#alex saw his life flash before his eyes

[cod-dump]

Alex: You can’t get married, the Bible said Adam and Eve not Simon and Johnny. Come back after you legally change your names

Ghost:

Ghost: Do you realize how close I was to stabbing you?

Alex: Honestly thought you were going to before I even finished the joke. I am pleasantly surprised

#alex saw his life flash before his eyes #call of duty #modern warfare #alex keller #simon ghost riley #incorrect quotes #ghostsoap #soapghost

[disneyprincemuke]

hot laps * fem!driver

the fact of the matter is that she's got the reputation of being a reckless driver on the road, but they didn't know the extent until they had to join her for a hot lap around the track

pairings: bother figures x fem!driver, 4lyfers x fem!driver, macky

notes: hi i got bored at work and this is what i did instead of my dissertation

(series masterlist) | (📂 the sophomore year)

-> max verstappen, #1

literally cannot stop screaming the entire time

he knew she was a reckless driver by some degree on the road

but not like this

she takes him on an extra lap and goes faster, almost clips the wall and almost loses the car

is kinda impressed that she recovered it somehow

stumbles out the car a sputtering mess at how hard she’d gone in the car

“remind me not to anger you”

-> logan sargeant, #2

unfortunately is used to his life being in grave danger at her hands

lowkey still has a heart attack even though he knew she’s been driving like this since he taught her how to drive a road car at 16

holds onto the handles for dear life

disappointed but not surprised

“i almost got murdered trying to do content with rocky”

-> lando norris, #4

is silent most of the time

wide eyed though

is kinda traumatised at how fast she was going

because she seems to be having a lot of fun

just walks away the minute she parks the car at the grid

"doesn't seem normal to be giggling and humming songs when you're driving at 200km/h"

-> alex albon, #23

a little impressed

not sure what logan’s deal is about her driving

her driving reminds him a lot of george’s recklessness behind a wheel

isn’t as bad as george so that’s a win to him

“she’s a close second to george on the list of people i wouldn’t let drive me around”

-> liam lawson, #30

cussing her entire bloodline the minute she accelerated

apologises for every time he’s angered and pissed her off

his eyes were closed half the time, only ever peeking through an eye every couple seconds

terrified for his life

“have you ever considered operating a rocketship instead of a race car”

-> mick schumacher, #47

kinda enjoys it actually

she’s driven his car on the road before

asks her for a second lap because he literally doesn’t have the time to go to an amusement park

she says no

says she'll do it if he pays her money and the rates are $5/km/h

“it’s like getting on a roller coaster except it’s not nearly as scary”

-> george russell, #63

screams half the time she’s driving

literally tries to be a backseat driver

could feel his stomach left behind at sharp turns and his lifespan decreasing

actually saw his life flash before his eyes

“i need to apologise to alex for my driving behaviour”

-> oscar piastri, #81

would rather be anywhere than in a moving car with her

tries everything in his power not to get in the car with her

is unfortunately dragged in by lando because “if i had to go through it, so do you”

“i’ve lived with her, i’ve BEEN through it”

doesn’t feel much during the lap

feels kinda nice actually

better driver than he remembers her to be

“perhaps my expectations were low, but you weren’t as bad as i remembered so good job”

— bonus

-> sebastian vettel, #5

doesn’t even blink

sits there and takes it

kind of wonders why he allowed himself to be the target of the socmed’s team

from a race car driver perspective: good, but as a human: it’s absolutely foul

jelly legs when he came out of the car

“whoever let you have a license should have a stern talking to”

-> matt cornett (boyfriend!)

is praying for his safety the minute she approached him with bright eyes and a hopeful smile that he’d join her for a hot lap

literally thinks she’s going to kill him

isn’t as bad as he thinks

still thinks the rate she went at was too fast for his personal preference

she shrugs and admits that she went slower than she did with everyone else she's taken

is offended and asks her to give him the same treatment

literally regrets it

“i literally thought i was going to die at your hands”

taglist: @wcnorris @treehouse-mouse @laura-naruto-fan1998 @mindless-rock @vellicora @ironmaiden1313 @angsthology @cherry-piee @christianpulisic10 @elliegrey2803 @33-81 @darleneslane @nikfigueiredo @happy-nico @namgification @localwhoore @notawc @sadg3 @kazuha-pista-badam @mellowarcadefun @megatrilss1885 @peqch-pie @woozarts @meadhbhcavanagh @2bormaybenot @a-disturbing-self-reflection @inejismywife @love4lando @louvrepool

#max verstappen x reader #logan sargeant x reader #oscar piastri x reader #alex albon x reader #liam lawson x reader #george russell x reader #lando norris x reader #sebastian vettel #f1 x reader #f1 x you #f1 grid x reader #f1 female driver #formula one x reader #fem!driver #f1 fem!driver #female driver #disneyprincemuke vr #disneyprincemuke #disneyprincemuke imagine #disneyprincemuke imagines #disneyprincemuke f1 #vettel reincarnate

[thewritingofamadwoman]

Should I Stay, or Should I Go?

Happy Monday! I hope I did this request justice, tried to keep it light with a bit of angst. Not sure where I want these two to end up but let me know what you think!

Requested by the lovely @caseyandsloan

Pairing: Mark Sloan x Fem!Reader (gave her a name but no descriptions used)

Warnings: A bit of Angst, Mark being Mark.

“Annalise, wait-“

I rolled my eyes at the sound of the familiar voice trailing behind me.

“Don’t you dare ‘Annalise’ me. It’s DOCTOR Grey to you, Doctor Sloan. I have no interest in speaking to you so please go whore yourself to any other attending,”

I continue walking until I reach the nursing bay, pulling out one of my patient’s charts and looking into their case. Mark stood in front of me, and gave me an apologetic smile.

“Fine, “Doctor” Grey, can you please just hear me out. I came to Seattle to find you, to apologize. I want to be part of your life again. What I did was a mistake, but you have to know that I never stopped loving you,” he pleaded, his eyes begging me to believe him.

My heart wavered, feeling a million and one emotions in a span of a few seconds. Our life together flashed before my eyes; our first date, our time during medical school together with our friends, being best man and maid of honor at Derek and Addison’s wedding, finding out we were pregnant. The last memory to cross my mind however, was the scene I walked into back in New York. The way he and my ex-best friend Addison Montgomery, were in bed together. My gaze immediately hardened once more.

“Here’s what you’re NOT going to do, Mark. You’re not going to show up to my place of work and bat your baby blue eyes at me in hopes of me taking you back. You ripped my heart into *shreads* Mark. I loved you. Part of me still does. But you don’t get to prey on that minuscule part of me. Not anymore. Now get the hell out of my sight before I call security,” I could feel my eyes water as I glared at him, the hurt fueling my heart.

Before Mark could say anything else, I heard a voice I’d never been more thankful speaking up from behind me.

“Is everything alright, Annalise?” I turned to find Miranda Bailey staring at me with her arms crossed, turning her head to shoot daggers at Mark. My sister, Meredith, was standing beside her along with the rest of the interns, looking on.

“Everything’s fine Miranda, thank you. Come on Meredith, I think you and Yang on my service today,” I walked forward, hearing my sister’s sneakers trail behind me. Rounding the corner I paused against the nearest wall and let out a deep breath. Meredith came to a short stop behind me.

“So…who was that?”

I scoffed humorlessly. “That, Mer, was Mark Sloan,”

“Wait. THE Mark Sloan? The guy who slept with your best friend? Derek’s best friend?Jolie’s father? THAT Mark Sloan?” Meredith’s eyes widened comically and both she and Christina looked back down the hall, as if trying to catch a glimpse of the man in question.

“Yup. The one and only jackass,” I huffed. I took a deep breath, put on my game face, and pushed off the wall. Mark Sloan had taken so much from me, and I wasn’t going to let him piss me off at my place of work anymore.

“Wait, wait. Derek’s best friend, who slept with Derek’s WIFE was married to you, Derek’s other best friend? What, was this some sort of doctor orgy?” Christina said as we made our way to our first patient.

“First off, we were never married. We were together for six years. But welcome to the Grey-Sloan-Shepherd family dynamic, Yang. Stick around, there’s so much more to come,” I rolled my eyes as we reached the patient’s room. The day continued and I managed to forget about Mark. That is, until I saw Derek punch him in the middle of the nursing bay. I gasped, along with the rest of the on-lookers before following Derek with my eyes as he walked away.

“That was one hell of a punch, Shepherd’s a badass!” I turned to see Alex Karev smirking to George O’Malley who looked like a fish out of water as his eyes trailed between Derek, Mark, Meredith, and finally to me. I raised an eyebrow at him, and he immediately looked away, a deep blush spreading along his cheeks.

I sighed. Fuck, this was going to be one hell of a fucking day.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The sound of a lunch tray slamming down onto the table tartled me from my deep thoughts. I looked up to see Callie Torres and Miranda Bailey looking at me sheepishly. I nodded and both women sat down, waiting for me to speak first. I rolled my eyes playfully, taking a bite of my carrot.

“Go on, I know you want to ask..”

“Holy SHIT, Anna. THAT’s Mark? He’s fucking hot!” Callie gushed, looking around to make sure the man in question wasn’t around. Bailey scoffed and nudged Callie.

“Torres!”

I laughed at Bailey’s exclamation.

“No, she’s right Miranda. He’s ridiculously hot. But he’s also the biggest asshole on the planet,” I shrugged, taking a sip of my coke.

“Mind if we ask what happened? All we know is that you came to Seattle after breaking up with your ex. There’s definitely more to that if he’s back here begging for you to take him back.” Callie said, smiling sympathetically. I let out a deep breath and allowed myself to think back to the good old days.

“What’s there to tell? He was the love of my life and we were happy. And then he decided to fuck my best friend, in turn hurting both me and HIS own best friend.”

Both women stayed silent, knowing that there was more to come.

“Two years ago Mark and I were the couple that everyone was jealous of. The country’s most well renowned plastic surgeon and cardio thoracic surgeon, tackling New York together. Mark, Derek, Addison and I were truly the best of friends. Addy and I grew up together and when we met Mark and Derek in college the four of us were inseparable. Derek and Addison got married after we all got our PhD’s and Mark and I were over the moon for them.

“A few months after the wedding, I found out I was pregnant. And after seeing how happy Mark was at Derek’s wedding I assumed he’d be just as happy about the baby. I mean, we spoke about our future all the time but I guess it was just all talk to Mark. The second I mentioned I was pregnant, he changed. He started staying late at Cornell, taking on case after case. It was like he was never home. And I didn’t question it, I just assumed he was busy, maybe even working hard to save up for the baby. But one rainy night, Derek and I worked a late together and he offered to drive me back home when we finished up. Since’s Derek and Addison’s place was close by, we walked there so Derek could grab his car from the garage. The second we walked in to the house, we both knew something was up. The sight of a familiar leather jacket on the ground next to a pair of haphazardly tossed heels made my stomach drop. Derek and I shared a glance, both of our hearts breaking simultaneously.

“Derek walked up the steps to his bedroom while I did my best to keep myself from hyperventilating. The second I heard Addison’s gasp and Mark’s voice calling out for Derek, my heart shattered into a million pieces. Derek flew back down the stairs, eyes watery. Our gaze locked and he grabbed his keys and raincoat, pulling me by my hand, doing his best to drag me out of the house but not before a familiar silloutte stood at the top of the stairs.

“Annalise…”

Mark’s voice cracked with shame and my tears finally spilled over. That was the last time Mark and I saw each other. Derek and I immediately went back to the hospital where we spent the night consoling each other in silence. We were shocked. Sick to our stomaches. Devastated. Jolie was born 7 months after that and it’s just been the three of us ever since. I officially made Derek Jolie’s God-Father and we’ve been happy. Mark tried to reach out multiple times but I packed up and left Seattle shortly there after. Changed my number and just lived my life for my little girl.

So watching Derek sucker punch Mark truly made my day. I even got myself a cookie to celebrate,” I took a bite of the cookie in hand and smiled at the women infront of me.

They both looked disheartened and yet happy to have gotten the full story.

“Thank you for telling us Anna. If you need anything at all, we’ve got your back,” Callie said, smiling and placing a hand over mine. Miranda nodded.

“Absolutely. I’ll kick that little shit in the balls if he ever attempts to come near you if I have to,” I laughed and smiled back at them, happy to have friends like them.

Hours passed and I was staring at the OR grease-board while chewing on a twizzler before hearing two familiar voices off to my left.

“Welcome aboard Doctor Sloan, Seattle Grace is proud to have you,”

I turned to see Chief Webber shaking hands with Mark. My mouth dropped open, Derek standing a few feet behind me with the same look on his face. I felt like a fish out of water, my heart racing. Suprise, sadness, fear and rage bubbled inside me and before I knew it, I felt myself explode.

“What the fuck Chief!”

Please let me know if you’re interested in a part two. Do you think Annalise should forgive Mark down the line, or should a new love interest join in on all the fun?

#my writing #mark sloan x reader #mark sloan #greys anatomy x reader #request #mark sloan x reader insert #mark sloan fanfic

[mouse-fantoms]

Thinkin about the boys being like “it’s Halloween, we’re ghosts we have to be spooky!” And Julie is like “…pff good luck 😂” bc I mean just look at them,

Luke’s like “😠 no we’re ghosts we can be scary”

Reggie’s like “yeah we can be spooky!”

And Julie points out, “…none of you wanted to take care of the spider that was in the garage the other day bc it would come back as a spider ghost and haunt three.”

“In their defense, we haven’t seen a ghost spider before and didn’t want to test the theory.” Alex defends.

Bc Julie can always see them, it takes the spookiness out of everything. They can’t make anything look like it’s floating to her bc she can see that they are holding it, they can’t float or anything bc they haven’t figured out that part of being ghosts. After feeling like they’re out of spooking options they decide to resort to the classic ghost stereotype in media of using a white bed sheet.

They just wait in the garage for someone to come by and spook em but turns out it’s Julie and she once again cannot be spooked and this time she says their downfall was choosing the garage bc since she already links the garage with them she already knows there’s ghosts there so it doesn’t catch we off guard to see “ghosts” in there.

They decide to throw in the towel, they cannot spook Julie at all bc she has a good point and good reasons for not being able to be spooked.

When she leaves the garage she left the door partially open and the boys are like “huh she didn’t close the door kind of weird? Luke you go close it.” As he has his hand on the door to close it all of the sudden in the crack of the door in his vision he see a white figure with a black face who does a “BOO!” cry. Luke stumbles back and falls to the ground out of fear as shouts “AHHHH!” which match Alex and Reggie’s cries who were near the door and who saw the sudden figure appear just as Luke had. They suddenly hear laughing from behind the door.

“Good job Carlos.” They hear Julie’s voice and the white figure, who they now realize is short and has a black sharpie drawn on face opens the door to reveal her. “That was perfect.”

As Alex and Reggie help Luke up from the floor and they’re trying to process what happened they see that the white figure takes off their white sheet to reveal that they are in fact Carlos. They see Julie holding out a high five that Carlos returns with a smile on his face, proud of his part.

“You recruited your brother to scare us?” Reggie doesn’t know how to feel considering he always join in on Carlos’ “paranormal videos” and how much the two have bonded bc of them.

“You scared ghosts with a ghost?” Alex points out the irony.

“You can’t just do that!” Luke holds his heart like he’s trying to relax his breathing. “My life just flashed before my eyes.”

“Your afterlife.” Reggie corrects him with a whisper.

“That’s how you properly spook someone.” Julie smiles.

It takes them a second to collect themselves but once they do they can’t help but laugh and congratulate Julie, she got them good.

Julie explains that Carlos already had the sheet with the drawn on sharpie face ready bc for several years he got Ray multiple times with that same gag. Every Halloween seasons it’s like a tradition for him to spook Ray and even though Ray suspects it his son still gives him a fright bc he always catches him off guard. It was just her idea for him to use it to spook other people which was definitely worth it

#the power there would have been if we had a Jatp Halloween special the possibilities #I just love the image of the three being like ‘yeah we can be scary 😠’ but like… just look at them 💀 they could never #jatp #julie and the phantoms #jatp netflix #jatp luke #julie molina #alex mercer #reggie peters

[unformula1]

you’ll stay? (LS2 x OP81)

logan’s life is hard but he’s got oscar. w/c: 651 day 29 of loscar posts until we get a loscar podium (series masterlist) masterlist

Logan has never felt more alone. He sits on his bed, the cold embrace of his blanket enveloping him. His tears slowly flow out, tracing his cheekbones, clinging onto his chin before falling onto the bed. His head is tucked between his two knees, soft sobs echo in his hotel room. 

He’s alone. 

A knock on his door forces Logan to sit up and wipe his tears off. As he walks toward the door, he checks the mirror, cleaning off any trace of him crying from his face. Logan takes a deep breath and puts on a smile.

He opens the door and comes face to face with Oscar.

“Hi Logs.” Oscar waves, he’s holding a bag.

“Hi Oscar.” Logan says after clearing out his throat, his voice comes out more hoarse than expected.

“I didn’t see you at the party. Alex was there!” Oscar says.

The party. Logan forgot if he got invited but he wasn’t planning on going anyway.

“I crashed.” Logan deadpans, “I’m not gonna go to a party.”

“Yea… my bad.” Oscar says before he lifts up the bag, “I brought some pastries, my grandmother made them. Thought you might be hungry.”

Logan stares blankly before taking the bag from Oscar, “Thank you.”

“Mind if I come in?” Oscar asks.

Logan looks back into his room and hesitates.

“I mean if you don’t want me to then I won’t…” Oscar’s voice trails off.

“Come in.” Logan says.

“Oh. Cool!” Oscar walks into the room and takes a seat on one of the chairs.

Logan closes the door and places the bag on the table before sitting down opposite Oscar on the edge of the bed.

“How have you been?” Oscar asks, then instantly regrets it, “Sorry, stupid question.”

“It’s okay.” Logan says, he doesn’t exactly want to converse right now, he sort of just wants to cry.

“So… life’s rough?” Oscar says, “Sorry. Stupid again, I’m not very good at this whole… conversing thing.” 

“It’s fine.” Logan says.

“Do you want me to help you with… anything? You could talk to me right now.” Oscar says.

Logan sighs, “I just need to cry right now.” He says before flopping back first onto his bed.

“Oh… are you okay if I stay?” 

Logan nods, not sure if Oscar could see but Oscar stayed where he was, so Logan assumed he saw the nod.

“If you want me to leave anytime just tell me.” Oscar says before sitting next to where Logan was lying down.

Logan usually would never cry in the presence of someone else, he had a facade to keep up. However, right now, Logan couldn’t care less.

When he crashed, the only faces he saw were disappointed ones. They only got more disappointed in him when Alex scored points. All of them shot Logan with wary eyes. Alex was disappointed in him. James was disappointed in him. All of them were.

He tried his best, he really did everything he could to get better but nothing paid off. His dreams were like flashing before his very eyes.

Logan stares into the ceiling.

“Are you disappointed in me?” Logan asks.

Oscar shakes his head, “No. I would never be.”

Logan lets out a soft scoff, “Sure…”

“Hey! I would never be disappointed in you.” Oscar says, patting Logan’s thigh, “I’m always proud of you.”

“I literally crashed today.” Logan says.

“Everyone makes mistakes.” Oscar shrugs.

“Clearly I make more than others.” Logan scoffs, mostly at himself.

“Well, I believe in you then, I believe that you’ll get better.” Oscar says.

Logan lets out another scoff disguised as a chuckle.

“Yea…right…” Logan says, as he feels his tears slowly filling his eyes.

“Shut up mate.” Oscar says, “You’re an amazing driver, you will get better.”

Logan smiles slightly but the tears continue to flow.

“I’ll stay with you, every step of the way. Okay.”

“Promise you’ll stay?”

“Promise.”

#f1 #formula one #formula 1 #f1 fandom #f1 fic #f1 fanfic #f1 imagine #logan sargeant #not beta read #oscar piastri #osc #mclaren #mclaren racing #mclaren f1 #mclaren formula 1 #mclaren formula one #williams racing #williams f1 #williams formula 1 #op81 #ls2 #ls2 x op81 #lando norris #hurt/comfort #comfort #loscar fluff #f1 fluff #fluff #loscar fics #loscar

[the-offside-rule]

Logan Sargeant (Williams) - I Did Something Bad

Requested: yes

Prompt: 16) "I would do anything for you."

literally was listening to I Did Something Bad bc of this oneshot lmao

Warnings: Y/n is low-key a bitch

"I mean, last race of the season. You and your teammate are heading into this race with the same amount of points. Do you reckon you could pull something out the bag?" Will Bixton asked Y/n before he pointed the microphone over towards her. "I'm not sure, I'm just going to go into this weekend a little more aggressive I think. At the end of the day, what matters is the team result and foe both cars to come back safely." She replied, adding that last bit simply because her PR manager was there. "You could give Logan Sargeant a word, assuming he finishes qualifying in last." Will joked. Y/n smiled to herself, before she left. No matter how far away she got from Will and that conversation, the idea lingered; What if she asked Logan to hold George up? It'd be so easy to make him do it. You see, Logan and Y/n came up the ranks together and since she was one of the only girls he saw frequently, she became the object of all of his desires.

Logan walked into the paddock, his confidence surprisingly booming....considering he finished qualifying in 19th. His eyes couldn't help but wander over to where Y/n Y/l/n (or the love of his life as he would say it) stood surrounded by her team. She gave a wave towards hin, ushering him to come over. His heart fluttered. Ever since Logan had begun racing her, he found himself inexplicably drawn to Y/n. Her talent on the track was matched only by her charm off it. But there was something about her, something elusive and alluring, that kept him captivated.

As Logan approached her, Y/n flashed him a knowing smile, her eyes twinkling with mischief. She was aware of his infatuation, and on occasion like this one, she used it to her advantage whenever she pleased. "Hey, Logan," Y/n greeted casually, her voice dripping with subtle amusement. "Got a moment?" Logan nodded. "Always for you, Y/n." Logan replied in a joking tone. "I need a favor, darling." Logan felt his mouth go dry. "Okay?" He replied, more ina questioning tone than a reply. Y/n leaned in, her breath warm against his ear as she whispered her request. "During the race, could you let me by easier and give George a harder time? You know, help me out?" She winked.

Logan's heart sank at her words. He wanted to refuse, to stand his ground and race fair and square. But the longing in his heart overruled his better judgment, and he found himself nodding in agreement. "Sure, Y/n. Anything for you," Logan murmured, trying to ignore the pang of guilt gnawing at his conscience. Y/n smiled. "Oh, you're the best!" Y/n pressed a kiss onto his cheek. "See you out there!" She said, before heading back into her garage. Logan simply stood in awe. She....she gave him a kiss?!

The memory of the kiss hung in Logan's mind. He couldn't quite believe it. Was she finally warming up to him? He had told Alex, and Alex told Lando, and Lando....told just about anyone I the paddock. Logan sat by his car on the grid, the mechanics and engineers running around ensuring that everything was ready for the race ahead. Logan watched as Y/n's Mercedes rolled past. He could just about figure a smile through the visor, before Y/n waved and Logan couldn't help but do the same. In the cockpit, Y/n grinned and shook her head at how stupidly easy this whole plan was. All it took? A bit of her charm that Logan was oh-so crazy about.

The race unfolded with breathtaking speed, the roar of engines and the screech of tires filling the air. Logan did as Y/n asked, easing off the throttle to let her pass while putting up a fierce fight against George, allowong Y/n to go on and ultimately finish the race in second. But as the checkered flag waved and the podium celebrations began, Logan's heart grew heavy with regret. He had betrayed his principles for a fleeting chance at Y/n's favor, only to be met with indifference.

Y/n stood outside the Mercedes hospitality, holding her trophy whilst the cameras took a few photos. "Y/n?" She turned when she heard the American, her smile dropping slightly. "Logan." She said through a faked smile. "How did your race go?" She asked. Logan struggled to find the words to express his anguish. "I got a penalty." He replied simply. "Oh." Logan looked at her, visibly pissed off. "Oh? I do what you ask and all you can say is oh? Why did you ask me to do that if you weren't even going to thank me?" Logan questioned, his emotions bubbling to the surface. Y/n regarded him with a cool detachment, her expression unreadable. "Y/n looked at him nonchalantly, shrugging her shoulders.

"It is what it is, Logan. I needed an edge in the race, and you were willing to provide it." She replied dismissively. "Are you fucking kidding me now?" Y/n scoffed. "You're acting like I owe you something." She said. "You don't, but a bit of gratitude would be much appreciated." Y/n's brows knotted in anger. "Thank you? This is your job. You're pissed off at me for asking you you to your job? To actually defend the other drivers? That is your job, I just think it's pathetic it took a girl for you to do your job somewhat well." Logan stood as he watched her return into the Mercedes hospitality, her tone sending a shiver down his spine. Her words hung in the air like a bitter truth, leaving Logan feeling hollow and used. He realized then that Y/n would always play by her own rules, leaving broken hearts in her wake.

#f1 blurb #f1 imagine #f1 oneshot #f1 oneshots #logan sargeant x reader #logan sargeant x you #logan sargeant x y/n #logan sargeant imagine #logan sargeant imagines #logan sargeant blurb #logan sargeant headcanon #logan sargeant fanfiction #logan sargeant fic #logan sargeant angst #logan sargeant

[yes-divine-ruler]

Le Passion - Alex (Adult World)

Requested <3 thank u lovely anon

Summary: Alex finds out reader has been writing her sexual fantasies about him, and wants to show her that he is more than she’s ever imagined.

CW: protected penetrative sex, oral (f receiving), fingering

Taglist: @v-love @evanpetersfav

Word count: 1440

"What are you writing?"

Alex tries to look over your shoulder, and you whisk the notebook away from the counter and hold it to your chest.

"Nothing!" You say abruptly, flashing Alex a fake, but suspicious smile.

"Yeah right," he teases, trying to snatch the notebook from your chest. You dodge his attack, running around to the other side of the counter as he chases you.

"Alex! Leave me alone!" You whine, as he continues to chase you around the store. Eventually, he catches up to you, wrapping his strong arms around your waist and pulling you into his chest.

He snatches the notebook from you, running to the stock room and closing the door. Your eyes open wide in fear of what he might think if he saw what you were writing, your fists banging at the door that Alex is leaning against to make sure you can’t get in.

"Alex! Please," you beg, your face and ears hot from embarrassment. Alex is silent on the other side of the door, and you bet he's engrossed in the totally revolting erotica you wrote based on him.

Minutes later the door clicks open, and Alex comes out of the stock room. You look down at your shoes, unable to make eye contact with him now that he knows your secret.

"Y/N?" He asks, his voice low and quiet, his finger and thumb tucking under your chin and lifting up your head to face him.

“I feel so embarrassed,” you laughed, breaking eye contact for a second. He just looked back at you, totally immersed in the eye contact you were both sharing.

Then he does the unthinkable, leaning in and connecting your lips in a fiery kiss. You froze for a moment, not knowing if it was real life, before you melted into it, wrapping your arms around his neck as his hand travelled down to your waist.

Alex pulled away, his lips swollen from the intense kiss you just shared, his eyes gleaming with something you didn’t recognise, maybe lust.

“Come to my apartment later? When we get off work?” He asked unexpectedly, his hand still on your waist, his fingers digging into your skin.

You just nodded, dumbfounded.

Your shift went by in a blur, customers coming in and out, the bell by the door ringing in your ears until finally, it was closing time.

Alex had been flustered for the rest of the day, or otherwise deep in thought. His hand was constantly in the front of his black jeans, fixing himself in his pants as he tried to sort stock. The sexual tension was impossible to ignore, and could easily have been cut with a knife.

Alex’s apartment was a few blocks away. You walked side by side as you chatted about the shift you’d just had, disregarding the erotica he’d caught you writing, and the passionate kiss you shared outside the stock room.

That was until you entered his apartment, and he turned to you with that same gleam in his dark eyes.

“Holy shit I cannot wait any longer,” he groaned, finally closing the gap between you and pressing you up against his apartment door, his kiss much more greedy than the one you shared in the store.

His hands on your waist travelled up under your shirt, lifting it up just above your breasts, until you broke the kiss for a moment to take it off. The kiss resumed, his tongue darting into your mouth to savour the taste of the gum you’d been chewing earlier. His lips felt like velvet, moving against yours just the right amount of rough and gentle.

He guided you over to his bed, laying you down and falling between your open legs. Alex moaned softly into the kiss as your hips collided, the friction almost too much to handle after a day of concealing his erection for you.

“Take these off,” he mumbled against your lips, tugging at the waistband of your jeans as you hastily unfastened them, helping him pull them down your legs, leaving you in nothing but your matching bra and panties.

His kisses got lower, first on your jaw, and then your neck, leaving a trail down to your chest, and then your stomach. Just like you’d written in your erotica, Alex’s head was between your legs. His fingers grazed the waistband of your panties, before pulling them down, agonisingly slow.

He watched you squirm for a moment, flustered, your bottom lip between your teeth before he finally wrapped his lips around your clit. He sucked softly, his cheeks hollowing as you let your head fall back, a moan of pleasure leaving your parted lips.

“Just the way you imagined it, hm?” He asked, in a moment away from your heat, before his head dipped down again, this time his tongue running up and down between your folds.

“Alex- oh my god,” you whimpered, his hand coming up to cup your breast through your bra, massaging softly as his tongue returned to your clit.

You felt the knot form in your stomach, the undeniable feeling of an oncoming orgasm, as his tongue worked just in the ways you imagined it - maybe even better.

Your fingers tangled in his soft, dark, curly hair as he left wet kisses, his other hand now at your entrance, his fingers teasing you. You watched as he inserted a finger, his eyes glued to your face as it contorted in pure bliss.

“Alex, oh shit, I’m cumming,” you let out, his tongue not tiring as his finger worked at a steady pace inside you, finally relieving you of all sexual tension and allowing you to reach your climax.

His tongue lapped at your arousal as you came, profanity leaving your lips, clenching around his finger as you rode out your orgasm.

He didn’t stop, even after you became sensitive, his tongue enjoying being able to pleasure you. Until you whimpered, buckling your hips away from his face, that he finally came up from between your legs.

His lips attached back to yours, both of you now sharing the taste of you. The unbuckling of his belt rung out in the room, as he tore off his pants and boxers, discarding them on the floor next to you.

“How’d you like that? Did I live up to your expectations?” He asked, biting on his bottom lip as the tip of his erection slid against your entrance, tempted by your warmth and wetness.

“More than I could’ve ever put on paper,” you breathe out, aching for him to finally enter you, encouraging him by grabbing a hold of his erection and pulling it softly towards where you needed it to be.

He gave you a devious smile, reaching over to his nightstand and pulling a condom out of the drawer, ripping open the foil and sliding it onto his cock.

“Needy girl,” he teased, slowly entering you, the feeling of him finally stretching you out otherworldly.

“Oh my god,” Alex muttered, pushing all the way inside you, his hips touching yours before he began his slow, steady thrusts.

“Shit, shit,” he cursed, his eyes fluttering closed as he rested his forehead against yours, giving you the opportunity to hold him close to you.

“More, Alex,” you begged, wrapping your legs around his waist, caging him in as his thrusts began to pick up speed.

“You feel so good,” he groaned, now thrusting into you fast, the persistent hitting against your g spot setting you up for another release.

Alex’s thumb rested on your sensitive clit, rubbing gentle circles, as you let out soft moans just so he knew how good it all felt.

“Cum again for me,” he commanded, his lips lazily attached to yours as yours fingers scratched down his toned back, the knot in your stomach finally coming undone.

You clenched around him for the second time, which was enough for him to finally release inside you, his thrusts enough for you both to ride out your orgasms.

He pulled out, collapsing beside you. He discarded the condom, tossing it into a nearby bin, before pulling you in to his side. He was sticky with sweat, but you craved his closeness after sharing such an intimate moment.

“Now you can write about that, too,” he mumbled, letting out a laugh as you did.

“I better be getting more inspiration soon,” you teased, drawing small shapes on his shoulder blade as he held you.

“Oh there’s so much more where that came from,” he replied, kissing your shoulder, as you both laid in the satisfaction of the other’s pleasure.

#evan peters #evan peters fanfic #evan peters fanfiction #evan peters requests #evan peters smut #evan peters imagine #evan peters x reader #fem!reader #Evan peters x fem!reader #alex adult world #alex adult world smut #adult world #adult world smut #american horror story

[supercorpkid]

Powergirl Should Die - 2

Supergirl, Powergirl, B!D. Kara Danvers x BabyDanvers!Reader, Alex Danvers x BabyDanvers!Reader, Lena Luthor, J'onn J'onzz.

Word Count: 2840.

Part 1

Kara is the sunshine. It irradiates through her skin and you don't think there's a single soul that would be able to deny that. Your sister is always bringing good light wherever she might go. But you-

You were born to rain clouds. Always almost but never enough. Power, yes. But never Super. Even back in Krypton, you were always blessed in her shadow.

And that was fine, for most of your life. You didn’t care to hide away behind her at school. Didn’t care that when she moved to National City, you had to follow her too. But then she got you inside a skin tight suit, gave you a superhero name, and that was a little too much for you to bear.

Because now you are sleep deprived, too tired to function properly. Haven't rested a bit in days. Patrolling the city, watching everyone's step, listening to every heartbeat and shaky breath. Waiting for the worst.

It's not even that you can't rest because you don't have the time, that is only partially true. You have to go to the Museum and work. You haven't let anyone patrol the city ever since you saw that flash of red in Lena's surveillance camera. Even so, you would still have a couple of hours to nap, if only you could. If only you wouldn't wake up drenched in sweat from your nightmares.

All of them are about what's happening right now. You watch from afar seeing her blonde hair and red cape flying behind her while she writes the words that are now rooted in the depths of your mind. 

Powergirl should die. Why won't she die already?

"That's enough!" J'onn stops the arguing. His deep commanding voice is enough to make everyone shut up, including both of your sisters that had been yelling at you until a minute ago. "You are in a government space and some of you are public figures. I expect at least a little bit of decorum, and if that's not possible then the three of you should go talk somewhere private. Preferably at home."

"Fine by me." Kara says, hardening her jaw. "We're all going home." She speaks almost out of greeted teeth, only one eye blinks, so laser focus on you, it sends shivers down your spine. 

She picks Alex up, ready to fly away, but looks back at you before she does so, almost daring. You don't want to go home with them. All the previous yelling already made clear what their point was. You are getting obsessed with this 'Powergirl should die' thing. You're getting fixated, absorbed, borderline manomaniacal about it. Throwing blame around, wary of the people who are there to help you, snapping at your own flesh and blood. 

Yeah, yeah. No shit.

"Y/N, would you stay behind for a second?" J'onn says, and Kara furrows her brows at him. "She'll catch you in a moment, Kara. You and Alex can go."

"Alright." Kara leaves, but it is clear it wasn't ok by the way she said that. 

He starts walking and you follow him silently throughout the corridors of the DEO, and only stops in front of a lead covered room. "For privacy." He explains, pointing inside and you agree with your head walking in. "Would you like to tell me what the problem is?"

"Besides someone wanting me dead?" You snap. You can't really control how you sound right now, even though you wish you could. You're tired, scared, and suspicious of the very one person you should rely on the most. That makes everyone around you untrustworthy by default.

J'onn agrees with his head. And you bite the inside of your mouth to keep you from spilling the truth.

"Seems enough of a reason to me."

"You think Kara wrote it." He explains it further, saying what you've been thinking. At least someone had the courage to say it out loud. You sigh, looking down. 

It's wrong. Thinking your sister is the one writing all these terrible things about you. But what else would you think? It’s the only lead you have. The only one you need.

"It's a pretty big accusation."

You can't look him in the eyes. Even though you haven't directly said it, he could read all the messed up thoughts you were having about it. "You didn't say I was wrong."

"I didn't say you were right." J'onn counters, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "You're going to end up doing something you regret if you don't rest. I'm not going to argue you on this, Y/N. This is not a suggestion, it's an order from a superior. I am not giving you a shift tonight, and I hope that means you won't be on duty."

"What if the writing comes up again?"

"Then we clean it." 

"What if something more than the writing comes up this time?" You can't help the watery eyes when you say that.

He gives you a long pause, "Then we fight it."

Alright, well. You can't argue with that logic. And you also can’t argue with the fact that you are so tired, you might end up doing something stupid. 

So you agree that you won’t patrol tonight, trusting him on this, and leave the DEO. You are well aware that your sisters are waiting for you in Kara’s apartment, ready to tell you what to do. So before you face them, you send Lena a text.

You: Hey! You, me, Love Actually and Thai food tonight?

Lena: Yes, please. All of it sounds perfect ❤️

You smile at her text. Your heart doing a small loop inside you. Alright, now onto the hard part.

You fly in through the window and the second Kara notices your presence, she picks up the conversation from where it was left. 

“How long has it been since you've slept?” She asks, crossing her arms and Alex mimics her action right after. They look like two angry parents, and it makes you even more annoyed. They are not your parents. Your parents exploded 20 years before you even stepped foot on this planet, so. 

“I don’t know.” You mutter, knowing they wouldn't like the honest answer and having no energy to fight them.

“If you would just let me take over for you, mini me. I could patrol the city tonight. I promise I'll call you the second I see something suspicious and –”

“Yeah, ok.”

“What?” Kara and Alex stare at each other.

“I have direct orders from my superior to stay put. And I also have a date – I mean, a movie date – a movie thing with Lena tonight, so yeah. If you want to patrol the city, you do it.”

“Oh.” They stare at each other again, confused about your approach to this. You’ve been very demanding the past few days about how this is only about you and that no one else should get involved, and just one conversation later, you're quick to give up that control? Sounds weird. But they're not going to fight you on this, since it's exactly what they want. "Great! I'll do the patrolling and you do the date."

"And sleep." Alex adds. "Don't forget you need to sleep."

"Sure thing, mom." You force a smile then fly out of Kara's living room, and go back to work.

It’s a lot later that night when you give Lena the empty container of your already eaten Thai food, and snuggle up on her couch, throwing the blanket over your legs and trying to get as comfortable as possible. “Mmm, just FYI I might fall asleep during the movie.” You warn her. “I haven’t had a good night in a while.”

Lena hums her agreement from the kitchen, but soon she is back to her place next to you. “Something’s been worrying you?”

“I guess. But I don’t wanna bore you with that, it’s not something fun to talk about.” You smile when she gets under the blanket too, body so close her warmth irradiates through her skin. 

“You couldn't bore me if you tried, honey.”

“Au contraire, darling. I think everyone at the Museum would say I’m the most boring person alive.” You give her a side smile.

Lena shoots her head up, comically fast. She blinks at you, head clearly going one thousand miles an hour. She is thinking so hard, it's almost loud. You furrow your brows in confusion, while her mouth drops with a 'oh' sound. 

"You're ok?" You pat her leg.

There's no verbal answer. Lena's shaky hands make their way to the collar of your shirt and you sit up straighter trying to understand what's happening right now, and trying to predict what's going to happen next. 

“Lena?” You question her movements when she undoes the first button of your shirt. You swallow. It's not like you never once imagined this happening, but not like this. Not without love confessions and a whole lot of prior conversation.

“Lena, what are you doing?”

Lena doesn’t answer, doesn’t blink. Hands still shaking, but decisively making their way to the second button.

“Lena, please.” She undoes that one as well. And that's when it hits you. You are always wearing your supersuit attire under your clothes, so it's faster when you have to run out from work and such. Panic shoots through your body as you realize that if she unbuttons one more, she’ll be able to see your supersuit. You hold her hands to stop her. “Lena,” you try to smile even if your mouth is completely dry and your breath is stuck in your lungs. “Darling, shouldn’t you kiss me first, before trying to get me naked?”

Lena finally looks back at your eyes, a smile dangling on her lips to match yours. And then she gives you a smirk. “You’re not naked, though. Are you?” 

“Under my clothes? Yeah, I’m naked.” You lie with a fake chuckle. 

She untangles her hand from yours, places it behind your neck and brings your face closer. You hold your breath. Widen your eyes. This is happening. It's happening! You and Lena, it's finally happening!

“What’s going on with you tonight?” You stare down at her mouth. “I’m not complaining, I’m just confused.”

And that’s enough of a distraction for her to move her other hand and unbutton one more. Lena looks down at the white of your supersuit and the little bit of gold from the House of El crest. And you? You panic.

"I, um, I can explain." While your heart beats strongly into your ribcage and there's a loud buzz inside your ears. How do you explain yourself?

Lena seems to be inside her own little world while both hands now make all the way down undoing all of your buttons, opening your shirt to have the House of El crest staring at her in all its secrecy.  

"I'm sorry." You whisper, one tear rolling down your cheek. Because there's no explanation, really. Nothing you can say for yourself to stop Lena from hating you now.

She finally looks up to you, eyes tearing up as well, mouth agape to her recent discovery. You can see it all playing out in her eyes. She has the most expressive ones. Betrayal and anger, sadness and confusion. And then, a few seconds after two tears drop from her eyes, she raises her eyebrows at you. Eyes widening when something hits her.

"Powergirl should die." Lena whispers, swallowing deep. "Oh my God, Y/N. Someone is trying to kill you." 

She launches herself onto you, holding you tight. Her hand entangles on your hair, holding your neck strongly. 

"Oh, darling." She whispers, her body even closer now. You feel a kiss being planted on the side of your head, while you seek comfort on her arms, face buried on her neck. "No wonder you've been so careless."

"What?" 

"Au contraire, darling? Please, Y/N, I've never heard anyone say that except for you. And Powergirl, apparently." 

"Lena." You whine, embarrassed. Can't believe you made it that easy. You guess J'onn was right, you were about to do something stupid from the lack of sleep. "Someone wants me dead." You try to justify, earning a smile from her.

"You really are tired, huh?" She brings you closer again, kisses your temple. "You thought I was trying to get you naked, honey."

"Lenaaaa." You whine harder, face burning red from embarrassment. God, you're such a loser. "Can you please ignore everything I said tonight? I haven't slept an inch in four days."

Lena smiles fondly at you, while she strokes your cheek delicately. She plants a kiss there, then a light one on your lips. It's so soft, it holds no sexual implication. Just pure comfort. "Come on, Powergirl. You need a power nap."

"Oh God." You complain again, but soon Lena hugs you tight, and with your head on her chest, and Love Actually playing in the back, you're fast asleep. You don't even care if the writing shows up all over town tonight. There's no other place you'd rather be.

You wake up from your place on Lena's chest. Sometime last night she laid back on the couch and you curled yourself around her, not ready to let go. It was the first night you haven't had any nightmares.

You hear a few knocks on the balcony door, and you and Lena raise your heads at the same time to the intruder on the other side. Kara. She is smiling and waving, then she widens her eyes and turns around quickly. X-ray vision. You look down to Lena's body under yours, and your leg slotted between hers. 

"Oh my God. I'm sorry." You get up in a flash, shirt still hung open with a clear view of your supersuit. "Shit, fuck."

Lena gets up as well, trying to look less disheveled to your sister's eyes. And after you button up your shirt, you finally open the balcony door and clean your throat, so Kara can look back at you.

"Hi!" She tries with the biggest, most awkward smile ever. "Just, um, wanted to say that there's nothing new for me to, um, report?" 

You look back at Lena who knows exactly what Kara is talking about, but is looking down pretending she doesn't.

"I didn't mean to interrupt –"

"You didn't." You both are quick to say.

"Oh-kay?" Kara raises her eyebrows, a smile reaching her eyes, and you know exactly what she is insinuating. And sure, you thought the same thing last night, but you're both wrong.

"Can I get a ride?" You ask and Supergirl eagerly agrees. You turn back at Lena. "Thanks for –" You bite your tongue. You don't want to say anything in front of your sister. "Lunch later?"

"Lunch." Lena agrees with her head. And you smile before letting Kara pick you up and fly out of her balcony with you.

When you're out of sight, you untangle yourself and start flying next to her. "So no writing last night, huh?"

"Nope. Not even a kitten to rescue to keep me entertained." Kara grins devilishly at you. "You, on the other hand, was well entertained last night."

"Yeah, well. I slept for the first time in four days and had no nightmares. I'd say I was very entertained."

"Nightmares?" Kara stops flying, and you have to fly back a little, so you can talk face-to-face. "You haven't had nightmares in years."

"That's not true. I've been having them for… I guess, months now?" 

"Months?" Kara's eyebrows furrow so hard, her crinkle shows. "When did they start?"

"They're just nightmares, Kara." You argue, annoyed. But she looks at you with an expression you almost couldn’t read. It's a midst of worrisome and distrust. 

You furrow your own eyebrows, looking back at her. And then it hits you. The only reason you recognize this look, is because it's how you've been looking at her for the past four days.

"When did they start?" She repeats, strongly this time.

"I don't know." You lie. You know exactly when they started. Right after she gave you a superhero name and your first mission. Ever since, you haven't been able to sleep right.

"Let's make sure you don't have them anymore." Your sister finally breathes out. "Maybe you should try sleeping more times with Lena. It looks like she helps."

Wouldn't she like having you back at no patrolling so she can go back to the new way she found to be passive-aggressive and make you question your every single step?

"I'll pick up some extra shifts and I'm sure J'onn won't mind picking up some as well. That way you can rest your head a little."

You narrow your eyes at her, questioning her intentions. "Why don't you worry about your own enemies, and let me deal with mine?" 

She doesn't answer and you're certainly happy you rendered Kara Zor-El speechless for the first time all your life.

#supergirl #kara danvers #lena luthor #kara x reader #alex danvers #baby danvers #lena x reader #reader insert #supergirl imagine #alex x reader #powergirl

[literary-motif]

You're So Hysterical

Alex x Reader

You see Alex again after becoming a successful lawyer.

You never thought you would see his face again, but here he was, wide-eyed and speechless as he held his trusted camera in a tight grip, occasionally glancing at his client to at least appear like he cared how they liked their picture taken. 

When your client had beamed at you, requesting a picture to be taken together with you after having successfully represented them in court, you did not bat an eye. They were mildly famous, it was to be expected that they wanted their picture taken after winning a case as relevant to their career as this one. The publicity coming from it would not hurt, you reasoned, even as you were already working overtime due to all the legal proceedings you were involved in. 

Alex had been the last thing on your mind for months. 

He had broken your heart, leaving you behind as if you were nothing but an inconvenience in the end, and your expression remained stoically uncaring as you gazed at the camera you had once known so well, held in the slightly trembling hands of the person you had once loved more than life itself. 

There was no flash. “Uh,” Alex began eloquently, lowering the camera and looking at the two of you nervously. 

“What is it?” your client asked in confusion, running a hand through their hair to make sure no strands were sticking out at odd angles. “Is something the matter, Alex?”

“No, not at all,” he rushed out, glancing at you briefly before lowering his eyes again. Funny, he could not even hold your gaze anymore. “Just— You there” — he moved his hand vaguely in your direction, “A smile for the camera, please?”

If your career as a lawyer had taught you something above all else, it was patience and diplomacy. So, successfully biting back your unprofessional retort, you cleared your throat, keeping your expression as neutral as before. 

Alex would not see you smile again, and he would never take another picture of it. He had forfeited that privilege. 

You saw him hesitate. The flash came a moment later. Your client thanked you for your hard work — shaking your hand with both of theirs, praising your skill as a phenomenal lawyer — and assured you they would turn to you if they ever needed legal advice in the future. They turned to Alex, who was transfixed by the bricks of the sidewalk. 

“Right, listen,” they said, checking their phone, “I have a few things I need to do. Just send me the pictures when you’re done editing them, alright? And pass them back to the states, they’ll want to distribute them” — their phone rang — ”just enjoy London for as long as you can. The flight goes on Thursday, so entertain yourself until then. You’re on vacation. Hello—?”

He nodded, but your client hardly paid him any attention as he walked away, already submerged in a new conversation. 

Alex looked miserable and lost, standing in front of the court with his camera hanging around his neck and his eyes still averted. You could see dark bags adorning them and wondered faintly how much of his tousled hair was that way on purpose. He looked wrecked and exhausted, the polar opposite of your pristine and kempt appearance.

“So,” he began shakily, finally daring to look you in the eyes, “How have you been? I see you are a quite successful lawyer now. Congratulations. I’m happy for you.”

The burning anger boiling inside you at his words nearly made you snarl, and it was only through sheer force of your iron will that you kept your expression entirely neutral. “Pardon?” you asked, raising your eyebrow unimpressed, “Is there anything I can do for you? I don’t mean to be rude but” — you checked your watch — “I am rather busy.”

His small smile dropped immediately. Hurt and heartbreak were visible in his eyes only an instant before annoyance replaced them. “Oh, wow,” he said disdainfully, his mouth twisting into a snarl, “That’s how it is between us now, I see. Well, I don’t mean to take up any of your oh-so-precious time, oh grand advocate! Do you sign your emails with ‘Esq.’, too? You’re so pretentious!”

You blinked at him. “Excuse me?” you said, unable to suppress an incredulous laugh, “Who the hell do you think you are, Alex? This is— honestly, I don’t know what I expected from you. What makes you think I want to make conversation with you after you threw me out of your life like a piece of trash? I mean, ‘you there’? Are you serious? What, are you afraid to say my name? Do you not want your famous clients to know we were acquainted?” You scoffed, shaking your head. 

When had the two of you turned into this? It felt like there were so many things left unsaid, so much hurt you never addressed, so many issues you never got the chance to work through because he called it quits. It was no wonder you blew up in each other’s faces when there was still so much left unsaid and neither one of you knew how to say it. 

That was the past, however. That was before he left. Now, there was no reason to dig it up and try your hand at reconciliation, especially since both of you were still wounded by what had happened. You had moved on without him. He had done the same.

“Well, it does not matter,” you said, fixing your collar and looking at the sky turning dark, “I have nothing to say to you. Have a pleasant evening and a safe flight back to the States.” Giving him a last polite nod, you began to walk towards your office at the law firm you were part of. It was only about five minutes away from the court.

The sharp intake of breath behind you hardly registered before Alex's hand was on your arm, stopping you in your tracks. “Please, don’t go,” he said hastily, his voice so small it genuinely gave you pause. He looked at you with pleading wet eyes, his mouth slightly agape as if he was searching for words that would not come to him. “Please,” he said again, desperation making his voice break.

“Alex?” you asked, frowning in confusion. You took his hands in your own and found them still trembling. Worry began stirring in your chest, and your heart started aching as you saw the first tears spill from Alex's eyes. “Hey, what’s going on?”

He ducked his head again, biting his lip to keep from sobbing. “I—” he choked, “I— God, I can’t— Please, don’t leave me alone. I miss you terribly, it feels like a part of myself is just gone and I don’t— I can’t, anymore—” 

You dropped your briefcase, pulling him into a tight embrace. Alex buried his head into your shoulder, taking shaky breaths and staining your jacket with tears. He was trembling in your arms. “Where are you staying?” you asked, squeezing him tighter.

“Mayfair,” he rasped.

“Alright,” you answered, treading your fingers through his hair to make him look at you, “That’s on the other end of town. My place is closer. Come on.”

Part II

#sakuverse #zsakuva #alex x reader #alex zsakuva #alex

[hearts-are-connected]

For Saga Anderson, the first time she saw Alex Casey's true self was in the arms of another. The case they'd been working had ended badly, with a mother dead and a five-year-old boy alone.

Saga doesn't like to profile those closest to her without just cause, and despite some pieces of her partner flashing into her mind place, she's never intentionally dug deeper. Always content to leave his file aside.

It comes as a shock to her then to see the hard, jaded detective she'd heard stories of and seen in action her self, knelt before the young boy. The baby, with traces of his mother's blood on his hands from his futile attempts to rouse her from 'sleep' before neighbors came to his aid, sobbed uncontrollably. Surrounded by frightening strangers and loud, unfamiliar sounds.

Her Logan was only nine, not much older than him. Motherly instincts kicking into gear, she had begun her walk to his side when Casey beat her to it. To the most, his face would appear no different from any other time they'd seen him working a case, but that's not what she sees. Exhausted eyes shine with a new light, a compassion she's never seen from him. His taut features now more relaxed before the child, who remains fixated on him.

Large hands that normally alternate between a firearm or coffee now engulf the child's right shoulder, rubbing up and down to sooth him. The other hand carefully taking the boy's chin to turn his head, looking for any injuries himself despite medics clearing him themselves.

Saga can't help her curiosity, drifting just close enough to be within earshot of the two but not catch her partner's attention.

"You're okay. You're safe."

"I want my mommy."

"I know you do. I'm sorry, kid."

Saga knows the young one doesn't fully grasp what's happened to his mother, he just knows that he hurts, and so does Casey. Within seconds of the exchange, the five-year-old launches himself at the older man. His arms, pudgy and short, wrap around as much of Casey's neck as they can. Small hands grabbing at the back of his white undershirt, leaving small bloodied handprints.

Saga only now notices Casey's jacket is gone. It's instead on the boy, covering him as if he were wrapped in a blanket. Casey's posture stiffens at the contact, clearly caught off guard, but not pulling away. Instead, he reaches out. His long arms enveloping the child and tucking him into his chest. Chin resting on the mop of curly blonde hair.

It's only secure in the arms of this man, someone he doesn't know but feels safe with, that the boy belts out the harshest screams Saga's ever heard from a kid that isn't her own. She can only equate it to the times Logan had a meltdown, crying to the point of developing hiccups. When nothing will truly stop the screams or tears. It's just riding it out and making them comfortable. That's what was happening now.

She sees Casey's hold on him tighten, his eyes closing slowly as he turns his head, now pressing his cheek to the boy's hair instead of his chin.

"Shhh, it's alright. I've got you."

To most, even her fellow agents, Alex Casey's nothing more than a grump of a man who should've retired awhile ago and never looked back. A man to be joked about due to his name and talked about in hushed discussion.

To Saga Anderson, wife and mother, fellow agent and former student of said man, she sees someone full of heart. A tenderness reserved for only those he deems worthy. A care for those who are helpless, especially children. She sees a man beaten down by life but holding onto his humanity.

She sees Alex Casey, and she wouldn't trade him for the world. It's then and there that she knows she loves this man, and that she'd be honored to welcome her into her family.

---------------------------------

#alan wake #alan wake 2 #alex casey #saga anderson #headcanon #drabble #fanfiction

[witchersmistress]

Briar Rose

SURPRISE!!! i have Sy's pov of the events that happened at the club! ive concidered making this into a series but for now @livesinfantasyland Enjoy. with a guest apperance from August.

Trigger warning: Fluff, angst and irritation at yours truly

Word count: 1.4 K

my usual warnings, you do not have permission to copy my work in any shape way or form, if you do ill find you and haunt you for the rest of your days

Sy’s POV

I have said how much I hate the city. Especially LA?? The traffic sucks, the air sucks, this entire place sucks. But I've spent most of my life in the desert so any crowded place isn't the place for me but my business partner needed me so here I am. While i was here my best friend asked me if I could keep an eye out on Ms. Rory, she was visiting a friend. I agreed with no objections, you were indeed a beautiful girl, but you always managed to find trouble.

I left you and Jill in your hotel room as i made my way out to my wait car to take me to the club, Lux, I remember when August approached me about starting this club, i thought he was barking mad but he was right this club made a fortune, but when it came time to sign the papers i could not sign my actual name, so a pen named worked just fine so at the club i was Alex Stone. We pulled up to the curve and my driver rounded the car and pulled the door open “Have a good evening Mr. Stone "I nodded and clapped him on the shoulder before walking into the club. I made my way to my table and waved at the bartender to send a girl my way. It was auction night, which I rarely missed, but with August off gods nowhere with Ethan Hunt’s daughter, I doubt that man will surface any time soon.. The crazy bastard he just had to have her from the moment he saw her, damn near got her killed trying to keep.... Anyway, here I am, as the girls come and go off the block, some aggressive bidding wars built nothing to get out of hand, but it was the flash of a certain young woman with waist long hair that caught my attention, holding my whiskey glass, I zoned in on her.

Begging her to turn around and prove to me that it wasn't you , but she never looked my way. I must be crazy, there is no way you’d put yourself up on the auction block like that. Sipping my whiskey till the glass was empty when the auctioneer called “For the last girl of the night we have the lovely, this stunning briar rose, Aurora Harlowe who is auction 1 hour of her time for a date” my grip instantly tightened on the glass, as i signaled the waitress i wanted another one, looking like an idiot as  I watch you take your place, front and center. standing under the lights, highlighting your long hair and petite stature, I find myself suddenly wanting to race up to that stage, pull you off and back into my office so I could spank your ass raw for pulling a stun like this, Jill and some guy cat called you from where they stood,  standing in the middle of the stage next to Jake, the auctioneer, in your tight little black dress, sky high black heels.. holding your hands clasped together in front of you, looking way out of your comfort zone. I almost feel bad for you, almost.

 After an awkward introduction and some goading from Theo at the bar, they start the bidding, and I have every intention of only being a spectator. A couple people I know end up getting it going. I find myself scrutinizing the people placing bids—low bids, if you ask me. One is a lawyer in his thirties, another, a younger guy I’ve spotted in the voyeur hall a lot, and then a new guy I’ve never seen here before. I shift in my seat. I trust August and the rest of his team to vet their members harshly, but there’s something about seeing a new face at the club that gives me pause. He looks like something the stock market spit out. Cocky expression. Cheap suit. Big attitude. And I can’t help myself. “Fifteen,” I call, your eyes landing in my direction, I'm still concealed in the shadows, for now. “Alexr Stone bids fifteen thousand,” the announcer exclaims. “Do we have a challenger? Can I get sixteen?” “Twenty,” the young guy returns. The other two stay silent.

My spine stiffens when I watch his eyes cascade over Rory. He’s sure as hell not looking at her face. And something about him just gives me a bad feeling. “Twenty-five,” I say with certainty. This time, the kid in the suit turns to glare at me, adjusting the tie around his neck, clearly uncomfortable. As our eyes meet, I watch the fight in his expression die. He’s not going to outbid me, and he knows it. So it’s all a matter of how much he’s willing to risk and how badly he wants to get this fear-stricken girl alone. But I promise, I’m ready to gamble more. Pressing my shoulders back, I wait for his next bid. “Do I hear twenty-six from the young gentleman up front?” He swallows, then turns toward the stage. Rory is starting to look a little green as she waits for the next move. Hesitantly, he raises a hand. “Twenty-six!” All eyes are on me as I nod to the announcer. “Thirty.” you bite your lip. My competitor laughs, looking cocky. “Forty thousand,” he calls out, trying to appear brave. “Fifty,” I say, without even blinking. The young guy comes back with another bid, and another, and another. I outbid each one until he nervously stammered, “Seventy-five.” “One hundred thousand dollars,” I proclaim, my fingers thrumming against the leather of the chair.

There are stirrings of surprise in the crowd. Your already pale skin takes on a new shade of porcelain, like the keys of a shiny new piano. “One hundred, going once…going twice…” Her eyes dance back and forth between me and the young guy. “One hundred thousand to Alex Stone!” Jake announces, and you look about ready to faint. I watch the young guy’s jaw click as he clenches it in frustration. The crowd cheers, staring in my direction  in fascination as you  make your way down from the stage. I signal one of the security guards, “Bring her to my office.” “Yes, Mr. Stone the right way. Polishing off my whiskey as security walks you back, I stand and button up my suit coat. I watch from the shadows as my security escorts you to the elevator, watching you as the doors close. This is wrong but I've denied my feelings for you, for far too long. Making my way over to the elevator, I received a text from the last person I wanted to deal with this evening.. August

“My how the mighty have fallen, your best friend's daughter?”

I looked around to make sure he wasn’t lurking, then i looked up into the camera, that fucker..

“Fuck off August, dont you have some poor girl to terrorize?”

His response was instant:

“Now now, dear cousin, she is curled up sleeping next to me, this pregnancy has not been easy on her” 

I let out a sharp “ha” under my breath, he really is a crazy bastard. Stealing his daughter wasn't enough, he had to go and breed her as well. Shaking my head as i climb into the elevator

 Sy: “ You’ve got some issues, cousin. You make Walter look like a SAINT”

Swiping my master key on the box the elevator began to move as i waited for a response:

August: “Now that would be an achievement, he is rather far out there”

*Walter has joined the chat*

“Oh shit here we go…. 3…2…1”

Walter: Really Sy?? ..took you long enough.. And August well.. I don't know where to begin with you”

August: “Oops did i make this group chat?!?!  *smirking emoji*

You rotten motherfucker August:

Sy: Sometimes i wonder if your mom doesn't regret swallowing you”

Walter: *crying laughing emoji” Damn aiming for the juggular today arent we cuz?”

August: At least he knows how to aim. Walter” 

The elevator opened up to my office. Closing out of the group chat to let them squabble, like they normally do. Masking my way to my office door and opening it slowly seeing you pace back and forth, like a lion in its cage. oh you poor sweet girl you have no idea what you've just done, now this is where the fun really begins.. Tonight baby girl you are going to learn just what kind of man you are dealing with.

#henrycavill smut #henry cavill #henry cavill imagine #henry cavill x you #captain syverson fanfiction #captain syverson

[too-many-pockets]

Dreykov’s Daughter

Kara Danvers/Zor El x Red room reader

(Part Two)

TW: Child death, emotional abuse, death, manipulation and gaslighting mentions of ripping out fingernails hair and a few other things

It had been no longer than 15 minutes before you pulled yourself back into consciousness.

Surrounding you was a clear glass cell, you noted your weapons had been taken, but you hadn’t been changed out of your clothes. Your hands trailed over your arms, feeling for the cleverly concealed widow bites you had on your wrists. You almost sighed in relief when you felt the familiar grooves of the small weapons under your fingers.

“The hell are you doing?”

An angry looking Alex with her arms crossed over her chest glared at you aggressively, quite the contrast to Kara who stood directly beside her with an obviously forced look of anger on her face. She had patched up the wound you left on her, much to your disappointment. Such a shame, they made her look so pretty, the wonderful little drops of red running down her chest. You’d see more of it soon regardless, and that was enough to hold you over.

“Checking for injuries or injections, if that’s okay with you.”

You bit back sarcastically, rolling your eyes.

“Shut up. Who are you and who sent you?”

The woman demanded harshly.

“Why don’t you come in? I can’t hear you through all this glass.”

You replied with a smirk.

“I’m going to-“

“Agent Danvers.”

You saw the man you had previously identified as Hank Hanshaw enter the room.

“That’s enough. I’ll deal with her.”

You scoffed.

“Respectfully sir, I have ripped out my own teeth, hair and fingernails. There is not much you can do to me.”

A wave of pride washed over you as you watched Kara recoil. You were sure even Alex flinched a bit. She grumbled something and left the room. Hank continued to approach you.

Suddenly you felt something in your head, as if something were probing your mind. You narrowed your eyes.

“What are you doing?”

Almost the first time you’d been caught off guard and it was by a mind reading alien. How lucky.

Your eyes drifted close against their will and your memories flashed before your eyes.

— — — — — — — — — — — —

“But father! She’s my friend, I don’t want to!”

A younger you sobbed with your hands on either side of your best friends head.

“Friends are a weakness. You knew the rules and you broke them, there’s a punishment. Do it.”

Your friend was bloodied and beaten to a pulp, as were you. What made the experience even worse was that the girl wasn’t even struggling anymore. She had just given up, as if begging you to end it.

“Look at her. She never would have made it anyway, you’re helping her.”

Your father coaxed, urging you on. Urging you to do what you were born to do. Urging you to kill.

Snap

— — — — — — — — — — — —

Your eyes shot back open. Hank had a pitiful look in his eyes. Your face felt wet, you pulled a hand up to touch it. You must have been crying. You looked around. Alex had left, but Kara was right where she was before.

“What did you do?”

Your voice sounded so frosty the alien was sure the air was about to freeze.

“Your father? Is that who sent you?”

Hank raised his eyebrow.

“Doesn’t look like a great guy.”

That was the last straw. You activated your widow bites and shocked the man. Kara rushed to hold you back.

“Don’t ever talk about my father that way! I’ll kill you!”

You yelled as Kara grabbed your arms.

“I’ll kill you!”

“Calm down! What is wrong with you?!”

Kara hissed. You whipped your head around to face her. What was wrong with you? What was wrong with you?! You’re just doing your job, you’re just defending your family, isn’t that what she does? Such a hypocrite! It's not fair! She gets praised for the exact things you’re shamed for! She’s killed people too! Innocent civilians, criminals, even some of her closest friends! Kill her. Don’t disappoint him. You know what happens. Kill her. Your brain yelled. This is your life. This is your job. You’re doing the right thing. People like her are sick, people like her are wrong. Remember your home. Remember your lessons. Remember who loves you.

You silence your thoughts and take a breath. Get under control. Using your widow bites was a mistake. You let your emotions get a hold of you. You take another breath then sit down and go back to silence.

Kara hesitantly let go of you then left the room to make sure Hank was okay.

You went over your memory in your head. Since that day you had lost all hesitation when it came to the daily fights you had to go through in the red room. You had moved up to the top of your class and were your fathers most trusted student. He told you everything and you listened and followed orders. In Particular, he would tell you about your sister. He told you about how it was a widow who had defected who caused her so much damage. All you could think when he told you those stories was ‘how dare she’. How come she got to decide who loved and died? What right did that girl have to kill your sister after all your father had done for her. He taught her, fed her, clothed her, taught her, made her strong. He loved her. Just like he loved all of the widows. Just like he loved you.

You never made a friend again after that either. Not when you knew the consequences. Not after seeing the look in her eyes as you killed her. Not after you realized befriending anyone would give you to get to know them. To know what makes them happy, what makes them sad. Not when you would know all of that just to be forced to humanize them just for them to die at your hand or the hands of one of your classmates.

No matter, you would complete your mission and go back. Back to your father, back to your home.

Six Days Left.

——————————————————————————

Hope you liked it! It’s a bit short but I ran out of ideas :(

#kara x reader #kara danvers #kara zor el #kara zor el x reader #kara danvers x reader #supergirl #red room #x reader

[imtooscaredforthis]

Fixation

Chapter 28: Backstabber

Mentions of: Past Abuse/Miscarriage, Stabbing, Death, Blood, Slight Gore, etc.

Tags: @froegis @dead-bxxxtch-walking @vandeaad @mama-miya @darthwhorecrux @stwbwwychan

“No.” That was the first word that slipped from your mouth, as you stared at his face, watching him stand with the Ghostface mask in hand. You couldn’t help but gape at his face. His bare, revealed face. “No, no, no.”

Jed Olsen. Your boyfriend. The guy you fell for. He was Ghostface. It all made so much sense now. It was so obvious. It was right under your nose, and you never even realized.

How could you be so blind? How could you be so stupid? You had promised yourself you would figure out who he was, but you chose to ignore all the warning signs. You only saw what you wanted to. You were such an idiot.

“I know you must have a lot of questions. I mean, what do you even call me? Danny, Jed, Ghostface? For the record, Danny or Ghostface is just fine.” He winked at you with a smirk. Your reaction was even better than he ever imagined.

“Why- why are you doing this?” You asked, still in shock, various emotions overwhelming you. He shrugged. “You’re the expert, you tell me.”

Your eyes went down to Alex, whose body was sprawled out on the floor, blood still seeping into the cracks and holes on the ground. “You killed him. I still can’t believe you killed him.”

“You’re welcome.” He said in a sing-song voice, leaning against the wall and still catching his breath a bit after what just happened.

“He was my ex fiancé. When I first met him, I thought he was perfect. Talented, smart, handsome, a little bit cocky, but it was okay. But after a while, he started getting possessive, controlling almost every part of my life. And then he started hurting me. It just kept happening again and again and it wouldn’t stop. I- I got pregnant, and he pushed me down the stairs, and- I managed to get away from him for awhile, but I always wanted to make him pay for what he did. I hated him.”

“Seems like you got a knack for falling for the wrong guy, sweetheart. It’s a good thing I killed that bastard.” Danny grinned, walking over, and tapping his knife to your chin, trailing it down to your throat. You let him, not even flinching. “Are you going to kill me?”

That made Danny pause. If he was being honest with himself, he had no idea what he was going to do with you. For once, he didn’t plan everything out.

Suddenly, there was the sound of sirens, making Danny jump. Police sirens. Ambulance sirens. It was just before dawn, the sky a light purple and red outside. Flashes of red and blue lit up through the window, illuminating the once dim house.

“Shit. Someone must’ve heard and called the police.” He muttered, slipping his mask on. “What now?”

While you were panicking, Ghostface seemed cool and collected, like he handled this before, which wasn’t too surprising. “C’mon.”

He picked you up by the undersides of your thighs, making you yelp in surprise. You wrapped your arms around his neck, letting him carry you out bridal style through the backdoor of your house.

The next thing you knew, you two were leaving town, in a car Danny stole. He had changed out of his Ghostface clothes, and was driving down the highway. You were with him now, and honestly, you were fine with it.

You rested your chin on your hand, looking out the window, and feeling your eyes grow heavy, before you eventually succumbed to sleep. This was your life now. Wherever Danny went, you went with him.

--

You awoke to being pushed onto the ground, hard. Wherever you were, it was cold, wet and damp. It was early morning, a light fog all around. You looked around to see who had done it, but there was nothing, no one.

“Danny?” You called out, trying to get to your feet, before you were knocked to the ground again. This time, you could see who it was.

“Right here, sweetheart.” He said from behind you. He was in Ghostface attire, sitting on your back and straddling you. You were so confused. What was happening? What was he doing?

“While this has been nice, and I’ve had lots of fun, it seems like your time is up. I would let you live, but I like to work alone.” That was when you felt the first stab.

You cried out, feeling the knife getting jammed into your back, trying to fight him off, squirming underneath him, but it was no use. He was too heavy, and you already felt so weak.

Then he jammed the knife into your side a couple of times, before shoving it deep into your back, all of the blade inside you. Tears of pain streaked down your face, as you felt him pull you back by your hair, and take one last picture of both you and him together.

You stared at the camera, feeling the blood spill through your mouth, the flash blinding you. After the picture was taken, he pulled the knife out, stepping back.

Everything was starting to get blurry and dark, and you could hear Danny’s voice, but you couldn’t understand what he was saying. All you could wonder is how you could let him do this to you? You fought so hard, and you just let yourself die like this. You let yourself trust him.

A thick, dark fog began rolling in, beckoning you. Were you dead? Was this hell?

Using all your might, you crawled towards the fog, hearing a low voice whispering into your ear. The darkness completely engulfed you, and no longer did you feel pain. Instead, you felt nothing, numbness, as you stayed there, in the void.

Eventually, the fog lifted, and you were standing on your feet, in some sort of dense, dark, unfamiliar forest. You cautiously walked through the forest, a strange feeling of dread and anxiety looming over you.

But then you felt another feeling. A more familiar one. That you were being watched. Suddenly, you felt a gloved hand grab your mouth, pulling you back. “Hey Dollie, ya miss me?”

#dead by deadlight #dbd #dbd killer #dbd x reader #killer x reader #dbd ghostface #ghostface dbd #ghostface x you #ghostface x reader #dbd danny #dbd danny johnson #danny johnson dbd #danny johnson x reader #danny johnson #jed olsen x reader #dbd jed olsen #jed olsen #ghostface fanfic #killer x you

[iamnotoriginalphil]

Home (Alex Blake x f!Reader)

Synopsis: Sometimes you need something to keep you entertained during faculty events

Words: 1.2k

Warnings: none

Faculty events were always something you dreaded. Not because other faculty members were particularly awful, they were just stuffy events, asking you to care about wine and classic literature and abstract art. You’d grown tired of the pandering to the older men and pretending to care about the politics of the college.

The house was nice, beautiful even, and you knew the wine in your glass was expensive. You’d been nice enough to dress up, putting on a pretty dress and attempting to wrangle your hair into some kind of style. You hadn’t been sure about it. You were feeling even less sure now you were amongst others.

“I know everyone in my department so either you’re here with someone, which I’m hoping isn’t the case, or you’re from a different department.”

You turned away from the window looking out onto the dark backyard. The man in front of you was in a dark turtleneck, tweed jacket over the top, a set of wire rim glasses perched delicately on his nose and a mess of curls falling to his eyes. In another life you might have been charmed by his warm brown eyes and mix of self consciousness and confidence. Now all you saw was someone trying a little too hard for your tastes.

“Both could be true,” you replied, taking a small sip of your wine. No point getting wasted just yet.

“Are they?” he asked.

You shrugged, not willing to give him a clear answer when he was still a stranger. You hadn’t seen him at one of these events before. You could hear the ring of a familiar voice somewhere in the background and you yearned to go to it.

“I’m Daniel, art history,” he said, holding his hand out to you.

You gave him your name as you shook his hand. His skin was pleasantly warm but it wasn’t the kind of heat you were looking for.

“Can I take that to mean you don’t work at the university?” he asked.

“I do,” you replied, “in psychology.”

“Ah, so you already know what I’m thinking,” he said, flashing you a smile of white teeth, just crooked enough to be charming.

“I imagine I do,” you replied. And you were sure you did, if the way he was looking at you was any indication.

“So what’s someone from the psychology department doing at a humanities’ function?” he asked.

“Have you ever heard the phrase opposites attract?” you asked. Over his shoulder you saw a sweep of brown hair, a familiar hand holding a wine glass with a grace you’d never quite managed to find, that voice still there in the background.

“I have,” he replied, eyes twinkling behind glass.

“Perhaps I’m looking to see how true that is,” you said, leaning towards him. You couldn’t help but feel playful. Too bad for him, it wasn’t for his benefit.

The look of delight was unmistakable on his face and you would have felt bad if it weren’t for the way you could see a few other women eyeing him up. He’d find consolation in the arms of someone else that night. He’d be fine.

“Are you looking for subjects for this experiment you’re running?” he asked, talking a half step towards you.

“I do love a man who volunteers,” you replied.

“Am I volunteering?” The cheeky grin he was giving you had you biting back your own smile.

“If you’re not now I’m sure you will be soon,” you replied, “I can be rather persuasive.”

“I’m sure you can.” You didn’t miss the way his eyes dipped down to your lips.

Which was the point you felt an arm slide around your waist, hand settling possessively on your hip. You turned, looking up into the dark eyes of the only subject you were looking for for that particular experiment. The man, Daniel, took a step back, eyes darting between the two of you.

“Ah, that’s too bad,” you said, “looks like all the slots have been filled.”

“I’ll have to be quicker next time,” he said.

“There won’t be a next time,” Alex said before you could.

Her hand gently guided you away from the secluded corner you’d found yourself in. You didn’t offer a parting farewell to Daniel, the conversation already half forgotten with Alex’s arm around you. You would have happily gotten lost in her.

“Who was that?” she asked, lips brushing the shell of your ear as she manoeuvred you through the full house.

“Someone from art. No, history. One of them,” you said.

“Ah, the new hot shot art history professor,” she said, clearly knowing more about the gossip around the university than you, “that does make sense.”

“Does it?” You looked up into her eyes, only pouting for a moment as she took the wine glass from your hand. She deposited it on a table.

“He has quite the reputation for collecting pretty women,” she said, “I’m sure he was hopeful the moment he saw you.”

“I’m only pretty?” You pouted.

“Darling, you’re the most radiant woman in every room you walk in to,” she said, “unfortunately a man like that will never appreciate it.”

“Good thing I have no interest in a man like that then.” You thought about it for a moment. “Or any man really.”

She hummed, helping you on with your coat. The brush of her fingers along the exposed skin of your neck had you shivering. It was hard not to wonder if you’d always have such a strong reaction to her. You turned to look at her, not sure what the expression on her face meant.

“Sweetheart.” Her fingers tangled with yours, “I haven’t said my goodbyes yet.”

“I did them on your behalf.”

“You really want to get out of here?” you asked, “usually you enjoy these things.”

She tugged you a step towards her until you felt her body heat. She was looking at you with molten eyes, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. You tucked her hair behind her ear, enjoying the way she smiled.

“I do but with you looking so beautiful tonight and certain attention on you, I’d rather just take you home and enjoy your company,” she said.

“Alex Blake.” You couldn’t stop the smile blooming on your face, “are you jealous?”

“Can you blame me wanting that womaniser to know to keep his hands off you?” she asked, “you deserve more romance than flirting at a faculty event.”

“Isn’t that… how we met?” you asked, your grin released from containment.

She kissed you through your laughter until you were melting in her hands. You could spend your life kissing her and never grow tired of it.

“So about those plans to go home…” you mumbled against her mouth.

She tugged you out of the house, her chuckle in your ear low and throaty, practically dirty. You couldn’t wait to get home.

#alex blake imagine #alex blake x reader #alex blake #criminal minds #criminal minds imagine

[macravishedbymactavish]

Abandoned Driveways

Alex Keller x GN!Reader

| Blog HQ | Modern Warfare 2019 / 2022 Masterlist |

| Series Masterlist | Previous Part | Next Part |

TW for light flirting, swearing, and eventual angst

Chapter 04

In the month following the porch swing heart to heart, Alex had become a favored part of your routine. Whether it be him bringing you breakfast before work or letting you sleep at his house after a long shift. Using him as your pillow, allowing his warmth and soft touches to lull you into the best sleep of your life.

Returning home from work one Friday morning, you noticed his Jeep wasn’t parked in the driveway. Eyebrow raised, you figured it was likely parked in the garage. 

He’s finally getting around to the oil change he swore he was going to do for the past 2 and a half weeks.

Grabbing the coffees from their spots in your cup holders, you pressed the door to your vehicle shut with your hip. Making your way across the street to offer your boyfriend a dose of your friendly neighborhood caffeine addiction.

Using the toe of your shoe, you lightly kicked the door. A makeshift knock as you held the warm cups in hand. Shifting your weight between your heels as you waited for the telltale sounds of his footsteps to jog through his house. To see his silhouette behind the glass surrounding the doorframe. To come face to face with his half asleep, bed-headed expression as he smiled and thanked you for your service.

Except, that didn’t happen. 

The cups now uncomfortably hot in your hands, your eyebrows scrunched together. Concern filling your brain -- this wasn’t like him at all. Cups now placed on the porch railing, you rapped your knuckles against the wood. Waiting for a minute before clicking the doorbell. After what felt like an eternity of waiting, you sighed. Grabbing the cups and making your way around the side of the house to where the spare back door key hid.

Letting yourself in through the back door slowly, ignoring the gnawing feeling in the back of your head that you should not be doing this. That this was a major overstep to his boundaries.

“Hey, just your favourite person with your favourite drink here.” You called out, eyes wide as you scanned your surroundings. Heart-rate increasing as you made your way further into the bare house.

Swallowing thickly, you continued talking. Praying to anyone listening that you were wrong. 

“I’m sorry to let myself in, but I’m worried. This isn’t like you, ‘Lex.” The last words whispered pitifully as you arrived in the kitchen. All his appliances were gone, the small amount of photos on the wall have been taken down; and the room looked ready for real estate. 

Setting the cups on the table, you gripped the back of a chair with shaky hands. Knuckles turning white as you squeezed your eyes shut. Refusing to let any tears fall. Pulling in a deep breath, you turned. Making your way up the stairs, cursing yourself for finding an inkling of comfort in how familiar this route felt.

“Alex. This isn’t funny, I’m worried.” You mumbled, hands shaking as you pushed open the door to his room. All but falling to your knees when you saw it empty. Nausea churning in your stomach as your mind flashed with anger, betrayal, and pain.

Pulling a deep breath in through your nose, you turned. Storming your way down the stairs, through the kitchen, and out through the front door. Coffee forgotten as you ran across the street, hands furiously wiping at the tears that managed to escape from your eyes as you focused on your front door.

Making a quick stop to gather your things from your vehicle, locking the doors you swiftly made it into your house. Leaning back against the front door before sliding down to the floor. Sobs now leaving your lips as you tried to comprehend what you just saw.

He’s gone. 

He didn’t even say goodbye.

“What do you mean he’s gone?!” Your friend screamed through the speaker of your phone, rage and disbelief clear in their tone.

“I mean I went to his house to have coffee after work and there was nothing. The house is bare.” You sobbed, feeling pathetic. Curled into yourself on your bed, crying for a boy who got away. Something you hadn’t done since your earlier teen years, and even then the pain was never this bad.

For the last 3 days you picked apart every interaction you had, all the small mannerisms that didn’t feel right. Picking at the memories and conversations to see if there was any hints as to where he could be. Where he was planning on going.

Did he ever give you any signs? Was there something you had missed?

General taglist: @bloodonmyhands-1221 @bowtruckleninja @v1naco

Alex Keller taglist: @deadbranch @glitterypirateduck @gcing-back-to-505

#call of duty modern warfare 2 #cod mw2 #call of duty #alex keller #alex cod #alex keller fluff #alex keller angst #alex keller x reader #abandoned driveways

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 17: I OPEN A COFFIN

"Dracula!?" Alex gasped with hope.

"We already have real monsters, why do you want more?" Percy frowned.

"I have fantasies too Percy, it's not all about you," Alex reminded.

"If Kelli sleeps in one of those, you just know it's going to be pink," Magnus snorted.

"Grave robbing Percy? That's what you've been reduced to?" Jason chuckled.

"How sacrilegious," Will snorted.

"Yes, because I really strike you as the kind of guy to be respectful," Percy scoffed with laughter.

Nico was to busy grinning to himself nobody seemed to assume this had anything to do with him to make a snarky remark as Alex eagerly started.

Jumping out a window five hundred feet aboveground is not usually my idea of fun.

"Really? Because you seem to do it a lot," Magnus frowned at him.

"The arch, you jumped off the side of a cruise ship, you were fully prepared to jump off that cliff after Annabeth, and now you jumped down the side of a mountain," Alex nodded along as he ticked off on his fingers. "Percy, you might have an adrenaline junkie problem."

"Yeah, the problem is to much adrenaline. Please tell me there's a cure," he sighed.

Especially when I'm wearing bronze wings and flapping my arms like a duck.

"But that's the perfect time to do it," Nico told him blandly from personal experience. "If you do the chicken dance any other time, people just look at you strange."

"Now the YMCA on the other hand, that's a universal dance you don't need an excuse for," Will grinned.

Thalia forced a laugh she didn't feel, she knew she wouldn't find anything really funny again until Percy's feet were back on the ground and she could stop imagining this.

I plummeted toward the valley and the red rocks below. I was pretty sure I was going to become a grease spot in the Garden of the Gods, as Annabeth yelled from somewhere above me, "Spread your arms! Keep them extended."

The small part of my brain that wasn't engulfed in panic heard her, and my arms responded. As soon as I spread them out, the wings stiffened, caught the wind, and my descent slowed. I soared downward, but at a controlled angle, like a kite in a dive.

A sudden memory flashed back to Percy's mind. He'd been eight in the park with his mom, who had just given him an octopus kite, with its big blue nylon head and each of its legs a different color of the rainbow.

It had only fluttered in the air long enough for him to take his eyes off and smile at his mom before a flash of lightning had zapped it out of the sky. On a cloudless day.

Now he couldn't shake the mental image that was about to happen to him next, and there was no string that would fizzle his fingers as a result.

Experimentally, I flapped my arms once. I arced into the sky, the wind whistling in my ears.

"Yeah!" I yelled. The feeling was unbelievable. After getting the hang of it, I felt like the wings were part of my body. I could soar and swoop and dive anywhere I wanted to.

"Annabeth once again saving your ass," Alex snorted. "Please tell me you're keeping a tally on that?" He obviously directed to none other than Jason.

"Of course," he scoffed as if the question offended his very principles, like he even remembered what those were. "What do you take me for?"

I turned and saw my friends—Rachel, Annabeth, and Nico—spiraling above me, glinting in the sunlight. Behind them, smoke billowed from the windows of Daedalus's workshop.

"Land!" Annabeth yelled. "These wings won't last forever."

"How long?" Rachel asked.

"I don't want to find out!" Annabeth said.

We swooped down toward the Garden of the Gods. I did a complete circle around one of the rock spires and freaked out a couple of climbers.

"I bet they spend the rest of their life telling everyone they saw an eagle soar," Will offered.

"Or a really, really big sugar glider," Magnus smirked.

Then the four of us soared across the valley, over a road, and landed on the terrace of the visitor center. It was late afternoon and the place looked pretty empty, but we ripped off our wings as quickly as we could. Looking at them, I could see Annabeth was right. The self-adhesive seals that bound the wings to our backs were already melting, and we were shedding bronze feathers. It seemed a shame, but we couldn't fix them, and couldn't leave them around for the mortals, so we stuffed the wings in trash bins outside the cafeteria.

"Where they can rot next to cat litter and corpses," Thalia shivered in disgust one last time.

"I can't believe Annabeth wasn't having a conniption fit about throwing away something he made," Magnus admitted.

"I like to imagine Rachel kept a feather as a souvenir at least," Jason said with a sad smile. He definitely liked the idea of flying, it sounded immensely comforting, the idea of lounging on a cloud.

"I can't believe Daedalus still never found a way to make those better long-range," Alex looked wholly upset at a clearly failed experiment. "That had to be his life's work, right? To find a perfect set of wings that could have saved his son. I hope he never finds out they still wouldn't have worked."

"I don't think I go out of my way to mention it," Percy's promise felt lackluster, he didn't exactly have a good feeling about meeting Daedalus again...though the fact that he felt anything at all for it was a cause of concern all its own.

I used the tourist binocular camera to look up at the hill where Daedalus's workshop had been, but it had vanished. No more smoke. No broken windows. Just the side of a hill.

"Have I mentioned how awfully convenient it is your world just cleans up after itself like that," Magnus shook his head in a kind of daze all that was so close and yet so far from the world.

"Now if only we could convince the monsters and gods and titans to stop getting the world killed and we'd have it made," Percy nodded, crossing his hands behind his head and lounging back.

"The workshop moved," Annabeth guessed. "There's no telling where."

"So what do we do now?" I asked. "How do we get back in the maze?"

Percy smiled in surprise nobody pointed out a better way back to Camp would be Blackjack, because it wasn't the way of getting there. Grover and Tyson were still trapped in there, and the Camp was already as warned as they could be. They weren't going home until everybody in the quest was back together.

Annabeth gazed at the summit of Pikes Peak in the distance. "Maybe we can't. If Daedalus died...he said his life force was tied into the Labyrinth. The whole thing might've been destroyed. Maybe that will stop Luke's invasion."

"Along with Luke," Thalia said lowly. She knew that didn't happen, but there was a tiny kernel of relief in her that Annabeth had said it.

The troubled look on Percy's face meant Annabeth might not have said it with any hope, but even the acknowledgment of it gave Thalia some sense of peace Annabeth wasn't totally delusional about Luke's end.

I thought about Grover and Tyson, still down there somewhere.

Percy decidedly did not like the hesitant moment of silence that followed that sentence. He knew Alex wasn't doing it on purpose as a respectful moment because they were probably dead, but it sure felt that way to Percy for that one, horrible beat.

And Daedalus...even though he'd done some terrible things and put everybody I cared about at risk, it seemed like a pretty horrible way to die.

Will smiled at Percy, a really tender expression Percy couldn't begin to guess at. Will couldn't help it, the only person Percy had yet shown zero remorse for was Gabe. It was obviously not common around camp to get to hear insights of what everybody was thinking, Will just genuinely enjoyed the moment of hearing the constant and probable deaths on these quests weren't so easily glossed over.

"No," Nico said. "He isn't dead."

"How can you be sure?" I asked.

"I know when people die. It's this feeling I get, like a buzzing in my ears."

"Is that where that saying comes if your ears are buzzing somebody's talking about you?" Magnus asked.

"No," Nico shrugged, "I have no idea what started that myth."

"Happens to me every time I blow my nose," Jason rolled his eyes. Thalia swallowed a hysterical laugh the same thing actually happened to her, and she didn't think it was related to this nonsense.

"Hades kids get all the good superstitions," Will chuckled, "all I get is somebody blaming my dad for their allergies."

"The real question is, do Percy's ears buzz every time somebody pee's in the ocean," Alex said saintly.

"I wish I could ban you from the room," Percy frowned at him while Nico tried hard to stifle a laugh and was failing.

"What about Tyson and Grover, then?"

Nico shook his head. "That's harder. They're not humans or half-bloods. They don't have mortal souls."

"Cool," Magnus said with a blank look on his face like he wasn't sure if he meant that or not while Percy started chewing on his lip hard.

Will still gave Nico a hopeful smile though. This was the first time Nico had blatantly talked about even a hint of his powers in his past and nobody was reacting poorly at all. If anything it sounded like they really wanted to know more and just weren't sure how to phrase it.

"We have to get into town," Annabeth decided. "Our chances will be better of finding an entrance to the Labyrinth.

"Why?" Alex looked truly dumbfounded at that train of thought. "You literally know of one in your own woods. The location seems purely random."

"Man do I wish somebody had made a map of these so we could try and discern a pattern," Jason said with a smile like cherishing a long-lost loved one.

"Dude, please keep going before Jason starts writing calculations on the wall," Percy groaned.

We have to make it back to camp before Luke and his army."

"Could Rachel even get you to Camp through the labyrinth?" Jason puzzled. "If mortals aren't allowed in, which would trump the other?"

"Monsters can't get in either, but we're not betting on the maze to keep them out," Percy frowned too though as he wasn't sure if Rachel would just smack into an invisible barrier. No way would they leave her behind in there for any reason, but who knew where the nearest entrance would pop them out at.

"We could just take a plane," Rachel said.

I shuddered. "I don't fly."

"But you just did."

"That was low flying," I said, "and even that's risky. Flying up really high—that's Zeus's territory. I can't do it.

"Important things Rachel should know for future interactions with you," Thalia said agreeably.

"And yet you've flown in every adventure so far," Jason chuckled.

"I don't consider getting thrown into the stratosphere by a ship exploding flying," Percy sighed.

"And yet Zeus probably never will forgive you for it," Thalia reminded.

Besides, we don't even have time for a flight. The labyrinth is the quickest way back."

Nico pursed his lips and wondered if Percy would accept a shadow-traveling trip from his dark creepy powers if it would have gotten them back in time to save the camp. He couldn't have done it back then, to many people, he certainly hadn't the skill for it, but the thought fluttered like a shedding bronze feather in his mind...as he next wondered what Will would say if had to experience that...

I didn't want to say it, but I was also hoping that maybe, just maybe, we would find Grover and Tyson along the way.

Alex had to bite back the comment about Percy being an optimist. Those two could be in France or Utah, or dead for all he knew.

With Rachel as guide though, there was a slim chance he would find them again, and Alex liked to blame that idea more on logic than these weirdos rubbing off on him.

"So we need a car to take us into the city," Annabeth said.

Rachel looked down into the parking lot. She grimaced, as if she were about to do something she regretted. "I'll take care of it."

"Rachel can hotwire a car," Magnus said at once with absolute confidence. Was she a runaway? It seemed to fit.

"Why does Nico feel like the only good influence friend you have?" Will frowned, even knowing that wasn't true. "The rest of you nutjobs are all out here doing every illegal, objectionable, immoral, or obnoxious thing I could name, he's the only one actively choosing not to kill people."

"That's not a very high bar Will," Nico rolled his eyes.

"And yet you're still winning," Percy shrugged.

"How?" Annabeth asked.

"Just trust me."

Annabeth looked uneasy, but she nodded. "Okay,

"Prog...proggress?" Jason tried to say. At least she didn't offer a snarky comment instead.

"It takes her a while to get there, but she does trust people," Thalia said patiently.

"Exhibit A," Percy shouted, raising his hand with pride.

I'm going to buy a prism in the gift shop, try to make a rainbow, and send an Iris-message to camp."

"Did Rachel understand any of those words?" Will asked with twitching lips.

"I'm going to buy a rainbow and talk to my also fruity friends, seems plain enough," Alex nodded.

"I'll go with you," Nico said. "I'm hungry."

It also didn't hurt to get away from Percy for a second, Nico happily kept to himself. He'd only been back in his presence for twenty minutes, tops, and already several fantasies had come true about monsters and buildings exploding. All that was missing was the slow, dramatic walk away from it all as he brushed his hair aside.

The reality looking back was much grungier. Percy's shirt had been singed, he'd had a desperately unhappy look in his eyes as he worried about his missing friends and the impending attack. There had been no hand-holding or swooning from anybody.

"I'll stick with Rachel, then," I said. "Meet you guys in the parking lot."

Rachel frowned like she didn't want me with her. That made me feel kind of bad, but I followed her down to the parking lot anyway.

"Because if Percy ever took a hint we'd all have like, half as many problems," Thalia chuckled.

"There could have been very fearsome monsters in that parking lot," Percy insisted. There really was no point in reminding his curiosity on how she was going to make that happen would never let him walk away from this.

She headed toward a big black car parked at the edge of the lot. It was a chauffeured Lexus, like the kind I always saw driving around Manhattan.

The driver was out front, reading a newspaper. He wore a dark suit and tie.

"Easy money his name is Jeeves," Alex said with a very calculating look of where this was going.

"Or Jarvis, or Alfred, come on Alex, don't stereotype," Percy snorted.

"What are you going to do?" I asked Rachel.

"Beat him up, steal his keys," Thalia said with all the sarcastic confidence she had.

"Finally reveal how Annabeth chased that guy out of the car wash, all without planning on duplicating her of course," Jason smirked.

"Kick him in the shins and run for it while expecting Percy to hotwire the car," Magnus offered. Hey, he was from New York, maybe she just assumed he knew how.

"Just wait here," she said miserably. "Please."

Rachel marched straight up to the driver and talked to him. He frowned.

Rachel said something else. He turned pale and hastily folded up his magazine. He nodded and fumbled for his cell phone. After a brief call, he opened the back door of the car for Rachel to get in.

Percy watched in sympathetic commiseration as four mouths opened in shock around him. Will had certainly never heard about this at Camp, and it made Rachel's mystic arcane powers seem even more enchanting she'd been doing this before she spewed green smoke.

"She's a secret siren! I knew Percy couldn't have a normal friend!" Magnus yelped.

"What does that make you," Percy's frown was just as confused as his though.

"I never claimed to be normal," Magnus snorted.

Alex was rubbing the back of his neck though with a very contemplative look on his face. Rachel sure knew how to get around for a mortal, and he knew of one sure fire way that could be accomplished...though it didn't track at all with her going to a public school Percy would attend...unless...

She pointed back in my direction, and the driver bobbed his head some more, like Yes, ma'am. Whatever you want.

"Would you like a space necklace from the Cupar system? Would you like my firstborn child?!" Thalia said sycophantically.

"Mock me all you like, I am this close to stealing that book away and getting answers without your help, Pine Fresh," Percy sighed.

"And miss all my brilliant commentary," she sniffed, giving him a good hard poke in his spleen just because she could. He yelped in surprise while Alex went on, for once ignoring the casual violence in curiosity if there was any proof to his theory.

I couldn't figure out why he was acting so flustered.

"It's called having manners Percy, I know that's a really foreign idea to you," Jason told, but he was to bemused himself to hold much weight.

Rachel came back to get me just as Nico and Annabeth appeared from the gift shop.

"With not a snack in sight I might add," Percy said, taking his troubled eyes off the book to throw an accusing glare at Nico. "If you stuffed Skittles up your sleeve, I hope you share!"

"Annabeth and I weren't exactly walking around with spare change," Nico reminded with a raised brow. "She went to the bathroom with that prism to get any good light and water for her rainbow and I kept lookout nobody went in the podunk, lucky it was working, one-room bathroom." Percy noticed he didn't deny the claim of stolen sweets though as his stomach rumbled.

"I talked to Chiron," Annabeth said. "They're doing their best to prepare for battle, but he still wants us back. They're going to need every hero they can get.

Percy waited for the smart-ass crack about how he and Annabeth alone were going to turn the tide of battle...but it didn't come. Percy felt a sense of pride they had as much faith in his camp as he did, though the troubled look on Will's face still promised it hadn't exactly been a clean sweep of a victory with or without them.

Did we find a ride?"

"We found an alien abduction in progress," Magnus muttered.

"The driver's ready when we are," Rachel said.

The chauffeur was now talking to another guy in khakis and a polo shirt, probably his client who'd rented the car. The client was complaining, but I could hear the driver saying, "I'm sorry, sir. Emergency. I've ordered another car for you."

"If Rachel was claiming that, I would expect to see a lot more blood," Alex said cynically with a raised brow. "I don't see her or Annabeth pulling the 'my water broke' line."

"She's an artist, I would think she'd commit to the bit more, be screaming her heart out at minimum," Percy mockingly agreed.

"Come on," Rachel said. She led us to the car and got in without even looking at the flustered guy who'd rented it. A minute later we were cruising down the road.

"You and Annabeth didn't question this at all?" Magnus asked of Nico.

"We just flew down from a window in the mountain where an emposua and Canadians tried to kill us, a mortal not asking questions why we were using his car was the blessing of the day," Nico scoffed.

Magnus sighed, he'd thought he'd gotten better about keeping up with the weirdness of all this, but clearly he was starting to fall behind again.

The seats were leather. There was plenty of legroom. The backseat had flat-panel TVs built into the headrests and a mini-fridge stocked with bottled water, sodas, and snacks. We started pigging out.

"The only way to travel," Thalia shook her head in exasperation. "You should have abducted this girl back at the Hoover Dam Percy, she would have gotten us a free ride the rest of the way west too in luxray."

"I'm sorry kidnapping wasn't my first train of thought," Percy said blandly.

'It sure was Artimes's' Nico kept the burning comment to himself, and it wasn't as painful as he'd thought it was as it lit and dimmed in him quickly.

"Where to, Miss Dare?" the driver asked.

"I'm not sure yet, Robert," she said.

"Damn, guess you lost that easy money Alex," Percy chuckled.

"I'll make it back by betting when you next say something illegal, objectionable, immoral, or obnoxious." He easily promised.

Percy sighed, he should have known he'd be the sole contender on that list. Ah well, he was used to taking the blame anyway.

"We just need to drive through town and, uh, look around."

"Whatever you say, miss."

I looked at Rachel. "Do you know this guy?"

"No."

"And here my next theory was long lost cousin and blackmail," Jason admitted.

"But he dropped everything to help you. Why?"

"Just keep your eyes peeled," she said. "Help me look."

Which didn't exactly answer my question.

"Oh, well that's a relief, I thought I was just lagging behind again," Magnus frowned.

"Not in this room buddy, one speed only," Percy agreed.

We drove through Colorado Springs for about half an hour and saw nothing that Rachel considered a possible Labyrinth entrance. I was very aware of Rachel's shoulder pressing against mine. I kept wondering who she was exactly, and how she could walk up to some random chauffeur and immediately get a ride.

"Is that what it takes to impress you?" Nico asked in exasperation. "I bet I could do that." Not that he wanted to... it was the principle of the matter...

"Do I need to add a clause about not giving said chauffeur a heart attack?" Percy demanded with a raised brow.

"Well that rules out Annabeth too, guess Rachel gets to keep this unique skill to herself," Will chuckled.

"Yeah, but Rachel ate all the peanuts," Percy grinned, "I have to say, it dulled some of her mystique."

After about an hour we decided to head north toward Denver, thinking that maybe a bigger city would be more likely to have a Labyrinth entrance, but we were all getting nervous. We were losing time.

Then right as we were leaving Colorado Springs, Rachel sat bolt upright. "Get off the highway!"

"That's better than screaming, oh my god monster, but somehow not by much," Magnus sighed.

"I was half expecting her to see vampires running alongside the car," Jason admitted.

The driver glanced back. "Miss?"

"I saw something, I think. Get off here."

The driver swerved across traffic and took the exit.

Alex's gleefully evil eyes were back on full display, clearly plotting whatever diabolical thing he'd do with someone willing to dart across traffic on a whim. It only made Magnus piss his pants a little.

"What did you see?" I asked, because we were pretty much out of the city now. There wasn't anything around except hills, grassland, and some scattered farm buildings. Rachel had the driver turn down this unpromising dirt road. We drove by a sign too fast for me to read it, but Rachel said, "Western Museum of Mining & Industry."

For a museum, it didn't look like much—a little house like an oldfashioned railroad station, some drills and pumps and old steam shovels on display outside.

"You've been spoiled by visiting all the good museums already," Thalia reminded. "This is probably their major economy or something Percy, be a little more respectful."

"It's going to take a lot more steam shovels for that to happen, I demand hydraulics," Percy smirked.

"There." Rachel pointed to a hole in the side of a nearby hill—a tunnel that was boarded up and chained. "An old mine entrance."

"A door to the Labyrinth?" Annabeth asked. "How can you be sure?"

"Why is she still wasting her breath questioning this?" Nico asked in exhaustion.

"Someboyd's got to double-check our work around there, and it's not going to be me," Percy shrugged.

"Well, look at it!" Rachel said. "I mean...I can see it, okay?"

She thanked the driver and we all got out. He didn't ask for money or anything.

There was an awkward pause where everybody expected somebody to say something. Alex didn't blurt out any wild ideas about mind control, Jason didn't offer any theories of how she pulled that off though.

There was just silence as they all tried to process for a moment if this guy had just done a random nice thing for a bunch of kids.

"Are you sure you'll be all right, Miss Dare? I'd be happy to call your—"

"No!" Rachel said. "No, really. Thanks, Robert. But we're fine."

Rachel had watched him go with a look on her face Nico had recognized at the time with no clue why. Percy and Annabeth had turned attention at once to their destination, but looking back he saw now she was regretting her 'power.' Her ability to manipulate someone into doing her bidding just by invoking her father's name. It was a heedy power she toed the line with he still struggled against.

The museum seemed to be closed, so nobody bothered us as we climbed the hill to the mine shaft. When we got to the entrance, I saw the mark of Daedalus engraved on the padlock, though how Rachel had seen something so tiny all the way from the highway I had no idea.

"A valid question," Jason promised, "though I'm over here wondering who went around and put all those marks up. Did Daedalus play Where's Waldo with a US map and throw darts?"

Magnus still took an extra second to realize he was talking about Quintus, that it was possible he'd been alive so long he'd lived in every city in the states, had moved west with every new plot of land and done this himself for his own means. The idea melted his mind.

I touched the padlock and the chains fell away. We kicked down a few boards and walked inside.

For better or worse, we were back in the Labyrinth.

"Worse. I'm pretty confident it's going to be worse," Percy said with entirely to much confidence for the guy who had lived through it and couldn't remember.

The dirt tunnels turned to stone. They wound around and split off and basically tried to confuse us, but Rachel had no trouble guiding us. We told her we needed to get back to New York, and she hardly even paused when the tunnels offered a choice.

To my surprise, Rachel and Annabeth started up a conversation as we walked. Annabeth asked her more about her background, but Rachel was evasive, so they started talking about architecture. It turned out that Rachel knew something about it from studying art. They talked about different facades on buildings around New York—"Have you seen this one," blah, blah, blah,

"I get the feeling Percy was riveted by this conversation," Jason snorted in amusement, and deeply wishing he could fill in the blanks of those blahs. He was now right along with Percy in his jealousy of the universe neither girl was here!

"I'm just over here glad she's finally making friends," Thalia said with a proud smile. She worried about that a bit when she'd left for the Hunters. She knew Annabeth had Percy, and everybody in Camp respected her, but in the time they'd spent together in the mortal world catching up, her little sister hadn't exactly given a list of friends she missed at Camp. She missed the freedom of walking around on the green grass and strawberry fields without a hall pass, and the activities, and avoiding the harpies when she wanted out after curfew to sneak down to the ocean, but just a few sparse details about her half-siblings.

Another thing she'd once resented Percy for but now found herself more than grateful to. The boy made friends everywhere he went, and his friends were going to be Annabeth's friends if they wanted to stay that way.

so I hung back and walked next to Nico in uncomfortable silence.

"No, Percy, say it ain't so. Tell me how you really feel," Nico said deadpan.

"I could have started whistling show tunes to ease the mood," Percy offered just as sarcastically. "There's a pretty wild swing on people who love and hate that though, I don't know you well enough to guess."

"Imagine if someone had actually locked them in a room together," Alex said with way to much critical thinking in the tone of his voice. "Two opposing personalities, that Big Bad Kid 3 whatever tension hitting its breaking point, they'd have either killed each other or come out as best friends."

"Isn't that how everybody makes friends?" Percy shrugged, throwing an arm over Thalia's shoulders.

She smacked him and scoffed, "if we were locked in a room together they'd never find the body."

Nico scratched at his ear and decided to keep the thoughts to himself; A, they were once trapped in a room together and Percy did consider killing him and B, they were locked in a room together now and nobody had actively started killing yet; so it really was anybodys guess how this would end.

"Thanks for coming after us," I told him at last.

Will smiled that of course Percy's first instinct was to thank Nico.

Nico, however, couldn't help a little twitch under his skin that the last person who had thanked Percy was Kronos, and didn't appreciate all the easy parallel lines he could always draw there.

Nico's eyes narrowed. He didn't seem as angry as he used to—just suspicious, careful.

It seemed to be how he'd mellowed out to now, Jason noticed. Gone was that happy little kid, but at least this quiet, suspicious, careful kid didn't seem to have a hint of homicidal return. He just seemed kind of sad. Jason didn't even remember how he used to be and he cracked a smile whenever he found the easiest chance.

"I owed you for the ranch, Percy. Plus...I wanted to see Daedalus for myself. Minos was right, in a way. Daedalus should die. Nobody should be able to avoid death that long. It's not natural."

"What is natural anyways?" Thalia said with a challenging smirk. "Fire doesn't occur without a biological factor, and yet we have Greek fire." Here Nico was mocking Annabeth for wanting to always make sense when he thought he could raise the dead and have natural order.

Fire- occurs- endless gasless fire- gas feeds fire- wait what is gas again- oh right- "Dinosaurs still exist as gas," Percy sounded like he was agreeing even as he went cross-eyed. "Hey, do you think the gods rode on them? I bet they all fought over who would win in fights like we still do. Bet I could ask my dad-"

He was forced to stop his verbal ADHD rant at the loud laughter and then chuckled along until Alex got his breath back enough to keep going. He really wished Riptide would work as a pen right now though, he wanted to jot that one on his hand to ask later.

"That's what you were after all along," I said. "Trading Daedalus's soul for your sister's."

"You know what, I take it all back," Magnus rolled his eyes, "Percy does have a filter, it's just so dam clotted with blonde hair the only thoughts that don't come through are when you won't shut up about how pretty my cousin is."

"I'm always slipping through the cracks!" Nico somehow managed to make that sound like a good thing as Will looked at him in concern.

"What?" Percy still asked blankly like he couldn't figure out why anyone would scold him for bringing up a sensitive topic.

Nico walked for another fifty yards before answering. "It hasn't been easy, you know. Having only the dead for company. Knowing that I'll never be accepted by the living. Only the dead respect me, and they only do that out of fear."

Jason's mouth ticked, and he had no clue. It wasn't pleasant, to suddenly have a lurching inside him that made him wonder if he'd ever described himself like that with no clue why...but the feeling was fleeting and didn't linger as his headache immediately overrode the sensation.

Percy was biting his tongue hard, proving Magnus's statement false once again as he stopped himself saying maybe that wouldn't be a problem if he hadn't run away in the first place! If he could use the maze and the ghosts to figure out how to get around, he could have come back to camp.

"You could be accepted," I said. "You could have friends at camp."

He stared at me. "Do you really believe that, Percy?"

I didn't answer. The truth was, I didn't know. Nico had always been a little different, but since Bianca's death, he'd gotten almost...scary. He had his father's eyes—that intense, manic fire that made you suspect he was either a genius or a madman. And the way he'd banished Minos, and called himself the king of ghosts—it was kind of impressive, but it made me uncomfortable too.

"Sorry," Percy said it like a knee-jerk reaction. Like he was still on the roof about to catch him before he fell, and yet his hand twitched in his lap like he'd pull away just as fast.

Nico knew he was apologizing the thought was said out loud, not because he'd thought it.

Which was kind of a relief. A nice feeling to know what Percy really thought of him instead of constantly wondering and guessing. It's not like there had ever been a question, but getting the answer was still appreciated. Somewhere deep down. "Uhhu," was all Nico could think to say to that.

Was Percy apologizing, saying he shouldn't come back to camp because he wouldn't be accepted? He knew that. And yet Percy made a face like there were dancing skeletons doing the tango every time it was mentioned he'd run away.

"Percy's just uncomfortable around anyone competent, like Thalia and Annabeth obviously," Alex scoffed - "Hey," Percy sighed- "We accept you Nico," he reminded, looking a touch hurt he wasn't everybody's first and last thought.

"Because you've been stuck in a room with me for days and I haven't killed you all," his biting sarcasm held no weight though, he found that an odd anomaly.

"I mean, that's a bonus, not the point," Jason snorted, waving a mocking hand at Percy who pretended to look offended.

Nico struggled to answer with the sudden heat in his face. Will and Percy wouldn't have let these guys murder Luke if he'd been trapped in here, it wasn't the same. They were kicking it in luxury survival mode and would all part ways the moment they could.

"It doesn't have to be like that Nico," Will said robustly like he'd read his mind, a stern edge in his voice like he was daring anyone to say anything now.

Yet even Thalia, who knew his contribution during the Titan war, looked a little to guilty as her eyes shifted from Percy to Nico and chose not to say anything. She thought Will naive, Children of the Big Three didn't get that balance between respect and friendship, Percy seemed unique in that. She'd certainly lived the experience in her short months at camp with everybody avoiding eye contact and afraid to step on her toes lest she electrocute them. The only ones who had never been like that were Luke, Annabeth, and Percy.

"It doesn't matter now," Nico sounded calm, factual. "I'll never know the difference, they all know so it won't feel real."

Percy went crosseyed in confusion when the Camp found out about this but Will wasn't letting go that easily.

"I'm not saying you'll be universally loved! I can't stand Ashely McNabb, I swear she has Munchausen's as much as she's in the infirmary complaining about something! Nobody is, have you met Clarisse?" He threw his hands up in exasperation, ruffling the hair along Nico's neck. "We took in Chris without question! We would have taken in Ethan despite how hard that would have been on a lot of kids who still feel betrayed by Luke and wouldn't believe some idiot would flip-flop on sides like that. You could at least give the place a real chance to prove that." 

Nico didn't outright answer. Something about having a solid future like that ahead made him queasy. He still felt that need to go into Tartarus, to find out what was happening down there, and he didn't believe he could do both without being some sort of infectious plague on the camp.

When it was apparent Nico and Will were just going to have a staring contest over there, Alex kept reading. Not that this wasn't a riveting debate over universal morals, but whoever blinked first would just ruin the tension anyway and he'd rather do that himself.

Before I could figure out what to tell him, I ran into Rachel, who'd stopped in front of me.

"That's one way to end an awkward conversation," Magnus muttered. "I might just get up and run into a wall next time it starts getting to quiet in here."

"I'll have the camera ready," Alex promised without looking up.

We'd come to a crossroads. The tunnel continued straight ahead, but a side tunnel T'd off to the right—a circular shaft carved from volcanic rock.

"Do you go diamond mining?" Thalia asked with such a horribly painful build-up in her throat she was sure that didn't sound intelligible.

"I do not," Percy said with a dull flush on his face for whom his mind jumped to.

"What is it?" I asked.

Rachel stared down the dark tunnel. In the dim flashlight beam, her face looked like one of Nico's specters.

"Which is not an effect of proximity from being around him," Will added cheerfully like somebody was going to rush and check a mirror.

Yet only Nico looked soothed when nobody moved. Will would have rolled his eyes at him if it wasn't just a touch more sad.

"Is it that way?" Annabeth asked.

"No," Rachel said nervously. "Not at all."

"Why are we stopping then?" I asked.

"To make sure you're keeping up?" Jason offered.

"Not in the slightest," Percy sighed.

"Listen," Nico said.

I heard wind coming down the tunnel, as if the exit were close. And I smelled something vaguely familiar—something that brought back bad memories.

"Eucalyptus trees," I said. "Like in California."

"How's that abdication of cough drops going?" Thalia asked, wishing to plug her own nose up at just the thought.

"Surprisingly well, I don't get the flu or allergies very much," Percy resisted the urge to stuff his tongue down his throat to gag up any smell that wasn't in the memory of his nose.

Last winter, when we'd faced Luke and the Titan Atlas on top of Mount Tamalpais, the air had smelled like that.

Percy swallowed a lump in his throat as the thought easily echoed around his brain now. He'd meant to say that out loud, to warn Rachel and Nico what could have been at the other end of that tunnel, but the words had lodged in place to just leave his head feeling cluttered.

"There's something evil down that tunnel," Rachel said. "Something very powerful."

"And the smell of death," Nico added, which made me feel a whole lot better.

"The two usually go hand in hand," Jason agreed blandly, even as his innards squirmed at the idea of Percy going back there. He had no reason to...and yet Jason really wanted him to. Any time Percy got near California, and especially this mountain, the powerful feeling of his memories was always right on the cusp of being understood, no matter how painful it was.

Annabeth and I exchanged glances.

"Luke's entrance," she guessed.

"Gods, if she starts naming all the tunnels and actually trying to map this place out again you'll never leave," Alex said with an awkward laugh that still managed to sound genuine to everyone but him.

"The one to Mount Othrys—the Titans' palace."

"I have to check it out," I said.

"Percy, no."

"Two words that have never done any good," Thalia snorted.

"So we know if she ever says Percy, yes, I'll be unstoppable," Percy grinned.

"Luke could be right here," I said. "Or...or Kronos. I have to find out what's going on."

Annabeth hesitated. "Then we'll all go."

There was a collective wince around the room that Percy didn't cause this time. Absolutely nobody seemed to think it was a good idea to put Annabeth back around Luke, and yet, none of them would have tried arguing the point with her. Last time she and Percy had separated...hadn't ended well.

"No," I said. "It's too dangerous. If they got hold of Nico, or Rachel for that matter, Kronos could use them. You stay here and guard them."

Nico still felt just as small and unseen as he had then, and he still hated himself for that hold Percy would always seem to have over him no matter how desensitized he became to his crush. He didn't need guarding! He, unlike Percy and Annabeth, had never been fooled by Luke! He should have been the one to go!

He'd been about to slip away to prove as much when those girls seemingly agreed with that decision.

A very large part of him had wanted to tell Annabeth and Rachel to hit the road. To split up. He and Percy could handle this while they went to warn camp, it would have been perfect, he could have navigated the maze just fine.

And yet, he'd been far to much of a coward back then to voice such a thing, and it never would have had a good outcome. Percy would never see him as anything more than what they were now. Maybe acquaintances, possibly friends.

What I didn't say: I was also worried about Annabeth. I didn't trust what she would do if she saw Luke again. He had fooled her and manipulated her too many times before.

"Percy, don't," Rachel said. "Don't go up there alone."

"I'll be quick," I promised. "I won't do anything stupid."

Jason made a terribly mocking scoff as he looked at Percy in concern. "You can't even ask yourself what would Annabeth do to avoid that because she's just as bad!"

"Then I follow my own instincts, they've gotten me this far," Percy said simply.

"We're all doomed," Jason did not look very reassured.

Annabeth took her Yankees cap out of her pocket. "At least take this. And be careful."

"Thanks." I remembered the last time Annabeth and I had parted ways, when she'd given me a kiss for luck in Mount St. Helens. This time, all I got was the hat.

"I guess this decision isn't that stupid," Will grinned. "She only shows you affection when she's scared, so she's not that worried about you this time."

"Yeah, that's it," Percy sighed. "So what you're saying is, I should have decided to walk in backward and pretended to join their side."

"Annabeth definitely would have kissed you again if that was the stupid plan you went with," Jason rolled his eyes.

"You're assuming he had a plan at all," Thalia stage whispered.

I put it on. "Here goes nothing." And I sneaked invisibly down the dark stone tunnel.*

"And the countdown for the next disaster begins," Percy sighed for everybody this time. It did not help what a horrible feeling this place was giving him, like this quick trip to Mount Tam wasn't going to be any better than the last time.

Before I even got to the exit I heard voices: the growling, barking sounds of sea-demon smiths, the telekhines.

Percy looked mildly offended his awful stunt hadn't even vaporized all of these things. Either that or they'd just regenerated that fast because his luck was truly the worst.

"At least we salvaged the blade," one said. "The master will still reward us."

Magnus's mind flashed to a guy who lived near the local landfill who salvaged anything of value and then threw it in the ocean where he was sure his master dwelled and would one day call out to him. He was now vaguely concerned if Poseidon or some other ocean spirit could put curses on mortals or something.

"Yes! Yes!" a second shrieked. "Rewards beyond measure!"

"I wonder if they share that with all their telekhine kind, or if they're just the greedy ones who are going to hoard it for generations," Alex huffed.

"Like Kronos is going to hold up his end of the bargain anyways," Jason scoffed.

Thalia felt a horrible feeling deep in her chest that made her want to scream. This would be the last time they'd be able to speak about Kronos in the abstract...soon they'd all have a face to attach to the Titan, one she'd never wanted to look away from once.

Another voice, this one more human, said: "Um, yeah, well that's great. Now, if you're done with me—"

"No, half-blood!" a telekhine said. "You must help us make the presentation. It is a great honor!"

"Oh, well in that case," Magnus blew a raspberry and flipped off the monsters that had nearly killed Percy.

Percy chuckled appreciatively, but his stomach twisted hard at how familiar that voice had sounded. Apparently, no good deed was going to go unpunished.

"Gee, thanks," the half-blood said, and I realized it was Ethan Nakamura, the guy who'd run away after I'd saved his sorry life in the arena.

"Is this an ad to never save somebody's life again?" Thalia asked, that sick feeling in her slowly but steadily rising up, her face growing hot. "I'm thinking about throwing my hat in with that sponsorship."

"Don't forget to do a thorough background check Thals," Percy said with a deep frown of concern at her. He knew she was just kidding, she'd no more stand around and watch someone die than he would, but it was an especially bleak joke from her. There were shadows flickering in her dark blue eyes that had nothing to do with this dark room hinting when her mind really was.

I crept toward the end of the tunnel. I had to remind myself I was invisible. They shouldn't be able to see me.

"Doesn't mean you should start slacking," Jason said sharply.

"Yeah, I was going to start singing opera music or something, I thought that would be real subtle," Percy rolled his eyes.

"You don't even know any opera songs," Alex accused.

"You got me, it was going to be Led Zepplin," Percy grinned.

Thalia laughed in surprise, though she visibly winced too. Percy frowned steadily at her, that look on his face she hated the most. It was usually the dumbass expression that meant he noticed something when he was supposed to be helping her fight.

A blast of cold air hit me as I emerged. I was standing near the top of Mount Tam. The Pacific Ocean spread out below, gray under a cloudy sky.

About twenty feet downhill, two telekhines were placing something on a big rock—something long and thin and wrapped in a black cloth. Ethan was helping them open it.

"Careful, fool," the telekhine scolded. "One touch, and the blade will sever your soul from your body."

Ethan swallowed nervously. "Maybe I'll let you unwrap it, then."

"Not so brave now Percy's not about to be the one to kill him," Alex frowned.

"Thanks, I feel real special," Percy frowned along.

I glanced up at the mountain's peak, where a black marble fortress loomed, just like I'd seen in my dreams. It reminded me of an oversized mausoleum, with walls fifty feet high. I had no idea how mortals could miss the fact that it was here.

"Mount Olympus hangs above New York," Magnus was the one to remind with a completely blank face, "I'm so done questioning this." However, the fact that his face still ticked proved that a minor lie and he was just done begging the world to make sense of it.

But then again, everything below the summit seemed fuzzy to me, as if there were a thick veil between me and the lower half of the mountain.

Thalia tried hard to swallow, but it felt like her body was fighting her, she could taste the acid swiftly climbing. It had nothing to do with heights for once.

There was magic going on here—really powerful Mist.

Above me, the sky swirled into a huge funnel cloud. I couldn't see Atlas, but I could hear him groaning in the distance, still laboring under the weight of the sky, just beyond the fortress.

Percy still could have pointed to the exact boulder Zoe had been thrown into. He blinked rapidly against his painful eyes as he remembered Calypso.

He wished he could somehow add a few extra layers to Atlas's punishment.

"There!" the telekhine said. Reverently, he lifted the weapon, and my blood turned to ice.

It was a scythe—a six foot-long blade curved like a crescent moon, with a wooden handle wrapped in leather. The blade glinted two different colors— steel and bronze.

Percy rubbed his thigh where that blade had once sliced right through him. He exchanged a troubled look with Thalia, the hurt and vengeance all mingled together like the forge that had done this. Luke had used that to cut off everybody who mattered to him in service of Kronos...and they hoped it wasn't worth it.

"Is that a special telekhine ability only?" Alex asked with a rather sad smile for still getting a joke in. "If they steal my weapon, will they give me back a better one? Does the stealing have to be explicit, or do they do trades for volcanos?"

"I get the feeling that sword was a gift Alex, and Luke gave it back to them willingly," Jason told him with bland sarcasm.

"Killjoy," Alex rolled his eyes at murdering such fantasies of thieving gone right.

It was the weapon of Kronos, the one he'd used to slice up his father, Ouranos, before the gods had taken it away from him and cut Kronos to pieces, casting him into Tartarus. Now the weapon was re-forged.

"We must sanctify it in blood," the telekhine said. "Then you, half-blood, shall help present it when the lord awakes."

"But he didn't even win his fight!" Thalia protested. "What was he doing there in a place of honor?" She said that like one would of a porta potty.

"They got desperate and used the only fool they could grab," Jason scowled.

I ran toward the fortress, my pulse pounding in my ears. I didn't want to get anywhere close to that horrible black mausoleum, but I knew what I had to do. I had to stop Kronos from rising. This might be my only chance.

There was ominous silence in the room for several moments.

Then they realized Alex was just pausing dramatically for effect before he took a breath to keep going. Percy almost wished he wouldn't. He had a bad feeling about this, and not once had this kind of gut-deep bad feeling turned out to be wrong.

I dashed through a dark foyer and into the main hall. The floor shined like a mahogany piano—pure black and yet full of light. Black marble statues lined the walls. I didn't recognize the faces, but I knew I was looking at images of the Titans who'd ruled before the gods. At the end of the room, between two bronze braziers, was a dais. And on the dais, the golden sarcophagus.

The room was silent except for the crackle of the fires. Luke wasn't here.

No guards. Nothing.

"It's to easy," Magnus finally couldn't help but state the obvious.

"Which has never happened in my life and I'm finally owed one!" Percy tried to say with triumph, even shaking his fist at the sky like he was daring the god of the heavens himself to smite him for saying otherwise.

It didn't exactly invoke a feeling of safeness and assurance this was going to go well.

It was too easy, but I approached the dais.

Percy sighed and hung his head. Nobody even mocked Magnus for the book copy. It was just that awkwardly silent. "Yeah, I know," Percy said. "Time to play how does it all go wrong?"

"Well, we know it's probably not Dracula in that coffin, or if it is, Kronos has allies cooler than you and I'm not going to be rooting for you anymore, so I'm out," Alex shrugged, and seeing as he had the book, that kind of mattered the most right now.

The sarcophagus was just like I remembered—about ten feet long, much too big for a human. It was carved with elaborate scenes of death and destruction, pictures of the gods being trodden under chariots, temples and famous world landmarks being smashed and burned. The whole coffin gave off an aura of extreme cold, like I was walking into a freezer. My breath began to steam.

I drew Riptide and took a little comfort from the familiar weight of the sword in my hand.

Thalia couldn't help but paint over the image, Percy's black hair turning blond, him shooting up several inches and his eyes turning bright blue; Luke's final moments. Had he walked into the room with confidence and stopped to admire his final resting place with a smile? Had he been crying and regretting this as Kronos egged on his every step? Had he ever prayed to his father for a way out in a last desperate attempt? Would he have checked every corner, hoping beyond hope for someone to show up and help him out of this one last time?

Had he lain down in peace it was finally over?

She still remembered him throwing her arm over his shoulder, supporting all of her weight as she tried to limp along. She'd gasped he should take Annabeth and run, but he hadn't listened to her that time, instead telling her, "you can live with dignity, you can't die with it," and she hadn't said another word about it all the way to his mother's house.

What had been his final thought that day? What would he call this death? What Kronos had done to his body was perverse, as far from dignifying as she could imagine.

Whenever I'd approached Kronos before, his evil voice had spoken in my mind. Why was he silent now?

"Did he finally run out of things to say?" Nico asked without hope. "They say silence speaks louder than words, is he just trying to be louder than your constant internal monolog?"

"I have a feeling he was talking to himself when no one was around to listen in Tartarus, I doubt that's it," Percy was fighting off the urge to shiver in here. His body wasn't cold, only his memory of what was about to come.

He'd been shred into a thousand pieces, cut with his own scythe. What would I find if I opened that lid? How could they make a new body for him?

"Duct tape?" Alex offered.

"I vote a welding torch, it sounds more painful," Jason murmured, and they all felt a thrill of horror as they wondered if that's what Daedalus had done. Given someone other than himself an automaton body.

I had no answers. I just knew that if he was about to rise, I had to strike him down before he got his scythe. I had to figure out a way to stop him.

I stood over the coffin.

Jason looked blearily at the book, his gaze switching from its solid black cover to Percy and Thalia for several moments with deja vu swimming on the brain...before it clicked. Percy had dreamed of this moment once. Standing over this coffin, ready to kill Kronos...was Thalia going to appear again to help get the job done?

She looked just as pale and miserable as she had back then. He understood her expression now, truly one of mourning, which really didn't click with her having any feelings other than triumph over the Titan Lord's defeat. She'd screamed in that dream...a scream of fear for what was inside...

The lid was decorated even more intricately than the sides—with scenes of carnage and power. In the middle was an inscription carved in letters even older than Greek, a language of magic. I couldn't read it, exactly, but I knew what it said: KRONOS, LORD OF TIME.

"What a boring epitaph," Magnus raised a brow. "No, here lie's dad, he tried to eat us all and deserves this. I would have settled for, in loving memory of the dude who birthed us the second time and nothing more."

"Gods just aren't that original Magnus, we've gone over this," Nico scoffed.

"I bet the Titans made it and just couldn't be bothered," Alex rolled his eyes.

My hand touched the lid. My fingertips turned blue. Frost gathered on my sword.

"Guess Jason finally gets his answer about if I can get frostbite," Percy muttered as his stomach turned. He tried to calm it, constantly convince and remind himself nobody could possibly get hurt from this except him and he was fine...maybe he'd finally saved the world with one easy stab and Annabeth would hold his hand and kiss him this time.

Then I heard noises behind me—voices approaching. It was now or never.

I pushed back the golden lid and it fell to the floor with a huge WHOOOOM!

Thalia knew there was nothing she could do to brace herself. She wished there was, she would have done anything to feel prepared for what she knew was coming next, but there was nothing. She just felt cold, and empty, and primed for the pain that every word was going to cause her next.

I lifted my sword, ready to strike. But when I looked inside, I didn't comprehend what I was seeing. Mortal legs, dressed in gray pants. A white T-shirt, hands folded over his stomach. One piece of his chest was missing—a clean black hole about the size of a bullet wound, right where his heart should've been. His eyes were closed. His skin was pale. Blond hair...and a scar running along the left side of his face.

The body in the coffin was Luke's.

She'd known this was coming all along, reliving these horrible memories of Percy's could lead to no other choice of words than those, and yet Thalia still felt that gasp of air pass her lips. A traitorous tear slipped from her cheek.

She couldn't just sit here right now. She didn't care how weak or childish it felt, a betrayal of her own body as she jumped up with bile in her throat blocking her scream of protest.

This was not something she'd ever wanted to hear in vivid detail, and her mind claimed some protection from that as she stormed out of the room without a word...leaving a storm behind.

Percy gave her a thirty-second head start as he dodged a lightning cloud to go after her. Jason muttered something about raincoats as he ducked into the nearest room, but Percy felt eyes on the back of his neck until he very cleverly and with Sherlockian skill figured out which room she'd tried to barricade herself in by the loudest bass guitar he'd ever heard in his life.

He pushed the door open, one hand trying to reflexively come up and cover his ear to stop it bleeding. Thalia was standing with her hand inside the fridge where a large stereo was blasting music, her fingers still managing to fiddle with the links of her bracelet on that wrist awkwardly with the other.**

The lyrics weren't exactly cheery either, what he could make out through the screaming.

He knew he was probably going to get all of his bones shocked like a stupid cartoon outline and his hair would never lie flat again for this, but he went around beside her and waved his hand experimentally in front of her face to at least let her know he was here.

Her mouth twitched, the smallest degree, but her brow furrowed in concentration and somehow the music got louder. His teeth were vibrating in his skull. His eardrums felt like somebody was crumpling up sandpaper in them.

Stubbornness set in though as he leaned closer and blew on her face, disturbing the hair that was swaying along to the beat.

Her eyes snapped open, electricity crackled from her nose and he really hoped she never decided to get a nose ring, but she took her hand off the speaker and it finally dulled into a background noise as his ears popped. If he wasn't in the ocean he'd probably never get his hearing back.

"What are you, five?" She scowled. "You think I'm going to start whining you're breathing the same air as me?"

"Nah," he shrugged, "I just knew if I tapped you on the shoulder you would have murdered me without hesitation. This seemed safer."

"I probably can't kill you down here," she said with the confidence of one who had really considered it. "I don't want to hear the rest of that. Come get me when you're back in the maze."

"Fair," Percy promised. "Just wanted to check if you need anything besides new eardrums first. Punching bag? Black liquorice?"

She smiled against her will he did remember the kind of candy she liked.

He had to ruin the sweet moment though with a classic Percy, "I know you're beating yourself up, and you shouldn't. You couldn't have done anything differently."

"Go away Percy," she ground out, smile vanishing.

"What could you do?" He insisted. "Not saved his life on that hill? Pretend to join his side to talk him out of this? Annabeth thought of every plan and never found one crazy enough to use, you couldn't have changed-"

"I know!" She snapped as loud as the music had been. Thunder rumbled in the distance. "That's the worst part! I know I couldn't have fixed this and I hate him and I hate myself for hating him and I, I hate that I loved him!"

She stopped with a gasp, another exhale of air that fizzled with electricity between them and made Percy's heart zap like a paddle blast he had not needed. He swatted his chest impatiently, ignoring his fingers twitching against their will as his nerves were clearly standing on end too.

He watched her turn away, her hand reaching for the radio. Gods knew how long she'd been holding all that in. He suspected she'd never talked to Annabeth about this, or at least, it hadn't ended any better than grumpy silence if they started, considering that's all he got out of Annabeth defending Luke. He highly suspected she wouldn't talk to the other Hunters about this, the boy-hating club would just take her side and agree Luke wasn't worth the wasted breath and move on.

No one who was willing to listen without taking sides. She just needed space from any judgy opinion.

"Okay," he managed before the spark from her fingers could make contact. "I'll come get you like you asked."

"Thanks," she whispered.

He got to the door, but the music didn't start again.

"Do you really think that Percy?" She asked, face still turned away. "That we really couldn't have done anything differently?"

"Yeah," he said. He didn't need to know the whole story, or if this was all he'd found out in his life and the war was still raging on. He still believed it no matter the outcome, the two of them had done everything they could to save as many lives as possible.

"Right," she muttered with distaste. "So why put myself through listening to it, it won't change anything. It only makes me hate everything I ever remember about him."

"Right," he agreed, "no need to put yourself through that."

She hated Percy for not making this easy on her and insisting she should come hear every detail anyway or ask what she was hiding from. She knew she was playing right into his manipulative hand by falling for the 'I'm only on your side' smile on his face. If she didn't find a way to stab some nonvital part of him through that Achilles curse than she'd consider this trip a failure.

"Right," she echoed as she stomped around the bed.

He stayed in the doorway with that stupid smile. "Sure you don't need anything?"

"Move Perky!"

He stepped aside with his hands raised and she cussed him out all the way back he was taller than her and yet she could still drop-kick his ass. Why was she doing this to herself?!

She felt insane all of a sudden, like she'd been trying to convince herself she could go back to the innocence of it all. She knew all the signs coming and knew how it ended, but there was nothing she could do to turn a blind eye to it anymore. It had hit, and she just had to keep going...

They came back in to see the clouds had mostly subsided to murky black swirls that were escaping and dispersing out of the cracks in every wall, with everybody having an umbrella in hand and chilling in place like this was nothing out of the ordinary.

They were getting oddly good at that.

"How the hell do you make it rain underwater anyways?" Alex asked, sticking his hand out from under the pink and green nylon to catch a few drops, watching it fall through the cracks in the floor with interest.

"Hey Nico," Will grinned, staying close underneath Nico's arm hoisting a solid black one instead of holding his own. He looked ridiculous as ever all scrunched up and doubled over, but he had a stupidly delighted smile on his face while cupping his hands to collect some. Nico half expected to be splashed, until it spilled over Will's smooth palms to splatter into the puddle at their feet as he grinned and finished, "I think this is getting out of hand."

"So help me Solace, I will find a way to drown you down here," Nico said fondly.

"You're just mad you didn't think of that joke in time Nico," Magnus chuckled, shaking out his banana yellow umbrella and tucking it underneath his feet like he was sure he was going to need it again.

Jason was humming 'rain, rain, go away,' from under his purple umbrella and watching Thalia with those same deep, trusting blue eyes as when she'd first laughed and sang that song with him on an old, broken toy she'd stolen from a traders show to give to him. Unlike 'normal kids', that's how they'd learned their ABC's and 'twinkle twinkle little start.'

The old man bonking his head had been his favorite part. He was to young to get the joke the rain would never stop for them...only to be proven wrong as the others folded theirs up too. She supposed every storm had to run out of rain eventually.

"Sorry," Thalia sighed all the same.

"Pssh, I've gotten them all ten times more wet than this," Percy reminded.

"Anyways," Alex said loudly while Thalia struggled on whether she should address what Percy just said or not. She would either turn it into a competition or try to make him hear the double meaning and while both would be entertaining, Alex decided he had to be the mature one and finish one catastrophe before starting another.

I should have stabbed him right then. I should've brought the point of Riptide down with all my strength.

Nico resisted the impulse to tell Percy that wouldn't have worked anyway. Luke might have been in a state of in-between, he'd sensed that the closer they'd drawn something was off in that place like a soul that was screaming out and would need help being released.

Riptide wouldn't have done the trick though, not with the Achilles curse already in place to house Kronos's body.

But I was too stunned. I didn't understand. As much as I hated Luke, as much as he had betrayed me, I just didn't get why he was in the coffin, and why he looked so very, very dead.

Jason felt a horrible, sick feeling this is what all of Luke's planning had been leading up to. Some final sacrifice Kronos had needed. Wasn't it supposed to be some child of the big three to bring Kronos back? Wasn't that what this was all about? Had Luke thought he'd be good enough and his death was in vain? It was a sad, yet horribly fitting ending to the guy that had started all of this.

Then the voices of the telekhines were right behind me.

"What has happened!" one of the demons screamed when he saw the lid. I stumbled away from the dais, forgetting that I was invisible, and hid behind a column as they approached.

Magnus and Alex exchanged a whole conversation with just one look. They did not like Luke, and whatever was happening in this Greek story was well beyond them to understand.

What they did hear was the mental rant Percy was giving himself over there about losing his chance and how they were going to hear that verbally with extra effects later if this didn't end well, which had never been likely from the start.

"Careful!" the other demon warned. "Perhaps he stirs. We must present the gifts now. Immediately!"

"Swords in bed, they'll replace breakfast, love, and healthcare in no time with that method," Will said dully. This was just a horrible place to imagine from every angle and between that, and actually getting some rain in this dingy place with still not a hint of sunshine in sight was seriously starting to depress him. He longed for the natural world again more every chapter.

The two telekhines shuffled forward and knelt, holding up the scythe on its wrapping cloth. "My lord," one said. "Your symbol of power is remade."

Silence. Nothing happened in the coffin.

"That was not an impressive enough speech to get anyone to wake up," Alex scoffed. "They should try it with coffee and donuts."

"Will did just establish they think their idea is better and I don't think even you could change their mind," Magnus shrugged.

"You fool," the other telekhine muttered. "He requires the half-blood first."

Ethan stepped back. "Whoa, what do you mean, he requires me?"

Alex made a really suggestive, double-clicking sound with his mouth that made them all groan in disgust and Jason threw a bit of his beanbag at him.

"I'm sorry for putting us in the gutter but I'm electing we don't stay there," Thalia's voice was hoarse with stress. To anyone not paying attention she just hadn't thought the joke was funny and was still taking this in stride.

Alex was not one of those people and bobbed his head once in apology, mock zipping his mouth shut as he continued reading.

"Don't be a coward!" the first telekhine hissed. "He does not require your death. Only your allegiance. Pledge him your service. Renounce the gods. That is all."

"No!" I yelled. It was a stupid thing to do,

"True, but ramming a bus into the side of a tunnel is still your top impulse moment," Jason promised.

"If saving this guy's life the first time didn't convince him you knew more than these monsters I don't think shouting in his face will," Magnus agreed.

"I never shouted in his face?" Will mock grinned in confusion.

Nico pretended to spray a water bottle in his face, "bad joke, bad!"

Will laughed in delight and swatted real water still dripping from his hair, which got the most mild of chuckles out of everybody else in the room.

but I charged into the room and took off the cap.

"Annabeth's going to be so pissed at you for revealing her secret weapon, waving it around like that," Thalia managed some attempt at her usual tone.

"She can't do any worse to me?" But Percy somehow managed to phrase that as a question anyway.

"Ethan, don't!"

"Trespasser!" The telekhines bared their seal teeth. "The master will deal with you soon enough. Hurry, boy!"

"Ethan," I pleaded, "don't listen to them. Help me destroy it."

Ethan turned toward me, his eye patch blending in with the shadows on his face. His expression was something like pity. "I told you not to spare me, Percy. 'An eye for an eye.' You ever hear that saying? I learned what it means the hard way—when I discovered my godly parent. I'm the child of Nemesis, Goddess of Revenge. And this is what I was made to do."

"Could a goddess have a child that could have revenge against her? That sounds redundant," Magnus frowned.

"As Luke himself has proven, we're not hard-wired to use our powers for our parents unconditionally," Nico frowned. He still felt like he hadn't found a balance between defining himself and who his dad was.

He turned toward the dais. "I renounce the gods! What have they ever done for me? I will see them destroyed. I will serve Kronos."

The building rumbled. A wisp of blue light rose from the floor at Ethan Nakamura's feet. It drifted toward the coffin and began to shimmer, like a cloud of pure energy. Then it descended on the sarcophagus.

Each time a half-blood joins us, the Olympians grow weaker and we grow stronger. He grows stronger." Luke pointed to the gold sarcophagus... Luke himself had promised this was exactly what was happening. Not one of them had wanted to see it in action, here in as vivid a detail what a few words could do. If only Alex had the power to kill a whole word, he knew which he'd start with right now.

Luke sat bolt upright. His eyes opened, and they were no longer blue.

They were golden, the same color as the coffin. The hole in his chest was gone. He was complete. He leaped out of the coffin with ease, and where his feet touched the floor, the marble froze like craters of ice.

Thalia pressed her hand to her mouth. She didn't know what she was holding in, a scream, a gasp, a sob. It didn't matter. It was staying where it was.

He looked at Ethan and the telekhines with those horrible golden eyes, as if he were a newborn baby, not sure what he was seeing. Then he looked at me, and a smile of recognition crept across his mouth.

"This body has been well prepared." His voice was like a razor blade running over my skin. It was Luke's, but not Luke's. Underneath his voice was another, more horrible sound—an ancient, cold sound like metal scraping against rock.

Percy had always heard those voices together side by side from one of his very first dreams. It still didn't prepare him to hear them as intrinsically tied together as Backbiter now was.

"Don't you think so, Percy Jackson?"

I couldn't move. I couldn't answer.

Kronos threw back his head and laughed. The scar on his face rippled.

"Luke feared you," the Titan's voice said. "His jealously and hatred have been powerful tools. It has kept him obedient. For that I thank you."

"He's not welcome," Percy managed through gritted teeth. He could feel that guinea pig in him once more squeaking in terror and telling him to run, but he easily overrode it with anger at Luke for doing this to himself. One swipe, that's all he needed, one chance with his sword before this could possibly somehow still get worse.

Ethan collapsed in terror. He covered his face with his hands.

There was no mocking to be had, no superior laughs for the comeuppance of his words. This was something no mortal should ever have to lay eyes on.

The telekhines trembled, holding up the scythe.

Finally I found my nerve. I lunged at the thing that used to be Luke, thrusting my blade straight at his chest, but his skin deflected the blow like he was made of pure steel. He looked at me with amusement. Then he flicked his hand, and I flew across the room.

Another tear traced down Thalia's cheek, and she hated herself for that. Her nails were digging into the side of her cheek and she did not unclench any part of herself, sitting still as a tree once more as if a once cursed slumber would help the pain of this all go in easier.

I slammed against a pillar. I struggled to my feet, blinking the stars out of my eyes, but Kronos had already grasped the handle of his scythe.

"Ah...much better," he said. "Backbiter, Luke called it. An appropriate name. Now that it is re-forged completely, it shall indeed bite back."

"What have you done to Luke?" I groaned.

Kronos raised his scythe. "He serves me with his whole being, as I require. The difference is, he feared you, Percy Jackson.

"He hid that well," Jason frowned. He didn't think Luke left his secret diary lying around for notes over that, but he would have liked to hear it from the horse's mouth. Jealousy, hatred, superiority could all easily be applied to Luke, but fear?

Then Jason's eyes flickered to Thalia, and he realized Luke was afraid of exactly what happened, what Thalia herself had once feared of Percy. That he would take away those most important to him. Kronos probably kept feeding the worst of this to delude Luke long enough he never realized he'd done that to himself as Luke's once best friend stayed frozen with this pain.

He wanted to do something for her, anything. He would have stolen Zeus's thunderbolt to smite this hybrid monster, he wanted to smack Percy for dragging her back in here.

All any of them could do was just get through it.

I do not."

That's when I ran.

"Character continuity," Nico gave him a big thumbs up. Percy would have assumed he was being mocked if Nico didn't look him right in the eye with sincerity. "It's like Echidna all over again."

"I've grown some over the years," Percy grinned, "I know how to pronounce Charon now."

"We all go at our own pace," Nico nodded along.

There wasn't even any thought to it. No debate in my mind about—gee, should I stand up to him and try to fight again? Nope, I simply ran.

But my feet felt like lead. Time slowed down around me, like the world was turning to Jell-O. I'd had this feeling once before, and I knew it was the power of Kronos. His presence was so strong it could bend time itself.

"Run, little hero," he laughed. "Run!"

Percy shivered, he still remembered the feeling like his blood was infected with ice. There had been no source of water, nothing he could have done. He studied his shaking fingers that hadn't even drawn his sword on instinct in here, that's how futile he knew this was. Why wasn't he dead? Of all the times he'd asked himself that, it really didn't seem like there was an answer this time-

I glanced back and saw him approaching leisurely, swinging his scythe as if he were enjoying the feel of having it in his hands again. No weapon in the world could stop him. No amount of celestial bronze.

He was ten feet away when I heard, "PERCY!"

Rachel's voice.

"What, took, you, so, long," Will swatted Nico's shoulder with every word, sadly the only available person here he could harangue for this. "Every one of you is a disobedient protective nutjob! How did Percy even make it five steps without you guys coming to save his bacon!" He was still smacking him on the shoulder with a pretty steady rhythm too.

It was light, and playful, like a kitten batting at him. Nico smiled at the casual contact and shrugged, which didn't dislodge Will's beat. "Annabeth told us to wait there, Rachel said she was coming, and I followed. It took, um, maybe sixty seconds, but it was a long tunnel and when we saw the telekhines we didn't have our own invisibility hat so we had to move slow."

Will huffed and crossed his arms, muttering about the lot of them all about to give him a heart attack.

Something flew past me, and a blue plastic hairbrush hit Kronos in the eye.

"Ow!" he yelled. For a moment it was only Luke's voice, full of surprise and pain.

Thalia couldn't stop the noise that escaped her. An eerily similar yelp of pain like it had echoed through time right to her. That this one moment couldn't have lasted forever. That was all that needed to be done to knock some sense back into him.

How awful did that make her? That she'd rather he be frozen in pain like that in his own body forever than possessed and disintegrated from the inside out as this thing took him over?

"Sorry Thalia," Percy couldn't help but whisper, moving to gently put his arm over her shoulder.

"Yeah, I know. Me too." she whispered, eyes on the floor even as she gave his wrist a squeeze. Being sorry didn't make it feel better.

My limbs were freed and I ran straight into Rachel, Nico, and Annabeth, who were standing in the entry hall, their eyes filled with dismay.

"Luke?" Annabeth called. "What—"

I grabbed her by the shirt and hauled her after me.

Percy's hand grasped at nothing in here, as usual, though his feet twitched and the cold still felt like it was seeping in. The orange of her shirt had looked faded, the black letters peeling. She'd gotten a new one yesterday before they left camp. The gray in her hair had stood out more than ever, her face ghastly pale like being in Luke's mere presence had been aging her faster than them all.

Had Luke/ Kronos seen her and caused a second's more hesitation? Would it have been enough to draw them apart if they'd forced them back into that sarcophagus?

She'd saved his life in that arena with the tip about Gaia, now he returned the favor by saving her from Luke. It had to be that simple. Even if she did hate him for dragging her away kicking and screaming, he really didn't care. Like the sirens all over again, he'd always save her from herself.

I ran as fast as I've ever run, straight out of the fortress. We were almost back to the Labyrinth entrance when I heard the loudest bellow in the world—the voice of Kronos, coming back into control. "AFTER THEM!"

It hadn't been about impressing Percy, as Nico had sneered and a spark of anger always easily at the surface of his mind caught to life at that moment. It had been pure obstinance of being hunted down that had made him lash out with a power he'd never known to touch before.

"No!" Nico yelled. He clapped his hands together, and a jagged spire of rock the size of an eighteen-wheeler erupted from the ground right in front of the fortress. The tremor it caused was so powerful the front columns of the building came crashing down. I heard muffled screams from the telekhines inside. Dust billowed everywhere.

We plunged into the Labyrinth and kept running, the howl of the Titan lord shaking the entire world behind us.

It wasn't until Alex had finished and silently got up to hand the book to Percy, only to sign to Magnus in very choppy and slow words as he sat back down, 'I need your help to plan the best hairbrush-themed party for Rachel' did he realize he'd gone silent and his eyes were swimming with tears of laughter. Showing anything of the sort would have made Thalia really start crying for a wholly other reason though.

He nodded and smiled back, thinking how lucky he was to have landed in here with these guys as Thalia coughed and snapped at Percy to get a move on, her voice frostier than the South Pole.

Percy of course did so without comment or question, pulling his arm away and giving Thalia the space she needed.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

No, they did not stop and laugh about Rachel hitting a Titan with a blue hairbrush. Thalia was in pain over this and there will be respectful silence for their fellow person during that.

They will, however, laugh their ass off in the next chapter along with Percy when there's been a little time to cool. Don't worry, you'll all get your chuckles while I have my emotional constipation about Thalia finally relieved.

*The one and only detail that bothered me about Chalice of the Gods. Percy's worn her hat plenty of times before and never felt an itchy sensation. My headcannon for this change is that Athena did this as a reminder of Annabeth's hubris in the hopes it would save her daughter from her fatal flaw in the future, even if it took a while to kick in when she got it back in The Staff of Serapis. Otherwise, I can't get enough of psychoanalyzing how far their relationship has come from these books to that.

**If you're curious about the song I imagine Thalia was listening to during that scene, it's Downfall by Trust Company.

#pjo #Percy Jackson #Thalia Grace #Jason Grace #nico di angelo #Will Solace #Alex Fierro #Magnus Chase #percabeth #fierrochase #solangelo