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hot-tea-gardenparty · 3 years

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Destiel Coda to 9.06 “Heaven Can Wait”

They were both drunk off multiple shots of cheap vodka chased with admittedly nasty bottled lemonade that warmed their stomachs along with slices of greasy, cheesy pizza. Dean hadn’t thought he was going to be spending the night with Castiel, but after what had happened earlier and seeing Castiel’s pained face as he slowly lowered himself into the Impala, Dean held back from his previous plans.

He knew what always seemed to help him in situations that left him feeling hollow….booze, fast food and stupid decisions. It wasn’t a perfect solution and maybe it wouldn’t work, but Dean figured it was worth a shot. So Dean hauled them to the nearest pizza joint with take-out, ransacked a convenience store for their cheapest alcohol and convinced the stubborn fallen angel to ‘stop bitching and get out of the fucking car already’ when they made it back to his highway motel.

Dean was now laughing uncontrollably at Castiel’s confusion over the road runner cartoon on TV in their motel room. Cas’ head lolled to the side and he asked in a drunken ramble why the coyote was so intent on catching the road runner, “Especially when the road runner obviously always wins.” Cas burped, “I mean, wouldn’t the coyote get sick of taking on bodily harm?”

“It’s just a cartoon, Cas.” Dean replied, swigging down another shot, “Don’t think so hard.”

Cas nodded and poured himself another shot, giggling as his now drunken lack of coordination made the clear alcohol slosh over the brim of his coffee mug, “Whoopsie!”

Dean pushed himself to slide along the foot of the bed where both he and Castiel were leaning against the large bed frame, trying to get himself closer to his best friend’s side. “When did you learn that?”

Castiel grimaced after he chugged down the shot, grabbing another piece of pizza and taking a bite, “Learn what?”

“The uhm…” Dean couldn’t concentrate with this much alcohol drowning his synapses, the room and TV seeming to sway and swim in his field of vision, “Whoopsie?”

The rest of Castiel’s pizza slice was then forgotten and thrown back into the box with a slap, his eyes glazed as he finished chewing, “A young girl…came into the store…” he wiped his hands on the questionable, rosy-hued and stained, motel carpet, “She bought an ice-cream cone with chocolate fudge.” He looked over at Dean, whose eyes followed Castiel’s hands as he mimed her holding the ice cream and going to take a bite…and then, “Splat!” Castiel shouted, one palm slapping forcefully down on the carpet, shaking the pizza box slightly, “Ice cream and chocolate all over the floor.” He cleared his throat, smiling, “She said, whoopsie. It seemed endearing.”

“Wow.” Dean chuckled as he watched Cas push his empty mug away as a nonchalant sign of being done with the vodka, “Learning all kinds of...stuff.”

Castiel nodded, “All the important skills…how to mop up ice cream, how to clean the slushie machine, get unknown substances off of bathroom walls…” Castiel’s eyes narrowed as he glared at the TV, unseeing the cartoon still playing on low volume, “How to read signals from people.” He chuckled without humor, “Apparently that skill still needs some honing, seeing as I didn’t notice how Nora’s advances were more focused on getting a babysitter than a boyfriend.”

“I wouldn’t say that, exactly…” Dean said, setting his own empty mug down beside him.

Castiel swung his head in Dean’s direction, “I WOULD say that, exactly.”

“Disagree with me all you want, Cas.” Dean closed the pizza box, moving it on top of the bed, scooting himself even closer to Castiel’s side, “I am sure you are better than you think at….reading signals…or whatever.”

Castiel crossed his arms as he continued to stare intently in Dean’s direction, barely blinking and bringing Dean to wonder how many hues of blue he could find in Castiel’s eyes if he looked long enough. “How about you try to read me?” Dean proposed.

A roll of Castiel’s eyes broke them from out of their shared gaze, “I am sure I will fail at this endeavor.”

They argued drunkenly, Dean continuing to goad with ‘come on, it’ll be easy’ and a few slaps to Castiel’s, thicker than expected, upper arm. With a sigh, Castiel finally agreed, Dean standing up and turning away to go through in his head the multiple different poses and facial expressions he’d seen women throw his way over the years, trying to narrow down the ones he figured would be easiest to decipher.

After a few seconds, Dean spun around on the balls of his feet, his voice cranked into a woman’s higher pitch and his hands in a pose he hoped came off as dainty in his drunken state, “Hey, you must be new because I definitely would have remembered you if you’d worked here before.”

Castiel sat silent for a second, “Uhm…I think that means she finds me attractive?”

Dean nodded and stepped closer to give Castiel a slap on the shoulder, “See, no problem! I don’t even have to do more than one. You’re a master.” Then sat down on the carpet again, this time near the end of Castiel’s outstretched legs.

Dubious was the best word to describe the look on Castiel’s face, “Dean, even if I read all the…” Castiel flailed his arms, circling in the stale air coming from the rattling air conditioner, “signals correctly…that doesn’t mean much.”

With a shake of his head, Dean replied, “It might not, but that’s no reason to quit trying!”

They fell quiet, the TV now flickering through an infomercial and softening the silence around the room with a low level drone.

Dean cleared his throat, “Listen,” he started, unconsciously scratching at his wrist, “I’m sorry about Nora. She, uhm....she doesn’t know what she’s missing.”

Castiel shrugged, “Possibly…”

Dean cleared his throat, he needed to say something to make Cas feel better…and he knew what it was, but it still took a second to give himself the slap to the balls to start, “You know, I never meant to kick you out of the bunker, Cas. I can’t explain exactly why right now, but believe me, I wanted you to stay. Honestly.”

Cas nodded, picked randomly at his bandages, and quietly replied, “Yes, I know, Dean. Thank you.”

Dean didn’t know what came over him, maybe it was the forlorn look in Castiel’s eyes or the fact that his shoulders looked taught with the burden of human life and emotions, but he felt the need to prove his words. He needed to get Castiel to understand how much he meant to him, how much Dean wasn’t lying when he said he needed him around, wanted him around.

Without thinking too much and trying not to knock over his own nearby mug, Dean grabbed Castiel’s cut hand, slowly bringing his lips to Castiel’s palm and looking up as he deftly kissed over the layers of bandages. Cas’ eyes widened and his mouth parted in a sigh as Dean looked up into his face, green eyes glittering in the soft yellow glow of a nearby bedside lamp.

A beat. The air was suddenly heavy and thick.

A halt in the murmur of the television and the hum of the air conditioner had Castiel slowly leaning forward, stopping close enough where Dean could smell the sweet lemonade on Cas’ breath and see the sparks of gold slicing through the bright blue of his glassy eyes.

Another beat.

Dean realized Cas was waiting for him to finish the push forward. He was waiting for permission. Waiting for Dean to cut the caution tape. To smash the invisible, unspoken about wall they’d put between them.

And he did. Oh boy….he did.

He brought a hand up to the back of Castiel’s neck, gently gripping at the soft hair and coming into taste the lips he had desired for so long. Castiel sighed into the kiss, body beginning to lax, his mouth opening, sweet and warm, his undamaged hand coming to rest between Dean’s shoulder-blades while the unbandaged fingers of his other lean against the jut of Dean’s collarbone.

Gripping the back of Cas’ head a little harder, Dean nipped once, twice, at Castiel’s lower lip, pushing the kiss from soft and gentle, into a thundering territory of hard desire and feral, desperate hunger. With his one free hand, Dean slid it to the small of Castiel’s back, gently maneuvering Cas to straddle his outstretched legs, not once breaking their searing deep kiss.

Dean could feel his heart pounding as his mind drowned in a flood of excitement. He was kissing Castiel, he was kissing his best friend, an angel of the damn lord….and he was loving every second of it. He loved feeling Castiel’s soft, silken hair running through his fingers and the muscles of his back flexing, he loved hearing Cas’ little moans and deep breaths between the rhythms of their lips. It was intoxicating.

Castiel gave back as much as he took from Dean, his hips instinctively rolling forward repeatedly with every swipe of his tongue along Dean’s lips and teeth. His good hand trailed down Dean’s spine, his fingers tickling along the band of Dean’s jeans and under his shirts, back and fourth, over the dip in his lower back while scratching at the soft skin of his hipbones.

Dean pulled away, just barely, to suck in much needed air, “Fuck, Cas…” he trailed off, his hips pushing up to meet Castiel’s, the muscles in his thighs aching from the repetitive motion. Their lips still rubbed together, slick with spit and hot with their breath. Dean ran his palms down from Cas’ neck, over his strong shoulders and trailing along the front of his shirt, biting his lip as the muscles underneath twitched. Looking down, following his hand’s path, Dean could see through the opening the two undone buttons of the shirt to the golden skin beneath.

Damn.

After a few more moments, Castiel moved his head back a little further and Dean took in his kiss swollen, red lips, his mussed hair and wide chest flushed with exertion. Dean knew he probably looked the same.

“We should stop.” Cas whispered, but not physically moving from Dean’s lap. He swallowed, “We are drunk.”

Dean shook his head, not really knowing what to say but blurting out, “Not drunk anymore.”

Cas smiled and chuckled sadly, fitting his warm palms to frame Dean’s face, his thumbs trailing over the shape of Dean’s lips and down his stubbled chin. Words didn’t need to be spoken, Dean knew what Castiel was trying to tell him, even through the fog of alcohol and sleep deprivation. They did have to stop. As much as it felt impossible, no matter how desperate their desire, no matter how intensely as it tore their hearts in two, this time was not the right one. Not yet, anyway.

Dean sighed and nodded, “Let’s get some shut-eye, then, I guess.”

It took all of Dean’s strength to pry himself off and away from Castiel on that musty motel floor. Not only because his legs were still half asleep even after Castiel stood up, but because his body didn’t seem to want to leave their heady embrace.

After they both stood, Dean allowed himself the chance to watch with a heated stare as Cas took off his jeans and white button up and slipped quietly between the bed sheets. Castiel looked up at Dean expectantly, wordlessly showcasing his intent. Dean chuckled and took up the invitation Castiel gave, stripping down to his boxers and sliding into the bed. Clicking off the lights and scootching close to Castiel, Dean bent his arm to lay on Cas’ toned torso and push his cheek against a broad, strong shoulder. It was different to lay like this with another man, but it was still warm. Still calming. If Dean thought about it too much, he might have even admitted he felt safe. The safest he’d ever felt.

“Goodnight, Dean.” Castiel whispered into Dean’s hair as the early morning dark enveloped them.

“Goodnight, Cas.” Dean replied, knowing that they were both trying to stay awake, trying to cling to this reality as long as they possibly could. Sleep would come and the dawn would arrive, and with it, the personalized forced forgetfulness of what had just occurred. They would get dressed and go their separate ways again, focused on their self-imposed missions. No more time for whatever this night brought about. Put those feelings and those intense desires back into the box, lock them away again….because emotions and feelings….those things made you a target. Made you malleable. Made you weak. And they both knew it. They knew, it was plain and simple, that this comfort was all they could have for a while. This was the limit to what they could allow themselves to have.

But until the morning, until the clock struck the final hour, they could just be together. Hold on to each other in the dark.

Because hell…what more could a repressed hunter and a fallen angel of the lord really need anyway?

Right?

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echo-bleu · 4 years

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Come Home

This was originally written for the Whumptober prompt “Embrace”, that I posted on AO3 but never here. @spaceskam reminded me it exists the other day... It’s not new, but I didn’t have time to create anything new, so it’s my entry for day 3 of the Missing Alex Manes Weekend ( @alexmanesappreciation).

MAJOR tissue warning. This is not a major character death, but...it comes really close.

[brain cancer, discussions of death, grief/mourning]

“Genocide is the alien's intent for us during a systematic invasion. They're perfectly designed to kill!” Flint exclaims. “One of them can give you a brain tumor just by touching you!”

“Jim Valenti,” Alex blinks in shock. “Did Dad do that?”

“Subject N38 did,” Flint spits out. “They're coming. The question is whether or not we'll be ready.”

Alex shakes his head. “You're just as committed to the cause as our old man.”

“Dad didn't send you, did he,” Flint realizes. “No, Dad would never send you.”

Alex shifts. He sees Flint's hand move toward his holster, to the gun Alex just gave him back, and he prepares to move. It lasts exactly two seconds, until he hears the clicks of more guns cocking. A quick look around him tells him he's surrounded.

How did he miss them coming in?

“I'm sorry, Alex,” Flint says. He truly looks sorry. “We can't let you leave this place with what you know.”

They were here the whole time, Alex realizes. Flint's presence destabilized him and he was careless.

Alex slowly raises his hands, gun held loosely in his right. He's outnumbered one to seven. There's nothing he can do. He just hopes Michael and Kyle will make it out. Oh God, Michael. If they catch him−

He bends down to put the gun on the floor. One of the men−military, all of them, though Flint is in the Army and Alex can spot at least one Marine uniform−comes up to him with handcuffs. Alex doesn't resist.

“Come on,” Flint says.

He leads them to another room, filled with more weapons and equipment. Alex looks almost hungrily at the computers, knowing that he could get all he information he needs right there. But the bulky airman holding his cuffed arm makes him stumble, and he almost falls, barely catching himself. The pain that shoots up Alex's leg brings him straight back to his present situation.

Flint doesn't seem to be aware that Alex is not alone, and things need to stay that way. He needs to keep them away from the surveillance monitors he can see on one side of the room. The only thing Alex can do is give Michael and Kyle time to run, and hope they're not going to play heroes.

He has his doubts about that. There are dozens of aliens kept in cages downstairs, if he's interpreting what he's seeing on the surveillance videos correctly. Michael is never going to leave them here.

Flint is on the phone. Alex can't hear what the other person is saying, but he recognizes the unmistakable patterns of their father's voice. And even if he hadn't, Flint's tone would have told him.

“We captured him breaking into the facility,” Flint explains. “Yes, sir.”

Alex strains to hear his father, but he can't make out the words. Flint suddenly looks hesitant.

“But it's Alex, sir,” he says. “Are you sure?”

Hesitant turns to conflicted. “I would rather not.” Then to resigned. “Very well, sir.”

Flint motions to one of the Airmen to approach, and gives him the phone.

“Master Sergeant?” the man asks. He listens for a moment. “Yes, I will take care of the prisoner, sir. Right away.”

Flint's look at Alex is sorry and sad, but he looks away when Alex makes eye contact. Just from that, Alex knows his fate.

The Airman takes his arm again, roughly, and forces him to walk too fast, too hard. Alex knows there's no point in fighting, but he still struggles against the restraints all the way down to the cells' level, almost falling down the stairs several times.

They stop in front of one of the glass door, and Alex feels his spine go cold at the sight of the old man in it, and the sign on the side of the door. Subject N38.

“Open the door,” the Airman order the guard.

Flint looks away, as they push Alex inside.

Kyle waits until Alex has almost reached his house to drop him off to ask. “What happened back there? Before the explosion, I mean. They got you?”

Alex keeps looking straight in front of him at the road. “For a while, yes,” he answers, forcing the words out. “I'm going to need you to book me an MRI.”

“What?” Kyle asks, confused. “Why?”

“I got confirmation that my father was probably the one who killed yours. By way of an alien. Subject N38,” Alex says. “I'm sorry.”

Kyle opens his mouth, even more confused. “We saw him,” he says. He starts saying something else, but Alex can feel the moment he understands.

“No,” Kyle gasps. “They didn't.”

Alex briefly closes his eyes against the tears threatening to fall. “Flint−” he starts, but his throat knots up. He's going to die by his brother's hand, on his father's order. What a family.

“What didn't you say anything?”

“We had more urgent things to take care of. And you and I both know there's nothing to be done.”

Kyle punches the dashboard. “Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck. We're going to find some way. Maybe Liz and I can−”

“No,” Alex says. “We are not telling anyone about this.”

“But why? If we can cure you−”

“But we can't. Project Shepard needs to be shut off, and the alien serial killer, whoever it is, needs to be stopped. It's far more important.”

“More important than your life?” Kyle asks.

“Be realistic, Kyle. Even if you find something, it's going to do what, slow it down a little? You're not going to cure an alien brain tumor in a few weeks. I'd rather spend those weeks destroying my father's work.”

“So you're gonna make me watch you die like my father, and do nothing about it? And keep it to myself? The fuck I'm gonna do that, Alex.”

“You will,” Alex says, looking at his hands now that he has pulled over and doesn't have the excuse of the road to look away. “You know why I need you to. Look, I know it's not fair, and I'm sorry. I wouldn't have told you at all, but I'm going to need someone who can help me get my affairs in order, and take over when I can't keep going.”

“Alex...” The pure anguish of Kyle's voice almost makes Alex break.

“Please, Kyle.”

“Fuck!” Kyle punches the dashboard again.

“Will you do it?”

Kyle sighs. “Yeah. I'll do it. But I will try to find a cure, and I want it on the record that I don't agree with this.”

“Thank you,” Alex murmurs, relieved. At least one thing he doesn't need to worry about. Kyle will respect his wishes. It's his job, the one he swore to do.

Now he has work to do, before he can let himself collapse.

The first few days, Alex feels fine. Physically, at least. Psychologically...it's another matter. He almost goes to Michael, to tell him everything. In a moment's weakness, he thinks he wants to give them a chance, before it's too late.

Then he thinks of what he would feel if it was Michael in his place, and remembers that Michael just lost his mom. He doesn't go. He spends his time at the base and down in the bunker instead, looking through the data they got at Caulfield.

There's a video of Jim Valenti being pushed into Subject N38's cell, and Alex throws up when he watches it. He doesn't know if it's because it's his father's face on the screen, of if the tumor that's already visible on the MRI is starting to affect him.

It's growing inside his head. His own death.

He can't feel it yet.

Alex and Kyle catch up with the Noah problem after the fact, when Liz calls them in panic and they find her hugging Max's dead body, and a very alive Rosa looking on, confused.

Max doesn't stay dead long. The storm is going strong again outside, and Isobel is the one who figures out how to channel the lightning into Max's body. He's been dead longer than a human could have gone pumping blood, but then he's not human. He gets off lightly, just weak and sore for a few weeks.

Hugging Rosa, Alex reminds himself that he's not going to get the same chance, and he wants to cry. He thought he could handle it, die in dignity like he always hoped he would, but this isn't combat. This isn't one gunshot and−gone.

It's weeks, months of waiting for the inevitable end.

It's going to be ugly.

He looks at Kyle across the room, who is looking back at him sadly. Kyle always looks at him sadly, now.

Alex is glad none of the others know.

Five days after Rosa is resurrected, Alex walks into the Wild Pony, hoping to drown his sorrows for a while, and he finds Michael kissing Maria behind the counter. It's a punch to the gut.

Only as he backs out of the door, deciding he'll do his drinking at home, Alex realizes that it doesn't feel like he thought he would. Michael is lost to him anyway. He's planning to leave the planet, and Alex won't even live long enough to see him go. He thought his heart would break. But his heart is already in too many pieces to break more.

He can't help the jealousy, but it's a relief too, somehow. If Michael has moved on, if he's happy with Maria, then Alex's death won't destroy him.

He hopes Michael will forget him, once he's gone.

He gets drunk enough that he doesn't remember the rest of the night.

He wakes up to Kyle's knock at his door. Kyle has come like clockwork every morning before his shift, making the two-hour round trip to check on Alex. Alex keeps telling him it's not necessary, but he won't budge on this.

Alex tries to clear his head of the hangover, going to open the door on crutches.

“How long did it take, for your father?” he asks, before he even realizes how insensitive it is. But he needs some kind of time frame. He's avoided thinking about it so far, about how many months or weeks he has−how many days.

Kyle runs a hand down his face. “Alex...” he mutters. “I can't do this right now. Come sit down.”

Alex obeys, but he still pushes. “Please.”

Kyle sighs. “He died March 9th, and the worst of the symptoms started in late February.”

“Time stamp on the video said February 15th,” Alex mutters. “Less than a month.”

“You said yourself that he was in the cell a lot longer than you,” Kyle says. “You may have more time.”

Alex looks up at him. A month. He has a month left to live, maybe two if he's lucky. It's been six days already.

“I'm sorry,” he says. “This has to be so hard on you.”

Kyle laughs humorlessly. “I'm not the one−” who's dying, Alex can fill in, but Kyle's voice breaks as his laugh turns into a sob.

Alex's eyes are dry as he hugs his friend. He feels cold.

“Where is he?” Michael almost barrels into Kyle. “Where is Alex?”

Kyle sighs. “I don't think he wants to see anyone,” he says.

“Why? Is it bad? What is wrong with him?” Michael asks, panicking.

Kyle bites his lip. He promised, but he's pretty sure the cat is already out of the bag. Instead of answering, he nods to the door of Alex's hospital room behind them. Michael doesn't even hesitate before he knocks on the door.

“Come in,” Alex says, his stomach feeling like lead. Him collapsing in the middle of the Crashdown Café was bound to come back to his friends' ears, but he'd hoped for more time. It's been twenty one days since Caulfield, and he's been hiding the bouts of nausea and dizziness, the blinding headaches, for over a week now. He's running out of time.

He fiddles with his IV as Michael comes in. The truth is, he'd hoped he'd be able to hide it until the end, to avoid making his friends go through this. But it's unfair to Kyle to ask him to carry this on his own any longer, and the choice has been made for him by his traitorous body anyway.

“Alex! What happened?” Michael asks, coming closer.

Alex sighs. He wants so hard to say it's nothing−he wants it to be true. He doesn't know how to announce it.

“Alex, please. You're scaring me.”

“I had a frontal lobe seizure,” Alex explains. He chokes up on the rest.

“What does that mean?”

“The seizure itself is nothing bad, but it happened because...I have a brain tumor.”

“What?” Michael gapes. He drops into the chair beside Alex's bed. Alex bring his good leg up to his chin and wraps his arms around it, trying to distance himself. He thought this would hurt less if Michael was with Maria, but he heard they broke up a week ago.

“In Caulfield...my brother Flint got to me. He...my father ordered him to take me to Subject N38.”

“No,” Michael shakes his head. “No.”

Alex looks away.

“The tumor's already grown enough for symptoms to appear, so I don't have a lot of time left,” he says, as matter-of-factly as he can.

The look on Michael's face in unbearable. Raw pain, purer that anything Alex has ever felt. He closes his eyes, unable to stand it.

“No, it's not right,” Michael mutters. “You can't−” He chokes.

“I'm sorry,” Alex says.

Michael swallows several times. “How long have you known?”

“Since the day it happened,” Alex answers quietly. “You had so much on your plate.”

“Who else knows?”

“Kyle. Liz found out today, and now you.”

Telling Liz was painful and hard and sad, but it doesn't even start to compare to this. Alex dreaded this moment for a reason.

It takes Michael almost five whole minutes to break down. Alex leans in to allow him to bury his head in his shoulder. He hoped for anger, almost. Rage. He wants Michael to scream at him for not telling him sooner, he wants…

Anything but this.

Because he can't stand Michael's pain. Because this is what drives it home.

He's going to die. Not someday, not maybe, not even probably.

He's going to die, and he'll spend the little time he has left watching his body give out on him.

Feeling cold and numb, he waits until Michael's heart-wrenching sobs start to abate to speak again.

“When I was injured in Iraq, I was certain that I was going to die. The whole building collapsed on me, and I was trapped and pinned down. The whole time, I was thinking about you, and I regretted that we never got to make things right. It feels a bit like...like I was given a little more time, somehow, to get back to you.”

Michael pulls back to look at him, his face streaked with tears.

“Alex−”

“But it also means that I've been living on borrowed time, for almost a year,” Alex continues. “I'm so glad I got the chance to see you again. To learn who you really are, even. That we got a little time together.”

Michael lets out another sob.

“But I'm running out of time,” Alex continues. “And you've moved on. It's a good thing. It will be easier for me to go, if I know that you're going to be okay.”

Michael shakes his head vigorously in denial.

“I haven't moved on,” he says. “I went to Maria because it was easier. It didn't hurt.”

“Loving me hurts?” Alex asks, but he already knows the answer. Of course it does. What has he brought to Michael but pain?

“Not loving you. But being with you. Being without you. We just kept hurting each other. I was running. I wanted to get away from the pain.”

“I know,” Alex murmurs. “It hurt, to see you with Maria, but I understand.”

“You're...knowing that you're dying, it feels like...” Michael makes a gesture when words fail him. “The end of the world. But I've also realized how wrong I was.”

“About what?”

“Loving you is worth all the pain in the world. I didn't realize it sooner, and I'm so sorry.”

Alex chokes up. “No, Michael, I am sorry. For leaving, every time. And I'm sorry that I'm going to leave you again.” Because this time I would have stayed, Alex doesn't add. There's no point in making this even more painful for Michael.

Michael makes a wounded animal sound, hugging Alex again.

“You know what?” he says after a bit. “We're gonna make the most of the time we've got, okay?”

“I'm going to be very sick,” Alex bites his lip.

“And I'm going to take care of you. Starting right now.”

Michael stands up, untangling his hands from Alex, who lies back into his pillow, exhausted. Michael dries his face with his sleeve, then gives Alex one more look, heartbreakingly gentle.

“Valenti!” he calls, going to open the door.

“What?” Kyle responds from where Alex assumes he's still sitting with Liz.

“Does he need to be in the hospital?”

Kyle comes over to the door where Alex can see him. “In here we can at least check on his vitals−”

“Is there anything you can actually do?” Michael asks, his voice rising in irritation.

Kyle makes a grimace, like he hates what he's going to say. “Keep him comfortable?”

“I doubt he'll ever be comfortable in a hospital bed,” Michael shakes his head. “Can I take him home?”

Kyle looks between him and Alex for a moment before he makes a decision. “Yes. I'll come check on you as much as I can. Just let me get you the discharge papers.”

“I'm going to be with you until the end,” Michael says when he's gone. “I promise.”

Alex doesn't know whether to be heartbroken or relieved. He shivers, and Michael snuggles up against him on the bed, warming him up.

“Kyle and I looked over your scans,” Liz says a couple of days later, when she and Kyle visit Alex at the cabin. They've been working non-stop since everyone found out. “We're going by the progression of the tumor, and Jim Valenti's medical file to try and predict what will happen.”

“I already know what will happen,” Alex shrugs.

“We wanted to have a more precise time scale. Look, Alex, I still don't get why you didn't tell me earlier, but what Kyle found shows some promise.”

“There's no time to test it, or implement it,” Alex says. He and Kyle have spoken about it many times. “Even with your genius, Liz, I'll be dead long before you manage to make it into a cure.”

“Maybe not,” Liz says. “We have the pods. We can keep you in stasis for a while, long enough enough to figure it out.”

“It could be years. And we don't know that it would even work.”

“Don't you want to try? It may be your only chance.”

“It's a slim one at best. I don't want to give up on what little time I have left for a fool's hope.”

Liz and Kyle exchange a look. Kyle takes a deep breath.

“Listen,” he says. “I watched my father die. I wasn't there the whole time, but I was there at the end, and I watched him suffer. It was...excruciating.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Alex frowns. “I already know that.”

“Because...you're at the end your rope here. From here on, it will be nothing but pain. Your sight will be the first to go, but the tumor has already metastasized all over your body, on your bones, your organs… The other day was just the first symptom.”

“It wasn't,” Alex shakes his head. “I've been feeling ill and sore for a while.”

Kyle closes his eyes. “It's only going to get worse from there.”

“I know.”

“Do you really want to go through this?” Liz asks.

Alex sighs and runs his hand through his hair. “No, Liz, of course I don't. But I don't have a choice, do I? Not a real one.”

“We could−” Liz hesitates. “Maybe there's a middle ground. By our estimation, you have another two weeks, maybe, before the tumor's damage will be permanent, even if we were to find a cure. If we manage to make real progress during that time, would you let us put you in stasis? And just...I don't know, we can promise you to bring you out after a certain length of time if we don't manage to make a cure if you really want. I understand that you don't want to end up in there forever, I mean, with the whole thing with Rosa… But we can't lose you, Alex. Not like that.”

Alex closes his eyes. We can't lose you isn't helpful. They will. They'll lose him, and they need to be ready. He doesn't believe that Liz can make the cure, not really.

He still wants to hold on to that sliver of hope.

“Okay,” he says slowly. “If you have something promising by then, I'll let you put me in a pod. Just...you have a year. Swear that if you don't have a cure by then, you'll get me out and let me go.”

Liz has tears falling down her face as she murmurs, “I promise. One year. I'll figure it out.”

“No, don't promise that. You know you can't. Promise me that you won't leave me in that pod forever.”

“One year,” she says. “Then we take you out. Whatever the outcome.”

Alex turns to Kyle, who nods solemnly, swallowing back his own tears.

He waits until he's alone to break down.

It's better this way.

They have five days of near peace. Alex's pain is managed well enough with strong painkillers, and though he has energy for little else than sleep or rest on the couch, at least he's fairly comfortable.

He discovers that Michael is a pretty good cook, if you give him an actual kitchen. He can't keep much food down anymore, but he tries to eat anyway, just to taste it.

He falls asleep in Michael's arms, or to the sound of Michael's guitar. Alex would love to sing for him, but he doesn't have enough voice left in him. He's glad Michael has his music back. It's something, at least. Maybe Alex will not live to see his father brought to justice, but he'll leave something right.

The fight has gone out of them, and all that's left is tenderness, tinged with grief. Where their relationship was once fireworks and crash landings, it's now soft and bittersweet. They don't argue. They don't need to communicate much even, which is good as Alex progressively loses the energy to speak. They cuddle up together when Alex is cold, which is most of the time.

There's no fear of the future. Not of that future, anyway, the one they both dreamed of so much that they pushed each other away because they were terrified of screwing up. It's gone. They only have a few days, and the best they can do is be together.

They both try their best not to think of after. Alex has handed the Project Shepard work to Kyle entirely, since he can barely get out of bed anymore, and his affairs are in order, so he tries to let go and live in the moment. Actually live each moment he has left.

Michael still can't imagine a world−a universe−that doesn't have Alex in it. The only muddled thought he has is that he'll finish his spaceship and get away from this planet. Permanently.

But for now, he holds Alex in his arms and watches him sleep, and he tries very hard not to think.

For Michael, the worst moments somehow aren't when Alex cries from the pain in his arms. It's sitting in a corner of the room when Maria and Liz visit Alex, who can barely sit up in bed anymore, and they try to laugh and smile through the tears. It's watching Alex's face fall when he opens an invitation to one of his Air Force friends' wedding with trembling hands, and they both know he won't be alive by the wedding date. It's feeling like he's mourning Alex before he's even dead.

Dead. The nausea settles deeper in Michael's stomach every time he thinks about it−he doesn't think about anything else. At this point, as he watches Alex suffer so much, he almost wishes he was safe and painless in a pod. But he also can't imagine living in a world where Alex isn't there.

On the sixth day, Alex wakes up screaming in pain.

Michael immediately jumps up and cups his face in his hands, trying to calm Alex down enough to get pills down him, but nothing helps. Alex feels like his whole body is on fire.

It doesn't start to abate until Alex is hooked to the highest dose of morphine that won't outright kill him, and even then, as he sleeps, his face is lined with pain.

“Either the tumor's reached some nerve center, or the metastases on his spine have gone through the bone and into the nervous system,” Kyle diagnoses. “Either way, there's nothing I can do except try to relieve the pain.”

“Nothing?” Michael asks, desperate.

“No. We may have less time than we thought.”

Alex still won't go into a pod, though. The pain is worth a little more time with Michael. With all of his friends. He's not ready to go.

He doesn't believe, in his heart, that he'll even come out if he does. So he fights for another day.

When he opens his eyes to see a large black spot in the middle of his vision, Alex knows it's the end. This is what Liz and Kyle told him about, the beginning of the permanent damage. If he doesn't go into a pod now, they probably won't be able to fix him even if they find a cure. He has a decision to make.

It's been twelve days since he ended up in the hospital, two days off their mark. Liz and Kyle haven't come up with some amazing cure, or even a good idea about one. And Alex has run out of time.

Weakly, he shakes Michael's arm to wake him up.

“Alex?” Michael asks sleepily.

“It's time,” Alex rasps. He's barely been able to speak for days, and no more than one or two words at a time.

Michael sits up, suddenly wide awake.

“The pod?” he asks.

Alex nods.

They've prepared for this, but it doesn't make it easier. Michael doesn't cry as he gets dressed, and texts everyone. He doesn't cry as he gently removes Alex's IV, hoping the dose of morphine he has in his blood will be enough to tide him over until−

Fuck. He does cry as he picks Alex up, his underweight, frail body limp in his arms. Alex doesn't stop staring at him, his eyes dropping but alert. He cries as he straps Alex in the passenger seat of the car, pulling it back so he's as comfortable as possible.

He can barely see the road, as he drives to the turquoise mines. He steers with one hand, the other squeezing Alex's, and they stay silent.

Michael has already said everything he can say that doesn't make him want to curl up into a little ball.

He carries Alex again, refusing to use his telekinesis, into the pod cave. The others are already here, Liz ready with the melted silver. Michael puts Alex down on the blanket she's prepared and pulls his head into his lap.

One by one, they come to say goodbye, and it feels far too much like a funeral. Isobel and Max, who know Alex the least, stay politely away, Isobel only squeezing both his and Michael's shoulder with teary eyes. Maria and Liz are openly crying as they hug Alex one last time, and he struggles to say his goodbyes.

“We didn't get to spend much time together, mijo” Rosa tells Alex, kissing his brow. “I hope you come back like me and we get to hang out.”

Kyle looks devastated when Alex makes him promise again, but he obeys. “We'll pull you out in a year at the latest. You can trust me.”

Alex nods, relieved, and smiles up at him. “You were...a good friend,” he rasps out.

Kyle lets out a sob. “You're the best friend I've ever had, Alex,” he murmurs.

Alex hugs him weakly, and he falls back down into Michael's lap when Kyle lets him go, his body even limper, letting out a pained moan. The painkillers are running out.

“'s time,” Alex mouths.

Michael moves him as little as possible while undressing him, and Kyle helps him spread the silver over Alex's body. Liz and Maria watch on, crying in each other's arms.

Lying in Michael's embrace, tears running down both of their faces, Alex tries to imprint that moment into his memories. It's not going to matter. In a few minutes, he'll be in stasis for an indefinite amount of time, and almost no chance of ever coming out of the coma it's going to put him in. His memories will scatter away like they never meant anything.

He's glad that he gets to die in Michael's arms, but he wishes he'd gotten the time to live with him.

“I love you,” Michael sobs.

“Love...you too,” Alex forces out. “Be...happy.”

Michael closes his eyes briefly, and kisses him as softly as he can. His hands don't leave Alex skin until he's inside the pod fully, and his eyes drop closed.

Leaning his brow on the membrane of the pod, he lets the sobs wrack his body as Isobel comes to hold him.

One year later.

Liz checks her watch before she enters the Wild Pony. It's late already. She didn't see the time pass in her lab. She'll need to make up for all the time she's spent researching things that have little to do with her actual job, but she can do that later. For now, she's on a mission.

Maria is behind the bar, and she beckons her over, nodding to the place where Michael is sitting, his head in one hand, nursing a glass of what looks like Coke with the other. He stopped drinking alcohol months ago, but now he looks like he's in need of a stiff drink or two.

Or of some good news.

“Michael,” Liz puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Liz,” Michael raises his head. The pain in his eyes is nearly unbearable. “We've run out of time. It will be a year tomorrow.”

Liz swallows. “I think I've got it, Michael. I think I've got a cure.”

Michael stares at her for a while, uncomprehendingly. “You−”

“I'm not 100% certain, it doesn't work like that, but...I think so. I can save Alex.”

“Oh thank God,” Maria murmurs, as Michael gapes in shock. He bites down on his finger, hard, tears already falling from his eyes.

Liz gathers him in her arms before he falls off his stool and hugs him hard.

It's been a long, hard year, for all of them.

“The compound I've designed will act as a sort of chemotherapy,” Liz explains later, when they've all gathered in the pod cave. Michael is kneeling in front of Alex's pod−the one that used to be his−his head against the membrane, in the same position he's been in so often, but he's listening. “It's based on the same technology that Flint Manes and his team used to make the biochemical bomb.”

Finding the compound where the bomb was stored was their largest breakthrough in the last six months, as well as the official end of Project Shepard. All three aliens agreed that despite its danger to them, the bomb should not be destroyed if it could help Alex.

“It will take several injections and a few months to get rid of the tumor, but the chances that it will work with minimal damage to Alex are good. Unlike chemotherapy, this will be able to target only the alien cells in his body, so it shouldn't be dangerous for his health, though I can't guarantee there won't be side effects.”

“He will live?” is all Michael asks.

“He will.”

“Then do it.”

Liz looks around the room. Kyle is technically Alex's medical proxy, thought those rules don't really apply here. He nods, too, hope shining in his eyes, finally overpowering the guilt and grief that have never left him. Maria smiles at them, reassuringly.

“Max, I'm going to need you,” Liz says. “I know you can't heal him, but the tumor is technically injuring his brain at this point, and it's a foreign body, so I'm hoping you can keep it at bay long enough for the treatment to start working.”

“I'll do my best,” Max nods.

“We have plenty of acetone,” Isobel adds.

“Kyle?”

“I'll handle the IV,” Kyle says, coming closer. “You do the initial injection.”

Liz nods, checking the syringe in her hands.

“Michael, we're all ready,” she says.

Michael takes a deep breath, and plunges his silver-stained hands into the pod. In seconds, he has a naked, warm, sleeping Alex lying in his lap.

“Hey,” he murmurs as Liz and Max buzz around him. Alex blinks his eyes open. “It's time to come home.”

#roswell new mexico #alex manes #michael guerin #malex #missingalexmanes #malex fic #liz ortecho #kyle valenti #mine #echo's fanfiction #whumptober2019

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moonflower-31 · 4 years

Text

You Lost What?! - Gabriel x Reader

Warnings: Slight language and sexual harassment. Just a teesy bit.

Character(s): Gabriel, Dean, Cas(mentioned)

Pairing: Gabriel x Reader

It was around 3 in the morning. You had been trying so very hard to sleep, but couldn't. You'd tried counting metaphorical sheep, like Cas suggested. You'd tried warm milk, melatonin, and even meditation(Dean laughed at that). But you still could not get to sleep. It was like the hunt that they had just finished had hit you harder than you'd realized, and your brain knew you were going to have nightmares.

It was times like this when you wished your boyfriend were here and not doing the small bit of heavenly work that Cas convinced him to do. Curse that angel and his convincing blue eyes.

You grumbled as you tossed and you turned in your bed, keeping your eyes closed as you tried so desperately to fall asleep.

You'd heard thinking of things that made you happy could help to calm you down enough to sleep. So you tried it.

You thought of Gabriel, your archangel and trickster boyfriend. How he was always offering you sweets and pulling pranks with you or on you. More so of the former. You thought of Dean, and Sam, how no matter how much they disliked Gabriel they had wanted you to be happy. And you finally thought about your new found family and home here in the bunker.

A smile crept up onto your face as you thought it all through, and you could almost feel sleep approaching.

And that was when you heard the knock on the door.

You groaned and cursed under your breath. Whoever had the gull to knock on your door at this hour was going to get smacked right across the face for ruining your sleep track. You hadn't been able to sleep for the past four days and you needed it, desperately.

You grabbed the knob and grumbled, opening the door without looking. "I swear you better have one good reason as to why you are knocking at ny freaking door at 3 in the damn morning." You exclaim, and then look at who had done the knocking.

Surprisingly, it was Gabriel.

"Woah, am I really that unwanted? I can go Sugar." He suggests, smirking at her. Though something else filled his eyes, not just playfulness. It was almost pure fear.

You furrowed your eyebrows and pinched the bridge of your nose. "Gabe... please tell me you didn't do something stupid this time..." she sighed. "At least you could have said it straight to me. Not just knocked." You said, your hand hitting your side.

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "What did you expect me to say? 'Hey, I know it's three AM but I lost the Impala'?" He asks, widening his eyes as he looked at you.

You mirrored his expression with one of pure dread. "Yeah, yeah that... you can get a pass for that one... WHAT?!" You exclaim, gesturing with your hands. Gabriel immediately covers your mouth, trying to quiet your screaming.

"Shh!! Do you want Mr. 'I love my car more than people' to hear?!" He whisper yells, moving his hand away as he grabbed your hand. "Please, just help me." He asks.

You sighed. "Okay... I'll help you. But you gotta answer me this..." you start.

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "What? Are you a riddle master?" He asks, still panicked about Dean lighting his wings on fire and potentially having deep fried archangel.

You rolled your eyes back at him and sighed at his comment. "How, exactly, did you lose, a car? Baby, to be exact?" You ask, crossing your arms and holding one hand to your forehead.

Gabriel looked to the side, and his head soon tilted in that direction. "Well... it's quite a story..." he starts stalling, moving one of his hands to his neck and rubbing it nervously.

You gave him a look, tapping your foot to indicate that he better start talking.

Gabriel sighed and his hand fell to his side. "Look, I was gonna win it right back... I was playing around with it... and some douches bet I couldn't race faster than them in it. Muttonheads. But they ended up cheating and...uh...yeah..." he admits. "Yell at me all you want, I've already done enough of it myself..." he sighed, holding his head.

You shook your head in disappointment and then just looked Gabriel in the eyes. "Babe, I love you, but you gotta stop messing with what isn't yours. Dean is going to kill you. And me, by association." You say, gesturing to Gabriel how bad that was.

Gabriel furrowed his eyebrows. "Like hell he will! I'll die first before anyone ever touches what's mine." He huffs. You sigh and shake your head again.

"Figure of speech, Gabe. I swear with how long you've been on earth you really need to catch up on the sayings." You say in exasperation. "Come on, lets go. We got a car to re-steal." You say, holding out your hand. Gabriel takes it and zaps you to the closest location of the thieves as he could.

"Okay... if you just keep an eye out, I can break into the Impala. It'll be easy as pie. You just gotta look out for me. Okay?" Gabriel says. You sigh.

"Fine. But you owe me cuddles. Lots of them. And I drive us home. No buts." You insist, walking towards the building and garage the thieves had.

Gabriel grinned. "I got no problem with tha-Hey! I can drive!" He whined. You rolled your eyes as you bent down a bit and started picking the lock, grunting a bit.

"Yeah right, and who got the car stolen?'" You retort, finally getting the door unlocked. Gabriel sneaks in, and you were about to go in after him, when two men walked up to you, and smirked.

"Woah, what's a fine lookin' lady like you wandering around after dark?" The first one asks, his Scottish accent heavy. The second man walks closer to you, sizing you up with his eyes.

"Yeah, you wanna have some fun? Get you out of the cold and to someplace... warmer?" The second one asks. You fight the instinct to roll your eyes.

"Sorry, but I'm just... taking a walk. And I have a boyfriend." You say, and start walking to try and get them to believe you. That was when the Scottish guy grabbed your shoulder and pulled you back, shoving you against the side of the building.

'Come on Gabriel... any moment now...' you thought.

The second man licked his lips. "Come on, don't be a bitch... we have needs..." he insists. You feel shivers run down your spine as you see his mouth widen to see broken and cracked teeth. You almost gagged.

And in that moment, a car engine started, and the two men looked up in surprise and alarm. Gotcha.

You immediately kick Broken Teeth in the crotch, and then toss Scottland into the wall, racing towards the opening of the garage door. You run in and climb into the Impala's front seat.

"You so owe me sweets and cuddles." You grunted, pressing on the gas and speeding out of the garage, leaving the two other men in the dust.

Gabriel laughed in the passenger seat, cackling at your latest misadventure. You rolled your eyes as you let the car slow down. You were pretty much out of breath, and adrenaline pumped through your veins. But pretty soon, you were laughing too.

~~~

You pulled up to the bunker's garage and you open the door, sighing as you pulled in and parked her. You sat back and looked over at Gabriel, blinking at him "Never again. Never again wake me up at 3 AM cause of your stupidity." You say, lightly hitting his arm.

"You love me." He reminds, wiggling his eyebrows, making you roll your eyes.

"Damn right I do." You say, laughing. You lean in and you kiss him softly, sighing a bit.

"What the hell happened to my car?!" You hear, making you pull back from the kiss abruptly. You burst out laughing with Gabriel as he takes your hand and zaps you both back to your room.

You fall onto your bed with a cackle, almost like someone had been tickling you. After a few moments you sigh and look at Gabriel, who had laid down on his side next to you.

"Your laugh is one of my favorite sounds..." Gabriel says softly, smirking at you. You smile back at him.

"Really? That so?" You ask, leaning on your side now. Gabriel nods.

"Yep. Now... didn't I promise you cuddles?" He grinned. You smiled and laughed, nodding and pulling yourself close to him, laying your head down and finally, finally being able to fall asleep in the arms of your angel.

#supernatural #spn fanfiction #spnfandom #gabriel x reader supernatural #supernatural fanfiction #gabriel x reader #gabriel

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dredreadsdrawing · 4 years

Text

Oc-tober Day 13: Future

........... Yall ready for a bigass story dump? Oh boi. Here we go..... (also bonus points and possibly a free sketch will be given to whoever guesses what this story was originally a fanfic of ;p) Again, hate these sketches but im short on time for these posts lol and my pen tablet broke. No more pen pressure, the lines come thick and round always now. big oof.

This story is set in an apocalyptic future.

Small note, i had written originally written half of this in a post, it crashed and didn’t save, so i rewrote it and it became more detailed and uh. im basically like. almost halfway through the fuckin story so..... please enjoy? :,3 I tried going full but its so much plz i cant ah i already have two other oc-tober prompts to complete ;o;

I would also like to specify that uuh this story situation is something I need to work out the kinks for lol. Definitely. Buuuut this is all I have for now XD please take it with a grain of salt. Oke here story:

- First and foremost, make no mistake, the Yellow and Pink siblings are the main characters. I haven’t fleshed out the others as much as I have these two because of this.

- It starts with Yellow and Blue. Friends since before they could walk. Their parents were already friends, so it was only natural. Pink was born once they finally hit school, and she grew up seeing Blue as a second brother figure. He was clearly a part of the family.

- As time went on, though, these familial feelings were turning into something else. Yellow was hit with the realization that he liked his best friend. More than that, he was head over heels in love. But there were lots of problems with this.

- For one, as soon as he realized his feelings, Blue had made it big in the newest gaming scene. The newest consoles had yet to be mastered, but he pioneered it, creating the first high scores, and charming the onlookers with his commentary as he did so. The rest of the bunker took him in as a new young celebrity.

- Another big problem was, of course, how close they already were. ‘Brothers’ this, and ‘siblings’ that. The world already saw them as having this relationship, Yellow himself has told them before that Blue was this to him. But now he wasn’t. Yellow could die from embarrassment and shame.

- And no matter how hard he tried following behind Blue, Yellow just isn’t as gifted; neither on screen nor with his people skills. Yellow does well enough to be a part of the top, but he never stands out. He doesn’t feel special enough.

- Meanwhile, Orange and Pink are the best of friends. When Pink was little and saw how well her brother got along with Blue, she felt she wanted something like that too. She found her match at school, with the shy and quiet Orange. She was always nervous, but when she opened up, Pink found her to be clever, quick witted and sarcastic. She was a blast. They were inseparable babies, and quickly, they made a promise.

- It started with Pink proposing to Orange. She liked her! They should clearly get married! But Orange wasn’t so quick to agree. Marriage is such a big commitment! Her mom would never allow it! So they compromised. No matter their future, they’d live close together. They’d always be together.

- Even as Orange’s older sister took a dislike to Pink’s rowdiness.

- As time went on, and puberty hit, some things came to light. Pink was very much into girls, in very explicit ways. Orange was…. Not. Nothing explicit for her, thank you very much. Through teenhood, the two kept their strong friendship, though, and always comforted one another. Lots of Pink’s girlfriends ended up jealous of Orange, but Pink would stop them at their tracks. Orange would always be a part of her life. If they don’t get along with her, there’s no point keeping a relationship that doesn’t recognize this.

- Moving onto the plot, here it is. Everyone is already an adult, Pink and Orange being the youngest. There is a prestigious event that’s going to happen; the launch of the newest console that will feel the most life-like. To celebrate this launch, seven players will be chosen through competitions, and they’ll get to play the first quest in a livestream. It’ll take them three days.

- Competitions come and most people that were already suspected to be chosen make it. With two surprises. Yellow, who barely got top due to pure luck. And White who… well, Orange is the best medic, hands down. Everyone knows she knows her strategies and most effective ways to save the group. She’s effective. Always where she needs to be. And yet, even though she got the highest score, she’s been pushed aside and her place in the team was given to White. Everyone screams malarky.

- Pink is pissed for her friend. She was going to have a great time with her in the game! They would be pioneers together! Orange calms her down. Pink should have fun without her, it’s not a big deal. Orange still has her high scores, and she can keep her notoriety. This won’t affect them in the long run. Pink relents but isn’t happy. She hates White and sees him as a prissy elitist. As they go to get lunch, they pass Red. Pink casually invites her to eat with them. Red says she’s busy. Pink is disappointed and Orange laughs. Pink’s got her eyes on Red. If she can’t spend her time with her friend, she’ll be spending it getting closer to her instead…

- Orange goes home and mopes in secret. She stayed calm for Pink’s sake but she’s really taken this loss hard. She needed to make a break in her record. Have a flashy accomplishment. And it was stolen from her. Her older sister comes in. She’s the head of coding for this new game. Orange mopes around her, begging for her to let her in, or to at least tell her why she didn’t make it. Her sister keeps her lips shut. But. She does concede that it was unfair. She prepares Orange’s favorite dinner and bought her favorite dessert. Orange smiles at the heartfelt show of sympathy and doesn’t bring it up again. Whatever it was that happened, it wasn’t her sister’s fault.

- White is from a legacy of high-rankers. They’ve always kept their marks perfect, and drilled perfection into their kids. IF there wasn’t a white player in a prestigious event, they had failed. Out of the newest generation’s three, White is the youngest and…. The least skilled. They try! They’ve worked so hard all their life, but their reflexes aren’t as polished no matter how hard they focus. They just can’t be better than Orange, the true best medic. Before the tournament, he had become depressed. He didn’t even want to try out for it, knowing what would happen. But he ran into Red, an old acquaintance from past games, who picked up on how red his eyes were. She treated him to a warm drink. She let him vent. She showed genuine concern, and was gentle as she reassured him she knew his worth. He’s always been a great partner in the games she’s played with him. She knows he’d be a great addition to the team if he makes this. With her words of confidence, he’s flushed. A renown sense of hope…. And a new attraction makes him try harder. He competes. He pushes and pushes to save his teammates. But he’s just not as effective or calculative and Orange gets the big win save for hers. She won, fair and square. But when they present the awards…. It’s White they call out. He’s…. floored. He didn’t win. Why was he getting into the group?

- He accepts the award. He’s not happy about it, but… it’s all he can do. He asks his family what strings they pulled. They never give him an answer. They don’t even congratulate him or leave any messages as he prepares to stream. He’s left alone to face the wrath of the people who knew Orange deserved his place, her best friend Pink at the forefront. To treat him like the petty sore loser he didn’t want to be. He slapped himself. He can’t let them win. He’ll do it. Red believed in him. He’ll show them what he’s made of with this game! He won’t die. And… he notices the looks Pink is giving Red. He doesn’t like that. He’s going to get closer to Red for sure. He knows he stands no chance with her… but he wants to be someone she opens up to too. And she may not like him romantically, but Pink is in no way someone who deserves her attention. With how brash, rude and self-centered she is? White hates her. They’re going to keep butting heads.

- Yellow and Blue practice together nonstop. They are in sync, years of getting to know each other’s play style has them adept to being a team. After beating a favorite of theirs, they go out to celebrate. On the way there, Blue keeps being stopped to be congratulated. No one congratulates Yellow. Not that he minds… he doesn’t do well under the spotlight. But… as they sit down to eat, Yellow’s concerns bubble up. After a few drinks, he comes clean. He’s not sure he deserves to be a part of the team. It was pure luck that he barely scraped by and got the most points. He doesn’t even remember what he did to get them. Blue pats his shoulder, and shakes him. He reassures him its only his insecurities making him feel like this. Yellow deserves to be there. And he won’t be alone. Blue will always have his back. Yellow smiles and they have a good time the rest of the night.

- After a month of preparation, presentations, and practice, it’s finally time. They wave to everyone as they step into the room that will start their procedure. They’ll be knocked out, have their bodies connected to the game, and awaken in it.

- They’re up. They’re in a metal chamber. They’ve already got their armor suits on, and their weapons are right beside them. It’s a survival game set in what the upper world would look like. They must treat this as real life. Supplies are provided; this is just a trial of the game. The setting isn’t on difficult. Their main focus is to not die, and to get to the end of this delivery mission. They’ll send a note to a sanctuary, the path already set, and it should only take them three days tops. Easy enough. They leave the chamber and take in the view outside, blinking at the harsh morning light. Their livestream begins, their helmets broadcasting what they see.

- The world is a dump. Nice graphics though. They step out and thus begins the journey. From this point forward, I’ll just mildly explain some events. Some will be more detailed than others cuz this is all a haze.

- First, as they walk around, they catch the attention of people in cars. Their first bad guys. The bad guys don’t stand a chance against them, and retreat. Red is cautious of them coming back.

- They stop when they reach an abandoned house, no neighbor houses anywhere. It looks so normal. They step inside and, though decrepit, everything looks ok. Until they reach the basement. An underground lab. Years of gaming has made them apprehensive. They can’t understand what’s going on but this doesn’t look good.

- Before they can find logs on an old computer, the bad guys they fought before indeed burst through with reinforcements. It’s a close battle, and most of the lab is destroyed in the process. The team beats most of them as one drops a light. The building is set on fire. The team runs away, but Green dropped her gun. Black can’t let them go empty-handed, he leaves his sniper with her and goes back to get it. The fire reaches the lab, to the gas storage and the house explodes while he’s inside. Black is out of the game.

- Green is miffed. He died so early, and for such a dumb reason! They told him not to go in!! Everyone crowds around them. He’ll be ok, they can yell at him when they win the game. They are comforted by that fact, but still, this loss is taking a toll immediately. They were supposed to be seven and now they are six. So they really will just die and not respawn. For now, they need to continue.

- The team move forward a bit more but stop to rest for the night once they reach an old city. Red just lost her second in command. She needs someone else to fill in. Pink and White go hard trying to impress her all night. Their stumbling and forcefulness leaves Red more exasperated. She ultimately chooses Blue instead.

- Where before, Yellow and Blue would be goofing off together, now he has to stay beside Red and help her be vigilant and strategize. Yellow feels a bit left behind again, but Blue reassures it’s only temporary. For them to win the game.

- They take a rest in an old mattress shop. Perfect for their sleep. They take turns being on watch, not taking off their suits. They were told to keep them on at all times. For safety reasons. And the slight discomfort they felt sleeping with them wasn’t unbearable. It was a calm enough night.

~~~

- A shift in perspective to Orange, she’s been watching the livestream nonstop from the comfort of her home. She checks the media (idk technology I guess these phones just work within their space? Underground? Lolol man idk XD sorry) and everyone is sad about Black being the first to go. Somewhat meanly, people start callously saying Yellow or White should’ve died first.

- The question pops up. When will they be seeing Black? Now that he’s out of the game, he should be returning. No answer from the game manufacturers. Radio silence.

- Her sister comes home late that day. She looks frantic and doesn’t even tell Orange hello. She goes straight to the kitchen, picks up a container, and packs in food. She does this when she’s staying the night at the office. Orange is concerned. She asks about Black’s return. Her sister flinches. She stops. After a few, quiet moments, she shakily confesses.

- “He’s…. dead.”

- It’s all over the media the next day. There was a malfunction in the game machine. There is a risk of the players dying in real life if they die in game. They just lost Black. Everyone is horrified and outraged. The government tries to reassure the public. They are looking into it. They will bring justice. Orange is beyond worried for everyone, but particularly Pink. She should’ve been there. She wouldn’t let them die. But here, at the Bunker, there’s nothing she can do. Only watch and hope.

~~~~~~~~~

- Two days left. They’re doing well on time. Their map is a general one, only showing the straight line they need to take. No small details or markers to be had. Pink and White are still at each other’s throats, blaming the other for not getting the position beside Red. A scuffle comes to them. Not the same bad guys, new ones. More sophisticated ones. They aim for their heads, and shout insults at them. Calling them ‘Bomberbees’.

- In the scuffle, Yellow notices something off. A child by themselves, no older than four or five, in the middle of the street, getting caught in the crossfire. They hide behind an old, toppled over car, but stray bullets hit the gas. It drips and Yellow remembers Black’s death. Without much thinking, they scurry from the fight to pick up the kid and run. Sure enough, a spark from a fire close by lands in the gas, and causes another fire. Then bam, second explosion. The kid is clinging to him, Yellow has gotten them out of the fire, but now they’re being chased by someone from the attackers. They get caught in a shop without exits. Yellow tries to shoot with one hand, but he can’t get the attacker. As they near, they pick up a heavy display, readying to crush Yellow and the kid. A shot hits them in the neck and stops them, making the heavy load also slip and fall on their head. They’re dead. Blue rushes inside. He’s furious.

- He’s cursing at Yellow for putting his life in danger like that. Yellow lets go of the kid, and they run away immediately, scared of Blue. Yellow is anxious, wanting to follow the child. Blue is incredulous. It’s an NPC. Yellow tries to reason. Maybe it’s a side quest? It’s a kid alone in this dangerous hell hole. They should help. Blue shakes his head, they already lost Black. They can’t lose Yellow. Not for this. He uses his rank, as second in command. Yellow can’t look for the kid. It’s an order. They return to the group.

- They had managed to kill enough for the bad guys to retreat, but the toll was heavy on their resources. In just these first two days, they’ve gone over half their ammo. Realizing their situation, Red begins prioritizing looting. She was right the first time when she said bad guys return with reinforcements. These new dudes can too.

- Taking advantage of the big city, they venture a bit to get more ammo. They split into groups. Unfortunately, despite her protests, Pink gets put with White. Red was hoping they’ll work whatever they have going on. They bicker as they leave, and she already regrets her decision.

- Yellow gets put with Green, and they go the opposite direction. Close to where the child ran off. He recounts what happened as they scavenge around, Green listening with only mild interest. Then she sees a kid herself, at the end of a street with a toppled skyscraper. It motions to them. They follow.

- The kid leads them to their home inside the topped skyscraper. There’s a bunch more kids. They’re surrounding one of themselves, a hurt girl. The boy Yellow saved quietly steps forward and asks him to help her too. Yellow and Green look at each other. Side quest?

- Blue and Red are on their own. They have the easiest time out of all of them. They started by looting the bodies. They never really got to appreciate it before, but these gory details…. Went above and beyond. Almost felt surreal to Blue that he was gathering bullets from the pockets of a man’s bottom half torso, his top half across the room. He suspected if he took off his helmet, the place would smell too. Red is quiet, but she eventually breaks the silence. She apologizes for putting Blue as her second in command without asking him. He shakes it off. It’s alright. Black’s death was unexpected. Black’s death. Blue almost shivers thinking about it. Everything in the game has felt so lifelike. He’d hate to go out with a bang like that. He tried making the situation lighter by bringing up what Black would be doing right now. Probably, he’d be escorted to the hotel nearby to stay and watch the livestream until his teammates finished. He’s probably beating himself up over being the first to die. Red shakes her head, remembering how her friend hated losing first. But more than that, he hated being separated from Green. This would be his true hell. And the comments he’ll get on his news feed! The roasts! They laughed, imagining it. All for his lover’s gun. Green has him whipped. Blue sorts through some more piles of trash, the laughter dying down. Behind his smile, he hid concerns. It was so fast to die here. No health bars to keep in check. Nothing but realism. He had to keep Yellow safe.

- Cut back to Pink and White. Though they hate each other, they do work together. There’s no point letting their disagreements drag the group down. They manage to find an old gun store. Jackpot? As they scavenge, a wild, and mutated animal enters the store. A chase ensues. White is quick and small. He manages to get away fast, leaving behind the stocky and slower Pink. She curses at him for not sticking to her. She gets cornered as more of the same mutants show up. She decides she needs to blow them in one go. It’s her only choice. Though it’s one of her last three, she readies her grenade, but is beat to the punch by a giant beam crushing all three mutants. The dust settles and she sees White on top of the beam, having pushed it down with his entire weight. He’s hurt.

- He turns on his healing, but it’ll still take a while. She helps him up. She’s salty, but grateful. He’s limping. They’re far from the group. And they still need to go back and check for ammo. Stuck together for longer, they finally break the ice. She was impressed by how quick he was. He hesitantly takes the compliment. As they continue, curiosity burns. She’s been chastising him for so long, she wants genuine answers. She asks him why he chose to be a medic. He says he didn’t. He was forced into it because, naturally, his siblings and parents already filled other roles. She doesn’t like this answer. So he relented? Just like that? She lets him have it. Orange loves being medic. She put her heart and soul into her job. He just does this because of his family.

- White bites back. Yeah he gave in. His family is so overwhelming. His entire life was already given goals he didn’t choose. An idea he had to live as. Of course she wouldn’t understand. No one but them would understand. He has no choice. But he doesn’t want to disappoint or be a burden. That’s his reason for training! He…. Breaks down at this. He cries. Pink is very uncomfortable. They reach the gun store and separate again. Its quiet with the occasional sniffles. Pink feels…. A bit bad.

- They do find ammo. White heals. They walk back. Pink relents after a few minutes, and tells White that… he isn’t.. the WORST medic. He did manage to be second in the competition. That counts for something. He’s surprised by her try at peace. He also gives in. He says he’s sorry for taking Orange’s spot. He honestly didn’t ask for it. But his family… Pink is surprised by this confession. So he didn’t get in because he pulled strings. It was his overbearing parents. She finally gives up her hatred for the short dude. It’s not helping either of them. They return more successful than the others, being the second group back. To Red’s delight, White and Pink aren’t fighting anymore. She gives them both a pat and congratulates them. She’s proud they can work through their differences. As she leaves them, they both sigh at the same time. Then look at each other. Oh yeah. They’re still rivals.

- Yellow and Green get back late. They tell the group about the kids. Blue is quick to groan, but Red takes an interest. She allows the team to accept the side quest. They just need to help one hurt kid, after all. They turn to White, pleadingly. Can he do it? White gulps, the pressure being on for him to succeed. Now was his chance to prove himself as a medic.

- Still not sure how to make the healing system work exactly, but ultimately, he succeeds. The kids swear he’s a wizard, but he brushes it off. Still, he’s flattered and riding a high from his success. They say goodbye to the kids, who take a liking to White, Green and Yellow for being nice. They still don’t like Blue and are wary of Pink and Red. Either way, they leave, and the three favored talk about how real the kids acted. The NPCs in this world are well-made.

- They’re on the move and there’s some lighter bickering between White and Pink as they continue trying to get Red’s attention, but she ignores them. They halt their walking as a familiar event occurs, dirty beat up cars coming and circling them. They stop and open. A big man, clearly in charge steps out. He’s there to give them a warning. When they stepped inside that normal-looking house, they were in Crumble territory. His lackeys foolishly followed behind, and now the building is gone. He’s barely placated these ‘Crumbles’ by making a deal with them. To catch this team and bring them back. His lackeys point their weapons. Are they going to come quietly or do they need to make a scene?

- Pink is excited. “Oh the plot is picking up!” It’s a fight. It’s super close, the hardest fight they’ve been in by far, but it’s completely thanks to their armor that they get the upper hand, and leave by stealing a vehicle. All those driving games taught White how to be a getaway driver well. They escape, and along the way, ditch the car in case they can track it. They survived the second day.

- Back to it being night, they make a fire and gather around. They have bedrolls to sleep in, but it’s uncomfortable. One person will stay guard while the rest sleep. They SHOULD be sleeping in their armor no problem. But especially with the bedrolls… its uncomfortable. So Pink takes hers off. As they choose spots to put down their rolls, she ends up setting hers next to White. She tells him he’s impressed her today. “If you can’t make it as a medic, you can definitely win competitions with those skills you know.” White is embarrassed, but… hopeful. He liked the thrill of going fast. Maybe… this could be something he’s good at. As Pink lays herself down, she slips and hurts herself on a jagged rock. She starts to bleed. White stares. They’re baffled. Having never taken their suits off prior, they hadn’t realized they can bleed. “It even hurts.” Pink laughs it off. “Damn, they went all out for this.” White agrees, but it still doesn’t sit well. Red passes them and his concern fades into thoughts of her instead. He gets up.

- Red is first watch. He stops by to just…. Tell her she’s doing a good job leading them so far. Red is surprised. He never talks to her first, always shy and skittish. She smiles back at him, sadly. She thanks him, but she can’t take the compliment. Black’s loss was a failure on her part. A real good leader would’ve held him back by force. It was a stupid death, no way around it.

- After an awkward silence (because White didn’t know how to follow that up), Red decides its her turn to be nice. She thanks White for saving them today. Her compliment is genuine, and she follows it with a head pat. He’s incredibly happy from this, and goes to bed looking beet red with a goofy smile. Pink notices. She decides it’s time for her to get a bit more aggressive. Gotta put down all her cards before slowpoke seals the deal.

- Pink’s shift is next. As she goes to relieve Red, she also tries for small chat. It doesn’t work. Red calls her out for not being in her armor. Pink says she’ll get it in a bit. Red starts to leave, she is tired. Pink blurts in a moment of impulsiveness.

- “When… all this is done, can we go for a drink?” Red stops and turns around. She’s confused. “Uh.. sure? I imagine we’ll all have a big celebration with alcohol anyways…” “Yeah, but I’m not asking to just get wasted. I’m asking to.. be able to get alone with you.”

- Ah. Now Red gets it. She’s embarrassed. After a momentary pause that feels like forever, she speaks. “I’m… sorry.” Pink is hurt. She knew she had less of a chance with her but she’s still hurt. Pink brushes it off. “It’s ok.” Red still looks like she has more to say, but… she turns back. She’s tired and now isn’t a good time. The stream is still on. God, Red remembered and so did Pink. She just got rejected in front of the whole Bunker... Pink is frustrated and cant sleep even when her shift is done.

~~~~~~~~

- Back at the Bunker, Orange watched the confession and felt terrible for her friend. She had been embarrassed today. Still, more than the concern for her love life, was the concern for her life. The confession was secondary to the threat of them all dying.

- The media has blown up much much more. Everyone was scared for the player’s lives already, but after today’s stream, more joined in. The people that hated White have mostly turned around, finding his day as redeeming. Instead, blame was shifted onto his family as they were now seen for the perfectionist robots they were. But more than that, they have now effectively put their youngest in danger for his life by forcing him onto this game. Very unexpectedly, the Whites…. Showed remorse. They never expected to sign away their child’s life. It was just supposed to be another prestigious event to get their name into. They’re mad at the game developers and are with the people hounding the government to get answers. They’re mad, and they want their family member back. Alive.

- Yellow also begins getting his own fans. Showing care for the NPCs, especially contrasted with Blue’s disregard of them…. Blue fans are buzzing. What kind of person doesn’t care for children, EVEN in a game? Defenders of Blue make their case, it’s a dangerous situation and they’ve lost Black. Though he doesn’t know it, keeping everyone in the team alive over NPCs IS the way to go. Still, it doesn’t sit well with half his supporters, and alliances are shifting. Yellow is gaining followers.

- Pink’s bold declaration made her gain new fans. Many proclaimed that if Pink made it out, they would gladly take her. Orange grimaced at these. Red, likewise, got a lot of…. Hate. Pink fans thought she was too mean with her rejection. Red stans defended her right to say no. There was a battle between the two, and in any other day this would be normal, but the underlying pressure of either not making it highlights their hate for one another. These could be their last moments, and now they’ll spend them awkwardly. Orange sighs and drops her phone.

- All day, Orange’s sister has been out of the house. Though she had taken food with her, Orange guesses it wasn’t enough. Orange hasn’t talked to her all day, not after finding out her friend was in danger and her sister was part of it. There are no words to describe her feelings. Still. With how stressful things are right now…. Her sister should be at her top game trying to fix this. She should be eating well. Orange makes her dinner, still… upset but resigned to what’s happened, and goes to deliver it. Having done this before, she has no problem getting through to her office. She meant to leave the packed, warm lunch in her desk if she wasn’t there, but she dillydallies when she finds the picture of White on her sister’s screen. She looks around. No one is watching her, everyone busy with the catastrophe at hand. She clicks through and discovers. Her sister specifically made the deal to keep her out of the game. To bring White in. In her emails, she seemed aggressive this be done. Even threatening to quit her beloved job. Orange hears the clicking of her sister’s heels and returns everything back the way it was. She sits down at her sister’s seat with the dinner in her lap and her phone in her hand, pretending to have been waiting for her. The interaction is normal. She hugs her, gives her the food, and leaves. On the way out, she sees a group of her sister’s coworkers rush out of a familiar room. The room that’s always been showcased as where the players would be held. She slips behind the cameras and peeks in through the door’s small window. The machine that was supposed to connect everyone’s minds is… empty. They’re not here. Orange’s stomach twists. Where are they then?

- Hearing more people coming, she rushes out of the corridor and out of the building. She has too much to think about. Too many implications. She. Wants. Answers.

~~~~~~~~~~~

- One day left. They are close! They wake up and get ready. Their last stop crosses through a town. They’ll get to interact with more NPCs! Everyone is excited. They begin the walk, Blue talking to Red, Green to White. Pink stayed quiet. Yellow is concerned for his sister. All their time spent here, she’s been making googly eyes at Red, and now she won’t even look at her. Oh no. He knows whats up.

- He tries to cheer her up, reminiscing her old girlfriends… and some other nice girls waiting back home. Pink snorts. She’s not in the mood for this. Not from someone like him. Yellow is hurt. What does she mean someone like him? Much to his dismay, Pink gives him a look. Then she looks back at Blue. … she knew? “You knew?” “It’s… not exactly subtle.” She teased. “You’ve liked him since you wer-“ “PINK! SHUT UP!” “What? Rude.” Yellow looks furious. Slow realization dawns on her yet again. She forgot that they were on a stream. Ooh dear.

- Now they were both in a bad mood. Yellow terrified of going back when they won, to having clips of his sister’s words thrown in his and Blue’s face. He never wanted to confess! This will ruin their friendship! And the audience backlash!!!! Blue has a lot of diehard stans that… to put it mildly, are not keen on giving him up. To hear his own best friend, whom they barely tolerated already, has a crush on him. Yellow. Was. Scared.

- Pink feels so guilty. She was already in a crappy mood and now she’s gone and made things worse. It’s her turn to try to reach out and reassure Yellow, when more dust picks up from behind. They hear the sounds of vehicles. Oh great, there’s more. They ready for a fight, but are caught off guard when the cars aren’t stopping. They instead, zoom by, each one trying to wrap a rope lasso around a member as they move. Most of them dodge or cut the ropes in time. Pink doesn’t She’s caught by the midriff and dragged along, her armor taking most of the hits for her as she bounces along the ground. This is NOT her day! Her teammates chase after her, but the cars are too fast. Thinking fast, she pulls a grenade from her backpack. The one she didn’t use against the mutants. She aims, and luck is on her side as she’s able to chuck it inside the open window holding her rope. The car explodes and she’s blown back. She hits her helmet. She dents it. Her livestream is shut off.

- Her teammates get to her just as soon as the cars double back and try to lasso them again. They’re prepared now, dodging and even pulling someone out by yanking on the rope. They kill them. Per Red’s orders, they aim for the wheels. They get one car to pop, the others drive away, having failed. The car they left behind is quiet. They inch closer. They see the figure inside, staring at them. He opens his mouth, but before he can say a word, Green from behind everyone shoots him in the head. She needed to practice using Black’s gun anyways. Everyone congratulates her for her aim… though it wasn’t as good as it could be. She laughs with them, promising to give up being a sniper one this was over. She’s only taking over because she lost her gun.

- Pink gets up. From her reads, its clear her livestream set up is too jammed to start back up again. Her footage is lost now. It’s a bummer. Yellow helps her as they continue moving towards their destination, but neither speak. Still mad. Still guilty. They reach the town. It’s huge! And unlike the abandoned city, it’s full of people… They decide to stay and explore a bit. They had time, their destination was just a ways across from here. They’d make it.

- Trying to distract herself from her conflicting emotions, Pink leaves the group when they’re not looking to go to a bar. There, she finds what she believes to be a mini quest. An old man is complaining about what he calls ‘the abomination’ taking his wares the other day. Pink jumps into accepting this NPC’s quest, to defeat the abomination and retrieve his goods. She follows his directions to the outskirts of town. To a normal-looking cabin. Wanting this to be quick she carelessly blasts the front door open and immediately, a fight begins. The abomination has green fur, different sized golden eyes, and scales and spikes scattered around its body. The abomination makes some clear sounds that reminisce garbles. So it can’t even communicate. This has got to be it.

- They fight, almost destroying the home in the process. The abomination almost bites the dust with a full face blast, but manages to scurry away, Pink hot on their trail. In the chase, she follows it out of the town… into a valley… behind a fence clearly stating danger… The creature leads her to a cave where it gets darker… and warmer… By the time she notices her radiation alarms going off, she’s already feeling sick and exhausted. She passes out.

- She comes to outside, feeling something in her mouth. She swallows unconsciously, but gags at the foul taste and sputters. She looks up at the person holding her. The abomination. Pink is quick on the draw…. Except her gun is not with her. Neither is her suit. She panics but a voice is heard from behind. “She saved you, and you still want to blast her?!” She turns around to see a shiny, scaled person judging her. “You should’ve left her in the cave, Charger.”

- The abomination makes more garbles, with a shrug. Pink is confused. With the help of the draconic(?) (who is the abomination’s brother???) the situation is cleared up. So the quest was a lie. The old man is a smuggler, and the goods they confiscated where weapons stolen from another smaller town nearby. Pink was being played. Pink apologizes, not knowing what else to do. She had thought this was just another clear cut mini-mission. Who knew this game had moral complexity like this?

- Charger forgives her, to her brother’s annoyance. Pink stick around for a bit, offered a place at their dinner table. She got to meet their oldest brother, and taste what local food is really like. It’s not bad. She gets back her suit and weapon. She’s allowed to go. But before she does… she ends up opening up to these nice NPCs. Why not? Her comms where off and her livestream camera was busted anyways. The NPCs nodded along and Charger gave her a hug by the end. The middle brother gave a few words of wisdom. “So it’s not what you wanted. But at least you’ve got a great friend to add to your collection. And she sounds pretty bad ass… you gotta keep those close.” Pink laughed. Yeah… she’s been lucky in the friend department. She mused how much she missed Orange. She got to leave finally, a load off her shoulders. She went back to the group, where stuff… is going down. The town is in chaos and her team is in the middle of it. What happened while she was gone?

- When Pink left, the group had decided to split again. Green, Blue and Yellow went to see something (idk lol haven’t worked this out yet) and White and Red stayed together. They explore the local food and shops. They have a nice time taking everything in. They peak a few people’s curiosities, but they aren’t outright being aggressive, so the NPCs leave them alone. It’s a fun day…. One could even say…. It’s like a fun… date…

- White can’t hold it in anymore. He’s ready to confess. He takes her to a secluded spot and very nervously fidgets with his helmet… taking it off and begins to talk by bringing up a memory. The day Red helped him. Red’s attention is piqued. What about it? White continues. That day, he had hit his alltime low. He was ready to quit gaming altogether. But she… gave him hope again. Made him strive to be someone worthy of working beside her. Her cheeks redden and her eyes widen. She’s realizing where this is going. White continues. Being here, watching her work…. He was content with just staying in the background... but after today. He holds her hand, he himself turning into a tomato. Nervously, he blurts. He wants to stay by her side, even outside of this game. He has his eyes closed. No sounds respond to him. He nervously opens them to see Red’s expression. She looks sympathetic… but that’s it. His heart drops. “White…” His face stays aflame, he wants to cry.

- With a shaky voice he rushes out. “Oh-nonono its ok I just. I pushed this on you- Im ok I just-“ “No. White, listen to me.” He stops his tumbling and listens. He wont look at her, but he’s readying himself for her response. She sighs, and takes his shaking shoulders. “I like you White… but I’m not… interested in being in a relationship. With anyone.” White’s shakiness drops. Ok… now he’s looking at her. Her expression is sincere. White is confused. Red makes a disgruntled noise. “I should’ve explained this sooner to people… I’m not looking for any romance. I just. Don’t have any interest in it.” She looks away, taking another breath and continues. “I know most people don’t understand it but please… believe me. This isn’t me lying to you to make your rejection easier. I…. genuinely am trying to… get you to understand.” Her expressions. Her trying to hard. He’s seen enough. He’s convinced. And he’s honestly... touched. He sniffles and rubs his eyes, he was just about to cry a second ago. But he feels it’s silly now. He’s still sad, but more than that. He smiles at her. He thanks her for confessing this to him… he hopes this means they can stay friends. She smiles back, relieved, beaming. Of course. She thanks him for understanding and ends the conversation with a hug. It’s a nice rejection.

- It’s at this moment, that they are attacked. Caught completely off-guard, they are easy targets. Still, they put up a fight. Red can get to her gun and fends them off. White isn’t as lucky. He’s knocked down easily, tied and gagged. He’s got a concussion, but he’s still fighting to stay conscious. Red chases after them, shooting. People around the streets flee from the scene. Green, Blue and Yellow heard the commotion. They run and are ready to help, weapons raised. The kidnappers know they are outnumbered. But they have leverage. They hide behind White, holding his struggling body. If they shoot, they can hit his soft nogging. The one holding him grips his hair tightly. White makes a noise of pain.

- Pain. In game. The team looks at one another. Red tells them to put their weapons down. They slowly do. A car comes blasting through the now empty streets. Their ride. They’re taking White. If they want him safe, they’ll come with them without any problem. More bad guys get around them. They’re ready to bind them. Red is the quickest shot. She knocks back the person behind her, manages to shoot the two behind Green and Yellow, and Blue followed suit with his own. She points her gun to the one holding White, but a sharp cry of pain makes her hesitate.

- What was he doing? He twisted White’s arm forcefully and doesn’t stop until it snaps. White is screaming. His arm socket has popped off. It hangs loosely. The holder is cursing at them. They should’ve played nice! He throws White into the car and jumps in, closing the door. The car slams it. They shoot but its too late. White is gone. They’ve lost a member to an unforeseen obstacle.

- They’ve failed.

- And more than that.

- Those cries… wont leave their heads. Red throws her gun in anger. White was in pain. There is pain in this game. Real, fucking pain. Blue and Yellow immediately look at each other. Green is in shock. What the fuck is going on.

- Pink returns to this, White missing and the group in shambles. Pink is confused. Of course there is pain. Had no one else noticed? They look at one another. They never left their suits. They never got hurt before this. No. Only White has gotten bruises from the pillar he toppled. Only Pink has gotten cut from a rock. Their only concerns were dodging bullets that didn’t even penetrate their armor. They didn’t think pain would be a factor. This new information sets a series of horrid questions through their brains. It was this easy to get hurt. And Black? He died in an explosion. His suit may protect him from bullets but not from fires that hot. He may be chilling back home now, but at what cost?

- What madman programmed realistic pain into a fucking game.

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blessyourhondahurley · 5 years

Text

October 29 - Don't Ditch Me, Bro

[Read on AO3]

About five minutes after they merge onto I-90 outside of Presho, there's a long stretch of construction, and traffic slows to a crawl. So Dean takes the next exit and they start working the GPS on the back roads. They have some place they need to be, but they're in no real rush to get there.

There'd been a pretty powerful coven of witches up near Minot that had started dabbling in some heavy black magic. Sam had pulled some hunters in from down near Washburn to go knock on the coven master's door. The discussion had resulted in a few oddly-shaped scorch marks, but they'd managed (with a Skype assist from Rowena) to convince him to knock that shit off and clear out for good. But he left behind a houseful of dusty old books that might contain the secrets of the universe, so Dean and Cas are on their way up to grab a trunkful for the Bunker's library.

But, hey. None of those books are gonna sprout legs and run off anywhere, so they've got time to take their time. It's a mild, sunny day, and there's a good classic rock station on the radio. Dean's got his Baby, he's got the open road, and he's got his boyfriend.

And ain't that just a kick in the head? Dean's got his boyfriend.

Dean has had some bizarre fucking thoughts in his life, everything from "there might be a demon flying this plane," through "my sandwich is mad at me," and all the way up to "God ate all of the bacon I was saving for tomorrow's BLTs." But sometimes it feels like the most ridiculous and incredible and unbelievable of them all has got to be "I have a boyfriend now."

He never thought he'd be able to have anything like what he has with Cas – something honest, and real, and permanent. Cas is it for him, the love of his life, no question. It's so goddamn good between them.

So Dean rolls down the windows to let the warm air in. He cranks the radio when the Allman Brothers start playing "Jessica." He hits the gas a little harder, nudges their speed up to that sweet spot where the road smooths itself out and lays down in front of him like a plush carpet. And he reaches across the bench seat for his boyfriend's hand.

It's a perfect moment, and Dean's chest aches a little with how much joy he feels. He looks over to the passenger seat and he's struck, not for the first time, with how beautiful his angel is. He watches the light and shadow playing over the lines of Cas's face – the strong, stubbled jawline, the perfect straight nose, those full pink lips. He licks his own lips then, wondering how soon he can get another taste of that mouth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Wait, Dean, you must be breaking up. Say again?"

"Sammy, you heard me the first time. I drove Baby into a ditch. Her rear axle's a little bent. There's a tow on its way, but we're kind of in the middle of Nowhere, South Dakota, right now, so they're gonna take about an hour to get here. Once I get to a garage, I can straighten the axle out myself, but realistically we just added a day to our travel time. So I wanted you to let your boys in Washburn know not to expect us there tonight."

"Uh-huh. And how did you manage to drive into a ditch, exactly? I don't see any snow or even rain in the forecast."

"Oh, hey, shit, you're breaking up, Sammy, I can't... What? Krrzzsh!! Are you–" He hits the End Call button and tosses the phone into the front seat.

His brother's 350 miles away and deep underground, encased in the enchanted concrete walls of the Bunker, and Dean can still feel the epic bitch face that's being directed his way.

Oh well, dealing with Sammy's derision is a problem for another day. Right now, the sun is still shining, the radio still works, no one got injured in their little misadventure with distracted driving, and they've got about an hour to make out before the tow truck gets here.

#destiel #destiel fanfic #destiel fluff

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nerdypisces160 · 5 years

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Pietro Maximoff - Soulmate AU

Pairing: Pietro Maximoff x Avengers!Reader

Warnings: fluff, angst, swearing

Word Count: 4,561 words (I finally made a long one!)

Summary: Y/N has been with the Avengers for six short months. She is a mutant with the power of telekinesis. She mastered her powers long ago, but occasionally she over does it. This can lead to her body practically shutting down on herself. How far will she go to save her soulmate?

*****

When people talked about soulmates they all said that the world just made sense. It seemed as if everything finally had a plan or purpose to it. There was no physical mark that showed if a person found their soumate; it was just a mental connection that joined the two. Nowadays soulmates aren't as common as they once were, but that didn't stop some from finding theirs. Even without having a soulmate people learned to live happily, but when someone did find them it seemed that everyone could feel their powerful emotions and connection. The ones that do find their soulmate recount that they were going about on a normal day. Nothing ever stands out, so when Y/N was out on a mission with the team she didn't expect to find her soulmate.

*****

Storming the newest Hydra base, Y/N was flying past Natasha and Clint swiping away the enemies. They all continued to fight taking out anyone they could. Y/N chuckled to herself seeing Cap drag a body behind him. "What are you laughing about kid?" Tony asked. "Nothing much, just watching Cap drag around some garbage," Y/N replied. Flying past with the rest of the Avengers Y/N made a small force field around her body in order to tackle down the approaching Hydra agents. "Shit!" Tony exclaimed. "Language," Cap countered. Y/N stifled her laughter hearing Cap's response. After her brief pause Y/N continued to fight along side with Thor. "Yeah. I think we lost the element of surprise," Clint said. Y/N rolled here eyes and growled, "Really Clint what told you that? Was it the fucking guns?" Of course hearing her language Tony then mentioned that Cap said 'language.'

Tired of hearing the bickering between her team mates she ignored them all. All at once Hydra agents surrounded her believing they could take her down; this made her smirk. Once they surrounded her, she began to concentrate on their weapons. She absorbed the energy from them that way they were useless. The agents all looked around confused on why their weapons weren't firing. Absorbing all that energy gave Y/N a tingling sensation in her fingers and up her arms. Using all the newly absorbed energy Y/N punched the ground creating an explosion that killed the surrounding Hydra scum. With her fist still connected to the ground, Y/N felt an unfamiliar presence. She tried to tune into the presence from the distance, but it was moving too fast. Noticing that it was heading towards Clint's location Y/N took off in his direction.

Just before Clint fired an arrow at the bunker Y/N hid behind a nearby tree. "What do you need kid?" Clint asked. "Figured you could use the help old man," she smirked. He began to grumble, "Old man my ass." Before Clint could fire his second arrow a force took both him and Y/N out. The force of the fall had knocked the wind out of her, so she wasn't able to get up for a few seconds. Though she did hear a foreign accented voice say, "You didn't see that coming." Finally getting up Y/N felt a strong wind push her back down. Growling, Y/N got back up only to have Clint fall on her. "What is your problem?" she growled. "Kinda got hit Y/N," he grunted. Natasha quickly ran over to the two. While Nat was assessing Clint, Y/N put a shield around them. Quickly the Hulk took down the attacking bunker.

Soon after the bunker was destroyed and Stark got the shield down Y/N flew over into the Hydra facility. As Tony went to download the files Y/N went throughout the building taking out anyone and everyone that crossed her path. Out of no where Y/N was grabbed and pushed against the wall. "What do you think you are doing?" a mysterious voice asked. Looking up Y/N saw clear, crystal blue eyes. Both parties' eyes widened realizing what they were to each other. All the rumors were true when people say things start to fit together. They were stuck in their own world, sadly it ended quicker then either would care to admit. All at once a young woman with brown hair put her hand on Y/N's soulmate's shoulder. Before Y/N could blink they were gone.

Back on the quinjet Y/N didn't know what to think about the situation. She wasn't ready to admit that her soulmate was with Hydra, in the end she decided that she wasn't going to tell anyone. Lots of people don't have soulmates, so what is the worse that could happen with ignoring hers. Once back at Headquarters, Y/N walked with Steve and Maria listening to them talk about the twins. Just hearing his name, Pietro, practically made her knees weak. Steve seemed to notice this because he stopped. "Are you okay Y/N?" Steve asked. "Yeah just a little tired. I guess I overworked myself," she said. He slowly nodded his head knowing occasionally Y/N overworked herself in the field. "I'm actually going to go rest," Y/N said. Before she could walk away Steve yelled out to her, "Don't forget about the party." "Do I have to go?" Y/N moaned. This caused Steve to smile to himself, "Yes if I have to go, you have to." "Fine," she grumbled. Y/N went to her room to shower and rest.

*****

Only one person in the world could love partying so much and that was playboy philanthropist Tony Stark. Only he would want to have a party a few days after a mission. Since that particular mission all Y/N could think about was Pietro. He wouldn't escape her mind, she thought about how things could be different for the two of them. Most of the time she imagined that he wasn't Hydra and that she wasn't an Avenger. All Y/N wanted was to have met her soulmate in the most boring way possible. Since that last mission Y/N had started behaving differently as well. She began to withdraw from her friends and started spending more time in the gym. None of her team mates really knew what was wrong with her, but one had a sneaking suspicion.

Once Y/N made it down to the party she went straight to the bar; her hope was that she could finally get her mind off Pietro. "What can I get for you ma'am?" the bartender asked. "Let me get a single malt neat," Y/N ordered. Whilst sitting at the bar, Y/N watched her team mates. Rhodey was standing by a group of women telling them one of his many War Machine stories. Natasha was making her way behind the bar. Steve and Thor were talking to an older gentleman. By the looks of it Thor was going to give the man some of his Asgardian mead. Giggling to herself, Y/N was excited to see the man's reaction to such a strong alcohol. All at once Bruce walked up to the bar where Natasha was now pouring drinks. "How did a nice girl like you wind up working in a dump like this?" Bruce asked. While making a drink for him, Natasha responded, "Fella done me wrong." "You got a lousy taste in men kid," he commented. Leaning forward she started to speak again, "He's not so bad. Well, he has a temper. Deep down he's all fluff. Fact is, he's not like anybody I've ever known. All my friends are fighters. And here comes this guy, spends his life avoiding the fights because he knows he'll win." Bruce, flabbergasted by what Nat said only replies with, "Sounds amazing." Taking a sip of her drink Nat admits, "He's also a huge dork. Chicks dig that." Bruce looked down sheepishly and embarrassed. She then suddenly asked him a question, "So what do you think should I fight this, or run with it?" Confused on how to respond, Bruce stutters his answer," Run with it, right? Or, did he... was he...? What did he do that was so wrong to you?" Leaning even closer Nat begins to whisper to Bruce, "Not a damn thing. But never say never." With that final statement Nat walked away.

"Is it easy to ignore your soulmate like that?" Y/N asked Bruce suddenly. Stuck in his head, Bruce was startled by the question. "I'm not good for her, the universe messed up our connection," Bruce responded. Unhappy with his answer Y/N stood up and began to yell at him, "That's bullshit and you know it! You two were put together for a reason! You shouldn't fight fate!" Realizing what she had said Y/N swiftly apologized to Bruce and ran off to her room. Once alone Y/N began to freak out. She now realized how important soulmates are.

All at once Y/N stood up and began packing her bags. She decided she needed to find her soulmate, but she couldn't do it as an Avenger. After all her essentials were packed she could hear a knock at her door, it was Clint. Not wanting anyone to know she was leaving Y/N used her powers to make everything look normal. It was very advanced, but she knew the risk was worth it. Once Y/N knew everything looked normal she invited Clint in. "What can I do for you Clint?" she asked. "What no 'old man'?" he joked. It was at this time Y/N wished her friends didn't know her so well. "Sorry old man I am too far in my head right now," she responded. He seemed skeptical about her response, but didn't mention it. "Well we have a meeting in the morning. Looks like we have another threat ready to make us go 'extinct'," Clint said. Nodding her head, Y/N showed Clint the door and told him goodbye. Right when he was gone Y/N stopped using her powers. She felt horrible for leaving her team, but she needed to find her soulmate, her Pietro.

Getting away unnoticed was quite simple for Y/N. She was able to get to the records without raising any red flags. Once in the records, Y/N was able to look up all the information on the twins that she could. This led Y/N to return to her room where she found a wormhole that would allow her to travel to Sokovia. Being there gave Y/N a funny feeling. It was her body reacting to being in her soulmate's birthplace. All she had to do now was wait until fate brought the two together again.

*****

Y/N was late for the team meeting the next day, and no one could find her. It was uncommon for Y/N to be late. Due to her being relatively new she didn't like making a bad impression. Clint being the only one that was suspicious of her recent behavior went to her room to search. For hours he searched her room looking for clues on why she left. No one else on the team searched for Y/N; they were all too worried about Ultron. After having no success he decided to go to the one place he could truly be alone --- the vents. Once he was situated up there he looked down in Y/N's room. "God damn it, that smart ass kid," he cursed. Clint was right in thinking that Y/N would leave a clue. She left it only where he would notice it. She left a letter addressed to him in the top corner of her bedroom, she painted it the same color of her walls so it would blend. Y/N remembered when Clint told her that he could see better from a distance. Finally retrieving the letter, Clint went back to the vents to read it.

Dear Clint,

I knew if anyone would understand and come looking for me it would be you. Last night I knew you didn't believe me, and I love that you didn't ask. I didn't want to leave you guys, you all are my family. I needed to leave though because I found my soulmate. The problem is I'm not sure I can handle who he is, and if I can't accept him then who am I? I'm a horrible person who is going to throw away the strongest connection a person can find in their life. Please don't tell anyone and don't bother looking for me. I need to find these answers on my own. If I can find the right answers then I'll be back, but if not then this is goodbye. I hope this isn't the end of our family. I appreciate and love you all.

Love, Y/N

*****

Shortly after arriving in Sokovia, Y/N could tell that Pietro wasn't there, but something in her told her not to worry. She knew that it wouldn't be long before they reconnected. While waiting Y/N got to discover Sokovia. She realized that the people there were very close knit. It was a small and peaceful community. When Y/N read the file on Pietro she read of how his and his sister's parents died. She could almost understand why he chose to join Hydra.

It seemed that today was finally the day Y/N had been looking forward to; it was the day her and Pietro would reunite. Waking up that morning Y/N felt a tight feeling in her chest. The thing was she wasn't sure whether it was a good feeling or bad. Leaving her small single bedroom apartment she went into the capital, Novi Grad. Not long after getting into the capital she noticed shadows fly above her. When she looked up she seen many robots preparing to land. Seconds later the ground under her feet began to rumble almost like an earthquake. Once the rumbling stopped she noticed that the area she was on was rising higher than the surrounding areas. It wasn't long before Y/N began to hear the citizen's cries for help. Naturally her body went into protective mode. She knew that she needed to kill the weird robots that were flying around not even five minutes ago.

At first Y/N made a portal that way she could evacuate citizens to safety. When the people around her were safe she started to chase down the robots. Killing them was easy, she was able to just rip them apart with her powers. Going further into the capital Y/N made sure to help anyone she passed. It wasn't until she was on the edge that she noticed she wasn't alone, a helicarrier flew pass her. While helping out Y/N completely forgot the Avengers would come out. Following the helicarrier, Y/N found Steve and Natasha having a conversation at the edge of the now floating capital.

"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it," Steve ordered. "I didn't say we should leave. There's worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?" Natasha professed. "You know I would never let you all go, even if that meant going back in time and killing myself over it," Y/N confessed to the two. Both, not expecting Y/N, turn around to face her. Neither knew what to say, it was only a few short days ago that she had abandoned them. Breaking out of her trance first, Natasha stormed towards Y/N. Expecting to be slapped or punched Y/N closed her eyes and braced herself. Instead of a slap or punch Natasha threw her arms around Y/N and squeezed her tightly. "Where the hell did you go?" Nat whispered in Y/N's ear. Squeezing her back just as hard Y/N explained, "I needed to find my happiness, just like you and Bruce." Letting each other go Natasha just nodded to Y/N. Looking behind Y/N, Nat noticed the new recruit focused on Y/N. "Looks like you might get that chance. Go and be quick," Nat advised. While Nat and Y/N were in their bubble Nick Fury was talking about bringing the helicarriers out of retirement. Once Nat walked back to Steve, Y/N walked over to Pietro.

"I never though we would actually be together especially since you are with SHIELD," confessed Pietro. "At least it wasn't Hydra!" Y/N joked. Her comment made him chuckle. Hearing his deep, sexy chuckle made Y/N realize how connected they were. Even though this was only their second conversation she could see their whole future together. Noticing that Y/N was stuck in her head daydreaming Pietro stepped closer and put his hands on her hips. "Are you alright sweetheart?" he asked. Coming out of her daze Y/N responded, "I'm fine, just ready for this to be over." "I'll protect you don't worry," Pietro promised. Feeling the heat of the moment the two began to lean in closer, slowly their lips were inching closer and closer together. "Hey you two lets save the world first then you two can go off and make little mutant babies!" Natasha interrupted. Embarrassed, the two look away and nod, each took off in opposite directions.

Now that Fury and Rhodes were there, they were able to get more of the citizens out of Sokovia. All the Avengers both new and old converged onto the Vibranium core. Then Thor yelled out to Ultron, "Is that the best you can do?" In response Ultron summoned an army full of robots. "For fucks sake Thor you had to ask," Y/N gritted out. Then all of the robots started to attack. Everyone fought valiantly against the robots. Suddenly the robots started to retreat. Too distracted thinking of a way to save Sokovia Y/N didn't hear the new plan. It wasn't until she felt a warm tingle on her shoulder that she refocused. "Sweetheart, you need to get on the boats,"Pietro advised. "I'm not leaving Pietro, I am here to help all the people I possibly can," she asserted. Before Pietro could respond Wanda, his twin sister, spoke up, "Go make sure everyone is on the boats, I am protecting the core for now. Both of you go. Just come back when everyone is safe." Without a word to either of them Y/N took off to look for any stranded citizens. "You have a brave soulmate," Wanda commented. "Yeah she is," Pietro agreed.

Luckily not a lot of people were left on Sokovia. The Avengers were able to get everyone on the boats, or so they thought. Y/N was walking behind Clint and Natasha when they all made it to the lifeboats. Once there, they heard a woman calling out to her brother. "Ma'am what's wrong?" Y/N asked. "Costel? We were in the market. Costel?!" the woman replied worriedly. When Y/N turned around she noticed that Clint was already gone. "God damn that old man," she whispered to herself. Taking off Y/N went to find Clint. Eventually she found him, but the sight in front of her was one she would never forget.

Y/N watched as Pietro stood like a statue for a few brief seconds before dropping down on the ground. Not having time to grieve, Y/N ran down to Pietro's body. Checking for a pulse she was lucky to find a small but weak pulse. Quickly she flipped Pietro onto his back and put her hands over some of the many bullet wounds he had. She began to focus on his wounds. She imagined them all closing and his blood being restored. She pictured him completely healthy with all his abilities intact. As she continued to slowly heal Pietro, Clint crawled over to the two. "Y/N you need to stop. This is too much for you," Clint said. "Would you give up on Laura?" she questioned through gritted teeth. "No," he admitted. "Then let me do this for him," she begged. Now understanding Y/N, Clint stood up and picked up Costel. Going back to concentrating Y/N didn't even hear Cap come up behind her. It wasn't until he shook her shoulder that she broke concentration. "Y/N we need to go now," Cap ordered. Looking down, Y/N took notice that many of Pietro's wounds were closed and that his breathing was stronger. "Understood Cap, just grab Pietro for me," she said. He nodded and leaned down to pick up Pietro. Once was Pietro was picked up, Y/N looked up at the two. It wasn't until that very moment that Y/N realized how much she had drained herself.

While healing Pietro's wounds Y/N was giving him her own life source. Y/N had never healed wounds that severe, and it was staring to show. She could feel her life slipping through her fingers. There was a subtle pounding in her ears where her blood pumped. Her vision began to go hazy and she felt her heart beat fewer and further times apart. The last thing she seen was a dark clothed blob, she could only assume was Clint, run to her and pick her up. By the time he secured her in his arms she had already closed her eyes and began to welcome the light.

*****

The room that Y/N was in was quiet all that could be heard was the heart monitor, and even that was slow and low. After Clint had picked up Y/N both Steve and him ran off to the life boats. As far as the other team members were aware Pietro was dead and Y/N was alive and healthy. Once the four were on the lifeboats the remaining members of the team surrounded them. No one knew what to say. Clint explained to them that Pietro was Y/N's soulmate, and that she knew that she would most likely die to save him. After the city was blown up Vision flew down to save Wanda. By the time he brought her to the lifeboat she was awake and conscious. Once she was on the boat she went straight to her brother's body. She held him close to her and cried into his neck. Suddenly everyone heard and watched as Pietro began to cough heavily. "Why are you crying sister?" he asked hoarsely. At first Wanda was completely shocked because she watched Pietro die. "H-how are you alive?" she stuttered. "I can answer that for both of you," Clint interrupted. The twins watched Clint as he stepped to the side and revealed Y/N's pale and lifeless like body. "She wanted to make sure that you survived this. It was a lot on her body, and we aren't sure she will make it out of this one," Clint said solemnly. To say Pietro was devastated was an understatement. He had barely gotten to know Y/N, and now she might not come back to him at all.

It has been a few days since that dreadful mission and Y/N was still not awake yet. While she has been in a coma she had had many visitors, most of the time it was the twins. Pietro would sit next to her bed for hours. He would move her hair from her face and gently caress her face. When he was alone with her he would cry and beg her to wake up, but nothing ever happened. When Wanda visited Y/N she often was conflicted about her feelings. On one hand Wanda was grateful that Y/N saved her twin brother's life, but on the other hand Wanda was upset because she could see and feel her brother's pain. Another person that was greatly affected by Y/N's coma was Clint. He felt guilty for Pietro having to come save him. He appreciated that Pietro kept Clint alive, but he wished that Pietro would have never been injured in the first place. Clint was ready for Y/N to finally wake up because he had a surprise for her.

It was the first time that Clint has been able to visit Y/N. He came to visit everyone at the tower but mostly the twins and Y/N. Once he got there he requested that he could visit her alone. For awhile he just sat there and watched as Y/N took steady breaths. After a while he stood up and made his way next to Y/N. He sat down next to her and held her hand. "Kid you need to wake up. If you can't do it for me then do it for Pietro. He is a mess without you," Clint confessed. "It's funny how whipped he is already," Clint joked in hope for some reaction from Y/N. He looked down at the hand he was holding. "Besides you need to meet your godson," he added. As he expected he didn't get a response back. Giving up on waiting, Clint stood and made his way to the door. Guess he'll have to try again another day.

"Do I get to know my godson's name at least?" Y/N asked sarcastically. Clint couldn't believe his ears, he turned so fast he almost gave himself whiplash. "Nathaniel Pietro Barton," Clint whispered. "Good name and even better choice of godmother," Y/N admitted. Clint didn't know what to do. He figured he should inform the team that Y/N was now awake. "Are you going to just stand there or are you going to get Bruce?" Y/N asked sarcastically. "Uhm actually Bruce is gone, he left during the whole Sokovia incident," Clint confessed. Y/N looked down almost ashamed, "Oh how is Nat doing?" Clint just shrugged, "You know how she gets with her feelings." "Yeah you're right. Do you mind getting a doctor for me?" Y/N asked. Clint simply nodded his head and made his way out the door with a large smile on his face.

"Well Miss. L/N everything looks good, but you need to rest for the next few weeks that way your powers can regenerate," the doctor explained. Nodding her head Y/N agreed, "Understood Doc, I'll rest for the next few weeks." Once the examination was over the doctor bid Y/N a goodbye and left the room. Before the door could completely close Y/N heard a strong whoosh, next to her stood Pietro. "Took you long enough Speedy," Y/N teased. "I was stuck waiting for Sleeping Beauty to wake up," he joked. His joke brought both of them into a giggle fit. When both calmed down they realized how close they had gotten. Pietro brought his hand up to Y/N's face. Slowly he traced her bottom lip with his thumb. "Can I kiss you?" he asked softly. "Please," she whispered. Finally their lips met in a slow yet passionate kiss, both conveying the worry they had for each other. When the kiss finally ended they both caught their breath and slowly opened their eyes. "Please don't scare me like that again Sleeping Beauty,"Pietro pleaded. "Never again my Prince, never again," Y/N confirmed.

*****

Hello my lovelies, I know it has been a LONG time since I have written anything. Recently I have had more inspiration. Hopefully I will update more often. I look forward to putting out more stories.

#pietro maximoff x reader #pietro maximoff x you #pietro maximoff soulmate au #soulmate au #avengers #age of ultron #avengers age of ultron #new inspiration

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taiblogcomics · 4 years

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A Good Harvest

Hey there, torches and pitchforks. Ready for another rip-snortin' look at The Culling, the most useless crossover in history? Too bad, because that's all I have to review nowadays~

Here's the cover:

Yes, this week it's Legion Lost's turn to be part of the crossover. Good god with this cover, though. Like, even if you discount Ridge over in the corner there (because he's somehow both too huge and too low on the page to see his posture), that's still four crucified hero shots. That's gotta be a record. I also like how everybody else has this closed-eyed, somber expression, and then Superboy's off to the side like "Uh, whatcha gonna do with that scythe, bro?" The secret of Harvest is that he's a terrible villain and his event sucks. Wait, that wasn't a secret~

So we open ten seconds after the last issue ended. Harvest has shown up in person at last. He immediately starts wiping the walls with them as they leap in to fight. Tellus links all the heroes into a telepathic group chat, so at least they can keep up a running conversation while fighting for their lives. So very little happens in the first few pages, but eventually Tim Drake sends a group of them out to look for Skitter and guide the other innocent kids out of the base. Ridge, the big fucker from the cover who looks like Humongasaur's British grandpa, resolves to follow them.

Harvest continues to chatter away as he fights them. Harvest is that OP character everyone comes up with when they were seven. You know, the sort that's all "Your laser eyes don't work, because my guy is wearing laser-proof armour!" That's what Harvest does. He continuously no-sells everything the heroes do, all while talking about how great he is. He also drops some dialogue that sounds like it'd be significant to Legion Lost, if I actually followed that book. As it is, this is the only issue of it that I've read, so it's meaningless to me~

So those evacuees they're rescuing. The group (including Thunder, Lightning, Dawnstar, Bunker, and Beast Boy) run through the expansive tunnels of NOWHERE--which is under Antartica, remember--when they run into yet another new character. This is Caitlin Fairchild, formerly of the group Gen13 in the Wildstorm universe. Thankfully, they haven't made her into a villain here (unless you count she was a NOWHERE doctor offscreen). No, I have different problems. The problem is that removing her from her Gen13 friend group makes her a less interesting character. I'm not excited to see her here, it just makes me wish I was reading a new Gen13 book instead~

Anyway, speaking of characters I'd rather read in other books, Rose Wilson shows up again. She implies she and Caitlin have some sort of ongoing history in Superboy, but since I have not read it, I do not care. We cut away from this fight to go back to the even more boring fight. Do you want to know his secret? Do you promise not to tell? Let me whisper in your ear: Harvest thinks he's a good guy. That's it. That's the twist of the story. Harvest has been kidnapping and torturing teens because he's trying to save the future or something. He spins a yarn about how everything that's happened in both Teen Titans and Legion Lost are just strings being pulled by the master puppeteer, which is him.

The fight continues, and so does the other one. Rose Wilson is pretty much beating the crap out of Caitlin, until suddenly Ridge appears and punches Rose in the back of her head. Ridge helps Caitlin up, declaring that actually he hates being one of Harvest's goons. Yeah, apparently listening to Rose and Caitlin exchange banter has caused him to make a heel face turn just now. This is to set up a spin-off series that we'll probably also cover at some point. We didn't even like these characters in this crossover, why would we want to read a whole series starring them?

So with that fight over, let's return to the other one. Because that's all this crossover is, fight after fight after fight. Wildfire of the Legion Lost confronts Harvest directly, who extends a shield around them. Wildfire's power, if you don't know, is basically that he's a star forced into a human-shaped containment suit. So he opens his suit and uses the full force of his energy. Harvest, of course, just usual his shield to force the energy back into his containment suit, knocking him out (somehow). Harvest suggests they kneel before him. You are no Zod, sir.

I’m of two minds about this issue. On the one hand, it’s just an entire issue of fight scenes once again. On the other hand, unlike last time, we actually get some exposition about Harvest. I mean, it’s all bullshit, but it’s something. And you know what? Hey, at least there are no deaths in this issue. They try to make you think Wildfire’s dead in the cliffhanger, but spoilers, he’s fine. And that’s points in its favour. If only we could say the same about the whole crossover~

Next week, we’re gonna finish this crossover, and then we can get back to the regular terrible Titans stuff~

#comics #reviews #Legion Lost #The Culling #Taiblog

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turning-dreams-into-chaos · 5 years

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Arcade

*Not my Gif*

Request: Hii I was wondering if you could write me an angsty Bellamy fic based on the song “Arcade” by Duncan Laurence? Thank you for your timeee 🖤 🖤

Requested By: @yessii-i

Post Date: 6-23-19

Paring: Bellamy Blake x Reader

Word Count: 1.9k

Listen to the song here! (Song Lyrics are bold)

~Prompt List~

~Master List~

~Open Requests~

A broken heart is all that's left

I'm still fixing all the cracks

Lost a couple of pieces when

I carried it, carried it, carried it home

I'm afraid of all I am

My mind feels like a foreign land

Silence ringing inside my head

Please, carry me, carry me, carry me home

Your mind pounded against the cheers and screams of the crowds around you as they watched the fight pit below. You pushed the deep feeling in your stomach down as another traitor of Wonkru was slaughtered. Another body fell and another life lost. When the winner of the fight threw his hands into the air, the crowds screamed louder that you thought possible. Your breathing started to become more labored as you glanced around, avoiding anyone’s eyes but taking nice long looks at everyone.

“Y/N? Y/N. Are you okay?” Gaia said as you snapped your vision back to her. Your eyes met as you gave her a tight lipped smile, feigning comfort before focusing on Octavia. Gaia wrinkled her brows as she looked at you, unconvinced by your reaction before Octavia stood up and you both followed her out of the arena. The crowd went silent as you walked head tall with a power you didn’t want. After listening, or at least pretending to listen, to Octavia discuss some important matters you decided to head back to your room to think.

“Hey. Y/N. I think we need to talk.” Octavia pulled your focus. You turned around to see her dismiss everyone before she took a seat, urging you to follow suit. You hadn’t said anything as you sat, refusing to look away from Octavia’s intense stares. You weren’t sure why she wanted to talk to you but when Blodreina wants to talk to you alone, it’s not good. “You’re not focused. Your mind isn’t where it needs to be.”

You tilted your head as you swallowed our fear. “And where does it need to be?”

Her harsh lips curled up into a sickening smile as she leaned closer to you. “At my side. But it’s not. You’re thinking about him. Aren’t you? Bellamy?” you head dropped at the mention of his name. She’s right though. Ever since he left you in this bunker you’ve resented him. He left you, broke up with you only to send himself up in space, leaving you here to heal the cracks of your broken heart. “You need to move on. Don’t let him destroy who you could be. Who you could’ve been at my side for the last 6 years. It’s been 6 years Y/N, he’s not coming back.” You finally looked up; nodding as you held back the tears you wanted to spill. She stood up and you followed as she grabbed your arm, holding it against hers. “Do what’s best for you and focus on being my second.”

“Thank you, blodreina.” You said as you released her arm, turning around and leaving to your room. You passed by person after person as you took in the sour looks on their faces from the situation. You almost made it to your door before someone rammed you into the wall. “Hey! Watch it!” you yelled as he laughed at you, continuing on walking before you spoke.

“And what are you going to do about it, Skykru?” He looked you up and down as you clenched your jaw. You knew some grounders and some Skykru still disagreed with the combining idea but you hadn’t run into any of them yet, until now.

“Didn’t you get the message? Skykru no longer exists, we are Wonkru.” You turned around before feeling him push you into the wall again, this time pinning you up as his arm fell across your throat. “You didn’t want to do that.” You said as you smiled. You picked your knee up to his stomach, pushing him away as you grabbed his head, slamming it down unto the same knee. He staggered back a bit and you thought he was done. But once he decided to punch you in the face you realized he wasn’t. You spit out the blood coating your mouth before grabbing his arm, twisting it as you shoved him into the wall. He groaned as his head made contact with the wall, then your hand, several times. When you deemed the job done you threw him on the ground. “We’re Wonkru. You tell anyone what happened here and I won’t let you forget again.” You whispered before kicking his stomach once more and finishing the short walk to your room.

When the door slammed behind you, you fell to your knees and looked at the blood on your hands from punching his face. You thought you were going to break down, but you didn’t. You were too afraid of whom you had become to let emotions and feelings flood you now. You let the silence of the room take over you as sat there, trying to find your way in foreignness of your mind.

I spent all of the love I've saved

We were always a losing game

Small-town boy in a big arcade

I got addicted to a losing game

You covered your eyes as the ceiling opened, sun beaming down on you for the first time in 6 years. You coughed as the dust filled your lungs and you looked up to see a figure making its way down to the middle of the fighting pit next to Octavia and you. Your mind raced when you finally saw who it was. Bellamy Blake. He came back, but not for you. You couldn’t help but stare at him, watching as he pulled Octavia in for a hug. Your stomach dropped as you stood there and Clarke came down as well. Bellamy glanced up to you, catching sight of the red paint smeared across your face as your eyes bored into his. He took a step close to you as you took one back, refusing to came close to him. His mouth dropped open to say something but when he looked into your unwavering eyes he was against it. You looked up as the light moved, seeing more people came down as you backed away from the pit, letting them talk as Octavia watched you leave. When everyone started leaving as well, you stopped looking back at the pit and towards blodreina. You couldn’t leave her, you swore you’d be by her side.

“Exactly how many people should we be prepping for extraction?” A woman asked. You took a step in as Bellamy answered her with 1,200.

“814.” Your voice was sharp as you locked eyes with Octavia. She nodded her head before turning to face her brother and the woman. Bellamy just stared at you shocked, unsure of what happened down here that turned you into this. They kept talking before Octavia dismissed you, letting you collect your things to get out. Bellamy moved to follow but Octavia stopped him.

“She’s different Bellamy. She’s not the same girl you left.” She said before letting him follow you. You were in your room, packing what little things you had as your door opened. You spun around, knife in hand ready to defend yourself from whoever just enters your room without knocking, no one does that. Your head dropped when you realized it was Bellamy, and when your hand dropped, so did your heart.

“What do you want?” you questioned as you grabbed the last of your belongings, stuffing them in your pockets as you turned to face him, face stone cold. Bellamy watched as you crossed your arms, catching sight of your ark bracelet on your wrist, the one where you and Bellamy carved your names on together.

“You still have that?” he said, grabbing his wrist to indicate yours. You tightened your jaw as you looked down. Your fingers found the clasp and before you knew it you were shoving the dumb thing up against his chest.

“Take it. I don’t need it. I spent all the love I saved.” You whispered as you bite your lip, pushing past him to go meet up with Octavia. Bellamy followed you out, calling your name before grabbing your arm, halting your movements.

“Just talk to me. I’m sorry. I sorry I broke up with you. It was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done and you were… all I could thing about for the last 6 years.” He insisted. You moved your face up to meet his before you pushed him away, snickering at him.

“You’re a boy Bellamy. You’re a boy addicted to playing with love, addicted to playing a losing game. Playing with us.” You shrugged your shoulders as you walked away; leaving a glossy eyed Bellamy behind.

How many pennies in the slot?

Giving us up didn't take a lot

I saw the end 'fore it begun

Still I carried, I carried, I carry on

Ooh, ooh

All I know, all I know

Loving you is a losing game

Bellamy hadn’t taken his eyes off you as you moved through the sand, pushing forward to the valley. You felt his gaze on you but did nothing to address it, only when Octavia brought it up.

“He’s watching you. He hasn’t stopped since we left the bunker.”

“I know. I don’t care. We’re done. I’m done.” You mumbled as you looked at her smirking face.

“You gave up quick, wasn’t it just last month I told you to move on?” you nodded your head as your pace slowed, getting more tired but determined to keep moving. Octavia noticed and stopped, turning to face you as you stopped as well. Bellamy watched as Octavia leant into your ear, whispering something that caused you to finally look at Bellamy, face plummeting at his sight. When Octavia kept moving you hadn’t, staying at a standstill as you watched her move away.

“What did she say?” He said, earning your attention. You scoffed before you continued walking.

“Why do you care Bellamy? I’m not your problem anymore.” You mumbled, playing with the knife in your hands. You could practically hear the disappointment coming off him as he said your name again.

“What happened to you? You’re not the same girl I fell in love with.” You scoffed as you stopped, Bellamy running into your back at your sudden choice.

“No. No, she died when you left her in a locked bucker with Blodreina for 6 years. But she was gone before that. You see the girl that you fell in love with, you saw the end before it began, but she didn’t. She was weak, still in love, and believed that you would come back and save her. But you didn’t. I carried on, I carried on because she couldn’t.” your voice was harsh as you turned to face him, eyes wide and glaring into his. You wanted to cry, you wanted to fall into his arms and let him catch you, wipe away your tears and tell you it was going to be ok. But it wouldn’t, and he wouldn’t catch you. You didn’t cry, you didn’t fall, hell, you didn’t even waver. Instead you turned around, catching Octavia’s nod as you walked.

“What did she say?” he asked again. His voice was quiet and unnerving causing you to stop for what you hoped was the last time. Your back still faced him as you turned your head to the side.

“Something I already knew. All I know. Loving you is a losing game.” You heard his breath hitched, remembering your conversation from earlier as you moved forward, forgetting his little game as you focused on surviving.

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sapphicsaro · 5 years

Text

anya || age of ultron

here is the next installment in the anya series. honestly this one is probably my favorite so far!

anya || winter soldier

anya || civil war

---

“Alright, so we leave in the morning, party people! Rest up Avengers! Sokovia’s gonna be a cold one!”

Tony was always too much when he ran meetings. Natasha much preferred when Steve did them; he was quick and stuck to the important parts. He didn’t throw in extras, didn’t call them nicknames, and he was professional. Tony, on the other hand, decided to make it a show.

Natasha was tired. Clint was tired.

This was their first mission together as a full team since Anya was secretly born nine months ago. Natasha got back in the field a month and a half after giving birth, which might sound crazy, and it kind of was.

She went with Steve to Belgrade to infiltrate a HYDRA project, and she felt off. Now, she was still the Black Widow and the mission was a success, but she was exhausted. She remained slightly sore from giving birth, and she hadn’t necessarily been the most active in the month after Anya was born. Steve noticed on the flight home that she was wincing more than usual, and when he asked if she was okay, she just said she was tired. Which was true.

She could tell he was suspicious, but it was Steve. He respected her privacy, and didn’t push. Like some other people.

Natasha did a few more missions, and then switched places with Clint when Anya hit three months. Natasha missed her baby, and Clint- well, Clint needed to get out of the house. Clint was such a great father, but boy, did that baby become his life.

Their house was covered in baby things. Natasha enlisted Kate to keep an eye on him while she was gone, and Kate periodically would send her a video of him talking to Anya like she was an adult. The videos made her smile, but she knew he needed to get back in the field or he was going to go crazy.

So, Natasha went to the farmhouse, and Clint went to Plovdiv with Steve and Tony. Tony kept saying that “the boys were back in town”, which pleased no one since Steve didn’t know the reference and Clint didn’t want to be there. He wanted to get back in the field, and he needed to go on this mission, but he missed his daughter.

The first two months, Anya was on a tight schedule, and was too little to do much of anything besides cry, eat, and sleep. But, she was starting to smile now, and giggle, and Clint lost it. He loved that baby. When he was home, he hardly let her down. She was in his arms the entire day and he became a master at doing everything one-handed.

When Natasha first left, she cried more at night. Clint had panicked the first time he had to put her to bed and she screamed. Unsure of what to do, he just started singing. Surprisingly, Anya quieted, and the next thing you know, she was knocked out in her crib. Clint was amazed. He did it. And all by himself, nonetheless.

Kate stopped by two days after Natasha left, something about “Nat wants me to make sure you stay sane. I didn’t think you ever were, but I said I would.” Much to Clint’s surprise, she was great with the baby. Kate hesitated at first, saying that Anya looked so much like Natasha and it scared her, but, all joking aside, Kate acted like Anya’s big sister.

When Clint was away, Natasha told him everything would fine. But truthfully, Natasha had never been alone with her own child. Kate had permanently moved in, and she had noticed Natasha seemed unsure when she first arrived. Without patronizing her, Kate offered help; she showed the schedule Clint had Anya on and updated her on the stuffed animal that calmed her down the most and the song that would get her to sleep every time.

La Vie En Rose.

Natasha chuckled. That song. The song they first danced to on a mission in Paris. The song that made Clint confess his love for her. The song she played for him when he was in the hospital after an ambush on headquarters. The song he hummed when they fixed up the house right after buying it. Their wedding song.

And now, the song that transformed their screaming baby into a sleeping one in an instant.

Of course.

Natasha was grateful for Kate’s help, and after the first week, she felt confident alone with Anya. Although she wasn’t really alone, but give her a break, she was trying.

Three months of swapping later, Clint and Natasha were enlisted to be on a mission together. Tony had mentioned that they both seemed off when they were away from the other, so “why not do a mission together!”

Great.

Clint said they should just say no, and keep up with the swapping, but Natasha knew better. If they said no, Tony would assume that they were having “relationship problems” and become increasingly more annoying. So, they agreed.

Anya was wrapped up in Kate’s arms when the two spies walked out the front door, both of them trying to resist running back in the house to squeeze their six month old baby one last time.

The mission was a success, even though Natasha almost killed Tony for his insistent prodding. “Where have you guys been?” “Why don’t you stay at the tower anymore?” “Are the master assassins breaking up?”

Steve told him to knock it off, and thank god he did. Clint was a little nervous that Natasha was going to snap. After all, Tony was annoying to her before, but now add sleep deprivation from a baby to the mix and the combination was deadly.

When they got home, Kate was knocked out on the couch, baby monitor clenched in her hand while Anya was fast asleep in her crib. Clint carried Kate to her room, and Natasha snuck in the nursery, just to see Anya breathing heavily, eyes closed.

Natasha heard the soft whimpers from the monitor in the morning, and she tiptoed to the nursery. When Anya saw her mother, she smiled widely, cooing and reaching her little arms out for her. Natasha picked her up and squeezed her tightly to her chest, Anya babbling away.

“Yeah, little one, I’m excited to see you too,” she whispered, placing a soft kiss on her daughter’s cheek.

Natasha carried her to her bedroom, where Clint was slowly waking up. She sat on the bed, Anya still babbling in her arms, “Look, маленький, it’s papa.”

Clint, still half asleep, smiled, “G’mornin, pigeon. And mama too.”

This was nice.

Missions were nice too, but coming home to a cuddly baby was a treat that Natasha never thought about having before. When a mission was successful before Anya, Clint and her had a drink (okay, maybe a couple of drinks) and would have an aggressive amount of sex before the sun began to rise and then it was time to sleep.

Coming home to Anya was the best present anyone could have given Natasha. It was therapeutic to go on a mission, kick the shit out of some garbage humans, ultimately foiling their plans of destroying the world, and then come back to an innocent little toddler, whose biggest crime was accidentally spilling her dinner all over the ground because she was too excited.

Natasha and Clint went on a few more solo missions before the entire team was called in to go to Sokovia. Thor had been MIA for a while, along with Bruce, who hadn’t been out of the lab much since the battle of New York. It was actually nice to reunite with the team, even though they were only reuniting to shut down another HYDRA operation.

However, this was going to be the longest they were away from Anya, and it worried them both. Clint called Kate, making sure that she would be okay while they stayed in New York, and she assured him that Anya was perfectly safe at the house. He knew Kate would be able to protect her. Hell, he even built a panic room for them behind a secret wall in case something happened. Kate knew her way around weapons, too, so there was no way anything could happen to them.

After the meeting, Natasha and Clint went back to their apartment, which had been practically untouched since she first discovered she was pregnant.

“Woah.”

“I know,” Natasha said.

It was jarring to see their modern apartment. It was almost a reflection of their old life; the one before Anya.

Clint walked around the apartment, running his hands over the countertop. “This is weird.”

Natasha wasn’t really paying attention as she was exhausted and wanted nothing more than a good night’s sleep. “Mhmm,” she mumbled as she began stripping off her clothes, putting on a baggy t-shirt for bed.

Clint remained in the main part of the home, still looking over the house in amazement. Natasha leaned against the doorframe of their bedroom, “You ready for bed, Hawkeye? We got an early call tomorrow.”

She caught his attention, snapping his focus away from their extremely hazardous apartment. Oh, the about of baby-proofing this would need, it would take weeks. “Sorry, yeah, I’m coming.”

Clint threw off his clothes, only leaving on his boxers to sleep in. He crawled into the bed with Natasha, pulling her close to him. He shoved his face in her short curls, mumbling a soft, “G’night…”

Natasha smiled, hands over his as she snuggled closer to him. She was silent for a moment, hearing his breathing deepen when she blurted out, “She had coughed before we left, what if-“

“Natasha, she’s fine. Kate can handle her.”

“A cough for a baby could be deadly, Clint. I’m just-”

“She is fine, Kate will call us if she needs us. Now, please it’s time to sleep.”

———

Clint got hit.

The Avengers were all over the place in the Sokovian snow fighting as hard as they could, and Clint got hit.

Natasha slid over to him immediately, addressing his wounds right out in the field. He was wincing in pain, but she had to move quickly. Shots were still being fired, and thank god for the Hulk because he destroyed that bunker the instant Natasha asked. Clint kept trying to get back up, groaning through his efforts, but Natasha kept him lying down in the snow.

“Stop moving or you’ll make it worse.”

The rest of the Avengers kept fighting around the two lovers, Natasha no longer paying attention to the sounds of destruction around her; Clint was her top priority.

“I want to keep fighting,” he coughed out.

“I know you do, but that’s not going to happen,” she scolded him as she continued to cover up his wound. He never got hit. Well, never is reaching, of course he’s been hit before, but he was distracted today. His head wasn’t on the mission, and she knew that.

Clint grabbed her wrist as she finished up, “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“My mind is all over the place, I just-”

“Shhh. Clint, you just got hit. You’re going to be fine. The team is going to be fine. Stark is already handling things inside. We would just be on evacuation crew at this point anyways,” she had his hand wrapped in hers, the other brushing through his hair.

Maybe that was a lie. The team could probably use the extra hands; it would probably make it go faster, but Natasha was not leaving her husband. He would be stupid and try to get up and rip his wound open more and bleed out and die and then Natasha would be a single mother and Anya would hate her forever for not helping save her father and- wow, Natasha should probably take a breath.

Natasha never panicked this much when he got injured. Sure, she loved him and worried, but she would keep her cool for the most part until EVAC came. But now, Anya was a factor. Nine months of missions for them so far, and just now Natasha realized that they were in a new situation. Things weren’t like before. They had a child. If one of them got hurt, and god forbid, got killed, Anya would lose a parent.

Clint could see her tense slightly, and he grabbed her hand, giving it a small kiss as he breathed through his pain. Fuck this hurt.

“Clint’s hit pretty bad, guys. We’re gonna need EVAC.” Her hands never left him.

After a minute or two, Thor landed next to them, prepared to transport Clint. Banner was finally back from the Hulk, too, and came to help Thor move Clint to the jet.

Stark and Steve arrived later, scepter in hand.

The mission was a success.

But then why was Natasha still anxious?

She sat by him on the jet, checking his wound over and over again. He was resting at this point, so there wasn’t much talking, but he mumbled a few jokes back to the guys about his injury like it wasn’t serious. And it really wasn’t. But still. If the rest of the team knew about Anya, they wouldn’t joke about this.

However, the team couldn’t know. Not yet.

So, Natasha kept quiet, stayed by Clint, and laughed along with the boys for the remainder of the flight.

They got him into the tower right away, Natasha never taking her hand off the gurney as they rolled him through the building to Banner’s lab. Clint was trying to keep an upbeat attitude as he noticed Natasha stayed silent. He knew she was worried; he’d been with her for years, he knew everything about her.

He knew her habits, how she bottled up her emotions and tried to hide them behind her silence and lip chewing. He knew what her real smile looked like. He knew when she was tired she would would tap her fingers in a certain pattern to keep herself awake. He knew she would push her hair behind her ear when she first woke up.

After the amount of time the spies had spent together, he’d be surprised if there was anything they didn’t know about the other.

Cho was fixing him up with some fancy tech now, and Stark had gone to get them some weird drinks that he wouldn’t shut up about on the way over.

“Are you sure he’s going to be okay? Pretending to need this guy really brings the team together,” Natasha teased, arms still crossed across her chest, but this time she had a small smile on her face.

“There’s no possibility of deterioration. The nano-molecular functionality is instantaneous. His cells don’t know they’re bonding with simulacrum,” Cho responded.

Banner spoke up excitingly, “She’s creating tissue.”

Cho smiled back at Bruce, “If you brought him to my lab, the regeneration Cradle could do this in twenty minutes.”

“Oh, he’s flatlining. Call it. Time?” Stark had interrupted, drinks in hand.

Handing one to the injured archer, Clint laughed, “No, no, no. I’m going to live forever. I’m gonna be made of plastic.”

“Here’s your beverage, birdie.”

“It better be spiked,” Clint joked.

“You’ll be made of you, Mr. Barton. Your own girlfriend won’t be able to tell the difference,” Cho corrected them.

Clint shifted his eyes to Natasha, who had a smirk plastered on her face, “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Oh Dr. Cho, didn’t you hear the word? Little birdie here and the scary spider in the corner are hitched. Not that they would have told you, though. I had to find out when they let it slip during a mission,” Tony said as he handed Natasha her drink.

Her face was beyond annoyed, and Tony held up his hands in defeat, “Please spare me, I’m too important to die right now.”

Natasha rolled her eyes, “I’d be careful, Tony, I know where you sleep.”

“Very true. But think about how much your ‘bff’ Pepper would miss my beautiful face.”

“I thought you two weren’t talking,” Clint piped up from the table.

“What?” Natasha asked, moving off the counter.

Tony shrugged, sipping at his drink again, “Long story. And you’re right, Cupid, we aren’t right now. But, we’ll be okay.”

“Are you okay?” Natasha asked.

“I will be.”

Natasha placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a small smile, “You will.”

Sure, she wanted to kill him half the time, but Tony was a huge part of their team. He gave them all a home in his tower, took care of them, and genuinely worried about them when they were away. Natasha just enjoyed her privacy and Tony was a polar opposite to that. But, she did care about the guy. Especially since she knew how much he loved Pepper.

“Anyways, the party is on Saturday. I expect you both there. Please?”

Clint looked at Natasha, “We’ll be there. We promise.”

————

“Nat, her cough has been gone since you left, I swear to god.”

“Is she crying though? Has she been fussy?”

“Nope. She is currently on her mat in the living room playing with her bear rather aggressively. She really is your ‘mini-me’, Nat.”

Clint chuckled and Nat shot him a death glare. Their phone was on speaker in the middle of the bed as the two got dressed for the party.

“Ha. Ha. I love when you two gang up on me.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“You laughed, Clint.”

“Ooh, Barton. Bad move. At least I’m through the phone, she can’t punch me from here.”

Natasha rolled her eyes, “Anyways. We’ll be home tomorrow. Probably later in the day, though. You swear you and Anya are good?”

“We’re both perfect. She has been on her schedule still, eating all her food, and sleeping through the night. I just put on the record now and she’s out like a light. Such a cultured baby you have, she falls asleep to French music.”

“Are you good, though? If you need anything, I’ll leave the party early,” Clint chimed in.

“Yes, Barton. You and your lovely wife left me with a fully stocked home, I am good. Plus, I got the little asskicker to keep me company.”

“Do not call her that,” Clint laughed.

“Too late! Go get fucked up you two. I haven’t seen you alcoholics drink in so long, you deserve to get plastered tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Bye, Kate.”

“Bye, shithead.”

Natasha hung up the phone, “I don’t know how I deal with the two of you.”

Clint came up behind her, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist and kissing her neck, “Because you love us.”

Natasha leaned into his kiss, “Mhmm, I do?

Clint continued placing kisses down her neck, “I hope so.”

Natasha turned in his arms, now facing him. She threw her arms over his shoulders, leaning in to kiss him on the mouth. “I suppose I do.”

“You look so beautiful.”

“So do you,” Natasha teased. “How’s your side?”

“It’s good, I feel like a new man. How are you?”

Natasha closed the distance between them, placing her head on his chest, “I’m good.”

“You’ve been particularly quiet ever since we got back from Sokovia.”

“I just-I don’t know,” she mumbled against him.

Clint began to rub circles on her back, “You miss Anya?”

Natasha shrugged, “Yeah, of course. But it’s not that.”

Clint placed a soft kiss on the top of her head, careful not to mess up her hair she had done for tonight. “Then what is it?”

Natasha moved a hand under his jacket, fingers dancing over where his wound was previously located, “You got hurt and I panicked. Usually I stop worrying once you get fixed up, but for some reason I’ve been off still.”

“I get it.”

They held each other for a moment, Nat’s fingers still tracing his side and his arms still drawing circles on her lower back. They hadn’t had a lot of time for intimacy since she came back from D.C. over a year ago. There was the pregnancy and then Anya and then the constant missions that had taken over their focus. They hadn’t gotten time to spend with just each other.

Clint was looking forward to the party, hoping that maybe Natasha would relax, drink for the first time in months, and take a deep breath. Clint needed to relax too. He didn’t tell Natasha about it, but when he got hit, he was scared too. The first thing he thought about was his daughter, and his anxiety went through the roof. But, he was fine. Anya was at home, and they were going to see her tomorrow.

So, the two finally made it downstairs to Stark’s decked out party and immediately grabbed a couple of drinks. They parted ways for a bit, trying to reconnect with people they have hardly seen since they spent the majority of their time in Missouri.

———

The party was fun.

The Avengers got to let loose for once, getting a few drinks in them and having fun playing around like teenagers. There was some dancing, a lot of laughter, and even more alcohol. Natasha was currently snuggled up to Clint on the couch, most of the guests gone except for the team, Cho, Maria, and Rhodey.

“It’s a trick!” Clint yelled at Thor, Natasha’s head resting on his shoulder.

“Oh, no. It’s much more than that,” Thor replied, eyes locked on the hammer sitting on the table in front of them all.

“Uh, ‘whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power!’ Whatever man! It’s a trick.” Natasha giggled at Clint’s teases, knowing that the alcohol the two had consumed was relaxing them both.

Thor threw up his hands, “Well please, be my guest.”

Tony rolled his eyes, “Come on.”

“Really?” Clint asked.

Thor chuckled, “Yeah.”

Clint slid out from under Natasha, who sat up, now interested in the challenge Thor had created.

Rhodey laughed as the archer walked towards the hammer, “Oh this is gonna be beautiful.”

“Clint, you’ve had a tough week, we won’t hold it against you if you can’t get it up,” Tony teased.

Clint smirked, “You know I’ve seen this before, right?” He placed his hands around the handle, pulling as hard as he could, until he realized it wasn’t going to happen. He shook his head, laughing, “I still don’t know how you do it.”

“Smell the silent judgment?” Tony asked, sipping at his drink.

Clint held his hand out to Tony, “Please, Stark, by all means.” He went back to his spot on the couch, and Natasha immediately returned to her old position in his arms.

She tucked her head into his shoulder again, “Oh, here we go.”

Tony tried, and failed.

Then he got the suit, and failed again.

Then him and Rhodey tried together, and failed, together.

Then Banner tried, and failed. For a moment they all waited for their “big green friend” to show up, but Bruce remained the only guest as the hammer stayed put on the table.

Then Steve went and it budged a little, but still did not lift from the table. Oh well.

Banner turned to Natasha, who was practically on top of Clint at this point, “Widow?”

She shook her head, “Oh, no, no. That’s not a question I need answered.” Clint leaned down and gave her a kiss, and she curled back into him.

Steve looked at the two, smiling at them. This was the most publicly intimate they had ever been in front of the team and he enjoyed it. For two people who usually kept to themselves, it was good to know they still had a lot of love for each other.

“All deference to the man who wouldn’t be king, but it’s rigged,” Tony said.

Clint lifted his head up from Natasha, “You bet your ass.”

Maria chuckled, “Steve! He said a bad language word!”

Steve rolled his eyes, “Did you tell everyone about that?”

Tony ignored Steve, shifting his focus back to Thor, “The handle’s imprinted, right? Like a security code. ‘Whosoever is carrying Thor’s fingerprints’ is, I think, the literal translation?”

Clint pointed at Tony, nodding in agreement.

Thor laughed, getting up and shaking his head, “Yes, well that’s, uh, that’s a very, very interesting theory. I have a simpler one.” He grabs the hammer, flipping it in his hands. “You’re all not worthy.”

The group groans, when suddenly a loud screech grabs their attention and everyone covers their ears. It begins to fade away, when they see it.

A robot…moving and speaking to them?

“Worthy…No…How could you be worthy? You’re all killers.”

Natasha sat up, and Clint held her arm, noticing her tense up.

“Stark?” Steve chimed in.

“JARVIS.” Tony shifted from his carefree attitude to one more focused and serious.

The robot kept moving, even in it’s seemingly broken state, “I’m sorry, I was asleep. Or…I was a-dream?”

Tony was tapping vigorously tapping his devices, “Reboot, Legionnaire OS, we got a buggy suit.”

“There was a terrible noise…and I was tangled in…in…strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy.”

Natasha clasped onto Clint’s forearm tightly.

“You killed someone?” Steve asked, trying to keep the order.

“Wouldn’t have been my first call. But, down in the real world, we’re faced with ugly choices.”

Thor grabbed his hammer tighter, “Who sent you?”

The robot began playing a recording, it was Tony’s voice: “I see a suit of armor around the world.”

Banner interrupted, “Ultron!”

Ultron spoke back, “In the flesh. Or, no, not yet. Not this…chrysalis. But I’m on a mission.”

“What mission?” Natasha asked.

“Peace in our time.”

Just then, the Iron Legion bots smashed through the walls around Ultron and began attacking the team. Clint grabbed Natasha, and pulled her over the bar, where he slipped and landed on top of her.

“Don’t die.”

“I won’t,” he reassured her.

“Come on,” she grabbed him and began running up the stairs. The Iron Legion continued shooting and attacking the team, continuously stated they were “here to help”.

Yeah, that was bullshit.

Stark was working hard to shut down all of the suits, when Clint found Cap’s shield and tossed it to him as Steve dismembered the last Iron Legion.

“That was dramatic! I’m sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn’t think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don’t want it to change. How is humanity saved if it’s not allowed to…evolve?” Ultron grabbed a part of one of the dismantled Iron Legion, “With these? These puppets? There’s only one path to peace: The Avengers’ extinction.”

Without waiting, Thor threw his hammer directly at Ultron, destroying his body. But he was still alive, as they heard his voice sing, “I had strings, but now I’m free. There are no strings on me…”

————

“We won’t make it home tonight, I’m sorry Kate.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yes. No. It’s-it’s…complicated?”

“Well, stay safe Barton. Anya is almost calling me ‘papa’ and I do NOT want that to stick.”

“We’ll be home as soon as we can, I promise.”

“Good. Oh, hold on one sec, Anya is putting the remote in her mouth.”

Clint stayed on the phone, turning his focus back to the team. After last night’s fiasco, they were exhausted but they had been doing everything in their power to try to locate where Ultron was and what he had done. He had got in all of their files, he was getting smarter.

But where was he?

They had been fighting. Thor was not happy that Tony had been the one to create this nightmare, and Clint kind of agreed. He knew Tony meant well, but this, this got out of hand. The scepter was gone, their team was arguing, and now there was a demonic robot thing that wanted them all dead.

Clint was supposed to be home.

Him and Nat were supposed to be on their way back to Missouri. They would arrive home later tonight, see their little girl, make dinner and give Kate a break. Clint would shoot some arrows with her in the backyard while Natasha cuddled with Anya on the porch.

“I’m back. Anya is wicked smart. She just pointed to the phone and said ‘mama’. I know, technically, it’s you, but still! Nine months? She’s practically a genius! Aren’t you, little spider?”

“Don’t let her do too much before we come back.”

“Barton, we might have something.” Steve came around the corner, staring at him.

“Gotta go.” He hung up the phone.

“Who was that?”

Shit.

“My brother.” Nice save, Barton. Let’s bring up Barney, why don’t you?

Steve didn’t give much of a response, knowing that Barton was more private about his personal life and directed him to the rest of the team where they discussed where Ultron was going next.

Africa.

Man, that was a long way from Missouri.

———

This was supposed to be an easy mission. Grab Ultron, kill him, get the scepter.

Now the punk kids were back and Clint was too old for this shit. He got the girl before she manipulated his mind. Jesus, he missed his days at SHIELD when the worst injury was being shot. But nope, now he had to fight magic people with “powers” and other nonsense, like mind control. He was not letting that happen again, nope. No, thanks, he did that once.

The stupid fast one knocked him off his feet and sped off with the girl. “Yeah, you better run,” he groaned from the ground. As he slowly got back on his feet, he called over his comm, “Whoever’s standing, we gotta move! Guys?”

Thor was gone.

Cap was gone.

It was quiet.

Where was Nat?

Clint ran around, bow ready to fire as he searched for his wife.

Then he spotted her.

That little shit got her.

Natasha was in a trance, stumbling through the room; she looked like she was having a panic attack.

“Tasha? Tasha!” Clint put away his arrows and threw his bow over his shoulder, going towards her.

She flinched as he placed a hand on her shoulder, “нет…нет…”

Clint was careful, moving slowly, “Tasha, it’s me, it’s Clint.”

She was shaking her head furiously, eyes wide with fear, “Red…room…”

Clint was gonna kill that mind controlling little fuck.

He picked her up and she began kicking and hitting him viciously in his arms, as he brought her to sit on the stairs near them. Once seated, she stopped fighting him and was now shaking, still in the same trance. “Tasha, Tasha, you’re not in Russia anymore. You’re safe.”

She was stuck.

He cupped her face in his hands, as his eyes followed her; she couldn’t see him through her vision.

“Natasha, I could really use that trick you know to get Banner back,” Tony asked over the comm.

“Well, that’s not gonna happen, Stark. Not for a while. The whole team is down, you got no back up here,” he stayed focused on Natasha, who was whimpering slightly.

“Tasha, please come back to me. You’re not in the Red Room anymore. You are my wife. You are an Avenger. We have a beautiful daughter together. C’mon,” he pled.

It didn’t work.

Clint gave up; this wasn’t like her old nightmares. His old remedies weren’t working, this was much stronger. He threw her arm over his shoulder and picked her up bridal style to bring her back to the quinjet.

As he headed back, he ran into Steve and Thor. Thor almost threw his hammer at him, but he snapped out of his vision, eyes still wide. What the hell did he see?

Steve was eerily quiet. He didn’t attack, but he looked upset.

Clint, with Natasha still in his arms, guided them back to the jet. The Hulk was still destroying the city, but there was no way any of them could help. Not in this state.

Thor immediately took a seat when he got on board, along with Steve. They stayed silent. Clint gently placed Natasha in her own seat, kneeling down in front of her, “Tasha, sweetie, can you hear me?”

She nodded slowly, but she was still numb.

“We failed…What do we do?” Thor had mumbled from the other seat, clearly still recovering.

To be honest, Clint didn’t know what they were going to do. This was a big fuck up for the Avengers. The Hulk was under mind control and was now unleashed on the city. Stark was trying his best to stop it from getting worse, but they were screwed.

They would need to hide.

If only he was home.

Clint waited with Natasha, who was now at least more aware of where she was now, but she was still shaken. He was on the floor in front of her, her hands in his as she continued to shake.

Steve and Thor still did not speak.

A loud bang later, Tony stepped onto the quinjet, an unconscious Banner flopping in his arms. “We’re fucked,” he said as he placed Banner down. “Come on, birdie, let’s get this thing far away from here.”

Clint left Natasha, who didn’t move at all, and got into the pilot seat. “Where to?”

Tony threw his hands up in defeat, “Honestly, I have no fucking clue.”

Clint got the jet off the ground and just began flying away, heading back towards the states. He had been flying for over an hour when he realized he knew where they could go.

Should they?

He glanced back at the team who all looked so defeated.

Yep. He had to do this.

After a bit, Tony was on the phone with Maria.

“The news is loving you guys. Nobody else is. There’s been no official call for Banner’s arrest, but it’s in the air.”

“Stark Relief Foundation?”

“Already on the scene. How’s the team?”

“Everyone’s…” Tony glanced around at his team who remained silent. “We took a hit. We’ll shake it off.”

“Well for now I’d stay in stealth mode, and stay away from here.”

“So run and hide?”

“Until we can find Ultron, I don’t have a lot else to offer.”

“Neither do we,” he switches off the monitor, ending the call with Maria. He made his way towards Clint, “Hey, you wanna switch out?”

Clint shook his head, “No, I’m good. If you wanna get some kip, now’s a good time, cause we’re still a few hours out.”

“A few hours from where?”

“A safehouse.”

See you soon, Missouri.

————

When they landed, the team was still relatively quiet, especially Banner and Natasha. Clint nudged Tony awake, before helping Natasha up. “We’re here. C’mon,” he told everyone.

He guided Natasha in his arms down the familiar path to their home, but this time, the rest of the Avengers followed.

Thor looked around, “What is this place?”

Tony shrugged, “A safe house?”

“Let’s hope,” Clint replied.

As they neared the house, Clint heard Kate’s voice through the door, “TAKE ONE MORE STEP AND I BLOW OUT YOUR BRAINS!”

The front door swung open, and there she stood, gun pointed at the group.

It took her one second to recognize who was all in front of her. “Barton?!”

Clint smiled awkwardly, Natasha still in his arms, “Hey Kate.”

Kate unloaded the gun, putting the safety back on, before shoving it in the back of her pants, “You’ve got to be kidding me. Can’t you call? Or text? Or do anything to warn me you’re coming back?!”

Clint made his way up the front steps, the team slowly following his lead, as Clint followed Kate into their home. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know we were going to be back. The mission went a little…awry?” Clint had set Natasha down on the couch, and Kate’s eyes followed him.

“Is she...”

“She’ll be fine. Where’s pigeon?”

“Panic room. I saw a fucking spaceship and a gaggle of people leave it, I thought we were getting ambushed.”

Steve didn’t say anything, just observed what was happening around him. Thor and Banner still were shaken from the mind control.

Tony, on the other hand, was confused as all hell and needed answers, “Wait, who are you? Where are we?”

Clint started walking away, towards the panic room, “Missouri. And that’s Kate.”

Kate smiled and gave a small wave, “Hello, Avengers.”

“Kate? Kate who?”

“Kate Bishop. You know, Hawkeye 2.0? The cooler, way more attractive, and better in every way one? You’ve never heard of me?”

Tony shook his head, “Are you…an agent?”

Kate scoffed, “No, I’m not an agent. I’m 17, man. No, I’m like a…wannabe hero? That’s what Fury calls me. Old man Barton is supposed to be training me and sending me out on missions with him, but instead I’m turning into a glorified babysitter.”

Clint came around the corner, Anya snuggled into his arms, “Hey, hey, hey, I’ll take you on a mission when you’re ready.”

The whole team was shocked to see Clint casually walking in with a baby in his arms.

“I’m sorry, what is that?” Tony asked, pointing a finger at Anya.

Clint went towards Natasha, “She’s our daughter.” Clint bent down in front of Natasha, little Anya cooing in his arms, “Tasha, someone wants to say hi.”

Natasha’s eyes finally snapped out of her visions, landing directly on the baby reaching for her in Clint’s eyes. She looked at Clint, registering that they were now home. Kate stood back, nervously watching the assassin adjust back to reality.

Anya was mumbling, before she landed on, “Mama, mama.”

Natasha’s body unfroze and her hands moved to grab the toddler from her father. She held onto her tightly, and Anya grabbed at her curls, giggling and babbling away.

The other Avengers didn’t know what to say.

Steve was shocked, but amazed? He stared intently, looking at his friend holding her daughter, and didn’t know what to think. Wait, was she pregnant in D.C.? Steve stayed silent, just watching the domesticity of it all. The house, their house, apparently, was covered in baby items. It didn’t feel real. They hid a baby, and pregnancy, from the team?

Banner didn’t know what to say. He felt like he didn’t belong here. Not after what he had just done. And now, Natasha and Clint, brought him in their (secret) home, which had their little baby in it. He had just caused so much destruction and then trusted him here? He didn’t belong…he didn’t belong…

Thor was out of it. The minute he heard Anya’s cooing he flashed back to his vision, seeing all the death and destruction of Asgard around him. He had to leave.

“When the hell were you going to tell us about this?” Tony wasn’t afraid to speak up. He was pissed. Not like a real pissed off, but more like a worried pissed off where you are frustrated that someone wouldn’t trust you with their biggest secrets. Yeah, THAT kind.

Clint stood up, leaving Anya in her mother’s arms, “We didn’t know.”

“You went on missions. You just got up and left your baby here and went right into a battlefield where you could have died, and didn’t decide to inform the team AT ALL-”

“Tony, please. We were trying to protect her. After D.C.-after the fall of SHIELD, we didn’t know who to trust.”

“US! Your team!”

“Tony, we were just doing what we thought was best. And clearly she was safe here since no one, not even you knew about or found her,” Clint rebutted.

Tony took a deep breath, he wasn’t going to admit Clint had a point. “How long have you had this place?”

“Fury helped set it up years ago. Long before the Avengers.”

“How old is she?”

“Anya? Anya’s nine months,” Clint glanced at his daughter who was still smiling at her mother.

“Nine months…wow. I don’t know what to say,” Tony responded, shaking his head slowly.

Kate cleared her throat, “I can make some coffee or tea if you guys drink that kind of stuff?”

————

Natasha hardly let Anya down; she couldn’t.

She had spent hours trapped in her head, trapped back in the Red Room, reliving her training, her graduation ceremony, everything.

She needed a reminder that she wasn’t there anymore. And Anya was the best remedy for that. She loved Clint and her team, but Anya didn’t ask her questions. Anya just giggled and babbled and smiled at her, because she didn’t know that there was any evil in the world at all.

Anya only wanted to snuggle with her mother, and Natasha was going to do just that.

Clint did take Anya from her for a second, just to make sure Natasha got out of her uniform and into some sweats, but Natasha got her right back.

Thank god it was still light out when they got back. Natasha took Anya outside, as Tony and Steve started to chop wood nearby. Thor had left to “figure something out”, and Banner had shut himself in the bedroom, saying that he just needed some time alone. Natasha would have to check on him later.

Clint got a text from Fury. He had arrived to discuss their plans for Ultron with Tony. He was in the barn, knowing that Tony would try like hell to ignore him.

“Hey, lady bird, you want a mission?”

Kate rolled her eyes, “That was a weak nickname.”

“Just answer the question, dumbass.”

“Sure.”

“Fury’s hiding in the barn, he needs to talk to Stark. Get him in the barn without him making him suspicious. Think you can handle it?”

Kate smiled, “Ooh, lying, how fun. I can do that. I do that all the time when I tell you that those flannels look fine on you.”

Clint nudged her shoulder, “You ass, just do it.”

“I’m going, I’m going!”

Clint watched Kate make her way over to Tony as he cleaned up the bow and arrows before making his way up the the porch. He leaned down to give Natasha and Anya each a kiss, “Hello ladies.”

“Hi,” Natasha replied.

Clint took a seat next to her on the porch bench, “Are you okay?”

Natasha looked down at the toddler in her lap, “I just needed to see her. I was stuck for so long.”

“I figured she would help. I’m sorry I exposed our secret life, but I didn’t know what else to do.”

“I understand.”

“Papa,” Anya cooed, reaching out for her father. Clint bent down, getting level with her, touching his face to hers. “Hi pretty girl.”

Anya smiled, “Papa!”

“Yeah that’s me, pigeon.”

Natasha half-smiled, how did Clint and her make such a happy baby?

Kate trotted back from the barn, Tony no where in sight. “Wow, thank you so much for that mission, I feel fulfilled.” She took a seat on the deck in front of Natasha, giving one of her hands to the babbling toddler in front of her as she made faces at Anya.

Clint rolled his eyes, “I told you, I’ll-”

“Take me when I’m ‘ready’, I know. Whenever the hell that’ll be,” she stood up and stormed into the house, letting the front door slam behind her.

“Nice going daddy,” Natasha teased, turning Anya to face her now.

“Daddy? I am not Kate’s father.”

“Then why are you acting like it?” Natasha asked, focusing on Anya, who was gripping onto her mother’s curls.

Clint huffed, “I am not. I just worry about her. I don’t think she’s ready yet.”

“Then make her ready. Train her.”

“Nat, she’s too young-”

“We were both way younger when we started. In one year, she’s legally an adult. And you better wake up to the fact that she’s a part of our lives now. You can’t protect her forever.” Natasha got up, noticing Steve walk towards the porch and walked inside with him.

Clint flopped back against the bench, “Shit.”

————

Even though Kate was still upset, she acted like she was fine as dinnertime rolled around. Bruce had finally emerged from his room to help Clint make dinner, which was pasta, the only item of food they had enough of to feed this many people. As the rest of the Avengers had changed and gathered in the kitchen, Clint answered more of Tony’s questions, sharing the whole story of Anya and the house. Kate opened up too, telling the team about how she got discovered by Hawkeye, and ended up in this house.

Natasha was back to her usual self, staying quiet, and keeping to her herself. Except now she courted around a baby. It was a little odd for her to show this side of herself to the Avengers. She was still the same tough person, she just…had a baby? What was so weird about that? Maybe it was the fact that Anya was such a giggly baby and seeing her sit on her stone faced mother’s lap was the problem. Whatever.

This is also why she didn’t want to tell the team.

She didn’t want them to see her any different than before. She didn’t want them to think Anya was a weakness or an obstacle. She wanted everything to be like before, except that Anya was here.

When dinner was finally ready, everyone sat around their dining room table, the most full their table had ever been. She ate dinner carefully, Anya on her lap trying to grab at her pasta. Natasha would give her a noodle between her bites, watching the baby like a hawk to make sure she didn’t choke.

They didn’t talk about Ultron at all. They just sat, ate their pasta, and swapped stories.

It was kind of hard to believe there was still a demonic robot that was out there, waiting to kill them all.

When dinner was done, Natasha handed Anya to Clint, as she told Kate to help clean up. Steve got up when he heard Natasha, and immediately went to the sink to start washing the dishes with Kate. Natasha stepped back, letting Steve help, and instead picked up the table, putting the various items back in the fridge and pantry.

As Steve and Kate finished up the dishes, Natasha went to the living room to find Clint playing on the floor with Anya. He laid on the floor, letting her crawl on top of him, as he covered his face with her baby blanket. She ripped it away to reveal Clint making a silly face, and she lost it. Her little giggles filled the living room as Tony sat back watching him. Bruce stood in the corner, far away from Anya, watching Clint with her silently, a smile on his face.

“You know, she doesn’t bite like I do. You don’t have to be scared of her,” Natasha said, walking right up to Bruce, startling him slightly.

He flinched before realizing it was Natasha, and smiled again, “She’s really cute, Nat.”

“Play with her, then.”

Bruce looked at Natasha, shaking his head, “No, no, I can’t, I’m-”

Natasha grabbed his hand, “It was a bad day. We all have them. You’re not a monster.”

Bruce glanced at her hand on his, and then looked up at her, “Thank you.”

She smiled back at him, “No need to thank me. Now, here-“ She grabbed a small bear that rested on the end table, “-take this to her, she loves it.”

Bruce held the stuffed animal in his hand, his face uneasy. He fiddled around in his hands, glancing at Natasha again, who nodded, as if she was telling him “you’re okay”. Bruce took a deep breath and walked over to the giggling Anya, bending down to her. She stopped laughing, and quieted, as if she was analyzing the man in front of her.

Like mother, like daughter.

Bruce swallowed the lump in his throat, before holding out the little bear to her, “I heard you liked this.”

A tiny smile came across the toddler’s face as she launched herself at Bruce, knocking him down. “M’bear!”

Bruce let out a laugh from the ground, letting Anya sit on his chest, “Yeah, ha, it’s your bear.”

Clint sat up, “I should have warned you, she likes to attack people. We have no clue where that came from…”

Natasha glared at him and crossed her arms, as Clint stood up to give her a kiss on her pouty lips. “Probably her dad, right?”

Natasha smirked, “I’m so close to punching you.” Despite her remark, she gave him a small kiss on the lips before they turned, hearing their daughter shriek in a fit of laughter, still on top of Bruce as he played with her and her bear.

————

A few hours went by and Anya was now laying against her mother’s chest, her eyes fluttering open and shut as she tried to fight off her exhaustion. Natasha rubbed her daughter’s back as she sat back in the dining room, the rest of the team around her discussing their next moves.

They couldn’t exactly locate Ultron; he was everywhere. He kept trying to launch the nuclear missiles, but the codes kept getting changed, thank god. The Avengers didn’t have their normal resources anymore, instead, they were in a farmhouse dining room, no internet or even landlines to connect them to the outside world. They were doing this old school.

Anya’s breathing got heavier as Natasha continued her circles on her back, “When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed.”

Bruce shook his head, “They don’t need to be protected, they need to evolve. Ultron’s going to evolve.”

“How?” Fury asked.

“Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?” They all shook their heads. Bruce nodded, “Well, we should go do that.”

Steve raised an eyebrow at Banner, “Korea?”

“It’s our best shot,” Bruce replied, shrugging his shoulders.

“Well, let’s go. Wheels up in an hour?” Tony asked, surveying the room. Everyone nodded in response and got up from where they were seated.

Clint followed Natasha out of the dining room, placing a hand on the small of her back as Anya was officially knocked out. As they neared the stairs, Clint noticed Kate sitting on the porch outside. “You take her up, I got something to fix before we leave,” he said, gesturing to the teen who sat with her arms crossed, a pout plastered on her face.

Natasha smiled and went up the stairs, taking her time to make sure Anya stayed snoring softly.

“Hey, loser,” Clint teased, leaning against the railing across from where Kate sat.

“What do you want?” She didn’t look up.

“You looked upset, I just wanted to check on you before we left.”

Kate chuckled, “Of course. Where to now, hmm? How long do I get the pleasure of being trapped here before you finally get off your ass and actually take me on a mission?”

“Watch your mouth, missy.”

“Fuck you.” She was staring at him now, eyes watering.

There was a heavy silence between the two.

“Why are you this mad? I thought you didn’t mind being here?”

Kate looked up at him, “I don’t. I love Anya and the house, it’s just-why won’t you let me go on a mission?”

“You’re not ready-”

“STOP! Stop fucking saying that! The only reason I’m not ready is because you refuse to train me like you promise me five years ago!” She stood up, still face to face with him, but she was fuming. “Why am I in your life? Why did you take me in at 12? You told me you were going to train me and give me a better life, but you DIDN’T! YOU LIED!” She began hitting Clint as tears streamed down her cheeks, her cries becoming louder.

Clint grabbed her wrists, trying to stop her punches, “Kate, I’m sorry-”

“YOU’RE NOT MY DAD! YOU’RE NOT-“ Her cries increased, and she choked on her words, ultimately giving up and falling into his chest. She sobbed uncontrollably as Clint held her tightly to him.

“I’m sorry, Kate, I’m so sorry…”

———

Anya was out like a light. Natasha knew Clint was still outside with Kate, and she should have just put Anya in her crib, flicked off the light and got ready for Korea.

So why was she sitting in the rocking chair, still holding onto her baby so tightly?

“Knock, knock,” Steve said, leaning against the doorframe. “She left these downstairs, I didn’t know if you wanted them?” He presented Anya’s little bear and baby blanket, a small smile on his face.

Natasha nodded, gesturing for him to come in, “Thank you.”

Steve came inside the nursery, looking around at all the furniture and toys scattered throughout the pale yellow room. “I know, it’s weird,” Natasha said, Anya still in her arms.

“No, no-” She raised her eyebrows at him. “Yeah, okay maybe a little.”

Natasha smiled, “It was weird for me too, believe me.”

“Were you pregnant in D.C.?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t know. We found out later.”

Steve nodded, and a small silence fell in the room. He looked down at the bear still in his hand, he wish she told him.

“Please don’t look at me any different, though. I’m still the same Natasha. I just have extra cargo now.”

Steve chuckled, “I’ll try not to.”

Natasha ran her hands through her daughters short strawberry blonde curls as she stayed knocked out. “I didn’t want her at first.” Steve locked eyes with her, and she bit her her bottom lip before continuing, “I thought I couldn’t be a mother. I was a murderer. But there was this part of me that was lost after D.C.; I didn’t know what path to take. Or even if there was a path for me to take. I thought maybe the public would always see me as the monster I was before and I could never be an Avenger again. I was only going to hide here until the chaos settled and I could go back, but then I found out I was pregnant. Having a baby seemed too hard, and not like me at all, so I was ready to get rid of it and move on to my next mission. But, there was this part of me that thought a baby could be my next mission. The timing of it all seemed too perfect for me to not give it more time to think. And as time went by, the baby grew, and Clint started building the nursery. We hardly talked about the baby; we didn’t even talk about names until I was six months pregnant.”

“Wow.”

“I know. And even though I was becoming more used to the idea of a baby, I never got fully attached until she was born. When I first held her, I forgot I was a killer. I forgot all of the terrible shit I’ve done and all I saw was this innocent human in front of me that I made. I saw Clint and myself in her tiny face and knew I was going to protect her until the day I died. She didn’t make me any less of a fighter, she made me stronger. She helped me grow. I was still the same tough person, but now I had a reason to fight. And after every mission, I got a reminder of why I do what I do anytime I saw her smile. I’ll never be the conventional mother who stays at home all day and bakes brownies and sings along to cartoons, but I’m trying my best to give her a good life and keep her safe.”

“You are doing great.”

“Am I? Because the minute I put her down I have to get ready to fight a robot in Korea,” Natasha looked Anya, the toddler’s little mouth open as she slept.

“You’re fighting for her. If Ultron gets his hands on those codes, we’re all done for.” Natasha squeezed Anya gently, as Steve continued, “You’re doing your job. And when you’re done, she’ll be here ready to be in your arms again.”

Steve placed the bear and blanket in the crib, “C’mon.”

Natasha stood up slowly from the rocking chair, careful not to wake Anya, as she walked to the crib and slowly placed her down. She pulled the blanket over her body and tucked the bear in her arm. Natasha bent down and gave her a kiss on the forehead, “Goodnight, маленький.”

Clint peeked his head in the door, “She out?”

Steve nodded, holding a finger to his lips. Clint tiptoed to the crib next to Natasha and gave Anya a kiss on the cheek. “Night, night pidgey, I’ll see you soon.”

The three left the nursery, Steve going downstairs, while Natasha and Clint went to their bedroom. Clint got their duffle bag as Natasha starting tossing stuff on the bed.

“Kate okay?”

Clint continued to hastily fold the clothes and toss them in the bag, “For now. When we get back, I got to give her some more attention. And get her on the field finally.”

Natasha smiled as she grabbed their uniforms, “Good.”

Clint took the uniforms out of her hands and placed them in bag, “I feel bad leaving her, but if we don’t find Ultron, we’re all dust.”

“Exactly,” Natasha said as she grabbed his bow and arrow from the closet and placed in on the bed. “The girls will be okay without us. We have to finish this mission.”

“Then back home?” Clint asked, grabbing her hand.

Natasha squeezed his hand, “You know it.”

71 notes · View notes

bamon4bamily · 5 years

Text

TVD 9X04 (part 3) Enjoy! =)

Cut to - Matt at the Mayor’s house.

EDWARD: Thank you for coming, Sheriff. Did you find anything in those documents?

MATT: No, but I was sent this… (shows him the note and key)

EDWARD: Who is it from?

MATT: Anonymous…

EDWARD: As in those guys that wear the weird mask?

MATT: No, I mean… you know what I mean… what kind of game are they playing here?

EDWARD: Seems to me that someone is trying to push your buttons.

MATT: No shit! Sorry… I’m just getting really tired of these mind games.

EDWARD: Sheriff, if I may offer you some advice, keep your head cold and your heart colder; that’s how you win the game.

MATT: You need to tell me what’s in that black box?

EDWARD: The winning chess piece…

MATT: Again, with the riddles.

EDWARD: It’s no riddle, Sheriff, it is, quite literally, a chess piece.

MATT: I don’t get it. How is a chess piece supposed to help?

EDWARD: Oh, Sheriff, you underestimate the power of intrigue…

MATT: Guess I do. So, what does it mean?

EDWARD: It means whatever meaning Darius chooses to give to it… and that’s when we’ll hold the advantage.

MATT: I still don’t get it.

EDWARD: Patience, Sheriff, you will, you have my word.

Cut to - Caroline and Stefan in their room.

CAROLINE: Why didn’t you tell me about your “master” plan?

STEFAN: Because I knew you would get upset.

CAROLINE: So? We don’t have to agree on everything, but we need to trust each other…

STEFAN: Please, don’t take it like that; you know I trust you, more than anyone, I just didn’t want you to get mad at me.

CAROLINE: About Katherine?

STEFAN: No, not about her, about boycotting your Halloween party… I know it was important for you.

CAROLINE: Are you serious!? Stefan, please! I know I’m a control freak, but I understand priorities!

STEFAN: I know; I’m sorry. I’m still overwhelmed with this coming back to life thing… and terrified of losing you...

CAROLINE: (Kisses him) Don’t be, I’m not going anywhere. Having you back was the best birthday gift I could ever wish for, and, just like you, the thought of losing you again scares the crap out of me, but we need to stay strong.

STEFAN: I love you, Caroline, and all I want is for you, for us, to be happy, for whatever time we may have... whether it’s days, months, years, the only thing that matters is that we are together.

CAROLINE: I love you so much (Kisses him). Listen, I know you want to help with all of this, but you are human now, we can’t risk it. So, please, stay here, keep the girls and the students safe, and let us do the fighting.

STEFAN: If it’s what you want, I’ll do it. Just promise me you’ll make sure to come walking through that door safe and sound.

CAROLINE: I promise.

Cut to – Whitmore College, Sam is in Elena’s dorm helping her pack.

SAM: (Picking books from her book shelve to pack) Um, Twilight?

ELENA: Well, that’s obviously not mine; that’s… that’s… Bonnie’s!

SAM: Really? Then why does it say: Dear Elena, cause guilty pleasures are nothing to be ashamed of! Love, Bonnie. Winking smiley face…

ELENA: Oh god! (Covers her face and whispers to herself) This is so embarrassing… (Sam laughs).

SAM: Definitely going on the “to take box”. So, have you told Bonnie and Caroline when we are leaving?

ELENA: No, I’ll tell them at the Halloween party, I hate goodbyes. I just want to enjoy the night with my friends, then leave the next day as if nothing was going to change… No waterworks.

SAM: I understand, but will they?

ELENA: Bonnie, yes. Caroline, definitely not, but she’ll get over it eventually.

SAM: I know this must be hard, leaving everything you know behind, but they will always be your friends, no matter how far you are from each other.

ELENA: I know, but what if we drift apart? More than friends, they are my family…

SAM: You won’t drift apart; strong bonds never break. They’ll visit, you’ll visit, you’ll face time, WhatsApp, send postcards…

ELENA: You are right; if anything they’ll be psyched to have free lodge in Germany.

SAM: They will; and when they visit, we can go backpacking, have a blast. (Holds her face) It will be fine.

ELENA: I love you, Sam. I’ve said those words many times before, but I need you to know that this is the first time that I feel what real, healthy love, really is.

SAM: I love you too. You have no idea how thankful I am that I found you. (They kiss then progress to… well, you know!).

ELENA: We can pack later…

Cut to – later that night, Bonnie’s room. Damon knocks on the door.

BONNIE: Come in.

DAMON: Hey Bon-Bon, thought you’d be in the mood for some vamp-cakes (hands her a plate).

BONNIE: Yum, yes, always. Thank you…

DAMON: (Sits next to her on the bed) Listen, Bon, I wanted to talk to you about all of this… I need to know that you are fine; and that you will be fine…

BONNIE: I am, and I think I will be… I know I’m psychic but I can’t control the future… Where is this coming from, Damon?

DAMON: I… I’m… listen… I… I’m…

BONNIE: You’re babbling, what’s going on?

DAMON: Okay, I’ll be completely honest with you, Bon. I’m scared, terrified actually. I’m supposed to be the fearless tough guy but I’m freaking out, and I have no idea how to handle it…

BONNIE: Hey, listen, you are not supposed to be anything… This is scary, we’ve never faced anything like it before. I’m scared too, but we are fighters, no matter what comes our way, we don’t give up.

DAMON: It’s just that… I… I…

BONNIE: Damon, look at me, we will get through this… we always do, Batman and Robin, remember?

DAMON: (Smiles) Sorry, Bon, I’m acting like a freakin cry baby … I think I had one too many…

BONNIE: Don’t be sorry, Damon, it’s okay to be scared.

DAMON: Do you remember that night in Prague? I got so hammered and started crying like a little girl?

BONNIE: (Laughs) I remember… you broke into an old puppet shop and put on quite a show. It was hilarious, I think I actually peed my pants…

DAMON: Oh, you did! We had to trick a lost tourist into giving you her pants!

BONNIE: Oh shit, yes! I remember… that was insane! (They laugh hysterically).

DAMON: One of the best nights of my life…

BONNIE: (Holds his hand) It’s going to be fine, we will win this fight, and if we don’t, we’ll deal with it the best we can.

DAMON: Thank you, Bon, for everything. You are, beyond a doubt, the most amazing woman I’ve ever known, and I’m honored to be your friend.

BONNIE: Okay, you need to stop with the solemnness before you make me start crying like a little girl. Let’s just eat some vamp-cakes and continue our GOT binge watch, deal?

DAMON: Bon, I…

BONNIE: I know, the Jon Snow stab, we’ll skip that part.

Cut to – Freaky old mansion library, Darius anxiously holding the black box Matt gave him. A voice speaks…

VOICE: Patience, Darius. The time will come, you have my word. For now, prepare the ground troops.

DARIUS: But it’s too soon, we haven’t even run tests.

VOICE: We don’t have time for tests, and timing is essential to the game.

DARIUS: This is a very risky move…

VOICE: I know, but sometimes we need to take calculated risks. Trust me, this move will end in checkmate.

Cut to - Early next morning, Bonnie’s room. Damon and Bonnie are asleep in her bed (fully clothed, be patient, the time will come😉). Damon had fallen asleep the night before while they were binge-watching GOT. Caroline comes into Bonnie’s room.

CAROLINE: Hey, Bon… (looks at Damon and Bonnie laying in bed, makes her signature OMG face; Damon and Bonnie wake up).

Finally!! Now, was that so hard to admit?

BONNIE: (Throws her pillow at Caroline) Get your mind out of the gutter, we fell asleep binge watching GOT.

And, have you ever heard of knocking? What if we were actually doing what you were imagining…?

DAMON: (Teasing) Isn’t it obvious, Bon? She’d want to stay and watch… (signature wink n’ smirk).

CAROLINE: (Throws the pillow back at Damon) Ew, no! You’re disgusting! Anyway, our Halloween party might have been hijacked but we are still going all out with our costumes. So, finish whatever this is, and get ready to go shopping.

BONNIE: Really, Care? I mean, what’s the point?

CAROLINE: Are you seriously asking me that question?

BONNIE: Never mind, forgot who I was talking to. Give me half an hour, okay?

DAMON: (Teasing again) Oh, Bon, it’s going to take much longer than that! (Winks).

BONNIE: (Hits him with the pillow, pushes him out of her bed) Shoo, shoo!

DAMON: Fine! But I’m coming too! I already know what I’m looking for.

CAROLINE: Fine, you and Stefan will need some supervision, so, go get ready, we are leaving in 30! (Damon leaves). (Mocking Bonnie) Say what you will Bonnie, denial only makes it more obvious… (as Bonnie throws the pillow at her again, Caroline vamps her way out just in time to miss the hit).

Cut to – a freaky underground bunker, a man dressed in a military uniform comes out of heavily guarded and shielded door.

MILITARY GUY: As per orders, Unit 1 has been activated, Sir. Are you sure it’s safe to proceed against protocol?

DARIUS: No, General, but we don’t have a choice.

MILITARY GUY: Sir, if I may say so, this is very irresponsible; should the program fail, in any way, we will have a serious problem on our hands.

DARIUS: I know, so let’s hope it doesn’t.

MILITARY GUY: Hope, Sir? It scares me that a man of science is relying on faith…

DARIUS: As it does me…

MILITARY GUY: I only signed off on this mission because I was given a direct order from the boss, but make no mistake, Sir, if this gets out of hand, I will make my own decision on how to address the situation.

DARIUS: That’s a smart choice, General. Anyway, I need to leave, I have to go buy myself a Halloween costume. I trust that you will keep a close watch.

MILITARY GUY: As instructed, Sir.

Cut to – a costume shop. Bonnie, Caroline, Stefan, and Damon are scrolling through the shop.

CAROLINE: (To Stefan) Ohm, don’t even think about it! (He is holding a poop emoji costume).

STEFAN: Oh, come on, Care, it’s hilarious!

BONNIE: (Defending Stefan’s choice) Got to admit, it really is!

CAROLINE: No, it’s not, so please stop encouraging him and go supervise whatever dumb ass costume Damon is probably picking.

BONNIE: (To Stefan) Sorry, I tried…

STEFAN: Fine, so what do you suggest?

CAROLINE: Whatever you want, except that!

STEFAN: I don’t even know why I’m getting a costume if I’m not going…

CAROLINE: We are having a pre-party at the house and taking the girls trick-or treating.

STEFAN: Okay, what about this… (picks a Britney Spears costume).

CAROLINE: Are you kidding me?

(Katherine, who just happened to be at the same shop, walks towards them holding a costume)

KATHERINE: I think this one would be perfect… (she is holding a Dracula costume)

CAROLINE: Oh, great! What the hell are you doing here?

KATHERINE: Isn’t it obvious? Guess it’s true what they say about blonds…

CAROLINE: (To Stefan) Thought you locked her in?

STEFAN: What can I say, she’s resourceful.

CAROLINE: Listen Jeeper-Creeper, get out of my eyesight before I…

KATHERINE: Relax, Care Bear. (Sarcastically) I was just trying to help, but whatever (hangs the costume back) … I’ll leave you to your bickering, I have my own costume to find.

CAROLINE: God, I hate her! But… (grabs the costume Katherine had chosen) it is ironically perfect, right?

STEFAN: It is... got to have a sense of humor!

CAROLINE: And, you'll look hot as hell in it (smirks, they kiss).

In another part of the shop, Bonnie finds Damon.

BONNIE: Find anything?

DAMON: Actually… (turns around with two costumes, Batman and Robin, hands her the Batman costume). What do you say?

BONNIE: (Laughs) You’re crazy… but I’m in!

DAMON: That’s my girl! (Awkward moment… then Caroline walks up to them just in time to save them from themselves).

CAROLINE: So, Bonnie, what you pick?

BONNIE: (Shows her the Batman suit) What do you think?

CAROLINE: Good, I was afraid he’d (referring to Damon) go for a stripper costume or something along those lines…

BONNIE: It’s not Damon’s, it’s mine… (with a funny low voice) I’m Batman…

CAROLINE: Oh god! I should have seen this coming. (To Damon) Is there anything you don’t ruin?

DAMON: Oh, come on, Care! You are just jealous because you know you could never pull it off.

CAROLINE: Definitely not as good as you can pull off green fairy shorts and a lame cape.

DAMON: No, wait, what?

CAROLINE: (Caroline takes the modern cool looking Robin version costume from Damon’s hands) Sorry, this one is taken, so you’ll have to do with this one (takes an old-school Robin costume, which is, in fact, a tight AF spandex green short & shirt with a yellow cape).

DAMON: Oh, hell no! I’m not wearing this!

BONNIE: Hey, we had a deal!

DAMON: Bon-Bon, there is no way I’m wearing this…

BONNIE: But it’s the only Robin costume left, a pact is a pact.

DAMON: Oh, you are… fine. I’ll do it, just know that I’ll get you back… both of you.

CAROLINE: (Mocking him) Oooo, I’m sooo scared… fairy boy! (laughs and walks away).

DAMON: This means war, Bennett…

BONNIE: Bring it on!

Cut to – Matt’s house. Khuyana and Tyler are having lunch in the kitchen, Matt comes downstairs, he just got up.

KHUYANA: Another all-nighter?

MATT: You know it…

KHUYANA: You look… tired.

MATT: Is that a nice way of telling me I look like crap? (He does).

KHUYANA: What’s going on with you, Matt? We are worried.

MATT: Don’t be, I’m fine. Just getting ready for the big night.

TYLER: Man, you seem off lately, are you sure you’re O.K?

MATT: (Snaps) I said I’m fine! So, drop it!

KHUYANA: Matt, stop! We are just trying to help.

MATT: I’m sorry, I’m just under a lot of stress…

KHUYANA: We all are, Matt… talk to us, what’s going on?

MATT: I can’t right now, I need to go.

KHUYANA: Again? You are barely home anymore, or in contact with any of us, you don’t even know how the final plan is going to come down.

MATT: I’m working as hard as I can on my end. You can brief me later. (Sarcastically) I’m sure whatever “genius” plan you have cooked up, I’ll be able to jump on board.

TYLER: You’re being a dick, Matt.

MATT: And you are being as useless as usual. I mean, if this is what you are bringing to the table, you should have stayed dead, bro.

KHUYANA: Matt!! What the hell has gotten into you!

MATT: Oh god, sorry man, I’m just exhausted. You know I didn’t mean that; I am being a dick, I’m really sorry.

TYLER: Just chill, man, talk to us…

MATT: I really want to, but I need to go; I promise we’ll talk later. (Kisses Khuyana, bro-hugs Tyler, then leaves).

KHUYANA: I’m worried about him.

TYLER: So am I…

Cut to – Salvatore mansion, Alaric putting the twins to bed.

ALARIC: So, girls, pinky swear?

TWINS: Pinky swear!

ALARIC: We have a deal! We’ll go trick-or-treating, then mom and I will leave to another Halloween party, and uncle Stefan will stay here with you. So, there is nothing to be afraid of, okay?

JOSIE: Okay, daddy, but promise that you and mommy will be fine…

ALARIC: I promise.

LIZZY: Pinky swear?

ALARIC: Pinky swear! Listen, mommy is on her way to give you guys a goodnight kiss, how about I read you a story while we wait for her?

TWINS: Yes!!!

JOSIE: Sabrina, daddy, please!

ALARIC: Sabrina it is!

Caroline, Stefan, Damon, Bonnie, and Katherine walk through the front door.

KATHERINE: Thanks for the ride! I’m gonna grab myself some comfort food and call it a night. (Leaves).

CAROLINE: I swear she is tempting my patience! Let me go kiss the girls goodnight and I’ll be right down… I think we can all use a nightcap, am I right? (To Stefan) Bourbon on the rocks, please?

STEFAN: Sure thing. (Kisses him then goes upstairs. Stefan, Damon, and Bonnie serve themselves a drink and sit down in the living room).

DAMON: So, Stefan, what costume did you end up getting?

STEFAN: (Pulls his costume out of a bag, Damon and Bonnie crack up). You got to admit, it’s kind of ironic… What you two get?

BONNIE: (Pull hers out of the bag with pride) How cool is this?!

STEFAN: It’s badass! I’ll trade you…

BONNIE: Don’t think Care would be okay with that… plus, my costume is part of an ensemble (to Damon) right, Damon?

DAMON: Don’t you dare go there, Bon…

STEFAN: What, come on, show!

DAMON: Nop, don’t want to spoil the surprise.

BONNIE: It’s not that bad, Damon… come on, show him.

STEFAN: Can’t be worse than mine…

DAMON: Oh, trust me, it can (pulls out his costume, Stefan bursts into a hysterical laugh).

STEFAN: Oh, this is too good! Well, I hope you shave your legs… fairy boy (keeps laughing along with Bonnie, Caroline comes back down).

CAROLINE: I see Damon showed you his costume… (Mocking Damon) I’m sure you’ll look fabulous! (They all laugh).

DAMON: Sure, laugh all you want…

BONNIE: Well, the time has come (puts up her drink for a cheer) … whatever happens tomorrow, I just want you to know that I love you guys…

CAROLINE: Bon… don’t.

BONNIE: Care, we don’t have to act like it’s no biggie, it is… and no matter how confident we are about our plan, there is no way of knowing it will work.

CAROLINE: I know but let’s keep it positive and just have a good time tonight, okay?

DAMON: In that case… who’s up for some drunken twister?

They spend the night drinking, playing and laughing…

To be continued... Halloween special coming up next!! Hope you stop by, read and enjoy! =)

15 notes · View notes

anchanted-one · 5 years

Text

Eternal War 29. Growing Pains

Four months later.

Senya was a master of the sword of the Zakuulan school. She had beaten countless opponents over the years, and some had called her the greatest blademaster of the age. But now she sparred with the Jedi Battlemaster Arro Silver. His skill was unparalleled. Even her own teacher Shoyisa, the Unrelenting Master of the Blade, would be no match for him. Her respect for him grew with each exchange, and she began to allow that this man really had beaten Valkorion in fair combat. Thrice, if you counted the times he beat the Sith Emperor who was an avatar of Valkorion. Lana hadn't been lying. Or exaggerating. His rispostes were perfect, his reflexes lightning-fast, his attacks nigh-unstoppable.

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And what was more important, people respected him for his abilities. His accomplishments. Jedi and Sith, Imperial and Republic, there was no difference. Senya had seen a lot of these men and women before, and she could tell just how much their morale had lifted just by seeing their old hero again. And that had been before this duel. They had realized that the stories simply could not match the man himself. Even the exiles and rebels from Zakuul were now firm believers.

Lana had been right, so right. It wasn't just his skill that was important, it was his effect as a symbol. He brought hope to a fight most had given up on winning.

Arro pivoted, abruptly changing the angle of his attack at the last possible second, then scored five more hits on her arms and chest before he finally knocked her training saber out of her hand.

"I yield," she said, panting. Laughing. How long since she had been pushed so hard like this? Senya thought that he could defeat Darth Prowle at her best, even as he was now. How good would he be at *his* best?

As their audience burst into applause, she regarded the Jedi, who seemed to be fighting off the pain again. "I dearly hope we never have to fight for keeps, someday, Commander," she addressed him. "I've never been at such a disadvantage before."

"I'll say!" Vortena chimed in. "You looked like you were trying to paddle a ship in the rapids with only your hand!" She fought the impulse to glare at him. She had to admit, he was probably right.

"Beautiful Display, Battlemaster!" the Sith Lord Darth Sapphirus rumbled. "Truly magnificent!"

"Thank you, Lord Sapphirus," Arro acknowledged.

Senya took a few sips from the bottle Lem had offered her, watching for a while as the throng of admirers congratulated him on his skill. She was starting to have a great feeling about their chances.

It took a while before the crowd melted away, going back to their own business. Lana, TeeSeven, Theron Shan and Hylo Wisz were some of the few other than Koth who remained. In her typical fashion, Lana managed to look only professionally pleased rather than exultant as someone might expect of someone who had just seen how awesome her husband was.

"That went even better than I had hoped!" She beamed. "I never expected Darth Sapphirus of all people to cheer that hard!" TeeSeven trilled an excited agreement, saying how wonderful it had been to watch him spar again.

"That makes me wonder how you failed to beat Arcann on Asylum," Koth said. "Senya did say that he's far stronger than her but less skilled. But you should have been able to take him."

"It's the carbon poisoning," Lana said. "It still affects him. The pain spiked just as he was about to finish off Arcann."

"What...? Oh Hell! Dammit!" Now that she mentioned it, the reason was obvious! "But that's a huge liability, what if it happens again? You inspired a lot of people today, but if your body fails you again, Arcann will kill you. And the same people will end up *losing* all that hope!"

"It worries me as well," Lana said. "I don't like having to just pray that nothing happens when you face Arcann the next time."

She tried and failed to hide the note of anguish she felt at the thought. Not for the first time, he felt envious of the Outlander, to have managed to so firmly earn the love of this ice-cold woman. While he was certain she could have just as easily fallen in love with someone else, Koth doubted she'd ever turn the galaxy upside down trying to save them the way she had Arro. For the first few months he had thought that she was lying about Arro, that she simply wanted to save her love. Over time, he had come to accept that Lana was too pragmatic to go that far out of the way even for someone she loved.

But he had still wondered on occasion, as recently as their escape from Zakuul. Arro had shown his nobility, but Lana still had had to lend a shoulder for him to lean on from time to time just to walk; he'd been that weak. He had certainly never put on the display he had today.

He had come to share Lana's faith in Arro's skills and presence. He had even come to ardently admire the heroism that had led Arro to risk his own life to save so many Zakuulans within hours of his escape. He hadn't realized until much later just how much of a risk it had been. Koth felt certain that even he himself couldn't have made the call that Arro had.

"It's certainly a problem," Arro said. "But I won't be facing Arcann again for some time now. I will work with Oggurobb and Sana-Re, maybe even visit the Shrine of Healing on Voss. But we needn't worry ourselves sick right now. We move a step at a time."

Their collective relief was so clear that a dead man could have felt it.

Later that day, Arro stood in the War Room along with Lana, Theron, Koth, Senya, Hylo and Admiral Aygo. The day’s reports from their allies and teams across the Galaxy.

“Choza Raabat from Alderaan,” the Ithorian on the other end of the transmission reported. “I am pleased to report that we have finished stockpiling supplies. We will be ready to storm the bunker at your signal.”

“Veeroa Denz here,” said the Nautolan woman. “The teams on Nar Shadda are standing by.”

“Hemdil Tre from Hoth. We on Hoth are ready.”

“This is Leyta reporting from Tatooine. We are ready to begin.”

“Rokuss speaks. We Gormak are are ready to strike alongside our Voss brethren.”

“K’korohl here, from Belsavis. A day or a year, we will be ready when you give the word.”

“Excellent.” Arro approved. “I promise, it won’t be a year—a month at most. Once we begin, things will get intense, so remember to eat your vitamins, everybody!”

They all chuckled politely as they disconnected.

The reports were good beyond all expectations: teams on Coruscant, Corellia, Dromund Kaas, Begeren, Dromund Fels, and hundreds of worlds—Republic and Sith—had gathered all the necessary supplies and would continue training. When they received the word, all teams would mobilize at once. In a series of coordinated strikes unprecedented in their scale, these teams would attack the Shield Bunkers protecting every last one of the Star Fortresses, heralding the start of the Alliance’s major offensive against the tyranny of Zakuul.

Up until now, they had been playing a game of cat-and-mouse, small-scale sabotage and infiltrations, testing Zakuul’s defenses and their own new technology developed by Oggurobb. There had been a few defeats, but the shadow campaign Lana and Theron had helped Arro concoct had been overwhelmingly successful.

“Well,” Theron shook his head in wonder. “It’s all coming together! And so quickly too!”

“It was thanks to the intel Lana secured for us,” Aygo grinned. “We never would have gotten this far without it!”

“But it’s not just the intel,” Lana said. “Imagine us having gained the resources to tackle all those Fortresses in a single Operation! This is beyond what I had hoped for!”

“All that’s left is for Jorgan and Havoc to identify where on Zakuul our first strike should land,” Arro said. “When we finally strike, we need to hit as hard as possible.”

“And that’s yet another thing I can’t believe,” Senya said. “That your actions at the reactor could cause such a stir. For an Outlander, you have gathered a decent following on Zakuul as well!”

“That was only because Vaylin was the one who caused that incident,” Theron said. “In one move she showed that she was a danger, and the Outlander a friend.”

“Yep!” Koth said proudly. “It’s like I always said; it’s destiny, plain and simple! It was meant to be! We’re gonna win this.”

Above the skies of Zakuul, hundreds of rows of Eternal Warships were on display in impressive fashion. They seemed to be a cloud around the outer Atmosphere of Zakuul—around the Spire of the Golden Heavens, daunting in their size and a loud statement of invincibility.

Vaylin stepped out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened, Akahte on her heel. They strode together down the corridor, a dozen Knights standing guard on each side.

Arcann wasn’t happy. He never was anymore. His forces forever seemed on the back foot nowadays, the Outlander’s Alliance running circles around his people. “You return empty-handed, again!”

“I missed you,” Vaylin smiled. Her voice was playful, but her fury was bubbling just beneath the surface.

“The Outlander, the Gravestone, where are they?”

“Patrols in five sectors report no sign of either!” Vaylin sang. “Perhaps they’re just figments of our imagination!”

Arcann paced and seethed before his throne. “Someone knows the truth!” After thinking for a few minutes, he stopped pacing, and sat down very determinedly on the Throne.

“I know that look,” Vaylin teased. “You’re about to order something wonderful!”

“Choose one heavily populated planet in each of the five sectors. Take the fleet to each of them and commence orbital bombardment.”

“For how long?”

“Til’ they’re dust. Someone knows, someone will talk. But only if they are given reason to.”

Akahte could see the cruel delight on Vaylin’s face as they left to carry out Arcann’s order. She wanted this. But just as they prepared to board the shuttle, Vaylin stopped with sudden hesitation, and indicated that Akahte halt as well.

“Yes, Vaylin?”

“You don’t have to come with me,” Vaylin said softly. “This isn’t the path you hoped I would take.”

“Maybe not, but if you’re decided, then I set my opinions aside. I live only for you now. I will do whatever you ask of me.”

“Then I ask that you remain here,” Vaylin said. She sounded… sad. Conflicted. “I can no longer be the girl you deserve, and it would pain me for you to witness just how different I am from her.”

Akahte felt cold. “As you wish, Vaylin. But remember that I will always love you, always be proud of you. And if you end up thinking that this is the wrong path after all, you can change it—now, or in the future—and I will be waiting for you. I will always continue to hope”

Vaylin gave a soft gasp and pulled Akahte in a passionate kiss that Akahte eagerly returned. They broke apart, both trembling slightly, both with tears unexpectedly rolling down their cheeks.

Face flushed, Vaylin whispered. “This is the only path I have left to take. All others have been closed to me. I am a monster.” Glutton. Chimaera. “No matter how much I change, I will always revert at the end of the day.”

“You give yourself too little credit,” Akahte reassured her. “One day, you will see yourself the way I do—that every breath you take is in defiance to the man who tried to make you into that monster. That you are a wondrous, incredible young woman, strong—and in more than just in the Force. I will wait for you here on Zakuul. I will be here when you are ready to try again… and Vaylin? I love you so much!”

#swtor #star wars #fanfic #Anchanted-one #Eternal War #OC: Arro #OC: Akahte #lana beniko #Theron Shan #Koth Vortena #senya tirall #Arcann #Vaylin #Swtorhub

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