#and he'd finally been adopted by the couple on my street who just couldn't handle him bc their answer to his issues | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sourgrenadine · 2 years

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(if this is too specific…i an terribly sorry) could u do dano! riddler with an s/o who went mute in the orphanage and after years they finally say something to him and he is so happy

give me a voice || 2022!edward nashton x gn!reader

warnings: angst (but happy ending), orphanage related sadness

a/n: im in my natural state when writing angst fics hehehehehehe. i absolutely love writing anything for ed but if my edgy emo angst side comes out and ends up with a fic rather than headcanons

The last time he heard you speak was when you were fourteen. With children, even in such terrible conditions, there's still an innate innocence difficult to part with. They can ignore the other kid's crying. They can bounce back from harsh scolding. Their faces, so soft and unknowing aren't trained the way that the older orphans' are. As a kid, you're as talkative as any other child in Gotham. You delight in the pennies you find under thrown out newspapers, trace patterns on frosted windows during winter and enjoy watching cars pass by as you wait inside the orphanage, still optimistic that some day you'll be taken in by a loving family.

But when you reach your teens, it's like a candle is snuffed out.

Edward learned from an early age, much earlier than the other kids, that the world was an awful cruel place. Seeing you, on the edge of young adulthood still so optimistic was like watching a ship approach an iceberg; it's not a question of whether you'll hit it, it would only be a matter of when you would crash.

Hardly anyone ever adopts a teenager, least of all in Gotham. Too rowdy, too old, can't rename them to something you like and you have to deal with the pain of teenage angst without having made an attachment to them when they're babies. So the pennies you find on the streets don't add up to anything. The ice on the windows creeping into your bones and biting your skin. The cars that pass by the orphanage are just a bitter reminder that you're unwanted.

It's those meaningless cents, the nights spent shivering, and the passing cars that build up your silence, but it's the let down of being so close to family that pushed you over the edge.

One day, the matron of the orphanage called you to her office. With a smile you now know to be a façade, she sits you down across from a wealthy appearing couple. It's all pleasantries, and you thought everything was right as rain. They couldn't have a child of their own, so what better to do than adopt one? They seemed to like you, and you liked them very much so when they left, you were rocking on your heels waiting for the matron to give you the good news.

But it never came.

Day after day, you sat in the room you shared with nine other girls, awaiting to be called back but you heard nothing. When you went to ask the matron where the nice couple were, it was as if she pushed you head first into the Gotham bay. They weren't coming. They'd been able to conceive.

That's when you lost your voice.

Rather, you didn't lose your voice, they stole it from you.

Now, Edward is and was an eavesdropper, so he heard everything of what transpired in the matron's office. With a grimace, he would take you under his arm as you sobbed. He'd hold you in the way that you so desperately needed from a parent.

He'd seen it before, but the way you handled it felt like his heart was getting ripped out. Most orphans turned to drugs or sex or gambling to drown their sorrows, but Ed never saw you partake in any of that. You just... shut down.

Throughout his years at the orphanage, Ed managed to hide a good amount of money under his mattress from betting. He'd saved enough to get a cramped apartment for the two of you and slowly you began to heal. You went about your routines, holding whatever job would take you; waitressing came and went, you didn't have the qualifications for the white collar jobs, and your longest stint was as a night janitor at Gotham Central. What little you earned you insisted Edward take to help cover rent, and though he took it to placate you, he'd put it in a reserve jar, never spending any of it.

Edward had no regrets when he decided to burn the abandoned orphanage down. At some point you had confided in him (through writing of course) that you wished you would never see the building ever again, and Ed really took that to heart.

He leads you down the street minutes after it really caught, walking casually as if he hadn't committed arson. But seeing the bright orange and red light on your face he's filled with a burning deeper than the flames. You cling to his arm, weaving yourself right up against him and just... watch.

The stillness of the two of you gives him pause to reflect; while firefighters try to put out the fire, rushing past in their rusty firetrucks, you just stand there and observe.

You don't look up at him. You keep your eyes on the fire as you clear your throat.

"I was hoping this place would go up in flames. Let's go home."

Edward lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding. You hold his arm tighter and tangle your fingers with his. Your voice hasn't changed much, but years of disuse has left it more like a warble than proper speech. Still, the wavering words affect Edward more than you realize; you have to tug on his arm to get him to start moving, and even then he stumbles on his feet as you continue along the sidewalk.

He catches up, mind still racing a mile a minute. A small smile plays on your lips. Now Edward's the one at a loss for words.

But his thoughts clear when you raise his hand up to your face and plant a kiss on the back of his hand. And it's there that he decides that he'll do anything if you ask it of him.

#edward nashton x reader #edward nygma x reader #dano!riddler #the batman 2022 #the riddler x reader

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missnmikaelson-main · 4 years

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The Forgotten - Chapter 20

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5 , Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19

Elena paced the narrow space between the bed and the dresser. The cave house screamed luxury, but in terms of size it was a hovel in comparison the New Orleans home they had first shared.

She preferred it; he was only a handful of steps away.

She hooked her finger under her locket chain, pulling it from left to right.

She dropped it and slipped into the bathroom.

Through the steam she spotted the gleaming vanity and his watch.

The shower door slid open just enough for him to poke his head out.

"Did you change your mind, darling?” His eyes flickered down her pyjamas. "Decide to join me?"

"No," she shook her head, hopping up on the counter, “but I did change my mind. I want to know; I know I said I didn't want to know, but now I want to know."

"You came in here to discuss my ex?"

"I don't want the sordid details,” she rested her shoulders against the mirror and crossed her arms. "I do want information on her though, and aside from the witches you are the only one alive who can tell me anything."

He closed the shower door to rinse the shampoo out. The sordid details were part of what made Ariadne who she was.

"Are you truly considering doing this?" He turned his face toward the spray. "Killing someone?"

"You don't think I'm capable?" She frowned at the glass.

"I think you were hesitant to use the Devil's Star," he shut off the water.

"I still haven't, but,” she met his eyes when he stepped out, "I have traded one life to save another, and to preserve an innocent life I will do so again. Towel?" She held out her hand and he took the towel from where it dangled from her finger. "How old is she?"

"I turned her in the fourteenth century," he wrapped the towel around his hips, "and before you can ask, no, you can't take her. She is too old and too strong; you got a shot in because you surprised her."

"My bone breaking spell helped,” she smirked.

"I thought I heard her ribs crack." He snickered, placing his hands on her knees and curling his fingers around the sensitive skin behind. "That spell is the reason you won't get near her; she knows you're different."

"Then what is she? How am I going to get close?"

"I suppose I should tell you everything,” he rubbed the back of his neck. "She wasn't always like that. She was a witch, and I happened to enjoy her company."

"I bet you did,” her lip curled.

"Aw, don't be jealous, my love,” he tugged the lace edge of her shorts, "it was just a fling."

She glared and fought back a smile. "Neither you or Rebekah are funny."

"Agree to disagree,” he chuckled. "Her feelings ran deeper than mine; it’s how we learned to never turn someone who cares for us. I still don't know how Finn got around it; perhaps if he had been awake I'd have handled the situation better."

"Why is it a bad idea? You mentioned sire bonds. What are they?”

"Because the sired vampire becomes just that,” he sighed, closing his eyes. "After I turned her she took me to her coven, and this coven happened to worship an immortal condemned to eternal slumber. They said if he awoke he would unleash hell on earth, and they wanted to wake him because he would grant them power beyond imagining. I happened to like the earth the way it was."

"Is this the 'we slaughtered a coven and revelled in the blood story'?" She leaned forward, hooking her ankles behind his back.

"You know I hold witches in high regard,” he ran his knuckles down her cheek. "They make for the greatest allies and the worst enemies, and unless they pose a real threat I never harm them. These ones, though...” he sighed. "They had to die."

"I vented that night to Ariadne: 'Silas could never be allowed to rise' and 'every last witch in the coven needed to die’. I didn't mean it literally, but it didn't matter because she was sired to me."

His eyes glazed over as he gazed into the past. Her voice dragged him back.

"What happened?" She lifted her hands, cradling either side of his face. "Please tell me, or show me. Just don't shut me out, okay?"

He frowned and rubbed the dimple in her left knee. Centuries, countless languages later, and he still had no words to describe the carnage.

"Another Original,” he mused, "I'm not sure I could show you."

"All you have to do is let me in,” she searched his eyes; only closing her eyes when he nodded.

He took a deep breath and lowered his forehead to hers; a second later he felt her presence in his mind and summoned the memory.

Elena gasped, but didn't pull away as she saw the world through his eyes.

She stepped over an older man, barely noticing the dainty bite on his neck. The second body was the one that gave her pause. A wet rock rolled against his/her foot, and it took an embarrassingly long moment before she registered that it was a small heart; the compact body was that of a child younger than five. There were more bodies the further they went, some old, some young and a few barely out of the cradle.

Finally, after Elena lost count of the bodies, they found Ariadne soaked in blood and draining the life from a boy who could have been her brother; she grinned at them.

Elena pulled out of his head, blinking fast to adjust to the bathroom light. She felt his thumbs swipe away her tear tracks.

"I finished off what remained of the coven, but she wasn't the same after. I had unwittingly ordered her to kill the coven she had grown up in: brothers, sisters, cousins... children she helped raise and because she was sired to me she had no choice but to do it. Between the trauma and the euphoria of witches' blood she went a little crazy, and apparently developed a taste for it."

“You left her, didn't you?” Elena cleared her throat.

"I tried. She followed me here to Santorini,” he rubbed her shoulder absentmindedly; “eventually our indiscretions drew my father's attention. I knew my patterns, I knew she could never be reigned in, and I do know that I should have put her down."

"Why didn't you?” Elena chewed her bottom lip.

"Pity,” he met her eyes, "maybe a little guilt. I was young, darling. I didn't know what to do so I told her not to follow me because it was dangerous. It was my misguided attempt to spare her feelings. I thought eventually she would move on."

"And yet," she murmured, lowering her eyes to his chest. She drummed her fingers over his heart for a moment before speaking again. "According to the coven she's been plaguing them for centuries. Something tells me she's too smart to fall for a trap."

"You know," he thought of Ariadne, “a good trap is made or broken by the choice of bait."

++++

Locating Ariadne proved remarkably easy. The amulet she had worn since long before he ended her life dangled on the chain he had wound around his palm

The perfect personal effect led him to a patio on the side of the hill.

He looked to the left where the sunset stained sea and sky. He looked to the right where the walls glowed orange. Finally he looked forward.

She sat alone at a narrow table for two next to the railing; blood red nails traced the stem of her wine glass.

He couldn't have set the scene better if he'd tried.

Two months ago the whole thing would have been done in moments.

Now he needed to be smarter. He waited until she checked her phone before he stood behind her back and bent, whispering against her ear.

"So sorry to keep you waiting, darling."

She inhaled slowly, lowering her phone to the table.

"What are you doing here?” She watched from the corner of her eye as he circled around, dragging his finger along her shoulder as he went.

"I thought that was obvious,” he counted three couples in earshot and four more in his line of sight. He dropped into the opposite chair. "I'm here for you."

"Are you kidding me?" She scoffed. "You left me five hundred and eighty-two years ago."

"Actually it was five hundred and eighty-two years, six months and twenty-three agonizing days," he held her gaze as the table vibrated.

"Do you really expect me to believe you were pining," hope flashed in her eyes, "after your little freak show of a girlfriend broke my bones, and you did nothing to stop her? I saw the way you were looking at that holier-than-thou bitch.” She crossed her arms and glanced around the room. "Where is she anyway? Waiting in the wings to magically break my bones?"

"Are you jealous of her magic, or of her?" He reached across the table for her hands, pulling them from her chest. "You don't need to worry about her."

"You looked at her like you'd been wandering in the dark all your life until she brought light into it."

He blinked, but quickly recovered from being stunned by the accuracy of the statement.

"She was nothing more than a replacement for you."

He rubbed the back of her knuckles with his thumb and hoped she didn't hear the way his heart jumped. "Why don't we go somewhere more private and discuss it? We could find the girl she saved and share a drink."

He stood and drew her to her feet, cooking an eyebrow and adopting sincerity. Vulnerability flashed in her eyes and he knew he was close.

They made it to the street before she spoke up.

"You left me,” she slowed her steps.

He could see the deserted alley beyond several dozen bodies. Too far away, not even the dropping darkness would help him get there without being noticed.

"You know I had no choice,” he lifted her hand to kiss. “Mikael was coming. I didn't want you caught up in my family drama; away from me you were safe."

"You never came back," she walked in step with him.

"I'm back now."

She spun, planting her hands on her hips. "Why now?"

He placed his hands on her waist and walked her into the alley, pushing her back against the cooling stone.

No sign of Elena.

"Mikael is dead," he stared down into her eyes. "It's safe for us now."

She chewed her lip. "What about her?"

"What about who?" He lowered his face until he felt her breath. Standing that close he couldn't make out her features beyond dark lashes. "I missed you," he dragged his mouth to her ear and whispered in a husky voice, "let me show you how much."

He felt the shudder race down her spine.

++++

"Out on your own...” Elena tipped her head back and sighed. "He's tired of you already."

"Go away Stavros," she ignored him.

"I'd never leave you," he followed.

Elena made a mental note to find the bastard who said ignoring your tormentors worked and rip him or her a few new holes.

The liar deserved it.

"You can't take a hint, can you?" She scoffed.

"You said you were with someone, but now you’re free."

He grasped her wrist, and yanked her into the nearest alley, pressing her into the wall.

"Do you have that short of a memory?” She glared up at him.

"No,” he smirked, "but I have excellent hearing. I don't have to worry about Kol Mikaelson any more since by his own admission you are nothing to him."

The words stung regardless of the situation.

"You're nothing to me,” she glared, shoving him. "Let go of me."

"I don't think so," he smirked.

"I'm warning you –”

He slapped his hand over her mouth.

"I'm warning you," he tapped her cheeks. “Let's call it a lesson in respecting your elders."

She shoved him, earning little more than a dark chuckle and a hand dangerously close to her breast.

She closed her eyes.

"Giving up so soo-"

A flick of her wrist, a snap of bone, and he dropped at her feet.

Opening her eyes, she glared at the man responsible for her tardiness. How many other women had he taught his 'lesson' to?

She dropped to her knees.

There would never be another.

++++

"What about that drink?” Ariadne's breath hitched. She tilted her head in the hopes that he would take the invitation.

"Later," he dipped, kissing the hollow of her throat. The wind shifted and he spun her around before she could catch the scent.

Ariadne giggled, and reached one hand behind to hold his neck.

"So how much did you miss me?"

"Such a skilled liar,” a feminine voice drifted on the wind. "I'll have to check later for a silver tongue."

Her eyes snapped open. Panic gripped her chest.

"What is this?” Her eyes narrowed, but before she could turn Kol sank his teeth into her neck. The scream bubbled in her throat.

Elena shoved her hand into the older vampire's chest, meeting her wide eyes as she squeezed the heart.

"Shame you believed him,” she tore her hand back, dropping the heart as he dropped the body.

"Darling," he nodded to her left hand, covered in blood, "who was that?"

"Stavros," she snapped. "Thanks to him I now know part of what you said to get her out here."

She grabbed his shirt, yanking him down and kissing him hard, licking the blood from his mouth. She broke away, breathing heavily.

"If you ever come up with a plan like this one again, I will scratch your eyes out."

"But then how would I see your beautiful face?"

"Kol,” she growled.

"You're adorable when you're jealous,” he grinned. "Come on, my love, lets get our information and then we can engage in purely possessive activities."

++++

She dropped the body in an unceremonious heap, taking no pleasure in the thump of dead weight on stone, but there may have been a tiny surge of pride, especially when the second body dropped alongside the first, but she was not about to let them see it.

She had no desire to give them a second vampire problem.

"Ariadne Sagona," she met Agatha's dark eyes, "as agreed; and a little something extra." Elena just held in the urge to kick the dead man in the ribs, but no amount of self-control could have stopped her lip from curling.

"And what was Stavros' crime?"

Elena's eyes flickered to a middle aged woman who she thought was named Sybil, but she couldn't be sure; there had been too many names that she didn't care to remember.

"He got a little handsy,” she lifted her blood covered left hand, “so I returned the favour." She felt Kol stiffen.

"He put his hands on you? He put his hands on you after I warned him?” Rage flashed in his eyes.

“I had it handled," she twisted just enough to see his face. “He really should have specified which organ he wanted me to squeeze."

She returned her attention to Agatha. "I've upheld my end of the bargain, now it's your turn. What do you know about the Harvest?"

Agatha inspected the body between them, kneeling to scrutinize the gaping hole in her chest.

"It's a sacred ritual where we give back to the ancestors an offering of blood."

"I know that part,” she rolled her eyes. "You sacrifice four witches and their magic flows into the earth. I want to know if they come back. I want to know if there is a way to stop the abundance of magic from killing the last girl."

"There is no stopping that which is begun,” Agatha's brows drew together. "Once it has started it must –"

"Be finished,” Elena waved her hand, dismissing the words she already knew, “or else the ancestors will shun the living and the magic will destroy the coven. Does it at least work?"

She didn't want to sacrifice a girl to save the city, but if it came down to one life for millions she knew the choice she would make; no matter how painful.

"You must have faith,” Agatha murmured.

"I'd rather have knowledge,” she growled.

Agatha slowly rose to her feet.

"The only person who could tell you is someone who lived through a Harvest, and the only person who saw one is laid out for viewing,” she motioned to the floor.

Elena froze. Her vision tunneled until all she saw was Ariadne surrounded in a haze of red. Her voice twisted, morphing into sounds she barely recognized as her own.

"What?"

Kol placed his hand on the small of her back.

'You knew what I wanted," she seethed. Electricity crackled over her skin. "You lied to me!"

A lightbulb surged, exploding in a shower of paper thin glass, but only Kol knew the source.

Agatha pulled a piece of glass from her palm, frowning up at the empty socket.

"I promised you information for Ariadne's death, and I have delivered on my end. Now you must leave,” she pointed to the exit, "we have rituals to prepare."

Elena's eyes narrowed to slits and flooded with blood. She knocked away Kol's hand with all of the strength she would have used to swat at a fly and lunged.

Kol might have stopped her if the act hadn't stunned him.

As it happened he could only watch Elena bite and rip, and listen to the horrified screams. Constantine tried a spell, but the beginning of the incantation broke Kol from his reverie.

He yanked Constantine's head to the left, and sank his teeth into his neck. It took seconds to drain him, but in that short time Elena had slaughtered every witch in attendance and torn Agatha apart.

She had taken out the final three elders, and that brought a smile to his face, but he worried she would regret the actions later. Then he saw her face and second guessed himself.

A near euphoric light shone from her eyes, made even brighter by her giddy smile.

Drenched in the blood of those who had wronged her she was magnificent, so when she kissed him he didn't fight it.

When she pawed at his clothes he sped them to the house.

When they cracked the walls he pushed her down on the dining table.

When various pieces of furniture laid in blood stained ruins he took her to bed.

And when the full moon was gone and sun woke them, when she saw the blood, when their high had passed he held her trembling body.

"What did I do?” She sobbed, clinging to his chest. She saw them behind her eyes, all three of them. Would she have killed more?

"What did I do?" Would she have stopped if the teenager had been there? Could she have? "I k-k-killed them."

He rubbed one hand down her spine, used the other to lift her chin and kissed the tears from her face.

"They played you – played us – for fools, Elena," he rubbed his thumb under her eye. "They used us, and in my opinion deserved worse than they got."

Tears shimmered in her eyes, threatening to fall.

Kol sighed and sat up, pulling her with him and idly wondering when and how the blood had smeared on her stomach.

"Ask yourself this," he used his fingertip to turn her face from where they had smeared a K and E on the once pristine wall. “If I had killed them all, would you be upset?"

"Of course not," she sniffled. "You wouldn't have without a reason."

"Exactly,” he smiled softly, and kissed her brow.

@elejah-wonderland @elejahforever @eternityunicorn @morsmornte @fandomrulesall @xanderling @cry-btch @kol-and-elena-fanfiction @geekofmanyfandoms

#kol mikaelson #elena gilbert #kolena #The Forgotten Fanfic

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