Pietro can’t help but wonder how much of this fear his sister has is due to his behavior over the years. He hates that something he’d done for her own good is causing her more anguish than comfort and he promises himself that he’ll do better. His sister deserves better. Pietro shakes his head as gets on the floor and reaches for Wanda’s hands with a sigh. One is behind Natalya’s back making it a little awkward, but he doesn’t care. He needs Wanda to listen to him when he says this. Wanda looks to him with a frown and he offers her a smile that immediately makes her roll her eyes. 
“Wands, you know how hard she’s worked for you, for all of you. She’s going to be okay. She has her family’s support, and she’ll only be away for a day or so. Nothing more.” 
Wanda doesn’t respond, but she moves back so she can lean against her brother again with a sigh. She rests her head on his shoulder, and she tries to believe what he says. You’ve given her no reason to be worried, but any disruption to your schedule, your life, this extreme could be difficult to deal with. Hopefully it will be as temporary as you and Pietro think. 
“Well, if it isn’t Y/n. What did you do to wind up in here?” 
Your first instinct that you’d run into these women before was unfortunately right, and they were cornering you now as they tried to intimidate you. You just sit on your uncomfortable cot with your back to the wall, and as neutral an expression as possible. You know that these two are employees of one of your rivals – she’s a giant pain in the ass. You had limited run ins with them, but unfortunately, they remembered you and were aware of your existence in this too small cell. You look around the sparse, dirty room and wonder if you’ll be able to sleep here. The bars of the door are just big enough for you to bash your head against and maybe knock yourself out if necessary. 
“What do any of us really do to get here, Nikki?” 
The brunette just scowls at you before her friend, the taller and scarier one steps forward with a sinister smile. The last time you’d seen this woman, it had been at a drug deal and a fight broke out which was unfortunate for many reasons. Not only did you not get all of your product, but the redhead had punched you so hard in the gut that it hurt to sit for days. 
“We’ve been off the streets for a while, Y/L/N. Have you not noticed?” 
This question catches you off guard but you hide it quickly behind a flippant attitude that only angers them further. You have to hide your smug look because you’ve been in here for 10 minutes, and that’s a little fast to get beaten up. 
“Oh yeah, I have been looking for you specifically in between doing actual work.”
The duo stare at you like they want to say more, but as a guard walks by, they decide to keep it to themselves for now. You just watch with a sigh as they retreat and you try to relax for a split second. You’ve been so tense since you got here and you are just counting down the hours until you get out. It’s 23 to 47 by now, right? 
You take a moment to consider what your friends are doing right now. Were they working? Probably, Gavin was the only one who was working your case at the moment, and that was on standby while they waited for the lab to finish processing your fingerprints. Maybe they were trying to figure out who was framing you. It seemed difficult given the amount of evidence that everyone had. It unfortunately all pointed to you. 
This thought makes you pause and you wonder for the first time how your fingerprints could be on a gun you never used. Or at least don’t remember using. The first thought that comes to mind is that you were drunk, and you hate it but it’s a viable option. If you were drunk when you last used this gun it’s very probable that you don’t remember it. That said, you have been sober for years, and how would anyone just happen to find a gun of yours and preserve it well enough to pull this off?
You’re shaking your head at the ridiculous thought before you consider other options. These are honestly more disturbing than someone finding and keeping one of your guns for years. You consider how someone could get your fingerprint. Gavin mentioned aging the prints found on the murder weapon, and you realize that this means he’s thinking the same thing as you. Someone was framing you, but they were going to extreme lengths to do it. The premeditation involved in following you, and lifting your prints is a little daunting. You can think of a single person who would go to so much trouble. 
The two occupying the cell with you turn as you noticeably stiffen in your cot. Your eyes widen before you try to shake the ridiculous thought. There’s no way that’s possible. You’re just grasping at straws. Killing time with ridiculous theories. You take a deep breath before closing your eyes and trying to calm down. You try to picture the usual go-to for you when you’re feeling overwhelmed, and you end up smiling a little at the thought of your wife. 
“Steve? What are you doing here?” 
Wanda realizes that she’s being rude when Steve just smiles sheepishly at her as he steps off the elevator. Since you’ve left, she’s been on high alert, and the sound of the elevator going off made her jump up to go investigate. She knew that only a handful of people had access to it, but she couldn’t help but want to make sure she was prepared for anything. 
After checking her phone to see the camera feed for the elevator she recognizes the familiar face and releases the breath she’d been holding. She greets her friend and he follows her toward the kitchen for a drink. 
“I just came to check in, and give an update. Hey Pietro.” 
The older Maximoff waves before he stands up to greet the blonde. He’s also thirsty and when he sees his sister grab a couple of glasses, he takes this as a chance to get some water. Natalya is sleeping, but he brings her along to the kitchen as Wanda pretends not to fret by heading to the fridge. 
“Okay, that’s good. Do either of you want a beer?” 
Pietro and Steve exchange confused looks, and the former turns to his sister who’s clearly flustered as she shakes her head. 
“What am I saying, we don’t have any beer. There’s not a drop of alcohol in this place.” 
Wanda looks surprisingly distraught by this fact, and Steve is quick to step in and try to bring her attention back to him. The feeling of his hand on her arm makes her turn and she sees his reassuring smile and instantly believes what he says. 
“Wanda. It’s okay really. It’s good news.” 
When the trio are sitting at the table with Natalya in Wanda’s lap Steve tells the Maximoffs what he’d been told a bit ago. He’d been on standby today since Bucky is covering for him, so he can keep an eye on Wanda. You’d asked him before you were arrested to keep Wanda safe, and to stick annoyingly close until either you were out of jail or when they had more answers about what was going on. There was still very little progress on finding out who was behind all of this, and you were worried. You’d tried to hide it, but you’d been so anxious that your nervous tick had come back. He hadn’t seen it in almost a year. 
Steve takes a deep breath as he waits for either Maximoff to react to what he’s said. Wanda appears deep in thought and Pietro is just looking at his sister in anticipation. When almost a minute passes and she doesn’t speak, Pietro decides to take the lead for now. 
“So Gavin thinks that she’s been framed with either an old gun of hers or someone stealing her fingerprints?” 
It sounded far-fetched and Pietro had a difficult time working through this. He wasn’t the only one and Wanda just shakes her head a couple of times before looking between the two in front of her with a grimace. The idea of someone going to such extreme lengths to get you into jail makes her wonder what the master plan is. She doesn’t know enough about what you do to really hazard a guess, but she’s afraid that this isn’t the only thing that’s going to happen. 
“All of this just to get Y/n into jail? Does someone just want her out of the way for a while?” 
Neither Steve nor Pietro had an answer for this and they shrugged or shook their head in response. Wanda sighs in defeat as she considers what else Steve told her. The good news supposedly. 
“As long as the lab results show that the fingerprints are older than say last week, she’ll be free to go?” 
That was Steve’s understanding, and unless something else came up you should be able to get out if they couldn’t find any other evidence to pin the crime on you. Your alibi was pretty solid.
“That’s the hope.” 
Wanda just nods absentmindedly as she dares to wonder what you’re up to right now. She hates the idea of you sitting alone in a jail cell because she knows you’re counting down the hours until you should get out. Hopefully you are alone because Wanda can’t imagine how a reunion with any other criminals you’ve wronged will go behind bars. 
By the time dinner is brought to you and your cellmates, two of you have black eyes. You’d gotten into a fight about which cot you’d get of all things. They’d tried to get you to sleep on the floor just to spite you, and you’d decked the taller one, Tanner in the face. She’d punched you back, and now you were bruised and just sitting back on your same bed. You weren’t sure if you’d be able to sleep tonight. You’re a little worried about getting killed in your sleep with these two. They could gang up on you and smother you with a pillow or just strangle you with their bare hands. 
“Dinner, ladies. Good to see you’re all getting along.”
You look to the three trays the guard is holding with a grimace. Whatever it is smells gross and looks even worse, but you stand up nonetheless to grab your tray with a tight smile. You’re not going to eat this, but you’re not going to give it to the duo that immediately begin eating their meal. You go back to your side of the cell and sit down with a huff. 
This was going to be a long night. 
Yelena released an annoyed huff as she looked around the bar for her sister. She was running late which was a bit of a surprise, but she figured she just got caught up with work. She had a deal that she needed to supervise tonight and as much fun as that wasn’t, it was necessary to continue work even while you were locked up. In fact, it was probably more important just to make sure that things continued to run smoothly. Your absence couldn’t be noticed by your employees. Even if they were aware of it, things still needed to go according to plan in order to keep their loyalty intact. It was something that you might not care about too much at the moment, but it was still important. It only made their jobs more difficult, not to mention dangerous if people became less compliant. 
“Hey, sorry I’m late.” 
Natasha sits down on the stool next to her sister with a sigh as she looks around for the bartender. She really needs a drink and she only has a little time before she has to run and deal with this shit show that’s developed throughout the day. 
Unfortunately, people weren’t as ignorant of your arrest as they were hoping. Of course, it was on the news and this type of thing spread like wildfire among the minions. People were starting to get uncertain about the future and it was causing a lot of delays. She’d already had to convince three vendors that you would be out of prison soon and you would expect them to have continued to work in your absence. It was exhausting, but Nat had been able to confirm that everything would be set to go down in an hour. She just had to show up and make sure things went smoothly. 
“You look tired, sestra. Was the deal that bad?” 
Nat groans at the question and she reaches out for her drink with a shake of her head. She tells her sister how things have not even happened yet. She’d just had a lot to figure out on the front end, and it was certainly going to be a long night. Yelena frowns at this and as she watches her sister down her drink, she realizes what she needs to do. 
She doesn’t have much to do tonight and she can tell that Natasha could use a break. Or at least another drink. She glances at her phone to check the time and make sure that no one has called on her for anything before she reaches out for her sister. She slaps her on the shoulder making the redhead scowl before she turns to her with a questioning look. 
“Let me handle it, Natasha. It’s just making sure everyone behaves right? I do that all the time.” 
Nat’s already shaking her head because she should be there. She should be the one to make sure that everything goes according to plan. She is going to say this but Yelena speaks up first with a shrug and a smirk. 
“Seriously, sestra. You need to rest, you look exhausted. Maybe you and Bucky can relax together.” 
When a peanut comes flying at Yelena’s face, she has to duck to avoid it. She scowls at her sister who just laughs at her expression, and then what she says next. She figures that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take the night off from this particular duty to try and figure out how things are going with your investigation. Maybe she’ll check in with Steve and see how Wanda’s doing.
“Natasha don’t throw those at me. You know I’m allergic.” 
An eyeroll is the only response that Yelena gets until Nat registers her sister’s words with a frown. She turns toward her before deciding that she could get another drink before heading out. She closes out for both of them as her last drink comes. 
“You are not allergic. You just don’t like them.” 
Yelena simply shrugs before she raises her glass to Nat’s with a smile. They drink in silence for a minute, both lost in their thoughts before Nat turns to the blonde with a grateful look. 
“Thank you, sestra.” 
Yelena waves her off before deciding that she should head out too. She has a bit of a drive and it’s better to show up early to these things. As she stands up with her sister she wraps and arm around her shoulders, only having to stand on her tip toes a little as she leads Nat to the doors. Tonight, would hopefully be a piece of cake compared to what you had to do tonight. Yelena knew how much you hated disruptions to your routine, and being thrown in a holding cell was certainly a disruption. God forbid you weren’t alone; you’d probably be too paranoid to sleep at all. 
“Not a problem. This will be easy as cake.” 
Nat laughs as she opens the door for them, immediately breathing in deeply so the cool air will rush into her lungs. 
“Pie. Easy as pie.” 
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kitty-serenade · 10 months
Text
Erm, more nonsensical billdip brainrot
Dip n Bill, travelling/surviving the backrooms together for a good amount of time until they became familiar with each other. One day, they were taking turns sleeping and it was dippers turn to be on watch, in the middle of the watch the lights flicker and the room shakes, in panic dipper tries to wake up bill only to find nothing beside him, he figures that bill was probably taken away from this entity that was causing all of this.
On the other hand, Bill wakes up from the commotion and tries to grab dippers hand because usually dipper panics in situations like this and doesn't think rationally, only for his hand to fall straight to the ground, and he looks to his side and no sapling in sight, his stuff is still there, even his half eaten granola bar, it's just as if he disappeared.
Now both of them travel alone through the backrooms, dipper still thinks that he was at fault for bills disappearance and he sometimes takes a break from writing about his findings in his journal and instead write as if he was sending a letter to bill, after he finishes he always felt pathetic/embarassed for writing to a dead man so he rips it out of the book and crumple it up and leaves it somewhere.
However, something that dipper doesn't know is that bill is very much still alive and he survives just fine alone, after running from and entity and taking shelter in a room he finds a crumpled up piece of paper with writing on it, usually these types of paper has useful information on how to counter an entity. When he opens it hes greeted by his name and dippers handwriting.
He keeps encountering these and he keeps all of them until his bag is almost full, he then obtained another smaller bag and he uses that specifically for the letters. Now, bill isn't really the type to pick up useless junk like paper, books, paperclips and other stuff but he wanted to atleast try and reply back to his sapling, after a bit of scavenging he then finds 4 stacks of medium sized sticky notes and a pen, and starts writing.
He figures to just crumple it up, leave it out somewhere, and hopes it reaches the right person.
Dippers mental health after bills disappearance took a heavy fall, being alone and in a unpredictable dangerous environment and him thinking he was the cause of it. He found a place to rest and sat down, when he puts his hand on the floor he felt something that's definitely not a carpet and immediately jerked his hand away, he looks at it and it's a blue ball made out of paper, he decided to open it and he recognizes that it was to someone with the name pinetree?, he reaches the end and he realized that it was meant for him, from bill.
My brain is empty rn so I think that's all?.. Sorry for this horrendous word vomit!! Bye!!
(●´ω`●)ゞ♪
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