#BECAUSE HE CARED ENOUGH TO KEEP JAY AT HOME SAFE HE ENDED UP LEADING TO HIS DEATH

[synchlora]

it's 2am. I have work tomorrow.

anyway more on marble hornets--

#my thoughts r less coherent by now but still #tim cared so much abt jay and he ended up so fucking alone bc of it #BECAUSE HE CARED ENOUGH TO KEEP JAY AT HOME SAFE HE ENDED UP LEADING TO HIS DEATH #FUCK #to be fair that was more of hoodies fault. if hoodie hadnt have given jay the knife it'd have been fine(?) #but tim had been so alone his whole fucking life and then jay came crashing into it and he just. wholeheartedly cared for him.... #FUCK...... he cared so much. he loved jay and showed that in so many fucking ways and bc of that care he ended up alone.. #goddddd im gonna try and shut off my brain and sleep good night #if i come back here yelling abt mh spray me w water pls #dumbass thots #caps in tags #mh tag

[simluvbot]

Enhypen’s reaction to when you punch a guy (hyung line)

a/n: this was a request ! I said I could upload this a few days ago but due to it being my birthday and it currently being exam week I didn’t have the time to edit this so that’s why I uploaded without proofreading at first TT // ok I finished editing 😁 Jake and sunghoon’s one is so bad don’t read it pls sorry

Although as this fic includes violence I only wrote for hyung like members and not maknae line, I hope you understand

Warnings: descriptions of physical violence (punching), mentions of being in a crowd, mentions of wanting to harm others (thoughts)

+ note: this is a work of fiction and in no way am I encouraging violence ! I wrote this in a way that I thought would match the member’s personalities although this is definitely not a true depiction of the enhypen members ^^

Lee heeseung

You and heeseung had been in the library studying together for your exams, and although you both had luckily reserved a secluded spot in the library that was both quiet and spacious for your revision, it wasn’t soon before some inconsiderate assholes had decided to occupy your desk too.

There were only two of them, yet they still managed to take up over half of the table whereas you and heeseung only had one small portion to yourselves

Plus they were very noisy, and the only librarian being on the seconf floor didnt help either  😐

You and your boyfriend had both made several attempts to sheepishly ask them if they could please quieten down before the librarian came back and kicked them out and more importantly so you mad heeseung could focus ??

But they simply ignored you, paying attention to the… online games ?? They had came to the library to play???

You were starting to get very annoyed, but decided to bite your tongue and instead have you and heeseung focus on your work

But it was when one of them spilt their coffee on heeseung’s expensive   textbook and even laugh afterwards which is what you decided that you finally had it

You don’t know how it happened, but soon you were standing up and landed a solid punch on the guy’s face

Heeseung was really shocked, just as much as you at your brash movements

And he would be even more concerned for you when he sees the person you punched egret aggressive to you and start getting close in your face.

“Hey man, that’s enough.” Despite heeseung’s shock, it didn’t take him longer than second before he stood up and grabbed at the man’s arm easily after he got up close you you intimidatingly, heeseung’s strong grip preventing the stranger from hitting you back and you swear you’ve never heard heeseung’s voice so deep and authoritative before as he told the man to sit down and focus on his stupid game

Due to your own surprise at your actions, you barely payed attention to what was going on as heeseung had a polite (on his end..) whisper-argument with the two guys, packing his things up as well as yours before grabbing your hand and safely leading you out of the library

You two ended up going home where he cleaned at your busted knuckles gently, sad at the fact that you got hurt and overall bummed out at two guys who got you so worked up and that his go-to textbook got ruined ):

“Baby, why did you do that, Hm? We could have just left to another place. You could have gotten hurt if they fought back!”

More than anything, your boyfriend was upset at the idea of you potentially getting more than just a few cuts and bruises on your knuckles, and so you promised heeseung right then and there that you wouldn’t do it again

After both of you got changed into your pyjamas, you and heeseung had set up your own study area in the dining room table, where you both continued with your study session for the rest of the day, with lots of cuddles afterwards as a reward!

Park Jongseong

You and jay were walking back home and it was already dark outside as you were both walking through the streets.

Approaching a heavily crowded place outside a club which included several people under the influences, it was pretty hard for you both to squeeze through the crowd as you were walking past.

They literally were spilling onto the road.. :/

“Jay.” You gasped when you lost hold of his hand on yours, leaving you in the idle of the crowd alone. There were so many bodies around you and as you got quickly pushed to against a wall from the movements of the people you found it hard to make your way through the people who were much taller than you.

You were starting to get anxious and when someone came directly in front of you, literally ignoring you asking for them to move and plainly blocking you for no reason you started to get frustrated, adrenaline in your veins as you lost your boyfriend and wanted to get out asap before you started fo panic.

You had asked the person to please move out of the way so you could pass through and they even had the audacity to look at you and make eye contact — only to simply ignore you when you asked for the nth time for them to scoot.

So, with your anxiety peaking and frustration soaring, you punched them hard on their face as soon as they turned around, and when they went stumbling backwards you finally had enough space to escape from your trapped position against the wall.

Jay had finally found you and was right there a few steps in front of you, and you were almost reaching him when a hand pulled you back suddenly, slamming you against the wall aggressively and leading you to hit your head hard.

Jay saw the whole thing. and he was livid

He shouted at the guy and grabbed his hands in his, pushing him so he was off of you once again. Jay was so angry he literally thought he could see red. How dare a man not just refuse to let someone obviously distressed through, but to touch you and hurt you?

You had to calm him down and urged hin for you both to leave before the stranger started getting aggressive because he was already shouting at you both and some heads were turning 😟

He eventually listened to you when he saw your glossed eyes and you clutching at your aching knuckles, so gently grabbing your unhurt hand in his he swiftly led you both away from the crowd in less than a minute, face fallen and heart aching ah ):

“Hey, let me look at you. are you okay? Did that bastard hurt you a lot?”

You could tell he was still so agitated with what happened, checking at your bruised knuckles and looking a the back of your head that was starting to form a lump from the force of being pushed against the wall earlier.

“I’m so sorry, I should have held tighter. I should have brought some security guards with us today.”

You had to tell him it was okay and you defended yourself and the guy was just a jerk and can’t hurt you anymore.

Jay was still so sad at the fact that you got hurt all because he let you go accidentally for one second ): seeing you so anxious and literally in pain made him feel so bad.

He showered you in many kisses once you both got home and you had a relaxing bath together, as well as helping treat your bruise , promising for this to never happen again 🥺

Sim jaeyun

You were hanging out with your old classmates as a reunion and it was getting close to the time where Jake had said he would pick you up to take you home.

Your classmates had asked you if you had a partner and when you told them that you did, they all got instantly curious.

You of course got so excited and was ecstatic to flaunt off your talented and handsome boyfriend to them :D

So you showed them a picture of Jake, however the reaction that you were met with was not what you were expecting.

Your classmates were silent for a few moments as they looked at the photo, before one of them eventually asked,

“Oh, so that’s the guy you’re dating?”

You could see two of them exchange glances for a reason you could not possibly fathom and your heart fell to your stomach when you saw them stifing their laughter.

“What?” You asked, frowning as you looked at the photo you showed them on your phone. What was wrong with the photo?

“Oh.. nothing it’s just.. well.. he just doesn’t look like the best option..”

“It’s pretty cute actually. Of course you would end up with a guy that looks like he matches you in social level.. he’s probably a loser.”

You were so confused and the comments kept coming as they talked amongst themselves, openly criticising Jake for no reason.

You gotta admit, you never were the closest my with your classmates in the first place but still decided to agree to the meet-up for old times’ sake.

You could put up with their side glances towards you ever since you arrived because you barely cared, but when they dared talk about your boyfriend like that??

You were so angry you felt yourself almost shaking.

“Hey.” You said, standing up abruptly from your seat on the picnic table at the park you guys were hanging out at.

“Why are you insulting my boyfriend like that. What is wrong with you?”

Once again, they simply laughed in your face, seeming to think of your reaction as hilarious.

You were gonna start crying soon because the rage boiling up inside of you was reaching to the point that you were finding it hard to contain it and breathe deeply to keep calm and not cause a scene.

But they kept insulting Jake, liking watching you get angry under their gazes.

One of your classmates in particular kept offering comments, too many and you had enough - you snapped.

You punched them square in the face.

And you had done so just when you noticed Jake exiting his car right outside of the park, when it was obvious that he saw you.

You didn’t care, and in fact you started laughing almost hysterically in front of your classmates at their shocked expressions.

You were in tears because the person you punched started having a nosebleed… to you it was hilarious and you were in your own world trying to catch your breath from laughing so much until you heard your name being called.

“Y/n.” Jake said worriedly, finally reaching yoy and placing a hand on your shoulder.

He led you to his car, and after you both left and as you sat silently in the passenger seat having calmed down, you were staring to feel awkward with all the little glances Jake threw towards you ever so often.

He didn’t ask or push, instead just remaining silent and gripping at your hand you had punched your classmate with, thumb swirling over your red knuckles as he stared down at them with a bothered expression.

“Sorry.” You finally said, giving him a sheepish smile. “They just kept talking so badly about you when they found out I had a boyfriend.. I couldn’t resist.”

Jake if anything was a bit disappointed that you had reacted violently, and he was silent for a few seconds as he sat unknowing of what to say, frowning and licking his lips like a confused puppy trying to work out a solution.

“Please just don’t do it again. Violence is never okay, you should have just left. I don’t want my y/nnie getting hurt or getting into fights because of me, okay?”

You both drove back and cuddled a lot on the sofa, and Jake made sure to give your knuckles several kisses, his heart aching with the memory of what happened );

Park Sunghoon

“Ha, if it isn’t the ugly y/n.”

You bit your lip as you heard the familiar laugh of the rink bullies behind you, plainly mocking you.

“Still friends with that weirdo, park sunghoon?”

Ever since the members in the same extracurricular figure skating club had found out you were friends with sunghoon, the ice boy that they liked to torment for reasons forever unknown to you, you had soon too fallen victim to their evil teasing.

“I told you to stop making fun of sunghoon like that.” You said plainly, sighing as you sat down on a bench to undo your skates.

The group members laughed and would just not leave you alone, even going as far as sitting next to you and entering your personal space by constantly poking at your sides sharply.

And you swear to god the temptation of slashing open their faces with the bottom of your skates was very tempting—

But no, you had told sunghoon that you would meet him at the entrance of the rink to walk home together after your individual practices; and you were already running late.

“Where you going? To go see sunghoon? Huh? Go tell him that we messed with his skates so he fails in the competition.”

Your hands froze as you were tying your converses. You looked up, meeting the leader’s gaze.

“What?” You had enough. You could never understand why they had sunghoon as their punching bag. Sunghoon was used to it, not one to start arguments and the type to only keep to himself when things like this happen.

You just went along with it and followed his lead in ignoring your other club members, but them going this far to try to sabotage the performance sunghoon had been training months for? You had enough of simply doing nothing in retaliation to their bullying.

Standing up abruptly, they stood back at youe sudden movement, but not quick enough for being able to dodge the punch you swung directly on the nose of the nearest one in front of you.

“Y/n?”

Looking over to the doorframe of the changing room — there was park sunghoon.

“Sunghoon.” You said in shock, glancing over towards the group in front of you as they started guffawing at the sides of the person you punched

“Sorry, I got caught up with-“

You were just making your way speedily over towards hoon when you were pulled back by the wrist painfully.

You gasped when the force that you were let go of led you to be flung over to one side and practically topple onto the sticky matte floor.

Wincing as you landed on your wrist, you hissed at the fresh pain and the loud crack that came with it.

It was silent as everyone paused, having heard your wrist snapping as much as you had felt the pain of it.

“Y/n!” Sunghoon was at your side in an instant, pushing his way cut though the others standing around you in shock.

His pretty face was frowned with worry, eyes wide as he came in front of you, assessing your wrist without touching it.

“Let’s get out of here.” He scooped you up, and if you weren’t busy trying to breathe in and out deeply to calm yourself down after your injury, you would have been surprised at the skate bullies making space for a clear path Sunghoon to carry you through.

From all your time of knowing the talented ice boy, your skating partner and friend — you had never really seen him show much emotion apart from the small smiles and laughs he gave only to you. His long legs were able to stride quickly to a bench outside as he called an ambulance for you, a distressed expression as he meticulously cared towards you.

And gee if you breaking your wrist didn’t hurt like hell, but after all, did you regret that day? No. You finally were able to stand up to the bullies for the first time, and even more importantly — that moment had started the beginning of a new chapter for you and Sunghoon.

#enhypen scenarios #enhypen headcanons #enhypen reactions #enhypen angst #enhypen imagines #enhypen fic #enhypen jake #enhypen sunghoon #enhypen #enhypen heeseung #enhypen jay #kpop imagines

[otptings]

First Kisses

♢Idol; Jake Shim

♢Genre; implied Best Friends to Lovers

♢Word Count; 852

♢Synopsis; Just a drabble about Jake's first kiss

♢A/n: Just something I felt like writing since I haven't written a lot about Enhypen in a while. Hope you enjoy this drabble and requests are open for Enhypen if you liked this please, like, reblog, or follow thank you for reading 🦦

“Jake, that’s so stupid.”

“No, no. Listen to what I’m saying before you deny it.” You turned another random corner, definitely getting lost in the Hybe building but you couldn’t bring yourself to care. Jake grabbed your arm before pressing you against the wall, caging you in so that you couldn’t ignore his stupid request.

“What’s more to hear? You want to kiss.” Jake flinched at your accusing tone, hearing just how bad it really sounded.

“Well, not in that sense. I’m just saying you aren’t dating because you haven’t found anyone that you truly liked,” a sigh because of the truth in his statement, “and I can’t date because I have a dating ban. But, that doesn’t mean that I can’t have my first kiss with someone that I trust.” You glanced in both directions, making sure the sight was clear before leaning quickly, placing a simple peck on Jake’s lips, hoping that would get this non sense of having his first kiss out of the way.

“See. Your first kiss wasn’t all that, kisses don't have to be that important.” The pout on his lips was enough to make you rethink everything.

“That wasn’t a real first kiss. Please? I just don’t like being the only one out of the hyung line that hasn’t kissed anyone. Hell, even Niki kissed someone back in Japan.” You bit your lip, trying to resist the urge to laugh at the thought that the youngest in Enhypen had already kissed someone.

“What do I get out of it?” Jake perked up, knowing that you were actually going to listen to him.

“I’ll buy you your favorite snacks, and lunch for next week.”

“Deal.” An awkward silence seemed to hang over the two of you, realizing that you were going to actually kiss your best-friend, a serious kiss that he could properly count as his first kiss.

“Do you want me to lead?” If you thought of Jake in a romantic manner you would’ve surely fallen in love with his strangely innocent aura as he nodded his head, still pouting like a little kid. Jake’s hands fell from either side of your head while yours cupped his cheek, thumb rubbing over the blush that was starting to spread as he stared into your eyes.

“Just close your eyes I guess.” Nodding enthusiastically Jake closed his eyes, the awkward silence still hanging around. Taking a deep breath you leaned in, pressing your lips together for a proper kiss.

Jake was a surprisingly quick learner. His lips moving perfectly in sync with yours as your eyes naturally fell shut, his hands grabbing your waist and keeping you pressed between him and the wall. Your free hand that wasn’t cupping his cheek slid to the back of his neck, playing with his hair that the company has gratefully allowed him to grow out. Jake’s kissing was needy, lips moving against yours harshly as the kiss got heated.

Footsteps quickly approached the two of you, who pulled away from the kiss quickly trying to look as normal as possible. Jungwon turned the corner, eyes instantly furrowing at the suspicious look the both of you had.

“Jake, practice starts in 15 minutes. Just wanted to tell you, so you two might wanna hurry up and get back.”

Jungwon backed away slowly, footsteps retreating down the hallway while you and Jake avoided eye contact.

“Well.” Jake’s blush seemed to grow extremely, his face now a bright red that spread down his neck. “That was good, I guess.” Your hand went to the back of your neck, rubbing it at the weird energy. The both of you started to head back to the practice room, keeping a safe distance between the two of you.

“Wait.” You turned your head to Jake, who refused to meet your eyes. “Can we kiss again?” Relief flooded you at the realization that he felt the same way. “It was just, really nice, and something was weird about it. We don’t have to if you don’t want to, I just really hoped that you felt-” You cut Jake off as you grabbed his shirt, pulling you closer to him and connecting your lips again. This time Jake’s hands fell to your waist naturally, your hand cupping the back of his head. Kissing Jake weirdly, felt and tasted like home. The natural spicy taste from the ramyeon that he constantly consumed, and the way that his lips moved so naturally along with yours, as if this had been meant for the two of you from the beginning.

“What the fuck?” This kiss got interrupted the same way as the first, except Jay stood in the middle of the hallway, disgust evident in his face while Niki could be seen laughing behind him. “Just. Come to practice. You.” Jay pointed accusingly at you, “Face the corner. I do not want him to be distracted.” You raised your hands in mock surrender as they turned away, headed back towards the practice room, Jake intertwining your fingers before leading the way.

Maybe first kisses weren’t all that bad in the end.

#kpopcatalog #Kpop fluff #enhypen fluff #enhypen #Jake sim #jaeyun sim #enhypen jake #enhypen Jake sim #enhypen Jake imagines #enhypen Jake drabble #enhypen drabble #Kpop drabble #Kpop imagine #Kpop scenarios #enhypen imagine #enhypen scenarios #Jake shim #enhypen Jake shim #shim jaehyun

[pthalomars]

Ninjago fanseason!

Here’s the first part of my synopsis post, I’ll make sure to reblog it and add more of my summary as I write it out. 

Trigger Warnings for this: blood/gore, hospitals+surgery, injury, there will probably be more and I will make sure to tag accordingly (if there’s anything else that I miss, please let me know so I can tag it!!)

Anyways, here’s how it starts...

Battle in Ninjago City

A group of assailants are on the rise in ninjago city. The ninja show up to thwart their latest attack and a battle ensues on the streets. The assailants are spread throughout the city, so the ninja are forced to split up into teams. Cole with Jay, Zane with Nya, and Lloyd with Kai.

Lloyd and Kai are fending off their attackers, but Kai notices something is wrong. His powers aren’t working. Pathetic flames are sputtering out of his palms and fizzling out into smoke. He’s losing his powers again. 

While Kai is distracted, one of the enemies has a laser gun trained on him, ready to strike and take him out. Lloyd jumps in front of Kai at the last minute, taking the laser beam straight through his left shoulder. Dangerously close to his heart. Kai and Lloyd are on the ground, and when Kai comes to his senses, he frantically gets him and Lloyd into an alleyway for cover. 

Lloyd is losing a lot of blood, and Kai is doing his best to tend to his wounds. He screams into the com that Lloyd is down and that they need medical help, now. Zane assures him that an ambulance is on the way, and to stay with Lloyd until paramedics show up. 

The attackers start to make their way into the alley, only to be strewn aside by Nya and Zane. Cole and Jay have showed up as well, and now Kai and Lloyd are at least safe from them. Kai has Lloyd propped up against a wall, keeping pressure on his wound and telling him that he’s gonna be alright. Lloyd is whimpering in pain and tears fall from his eyes and stain his red-painted gi. “It hurts..” Lloyd murmurs. Kai lets out a choked sob and holds him close. “I know, I know it does buddy. It’s gonna be okay, you’re gonna be okay I promise.”

Medics finally show up and get Lloyd out of there. Kai and Nya are able to ride in the ambulance, and so they make their way to the nearest hospital.

The Ambulance

The ambulance ride is tense. Paramedics are working to stabilize Lloyd enough so that he can survive until they arrive at the hospital. Kai and Nya are shoved in a corner, as to not get in the way of the medics. Kai doesn’t say anything, his eyes are empty and he’s a million miles away in his mind. Nya is beginning to process the events of that day too, and all she can do is look between her brothers and silently let her tears fall. 

She leans on Kai and goes to hold his hand to comfort him, but she stops short of his wrists. He still has so much of Lloyd’s blood on his hands. It’s on his gi, it’s in his hair, it’s underneath his fingernails. She figures it’s best to hold his arm, so she does. Thankfully, the ride is short, and they make it there in time for Lloyd to go into emergency surgery.

The Hospital

Lloyd is rushed into surgery and Kai and Nya are left in the lobby of the hospital. Kai wants to be near Lloyd, so he stays as close as staff will allow him to. Which means he ends up sitting on the ground in a hallway for a very long time. 

Nya sits with him for a while, before she gets up to get them snacks. Then to call the others and let them know where they are. Then to get some fresh air. She checks in on him periodically, but also figures he needs space to process what all happened that day. 

Eventually, the others show up. Cole, Jay, Zane, Wu, and Misako arrive and start asking a million questions. Nya looks exhaustedly at them, and tells them that she’ll fill in the rest later. Jay leads Nya to sit down and Cole asks where Kai is. Nya points to the hallway across the room, and says that he should be at the end of the corridor. 

Cole makes his way down the hall, and low and behold, Kai is still sitting in the same spot. The master of earth knees down, putting a comforting hand on Kai’s knee. Kai looks up for the first time in hours and Cole sees the dried tear streaks coming from his red and puffy eyes. 

“Hey buddy, how are you holding up?” he asks. Kai averts his gaze and curls further into himself. Cole’s eyebrows pinch upwards, and he goes to move some of Kai’s hair out of his eyes. He notices the blood in his hair and worriedly asks him if he’s gotten medical attention. Very quietly, Kai says, “ ‘s not my blood.” and then Cole looks down at Kai’s clothes, and his hands. It finally clicks. It’s Lloyd’s blood.

Cole sighs, moving to stand up. “Let’s get you cleaned up, huh?” Kai doesn’t respond, but allows Cole to help him get on his feet. They make their way to the nearest bathroom.

Once in the bathroom, Kai starts to wash his hands. He watches as the dried blood begins to run off of his hands and drain into the sink. He scrubs and scrubs and scrubs, but his hands are still red. The water is scalding hot and he’s started to rub his skin raw. Cole sees Kai become increasingly upset and then notices his hands again. Steam is rising from the sink and there’s no more blood. Cole turns off the sink and grabs paper towels. He dries off Kai’s hands as delicately as he can before looking at him. “Your hands are clean, Kai. They’re clean.” Cole brings Kai in for a hug and Kai shatters in his arms. Cole presses a kiss to the top of Kai’s head and wraps his arms tighter around him. They hold each other for a long time before they finally leave the bathroom. 

Cole brings Kai to the lobby, where everybody is sitting together, finding ways to pass the time. Zane and Jay go to stand up and greet Kai, but Cole gives them a soft, warning sort of look. A look that tells them that Kai isn’t ready for that quite yet. They sit back down. 

A nurse comes out and informs them all of Lloyd’s condition. He’s alive and he’s stable, but he’s going to need to stay at the hospital for a while until his condition improves. And unfortunately, they aren’t able to let the ninja stay with him through the night. They have to go home. Kai protests, stating that he needs to be there for Lloyd, that he can’t just leave him alone. Wu puts a hand on Kai’s shoulder and reassures him. “He’s in good hands, he will be okay for the night.” Wu says. After a moment, Kai sighs and reluctantly agrees to leave.

The First Night Home

The gang gets home and everyone is so exhausted from the events of the day. It’s about 1 in the morning and everyone heads to bed. Cole asks Kai if he wants to stay in his room. Kai nods and lets Cole lead him to his bed. They fall asleep in each other's arms, and Kai is too tired to cry anymore. Cole holds him and pets his hair. He could take a shower in the morning. 

The first week(s) home

Each day that passes, Kai begins to come to a realization. Lloyd was hurt because he was protecting him. If he had been able to use his powers, Lloyd wouldn’t have had to get hurt. It was his fault that Lloyd was in the hospital, that he had a hole blasted straight through his shoulder, that he wasn’t home. 

He still visits Lloyd every day. His little brother isn’t always awake, but he just needs to make sure he’s still alive. Usually one of the others will go with him, and sometimes everyone will tag along. Lloyd gets better with time and his recovery goes along smoothly.

Kai comes to another realization. Without his powers, he is useless. He can’t protect himself, let alone anyone else. The rest of the team has to compensate for him, and because of that, they get hurt. Kai has to leave. 

The others notice that something is off with Kai. Cole, in particular, sees that he’s acting very differently. He asks him if everything is okay, and every time Kai responds with “I’m fine” or “it’s nothing important.” Part of Cole feels bad, and wonders if he’s being too pushy. But his concern for his boyfriend overpowers that minor worry.

Kai spends the majority of his time thinking over his departure. Where is he going? What is he going to do? Why is he leaving? He doesn’t have all the answers right away, but to him, that didn’t really matter. All that mattered to him was that he was a danger to those around him, and to keep the others safe, he had to take himself out of the picture for a while. At least until he got his powers back and could carry his own weight.

But he couldn’t leave. Not yet. He was going to wait until Lloyd came back home. He had to make sure he was going to be okay before he left. He had already failed him once, he didn’t want to make it worse by leaving without ensuring that he was in hands he could trust.

Lloyd comes back

Lloyd is finally able to be released from the hospital. The ninja have worked hard to get the monastery clean and ready for him to come back home. After what felt like forever, they would finally get to have him back. 

The doctors gave strict orders that, even though Lloyd is stable enough to be released, that he must be given enough time to fully heal and recover from his injuries. No training, no fights, nothing. Just bed rest and lots of physical therapy sessions. 

The gang brings Lloyd home and they all share very careful side hugs with their boy. Kai is so relieved to have Lloyd back, but he also knows that it was time for him to go. 

They all sit down for dinner and the room is lighthearted. Everyone is laughing, cracking jokes, and enjoying each other's company. Except for Kai. He’s trying to fake it, but it’s painfully obvious that he just doesn’t have the energy. Nobody pushes him though, nor prods at him with questions. For once, Kai feels relieved that he isn’t being put under scrutiny.

Eventually, Kai excuses himself and heads to his room. He explains that it’s just a headache and that he was going to lay down for a bit. 

After a short period of time, Cole gets up to go check on Kai. He knows it wasn’t just a headache.

(dialogue)

[[Cole: Hey babe, just wanted to check in on ya. Everything okay?

Kai: … jus’ not feeling well. 

Cole: Do you want some company?

Kai: I’d rather be alone right now.

Cole: That’s okay. Just know that I’m here for you when you’re ready. I love you, Kai.

Kai: .. I love you too, Cole. I really do.

Cole: I know. I hope you sleep well, good night honey.

Kai: g’night, rocky.]]

Kai’s Departure

Later that night, everyone has gone to bed except for Kai. He’s laying in his bed, staring holes through the ceiling. He knew that he would leave once Lloyd came home. He was alive, recovering, and safe with everyone else now.

He gets up and starts packing the essentials. He realizes he’s gonna need different clothes for when he’s gone. There are multiple reasons for this. He needs to be less recognizable, he doesn’t want people to see him and immediately know who he is. His signature color reminds him of his failures, how his fire has both failed him in his times of need and hurt those around him. And most importantly, it reminds him of Lloyd’s blood that remained on him for so long. The way the blood dried on the fabric and never seemed to wash out from underneath his fingernails. He doesn’t like the color red anymore.

(as a characterization for his outfit, the colors are dark grey and black to resemble charcoal and ash. This is meant to be symbolic that his “fire” has been put out and that he has to find a way to “reginite” himself)

As Kai is putting together his new outfit, Wu walks in and sees what he’s doing.

[[Wu: Kai, what are you doing?

Kai: I’m.. I’m leaving.

Wu: Leaving? Why? Where are you going?

Kai: Master Wu, I.. I can’t do this anymore. I don’t have my powers, and I’m dragging everybody else down. I can’t even protect myself, let alone those I love, or even all of Ninjago. Everybody else has to pick up the slack that apparently I can’t carry on my own. People are getting hurt. My friends are getting hurt, Wu, and it’s my fault.

Wu: Is this about Lloyd?

Kai: Yes, yes of course it’s about Lloyd! He got hurt trying to protect me because I panicked and wasn’t paying attention. He could’ve died, and it would’ve been my fault. 

Wu: Kai, you know he did that because he didn’t want you to get hurt. I’m sure you would have done the same.

Kai: Of course I would, but that doesn’t matter. There was- there was so much blood. He was crying and I had to keep pressure on the wound but it was hurting him and there wasn’t anything else I could do. There was so much blood, and it was everywhere. I was supposed to keep him safe. But I couldn’t because I don’t have my powers, again. You know how I reached my true potential because I realized I was supposed to protect the green ninja? Some fuckin’ protector I am, I couldn’t even keep him from getting shot and almost dying. AGAIN. It seems like every five minutes, I lose the only thing that makes me worth something!!

Wu: Kai-

Kai: You know, after all the years you’ve spent training us, training me, that I would be able to carry my own weight. But I can’t! I can’t and I don’t understand why! So- so I’m leaving. I can’t stand to see other people getting hurt, so I’m gonna go figure some things out. I’ll come back when I’m ready, but I just can’t do this right now. And don’t try to talk me out of this, I don’t wanna hear any-

Wu: I’m not going to try to talk you out of it. 

Kai: -what? 

Wu: Even if I tried to convince you otherwise, it is clear that your mind is made up. If this is what you have to do, and this is what you think is right, then go through with it. It is not my place to tell you what to do. You may be my student, but you are also a grown man and you are allowed to make your own decisions. 

Kai: I.. wow I wasn’t expecting that..

Wu: I know, but I hope that it was better than hearing me chastise you and tell you that you weren’t allowed to leave. 

Kai: Yeah, yeah it was better than that. 

Wu: However, you must understand how your absence will affect the others. Have you told them that you’re leaving?

Kai: .. No.

Wu: They will be searching for answers, and they will most likely be looking for you. 

Kai: I know. If they ask about me, you can tell them why I left. But don’t tell them where I’m going.

Wu: Why not?

Kai: Because even I don’t really know. 

Wu: I understand. Please be safe, Kai. The monastery will always be your home, and we will be here for you when you are ready.

Kai: Thank you, Master Wu. Thank you.]]

Kai makes his way out, but as he is leaving, Lloyd looks out of his window. He sees Kai walk out of the monastery and into the night. But Lloyd is still in a sleepy daze, and immediately falls back asleep. He assumes it was all just a dream.

#ninjago #ninjago fanseason #ninjago a fire you can't put out #kai smith #lloyd garmadon #nya Smith #Cole brookstone #jay walker #zane julien #master wu #ninjago wu #ninjago misako #lavashipping #tw blood #tw gore #tw hospital #tw surgery #this isn't beta read just as a heads up lol

[imjustwritingg]

pillow talk part 2

Hi friends! This second installment was highly requested here on tumblr and I figured after what happened in 8x14, it was a good time to write it. So here you go friends! I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think! 🥰

Also on AO3 and FFNet!

----------

“You jammed me up. That’s not okay.”

His words play over and over in her head as she drives to his apartment. She knows he might not want to see her, the look of disappointment on his face at the crime scene enough evidence of that possibility, but she can’t let the night end without talking to him or at least trying to.

She parks her car and goes inside his building, heart beating wildly in her chest as she makes her way to his door. She rattles her knuckles against it and waits, knocking twice more a few moments later, when there’s no answer, but the door still doesn’t open and it feels as though someone has just punched her in the stomach.

She pulls her phone out of her back pocket and calls him, brings the phone to her ear, but it goes right to voicemail. She ends the call and waits a minute or so before she redials, hoping that maybe he’s on another call and is distracted, but she just gets his voicemail again.

He doesn’t want to talk to her. Doesn’t want to see her. And her stomach lurches, shoulders heaving raggedly as her breath gets stuck in her throat.

She can’t blame him. She had put him in the most compromising position tonight, taken unnecessary risks, and made questionable choices to say the least.

She looks at his door longingly, thinking if maybe she stares hard enough it’ll open and he’ll appear out of nowhere, but the door remains closed and he’s nowhere to be seen.

She turns on her heels and wipes under her eyes at the burning tears threatening to spill over, a horrible ache pulsating inside of her as she walks back to her car and starts to head home, ready to crawl into her bed and try and sleep this night away.

When she finally turns down her street sometime later she spots his truck parked up outside of her building. He’s standing next to his driver’s side door, arms crossed over his chest and head tilted towards the ground. He’s waiting for her and the sight of him makes her heart nearly stop beating.

She can just barely make out the look on his face in the glow of her headlights, but it resembles something a lot like betrayal and it sends a rush of guilt through her immediately.

She parks a few spots behind him and takes a deep breath as she gets out of her car. She tries to somehow prepare herself for whatever he’s about to dish out to her, but she’ll take whatever he has to say because at least he’s there.

“Wasn’t expecting to see you tonight,” she says quietly, approaching him with slow moving steps and a once again fast beating heart as she shoves her hands into her coat pockets.

As she stands in front of him she takes in the soft look of his eyes and the anguish that curtains his face. She realizes it wasn’t betrayal she had seen just moments ago, but sheer disappointment instead, just like earlier at the crime scene, and it guts her again.

“Figured we should talk. I didn’t wanna leave things the way we did at the scene,” he tells her, his voice a matching tone of quiet and reserved.  

“I went to your apartment. Tried calling.”

“My phone died so I just came over,” he says.

She responds with a tilt of her chin towards her apartment building in silent invitation and he follows a few steps behind her inside.

They ride the elevator up to her floor without uttering a word, him standing in one corner and her in another, time seeming to pass too slowly as if taunting her. She glances over at him, but his eyes are down to the floor, lost in his own mind and thinking too hard.

When the elevator finally halts and the familiar ding chimes through the car they step out onto her floor and head for the door of her apartment, him still a few steps behind her and keeping his distance.

She lets them into her apartment, closing the door after him and turning the deadbolt, but she’s quick to notice he doesn’t move any further inside than where he stands by the door.

She steps away from, pulling off her jacket and tossing it over the back of the couch before throwing him a look over her shoulder. “Water? Beer?”

He shakes his head and stays planted where he stands, hands in his pockets now and staring back at her as Hailey moves towards the kitchen island. She leans back against it, crossing her arms in front of her as she looks at him. He still doesn’t move or take off his jacket, and it makes her stomach churn at the memory of them standing in similar positions not too long ago when she had been so certain he was going to leave her.

She knows she made a mistake, a few of them, and she knows she hurt him and the last thing she wants is him to leave or think she wants him to, so she blows out a deep sigh and walks towards him.

“I’m sure you might want your space from me after what happened and I have no right to ask,” she says, words coming out in a rush before she hesitates, breathing out and looking at him with near desperation. “Will you please stay?”

Jay stares back at her for a fraction of a moment and it’s long enough to set her mind reeling in fear that she’s jeopardized everything between them now, but he surprises her like he always does and gives a slow nod.

“If I wanted space I wouldn’t have come. I didn’t think that’s something either of us needed right now.”

His tone is sincere despite the sadness looming over his face and she breathes out in relief as she offers a small smile and takes another step closer towards him. She reaches for his arms, pulls his hands from his pockets, feels his eyes burning into her as she pushes his jacket down over his shoulders.

She drapes it over her arm and holds onto one of his hands, her thumb brushing over freckled skin as she lifts her eyes to his, then whispers, “I’m really glad you came.”

He nods again and gives her hand a quick squeeze, but doesn’t say anything more, just follows her with his eyes when she lets go of him and goes to place his jacket down over hers on the couch. She makes her way back to him and reaches for one of his hands again, twining their fingers together as she leads him into her bedroom.

They fall into their usual routine, one they’ve created and perfected with one another since that first night together many months ago, although tonight it’s silent between them. There’s no mindless small talk or teasing one another from across the room, but it’s still so domestic and easy and somehow comfortable despite the circumstances. It sends an ache through her chest as they do their own thing, but they still do it together. As if they’ve been doing it for a lifetime already.

She strips and changes into a pair of clean underwear, and grabs a t-shirt from the basket of fresh laundry on the floor that has yet to be put away. A mindless chore she’ll save for tomorrow when she has more energy.  

She pulls the t-shirt over her head and when it falls to just above her knees, it’s only then she realizes that the garment doesn’t belong to her, but to the man standing across the room in just his boxers.

She glances over at Jay who quickly catches her eye and looks her up and down as he settles beneath the sheets and leans back against the headboard. “Is that my shirt?”

Hailey makes her way to the bed, pulling her hair out from its ponytail and dropping the tie on her nightstand as she climbs in beside him. She sits in a pretzel position as she faces him and gives a shrug of her shoulders. “I just grabbed it from the basket. I can change if you - “

He shakes his head, smiling fondly at her. “You look good in my shirt Upton.”

The corners of her mouth tip upwards at his comment, but she can’t help fiddling with her hands that rest in her lap.

“I’m sorry,” Hailey breathes out, not able to withstand the awkwardness in the air between them any longer and needing to talk to him, really talk to him. “I know I messed up. I shouldn’t have gone into that house. I put you in a tough spot tonight and I’m so sorry.”

“God, I hate that word,” she scoffs then before he can say anything and runs a hand through her hair. “Sorry. It doesn’t fix anything and I know it’s not supposed to, but apologizing still doesn’t condone what I did tonight.”

He gives a slow nod and glances down and she can tell he’s trying to find the words. The right words because he won’t be mean or raise his voice to try and make a point. Not with her.

She watches the way his shoulders rise and fall with each deep breath he takes, and then he looks back up at her with tired eyes from the stress and the chaos and the worry of the day behind them.

“I accept your apology, but I don’t want you to be sorry Hailey,” he says quietly before releasing a dejected sigh. “I want you to be safe. I want you to be smart. You crossed a line tonight and it was the same exact line you crossed that got you shipped off to the Feds last year.”

“I know,” she says quickly. “I got caught up in it. The case and Voight coming down on me and I started second guessing myself, and then that kid was killed and all I could focus on was finding the guy who killed him. I just didn’t care about doing it the right way. I felt like I had to prove something, but I just ended up losing control again.”

“I get it Hailey. Trust me, I get it. Especially when it comes to kids. And I know the system is flawed and it doesn’t always work the way it’s supposed to, but if tonight had turned out any differently than it did, we’d be screwed right now.”

“You’re right,” she says with another nod, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes because she knows how bad a turn things could have taken with her behavior and the thought alone makes the guilt inside her thicken. “I was so blinded by all of it and I just reacted. I don’t know why I keep doing these things. Crossing lines and pulling people down with me. Pulling you down with me. I was so stupid. I was reckless and I put you in jeopardy.”

Her heart is pounding in her chest, anxiety creeping up on her, as she lifts a hand to run it through her hair again.

“Voight’s not stupid though,” she continues a moment later. “He knows you covered for me. He knows we lied. I don’t want you getting in the middle of those crosshairs, not for me. I don’t wanna cause problems for you. I don’t wanna change who you are because I make dumb decisions.”

He shakes his head at her and leans forward, reaching for one of her hands and holding it tightly between both of his. “I’m not worried about Voight. He’s not exactly the poster boy for doing the right thing. I chose to get out of the car. I chose to follow you inside that house. I made my own decisions and I take full responsibility for that.”

“I put you in that position though!” She groans, blowing out a deep sigh of regret. “You know I didn’t do that intentionally right? You have to know that.”

“I do,” he confirms with a squeeze of her hand. “And you know I’d follow you anywhere Hailey, but it’s a slippery slope that you’ve been walking on and what happened tonight? That can’t happen again.”

“It won’t,” she whispers.

She knows her words are meaningless, but it’s a promise she can still make. One that she’ll follow through on. Because of him, because of them, because he really does make her better. Makes her want to be better.

She’s not sure she deserves the softness of his eyes or the warmth of his fingers wrapped tightly around hers, but she’s never been more grateful for the way he anchors her in place in that moment. The way he keeps her from spinning out completely from the frustration and the guilt of her bad decisions and the events that have transpired over the last few days.

“Um, there’s something else you should know,” she says with caution in her voice and he raises an eyebrow at her curiously. “I had to stop off at the district earlier after we wrapped at the crime scene for paperwork and I told Voight we’re together. Officially I guess.”

“Didn’t he already know? Or at least assume anyways.”

“Yeah, but I also sort of made the suggestion of getting a new partner,” she confesses. “He said he wasn’t gonna split us up though. Said we’re a good team.”

“Well, that’s one thing he’s right about. We’re good together. Always have been,” he tells her. He glances down at their joined hands and then looks back up at her, a curious gaze lingering in his eyes. “Do you really want a new partner?”

She gives a slow shake of her head and a look of regret comes over her face. “I only suggested it because I thought I couldn’t have both worlds, ya know? You and me on the job, you and me here like this. I’m trying to figure it all out, us and the work stuff. I thought I had to give up one to have the other and I’m really glad I didn’t have to do that tonight.”

“That’s good because I don’t want a new partner. I just want you, but I need you to hear me when I say you’re not alone. You don’t have to deal with these things on your own. The cases, Voight, any of it. I know that’s not how you’re used to things, having someone on your side like that, but I’m here Hailey. Let me help you carry some of it, okay?”

He squeezes her hand for good measure and stares at her with his bright green eyes, soft and sweet, one of the only ways he ever looks at her these days. It sets her skin on fire, chest aching, every nerve ending shooting off with so much love and appreciation for the man in front of her. She’s not sure what she’s done to be so lucky to have a partner like him, not just on the job, but in life as well, and it makes everything inside of her ache in the best possible way.

She nods, looking back at him with a teary eyed smile and bringing her free hand up to her face to wipe at her eyes.

“I really love you, you know that? I swear I don’t deserve you,” she tells him. “And that’s not me being self-deprecating or cynical, it’s just me appreciating what I have. What we have. I got really lucky with you.”

He grins at her instantly, the sound of her saying she loves him being one of his favorite things and because he knows exactly what she means. Their track records in dating and relationships and love have all been a wash. Nothing tangible, nothing to hold on to, to depend on. But this thing with them, this unadulterated thing with its strong foundation and an ability to communicate so perfectly, even when it’s hard, reminds him that this is the kind of thing they’ll be talking about years from now.

When they’re old and grey and still together, still talking, still loving, still trusting. Their story will be the one people ask to hear about at parties and dinners and holidays. The one that people will hear when the question is asked, “How’d you do it for so long? How’d you make it work?”

He already has his answer for when those questions are asked. It’s the same one he whispers to her now in the quiet of her bedroom and the soft glow of a bedside lamp.

“It helps having a good partner.”

Her smile widens at his words and she drops her free hand down on top of his, plays with his fingers and squeezes them against hers.

“This is becoming our new thing, ya know?”

“What’s that?”

“This pillow talk business. Our old thing was some dive or Molly’s over beer, but I gotta say I much prefer my bed,” she tells him with a grin that matches his.

“Well, I do love your bed. I might love you just a little bit more though,” he says.

It’s tooth achingly sweet the way the words roll of his tongue so easily and it has her rolling her eyes, but she can’t rid herself of the smile stretched out over her face.

It still amazes her, still makes her head spin, how they can go from talking through such serious topics of conversation, of hashing things out, to teasing one another so playfully, so intimately.

The last few days have made her second guess everything. Her ability to be a cop, to be better, to separate her work life and her personal life with him. She knows it won’t be easy, but she knows they’re going to make it. They’ll make it work.

She doesn’t have much time to dwell on the thought of it not working out with the way he smiles at her still. His eyes soft and glistening with so much love and affection as he stares at her.

“We’re gonna be okay,” Jay says then, as if reading her mind, but she doesn’t even question it. He’s always been able to read her. Know exactly what she’s thinking. Exactly what she needs.

“Yeah, we are,” she agrees with another tight squeeze of their joined hands.

“Come here,” he says with a tug of her hand.

She lifts herself to her knees to crawl the short distance to him and he pulls her down beside him. He helps her settle under the covers, their bare legs tangling together beneath the sheets, and his arms wrap her up in a cocoon of love and safety that only he has ever been able to provide her.

Her head lies against his shoulder and her arm falls across his torso, hand resting on his stomach and their eyes stay on one another in a tender gaze. She drags her fingernails over his skin in feather light caresses and he moves his arm up her shoulder to glide his hand through her hair.  

“This is my favorite part of every day,” she mumbles into his shoulder.

“Mine too,” he says, angling his head down to press his lips against her forehead. His lips linger there, pressing into her skin again, then once more before he pulls back to look her in the eyes.

“I wish I could do tonight differently,” she finds herself whispering as she stares at him. “I wish I could take it back.”

He knows instantly by the sound of regret laced in her words and the sudden appearance of sadness clouding her eyes again.

“What’s done is done. Whatever happens as a result, we’ll deal with it together,” he says squeezing her side. A gentle nudge reminding her they’re okay, that he’s got her, that things will be okay.

She turns her face into his shoulder, pressing a kiss against his bicep and moving her hand up to his chest, right over top of where his heart lies under skin and muscle and bone. It beats slowly beneath her palm, another steady, gentle reminder that he’s still there with her, that she hasn’t ruined this, them. That he’s still in it.

He stretches over her for a moment to switch off the lamp on the nightstand on her side, and then his arm falls back around her. He tightens his hold on her just a fraction more around her body as he tilts his head and kisses the top of hers before they settle into the softness of the bed and each other.

She’s always wondered how couples could sleep this way, cuddled together so closely like they show in movies and on television. She had always thought it couldn’t be comfortable for either person, but as she lies in bed with him, nestled under covers with her body pressed up against his and his arms holding her tightly, she realizes she wouldn’t want to fall sleep any other way. Wrapped up beside him is her favorite place to be. Her own little safe haven where nothing can hurt her or cause her pain or make her feel like less of who she is.

She’s never been dependent on anyone. Hasn’t ever needed anyone until him. But it’s not because she’s that kind of person, someone who needs a relationship or a significant other to make her feel better about herself or to quiet the voice in her head that whispers she’s not good enough, not worthy enough.

It’s because he makes her better. Makes her want to be better despite her actions tonight. He makes her feel invincible. Like she could face any battle and win a million times over because he has so much faith and trust in her, so much unwavering love for her.

She’s certain that regardless of everything that has happened over the last few days they really will be okay. That this thing between them is going to last, both their relationship and their partnership, that they’re it for one another. They’re the endgame.

#upstead #upstead fic #upstead fanfiction #hailey upton #jay halstead #chicago pd #hailey x jay #jay x hailey

[kiaracarrera]

I've had a few requests to write fan fic and while I give full props to those that do write them I'm just not nearly as patient or as organised to write one. I do however have many messy ideas on Jiara's future that I've thought about that I think might be fun to share. Please ignore the messy way I've written this, it was just for fun, also it's under the read more because it's LONG.

So - I actually really liked the small hints of Jiara in S2 and my hope is that we don't rush into anything so ideally I'd like to see them get together at the very end of S3 and here's how I would do it:

Episode one and two would lay the foundation for the Pouges on the deserted island trying to survive and with things being super chaotic and hectic the Pouges would lose track of what day it is.

Now cue the second half of episode two and Kiara's sitting on the beach alone - JJ approaches and with the two of them staring out into the ocean they begin to talk about how Kie misses her folks and JJ reluctantly agrees that part of him stupidly does too. JJ puts a hand over Kiara's shoulder and she leans into his, JJ softly then says "Happy birthday Kie" - Kiara smiles but doesn't acknowledge it, because after all they have more pressing things going on, but it's a nice moment and we the audience see a hint of something between them. Then of course someone would yell "Kie-JJ, food's ready" or it'd cut to the next scene of everyone together and that would be that for now. But just imagine that, JJ of all people being the one to remember such an event, caring enough to acknowledge but knowing the last thing Kiara would want is a fuss.

Episodes 3 and 4 would be full of small but noticeable banter between the two of them, with the occasional sweeter than usual moment in between and somewhere around here the Pouges would make it off Pougelandia.

A couple of episodes on (maybe 6ish) and it would be Sarah who noticed, because duh the boys are dumb sometimes. She would notice after a small flirtatious moment between Jiara and acknowledge it with a side eye that no one else sees. Then while Kie and Sarah are alone Sarah would just casually drop the "So are we going to talk about what that was or..." line which Kiara would of course deny deny deny but then the camera would pan to JJ looking at Kie and again, we the audience would know.

Towards the very end of the season (8/9) would be Pope acknowledging the spark between JJ and Kie, probably after some eventful life or death situation and telling JJ subtly but not so subtly, while facing the direction of Kiara "You know I love you man and you should be happy, you both should..." which JJ would either shake his head to and tell Pope straight up he didn't know what he was talking about or we'd circle back to S1 with JJ saying "Na dude even if, which I'm not saying I do, but even if I did... I mean Kie, she would never.. we're friends man... we're family" Pope would, in his Popely wonder respond "Whatever you say man, but, just don't keep yourself from happiness on my accord."

Cue the acknowledgment of mutual pining which would lead us to the final episode where:

Kiara would get injured (because it's probably her turn) and JJ would be a complete WRECK and probably say some sappy shit that no one payed attention to because Kiara was in deep shit here! She'd end up making it out safely, though not before a short stint from at the hospital. A few scenes later and Kiara, now at home would get a visit from a worried JJ who'd bolted at the hospital because he couldn't handle the stress and then had turned up at her doorstep to "check in and apologise", after some small talk he turn to leave, only for Kiara to hesitantly stop him with a "Jay-before the hospital, it seemed like you were going to say something" and he'd close off a little and start rambling and then eventually confess that "losing you would be different...", Kiara would respond with "Why..." and JJ would just softly mutter "you know why"... and then BAMN 'Heat Waves by Glass Animals' would softly start playing in the background as Kiara shakes her head for a second before steadily but with purpose hoping down the stairs, the volume of the music slowly rising until 0.19 when the beat drops at the same time Kiara would wrap her arms around JJ's neck and we'd finally get the kiss! It'd be a soft but meaningful kiss as the camera pans 360 around them, capturing every angel until they part ways at 0.30 sharing a sweet smile and knowing laugh between them 'this was it, the feeling, the connection they'd both been missing for so long' then with one hand on her cheek JJ would pull Kiara back in for another soft kiss.... before the scene fades away to something else...

Oh and! The last scene would either be JJ and Kiara turning up to a Pouge gathering together but not acknowledging what had just happened which would lead us into a secret relationship for S4 OR JJ and Kiara would turn up to a Pouge gathering, JJ casually with his arm around Kiara's shoulder and with the other Pouges all looking at each other with acknowledgment but no one actually saying anything. Instead they'd just acknowledge Kiara being free from the hospital with a "There she is, woman of the moment" before Kie and JJ sat down and the S4 cliff-hanger happened!

#jiara #jj maybank #kiara carrera #jj x kie #obx #outerbanks2 #outerbanks netflix #outer banks

[thebluestbluewords]

HEIST HEIST HEIST

I saw this post today and got inspired, SO here is Descendants Could Have Been A Heist Movie, thebluestbluewords take :

(this is very much an outline and not a full fic yet, but I might yet write this someday)

Taking this whole heist movie idea very seriously, this would be (and might yet be if I have the time for it) a fic about how the first Descendants movie would have gone if it had been a heist movie, rather than a fairytale.

The main plot of the movie is no longer about learning to choose good and seeing that kids don’t have to follow in the footsteps of their parents- it’s now a high school political intrigue about stealing a wand.

(don’t worry about the larger themes there- the wand might be stolen for many self-serving reasons that go beyond 'doing what their parents say'. Maybe they’re stealing it to make a larger statement about opening the isle. Or about how treating villains as villains is wrong and they deserve trust because it makes things so much more fun for them in the long run)

(can you tell I haven’t decided on the overall tone of this AU yet lmao)

The story starts when the VKs are being told to get the wand, hand it over, it’ll be easy.

Sure, they say.

Sounds great, they say.

Give us your spellbook and magic mirror and whatever else you’ve got to give, and we absolutely won’t use them to betray you and open the isle on our own terms, they don’t say.

(this story ends before we get to that point, but the implication is there)

The kids arrive in Auradon, as in canon.

Unlike canon, they don’t immediately go for a break-and-enter approach to the museum, because if they’re going to heist this, they’re going to do it right. A good heist takes planning, and patience, and research.

What they do is wait until the weekend, and then inform the school admin that they want to get to know the culture of Auradon.

The museum seems like a great place to start, Evie says earnestly.

We didn’t have anything like it back on the Isle, adds Mal. It would be such a good learning opportunity for us.

And we could see the town. And the candy store. Say the boys.

The school admin caves, because it would be wrong to deny these kids a chance to get to know this history of goodness! They’re just teenagers, and they’ve been doing so well with their first week, and of course they can go into town, do they want a school car to drop them off?

They do not.

The museum is kind of a bust. They spend some time scoping out the security, but they’ve had a whole week to magically-google everything they can about this place, and it’s not much of a surprise that there’s a functionally unbreakable magical alarm system set up around all of the objects.

Time to reassess the plan.

(this is where the political intrigue comes in)

Ben is still a Fundamentally Decent (if slightly boring) guy in this.

Of course, he’s also the one on the line if this whole villainy exchange program goes wrong. It shouldn’t be a surprise that he would come to check up on his flagship students after they have a day out exploring the town.

Oho, Mal thinks. Here’s something they can work with.

Ben is sweet. He’s not terribly interesting, at least at first, but he seems like a guy who genuinely cares about the idea of bringing villain kids over, and can probably be manipulated to their purposes without too much effort.

So the VKs think over their potential plans to get the wand, and decide that yeah, if they can get an in with the future king of Auradon, that’s probably a pretty solid place to start.

Unfortunately, they decide to start this attempt by blatantly flirting.

Audrey is very much a political presence in this fic. She’s not evil by any means, but she is goal oriented and doesn’t necessarily love the idea of VKs coming in and altering her five year plan for herself and her boyfriend.

(I think Aurdey is an interesting character, and I wish she’d been given some better motivations in the first movie beyond ‘mean girl in a high school movie’. So in this fic, where they do still crown the incoming royalty at sixteen, they also believe in setting up children for advantageous marriages. Audrey and Ben have been pushed at each other since they were kids, and yeah, maybe there’s not a lot of actual love between them, but they’re friends and it’s way easier to just date each other and make their parents happy than refuse and risk losing the sway they get with their parents by being the good little obedient golden children who are happy to be put together if it’s what’s best for the future of the realm.)

The point of this is, the VKs send Mal in with her very best flirting, taught to her by Evie in a truly hopeless training montage, and it just-

Fails. Completely.

And now Audrey sort of hates them.

Great.

The other unfortunate piece of this heist is that the relationships between the co-conspirators, the core four, are….somewhat intense. Charged, if you will, with a certain kind of tension.

I’m not saying that Malvie hook up in their pink princess dorm room on the first night and then don’t talk about it for the rest of the story despite blatantly flirting with each other all the time, but yeah actually that might be what I’m saying.

This is the middle of the fic now, and there’s some kind of political drama that leads to the VKs finding out about the coronation.

Maybe it’s teammate bonding, because I think it’s tragically underutilized that Ben and Jay are canonically both sports bros and I want more of that sweet high school sports team drama content.

The point is, they find out about the coronation, and that the wand will be out and about during that day.

Oho, they say. An opportunity.

Building on the sports bros theme, Lonnie gets to be in this story! She’s a cool character and I have a couple of unfinished ideas for her kicking around my fic drive, so she’s going to be here too.

Lonnie finds the VKs in a somewhat compromising state of planning.

Uh, what the fuck is this, she says.

What do you THINK, says Mal, who is not known for keeping her mouth shut.

Looks like...some kind of statement that you’re going to make during the coronation, says Lonnie, who is a nice person and also didn’t hear/see all that much of the planning before she was noticed. (as I’m typing this up I am also remembering the School of Secrets shorts?? Lonnie is absolutely going in this fic as someone who spies on her new friends. It’s almost like canon. She’s the daughter of Mulan. She can sneak when she wants to)

Yes. Exactly. A peaceful political statement, says Evie, who is often a quicker thinker than the others. We are going to… sit at the front in protest. Of how we have been treated. As villains. We deserve the same respect as other students, regardless of who our parents are.

Lonnie is surprisingly on board with this, because honestly, based on some of her costume choices in d1, magical disney utopias seem to be overwhelmingly white for the most part and do not know how to support their international students very well.

(am I still mad about the awful dress she was wearing during the family day scene?? yes.)

So now they have Lonnie on board with their made-up protest plan, and they’ve got Ben and Jay being… actually bros, weirdly enough, and somehow there’s got to be high school political intrigue that I haven’t thought through yet (maybe a group who doesn’t approve of the villainy exchange program is trying to get Ben declared unfit?? Idk. Maybe it’s just different mini kingdoms angling for a good position, and it matters Very Deeply who sits where at the coronation and it’s a whole deal. That one probably works a bit better.) and it’s altogether getting Pretty Far Into Things.

Family day isn’t a big conflict in this AU, because the VKs don’t really care about the whole family gathering and party business without Mal being involved with Ben. They decide to have a chill time hanging out and plotting their heist instead. The wand is going to be taken out before the coronation, but rather than try and grab it in the middle of things, it’s got to be easier to grab it right before or after, while it’s in transport.

They have multiple people who can pick locks. People who can charm guards into letting their guard down for a bit. Ways of getting around even electronic lock systems, given some time.

They hang around the classroom a bit longer after their parent phone call, and get to talking with Fairy Godmother about how maybe, possibly, they could get a real place up at the front during the coronation. It’s a good distraction, and hearing more about the logistics of how things are going to go on the day itself is a perfect segue into asking more about the objects that are used during the coronation. It’s important to understand their new home! No other reason they’d want to know about the history and powers of her wand.

No other reason at all.

They learn that the wand is going into secure storage in Fairy Godmother’s office for the day before the ceremony. Of course, it’s going to be safe enough there. The magical wards at the museum are mostly there in case of emergency, and they’re really more about making sure none of the objects get damaged than they are about theft.

There are no more villains in Auradon, after all.

All things considered, it’s shockingly easy to break into Fairy Godmother’s office the night before the coronation. The wand is in a safe with some magic barriers around it, but Mal has her mother’s spellbook, and Evie has a magic mirror that can look up the answer to pretty much anything they ask, so it’s short work for a pair of magic users who have been practicing their spellwork since they day they left the isle to break the temporary barriers down.

There’s a regular human lock as well, and they give that one to Jay. He’s their lockpicking expert, after all.

And there it is.

Mal grabs the wand. There’s a surge of magical energy up through her hand, burning everywhere she’s touching the silvery metal, but in a way that feels like strength.

And all hell breaks loose.

#my fic #descendants fic #disney descendants #this got long very fast and I might need to write at least part of it now #core four #mal bertha #evie grimhilde #jay son of jafar #carlos de vil #i realize that I did not go very far into what these kids are actually DOING beyond the plotting and the answer is Simply Vibing #making friends and influencing people #stirring up drama just because they can #Audrey might actually need to be a major character in this #she's not necessarily the antagonist but she's not an ally either #she and Ben don't break up in this AU but she does let Ben get away with plausible deniability when it comes to flirting with other guys #partially because she doesn't really care if he's into men so long as he's going to marry her #and he does care about her #they've been friends since childhood and it's a weird political landscape when children are coming of age at sixteen #and expected to start participating in governance #also there's a whole lot of tiny kigdoms that basically have their own ruling systems in place #they just also have a larger king who keeps them together for a couple things #like kicking out villains #and having unified borders in times of outside conflict #so that the smaller kingdoms don't get wiped off the map #but that's not the POINT the POINT is the HEIST #steal the wand in a way that is meticulously planned for the whole story leading up to the moment of actual theft #a thruline that's not romance #this is loosely canon pairings as of the beginning of d1 #so like #no actual ships

[kitkatt0430]

So I saw a gifset from the episode Power Outage that reminded me that in season one - and presumably season two - Ralph Dibny is actually dead. He died because of the accelerator explosion in December 2013, but presumably due to Flashpoint he's alive by the time season four rolls around. (So he's actually alive in season three.)

In the show, the only two people who might have realized that Ralph being alive is a product of Flashpoint are Barry (because he lived in that pre-Flashpoint timeline) and Cisco (because Vibe powers). But neither of them mention it, so I guess we'll never know for sure that his survival isn't actually down to the Legends meddling with time (like the Scooby-Doo gang, but with a significantly cooler ride - sorry, not sorry, Mystery Machine).

Anyway, all of this has reminded me of a fanfic idea I've had in the back of my head for a while.

So it'd start with Barry's return from the Speed Force at the start of season four. Iris and Eddie are married and various other changes abound as i see fit. Barry comes back still massively out of touch with reality and writing in the speedster glyphs and Wally gets help from Jesse to defeat the Samuroid bot. Also Wally isn't Kid Flash anymore - he has taken on the mantle of the Flash in his own right.

Barry starts recovering slowly, but as he does his understanding of the glyphs he's writing with wanes... even though he keeps doodling them all over the place. He winds up quitting his job at the CCPD because he's just... not in a place where he can hold down a job right now. He's also not 100% sure anything is real and that he's not still stuck in the Speed Force and he's reluctant to seek out therapy because of his experiences with therapists as a child were not good and also he'd need to discuss being the Flash which... not happening.

Which is when the bus metas start showing up (out of show order). Wally gets the indignity of the marble-related pratfall and accidentally meta-cuffing himself. Barry starts to gain more confidence in himself and his reality when he's able to shut down the accelerator before it goes critical, moments before Wally successfully cuffs Hazard. (Presumably the accelerator actually exploding would have been very unlucky for Becky, so something would have to make it shut back down, right?)

Linda returns leading to relationship drama for Wally and Jesse. Wally finds Linda attractive but would never cheat (also Linda's really only aware of him as Iris' younger brother right now), which Jesse knows but she feels jealous anyway and she doesn't like what that says about herself. She also feels like she's stretching herself really thin trying to protect Earth-2, act as Jay's back-up on Earth-3 (because he's starting to slow down and is still looking for an apprentice, but hasn't told anyone on Earth-1 what's happening to him yet), and both date and help Wally on Earth-1. It's too much work and too much stress and too much running between different Earths. She eventually decides that, much as she cares about Wally, their relationship isn't really what she needs right now and they part ways. A hopefully more satisfying break up than what we got on the show with that cube thing. Also the thing with Kilg%re happens.

Barry realizes - using Cisco's translation program - that he keeps writing something about a bus in the speedster glyph doodles. (Cisco's translation program is incomplete.) OG Team Flash connects Becky and Ramsey back to Bus 405, which Barry... er... Flashed the day he returned from the Speed Force. (hehehehehe) They're able to identify Ralph and a few other people who were on the bus because their bus passes were logged on boarding. It's still not clear who was on the bus at the time Barry Flashed it (*snicker* i regret nothing). But Ralph had to be because, well, he boarded the bus the stop right before the Barry accidentally acted like an EMP on the bus' electronic systems.

And Barry's issues with parsing reality are triggered because he remembers two versions of Ralph thanks to time traveling and memory integration - let's just say that Barry has memories of both pre and post Flashpoint timelines and say the story would theoretically handwave it better than I'm prepared to do right now. So Barry remembers this version of Ralph, who faked evidence and was a dick to Barry (almost misspelled that as being a duck to Barry). But he also remembers another version of Ralph, who didn't fake evidence and was Barry's friend and died in a car accident trying to reach the hospital after finding out Barry'd been struck by lightning while Ralph was at home and off duty and should have been safe. (Hello Barry's guilt complex which no one actually missed.)

Barry's memories are a tangled mess (gee, thanks Speed Force), so Caitlin goes with Barry and Joe when they meet Ralph. And Ralph's knee jerk reaction to keep them at arms length - especially as he's concerned they're crooked, which isn't that ironic from his PoV - is to combine obnoxiousness with sarcasm and pepper in some misogynistic comments that piss off Caitlin enough that Frost pops out to play. Joe clearly freaks out and tries to pretend he isn't freaking out. Barry just... goes with it. Whatever, Frost is part of Caitlin and Caitlin is part of Frost and he doesn't have the time, inclination, or the survival instinct to go "enemy sighted, begin defensive measures". He's just kind of like "hey Frost, nice to see you again, I've been hoping to talk w/you, but can it wait until we're done with Ralph? Or is Caitlin not gonna give you enough time for that? 'Cause I guess we're basically done here anyway."

Meanwhile Ralph is quietly freaking out with a blank O_O expression. Because Killer Frost. KILLER FROST. His fight or flight instincts are weighted heavily to freeze in place and hope to spontaneously blend into the environment.

Which is when the mob guys show up and Barry just kind of starts laughing upon learning that this version of Ralph is basically living a crime noir plot because the other Ralph loved that genre so much. Something triggers Ralph's powers while Frost cheerfully freezes the bad guys shoes to the floor and Joe arrests them. Ralph insists he was never blackmailing anyone, and Barry and Frost wind up taking him to STAR Labs while Joe waits for Eddie to show up to help him take in the thugs.

Barry and Frost do end up talking - Cisco side-eying them hard even as he gets Ralph settled in to wait for Caitlin to come back. And Barry apologizes to Frost. For how the team treated her and how Savitar treated her and just... everything. He'd like to hope they'd have handled the situation better if they'd understood Frost was a separate personality entirely, but the truth is they fucked up and pushed Frost into the position of thinking turning to Savitar was her only choice. And he hopes that she'll give them a chance to do better by her this time. Frost says she'll think about it and pretends she's not tearing up as she lets Caitlin take back over.

that's kind of where my ideas dry up and I'm not really ready to tackle writing any of this as an actual fic yet, but... I kind of saw this as a series that would include my headcanon for Ralph being face blind and him eventually bonding with Barry over the similarities between Ralph's struggle with accepting his disability and Barry's struggle in acclimatizing to his own post Speed Force incarceration disability, but with the adding drama of Barry's friendship with the Ralph-who-died and his guilt there complicating things too.

Barry would eventually take up the mantle of the Flash again with Rip showing up shortly after to borrow Wally for the Legends, though I've got no idea how that would play out. And Julian's still in there somewhere since he's still the CCPD's CSI even though Barry's had to quit. I imagine Ralph and Julian would very much not get along. (Julian and Eddie, though... they would definitely get along.)

#the flash #unfinished story idea #alternate season four story idea #as for where harry is in all of this... um... yeah i have no idea #he's there though #the speedster glyphs would wind up being important for helping them defeat DeVoe somehow #like... barry's blocking a lot of his traumatic speed force experience out but it's still in his subconscious #so there'd be him starting to remember and dealing with all of that

[nadisabug]

Tea Girl // Shopping // Pt 3

Pairing: Zuko x reader

Warnings: Kai is a badass, a little blackmail, Zuko is moody

Summary: Y/n goes shopping with her new employers. 

A/N: I have a regular updating schedule for this now, so hopefully that keeps me on track. Well see lol also check out my Sokka smau here and look forward to the next part! Thats where the Zuko picks up

Part Two // Series Masterlist // Part Four

“Okay Kai, you promise you will walk with Jay and Kiri and not go off by yourself?” I asked for the fortieth time. I had originally planned to have Kai skip morning practice, but he insisted that two of his friend also went to school with him and walked together everyday. I didn’t know if I’d be able to go back to walk him to school and didn’t want him to miss it. 

“Yes, mom, I’ll be fine,” Kai sighed and glared at me. I had already met and interrogated his friends, so we were on thin ice. 

Well, I was on thin ice. 

“Okay, okay, I was just checking. I wanna make sure you’re safe,” I waved my hands in defense. 

“I am a kid who knows three different types of martial arts, no child-napper is going to take me. Not at least without a fight,” Kai responded proudly. 

“Let’s go with no one’s taking you, okay?”

“Yeah, sure. Besides, this is Ba Sing Se, nothing bad ever happens here or anywhere else,” Kai smiled. 

“Yeah. Nothing bad ever happens here,” I echoed softly. 

“So quit worrying sis, okay? I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, just go before I change my mind,” I sighed and waved him off. Kai didn’t need to be told twice, he ran off immediately and disappeared into the gates of the school. 

I sighed and started walking towards work. 

Yes, I felt bad having not told him about the war. He was just a kid, though, and he had lived in Ba Sing Se his whole life so he knew nothing of it. Why tell him that the Fire Nation was a constant threat to his peaceful life? I didn’t see the reason. Other people may disagree with me, but he was such a happy kid, I didn’t want to dampen it. 

Besides, nothing bad ever happens in Ba Sing Se, right?

My walk to the Jasmine Dragon was uneventful. I waited outside the doors of the shop for quite some time. I waited until the sun had fully risen. Then I tested the door. To my surprise, it was open. So I walked in. 

When I did, I heard voices. 

“...trust her? After what the Fire Nation did to her how can she trust us?” Zuko’s voice, frantic and pitchy, rang throughout the shop. 

“You mean after what your sister did to her,” Iroh’s slow, calculated voice responded. I looked around to find them and saw that they were in the back of the shop. “You did not wrong her.”

“Still! There’s no way to know if she blames me for it as well!”

I pursed my lips. 

“Yes there is,” I called out from the doorway leading into the back. Both of their heads turned to me, both with very different expressions. Iroh looked smug while Zuko looked shocked and nervous. “You can just ask me.”

“Tea girl I-”

“First off,” I started, throwing my hip out. “I have a name. It’s Y/n. And second off if I wanted to report you to the Dai Li I already would have.”

“So you’re saying you have no ulterior motives?” Zuko blurted angrily. 

“Did I say that? No. Of course I have an ulterior motive, but it’s not what you think.”

“Then what is it?” Zuko’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

“I need a job. All I know is how to serve and make tea and this is the only tea shop in the area. I’m desperate. And so are you.” I explained carefully. “Tea boy. So if we could come to a mutual agreement that would be nice.”

Zuko fell silent, he probably didn’t know how to respond. He probably still doesn’t understand the working class. He turned to his uncle. 

“Don’t look at me, nephew,” Iroh responded. “You know my answer.”

Zuko sighed. 

“Fine. Don’t think that means I trust you. Azula and the entire Fire Nation is on the look out for us, so we must be careful.”

“I got it,” I smiled. “Finally switched sides?”

Iroh frowned a little bit and Zuko straight up scowled. 

“What do you mean?” Zuko asked. I looked to Iroh and saw him softly shake his head. 

“Nothing, nothing,” I waved him off. I clapped my hands together. “Let’s go shopping?”

Zuko pushed past me angrily. I sighed at the action but did nothing in retaliation. 

I ended up walking next to Iroh the whole time, a moody Zuko in front of us. 

“So, please, tell me what happened after...” Iroh paused frowning a bit. “You left,” he finally decided on. He probably didn’t want to bring up my circumstances of leaving the royal palace and I did not blame him. 

I was a tea girl at the royal palace. My job was to serve tea to the royal family. I had been raised from a very young age to do nothing but that, and any form of firebending was prohibited. It was a law passed by Fire Lord Sozin that servants were not allowed to be taught how to firebend. Those who could fight back, would fight back. So I was only taught how to conjure small flames with precise control. 

It was a good gig, I was treated nicely for the most part. That is until I was fired. Literally. 

“After the incident with Azula,” I said, making it clear I wasn’t afraid to talk about it. “I left the Fire Nation. My parents completely disowned me for the dishonor I caused them. I was alone. I was on my own for many years until I finally found my way to Ba Sing Se. Here I found peace and a new family.”

Iroh smiled. “I hope my nephew too can find peace here.”

“I hope so too,” I smiled. I paused for a bit then asked the question that was burning on my mind. “Do you trust me?” 

Iroh pressed his lips together. He thought for a moment, then answered. “Yes, and not just because we can turn you in as well, knowing that you are a firebender. I believe that you understand what I am trying to do with my nephew and will help me with that.” 

I looked at Zuko’s form in front of us. “I’m sure I can be of some assistance.”

“Now, enough business. Do you think the jade teacups are better, or these lavender ones?” Iroh led me into a store to look at chinaware. 

I gave my opinion and shopped with them for the rest of the day. We also bought new aprons, to serve as our new uniforms. After we were done, we parted ways and I went home. 

Taglist: @sokkaandzukosimp​ 

Taglist is open! Comment, send an ask, or dm to be added. 

#tea girl☕ #zuko x reader #zuko imagine #atla x reader #atla x y/n #atla x you #atla imagine

[pocketfulofrogers]

To New Beginnings

Pairing: Jay Halstead x Reader

Summary: You earned your way to Intelligence, but suddenly Jay begins to question your every more. Or, Jay’s an ass and it takes him just a minute to figure how bad he’s messing up.

Request: Reader likes Jay, but he’s very cold and distant. When the reader gets tired of it, she blows up on him in front of the team with a cute ending. @fofisstilinski​ 

Notes: No warnings, really, few cuss words. Requests are always open!

It happened so quickly- these things usually do.

Kevin had just breached the front door when he called out a runner near your position and suddenly you regretted skipping the gym this past week. A man in his late 20s, brown hair, average height - was that a scar on his right cheek? The chaos from your ear piece momentarily distracted you. Local gang tattoo on this left forearm

Adam called out an additional pair that sent him and Kim East on Cedar, hopefully away from other civilians.

You however, were not as lucky. Loud music perked your ears from what you had hoped was only a backyard get together, but the familiar nostalgic dinging from a carnival game made that unlikely.

There are aren’t many things better than a good block party, though you had wished they’d picked another day.

You had him- you swear you did. Feet pounding the pavement- reverberating in your teeth, breath heavy in your chest. The scrapes on your wrist from the chain link fence you had just jumped were barely an afterthought in the back of your mind.

You were closing in by the second.

Then he rounded a corner, cut through an alley and disappeared in the crowd, his sweatshirt left in a puddle near a trash can on the street. His Glock most likely tucked in his waistband. There were far too many people, but still you tried to scan the crowd.

That’s when you heard the gunshots.

Kevin’s voice bellowed out over the radio.

“Officer down.” Cut through the ringing.

In that moment you decided to turn back for your partner rather than look for a man you’re not sure you could even find, let alone get down safely, without traumatizing and endangering a neighborhood of unsuspecting civilians.

Had your instructor from the academy been there to time your sprint, you’re sure you would’ve broken some kind of record somewhere.

When you approach the back door, there’s glass everywhere and a few chunks blown out of the walls giving way to half rotted wall bearings. The smell of gunpowder mixed with something… unpleasant hangs in the air, but you continue forward. Your weight shifts to the balls of your feet and you keep your gun drawn, body low as you search the house.

Harsh voices draw you towards the front of the house. Peaking around the corner of the kitchen, there’s a suspect in the living room with a gun by his side, clutched tightly in his grip, standing before Kevin. Jay is laying a few feet away from him, still, and you feel sick.

“Put the gun down.” You order.

“Y/N, we’re good, you can go. Me and my friend are just talking some things out.” Kevin’s voice is tight, his jaw taught and pupils wide.

“Sorry, Kev, can’t do that.” You tell him and turn your gaze towards the man. “Let’s get that gun on the ground and then get you out of here.” His hand twitches and you steady your aim in response. “It’s not worth it, man. Come one, we got SWAT five minutes out and they’re not going to be as nice as we are. So, let’s just…”

You reach a hand out to try and take the gun, but he raises it towards you instead, his eyes wild and darting between you and the door behind you.

“Don’t come any closer!” He yells.

“Hey man, if your gonna point a gun, point it at me.” Kevin shifts his weight to draw attention and you take the small distraction to get closer.

He’s able to talk the man into lowering the weapon at least to his side, a small compromise that still leaves you both unnerved, but the sound of leaves crunching under the boot of a uniformed officer outside spooks him into raising his gun again. This time with the intent of pulling the trigger.

You put two in his back before he gets the chance.

**

A superior takes your statement and you are promised that today will be ruled a clean shoot. Adam and Kim return with their runners and you can’t help but feel guilty for losing yours. Kevin raises a brow and wordlessly conveys that there’s no use in falling down that rabbit hole, but it’s hard not to.

You take a deep breath and try to shake it off before meeting him by the patrol car he’s leaned against. Jay’s voice carries in behind you and you have to bite your lip to not laugh at the sight of him swatting at the medics just trying to do their jobs.

“He gonna make it?” You scrounge up an ounce of humor.

Kevin turns his gaze back to you and smiles. “Bullet hit the vest, few bruised ribs. I’m sure-“

“What the hell was that?” Jay comes charging up, slightly less intimidating as he winces when he breathes. “You came back here when there was an armed suspect loose?” He yells.

You’re stunned, mouth slack and eyebrows drawn together. “I’m sorry, what-“

“We called out a runner and it was your job to get him. Not come back here and play superhero.” He bites.

“Don’t talk to my partner like that, Jay, she just saved out asses.” Kevin defends you.

“Yeah, how about a ‘thank you’ or a ‘nice work’?” You add.

“Oh, I’m supposed to congratulate you for failing to do your job? Who knows what that suspect will do now? That’s on you.”

“He got away. Yeah that blows. But you and my partner were taking fire with no back up. I came back to, yes, save you rather than aimlessly look for a man who disappeared, risking the lives of about a hundred people. That’s what I’m trained to do.” You’re fuming now, Kevin’s assurances that you had made the right call are doing nothing to soothe you.

“This is Intelligence, Y/N, not patrol. If you feel like you’re out of your depth or that you were moved up too quickly, talk to Voight.” He leaves you there, both you and Kevin’s mouths agape.

**

“I don’t know where he gets off coming at me like that!” You yell, again, but Kevin still voices his agreeance. “I mean, he’s not the sergeant, he wasn’t even lead. That was you!”

Kevin says something he hopes is supportive, but it borders on patronizing. Yesterday’s blow up was not the first and he’s become increasingly convinced it will not be the last. You plop back down on his couch, your beer sloshing with you, and sigh. He smiles, again, a little patronizingly, at you as you thread your fingers through a blanket and you pout.

“Things were going so well.” You say softly.

That was news to Kevin. Save the last two weeks, the only interactions he had seen between you and Jay didn’t go past a bit of witty banter. Did he know you had a thing for him? Of course, he’s your partner, but Jay has always been harder to read.

He waits patiently for you to elaborate and when you don’t, he rolls his eyes. “Are you really going to make me ask, Y/L/N?”

You groan obnoxiously and throw yourself back. “We weren’t dating or anything, but we were kind of seeing each other?” You can feel his eyes burning into you and can almost feel the ‘partners tell each other everything’ speech encroaching, but you continue before he has the chance. “We were waiting to see where it would lead before telling anyone.”

Kevin huffs. “And where did it lead?”

You’re quiet for a moment. “To my place. A few weeks ago.”

“For?”

You throw a pillow at him. “No details, Kev, don’t be a perv. I fell asleep and when I woke up a few hours later, he was gone. Now he won’t return my texts and he’s being an absolute ass.” Kevin is uncharacteristically quiet. “I don’t really know what to do.” You add quietly.

**

“We’ve got analysts combing through his GPS history, but, so far, no leads on where he might be keeping Mia.” Adam’s face drops as he looks towards a picture of a young woman, graduation cap tilted to the side, smile as bright as the sun shining behind her.

Of the four girls who had gone missing, three had turned up dead. Mia Edwards, a recent engineering graduate, was the most recent and she was quickly running out of time.

You place a hand of support on his arm as you move past him to get a closer look at the board. Jay makes some kind of comment, but you’ve learned to tune him out these days. There’s something within the information delicately placed in front of you that is screaming for you to see it.

“Three isn’t enough to confirm a definite pattern, but these abduction sites,” You run your finger along the addresses, “fall within 5 miles of Little Italy. And if you…” You trail off for a moment and grab a city map, placing a dot for each location where a body was found. The math is messy, but you draw a circle “If you take the crime scenes, that narrows it down to here, around Roosevelt.”

“Oh, did your years on patrol teach you this?” Jay asks sarcastically.

“No, the FBI from that seminar you skipped did.” You shoot back and he glares in response.

“There’s a low-income housing unit that was condemned six months back in the same area.” Adam announces from behind his computer. “Fits the area and there’s been calls about squatters.”

“Because it’s empty houses.” Jay interjects. “Everything about this guy says he keeps it close to home. On the other side of town. What if you’re wrong?” He presses. “If you are, and we bust down those doors, we waste hours of her life. That’s on you.”

You’re not sure what it is. Jay had been coming for you the last handful of weeks, second guessing your every move, being an over obnoxious, hard headed, sanctimonious ass hat and you had yet to let it shake you. But something about the way he’s looking at you right now in this moment has your blood boiling for the first time in weeks.

It’s as if he truly believed you would endanger an innocent woman in an act of showing off. As if you didn’t really care about doing your job and saving her. For you, that’s the last straw.

“I’m right.” You start slowly, darkly. The calmness in your voice a thin veil for the daggers hidden within. “Just like I was right about last weeks suspect being a woman, that cop being dirty, that kid being innocent, that mother still being alive, and coming back for you and Kev.” You slowly take a few steps forward and Kevin can’t get the image of a tiger about to kill it’s prey out of his head. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, or why you seem to think wasting this teams time by nit picking my every suggestion rather than doing your job is a good call, but if you don’t stop coming at me like this,” You take the final step that places you directly in front of him and pull your shoulders back. “We’re gonna have a problem.”

He matches the intensity in your eyes and you wonder for a second if you’ll have to really lay him out in front of everyone.

You lower your voice to barely above a whisper. “You want me gone, Jay? You want me to transfer units? You’re about to get it.”

“Enough!” Voight bellows. “I’ve had it. You two used to push each other to be better, but now you’re just wasting our time. We will go sit on that development while you figure out how to either work together and stay in Intelligence, or if I do need to start a transfer.”

**

“I’m not leaving.” Jay says defiantly.

The team had left in a rush leaving you and Jay sitting in unbridled tension from your respective desks. Your jaw was clenched, his arms were crossed, fists balled at his elbows.

You roll your eyes. “You sound like a petulant child.”

“Says the girl who got us kicked of the case.” He mumbles.

“Are you serious right now? I- god- what is with you?!” You explode, rising up to pace the walkway. “I mean, Jesus Jay, what? What could I possibly be doing better right now? Please tell me because I honestly cannot do this anymore. What did I do to make you not trust my judgement or my skills? Because you certainly didn’t have a problem before we slept together.”

For the first time in weeks, Jay Halstead is speechless.

“Yeah, go ahead and do some inner soul searching for an answer. I have done nothing, nothing, but support this team and do the best job I can.”

He’s silent still and you can’t tell if his lack of words is more or less infuriating.

He stares at his hands for almost two hours before he says anything.

“I’m sorry.”

It’s barely above a whisper. In fact, you can’t really tell if you heard him correctly over the paper balls you were shooting into the trash. When you look over at him and he’s still watching his fingers, you chalk it up to your bored and desperate brain making up something.

“I’m sorry.” He says again, louder. This time he’s looking at you, really seeing you, and it’s hard not to feel exposed under his gaze. “You were right.”

A phrase you thought you’d never hear him say.

“What do you know of the detective who had your desk before?” He asks. He’s calmer now, yet still poised as if he’s guarding something.

“Erin Lindsey? Not much, really. Heard she was a great cop. Good instincts, even better in a fight. What? You think I don’t deserve her spot or something?”

He shakes his head with a small smile before it fades. “You’re just as good, if not better.”

“Then what is it?” There are no harsh tones in your voice, no clipped vowels, just simply the need for some kind of answer.

“I almost proposed to her.” He says simply. That was definitely not what you were expecting. “We started dating, things got serious and I got my mother’s ring, but before I got to ask her, she left. Just packed her stuff and left Chicago. It just left me with a lot of questions.”

You’re stunned into silence and Jay smiles sadly.

“I guess it gave me more problems than I thought, things I never dealt with. So that night, with you, it came back.”

“What did?” You ask softly, moving closer to him.

“That fear and sadness I felt after she left. I guess it was easier for me to channel it into anger, and, in turn, direct it towards you. For that, I am sorry and I swear to never let it happen again.”

“It was one night, Jay, I wasn’t professing my love.” You try to stay soft in your approach.

“But I felt something I hadn’t felt since then.”

When he meets your eyes, that’s when you see it. The hurt man scared of love and willing to do what he has to protect himself.

“So, you started to push me away.” You add for him. It’s not an accusation, rather an observation.

He nods. “But you’re too good, too kind to let even a dick you hate get left behind by you.” He wipes the corner of his eye, catching a tear you had missed.

To his surprise, you grab his hand and sigh. “I’m not her, Jay, you cannot punish me for things she did. And I don’t hate you, I actually don’t think I can. I care about you and while I can’t promise you that we won’t break each other’s hearts, I can promise you that. I truly, deeply care for you.”

“So, we just pick up like the last few weeks haven’t happened? Y/N, I can’t ask you to do that.”

“That’s not what I’m asking. If you are willing, though, I think there are some things that you and I can work through.” His eyes perk up and he radiates hope. “But you have to put in the work.” He begins to nod eagerly. “I’m serious, Jay. You cannot hold her against me.”

“I know, I’m sorry.” He grips your hand in his tighter, thumbing the back of your hand.

“Okay.” You say softly

“Okay?”

You raise a brow. “Yeah, if you’re done being an ass.”

He eyes you carefully until you burst into laughter, a loud, contagious sound he can’t help but join in with.

“Oh, thank god.” Kevin sounds from behind you.

Adam joins him. “I thought we were going to have to start picking sides.”

“Alright, alright, enough. Tell me, was I right?” You ask.

Kim smiles at the sight before them, you and Jay’s hands still intertwined. “Mia is on her way to Med. She’s going to be okay.”

“You’re amazing.” You hear jay whisper from behind you.

“I know.” You quip, turning back to him with the brightest smile he’s ever seen.

#jay halstead #jay halstead x reader #jay halstead imagine #Chicago PD #kevin atwater #hank voight #Adam Ruzek #Kim Burges

[frostedfaves]

To Build A Home (6)

Masterlist

Pairing: Rosa Diaz x fem!reader

Summary: Rosa spent years building a friendship, relationship, and eventually a marriage and home with you. This tale follows your journey together up until her sudden murder. Now that you’ve tracked down her killer before anyone else, will you do the right thing and send him to prison or take care of him yourself?

Warnings: brief mentions of a bomb threat, robbery, and alcohol use, poorly written detective work, Jake and Amy ignored on their own wedding day (I’m still so sorry faves)

A/N: this part doesn’t feature as much Rosa and wife interaction as the previous parts because I needed to set the scene for something that will come back later ;) but I hope you still enjoy it! feedback appreciated as always

Previous chapter here

-

Your eyes roamed around the small store after passing the crime scene tape, assessing a surprising lack of damage for a robbery. You didn’t expect the place to be trashed, but there was barely a sign of a struggle or anything taken in a hurry.

“Hi there.”

You turned to face a white man in his possible fifties, at least from what you could tell with the graying strands of hair and incoming wrinkles around the eyes. A hint of a smile was directed your way as he stretched out his hand.

“You must be the detective the cops told me was coming. I’m Mark Collins, the owner of this place.”

“Detective Y/N Diaz,” you introduced yourself before pulling out of the handshake. “So you said you were robbed. What happened?”

He quickly explained to you the events that took place, starting with firing an employee the night before and leading into his return this afternoon.

“I had a feeling Thomas would retaliate and I would’ve been prepared for him, but my sister brought her daughter by this morning and they’re both terrified of guns, so I hid it in the back. I have a license for it, by the way,” he added when your brows raised at him.

“Do you mind if we take a look at your security footage?” 

You followed him into his office, watching as the same situation he described to you played out on camera. You sighed a bit when the armed man shouted his reason for taking the money, feeling that Mark owed it to him to help pay his rent since he didn’t give him time to find income elsewhere. Although you’ve felt the pain of suddenly losing your job before, it didn’t justify you or anyone taking money from someone else.

“Alright, I’m going to need a copy of that footage downloaded. I’ll come back for it later. I’m also going to need the address you have on file for Thomas so I can pay him a little visit.”

-

Twenty minutes later you pulled into a parking spot just down the block from the apartment building of your suspect. You’d just taken off your seatbelt after cutting the engine when your phone rang, a smile appearing on your features at the sight of your wife’s name and picture.

“Hey, baby,” you greeted cheerily as you locked the car doors again. “How’s the wedding day craziness going?”

“Even crazier than expected,” she told you with a sigh. “You’re not on your way yet, are you?”

“No, why?”

“Someone called in a bomb threat on the rec center, so that’s getting checked out while Jake, Amy and Charles try to figure out who did it. I’m waiting for Terry to call back the driver of the car that he left Amy’s veil in.”

You couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay, so you weren’t kidding when you said ‘crazier than expected’.”

“I was not.” She chuckled along with you for a second. “So where are you?”

“I’m currently outside of where my suspect may or may not be. On the security footage you can hear him say he stole the money for rent since he doesn’t have a backup job but…” You let out a sigh of your own. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m giving him too much intelligence credit, but if I robbed the store I just got fired from, I wouldn’t go back to the address I gave my manager. Still going to give it a shot anyway.”

“Okay, well I won’t keep you on the phone much longer. Driver’s pulling up anyway. Be safe, and I love you.”

“Love you too, Rosa. See you later.”

You made your way up to the apartment quite easily as the lock on the secured door was broken. A knock went unanswered for several seconds. A second knock brought you face to face with a woman much younger than Mark.

“Detective Y/N Diaz,” you introduced yourself as you held up your badge for her to see. 

“Jessica Moore,” she offered. “What’s this about?”

“I’m looking for Thomas Moore. Is he here?”

“He was, but you just missed him by about an hour.” She shrugged. “Tommy was sleeping on the couch for a while because his girlfriend kicked him out. He was only gone maybe half an hour before he came back saying he was headed home, packed up his stuff and left.”

“Do you know where this girlfriend lives?”

“No, sorry. I don’t even know her name! Every time I ask about her, he just tells me I’m asking too many questions, as if he doesn’t try to interrogate every guy I’ve been on a date with,” she grumbled off to the side with her arms crossed.

“I know the feeling,” you told her and she turned back to you with a hopeful smile.

“You have brothers too?”

“Nope, just familiar with men and their double standards.” You pulled a business card from your jacket pocket and gave it to her. “Call me if he shows up, and thanks for your cooperation.”

-

After gathering all the evidence you needed from the crime scene, you’d arrived at the precinct just in time to see Holt cleaning up what used to be a cake version of the Nakatomi Plaza. You had your questions, but you simply saved them for a moment when you weren’t completely focused on your case. Every single moment of the day, every conversation that didn’t come from the computer where you were studying surveillance footage was ignored.

“Yep, Terry fumbled the task. But we got you a bouquet.”

Your ears couldn’t help but tune in at the sound of Rosa’s voice, this moment being the first time you’d heard her in a few hours. Still, you couldn’t bring yourself to pull away from your work until her hands gently landed on your shoulders, effectively melting the tension from them.

“Hey.”

“Hi.” You turned in your chair with a smile, which instantly fell as you caught sight of Amy in a wedding dress. “Please tell me I didn’t accidentally work through the wedding.”

“Jake, Amy, let’s go downstairs. It’s wedding time!” Charles addressed the pair with a proud grin and Rosa gave your shoulder a teasing nudge.

“Looks like you’re just in time. Come on.”

-

“But I do have some bad news. There’s a bomb at this wedding as well.”

“What?” The frown on Jake’s face matched yours, both of you confused by Amy’s calm demeanor.

“Your butt. Your butt is the bomb. There will be no survivors.”

“I love you so much. You’re my dream girl.”

Your laugh at the adorably childish pair was cut short when you realized Rosa was staring at you. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just missed you today.” She threw her right arm around your shoulders, gently pulling you in to lean against her and dropping a kiss on your hairline.

“I missed you too.” Your left hand grabbed hers, locking your fingers together in her lap, both of you smiling at the reciprocated skin-to-ring contact. Satisfied with the physical touch, you both turned your attention back to your nearly married best friends, brows raised as you watched a robot from the bomb squad bring the rings down the aisle.

-

You thanked Rosa as she placed two drinks on the table, sliding into the booth next to you and this time wrapping her left arm around you. You slipped your fingers through hers once more as they dangled over your shoulder, extending your thanks in the form of a quick kiss on the cheek.

“So how did it go earlier? I’m guessing by the way you were buried in your case that your suspect wasn’t stupid.”

“No, he wasn’t,” you sighed. “I found his sister, who told me that he’d left some time before I got there to go back home to his girlfriend. I can’t find any evidence of him having a girlfriend, but I have to wait until Monday to get a search warrant for the apartment. So I won’t know whether or not the sister was lying until then.”

“Well when you do find him, which I know you will, don’t forget to call me. I love watching my woman take down bad guys.” She winked and you laughed so hard you nearly snorted.

“What about you? How’d you end up with a shower curtain and flowers instead of a veil?” you asked after settling down, keeping your eyes on her as you sipped your drink.

“The customer after us knocked the dry cleaning bag out of the car when he left and we found it soaked in urine because, you know, New York streets are gross like that.” 

She shuddered, her look of disgust shifting into adoration when you held her glass and straw up to her lips. As you returned it to the table, you caught sight of Jake and Amy gazing at each other like no one else existed within the walls of the bar.

“I’m so happy for them. I can’t believe our best friends are married.”

“I can,” she responded as she shifted even closer to you, her eyes landing on the pair. “They’re the perfect example of the ‘opposites attract’ concept. They’re going to grow old together.”

“It’s funny that you say that, because they think the same thing about us.”

She turned back to you, that specially reserved smile back on her lips as she took in your appearance. Using the arm around you, she guided your own lips close enough to leave a kiss on them that was far too short for your liking. She settled back into the booth again and picked up her drink, her eyes never once leaving yours.

“Let’s prove them right, then.”

-

Tags: @gaulty74 @creepingwolfberry @rosadiazswifey @milkfromhell @xetherealbeautyx @jay-is-groovy @marie-03

#to build a home #rosa diaz #rosa diaz x reader #rosa diaz imagine #rosa diaz x fem!reader #brooklyn nine nine #brooklyn 99 #brooklyn nine nine imagine #brooklyn nine nine fic series #brooklyn nine nine x reader #b99 fic #b99 imagine #b99 fic series #b99 x reader #b99 fanfic #b99 #stephanie beatriz

[detectivejay-chuckles-halstead]

Jay Halstead x Reader

Description: As Will’s best friend, you weren’t expecting to fall for his brother. But by doing so, he became the best thing in your life. 

Words: 9781

Warnings: Canonical Violence, Pregnancy, PTSD Mentions

Pairings: Jay Halstead x Reader, Will Halstead x Best Friend Reader

You had met Jay through Will, one of the many times Jay had come to visit his brother at the hospital. You were a fellow ED attending, having began working there just months before Will had waltzed in and turned the place upside down. You’d considered him a friend, having gone to Molly’s after shift many times throughout the past couple years. Sometimes, Jay would join you. Other times, it was just you and Will.

You’d learned a lot about the brothers, where they came from and how they got to where they were. It was hard sometimes, hearing some of those stories. Or, when you’d asked Will why Jay had bailed and he’d told you about Jay’s PTSD. That night was when you found your way in front of Jay’s apartment door for the first time, debating on knocking or not. It took all the courage you had to knock, Jay answering the door in a gray t-shirt and sweats. You could see how red the rims of his eyes were, how he sniffed before greeting you. Neither of you said anything as you pulled him into a tight hug. 

That was the first of many nights you’d end your day at his place. Most of the time, it was just hanging out, having a beer, bullshitting back and forth. Rarely was it like that first night where you just held him as he cried. He had this persona of being strong and brave, but you knew it wouldn’t always hold up, that he’d have his days. There were nights you’d show up, and he’d have bruises and cuts from his day, wincing as he breathed. Those were the hardest for you, but you were there for him.

You don’t know when it started to become more. It was a gradual thing, the more time you spent together, the closer you grew. At first you thought it was just a really good friendship, dinners and movies and drinks and laughs. You’d walk down the street hand in hand, looking up at him with a smile. You think it was that first kiss that sealed the deal. 

—————--

It had been leading up to that point for six months. Every time you, Jay, and Will were at Molly’s, Will kept looking between you two with a smug smile, but would refuse to say anything when prompted. It was like he knew something you didn’t. Even though he was one of your closest friends, you could never admit to him how you felt about his brother. 

You’d gotten off late one night, sending a quick text to Jay to let him know you wouldn’t be coming to his place. He seemed sad, but understood. So, when you got home and saw your door kicked in and the place trashed, you couldn’t call him. He’d worry. Instead, you’d called 911 and left the building, waiting for the cops to show up. You were glad it was Burgess and Roman, having seen them around the hospital.

“Are you okay, Y/N?” Burgess asked, seeing that you were shaking.

“Yeah, it’s just cold. I’ll be here once you guys check out the place. Just...can you not tell Jay?” you followed up, shoving your hands in your pockets to keep warm.

“Not tell Jay what?” you heard him say from behind you, glaring at Burgess, knowing it was probably her that made the call. 

You didn’t want him to worry about you. He already didn’t like the part of town you lived in, had begged you to let him help you find a new place. But you liked it, had found a community. Plus, it helped everyone knew you were a doctor, so they came to you for help and didn’t cause you any trouble. You’d tried explaining that to him, but he didn’t seem to listen. It was obvious, though, that he cared. 

“It’s nothing, Jay. Someone just...broke into my place.” The look on his face was enough to make you feel guilty, the look of surprise and worry. “I’m fine though. They were long gone before I got home. It probably helped that I got off late.” 

You weren’t expecting him to envelop you in his arms, pulling you against him as you let out a shaky sigh. It was nice, felt safe as he just held you like you’d done for him many times. 

“I just worry about you, Y/N,” he told you when you finally pulled back just far enough to look up at him. “I...I care about you. A lot.” 

“I-” You weren’t able to get the thought out of your mouth before Roman interrupted the moment. 

“Looks like you’re TV is missing. We took pictures, go ahead and go through as you clean up, and make a list of anything else that’s missing and just send it in so it can go in the report,” the patrolman told you with a smile. You nodded in response before taking Jay’s hand and leading him up to your apartment. 

It was the first time he’d ever been to your place, and now, he was helping you clean it up as you changed out of your scrubs and into a tank-top and some sweats. It didn’t take long to make a dent, a list of missing items so far scribbled on a notepad on the kitchen table. It had given you time to think, looking over at Jay. 

“Jay,” you said, getting his attention, his eyebrows raising in question as he held one of your medical books. “I care about you too, a lot.” 

“Y/N, I just meant.” You refused to let him finish that sentence, closing the distance between you two and kissing him, the medical book falling to the floor in surprise before his hands found your waist. 

“I love you, Jay,” you said against his lips. Like you’d said, it had been leading up to this point, and you’d known how you felt about him for a long time. 

—————--

The two of you gave it some time before telling Will. Despite Jay’s constant assurances, you were worried it would ruin your friendship with his brother. And you liked being friends with Will. It made your days at work go easier, had someone to bounce ideas and differential diagnoses off of, and someone to vent to. You didn’t want to risk it by dating his brother.

“Jay, I don’t know,” you said as the two of you got out of the car, Jay handing the keys to the valet. He’d convinced Will to come out for a nice meal downtown, Jay’s treat, had suggested you come along too. 

“It’ll be okay, babe. We’ve been sneaking around for what, two months now? Will needs to hear it from us,” he reminded you, kissing you softly before taking you inside. 

You saw Will already at the table, smiling when he saw the two of you. Jay pulled your chair out for you before sitting between you and Will. You could feel his foot brush against yours, trying to hide the blush forming on your cheeks. 

“So, what calls for the special occasion, Jay?” Will asked as the waiter poured the wine. 

“What? Can’t invite my brother and brother’s best friend out to dinner just for the hell of it?” Jay retorted, taking a drink out of his wine glass. 

“Oh come on, it’s gotta be more than that. Especially because you’re looking at shelling out close to one-fifty for this dinner.” You didn’t say anything as the brothers went back and forth a couple more times until Jay reached across the table, taking your hand and giving you a smile. 

“Y/N and I are together, Will,” Jay said, and you waited with baited breath for Will’s reaction. You weren’t expecting a deep bellied laugh, making you think he thought it was a joke. That was until he stopped long enough to say something.

“It’s about time! We’re toasting to this!” You wouldn’t deny Will the toast, smiling over at Jay. This was your happy place. 

————————

The two of you had fought before, mostly small arguments that led to apologies over dinner. You’d brought up moving in together several times, but Jay kept brushing it off. For as much as he hated where you lived, you couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t seriously consider it. For how long you’d known each other, how long you’d been together, it seemed like the natural next step. 

“Jay, why are you so against the idea?” you asked him, washing the dishes as he nursed a beer next to you. 

“Why can’t you just leave it alone?” It wasn’t that you wanted to fight with him, but when he wouldn’t talk to you, it was frustrating. 

“You always complain about where I live, have been trying to get me to find a new place for nearly as long as we have known each other!” you reminded him, tossing the cup into the sink to turn and look at him.

“Yeah, for you to find a new place. Your own place, Y/N.” You scoffed. It was as if he didn’t want you to move in with him, didn’t want to progress your relationship. 

“Are you hiding something, Jay? Is there a reason you don’t want me to move in with you? Because if there is, and you tell me, I might understand better than you just blowing it off every time I bring it up!” He slammed the beer glass down on the counter, turning to walk away from you. Which is why you grabbed him by the wrist. It wasn’t hard, but it got his attention. “What the hell is going on?”

He pulled his arm away defensively, starting to say something before cutting himself off, mouth pressed in a thin line. You just wanted him to talk to you. 

“Just drop it, Y/N. I just don’t want you moving in with me.” Those words cut you deeper than you’d like to admit. He didn’t seem to catch on to how that hurt. 

“Get out,” you said softly, getting a confused look in return. 

“Wh-Y/N, come on,” he said softly, beginning to reach out to you. You jerked your arm back. 

“Get out, Jay!” you said again, throwing the dish towel at him. “Get out!” 

Maybe you were overreacting, but you were allowed your emotions. Just like he was allowed to not want you to move in with him. He didn’t say anything else as he put his shoes on and got his jacket. You opened the front door, waiting for him to step out. When he did, he turned back to say something, but you slammed the door in his face. 

He’d tried calling you, texting you, for several days, but you’d refused to answer. That was until Will cornered you in the doctor’s lounge at work one morning about a week later. He looked pissed. 

“Look, Will, whatever Jay told you,” you tried saying, trying to defend yourself, but he cut you off pretty fast.

“That’s the thing. Jay won’t tell me anything. So, can you tell me why my brother has been crashing on my couch, moping for the past week?” he asked, causing you to sigh. 

“I brought up the idea of us moving in together, but he won’t even entertain the idea. When I asked him why, he said he didn’t want me moving in with him, just like that. ‘I don’t want you moving in with me.’ So, whatever he’s moping about, he brought it on himself,” you explained, Will looking confused, but not saying anything. You knew Will would choose Jay over you if it came down to it, but you also knew what you were getting yourself into. 

As the day went on, Will kept looking at you, and it was a bit unsettling. But you stood by what you said. Jay brought it on himself. At the end of your shift, when you were grabbing your bags, Will came in again, sitting on the couch. 

“My brother can be a knucklehead Y/N/N,” he told you, “but I know that boy loves you more than anything. You know he has his own demons he fights, and sometimes it gets bad.”

“Yeah, I know,” you reminded him. It wasn’t a big secret.

“Have you seen him after the nightmares? After the flashbacks? Some of the triggers that makes him think he’s back there, where he doesn’t know he’s in Chicago again, still thinking he’s fighting for his life?” That part you didn’t know. Usually, when he was having a bad day or night, he’d send you home and promise to call you the next day. You understood why now. 

“No. No, I-Dammit,” you replied, head resting on your forearm against your locker. 

“Look, I’m kicking him out back to his apartment tonight, go talk to him, please?” Will said, getting a nod from you. 

You had gone home, gotten changed, and stopped at the store to buy a pack of his favorite beer as a peace offering. Then, you found yourself outside his apartment door, debating on knocking. It felt like the first time you’d shown up all over again, this time, a little more need behind it. When you did knock, and he did answer, he looked like shit. 

“Can I come in?” you asked, Jay just stepping out of your way. You set the pack of beer down on the table, turning to look at him. “I’m sorry.” 

“No. No, you have every right to be mad at me, Y/N,” he told you, shaking his head. 

“I talked to Will, but I want to hear it from you, Jay. Tell me, why don’t you want me to move in with you?” He couldn’t look at you, and you knew better than to push him in that moment. So, you just took off your jacket and sat down at the table. 

“When I first got back, I thought it would get better at first. Will had convinced me to go out to New York and visit him. I thought it would be a good idea, but New York is a different kind of crazy. That first night I was out there with him wasn’t good.” He sat down across from you, leg bouncing under the table as he looked down at his hands. “When I realized where I was, I had Will pinned down with a black eye, a split lip, and a knife to his throat. It...It doesn’t happen very often any more, but sometimes.” 

“Are you worried you’ll hurt me?” you asked him, getting a nod in response. “Is that why you don’t let me stay when you’re having a bad day?” You got another nod. 

“I just. I didn’t want you to think differently of me because of it,” he told you, finally looking up to meet your eyes. 

“I love you, Jay,” you assured him. “No matter what. I just...I want you to let me in, no matter how bad you think it is, okay? We’re in this together. Do you want me to stay tonight?” 

“Yes,” he answered, and that was good enough for you.

———————————-

It seemed like smooth sailing from there. You still hadn’t moved in with Jay, but now that you knew why he was hesitant, you understood. He was opening up to the idea more and more though. However, you always assured him that it was okay, that there was no rush.

You got a text from him, asking if you could come over. You didn’t think twice when grabbing your coat and heading out the door. When you knocked though, there was no answer, which was more than unusual for Jay. Trying the door, it was already unlocked. 

“Jay,” you called out, opening the door. You could hear him crying from inside the apartment. You shut the door behind you, tossing your coat on the back of the couch. You found him with his head on his knees, hands covering his head, sitting on the floor with his back against the bedroom wall.

“Baby,” you said again softly, but he didn’t look up at you. So, you sat down next to him, wrapping your arm around his back and pulling him close. That seemed to be enough for him to hold onto you. You didn’t know what was wrong, but it broke your heart to see him like this. It took a while for his sobs to die down, him just holding you. 

“Let’s go to bed, okay?” you suggested. “Let’s just sleep.” 

“Sleep,” he said, mumbling against your neck. You could tell he was on the edge of crying again. “I just want to sleep.” 

“Let’s sleep,” you said again, getting up and helping him up in the process. He was still shaking, face pale. “Are you hurt?” you then asked, Jay shaking his head in response. 

You kicked off your shoes, letting him lay down on the bed before joining him. He moved to rest his head on your lap, facing your stomach, with his arm around your waist. Your fingers combed through his hair. Eventually, his breathing evened out, telling you he was asleep. 

Reluctantly, you did the same. It wasn’t comfortable, but Jay was what mattered. You weren’t expecting him to wake up so soon, or screaming. But he did, and he was. It terrified you, trying to get him to calm down. He scrambled off the bed, landing on his ass hard. Something had happened that shook him. This didn’t seem like it was Afghanistan.

“Jay, look at me,” you told him, kneeling in front of him. “Come on, Jay, look at me,” you said again, Jay looking up at you. “What’s going on with you? What happened?” You’d promised him you’d never ask questions on his bad days, but this was different. You were worried. 

“A kid was shot,” he told you softly, seeming to look through you and not at you. “Over there, it was different. It was a war. Us versus them. Here… She was six, wrong place, wrong time.” You figured it must have been a suspect that had shot her, but Jay didn’t seem to be done. “The bullet came from my gun, Y/N. I wasn’t. I didn’t mean to.” 

“I know, I know,” you assured him, holding his hands. There wasn’t anything you could say or do that would make it better. But you could be there for him. 

——————————-

The first time you went to the district, you didn’t know what to expect. Jay had always told you it wasn’t necessary, but you felt like it was time. You wanted to meet the people Jay trusted to have his back day in and day out. When you first walked in, the first people you saw were Burgess and Roman.

“Y/N!” Kim said excitedly, pulling you in for a hug. “Heard you finally moved in with Jay. That’s exciting.” 

“It is. Just took a while. But, it’s all going good. Speaking of Jay, can you point me in his direction?” Kim just rolled her eyes, leading you up to the desk.

“I can’t, but Sergeant Platt here can,” she said, walking away with a look. You didn’t understand why, turning your attention to the older Sergeant.

“Hi, Sergeant. I’m here to say Detective Halstead. Can you show me where he might be?” you asked, Platt looking at you like you had a third head. You couldn’t understand why. Had he kept you a secret or something?

“So, you’re the one keeping Chuckle’s head on straight?” she asked, picking up the phone. “Halstead. You have a visitor.” It didn’t seem like she waited for an answer before hanging up. “You can take a seat over there,” she then said, pointing to a bench. 

You took a seat, confused, but following instruction. As you waited for Jay, you saw Platt continue to look over at you with confusion. It seemed busy, the district. Jay had mentioned it could be busy, but it was different seeing it first hand. You heard a gate open and shut, then saw him bounding down the stairs with a smile on his face.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming, Y/N?” he asked, kissing you when you stood. 

“What? Can’t I surprise my boyfriend at work?” He just laughed, leading you up the stairs and to the right, scanning you both into the unit. It seemed like nobody noticed you at first, then one by one, they turned around to look at you. Almost staring. “Jay?”

“Guys, this is Y/N,” he said, hand resting on your back. He had a smile, and seemed to be waiting for something. “That’s Adam Ruzek,” Jay told you, pointing to the younger guy on the back wall. “That’s his partner, Al. That’s Kevin Atwater. Antonio Dawson. And that is my partner, Erin Lindsay.”

“I’m Sergeant Hank Voight,” an older man said from the door of a private office. “And you must be, Y/N Y/L/N.” He walked over, shaking your hand. When you looked at Jay, this seemed to be the thing he was waiting for. “Our boy treating you right?”

“Yeah. The perfect guy,” you answered. “And I treat him the same, sir.” That seemed to be a good answer because he brought you in for a quick hug.

“Welcome to the family.” 

————————-

“So, did you and Erin ever have a thing?” you asked Jay later that night, the two of you curled up on the couch, curious. Antonio had talked to you when Jay was getting you coffee, saying he was glad Jay had found someone like you. 

“What gave you that idea?” he asked. He didn’t sound offended or worried, so you figured you had nothing to worry about. You slapped his chest gently with a smile, wanting an actual answer. “We did, a long time ago. It didn’t last long, and it didn’t work out. We’re better off as friends.” 

“She’s pretty. Seems nice. As long as she has your back,” you told him, knowing it seemed like she did. 

You weren’t jealous. You had Jay, it was that simple. When you met her, talked to her, it seemed like Jay couldn’t shut up about you. She seemed happy for you two. Jay gave you a funny look, though. 

“I’m not jealous, Jay. No worries. You trust her, I trust her,” you assured him, pecking his lips with a smile before asking something else. “What do you want for your future?” It was something you hadn’t talked about very often, maybe a handful of times. 

“What do you mean?” he asked. His fingers traced a non-existent pattern on your arm as he looked at you. 

“Where do you see yourself in five, ten years?” you elaborated. 

“Probably have a house in a decent neighborhood. Not Lake Shore obviously,” he said with a chuckle. “A dog running around with a couple kids in the backyard. Having annual barbecues, Christmas parties. An amazing wife to come home to. Maybe by then, I’ll be running Intelligence.” 

“A couple kids and an amazing wife?” you asked, hopeful. 

“Mhm,” he hummed, kissing you again. “I have a pretty good idea who that wife’ll be.” 

You guys were coming up on that year and a half mark, and things were going smoothly again. You weren’t expecting a ring any time soon, but it was nice knowing that he planned to have a long future with you. 

“What about you, hmm? Where do you see yourself?” he countered, knowing you had a similar idea. 

“A house up in Lincoln Park. Trips to the zoo every Sunday. Showing off my hot detective husband to all the neighbors every chance I can. A couple of kids to spoil. Running the ED,” you told him. 

“Hot detective husband?” Jay asked. “You looking at shacking up with Ruzek or Atwater and not telling me?” That earned him another smack, but you both laughed about it before you got serious for a minute.

“I plan on spending the rest of my life with you, Jay Halstead,” you told him. 

“Good. I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he assured you. 

—————————-

You knew Jay’s job was dangerous and could include him going undercover. It worried you, you didn’t like it, but it wasn’t your choice. So, when Jay called you in the middle of your shift one day, you knew it was something important. You excused yourself with Maggie to answer the phone in the lounge.

“Hey, Jay, what’s up?” you asked, leaning against the glass. 

“We caught a case. Voight is sending me to go undercover,” he told you, your smile dropping. “It’s going to be a few days at least. But Voight and Erin know to call you if things go south.”

“Jay. I love you,” you told him, trying to keep it together. It was a great opportunity for him, but it terrified you. 

“I love you too, Y/N. I’ve got to go, but I’ll call you when I can,” he told you, quickly hanging up. You gave yourself another minute to compose yourself before going back to work. You couldn’t help but worry.

It had been nearly a week, not hearing anything from anybody in Intelligence. You were driving yourself crazy with what-ifs and worst case scenarios. The apartment was spotless at this point, cleaning to try and put your mind at ease. It didn’t help though, feeling like you were bouncing off the walls. When your phone rang, you answered it without a second thought.

“Is he?” you asked, needing to know.

“He’s alive,” Erin told you. “He’s roughed up, but he’s on his way home to you. Just, Y/N?”

“Yeah,” you said, curious as to what she was wanting to say.

“It was rough on him. Give him some time.” 

“Okay. Okay, I will,” you said before Erin hung up. 

You were worried. The fact that Erin said it was bad, knowing Jay, you didn’t know what to expect when he walked through that door. It was about an hour later that you heard the door unlock and open, a bag getting dropped and a sigh. You let him come to you, but it wasn’t at first. You’d been laying on the couch, reading a book. Jay walked by you, bee-lining towards the bathroom. The shower turned on, so you knew it would be a while longer. You took what Erin had said though, and knew what to do with it. He needed space, and would come to you when he was ready. 

When the shower turned off and you heard the bathroom door open, you looked up at him. Erin could never have prepared you for what you saw, not sure why he wasn’t admitted to a hospital. He probably pulled the ‘my girlfriend is a doctor’ card. 

He’d just pulled on a pair of boxers, letting you see everything that had been done to him. His left thigh was nearly completely bruised and swollen, left calf with yellowing bruises. His hand right hand was in a splint, bruises across his ribs on both sides. His abdomen riddled with fist size bruises. From the bruising around his neck, you figured he’d been choked by a pair of hands. One of his eyes was nearly swollen shut, lip busted, cheekbones hidden under bruises of their own. A cut across the bridge of his nose. It took everything you had in you to not cry, tears welling in your eyes against your own inner protests. 

He just stood there, not looking at you, not moving in one direction or the other. You stood from your spot on the couch, walking over to him slowly. You didn’t say anything, taking in the injuries you couldn’t see from that far away. 

“What-Are you-” You didn’t know what to ask. 

“I got made,” he told you. “I got recognized by someone I’d busted before.” 

“Why aren’t you at the hospital?” you then asked. Gently, you touched him, feeling along his ribs, trying to see if you could feel any instability. Instead, all you got was a wince.

“I was already checked out at the hospital. I just-I wanted to come home.” You couldn’t blame him, plus, you’d drive him to the hospital yourself if things got bad. 

“Okay. Let’s go to bed,” you suggested, getting a nod in return. 

—————————————

Two years. You and Jay had been together for two years, and it had been the best two years of your life. Sure, it had its ups and downs, but it was all worth it. He was all worth it. He’d told you to get dressed up, that he had something planned. 

It had been just shy of five months since his undercover operation, and you worried a little less now. It didn’t come to mind as often anymore, but now you’d had your nightmares as well. And Jay was there for you, just like you’d always been there for him. So, when he’d told you that he had something planned for your anniversary, you allowed yourself to get excited. Jay always had something up his sleeve. 

“Wow, Y/N,” he said when you stepped into the living room. He looked pretty dapper himself, wearing a nice suit. You’d opted for a short black dress with a low cut and a nice necklace. 

“You look pretty sleek yourself,” you said, walking over and fixing his tie for him. He smiled, kissing you. “Now, are you going to tell me where we’re going?” you asked. 

“Again, baby, it’s a surprise,” he told you, getting a faux pout which caused him to laugh. “Let’s go.” You took his hand, going down to the car with him. He opened the door like a gentleman, heading out once you were both bucked up. 

You saw him drive through the city, coming up to a nice dinner downtown near the pier. Dinner was nice, the two of you talking and enjoying the night. You always loved downtown Chicago at night, so when Jay suggested a walk down to the pier, you weren’t going to say no. It wasn’t far. Plus, if your heels started hurting your feet, you knew Jay would carry you. 

“You’re the best thing that ever happened to me,” he told you as you neared the railing of the pier. “After things with Erin, I’d given up. But then Will introduced us at Molly’s, and...I don’t know. I knew you’d be important in my life, but I never thought it would be like this.” 

“I love you too, Jay,” you told him with a smile. He’d never looked at you like this before. Sure, you’d seen him look at you with love, but this was something else. Almost like hope. Then, he leaned against the railing, looking out at the city. You leaned your head against his shoulder, resting your hand on top of his. 

You stood there with Jay, neither of you saying anything. That was until he pulled away, looking at you again.

“What’s going on in that head of yours, Halstead?” you asked, curious. He didn’t answer. Instead, he grabbed something out of his pocket, your breath hitching in the back of your throat. “Jay.”

“Y/N,” he said, kneeling down on one knee. Your hand shot up to cover your mouth, not expecting this. “These past two years have been...the best years. And I want the next two years to be the best, and then the next after that, and after that, until we’re old and grey and in a home, thinking it’s this night all over again. Y/N Y/L/N, will you make me the happiest man alive and marry me?” he asked. 

“Yes, yes, I’ll marry you,” you agreed, nodding vehemently as he slipped the engagement ring on your finger. When he stood, you threw your arms around his neck, kissing him heatedly. This was the best night of your life so far, aside from the night you met him. 

—————————————-

You’d told Will the next time you worked, knowing he knew already. You recognized the ring from pictures. It was their mother’s. He was excited for you both, never thinking a friendship would come to being your brother-in-law. But out of all the people he knew, of all the people Jay had dated, he was glad it was you Jay had chosen you to spend the rest of his life with. 

—————————————-

Jay had dropped you off at work, kissed you, and told you he’d see you later when he picked you up. He’d expected it to be a slow day for him, which meant it wasn’t for you. It seemed like every three minutes another ambulance came in. It was non-stop, barely stopping for a drink. You’d barely heard Will say your name, focused on a spot on the wall. His hand came down on your shoulder, focusing on him.

“You feeling okay, Y/N/N,” he asked, giving him a nod. Maggie called your name as next up for the incoming patient, until you took a step, grabbing Will’s arm as you started to go down. 

Will got you to the closest empty room, April starting an IV. You didn’t want anybody to worry, but they insisted. You had felt fine until Will had gotten your attention, feeling dizzy before going down. 

“I’m fine, Will,” you assured him. “I’m just dehydrated. I’ll be fine.” You were insistent, but at the same time, something was off. You’d been feeling off for a while. You’d chalked it up to nerves, having set a wedding date. 

“We’re still going to run labs, Y/N. Just to be sure. I won’t call, Jay, but you might want to.” You nodded again, grabbing your phone. You didn’t want to make him worry, but Will was right. Instead of calling, you sent him a text, not wanting to hear him worry. You fell asleep while waiting for the lab results to come back, IV still in your arm. When you woke up, it was to Jay at the nurse’s station asking where you were. 

“Are you okay?” he asked, rushing into the room. You could see he was worried, and that was the last thing you wanted. 

“I’m fine, Jay. I’m fine,” you assured him, taking his hand in yours. “I just got lightheaded, okay. Will’s running some tests, but I can assure you, all they’re going to say is that I was dehydrated.” 

He looked you over, sitting in the chair next to your bed. The two of you sat in silence, his elbows resting on the bed with your hand still in his. You took the opportunity to stroke his cheek softly as an assurance. 

“Well, your tests came back,” Will said with a folder in his hand and a smile on his face. “Sorry to interrupt the sweet moment.” 

“And, is she okay, Will?” Jay asked, getting you to chuckle in response to how he asked it, getting a glare from him in response. 

“Your tests show that yes, you were dehydrated. But also, you’re anemic. And your hCG is positive,” Will told you, knowing Jay wouldn’t understand the medical jargon. “I’ll leave you to explain it to my brother.” Jay looked over at you, confused, not sure what was going on. 

“My iron is low, Jay. And I’m pregnant,” you told him as soon as Will left the room, shutting the door behind him. Jay looked at you, confused, looking between you and your stomach. You’d talked before, knew he wanted kids, but maybe it was too soon for him. Maybe he wasn’t ready yet. That was until you saw the corners of his lips twitch before smiling. 

“You’re pregnant?” he asked, probably making sure he was hearing it right. You just nodded before he kissed you. When he pulled away, his hand rested on your stomach. It was all too surreal, but this was your life. 

————————

The pregnancy was going smoothly, no complications, finally popped at five months. Everyone at work was excited, and Will was more than happy to help look after you when Jay wasn’t there. Jay worried, more than he should, but you liked the fact that he cared enough to have Will keep an eye on you. 

Your shift was going good, not as busy as it could have been. You had just sat down when Maggie came over, hand on your shoulder. You didn’t think anything of it as you typed your reports. You’d heard her call an incoming, but knew you weren’t going to get it. You’d asked to not be given anything strenuous, more at Jay’s request, but you agreed at this point. 

Maggie didn’t leave your side though. You barely noticed the ambulance that came in, a whirlwind of people coming in with whoever it was, more focused on the report. Reports didn’t write themselves though. However, you did notice when Ethan screamed at Will, “Get out of the goddamn room, Will!” That drew your attention, looking over to see half of Intelligence standing outside the room, Erin covered in blood. Maggie squeezed your shoulder a little harder, not letting you stand up at first. 

“Jay!” you called out, pushing Maggie away. Erin looked over at you, and you couldn’t describe what you felt or what the hell that look in her eyes was. You walked over, not making it past the nurse’s station when you saw him through the glass, a sob caught in the back of your throat. Every fiber of your being wanted you to rush in there, to help in any way you could, but you couldn’t get your legs to cooperate. 

“What-?” Your voice cracked, looking at Erin. “You’re supposed to have his back! You’re supposed to make sure this doesn’t happen!” you yelled at her, Will holding you back. If he hadn’t you would’ve hit her. 

Hank was the one to walk over and hug you, letting you cry into his chest. You knew he’d explain it to you when you calmed down, and when you did, he sat you down. Your arms crossed protectively across your stomach, waiting for him to tell you what happened. The rest of Intelligence made their way to the waiting room.

“Erin and Jay were going to interview a witness. They didn’t expect the witness to open fire on them. Jay was hit three times. Once in the leg, once in the abdomen, and once in the upper chest. Erin got a graze because he pushed her out of the way, Y/N,” he explained to her. 

“I can’t…” you said, struggling to talk, struggling to breathe as your breaths came in short, sharp breaths. “Jay is…” 

“You work with these docs, you know them. They’re going to do everything they can for him, okay. If you trust them, we trust them,” Hank told you. It still felt like you couldn’t breathe, but you knew you needed to calm down. It wasn’t good for the baby, and as much as you wanted to believe Jay would pull through, you didn’t want to risk the possible last part of him you might have. 

Hank stood, Will taking his place. He took your hands in his, and you could tell he was barely keeping it together. 

“Breathe with me,” he said, breathing deep and regular, following his pattern. “That’s it. That’s it,” he praised. 

Will stood you up at that point, taking you into the lounge so that you had a view of Baghdad if things changed with Jay. 

You remembered leaving the house that morning, having driven separately. He’d been dressed in his leather jacket, a grey t-shirt, and his khakis, beanie on his head. He’d kissed you, hand on your stomach, told you he’d loved you and left since your shift started later than usual. It was a normal morning, it was supposed to be a normal day, and you were supposed to see him when you got home that night. 

When Ethan came in, it didn’t seem like good news. You could tell by the look on his face. You squeezed Will’s hand a little harder, waiting for Ethan to tell you that Jay died. 

“Connor is taking him up to surgery now. It’s...It’s not looking good, guys,” Ethan told you, sitting on the coffee table with his arms across his lap, leaning towards you. “One bullet is lodged in his leg.  The second was a through-and-through the right side of his abdomen, nicking a kidney. The third is very close to his heart, and hit his lung,” Ethan told you, causing you to start crying again. “Connor is the best surgeon in this hospital, and he’s going to do everything he can for Jay.” You knew that was a fact. 

—————————

Will had moved you to the waiting room in the surgery wing, waiting with you, as well as the Intelligence unit. They didn’t say anything to you, though, as you leaned against Will. It had been nearly five hours since they’d taken Jay up to surgery, and you hadn’t heard anything. You hoped that was a good thing. 

Connor came out, looking tired. You stayed sitting, not sure if you wanted to stand up for this. 

“He’s out of surgery. I managed to get both bullets out, repaired as much damage as I could. I expect him to make a good recovery. Maybe not a full recovery because of the damage to his leg, but a good recovery,” Connor told the group, looking you in the eye the entire time. 

“He’s alive?” you asked, getting a nod from Connor. “I-I need to see him.” 

Connor helped you up from your seat, leading you to his room. He was still hooked up to wires and machines, but he was alive. 

“Dammit, Jay,” you told him, sitting next to him. You knew it would be a while before he was awake, and you wouldn’t leave his side until he was. That was until Goodwin came in a few hours later, telling you to go home and that they’d watch over him for you. Will was there to back her up, saying he would take you back to your apartment and was going to stay the night. 

The drive back was quiet, not saying anything the entire way. You weren’t sure how you were going to handle it, being at the apartment without Jay. But before you knew it, Will was parked outside. 

“Let’s go,” he told you, not giving you any time to adjust or process going inside without Jay. You followed though, letting him unlock and open the door. It was just how you’d left it this morning, Jay’s coffee mug still on the kitchen counter, half empty. Pajamas still on the floor. Even though Connor said he expected Jay to recover, you knew he wasn’t out of the woods yet. 

—————————-

The next morning, Will drove you back to the hospital, ditching him in the ED and making your way upstairs. When you walked in the room, you weren’t expecting him to be awake, but he was, an oxygen mask still on his face. He looked over at you, reaching up to grab the mask. 

“If you take that mask off, I’ll shoot you myself,” you told him as a warning, sitting down in the uncomfortable chair. “What the hell, Jay?” you then said, not sure what to say as tears came to your eyes again. 

He didn’t say anything, reaching over to grab your hand. You didn’t pull away although you wanted to. You were pissed, but so relieved that he was alive and awake and would hopefully be okay. 

“I thought...I thought I lost you, Jay,” you told him. “There...It was different when you came home after that undercover mission. You came home, beaten, but home. This time...You got wheeled in, unconscious, with three bullet wounds, Jay.” 

“I know,” he said, his mask fogging up. “Erin. Is Erin okay?” he asked, worried.

You nodded while assuring him, “Erin’s okay. It’s just a graze. You got the worst of it.” 

You’d understood his job, had told yourself over the years that you knew what you were getting into when you started dating him. It was different though when something bad like this happened, it made you worry more now. 

“I thought you were going to die, Jay,” you continued. “I thought I was going to have to raise this baby alone.” You couldn’t help when the tears started again.

“Y/N,” he said, pulling the mask off his face despite your warning not to. “I didn’t mean to get shot. When I was laying on that porch, all I could think of was you and the baby, how much I love you both, but this is my job.” 

“I know, Jay. I knew what your job was when I started seeing you, when I agreed to marry you. This just makes it more real, how dangerous your job is. I’m just glad your alive.” 

He took a deep breath out of the mask before talking again. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” he told you, earning him a kiss with tears on your cheeks. 

—————————-

His recovery wasn’t easy on either of you, but it was progress. You were nearing the end of your pregnancy, on maternity leave, when he went back to work just shy of four months later. It was nerve wracking for you, but you didn’t say anything. Though, he promised to check in with you regularly. 

What you weren’t expecting was to start feeling cramping when the two of you woke up. Halfway through the day, your water broke. At first, you didn’t want to worry Jay, wanting him to go back to work, but when your water broke, you knew it was time. 

“Checking up on me already,” he joked when you called. You could hear the bustle of the bullpen in the background. 

“I need you to come home, Jay,” you told him, which caught his attention.

“Babe, you don’t have to worry-” You cut him off.

“Jay, my water just broke. I need you to come drive me to the hospital,” you told him, and you could hear him pack up his stuff on the other line, not saying anything. You went ahead and took the opportunity to hang up the phone and make sure you had everything ready to go for when he got there. 

It was of course Jay’s style to drive his car with lights and sirens to get home, illegally parking and running up the stairs. You were sitting on the couch, bags next to the door, breathing through a pretty bad contraction when he burst in. 

“How you feeling?” he asked, out of breath as he knelt in front of you. Your hands resting on his shoulders, looking him in the eyes as you tried to breathe through it, a grimace on your face. “Forget I asked.” Once it was over, he stood you up, letting you lean on him. 

“I started feeling it this morning right before you left, but didn’t tell you because I just thought it was some Braxton-Hicks,” you explained before another contraction hit you harder. You should have gone to the hospital sooner because the contractions were getting closer and closer together. “How bad is traffic, Jay?” you asked him. 

“It’s Chicago,” he answered, confused. “Why?” 

“Because I’m not delivering our baby in a car. Will was on his way over before I called you, he should be here any time,” you explained. You knew you wouldn’t make it to the hospital, but knew his brother could get you through this. 

“You’re not delivering the baby in the apartment,” he countered, looking at you like you were insane. 

“Will is on his way,” you told him again. “There will be two doctors here. And I’d rather,” you cried out in pain again, nearly doubling over. “We won’t make it to a hospital,” you said through clenched teeth, holding onto him for dear life, sure you were going to leave a bruise on his bicep. 

“Okay, I’ll call Will and see where he’s at. What do I need to do?” he asked, sitting you down on the couch again. This was crazy, all of it was crazy. 

“Towels, all of them. We’ll replace them, okay? A couple washcloths and some boiling water,” you told him. “I know Will will probably have everything else in his car.” 

He smiled widely at you, taking your head in his hands and kissing you with that goofy grin. “We’re having a baby,” he said with a laugh, getting you to smile too. 

“Yeah, we’re having a baby. Now go get the stuff ready.” You patted his cheek, maybe a little too hard, but he didn’t seem to notice, standing up still smiling. You decided to go ahead and call Will, because knowing Jay, he’d forget. 

“How close are you?” you asked him once he answered. 

“Five minutes. Why? What’s wrong?” he asked. You couldn’t help but chuckle, knowing those two were so alike. 

“We’re having the baby at home. We won’t make it to the hospital. I need you to get here now, and bring whatever you have in that rolling ambulance that you call a car,” you explained, groaning through another contraction. “And I need you to step on it, okay?” 

“Where are we doing this?” Jay asked, holding a pile of towels. Why did you guys have so many towels? You’d never understand his hoarding of towels, because ninety percent of them were his from before you moved in. 

“Living room floor is fine,” you assured him. You couldn’t believe this was happening. Your plan had been to deliver in a hospital, with medical staff available, and medical equipment, not on the floor of your home. But when did anything with you and Jay go according to a plan. This baby sure wasn’t in the plan yet, him getting shot, you even being together. None of it was in the plan, but it worked. The two of you worked together to make it work. That’s how you knew it was going to work out. 

“Jay, you’re getting me out of some red-light traffic tickets,” Will called out as soon as he stepped through the door, quickly making his way to your side. “How you feeling?” 

“Like you got here just in time. Now, let’s not make this awkward. As much as I trust you, Will.” You hushed your voice, “I want you to help Jay deliver this baby, not do it yourself, okay?” He just nodded, understanding. 

“You feel like you’re gonna need to start pushing soon?” he then asked, getting a nod in response as he helped you to the floor. You got situated where you needed to be, Jay kneeling beside you as Will got everything set up. 

“Jay,” you whined, head resting on his chest. He stroked his hand through your hair, pushing it out of your face. 

“You’ve got this,” he assured you. “You’re the most amazing woman ever, and you’ve got this. I’ve got you though.” 

“Will’s going to talk you through this,” you told him, looking up at him as terror and confusion took over his face. 

“What do you mean? I’m not. Will’s here to deliver the baby,” he reminded you, sputtering as he tried to say it. 

“Jay,” you said, squeezing his hand. “I want you to, please. This is not an ideal situation. But these are the cards we were dealt okay? For me.” He just nodded, kissing you again before Will interrupted. 

“You guys ready to have a baby?” You weren’t, but there was no other choice. You let go of Jay’s hand, letting Will direct him as you got your pants off. It would be one thing if it was just Jay, would be a bit more relaxed. The fact Will was there also was a bit embarrassing, despite the fact that he was your best friend, and Jay’s brother. 

“On the next contraction, I need you to push,” Will told you. Your eyes met Jay’s, and you knew you could do anything as long as he was by your side. 

——————————————-

Leo was barely six months old when Jay got his first case regarding a kid since he’d become a father. You’d gotten a text from Erin giving you a heads up when the case was wrapped and that Jay was on his way home. Unfortunately, you couldn’t just keep Leo awake to wait for Jay, but you could have a cup of tea waiting for him when he got home. 

You were standing in the kitchen, finishing up the tea when you heard the front door quietly open and close. It was late, close to eleven. You figured Jay didn’t think you were still up, considering the look of confusion on his face when he saw you with to mugs in your hand. 

“Let’s talk about it,” you told him, setting the cups down on the table before helping him get his jacket off. He looked exhausted, like the case had aged him ten years. He sat down on the couch, you joining him, your legs draped over his thighs as you curled into his side, his arm around you. 

“Before Leo, before you,” he sighed, shaking his head as if to clear his thoughts. “Kids make this job harder, they always have. I never understood why Antonio reacted the way he did though to those cases, until today. He gave me this look, as if to say I could finally understand. The kid was three, Y/N.” He stared ahead, at the bedroom door, knowing Leo was right behind it, safe. 

“You and me, we can protect him,” you reminded Jay. “We can raise him right, and protect him, and teach him to make the right choices.” 

“What if we can’t? There are some sick, sick fucks in this city who prey on children. You let your kid out of your sight for a split second, and someone can snatch them up.” You looked up at him, gently turning his head to look at you with your hand on his cheek, his stubble rough against your palm.

“Well, then, we do what nobody has done before. Have Mouse put a tracker on our kids,” you said with a smile, half joking, but honestly debating it. That got him to crack a small smile, pressing a kiss against his lips. “Let’s drink our tea, relax, and then you can check on Leo, and we’ll go to bed okay?” 

And that’s exactly what you did. You’d climbed into bed, waiting for him to join you, your son cradled in his arms, out like a light and sleeping like a baby. You could see him trace Leo’s chubby cheeks softly, kissing the baby’s forehead before laying him back down. 

“We made that,” he whispered when he got in bed with you, settling into his usual spot as big spoon. 

“We did. And we’re going to do good with him,” you assured Jay. 

————————-

You had been born an raised in Chicago, had gone to college in Chicago, had gone to medical school in Chicago, had met an amazing guy, gotten married, and had three amazing kids with him, all in Chicago. It was your home, and you could never think of leaving it. 

You could remember that conversation you’d had with him, seemingly forever ago in the old apartment about the future and what you’d expected from it. It had taken a while, but you’d gotten there eventually. You’d bought a house in Lincoln Park when Leo was a little over a year, the both of you saving every penny you could. You brought home Grace and Tommy home to that house after they’d been born. You’d had many fights, but even more happy memories in that house. 

You were standing at the kitchen counter, the beginning of grey hairs at your temples, nursing a cup of coffee when Jay came to stand behind you, arms wrapping around your waist and resting his chin on your shoulder. You couldn’t help but smile. 

Voight had retired nearly a decade ago, leaving the unit to Jay. He ran it very similar to the stories you’d heard, but a little less dirty. Erin had moved to New York to pursue bigger dreams, though, she visited often just to spoil the kids. Adam and Kim had finally gotten married. Kevin finally found someone that could keep up with him. Antonio couldn’t handle the stress anymore and went to teaching boxing full time.  And they’d lost Al too soon. Will had met an amazing nurse at work, hit it off right away. As for you and Jay, well, that conversation from a couple decades ago still rang true in your head. 

“When we first met, did you think we’d ever end up here?” you asked him, glancing over. 

“Marrying my brother’s best friend wasn’t on the top of my list when we first met, no,” he answered. You could hear the kids bickering in the living room, not bothering to break it up yet. Usually, it wasn’t until somebody was crying, but since they were teenagers now, you figured they could figure it out themselves. 

“Do you remember that conversation we had though? At the old apartment after I met the team for the first time, when we talked about our future?” you asked him. 

“Not the hot detective husband you were hoping for?” he joked, intertwining the fingers of your free hand with his. 

“I mean, I’m hoping Kim realizes soon that Adam has a thing for me,” you jabbed back before kissing Jay with a smile. “This is what I imagined back then, Jay.”

“Good, because I wouldn’t have it any other way. Now, we should get ready, Will is gonna be over anytime with the kids,” he reminded you. You didn’t let him leave yet, the two of you standing there for a minute longer before you let him go get the meat ready for the barbeque. Looking back, you never thought your life would end up here, but you wouldn’t change a single thing. You caught Jay’s eye through the window to the back yard, that goofy grin still on his face after all these years, and you realized you wouldn’t have it any other way.

#jay halstead #jay halstead imagine #jay halstead x reader #will halstead #fanfiction #whump

[whumpbby]

P1 Saw your Wolves of Gotham and raise you Treasured Omega of Crime Alley, everyone including low ranked criminals love and protect the sole omega who lost everything but continues to give his all for everyone else, sharing food he's stolen or dubiously obtained, giving extra cash to the criminals who are just working with what the got and trying to feed their own families. The Omega is the first to step into confrontations if it means saving the pups and younglings of the alley. All adore him.

P2 The Omega who will offer clothes for alphas whose rut is painful without the scent of an omega to ease it. Who with sit with the sick that are dying in the street, just so they know they’re not alone. People want to claim him, the police want to bring him in for questioning as he’s often seen on the arms of suspicious persons, Batfam wants the Omega to have a home and pack but. Crime Alley will not let them take away the brightest soul of their hell hole and they will fight to protect Jason. 

***************************

This is, Jay didn’t start out strongly, he started out as a terrified child that was suddenly motherless, with the landlord knocking on the doors and debt collectors closing in. He was taken in by the social services at first - but social services, when it came to omegas, were gunning for getting him an alpha asap to get him out of the system - the orphanages in the bad parts of the city were called omega mills for a reason, the foster families that got kids form them weren’t there to help poor kids… Jason escaped as soon as a foster parent tried to scruff him for the first time. Fuck that.

But that landed him on the streets, with no support and no idea how to survive. He made do. He stole and lied and pretended to be an alpha when necessary, because that was what worked - omegas on the streets didn’t live long. So, he crushed all of his budding soft instincts and carried on. 

And then, when he was fourteen, he saw a group of punks picking on a homeless kid, and stepped in - and that was the end. He was beaten to death and there was no Robin with a finny quip, there was no Batman to stop it from happening, there was only freezing pavement underneath and trash heaping all around, and the darkness slowly closing in… 

He comes back, though. He wakes up with a gasp, cold and pained, and he’s breathing again, he drags himself to his hideout and… It’s been two days an no one found his body - not surprising in Gotham. He doesn’t know hat to make of it. He could swear that he died… he knows what survivable pain feels like and this was way above it…

And there’s this thing inside of him now, this burning feeling warming him… this anger… this rage, unbidden, raising with every moment of remembering how he got there, with every memory of his crap life and this crap city ad he’s so angry!

He’s so done. Gotham killed him, so he has no more qualms about letting it get away with anything. 

He finds the punks that killed him - a pack of young bucks, alphas and betas that want to be alphas, juvie material that hunted poorest corners for omegas to use. And they seem - fine. They seem normal, acting like nothing, like they didn’t just beat a kid to death a few days ago in a dingy alleyway… If he saw regret in them, he might have reconsidered, the good parts of him might have stopped, but there is no regret. 

He gets his revenge - he’s not stronger than them, but if he catches them one on one, his rage wins. The old gas-pipe is the only thing he could find to use as a weapon and it turns out to be a fairly effective, so he keeps it. Killing doesn’t make him feel good, quite on the contrary, but it makes that burning inside of him settle somewhat, the knowledge that no one else will be hurt by these lowlifes gives him peace for a time. 

But it doesn’t last long before he’s faced with another atrocity - a kid omega, barely older than seven, and two adult alphas carrying it away, firmly scruffed, towards a nearby car.And maybe back in the day Jason would have turned his face away, knowing that he won;t be able to stop two adults, that he is too weak - but not now. He knows that he isn’t weak enough to let it happen, that burning inside roars into flames, he picks up his pipe and starts running. The first alpha doesn’t have a chance to turn around before Jason boosts himself on the fallen trashcan and the pipe swings, hits the man in the side of the head, the bent part on the end crushing his temple. He drops down like a wet rag. The other alpha shouts, turns, he drops the kid and his hand goes to his pocket to reach for a knife, but Jay is already standing on the top of the car swings. Headshot. Blood sprays into the air - he knows that head wounds bleed like hell, he knows… 

The baby (he’s just a baby, he’s so small, so thin, so bruised and smells of blood and terror) comes back to himself and, seeing the situation - the boy doesn’t run, doesn’t wail, he scrambles for the dropped knife and plunges it into the fallen alpha’s abdomen. And then again. And again. Whining and crying, frantic, he does what every omega in his place would do (that he presented this young makes disgust curl in Jay’s belly).

But the street is not safe, he knows that, soon enough someone will smell blood. He jumps down from the car and wrestles the knife from the kid’s hands, coaxes him to b quiet and get up, the little shaky legs barely hold him up. They need to run. Blood is blooming around, the two alphas will never be a danger to them, but the cops that arrive soon will. They need to go, they need to hide. 

Jay leads them into the tangle of streets, into the heart of abandonment, instincts pushing at him to go lower, to the ground, lower, out of the freezing air, dig, bunker down, nest where they won;t be able to find them. 

They end up going down - into the ruins of Old Gotham, a spiderweb of corridors and passages half crumbled and dark, but dry, safe from prying eyes, safe from the cops. They hunker down and nest, just the two of them. Jason patches the kid up as best as he can, washes him down with what little water he had, gives him his threadbare clothes that are dirty, but at least don’t smell like alpha spunk. 

He has no idea what to do now - the fired has died down, the power it gave him is dropping, he feels sick and scared, he’s just a kid, the kid is just a baby, they both have blood on their hands now, no one will take them in… they can’t hide in the tunnels forever, can they?

Can they?

*

Two days later Jason emerges from the tunnels into a snowy landscape of Gotham proper. His gas-pipe on the back, half hidden by his ratty backpack. He goes back to the streets he knows and put his ear to the ground, and there are whispers about two alphas snuffed out like nothing, left a bloody mess on the frozen pavement. Fingers point to Batman, but Batman doesn’t kill, does he? There’s no other vigilante in Gotham who would… and the alphas were traffickers, no great loss, is it? Cops wouldn’t touch them, and they were too small of fries for Batman, so really, it’s almost community service at this point. 

Sometime settles in Jay’s belly that day, the burning and the rage, the knowledge that if he didn’t do anything, the baby would be dead - that no one else was going to do anything to protect the kids on the streets… if he doesn’t do it, no one will. Who were they going to rely on, Robin? The little useless alpha running behind the Bat and throwing jokes as if it wasn’t serious, as if the lives the overlooked weren’t important, as if the victims were nothing!

If he doesn’t do anything, they will keep dying, being trafficked, being hurt… 

He has o do something.

*

Two years later, Batman is at the end of his rope. He can’t be more than sixteen, that kid, can he? He’s tall for his age, but malnutrition made his body awkward, all of it is lean muscle, poised and tense to strike at any moment, all of the energy stored for fighting, for running, for the gas-pipe seemingly welded to his hand. All of it poised to strike without warning at the barest provocation. 

It’s heartbreaking, to see what the city did to that child, what Gotham turned him into. For an omega to be - this. This coiled snake, this wild dog hungry for flesh of whoever crossed him - it’s unsettling, it’s wrong. His scent makes Batman’s stomach curl, harsh and heavy, and unfriendly. The kid makes no attempt at hiding it, it hangs heavy over the Old Gotham, a widening circle of LEAVE, GET OUT OR DIE. A scent of a monstrous omega underlined with a chorus of others, not as acute, but just as determined, just as dangerous - a hidden city of omegas circling like ants around their queen, a nest of hornets ready to swarm any perceived threat until it stops moving. 

He tried to crack it, he tried to - he tried to help them. Early on and even now, he will never stop trying to help them - but they made it clear that they don’t want his help. That Batman isn’t their savior. 

(“A sign of hope, my fuckin’ ass!” The girl couldn’t be more than fourteen and Bruce’s ears burn from hearing her casually swearing. She was scruffy and thin, smelled to be close to her cycle, she should be in a cosy family nest with her mother, not on the street with a bat in her hands, sneering at Robin with open contempt over a moaning man that used to be a prominent john at her feet and a group of more kids behind her back… “You appear and we do headcount, means enough people were murdered for the freaks to come out!“ 

It hurts to understand her point of view, but it’s not less true only because he wishes it wasn’t. 

They tried to take her in, take them all in, help them, put them somewhere where they could be taken care of… and learned the hard way that usual ways of dealing with omegas won’t work - Dick tried to come close, hoping that his own youth will be enough, that his calming alpha scent will be enough, that his friendly and open attitude will break the ice - he returned home with a broken wrist and a bruise on his face, taunts and sneers ringing in both of their ears.)

He tried many times since then, they both tried to crack the wall surrounding Old Gotham, but with no success. Every time they managed to get one child out, it wasn’t a week before it was taken back - until social services stopped accepting them, the damage caused by the rescuers too acute to be worth it. Ma Gunn’s school burning down was a loud and clear message. 

(He saw the boy for the first time then, framed by a wall of flames, and somehow still the brightest part of that image were his eyes - green and haunting. The wind and fire howled to the sky and the boy had to be waiting for them to show up, it was no coincidence. 

“Why?” Batman asked. It was an escalation of violence he didn’t expect, he didn’t think they’d move outside of the Old City…

“You ever check up on the kids you put here?” the boy asked, voice rougher than expected. “Or are you a part pimping them out, rich boy?”

The last stopped him for a second, fear griping him for a moment that he was found out, that… and the boy disappeared, washed out into the night like he was never there.)  

No, he never followed up on the orphans he left with the Ma, did he? He should, but he trusted the old omega. Later, he learned that he shouldn’t. That the kids that disappeared out of her ‘school’ were traded out. The guilt settled hard on his shoulders, one more error made in good stupidly faith that innocents paid for. One more reason for the children to resist his attempts at help - after that, how could they trust his help? 

Gotham learns quickly that the Old City is out of bounds for the criminal element - there were attempts to control it, of course, different mobs trying their hands at wrestling the power for themselves, gangs determined enough to ignore the blood-curling scent of danger hanging over the place. There was a time when bodies hung from the lamp-posts in the warehouse district, a message more than clear. 

Gordon stops sending out people to the Old City - too costly, no one wants to go, there’s no point. “May as well try to catch wind.” But Bruce feels that in truth, the Commissioner may be silently agreeing with the idea…

(“As long as no one interferes, they’re self-contained,” he says. “These kids are safer there then anywhere else, right now.”

“It won’t last,” Batman says. “These things never do. It will end badly.” And he can’t allow that.

“Well, then, better make sure no kids end up on the streets, right? They didn’t come form nothing, kid, there is a reason the Old City exists.”  Gordon’s eyes are pained and harsh as they look at him, straight into Bruce’s ones, as if the mas wasn’t there at all. “This isn’t an issue you solve by stuffing them back into a broken system that is the reason they’re there in the first place.”)

Leslie was even harder, her eyes pitiless as she stared Batman down one night in her office, after she came back form a house-visit, the harsh scent of the Old City still clinic to her clothes.  

(“They need help, Leslie.”

“They needed that help years ago, and that’s when we failed them.” Her voice is harsh, but hushed, her hands tremble as she unpacks her bag. There’s not much left in it. “Not every kid gets a manor and a butler to help them get through a tragedy, some get a flea-bitten mattress and a pimp that maybe won’t beat them too much!”

Se rears back, the words hitting him like a fist, the lack of remorse on her face startling, the child inside of him flinching at the remembered pain. How dare she.

“How dare you try and barge your way in there to ‘save them’!” She rounds on him, five feet five and harder than stone. “How dare you when it’s that ‘saving’ that got them there! They don’t need Batman, Bruce, they need an alpha that gives a damn about more than his own morals. An alpha to show them that the world outside won’t try to tear them to pieces!”

“I tried!” It was a weak defense to his own ears, but he had nothing else.

“Yes, you tried, and I had to preform six abortions on kids younger than Dick!”)

That silenced him. The reason for her anger, for her unflinching disregard for his own pain. He stepped back, left, mind grinding overtime to come up with a solution, with a way to fix this - because that’s what he always did, he fixed things. hat’s what he always wanted to do - to save people, to… to use his means to help others. So no more kids would be standing on a bloodied pavement, staring blankly into the night.

“We have to leave them alone.” These words form Dick were the least he expected. His partner, his Robin, wings clipped by the realization that there were people beyond his reach. “We have to stop trying to catch him. If we take him away, the place will crumble, the gangs will move in and the children will become easy pickings for any two-penny thug before we can even round them up. We can’t… I can’t let that happen. I can’t be a part of that, Bruce.” His son, bright eyes shaded with regret. “No matter how many people we can punch in the face, this isn’t what they need. We aren’t what they need.”

“I can’t let it go, Dick.” He was so tired. “They barely scrape by, I can’t…” A city of children - omega children - living off scraps, held together by a boy younger than his son, every winter grips his heart with terror for their lives.

“Then-then let’s help them. Let’s help them like that, make sure they have food and clothes, that someone out there cares enough…”

*

That’s how he comes to the moment.

Standing on the border of the Old City opposite the young wolf guarding its gates, a filthy street between them, dozens of eyes pinning him in place from windows and doors of the crumbling buildings.  He can’t see them, but he knows they’re there, a small army ready to tear him apart if he as much as breathes wrong at their pack leader. He never knew that ninjas would be easier to fight than enraged omegas barely taller than his waist.

“What do you want?” the boy’s voice carries well, he sounds like an alpha.

He grew since Bruce last saw him, a couple inches, maybe he’s even Dick’s height now. His face is sharp and jaw square, the only pretence of an omega being the barely noticeable width of the hips. The coiled strength is still there, but the violent light in his eyes is subdued, they’re filled with cold calculation instead. Nothing about him tells Bruce he considers Batman to be a threat – but everything speaks of wariness and willingness to do what needs to be done.

He’s an omega, but Bruce has never stood opposite a pack leader as evenly matched in will to him as that. Ra’s al Ghul was close, but he had an advantage of age and experience, while this was…

There were rumours The Omega couldn’t die thrown around. That The Omega got up every time. Rival gang threw him into the harbour. Three days later they were all gone and he was back. He was shot by a hitman hired by the Black Mask. Three days later the hitman was found dead and 3 of Roman’s warehouses were set aflame. Bullets and beatings, men and women trying to get a hit. Five years of violence and he was still standing, and they were not. Three days. Always three days.

Bruce doesn’t know if it’s truth or fabrication, but there is something to it, must be, because the last time he saw him, the boy’s eyes weren’t this bright.

“What do you want, rich boy?” The Omega repeats and this time Bruce can feel his voice in the soles of his feet.

A meta? Mystical? Something else? How has he never noticed before?

The tension in the air rises, the anticipation from the unseen observers grows.

God, if Ra’s ever hears about this, he will take the boy – rumour about immortality will be enough for him to chase. The League will ransack this place, leaving nothing behind.  

“For the last time, what do you want?”

Bruce has only one card to play here and it’s not as strong as he’d like it to be. One chance to get a foot in and hope they’ll accept his help. To show them that the world wasn’t going to tear them apart if they dare to trust it. It might be too late, but he has to hope it isn’t.

“What do you need?”

The questions barely stops the Omega from leaving. Angled away, distrust clear as day on his face and in the set of his body, he eyes the Batman with naked suspicion.

Bruce takes it as a chance it is. “What do you need? Food? Clothes? I can get you a steady supply of both.” Bargaining isn’t his forte, he grew so used to demanding.

A hiss sounds across the street, dozen small throats growling in warning. It’s humbling – he’s not a saviour here, he’s a potential threat and needs to step carefully.

“What for?” The Omega asks. “What do you want back, rich boy?”

Nothing -pushes at his lips, but he stops it. It will only ever be a lie to them, after so many alphas promised help and… He rethinks, recalibrates. Frankly, he didn’t expect to get that far.

“I want you to give Leslie health reports,” he says instead. “Monthly. Injuries, pregnancies, births. Deaths. She will keep it in confidentiality, as she did until now, I have no insight into them.” And he barely greed to that, but Leslie was unbent. “She will get the funds to help you more. Medication and vaccines, and pre-natal care…”

He wants to say more, he wants to tell them about the schooling he has planned, about possible stipends to get the kids out of the grip of poverty if they want to leave, of wanting to help this place become liveable and safe for them if they want to stay. But he’s aware this is already too much, that these are the most important things they lack (that an omega in charge of pups will instinctively respond to), that he has to move slow, that this all has a chance to blow up in his face.

The Omega is considering him now, aggression tuned down into barely distrust, but there’s a spark of interest there, a shade of the youth that should have been had the life not tried to squash it.

Bruce would give everything in that moment to know the boy’s name.

“That’s all?” It’s almost mocking, but not entirely.

“I want you to stop killing.” The next part is hard to voice, he has to force it, because Leslie was right, not everyone got a chance to cultivate unshaken morality after their life went up in flames. “Or don’t let them kill… if you have to.” He will work on it. He will try to help them overcome that, teach them how to keep their hands clean – hopefully, in time.

“And you will keep us safe from the lowlifes?” This time it’s a mockery. “We will shine a light in the sky and the Bat and his birdie will swoop down conveniently too late to save anyone, but the villain and the pretty, clean omega crying nicely for the reporters?”

He was right, this was too far, too much and too early. He has to backtrack. Fast.

“No, you have to defend yourself.” God, it’s hard to admit. “But the little ones…”

“Are always in danger.”

The Omega turns, fists clenched, steps off the sidewalk and crosses the street, and Bruce almost backs away, because the alleyway fills with growls and hisses, with danger, and he doesn’t want to set them off.

“We don’t go out to kill,” the Omega hisses, “they keep coming here to be killed. I made it clear, where the borders are, I made it simple.” He barely reaches Bruce’s chin, but it’s not important. “They come here armed, to murder children, to take them away to be sold, not one of them deserves to leave.”

The situation deteriorated, but at least now Bruce can scent him, can feel him up close, and underneath the tension and rage, there’s weariness and hunger, and underneath that there’s… something strange. Acrid and bitter, and alien, and hurt.

“How old were you?” He asks, maybe stupidly, but the alpha in him tears at the walls of restrain.

“When Gotham killed me for the first time?”  

He wasn’t asking about that, he thought… he hoped it was a metaphor, just rumours. The deadly shine in the green eyes told him otherwise.

“Fourteen. On the corner of Park Row. Went to bust some rims and got my head busted instead.”

Impossible. It was too much of a coincidence…

“I will think about your offer, Batman. Leslie will pass on the decision and I don’t want to see you here anymore.”

He turns away and leaves, washes out into the shadows and with him the presence of the pack watching Bruce try to gather himself back together.        

It was a small victory, but still one.  

#headcanon #okay this is long #sorry #but i just couldn;t stop writing #XD

[by-nina]

Little Bird

AO3 | FFN Royai Week 2020 | Day 5 – Picture prompt; seated couple Rating: K Genre: Fluff/Friendship Word Count: 2,044

A/N: My warmest thanks to everyone who gave their love throughout Royai Week! I’ll see you all soon for the big bang. x

The years to come are already bound to be empty without a friend. “I hope you don’t wait for me.”

Morning comes with the soft cooing of a bird in the Hawkeye house. The sound startles and awakens Roy, who had fallen asleep in the living room with his face pressed to an open book. It takes him only a second to regain his senses, having woken up so suddenly due to the bird, now nursing a slight ache from the discomfort of his sleeping position over the coffee table. He sits up, and he hears a few rushed footsteps and the snap of a door closing. The cooing disappears, and then there is silence.

            Roy quickly rises and follows where the sound had gone. It leads him to the back door of the kitchen not far away. He peeks through the glass pane of the door, soon glimpsing someone at the edge of the wood behind the house. The master’s young daughter, Riza—she looks over her shoulder as if wary of being watched, back hunched forward over something in her hand that Roy cannot see. Suddenly, with soft sprightly steps, she disappears into the wood.

            Confusion and mild panic rise within Roy. He hasn’t been in the wood before, doesn’t know if the girl is even allowed to be out like this, much less when half the sky is still dark and twinkling with its remaining stars. The master would kill him if anything happened to her.

            Roy realizes that he is barefoot only when he has stepped out onto the dewy grass, felt the wetness and crunching beneath his feet. The sun hasn’t risen high enough yet to truly break through the fog, and it chills him, having been used to much warmer mornings in Central. He briefly considers going back into the house to put on his house slippers and a coat, but the sound of her footsteps is quickly fading ahead of him. He grits his teeth and gives chase.

            To his relief, the wood isn’t quite as deep as he thought it would be, even though it is still a bit of a shock for someone around whom greenery had been scant growing up. Roy trudges through a three-minute walk’s worth of slick dry leaves and entangled twigs on the forest floor before he comes to a clearing—and she turns quickly when she notices his arrival, startled and indignant.

            “Why are you here?” she snaps. Roy takes an automatic step back, surprised at the loudness of her voice.

            “I-I’m sorry—I just saw you going out the back and wanted to make sure you were safe—”

            Riza exhales and pouts. “I can take care of myself, Mr. Mustang. You should go back before Father wakes up.”

            He misses her command as his eyes find her hands clasped in front of her. At last he finds the source of the cooing that had awakened him—a small dove, blinking and trembling slightly in her grasp. Roy also notices the way she is holding the poor creature; her wrists and knuckles appear tense, but taper out into gentler fingertips that sink into the dove’s feathers.

            “What are you doing with that bird?”

            She glances down at the dove and turns away defensively to hide it from view, even as her shoulders relax slightly. “Nothing. I’m just setting it free.”

            He ignores her attempts to brush him off; curiosity has taken hold of him. He has never seen a dove this close, much less in the hands of a child like her. Back home, the doves and pigeons in the city square allowed visitors and passersby to sprinkle bread around them for feeding, but would always quickly fly away and perch out of reach whenever they were approached. He never even knew what people wanted to do with the birds once they had run through the dispersing flock. But here, he could tell by the tone of her voice and the careful way it sits in her hands that it is there for its benefit, and not because she had simply wanted it for herself.

            “He was injured,” she suddenly says. Roy has leaned in to take a close look at the bird. “He flew into my window last night with a bad-looking wing. But I think he’s doing better now.”

            “Oh. And you took care of it?”

            There is a shadow of a small, fond smile on her lips now. She strokes the dove’s head with one finger. “I guess you could say that. I kept him in a box in my room, left out some water and seeds for him. You shouldn’t really watch a bird or pet it when it’s healing because you might scare it or make it worse. But then he started hopping around and flapping his wings a little, so now I think he can go back out and fly.”

            Roy blinks at her. “Have you done this before?”

            She nods. “With smaller birds. I’ve never taken care of a dove before.”

            Slowly, she opens her hands, and the dove ruffles its feathers once before hopping out onto the surface of a wide, flat rock. It fumbles around, seems to turn and look at her, then finally takes off and makes a short flight into the branches of a nearby tree. It perches on one, then transfer to another.

            Riza lights up as she watches the dove. Roy follows her gaze upwards.

            After a while, her face falters into a slightly wistful expression, but not one that is entirely unhappy. She looks pointedly at Roy. “This was my secret spot, you know. No one’s ever been here before.”

            He looks around. There is more to the spot than the wide rock to sit on; the clearing comes up to the edge of a small cliff overlooking a grassy meadow colored by several patches of wildflowers. The meadow spreads out to a small lake; farther along is another wood, then the mountains. It offers one of the best views he has seen so far during his short stay in the East.

            “I’m sorry I followed you here.”

            She smiles again, much more softly this time. “If you can keep the bird a secret from Father, then you can come here too whenever you like, Mr. Mustang.”

            Roy cannot help but return the friendly look she gives him.

            “Just call me Roy.”

Her father’s apprentice soon becomes her best friend.

            Roy turns out to be less like the uppity, self-absorbed city boy Riza had first judged him to be, and more like someone she might have already known closely over many years. He learns very quickly about caring for birds outside of the alchemy lessons he has with her father, as more hurt and sick birds come in through her window over the next couple of years. Finches, jays, sparrows—they always seem to find their way to her room, and she cares for each one diligently as he watches. On days that her father allows him to go into town, he buys medicine and supplies for tending to the birds.

            Nights of caring for injured birds turn into quiet talks that last until the odd hours of the morning. More than once, they fall asleep in her room in the middle of a conversation, shortly awakened by their patient’s sudden chirping. There is an ease in talking about him, an understanding she has never known with any of the children in their town. A greater sense of empathy than she has ever gotten from her own father.

            All too soon, Roy turns seventeen, and something changes in him, as if a fire has been ignited in him by a new sense of purpose. They have talked about their ambitions before, and she has always known that the lessons with her father would end and he would leave to seek something else, but she finds no comfort in that knowledge, or in their unspoken mutual attempt to forget about his departure until it looms closer than ever.

            Riza begins to miss him sooner than she had hoped she would.

“Roy?”

            She peers around the wall at him as he studies in the living room, careful not to disturb the robin in the box between her arms. In the moment before he looks up, as he is poring religiously over his notebooks and some reading materials from her father’s study, she sees for the first time just how much he has changed since the morning he followed her to her—their secret spot. Sharper features, an intensified focus… a grown young man.

            And then he does look up, and Riza is comforted by the warm familiarity of his expression. Roy sees the box right away; he needs no further explanation. He rises from the floor and follows Riza as she slinks into the kitchen, cradling the box as she had every other bird that came before the robin.

            “Master Hawkeye?” he whispers.

            “Preoccupied. I’ve just handed him a stack of old scientific journals that he hasn’t read in years.”

            They keep their footsteps light and quiet until they reach the same old wood, and then the walk up to the clearing feels both like walking back in time and getting to know each other all over again. Roy asks Riza about the robin in the box; she asks if his alchemy lessons have been going well lately, and how he has been dealing with her father, and what else he is working on. Sunset is fast approaching now; the light turns dim beneath the canopy of the wood, and the shrill, steady chirping of cicadas fills the air.

            Neither one mentions that this bird is will be their last.

            At the clearing, they take in how much more colorful the meadow has become in the past couple of years, if overgrown. The wildflowers sway in the wind, and the water in the lake ripples as it reflects the sun setting behind the mountains in the distance. Riza sits on the flat rock, then Roy takes his place next to her. She gently sets the box on the ground between their feet, cups the robin gently in her hands, and raises it slowly in the direction of the meadow. It hops up; it shifts its weight on its feet; it sings a short series of notes in her hands; it takes off, and then it is gone.

            “He’ll be all right.”

            Riza imagines how she must look to Roy, staring far too long at the spot in the tall grass behind which the robin had disappeared. She can’t imagine that she will cry now, when she has cried very few times in her life, and never in front of anyone else. Never over the birds she has had to let go of after caring for them. After all, she has never longed for any of them to stay.

            Why would she heal their wings if they were never meant to fly?

            “I know he will. I’m happy for him.” She pauses for a moment. “I’m happy for you.”

            Riza only wishes she could say this more sincerely.

            A flock of birds suddenly emerges from the grass and soars up into a formation circling in the sky. Behind the clearing, birdsong rises from the trees and fills the space around them. They look up to find small birds of every color and every shape calling out to one another, breaking through leaves and branches, bringing the forest to life in a way that neither of them has seen or heard before.

            “It’s amazing, what you’ve done for them,” says Roy.

            “You’ve helped me care for them too.” Her voice turns small. “I’ll miss you while you’re gone.”

            Riza waits for him to respond—hopes that one person in her life will at last care for her in the same way she has cared for them. If he doesn’t, she doesn’t know when she will have a chance at it again. The years to come are already bound to be empty without a friend.

            “I hope you don’t wait for me.”

            For a moment, she is farther from the birds, further from him than ever.

            But his voice is gentle and low when he speaks again, like the coo of a dove.

            “I hope you fly, like they do.”

#Royai Week #Royai Week 2020 #RoyaiWeek20 #Roy Mustang #Riza Hawkeye #Royai #Fullmetal Alchemist #Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood #FMA #FMAB #Day 5 - Picture prompt; seated couple #fanfiction #fanfic #one-shot #fluff #friendship #young Royai #best friends #childhood friends #writing #written by nina

[peaky-shelby]

Back to you [4]

“Thunderstorms in spring„

Pairing: oc x Halstead bothers

Previous: prologue, episode one, episode two

Series summary: an old friend comes back and is need for help from the Halstead brother’s. Will this story end in heartbreak or a win?

Episode summary: Loralai talks to jay about the case and she and will are back to their old ways.

Words: 1745

Warngings: lots of angst this time, angry will

Author’s note: quite ironically this page is only the calm before the real storm. Some big revelations happening in the next chapter woohoo!! Please keep commenting and sending feedback it’s the only way I’m motivated to keep writing and it helps a lot. Thank you!! (+) quick dedication to @peachlle for reading and commenting, you are amazing♥️ I hope you’ll enjoy!!

Jay entered the hospital with a file in his hands. Turns out Ruzek had managed to shoot and kill one of the three guys that had attacked them earlier in the day and that was their only lead. They followed it but nothing good came out except a few random names and a photograph. He was hoping Loralai would have more to tell now that she was awake.

He stopped his pace when he heard loud voices coming from Loralai’s room, he took a peek and saw Will standing next her, shaking his head. His was very familiar with this picture of the two of them.

“This isn’t a joke Loralai!” Shouted Will. Jay felt like he was taken back to Will’s old apartment, listening to them fighting on their bedroom while he was in the living room, trying to ignore them.

“Isn’t it?” She asked, her voice loud and clear “because it feels like we’re back in time! It’s always the same fight with you Will, the same dialogue! You haven’t even changed your lines!”

“My lines? What about your ways Lor? How many times do you have to get hit to realize that you gotta stop—“

“IT’S MY JOB!” She shouted back.

“Your job is to write not to dodge bullets and pray that you’ll survive!”

“I don’t care wether I’ll survive or not!” She spat “even if I die, at least I’m dying for a reason! People will hear the stories that matter—“

“And what about the people that love you?” He asked, cutting her off before she could say anything else “what about your parents? Your sister? Me? Jay who saw you bleeding out in his hands? You die and then what happens to us? You really think it’s gonna be that easy for us to let go?”

Loralai scoffed “it didn’t seem like it was that hard for you to let me go three years ago.” She looked away “which reminds me. You are not even my boyfriend and I’m not your girlfriend so why the hell are we even fighting about this?”

Will didn’t answer to that, even Jay could feel how much it must have hurt him when she said those words. It was a cruel reminder but the truth. Will didn’t need to listen to anymore if it and as he stepped out of the room and turned the other way he bumped into Jay. He held him still.

“You ok Bud?” He asked but all Will could do was move his head. There was so much anger in his eyes, Jay expected to see smoke coming out of his ears. He looked down, rubbing his face, there were so many things he wanted to say but couldn’t so instead he settled of the typical “I have to go.”

Jay watched him leave without stopping him and then looked at the door to Loralai’s room. He fixed his jacket, like he was about to get in a ring and took a moment from himself to gather all the strength he could before he stepped inside. It was weird to see her again, awake. She was staring at the ceiling, biting her lip and scratching the sheets with her nails like she always did when she was angry. Ah, the details.

“Hello Sherlock.” He said, getting her attention. Her face light up immediately when she saw him, like she had been expecting him. She reached for him with her arms and jay walked quickly to her, wrapping his hands gently around her. He was so happy to see her safe and healthy. “How you feeling?” He asked, pulling away just enough to look at her.

“Better now that I don’t have your brother yelling at me.”

“he’s just worried about you a lot and you don’t make it easy for him—“

“That’s bullshit Jay! How many times a day do you have a gun pointed at your head? Why doesn’t he give you that speech of love and death— he thinks because I’m a woman I can’t take care of myself.”

“That’s where you’re wrong Loralai! He texts me everyday to make sure I’m ok, he’s as worried for me as he is for you the only difference is I’ve been trained to dodge the bullets! You barely know how to hold a gun!”

Loralai didn’t say anything and before she could come up with a smart reply jay left the file he was holding on the bed and pulled out one of the photographs. “Have you ever seen this guy before?”

Loralai accepted the change in subject and took a moment for herself to think. “No.”

“Ruzek shot him while he was running away. He’s the only one we got from the car. We have no other leads so I was hoping you’d tell me more.” He sat down on the chair next to her bed, waiting to hear her story.

She sighed, looking at the ceiling “one month ago there was a fire at the Heathwood’s family house do you remember?”

“Yes it was an accident—

“Except it wasn’t.” She said confidently. “My editor asked me to write a piece on it and Michael Heathwood who had magically survived. It was a Miracle, the kind of shit that people love to read. But when I met with him...”

“You knew there was something wrong” he finished her sentence and bowed his head “why didn’t you go to the police?”

“The police were on it Jay! They porpusly looked the other way. If I went he would find out! So I did it myself. I looked as deep as I could. His wife, Alicia Stewart, died only one month before the explosion from a car accident and When the house exploded his father in law, Stefan Stewart and his mother in law, Carla Stewart were the only ones that died.”

“You saying he wanted to kill that family?”

“im saying there are far too many coincidences Jay!” She cleared her throat “so I might have illegally checked his bank accounts.” Jay raised his eyebrows and stood still across from her. He didn’t approve at all of what she had told him “I didn’t find anything which was even weirder”

“And I don’t suppose you gave up from then on...”

“I spied on him, searched everything I had on him and you wanna know something funny? Michael heathwood didn’t even exist two years ago!”

“Wait wait—“ He raised his hands, signaling her to slow down. “What?”

“His real name is Peter Evans! He’s a con artist! He tricks rich families, kills them, takes their money, saves it under a different name and runs.”

Jay stood up, pacing the room until he balanced himself on the edge of the bed, trying to process everything that she had told him. “Why didn’t you tell me? I could have helped you! Make sure that this..” He pointed at her wounds “wouldn’t happen!”

“I had to get enough evidence first. Create the story. If he realized I was on to him he’d disappear in thin air”

He stood straight again, crossing his arms “And Where is your evidence?”

“In the flash drive I gave you!”

Jay didn’t answer, he narrowed his eyes looking at her confused. “What flash drive?”

“In the car!” She insisted “I gave you a USB! Did you lose it?”

Jay hid his face in his palms “it must have fallen on the car.” He said, trying to reassure himself that the information was safe. He looked back at Loralai reaching for her hand and giving it a light squeeze “we’ll find it.” He told her. She held his hand before he could slip it away and he looked in her eyes, his heart beating a little faster. It was the bruise right under her eye that made his body shiver, he couldn’t stand seeing her like this.

“I owe you an apology...” she whispered, completely changing the subject. He tried to fake a smile as if he didn’t understand.

“For getting shot at?”

“Jay—“

“Don’t.” He warned “Not now. We’ll talk when all this is over.” He brought her hand up to his lips and gave it a light kiss before exiting the room. On his way out he caught Will behind the reception, making some notes but he decided not to bother him. Will saw him too from the corner of his eye but he was still angry from before to have any conversation with any body.

When he finished writing his notes he looked towards Loralai’s room. She had her eyes closed and she looked like she was about to fall asleep, god knows she needed that rest. He sat down on a chair, watching her sleep. He couldn’t go home and he couldn’t go in her room after their argument so this was the best way to check up on her and make sure she’d be ok. After a while he started to fall asleep himself. The position of his neck was so uncomfortable that kept waking him up and annoying him. When he opened his eyes again because of the pain he saw Loralai moving nervously on her bed. Turning her head right and left and whimpering. He jumped of his chair and rushed to her side.

First thing he did was check her wounds but he saw nothing alarming. When his hand touched her skin, her eyes shot open and she grabbed for his wrist. She looked so terrified to him, so broken, nothing like the confident girl he was used to having around. All the time he knew her there was always one thing she couldn’t battle and that was her nightmares.

He made sure to look calm and not scare her anymore than she already was. “Hey hey it’s ok. It’s just me. Lor?” He held her hand softly, stroking her fingers until she broke down into tears. This was the first time he had seen her cry today, all it took was a nightmare. He sat next to her on the bed, pulling her swiftly in his arms to warm her. He caressed her back and kissed her forehead, whispering sweet words in her hair, his breath falling on her like a veil of safety. She snuggled closer while he spoke, reassuring her that it would be alright.

He always thought of her like a thunderstorm in spring. It didn’t rain a lot but when it did... it was hell.

#jay halstead x reader #jay halstead imagine #jay halstead #will halstead x reader #will halstead imagine #will halstead #chicago fire #chicago fan fic #chicago pd #chicago med #chicago #nick gehlfuss #jesse lee soffer #one chicago

[taexual]

Disciplined / Wonho x Reader

The newest addition to Hoseok’s team proves himself to be reckless when he breaks Hoseok’s rule and starts a conversation with you only to discover that you weren’t going to be his damsel in distress.

pairing: mafia au! – lee hoseok x reader

warnings: some mentions of death, strong language, some sexual themes

words: 5.1k

ANON REQUEST: Monsta x Mafia AU! Where Wonho is at a business meeting and leaves his men at home to take care of his girlfriend, but a new(er) recruit hits on her?

He always said it wouldn’t take long and that he’d be back within an hour. That was never true – you were lucky if you’d see Hoseok again the same night after he’d left for a meeting – but you still believed him every time he said goodbye to you by the door. In your defense, Hoseok’s charming smile and the affection in his eyes would have made anyone fall for his words in a heartbeat.

“I’d really rather wait for you alone,” you whispered against his chest as he hugged you goodbye, seemingly unphased by the three men he’d brought into the house before leaving.

“They’re here to look after you,” Hoseok said, clutching you very firmly. He always seemed to squeeze you tighter right before he let you go, so you knew he was going to leave in the next few seconds. “They’ll make sure nothing happens to you while I’m out.”

“Nothing ever happens to me,” you insisted, fighting a useless battle. Changing his mind was about as likely as you getting killed while these men were in your house. “And I’m sure they’d rather be somewhere else anyway.”

“I don’t really care about that, to be honest, sweetheart,” he said, pulling away from you – just like you’d expected – and bringing his hand through your hair. “They work for me and I need them to be here tonight. That’s all.”

“You could really just give me a gun and teach me how to defend myself instead,” you mumbled.

Hoseok smiled and shook his head. You knew his reasons for his constant need to have you protected and you knew every explanation that made sense of his paranoia. He’d watched his father’s peers turn on him and kill his wife – Hoseok was already smart enough to know that leaving a person completely defenseless was bound to bring bad luck but he didn’t do anything to remind his father that his job constantly put his wife in danger – and, although he wasn’t particularly close to the woman, her death had still left a deep scar in his mind.

A scar that, evidently, was not deep enough, because Hoseok made the exact same mistake his father had made, only three years later. He had left his best friend’s house for five minutes to check up on what appeared to be the sound of gunshots coming from the outside, and then, upon returning back into the house, discovered nothing but a bloody room and a dead body of someone whom he once considered to be his own family.

So, yes, you knew Hoseok wasn’t purposefully keeping you locked up – he was only trying to keep you safe in any way he knew how – but you still did not agree with his methods. And how could you? You did not share his experiences. You’ve never watched two people die because of something that could have been avoided so easily. You’ve never blamed yourself for not being there to protect them and, if all attempts to save them failed, not taking the bullet, too.

“The day I see you with a gun,” Hoseok said, his hand on your cheek, “is the day I’m laying on my deathbed, yeah? Let me and my men do the dirty work. You focus on yourself.”

Although life with Hoseok had completely flipped your world upside down, there were a few things that he insisted stayed the same – your hobbies, your job, and your education.  You may have seen enough blood to last you a lifetime, but in spite of all of that, Hoseok still tried to keep your life as normal as possible. Not to mention, even though he belonged to the Mafia, Hoseok had a deep hatred for guns – the losses he’d experienced had contributed to that, of course – and refused to allow you to keep one, which, truth be told, made you feel a lot more normal. At least, you wouldn’t have to fire any weapons and your only crime would be falling in love with a notorious criminal.

Hoseok never understood your apprehension about his choice to have his men protect you. He knew you never got to know them simply because Hoseok had forbidden them to talk to you but he wasn’t trying to get you to bond with his Mafia members. He was looking after you – like he should have looked after all those people before – and this was the only way he could show you that he cared. However, as caring as he was, he also had a certain possessiveness in him that attracted you most of the time, but managed to piss you off just as much.

“You’re treating me like a baby,” you told him.

“Yes,” he replied, ignoring the complaining in your voice and pressing a gentle kiss to your forehead. “You’re my baby.”

You tried to groan – the look in his eyes making your heart flutter more than the pet name – and crossed your arms over your chest. “Just be home soon, okay? I’m done with my thesis, I literally have nothing else to do in this house now.”

“I’ll be back as soon as possible,” he promised. “Gotta keep my girl entertained, right?”

And with a quick wink your way, Hoseok was out of the door.

Sighing at his departure, you turned around with the intention of heading to your bedroom upstairs – you already knew better than to try to have a conversation with Henry and Jay who stood by the door; all of your previous attempts have been fruitless – but then you heard someone chuckle.

Stopping suddenly, you looked around. The sound was by no means unusual, but you were surprised to hear one of Hoseok’s men show an actual emotion while you were around.

“He really keeps you locked up in here, doesn’t he?” someone said and you turned your head towards the corner of the kitchen where one of Hoseok’s men had been standing.

You haven’t seen him before and, even though you weren’t exceptional at remembering everyone’s face, you could tell that he had to be one of the newer additions to Hoseok’s army.

“Not really,” you said, intrigued because not a single one of your guards had dared to talk to you before. “I could leave if I wanted to.”

“And we would, of course, have to go with you,” the guy replied, a smile not leaving his lips.

You squinted your eyes, unsure if you should approach him or just carry on with what you’d planned to do – which was nothing – because you knew the guy had strict orders not to talk to you and yet there he was, ignoring them. If you encouraged him, he could very much lose this job – and his life, too.

“Yes,” you ended up saying. Maybe you thought the risk was worth it; talking to someone was so much better than spending your night staring at the ceiling, after all. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t go wherever I want to go. I just happen to have a bunch of obnoxiously quiet men following me around. No offense.”

You’d addressed the two men by the door but they, of course, remained quiet. The only signs that they were alive and weren’t, in fact, some sort of advanced robots, were the warning looks they’d given the member of their team that had addressed you.

“And do you like that?” the guy pressed. He obviously had a lot of courage and you feared he was going to waste it all on this conversation that he wasn’t supposed to be having. “Do you seriously don’t mind this lack of freedom?”

Crossing your arms over your chest in a defensive manner, you leaned against the door, leading into the kitchen. You didn’t dare to enter the room and approach the guy just yet.

“I do mind it sometimes,” you replied honestly. “But I love Hoseok and that’s the price I have to pay if I want to be with him.”

“Is it worth it?”

You didn’t even hesitate. “Yes.”

“Hmm,” the guy smirked. “Sounds like he’s got you whipped.”

You didn’t like the way he made it sound. The way he spoke about your relationship was as if Hoseok owned you and did whatever he wanted with you. As if you never had any right to say anything. And while you knew your life choices were somewhat limited, Hoseok had never made you feel chained. He’s never stripped you off of your ability to make decisions for yourself unless he knew better.

And, actually, there were many things that Hoseok knew better, one of which being the ability to recognize when he was stepping over the line. He backtracked if he realized he was starting to control you in a way that suffocated you. He apologized if he said something demeaning. And he always made sure you were comfortable with the decisions he’s had to make on behalf of you.

Although you’ve tried to fight him every night, not wanting to have his men babysit you, you’ve also allowed Hoseok to convince you that this was the right decision. You knew how much your agreement meant to him. Had you said no and really pressed on the issue, Hoseok would find a different solution – he’d remove his men from your house, but then take you with him to the meeting instead, or do something else that still allowed him to keep an eye on you – but he would never physically lock you up inside of the house against your will. That just wasn’t him.

“I may be whipped for him,” you started to say, “but it’s certainly not because I listen to what he tells me. Contrary to what you might think, I’m actually capable of recognizing real danger. I know what could happen if I was left here alone.”

“Yeah, but what are the chances of something happening?” the guy continued. “I mean, no offense, you’re really beautiful, but stalking people takes time, you know what I mean? I’m sure there’s no one lurking outside of your windows at night, waiting to kill you. And if there is, then Hoseok would know, wouldn’t he? He has a gift of… ah, extraordinary intuition.”

“That’s a nice way to call him paranoid,” you said, watching the guy chuckle. “You really don’t know much about Hoseok’s life, do you? You’re new, right?”

“I am, yeah,” he replied. “I just joined late last year. I’m a quiet guy under normal circumstances – I guess that’s why Hoseok trusted me enough to bring me into his house – but I couldn’t help but say something to you. See, I’ve never really seen the partners of the guys from the Mafia before. I’ve never seen the way they interact with their loved-ones.”

“Well, get used to seeing that, then,” you said. “Since you’re a member now, too.”

“Right,” he nodded. “I don’t think I’m the kind of member that those other guys are.”

You glanced over your shoulder at Henry and Jay, positioned in the hallway, still standing there as stoic as ever. Their serious, unmoving facial expressions could have given the Terracotta warriors the shivers. Actually, you would have thought they had turned into stone as well but you could still notice glimpses of concern on their faces whenever you replied to something their member had said.

“Yes, I don’t think you are, either,” you said, turning back to face the guy in front of you. “We shouldn’t be having a conversation.”

“And yet we are,” he said, smiling as though the consequences of tonight did not matter to him in the slightest.

You frowned. “What’s your name?”

“They call me Yuto here.”

“Okay. Do you have a death wish, Yuto?”

He laughed. “No, not at the moment. Why? Are you saying the penalty for talking to the girlfriends of the men from the Mafia is death?”

“Actually, I don’t know,” you said. “No one was ever brave enough to address one before.”

You’d entered the kitchen – you couldn’t help it, something about this brave stranger interested you despite his obviously negative attitude towards your relationship – and approached the jug of water on the counter next to where Yuto was standing.

He smiled as he watched you pour yourself a glass but did not say anything, waiting for you to continue the conversation instead. You knew you shouldn’t have – you could just imagine how much danger you were putting him in just by being in the same room as him when he was given instructions to pretend as though you didn’t exist unless you were dying – but you still did.

“Do you think it’s possible,” you started to say in between sips, “that Hoseok put you here as a challenge?”

“A challenge?” Yuto asked. “No. Why do you say that?”

You put the empty glass back down on the counter and sat down on the bar stool by the kitchen island, opposite to where he was standing.

“Well, you’re a new recruit,” you said. “These men in the hallway? They’ve been with me since Hoseok and I started to date three years ago. There were a few other guys but I never found out what happened to them – both of them were Hoseok’s long-time friends, too. And now there you are, a brand new addition to his team. The reason why Hoseok brought you into his house can’t be because you’re quiet.”

“No?” Yuto was smiling even wider now. He hadn’t expected you to be so witty and smart but, needless to say, he did not regret starting a conversation with you at all. “So, you’re saying Hoseok is testing me by bringing me around you?”

You shrugged your shoulders. “Why not?”

“Well, what’s the test? Is he going to fake an attack on you to see what I’d do?”

“No, I think it’s simpler than that,” you said. “Maybe he just wanted to see if you’d follow his orders. Obviously, you don’t.”

His glittering eyes let you know that instead of being scared – like any sane human would have been ��� Yuto was actually excited. For a moment, you weren’t sure if it was Hoseok challenging him, or if it was the other way around.

“That’s right,” Yuto said. “I have a hard time sticking to the rules. Maybe that’s why I joined the Mafia.”

“There’s got to be some sort of order even among criminals,” you pointed out.

“Has there, really?” he questioned and then leaned back when you raised your eyebrows at his question, “you could say I’m a bit of an anarchist.”

“Huh,” you shuffled on the stool, throwing one of your legs over the other one in search of a more comfortable position – and not failing to notice the way his eyes followed your every move. “So, you’re here to show Hoseok he can’t control you, then?”

“I’m not showing Hoseok anything,” Yuto replied, his confidence captivating your attention. “All that I do is a favor to him. He doesn’t own me. I don’t work for him.”

This surprised you. “No?”

“No,” Yuto confirmed. “I work with him.”

You weren’t exactly sure how to respond to that because you had a feeling Hoseok wouldn’t approve of this attitude. There was a strict hierarchy in his team and Hoseok was on top. No one’s ever challenged his authority before – not openly, at least – and if they had, well, then there had to be a reason why you’ve never heard of them.

“Perhaps you should keep quiet about it,” you suggested, starting to feel uncomfortable. Although you could agree with Yuto’s point of view, you didn’t think now was the right time to challenge the system that had existed in the Mafia for decades. “Or better yet, find a different occupation. You’re young. You don’t have to be in the Mafia.”

If you had to choose one reason to explain how the Mafia managed to achieve so much – Hoseok had ties everywhere, it was impossible for anyone in an important government position to do anything without him finding out – then you’d say it was because of the authority of a leading figure. There would never be a successful underground criminal syndicate if someone didn’t lead it.

Chaos was easy to kill – the police would catch one member and he’d spill the truth about the rest in an instant – while order was not.

“You’re young, too,” Yuto countered. “You don’t have to spend the rest of your life hiding in Hoseok’s shadow because he’s afraid to show you to the world. You don’t have to live in a cage like you’re his own personal little bird.”

“That’s not at all what life with Hoseok is like,” you replied, feeling the way your muscles tensed up after his words. “I already told you, I could leave if I wanted to.”

“Could you, really?” he scrunched his nose in doubt. “How many ex-girlfriends of the Mafia members do you know? Frankly, I don’t think that category exists. Not in this world, at least.”

You squinted your eyes at him.

“So, let me see,” you said. “You’re saying I don’t have to live with Hoseok because he’s keeping me locked up. But you’re also saying I’ll die if I leave this so-called cage. Sounds to me like you’re painting my life in very pathetic colors.”

“Not at all.”

“Really? Then the only to outcomes of my life, according to you, aren’t to either submit to Hoseok completely, or to die?”

“No,” he said.

“What else is there?” you questioned.

“You could run away.”

“Run a—wow,” you laughed at the absurdity. “I thought you were brave but now I just think you’re not smart enough to realize what you’ve gotten yourself into here. Even if I didn’t love Hoseok with all of my heart, do you really consider me stupid enough to try to run away from him?”

“Maybe you couldn’t do it on your own,” Yuto said, shrugging his shoulders, “but if you had the right people helping you—”

“Whoa, alright, let’s stop this conversation right here,” you said, standing up from the stool. “I don’t want to hear you say that you’re the Knight in Shining Armor that’s come to get me out of a castle guarded by a dragon, yeah? Because, like I’ve already told you, at least, three times, I’m in love with Hoseok. I don’t want to leave and if I did want to, I certainly wouldn’t need an action movie worthy plan to escape.”

Yuto looked like he heard you – a smile was his response to your words – but he was not convinced. Although he could see where you were coming from – even if he’s never been in love – he was still certain that your relationship with Hoseok wasn’t something that you deserved. And even if it wasn’t Yuto’s original plan to play an almighty hero in the story of your life – he wasn’t lying when he said he’s never met a girlfriend of a Mafia member before – he still thought you needed help.

“Okay,” he said, not pushing his opinion because he knew your defenses were too high up now. “Sorry if I crossed the line.”

You nodded, turning away. “Okay. Let’s just—let’s pretend like we never talked, alright? That’ll save us both some energy. I’ll head to my—”

“You don’t want Hoseok to know you talked to me?” Yuto asked, cutting you off.

“No,” you replied. “I don’t want him to know you talked to me. I’m allowed to do whatever I want – it’s you who’s not allowed to reply to me. If anyone’s the little bird, trapped in a cage, in this situation, it’s you, Yuto.”

He was still smiling but you could see the way he’d clenched his jaw. Perhaps you’ve gotten to him now. You’d have said something else but you decided not to waste your time. Yuto had thought it was Hoseok who was treating you like his property but, really, Hoseok was the one who saw you as a human being, while Yuto only looked at you as a girl who needed saving.

“I’m going to go,” you said after he didn’t reply to you, but right as you headed out of the kitchen and towards the staircase, Yuto grabbed your hand.

“Wait,” he’d stopped you, pushing a piece of paper into your palm as he held onto your wrist. “Keep this in case you change your mind and realize that you can always start a new life.”

Almost angered at his bold move – and his audacity to still talk to you about the same thing even though you’ve told him you’d never even consider leaving Hoseok – you stopped and were about to toss the note he’d given you into the trash, but then the door of the house opened, distracting you.

“They fucking canceled on me,” Hoseok was saying as he threw the door open. He had his phone by his ear and did not notice your surprised eyes, watching him from the kitchen. “I got into my car, drove to their quarters, even fucking texted them three times to check, and they—”

He stopped once his eyes finally landed on you. Although, it wasn’t really you he was looking at – his gaze was too focused on Yuto’s hand still firmly on your wrist.

Barely a second passed after Hoseok clocked the close proximity of you and his newest recruit, and he’d already hung up his phone and took one quick step towards the kitchen until he was standing right in front of you.

“Was there an accident?” he demanded in a cold, serious voice. “Did something happen?”

“Hoseok—”

“Hold on for a moment, sweetheart,” he cut you off, his eyes on Yuto. “I’m trying to find out what reason could explain his hands on you. I’m only assuming he was trying to stop you from leaving which, of course, means that he’d been talking to you and then refused to allow you to end the conversation by leaving the room.”

“I wasn’t—” Yuto started to say but chose to let go of you before he continued, “I wasn’t refusing anything. I had some things I wanted to say to her.”

“Were those things a warning, perhaps?” Hoseok questioned. You had a feeling that the flames in his eyes weren’t caused by Yuto’s hand on yours but rather by your obviously uncomfortable and even angry expression that he’d seen as soon as he entered the house. “Were you trying to tell her not to leave the room because there was a bomb in the house? Were you warning her about a sniper that’s been aiming at her from outside?”

If Yuto was scared or worried, he didn’t show it. “No.”

“Well then why, for the sake of all hell, did you think it was a good idea to manhandle my girlfriend after you’ve been specifically told not to say a single word to her?”

“I don’t think you’re treating her fairly by locking her up here and not allowing her to talk to anyone,” was Yuto’s overly confident response.

It made Hoseok sneer. “Oh, she can talk to anyone she wants. She has more friends than I could count, but this isn’t about her. Your job here was to stay put and make sure nothing happened to her. That’s it.”

“Hoseok, it’s fine,” you said, feeling the need to interrupt – and potentially save Yuto’s life – despite not agreeing with the young boy’s point of view. “I was the one who started the conversation.”

Your boyfriend turned to look at you with the same warm smile he’d used on you before he left, a huge contrast to the way he’d looked at Yuto before.

“None of us deserve you and your heart, my love,” Hoseok said. “But I know you’re lying. I’ve had you protected since the day we met and not once did you dare to start a conversation with my men. Especially not after you found out they weren’t allowed to talk to you.”

You lowered your head, looking away. Hoseok didn’t blame you for trying to take the heat off of Yuto – perhaps, a part of him knew that you didn’t object against Yuto talking to you because it was nice to finally talk to someone that was staying in your house – but he thought your attempt was quite useless. He’s already decided what he was going to do. In fact, he’s had this decision ready even before he left the house.

“Let’s go,” Hoseok said, turning his head to give the other two men in the hallway a nod. “You’ll take him back, yeah? I’ll join in a few hours.”

“Of course,” one of the men said, entering the kitchen and, surprisingly, giving Yuto a chance to cooperate. “Come on, we’re heading out.”

“What are you going to do?” you dared to ask as you watched Hoseok’s newest recruit walk himself out without even a glance your way – thank God for that. “Will you kill him?”

Hoseok may have hated guns but he was no stranger to violence. He had chosen to keep the majority of what he did under wraps but he wasn’t deliberately hiding his work from you. He protected you from the worst of it, but you still caught glimpses over the years.

“Not yet,” was his response to your question as his men escorted Yuto out of your house – although, really, it looked like the three of them left together amicably and if it weren’t for the sudden yelp of pain you heard as soon as the door of your house closed, you would have thought this was going to blow over peacefully. “I’m a firm believer in second-chances. He did do his job, at the end of the day. He just didn’t listen to the orders that were given to him. We’ll teach him how to listen.”

You bit your lip, almost afraid to imagine his methods of teaching, and Hoseok – after noticing your awkward expression –  wrapped an arm around your shoulders.

“Please tell me this won’t traumatize you and scare you off from my men,” he said. “We still have to attend that dinner next week.”

“Dinners are fine, I get to talk to the other girls during dinners,” you replied, sighing. “But it’s not me you’re scaring off from your men. It’s the other way around. They’re afraid to even look at me.”

“Good,” Hoseok said, smiling teasingly as he did not see what the problem was. “Do you really need other men looking at you? Am I not enough?”

His playful tone made you raise your eyebrows in surprise. You’d heard him swear when he returned home and you’ve seen the lightning in his eyes when he talked to Yuto, so, obviously, you weren’t expecting him to tease you about this in such a relaxed way.

“No, you’re enough,” you replied. “But you’re away a lot and—”

“Oh, so you need someone for when I’m away?”

“No. I only need you,” you said. “I always need only you.”

“Yeah?” Hoseok’s hand slid from your shoulders to your waist as he brought your body closer to his, a smirk still decorating his features. “Can you prove that to me, baby?”

“Hmm,” you replied to the teasing grin on his face with one on your own as his playful mood brushed off on you. “How do you want me to prove it? Would my words work?”

“They would,” he said, his eyes burning into yours with the utmost love and adoration. “But I’m sure you’ve already shown your love for me with your words when that useless son of a bitch bothered you, haven’t you?”

“I…” you pulled away from him a little. “Were you—?”

“—listening?” he guessed and then shook his head. “No. I’m not paranoid enough to listen to what’s going on here when I’m away. But I had a feeling Yuto would say something to you. He was far too quiet in every meeting that I’ve seen him in. The quiet ones are always the ones plotting something.”

“Why’d you bring him here, then?” you asked, suddenly confused, “if you knew he was going to—oh,” it hit you in the middle of a sentence. Your speculations about Hoseok’s true intentions were somewhat correct, after all. “You were trying to get him to disobey, weren’t you? You knew he was going to stand up to you and you were waiting for exactly that.”

“Maybe,” Hoseok replied, his eyes falling to your lips. “I also wanted him to meet my girlfriend and realize that she could kick his ass just as well as I could if he tried anything with her.”

“So, was it all for laughs?”

“Most of it,” he admitted. “I knew Henry and Jay were more than enough to protect you and I needed a way to teach Yuto a lesson. I couldn’t exactly teach him some discipline just because I was suspicious he was going to rebel, could I? I had to wait until he actually did something that went against my orders.”

“So… was there even a meeting tonight?” you asked, unsure if you were impressed or angry at him for playing you while he tricked Yuto. “Or did you just—”

“Oh, who cares now?” he cut you off, his impatience finally resurfacing as he got tired of you asking him questions you already knew all the answers to, when he could have been watching you undress for him. “I’m back now. I’m all yours for the next few hours before I have to go back and actually deal with this. We’ll talk about this then, yeah?”

“You mean we’re postponing the conversation?”

“Mmhmm,” he hummed, leaning in closer until his lips were hovering over your neck. “Unless you’d rather hear me explain how I schemed to get this poor disobedient young man beaten up, instead of letting me kiss you everywhere you want.”

“I would—you’re beating him up?!” you asked, almost dizzy from his close proximity and the feeling of his breath washing off on your neck. You still tried desperately to keep your mind working.

“No, I’m not going to touch him personally,” Hoseok replied, finally pressing his lips to the sensitive skin right below your ear. “I’ll just ask him some questions, talk to him a bit… nothing big.”

“Oh,” you exhaled, barely acknowledging what he’d said, too focused on the feeling of his lips moving down your neck. “You’re very distracting, do you know that?”

“I hope I am,” he pulled away from you – the coldness of the room immediately hitting the wet trail his kisses had left on your neck – and leaned his forehead against yours instead as he watched you try to catch your breath. “Because, if I’m not mistaken, I believe you were going to prove something to me, hmm?”

“I can’t seem to remember.”

He chuckled, the feeling of his chest vibrating against yours sending sparks of electricity all throughout your body.

“I believe you’ve told me you only needed me,” he said, his voice suddenly much lower. “So, let me refresh your memory, baby, so you’d forget all about the other men. And then you can prove to me how much you love me.”

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