Tumgik
#anyway back to trying to remind my lungs how breathing works
bbcphile · 6 months
Text
Thanks, immune system, but I really didn't need the reminder of how much I dislike anaphylaxis.
Can I stop being allergic to my narcolepsy meds now?
Brought to you by MCAS, the bane of my existence
8 notes · View notes
seratopia · 10 months
Text
miguel o'hara x reader (fluff) - please? → she/her pronouns!
miguel begs you not to get out of bed
By far the highest blessing you could receive in the morning is Miguel O'Hara's morning voice.
Deep, gravelly, and sparse, Miguel's morning voice always manages to send chills down your spine, especially when you're nothing but a hair's width apart from his chest.
You can feel his heart slowly beat against your cheek, his chest rising and falling to the sound of his breathing. Waking up to a face full of chest has been unexpectedly, one of the numerous highlights of your day.
Slowly, your eyes flutter open, and it takes you a moment to come to your senses. He smells nice, a reminder of the shower gel you keep in your bathroom for when he visits.
Miguel's almost too big for your bed; he takes up your space, barely fits the comforter, but you love him anyway. You really don't know how, or why Miguel chooses to sleep with you in your tiny little bed, but you don't complain.
"Amor."
His wording rumbles from the deepest parts of his throat, and you can feel the vibration of his voice against your ear. You squirm a little, tiny noises escaping your mouth as you make yourself just a little more comfortable.
"Mmmph... what time is it?" You murmur into his skin, savoring the warmth he omits.
Miguel lazily rests his heavy arm over you, running his abnormally large hand over your back. He presses a darling kiss into your hair, humming. It's only you who gets to see him like this, all sleepy-eyed and touchy beyond repair. You try to savor this version of Miguel as possible, knowing that he has to be someone else when he's at work.
Miguel keeps a single arm on you while you try to bend your arm in impossible ways, twisting and turning your limb to try to reach your phone on the bedside table. Eventually it works, and you manage to slip your phone into your fingers before you dislocate your arm.
"It's 9:23..." You breathe, sighing before turning your phone back off and placing it next to your pillow.
Miguel's pulling you in like a magnet, snuggling you like a puppy would a teddy bear. He's just too cute like this, hands and legs roaming around your body for something to squeeze. As much as you absolutely hate to let go of him, duty calls.
"Miguel... we have to go to work."
He can hear the distaste in your voice, reminded of the agonizingly long spread of cleanup, the idea of people bothering him, the mediocre food at the cafeteria. (Except for the empanadas, lmao)
Miguel doesn't want to go to work today, and he doesn't think you do either. Wearing a skin-tight supersuit just wasn't it today.
"Noo...." Miguel whines, strengthening his arms around you. You have to tap on his arm, just so enough air can find it's way back to your lungs again.
"Miguel, we have a job to do." You say, rubbing the sleep away from your eyes. You hear him groan into your hair, your mind practically going blank at the sound of his intense morning voice.
We mUST stay focused brothers, we must stay focused!!!
Almost like every morning, you begin your wrestle for freedom, pushing at his forearms wrapped tight over you. It's almost like you forget that Miguel's a superhuman Spider-Man. Stubbornly, he keeps his lazy stance, ignoring your tiny pushes and shoves.
"Oh my gosh, Miguel. Let me go. If you don't go to work, I will." You curse, squirming and kicking yourself in all sorts of directions.
He shakes his head again, eyes closed shut and nose still in your hair.
It was only a matter of time before you'd tire yourself out.
And you did.
Miguel's got the shittiest, most satisfied grin on his face, and all you can do is scowl at him. Still, he hasn't let go of you, and now you're convinced he wont let you go until the end of the day.
As much as Miguel was stubborn, you were too. You have a final ace up your sleeve, and hopefully it'll save both Jessica and the kids from disarray in the office today.
Miguel's face starts to melt down a little when you flutter your eyelashes at him, shoving your face into his chest and pressing a sweet little kiss between his pectorals.
It's like the satisfaction from Miguel transferred over to you, and Miguel is left speechless as you trail your way up to his clavicle, nipping and kissing at the surface of his skin.
"Let me go, please?" You ask, specifically in the tone of voice that you know Miguel loses his shit over.
His voice is hitched in his throat, ears turning scarlet as his grip around you starts to loosen.
"I... honey-"
The moment you reach his neck, Miguel know's he's done for, a chill running down his neck and back. It makes him all hot, his mind being wiped clean like a whiteboard. Just for the funsies, you kiss his pulse point a little, wrapping your own arms around his neck.
Utterly, Miguel melts, the sweetest, poutiest expression on his face like he doesn't know what to.
You win.
While you still can, you slip out of Miguel's grip, your feet finally meeting the carpeted floor. Miguel realizes your little act, grumbling and pouting to himself as he relishes the disappearance of your warmth.
"If you come to work, we can do more..." You tease, trotting off to your bathroom with a chuckle.
Reluctantly, the man rises from your bed, the boards creaking under his weight. (One day, he's gonna break your bed, somehow.) He follows after you, running his hand through his messy bedhead.
"Coming, sweetie."
Tumblr media
© 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒂.
3K notes · View notes
the--rebel--fae · 2 months
Note
Was wondering if I could get a little something with Angel? A bit angst -> fluff maybe he comes back after a rough fight with val and just starts throwing himself on reader until they get him to talk about it and comfort him by reassuring him that they don’t want him for his body like others do.
Angel doesn’t get enough love on here and I’m done with it😭
Thanks Pookie! Much love!
A/N: Of course you can my dear! I totally agree Angel needs more love! I did it slightly differently but I still incorporated as much of your request as possible. Writing Angel is apparently a lot harder than I thought, but I still loved doing this. I hope you like it!
Pairing: Angel Dust x Reader
TW: A little bit of swearing, angst but then comfort, slightly suggestive--It's Angel Dust that's a given, and small references to abuse.
Word Count: 902
A Hazbin Love
Tumblr media
“You know Husk, I knew you were good at creating alcoholic drinks, but,” You took a sip of your coffee and rested a hand on your cheek, enjoying the taste of the rich caffeine as it started to work its way into your system. “This coffee is probably the best I’ve ever had.” 
It was generally pretty quiet in the mornings in the hotel, but you’ve been nursing a rather nasty headache after fighting with your best friend and unfortunately for your heart–crush, Angel Dust
You kept seeing how he was treated by that horrible bastard Valentino day after day; and early this morning after hearing he was going to work, you well… snapped.”
Your heart hammered in your chest as you continued your frantic descent down the stairs of the hotel, almost accidentally knocking over Sir Penitous in the process.
“Angel,” you panted, trying to bring breath back into your lungs. “You need to somehow get out of this. I know he owns your soul, but maybe there’s a way–”
Angel Dust whirled on you. A mix of pain and anger on his face. “What? A way out? Hah, Dollface don’t make me laugh. You think if there was a way I wouldn’t have tried?” He ran a hand through his hair, an action you’ve seen him do many times when he was upset and didn’t know how to process his emotions properly. 
You tried to put a comforting hand on Angel Dust’s arm only to have him bat it away. “Look. (Y/n) You’re looking out for me, I get it. Charlie tried this before and it only made it worse. So back off.” Angel Dust sighs and turns to leave but then pauses and glances back at your hurt expression. “Why do you even give a damn anyway? You’ve always stuck your nose up at my work every time I tried to talk ‘bout it.”
You clicked your teeth and balled your hands into fists. “Hah. You know why I cringe every time you talk about your work? Because I see how it destroys you. Every. Time. I’m not some prude like you want to believe Angel. But I’m your best friend and I care about you dammit!”
“Then stop caring!”
“I can’t! You’re my best friend and–and I’m in love with you!”  
You ran your hands through your hair remembering when you yelled that. The second that was out of your mouth you froze and Angel Dust just walked out the door and didn’t say a word.
“Well, I made it strong just for you kid, after that conversation a few hours ago I can tell you needed it.”
You cringe slightly at the reminder of what happened between you and Angel. “Thanks Husk. I-I just hope he doesn’t hate me. I–” you cringed. “I don’t think I could live with myself if that happened.”
“You really think I’d hate ya toots?” A familiar voice that makes your heart twist sounds out just mere feet from you.
You go and glance at Husk, only to see he already made himself scarce. Sneaky bastard, he probably knew Angel was coming over you think. 
Turning in your seat you let out a small gasp seeing the state that Angel Dust is once again in. A light bruise over his left eye, his fur ruffled in various places, but even still, to you, he looks as handsome as ever.
“I-I just thought with the sudden confession,” You trail off, your voice getting caught in your throat.
Angel Dust walks forward and gently wraps you in a hug. “Yea, that surprised the hell outta me but,” Angel Dust chuckled. “To be honest toots, that confession of yours is the only thing that kept me goin’ today.”
Angel Dust picked you up so you had to wrap your legs around his waist. “Now I’m gonna show you how much that actually meant to me.”
You bit your lip, as much as you really wanted to see where that takes the two of you, you knew that it was Angel’s way of evading and avoiding any real feelings. You pushed off of him gently and shook your head.
“Angel, I don’t want you to just throw yourself at me and think that I just want a physical relationship. If we are to be in a relationship, I want all of you, not just the physical aspect. I want dates, inside jokes, nights of just cuddling together.”
Angel Dust gave a confused look but then his eyes started watering and he plunked down into a nearby chair and put his face in his hands and his shoulders started to shake. The tears flowed freely now. “I-I want that, I truly do but I just…I don’t know how. Thanks to Val all I know is the physical part. I’m just…broken that way.”
At his words, you felt tears prick in your eyes. You walked around to the front of the chair and rested your head in his lap. “Angel, I’m so sorry you have to go through that. It’s not right. That’s why I was so upset this morning. But you’re not broken. No matter what you think. And I’m here for you. Forever and always.”
Angel whipped away his tears and put a hand on your cheek making you look up at him. “You sure (Y/n)?”
You found yourself leaning into his touch. “Positive.”
Hope you enjoyed love! I always love getting the chance to write for Angel Dust, the man needs more love. So feel free to request for more of him anytime!
And if you guys want even more stories--like maybe your own personalized several-page long one-shots or even a multi-chap fic take a look at my Etsy Shop! I do commissions! I even have listings for Hazbin Hotel!
183 notes · View notes
fuckmyskywalker · 6 months
Text
"Stuffed." — Darth Vader.
Tumblr media
— CW: 18+, smut! Cockbulge. Noncon. Objetification. Dirty talk. Vader has an 11 inch dick because I say so. Maybe he is OOC but I don't care. | Word Count: 0.8k (not proofread!)
— List of films! | Taglist.
Tumblr media
“How does it feel?” He asks in that monotone, modulated voice of his. His gloved hand presses down on the bulge on your belly, using the other one to grip your hair and force your face to stare at his mask. 
“B–Big.” You sob, squirming and trying to move a single inch. His size already dwarfs you, but the size of his cock is a whole different story. Deep inside you, you swear to the Heavens it is touching your throat.
“That’s what a cocksleeve like yourself is made for.” Vader breathes out, his voice cold and emotionless as always. It has been an order to keep your Lord’s cock inside you, warm and still— that’s what he wants and that’s what you must do. “Tell me how much you love it when I fuck you like this.” You don’t in fact, you hate it— or at least you try to convince yourself you do. After receiving the same rough treatment daily you realized it… it can be better than death. Sometimes when Lord Vader is feeling benevolent, he will allow you to come but normally you aren’t allowed to. He can be nice when he wants to, of course; you just need to encounter him in a good mood (or a less bad mood) and not push his buttons. His cock isn’t nice, and it certainly doesn’t feel nice— reconstructed to be more practical than pleasurable, and too big to be enjoyable. Whatever sick enjoyment he gets from fucking you, you sure as well don’t share it. 
Your brain works automatically but your body seems to fight against it, either way, you speak: “I love your big cock inside me, M–My Lord,” It is better for you to comply than to even try and bargain. It will make everything end faster. “You fuck me so good. I appreciate the privilege of having your cock inside my pathetic whore pussy.” As a “reward” his fingers tighten on your hair, making you whimper in pain and arch your back, your walls clenching involuntarily around him. 
It is hateful how your body enjoys the brutal attention. Are you that touch-starved? Perhaps he is right. You are nothing more than a whore who enjoys being used. Vader says that all the time; why would he lie?... you are alive thanks to him anyway. If he keeps repeating how worthless and useless you are and he still fucks you almost daily there must be something that he sees in your that not everyone can see— and you should be grateful for that, right?
You wish he would call you something else than insults, other than condescending, mocking pet names, anything. Your mind longs for a single complement, even a small one would work. But you know you are in no place to ask for something, and he is there to remind you. You know, he is right. You are stupid enough to forget he can read your mind. “You are my little fucktoy. If everyone else tries to touch you, I will cut their hands off.” Vader’s modulator distorts his voice but you can detect the slight huskiness and unsteady breathing. You affect him at least in the slightest, at least your body still has something good.
“Keep crying,” Vader speaks, letting go of your hair to grab your ass roughly, even his hand groping your asscheek makes you feel tiny. He lifts his hips, making you feel like he is pushing his cock even further, pushing the air out of your lungs. “Each tear only fuels my need to destroy you.” Like always, his words are harsh, not bothering to hide the possessive underlying tones that make your heart clench painfully. This is your destiny until he gets bored of you.
But Vader isn’t sure if he is ever going to be able to get rid of you.
You are the only one he has encountered— or more like kidnapped, that managed to fit his whole cock inside of their body. So he has to give credit when it is due. Your sobs overpower his loud breathing, squirming over his lap at the painful feeling of being abused by his massive cock. “It hurts! P–Please, please, my Lord—” Despite your protests, Vader doesn’t stop. With every thrust the bugle appears and disappears, giving him that twirl of control and dominance over such a weak, miserable creature like you. 
“I know it hurts, but you are my plaything.” His frigid voice makes you cry louder, fat tears of despair falling down your cheeks. You try to move away but that invisible force that you hate so much keeps you impaled on his cock; moving in between your merged bodies to circle your neglected clit. Even a cruel being like Darth Vader knows that he has to keep you lubricated or it will start to hurt him. “I decide how much pain or pleasure you feel.”
This is your life. There’s no escape. It doesn’t matter who you were before this moment; now, you are nothing more than a toy. A toy that only exists to obey, cry, feel pain and keep a cock warm.
“Plus… you said you loved it.”
Tumblr media
🌊 Taglist!: @jellydodger | @pockcock | @haydensgirlaela | @captain-satan | @lovrsm | @nfsacbm | @valsarchives | @grimkaos | @daniiileee | @dianaaxoxo | @vadersslut | @bimbo-baggins86 | @sythethecarrot | @arzua10 | @forcemeanakin | @aerangi
— 🐚 if you wish you be added to my taglist there's a google forms in the beginning of the post! There you can select which days you would like to be tagged in (or choose the option: all the above!). If you send me a DM or an ask I will tag you on every day! | some tags might not work due to your settings, so let me know!
288 notes · View notes
whatsnewalycat · 11 months
Text
Designated Person | Chapter 7
Pairing: Francisco “Catfish” Morales x F!Reader
Tumblr media
Chapter 7: Dirty Laundry
Rating: Explicit (18+ only)
Word Count: 7.5k+
Content / Warnings: Reader POV, infidelity, past romantic & sexual relationship and related flashbacks, angst, food, AA meeting mention, alcoholism, lying, conflict avoidance, crying, female masturbation, unprotected piv sex, send nudes pls, hold the moan/secret sex, text message chains, movies, fluff, awkwardness, praise kink, daddy kink
Notes: I don't really have any notes! Just excited to share, I hope you like it.
[ Previous Chapter ][ Series Masterlist ][ Next Chapter ]
Tumblr media
The first time you wake comes a result of Frankie clomping around the house as he gets ready. 
It used to annoy you, how loud he can be in the mornings. But you’ve come to find it kind of comforting. Each cupboard slam and heavy footfall serves as a reminder that you’re not alone. That you’re safe. 
You stay cocooned in your sheets while he goes about his noisy routine, eyes closed, cradled in that warm, fuzzy space between awake and not. Content. 
When he leaves, a high-contrast silence takes his place. The slow rhythm of your automatic breathing lulls you back to sleep. 
You’re surprised when your eyes flutter open at 10:34 AM. 
Thanks to your opaque curtains, the room is drenched in darkness, despite the daylight trying to sneak in through the cracks. You squint into the brightness of your phone screen and read the text messages that came in while you were sleeping, all about a half an hour apart starting at 7:00. 
> RORY:  > Good morning beautiful > How are you today?  > I get off work at 3 today, wanna do something?  > I miss you 
“Oh my god dude, chill out,” you scoff under your breath while typing a reply. 
< ME:  < Sorry, just woke up. < Yes! I’m cleaning today but that’s all I have planned. What’re you thinking?
He reads and responds immediately. 
> RORY:  > We can check out that trail by the lake? Grab a bite to eat afterwards? 
< ME: < Sure
> RORY:  > Pick you up at 3:30?
< ME:  < See you then 😘
You toss the phone aside and sit up, scrubbing your hands over your face. Your eyes burn when you grind your fists into them and welcome a big yawn that stretches your lungs’ limits. A spasm catches your breath, shoving out a fit of coughs that leave you a little winded. 
Yeah, go on a hike today, that will be fucking fun. 
When you tiptoe through the kitchen, you find the coffee pot still on from when Frankie ran it this morning. Your nose wrinkles at its contents. The stale brew will be muddy and unsatisfying, but you pour it into a mug with some half & half anyway. 
You settle into your spot on the old couch in your living room and pull the notebook out from under your arm. Between sips of terrible coffee, you jot down the nighttime thoughts still floating around your head. 
Hard time falling asleep. Kept thinking about puppies, thinking I should have adopted that dog last year. Regret. No nightmares I think. Woke up at 10:30, feel tired still. Don’t want to go on a hike with Rory, but I am an idiot who can’t say no to people. I would rather stay home and be alone. I want it to be 
You pause here, staring at the passage. 
A jolt skitters across your ribcage. Blood rushes to your face. You glance around self-consciously, then cross out the last two and a half sentences. A few moments go by before you decide it doesn’t seem like enough, so you cross it out again and again, scraping dark lines into the notebook paper until the sentiment beneath is unrecognizable. 
Then you drop the ballpoint of your pen a few lines below the redaction and start writing out your to-do list for the day. 
Tumblr media
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” you mutter to yourself. 
Frankie’s damp clothes stick to the circumference of your washer’s stainless steel drum. The rank scent that emanates from the machine reminds you of your grandparents’ house in the summer. 
With a sigh, you empty your dirty laundry on the floor of the mudroom and pull his clean clothes from the dryer into your basket, replacing them with the damps, then replacing those with your dirties. En route to his bedroom, with your laundry basket propped on one hip, you text him. 
< ME: < I stg you leave your clothes in the washer dryer on purpose so I’ll fold them 
He must be on his lunch break, because he texts back right away. 
> FRANKIE:  > I would never 😉 
The door opens with a creak when you step through the threshold, dropping your basket on the floor next to his bed. You take a selfie from the middle of the room and send it to him along with your response. 
< ME:  < K well I’m gonna lick all your stuff after putting away your clothes 
> FRANKIE:  > Promise? 
< ME: < Shut up lol 
> FRANKIE: > You look cute btw 
Heat floods your cheeks. A smile spreads across your face as you fall back into his bed. The musk woven between the threading of his sheets tugs at you. Your skin tingles with want, and you find yourself pulling the covers over your body and burying your face in his pillow. 
The phone buzzes beside you. 
> FRANKIE:  > Feel free to take a nap or do whatever you want in there
You sit up and whip your head around, then text back. 
< ME:  < Are you watching me 
> FRANKIE:  > Are you in my bed? 
< ME:  < … what if I was?
> FRANKIE:  > I wouldn’t mind one bit  > What are you doing in there?
< ME: < It’s comfy, I’m laying down 
> FRANKIE: > Can I see?
Your stomach flips. The warmth in your face spreads, sprouting up all over your body. You lick your lips and smirk, then open the camera and take a picture of yourself and send it to him. 
> FRANKIE:  > Wow 😍 > I’m going back to work. See you later tonight, sweetheart 
You start and erase about five variations of a response before just locking your phone screen and slamming it down at your side. Your hands fly to your face. All your organs melt and pool hot between your thighs. 
Fuck, you hate that he can make you feel like this. 
… but you love it, too. 
It’s intoxicating. 
You know him well enough to know that, throughout his day, whether he’s tinkering around in some commercial airplane, or running diagnostic tests, or chatting with coworkers, he will be thinking about you. Wondering what you’re doing. Hoping that when he arrives home there will be a spot in his sheets marked unmistakably yours. 
He always held a particular fascination with you touching yourself, a fact proven true last week when he got off watching you masturbate. 
The memory pricks your skin. Your squeaky mattress. The exchange of gasps and whimpers and moans. His lust-blown eyes, all wild and black as they watched you. 
Even before that, though. 
When you were working for him, he would sometimes text you specific locations in his house, asking you to masturbate there, send him pictures, and leave your panties. Of course, you were happy to oblige. 
There were a few times when he had you choose a place to fuck yourself. You gave him three clues, and if he guessed the location correctly, that’s where he would fuck you when he got home. 
One Saturday night, you were watching Sarah while he and Angie went out on a date. He texted you exactly one minute after Sarah’s bedtime. 
> FRANKIE: > Baby in bed? 
< ME:  < Yeah 
> FRANKIE: > Good > Can you do something for me?
< ME: < Maybe, what?
> FRANKIE:  > Go in my upstairs bathroom and take off that pretty dress > Film yourself getting off in the mirror  > Then send it to me 
< ME:  < Where are your manners sir 
> FRANKIE:  > Pretty please 😘
So you did. You tiptoed into the bathroom and pulled your dress off over your head, which is all the effort it took to strip down to a red thong. You stood in front of the huge vanity mirror and pressed record. 
When they came home, Frankie ushered an extremely inebriated Angie to their bedroom. He emerged a few minutes later and coaxed you into the bathroom. Between heated, whiskey-soaked kisses, he told you, “We have to be quiet.”
You nodded and raked your fingers through his hair, responding to his urgent mouth with your own. He locked the bathroom door and dug his phone from his pocket, propping it up on the bathroom counter before he pressed play. 
You pulled your dress off, watching his reflection in the vanity mirror for telltale signs of him being shitfaced. A stumble or slur. Compared to other nights where he spent hours at the bar, he seemed fine, which was a relief. 
From his phone, you heard your own whimper. You looked down and watched the past you, video you, flick your wrist beneath the cover of your underwear. 
His belt clanked as he undid his pants, pulling your attention back to his reflection. You met his eyes through the mirror and watched the darkness in them churn. He slid your thong aside, head of his cock nudging against your entrance. 
A rasp tickled your ear, “Look at you, the dirty little movie you made me—what were you thinking about?”
Your gaze dropped to the video. To video you grabbing your tits and biting your lips. He plunged forward, splitting you open, pulling a gasp from your lips, “Ffffuck—”
“Thinking about fuck?” 
He started to roll his hips, driving his cock into you, slow and deep. Pleasure rippled up your spine. Video you slid your thong off and showed the camera your pussy. 
Your lips parted to answer his question, but the words caught in your throat. It felt so wrong to tell him. He grabbed your shoulder and pulled your body against his, snapping his hips, pumping into you with sharp, hard movements.
“Holy fuck, Frankie—”
“Tell me what you were thinking about when you were playing with your pussy.”
“This,” you breathed, arching your back into his thrusts, each one a heatwave across your body, “You fucking me—trying to be quiet—trying to be a good girl—”
“You’re doing so fucking good, baby,” he purred, “Can’t get enough of this sweet pussy—drives me fucking crazy, Jesus Christ.”
Little whimpers and gasps started wriggling up your throat. Your eyebrows threaded together and lips parted with a croaked, “Frankie—”
“Fuck yes, baby, take it,” he hissed through gritted teeth, fucking you harder, faster, repeating under his ragged breath, “Take it, take it, take it.”
His cock rubbed along all the right parts of you, sending your pulse racing, adrenaline spiking when you remembered Angie asleep in the other room while he was there with you, dark gaze flicking between your video playing on his phone and your body bouncing off of him. 
Your whimpers morphed into moans, immediately muffled by his warm, rough palm. 
“Gotta be fucking quiet, sweetheart,” he panted in your ear, “I know it’s hard but you gotta do that for me, ok? Can you be a good girl for me, be quiet?”
You nodded. Calmed your moans into frenzied breaths. Lowered your gaze to the phone screen, where video you sank two fingers into your cunt and moaned, fucking yourself, just for him. 
“That’s it,” he panted, wrapping his arms around your torso to hold you in place as he fucked up into you, hot breath heating the crook of your neck, “Fuck, that’s it, such a good girl for daddy, hmm?”
You couldn’t help the choked moan that escaped you. 
“Say it, say you’re such a good girl for daddy—”
“I’m such—such a good girl for daddy.”
“Fuuuuck yes,” he groaned, one hand finding your clit, drawing frantic circles that flooded your body with a gooey, electric, pulsing energy, “Pussy so tight, feels so fucking good, fuck—”
“Oh my god,” you gasped, pushing against his thrusts, nodding your head, “Daddy I’m gonna fucking cum—”
“Holy fuck—that’s it, sweet girl, cum on daddy’s dick, you can do it.” 
You lost yourself, forgetting all about the concession to be quiet—whining and moaning as your bodies slid together with this sick, wet, sucking noise—consumed by the throbbing fire at your center, amplified with each snap of his hips, with his dirty little praises whispered in your ear, cock filling you again and again until you couldn’t fucking handle it anymore and your pleasure reached a fever pitch. 
Frankie released a deep, guttural moan as you clenched down, pussy fluttering around his length, white hot static vibrating across your body. 
He plunged into you once, twice, three more times with a shudder, spilling inside you. 
“Holy shit,” you panted, collapsing forward onto the bathroom counter. His grip softened and he went slack against your back. A few blissful moments went by like this before the spell broke. 
“God, I wish you could stay,” he told you in a breathy murmur, pressing a kiss into your bare shoulder, “Wish I could wake up with you.” 
And it sounded sweet on the surface, but you knew it was your cue to leave. 
You think about it now. 
About Frankie, and the video that you sent him while he was on a date with his wife. How she was under the same roof when the two of you fucked in the bathroom. How he had you call him daddy, and how you were such a good girl for him. 
You think about how it is between you now, how good it would feel to give in to those reckless desires and fuck like you used to. 
Your touch trails down between your legs as you imagine him here in the bed with you, cooing filthy things in your ear, rubbing your clit, laying heated kisses on your neck. 
You grab your breast and pretend it’s him squeezing your flesh. Imagine his soft lips around your nipple, the roll of his tongue against it. 
“Fuck,” you breathe, rolling your hips into your hand. 
A whimper bubbles through your lips and the brazenness of it stokes your insides. Another whimper, this one louder. Tingles shoot up your middle. 
You drag your fingers along your slit, moaning at the puddle of arousal pooling at your entrance, spreading it, coating your pussy in the slick substance. 
“So fucking wet,” you gasp, gripping your tit harder, imagining Frankie there, touching you, watching you with awe, telling you how fucking good you’re doing. 
Your fingers move faster, sliding easy against your lubricated nub, and you release a throaty moan, “So fucking good, daddy, you make me feel so good.“
The words out loud jolt your insides. You think: What if he saw me like this? What if he heard me? What if he knew I still fantasize about him? 
A burst of feral energy overtakes you and you crawl up onto your knees, pulling your loose cotton shorts and underwear aside so your cunt is exposed to the room. You work one hand hard and fast against your clit. The other sinks two fingers inside you.
You roll your hips, fucking your hand, moaning out, “Fuck yes, Frankie, fuck me just like that, so fucking good, daddy, you’re gonna make me cum—”
Uttering the words out loud electrifies you. Heat churns beneath your touch, growing brighter and hotter as your wanton moans hit his bedroom ceiling. Pleasure starts to swell and your movements grow frantic, desperate, chasing that feeling as you whine, “Don’t stop, don’t fucking stop—”
You convulse around your fingers and gasp, twitchy prods of pleasure gushing at your center each time your slick fingers graze your clit, slowing as the waves ebb into a fuzzy kind of bliss that occupies your whole body. 
You fall back in his bed, chest heaving, and try to gain your bearings. 
Shame starts to creep at the edges of your post-orgasm fog. Without prompting, your brain tells you: I hate myself. 
It stings. 
You gulp and shake your head, whispering out loud, “I love myself.” 
The correction soothes your hindbrain’s outlash enough for you to release a content sigh. A smile creeps across your face. You blink over at Frankie’s dresser, then rise to your feet and start folding his clean clothes. 
As you tuck the folded clothes away in his dresser drawers, you find the underwear he snatched from your bedroom last week. Teal lace, all stiff with his dried cum. 
You chuckle to yourself and shake your head. That familiar, reckless kind of satisfaction spreads through your veins. 
It’s fucked up, but the thought of him getting off on the scent of you fills you with pride. 
This is rocky territory. More than rocky, honestly. It’s dangling-off-a-cliffside-while-your-grip-is-slipping territory. 
You both know it. It’s like neither of you can help it. Over and over, you fall back together like opposite poles of a magnet. 
Are you drawn to each other because there’s something real? Or is it because of the thrill? 
You remind yourself that there is something more between you and Frankie than sexual desire. 
You laugh together, support each other, and enjoy your shared time. The bond you’ve formed is genuine. He has come to be one of your best friends. Second only to your sister, Leah. 
There’s a softness when you’re with him, too. A saccharine kind of intimacy that curls around your body and makes you feel at home. It has always existed between you, even if he never admits it. He used to push it away, but more and more, it’s become commonplace when you’re together. 
You swallow hard and shake your head, finding that you’re still staring at these cum-encrusted panties. You know Frankie won’t be able to bring himself to throw them in with the rest of his laundry. That would mean washing your scent, throwing your gift away. 
A little flint of arousal sparks at the base of your spine. 
After dropping the teal lace into your laundry basket, you shimmy your shorts and underwear down your legs, then wipe yourself off with the gusset of your floral cheeky bikini. You shove them into his dresser drawer in place of the spent pair. 
Tumblr media
Two flimsy cardboard boats slide out onto the "PICK-UP HERE” window’s ledge. A booming voice follows, “Order number 32!”
Rory glances down at his receipt, then tucks it in his pocket as he steps through the crowd of hungry onlookers and approaches the rusted-out food truck. He returns holding one basket in each hand, a victorious smile dawning on his face, “Where should we sit?” 
You squint around your surroundings and spot a shaded patch of grass beneath the gnarled trunk of a buttonwood tree, then point to it, “Ooh, over here!” 
“Got it!” 
Rory jogs ahead and lands on the grass before anyone else can claim the spot. You catch up a few seconds later and sit down next to him, crossing your legs. He hands you your shrimp tacos and you murmur a thanks to him while balancing the basket on your knee. 
Under the eaves of the buttonwood tree, you find relief from the unrelenting sun. Your skin, all heated and gleaming with sweat, thanks you profusely. The cool earth somehow feels icy against your palms when you lean back and stretch out. You pull your sunglasses up on your head and tilt back to look up through the twisted branches of the tree, “Fuck, it’s hot out.”
You’re never really sure how to start conversations with him.
“Yeah,” he follows your gaze up into the tree, quickly losing interest. A deep breath expands his lungs as he looks around the park, finally settling his gaze on a playground, “You ever take the kids you babysit out here to play?” 
Your nose wrinkles a bit when he calls you a babysitter. You follow his line of sight to and watch hordes of squealing, laughing children crawl all over the playground. 
“Not this park, but I take them to the one by their house. It has a splash pad and this playground with water features. They love it, it’s pretty cool.” 
He nods. 
“When I worked for Frankie and his wife, I took their daughter, Sarah, here a lot. She was still just a little squish, but, you know, there are all these trails with cool trees and there’s the lake, and another playground further down that-a-way.” 
You point to your left. He doesn’t seem to care much about what you’re saying, but asks, “Is that a job you see yourself having long-term?” 
It’s a question you’re familiar with answering. Always tainted with judgment, insinuating that your job is that of bored teenagers trying to make a buck over the summer. 
“Yep,” you tell him with a close-lipped smile, tilting your head as you wait for him to say more.
“How will that work when you have kids? Do you want to be a stay-at-home mom, or will you bring the kid with you, or what?” 
With a shrug, you tell him, “Figure I’ll see where I’m at when the time comes and go from there.”
Rory hums and nods, brow furrowing at the ground like he’s soaking this in, then he says, “It’s nice that you do that. I like that you’re a caretaker.” 
It takes you by surprise. His gaze meets yours and you smile at each other for a moment. 
“Thanks,” you say and bring your attention to the boat of shrimp tacos resting on your knee, finding them cooled down enough to eat. 
After finishing your food, you and Rory start off towards his vehicle, hand-in-hand. The trail winds by the playground you were watching from afar. Like playgrounds often are, it’s total chaos. Children screaming, running, climbing, crying. 
You spot one little girl sitting in the sand, digging a hole between her splayed legs. She seems oblivious to the world around her. The dark ringlets dangling around her cherub face wiggle as she talks to herself, eyebrows raising expressively like the one-sided conversation is intensely interesting. 
She must feel you watching her, because her spine straightens and she looks around. When her dark brown eyes meet yours, her face lights up in recognition, and she squeals your name. 
You stop in your tracks and can’t restrain the wide smile from spreading across your lips, “Sarah!” 
Aside from the brief glimpse you caught of her the day Frankie moved in, and the grocery store shortly after, you haven’t seen her in over a year. She’s grown so much. Her chunky, wobbly baby legs have elongated and grown more capable, allowing her to run towards you, arms outstretched. 
When she reaches you, you scoop her up, twirling her around as you give her a big hug, “How are you, sweetheart? I missed you!” 
Sarah squeals with delight and says, “Missed you!” 
A cool rush of panic spreads across your skin when you look around and ask, “Where are your parents, sweetie?” 
“I’m digging a hole!” 
“Oh wow, you’re digging a hole?” you laugh and shift her onto your hip as you continue to study the sea of faces, ears growing hot when you remember Rory standing behind you. The last time you saw Angie, she insulted you in broad daylight. How the fuck would you explain that to Rory if it happens again?
“Hey!”
The familiar voice is sharp with outrage. Frankie’s hand grips your shoulder and spins you around to face him. His chest is heaving, jaw clenched, eyes aflame with fury. 
You have never seen him like this. 
Your eyes widen and you hold your palm up to him, “Just me, sorry!” 
He studies your face, still red-hot anger, then it seems to come into focus for him. His shoulders relax with a relieved exhale, then his features soften and grow apologetic, “Oh, hey.” 
You bring your hand back to your hip to support the weight of Sarah and chuckle, “Sorry, I wasn’t trying to scare you—”
“No, no, it’s ok.” 
“We were just walking, and, umm,” you gesture back at Rory, trailing off when you see Angie approaching, arms crossed, beautiful face squared off in a stern expression. 
Frankie’s gaze flicks to Rory and he gives a nod of recognition before returning his attention to Sarah, “Did you see your friend and go to say hi?”
Sarah smiles sweetly and nods, then starts wiggling to be put down. You grant the request, lowering her to the ground and letting her go. She gallops back to her hole in the sand, while you call behind her and wave, “Bye, Sarah!” 
Your face scrunches up into a wince when you meet Frankie’s eyes again, and you shrug, “Sorry.” 
“Don’t sweat it,” he waves you off with a smirk. 
“Hey,” Angie greets, surprisingly calm. Her fingers curl around Frankie’s bicep and she blinks at you. 
“Hi, Angie,” you give a nervous nod, plastering on a smile that’s too eager, “I was just passing by with my, um,” you swallow hard and turn to Rory, waving him forward, “My boyfriend, Rory.”
Your voice is shaky. This is a nightmare. 
Rory’s arm wraps around your waist from the side and he gives a polite wave, “Hi.” 
“This is Angie Morales, Frankie’s wife,” you tell him. 
“Pleasure to meet you,” Rory smiles and extends a hand to her. Angie says nothing, just shakes his hand while wearing this Mona Lisa smile and steps back beside her husband. 
The silence that follows is painful. 
“Ok, well, sorry again for the scare,” you sigh, looking down at your feet, “It was really nice to see Sarah, I miss her a lot.” 
“Don’t worry about it,” Frankie says, and you look up to see his brow knit together, dark eyes all apologetic, “I’ll see you at home, yeah?” 
You nod at the ground, then tell Angie, “Good to see you.” 
She raises an eyebrow and laughs at this. It feels like a slap. You suppose it’s better than her screaming insults at you, though. Or, like, a real slap. 
When you turn and walk away, Rory’s hand finds yours again. His grip is warm and steady, and he frowns over at you, “You ok?” 
You forgot to adjust your face. The pain bubbling up inside you must be obvious. Traitorous tears spring to your eyes, thankfully hidden behind the dark of your sunglasses. You clear your throat and nod, “Yeah, I’m fine.” 
It sounds watery and false. 
“Hey,” he stops walking to turn towards you, “What’s wrong?” 
You shake your head and sniffle, “Nothing, I’m fine.” 
He raises his eyebrows, searching your face, “Really?” 
Your teeth catch your tongue. Dull pain wells up in each section of the soft muscle you clamp down on, providing a microscopic release. With a deep breath, you look down at your feet and shrug, “I just—I guess I missed her more than I realized.” 
“Come here,” Rory murmurs, ushering you into a hug. You oblige. His body seems to awkwardly wrap around you, but it brings you a small dose of comfort. Even if he doesn’t feel or smell like home. 
“What’s the deal with his wife, why did she seem mad?” 
Fuck. You were hoping he wouldn’t notice, or ask. 
“She, um… she thinks I stole something from her,” you tell him, “That’s why I don’t work for them anymore.” 
Misleading, sure, but not entirely a lie. 
He hums, rubbing your back, “You care about her a lot, huh? The little girl?”
“Yeah,” you croak. A few tears spring from your eyes. You squeeze your eyelids shut and wish them away. 
Rory kisses your hair and gives you a tight squeeze, “Should we keep going?” 
You sniffle and pull back from his embrace, flashing him a tight smile as you nod, “Yeah.” 
Tumblr media
When Frankie comes home, you’ve already resigned to your room for the night, content to wallow in self-pity you have no right to feel. 
His footsteps creak against the floorboards as he makes his way through the kitchen, into the hallway outside your room. A knock comes at the door. 
You sigh and pout to yourself, then call out, “Come in.” 
Frankie opens the door and hovers in the threshold. You pause Stardew Valley and look over from your laptop, raising your eyebrows in question. 
“Hey,” he says, puppy dog eyes in full force, crossing his arms, “How’s it going?”
“Oh, you know.”
He hums and studies you for a moment, shifting his weight into the doorframe, “Earlier was… It was weird, right?” 
Your eyelids flutter. You shrug, “She didn’t call me a slut this time, which was… nice.” 
He chuckles at this. You don’t crack a smile. 
When your lack of amusement registers to him, he clears his throat and pushes off of the door frame. He makes his way around the bed and sits down on the opposite side, scooting close to you. You roll your head on your shoulders and watch him reach out to touch you, then decide against it, fingertips curling onto his lap instead. 
“Look, I’m really sorry,” he says finally, but doesn’t look at you. 
“For what?”
“I know you miss Sarah. And I know my reaction earlier was—was,” he sighs and shakes his head, “It wasn’t great.” 
“Frankie, you thought I was a abducting your child—”
“I mean after that,” he turns to you now, sincerity etched in his features, “I could have let you hang out with her, or been nicer or something, I don’t know. I just—I know, in my gut, that I could have done better. And… I’m sorry.” 
An ache of affection spreads across your chest. You reach out and rest your hand on his forearm, thumb grazing his skin as you search his face, “I appreciate that, thank you.” 
A small, relieved smile graces his lips. He nods, “Of course.” 
Then he seems to relax a little, leaning back onto one elbow as he squints at your laptop screen, “Whadda you have going on here?” 
“Exploring caves, fighting monsters.” 
“Sounds nerdy,” he teases, “Figures you’d like it.” 
“What the fuck does that mean?” you laugh and give him a playful shove, “You think I’m a nerd?” 
“Maybe,” he grins. 
You scoff and shoot him a mock glare, “On what grounds?” 
He frowns, looking up at the ceiling like he’s thinking about it, then shrugs, “Basically just this, but you’re cute when you’re all riled up.” 
“Wow,” you laugh, covering your face as it heats up, “So rude.” 
He grins and lays back in your bed like he’s making himself at home here, so you join him, resting your head on his shoulder. His cheek presses into the crown of your head. You resume playing Stardew Valley. 
Some time passes like this, cuddling with him while he idly plays with your hair, asking you questions about the game like he’s interested. When the sun sets and you both start yawning at regular intervals, you tuck the laptop away in your nightstand. Frankie doesn't move. 
You return to your pillow and roll on your side to face him, tucking your hands under your cheek. He mirrors the action, just a foot or so away. His warm gaze works around your face and he murmurs, “Do you want me to go?”
It’s so quiet you can hear your pulse pounding through your arteries. 
“Not really.” 
A small smile flicks across his lips. He looks down at his clothes, “Do—do you mind if I, um…”
“What, you don’t wanna wear jeans to bed?” you snort. 
He chuckles and shakes his head, “They’re not great pajamas.” 
“Go change, I gotta wash my face and stuff anyway,” you yawn, rolling onto your back, stretching your arms into the air. 
The two of you go about your bedtime routines. When you return to your room, Frankie is laying on top of the covers, arm tucked behind his head as he scrolls on his phone. He changed into gray basketball shorts and his old, worn out Metallica t-shirt. 
“That shirt is gonna crumble into dust one of these days,” you tease while plugging your phone into its charger. 
He sets his phone down and looks at his shirt, then grins up at you, “Until it does, I’ll be wearing it.” 
You shake your head at him, peeling back the covers with shaky hands. He sits up and wriggles between your sheets as you turn off your bedside lamp and crawl in beside him. 
For a few moments, it’s just quiet in the dark. Neither of you move or say anything. You imagine he’s staring at the ceiling with tingling nerves just like you, filled with uncertainty and fear and want. Not sure what the “line” even looks like anymore because it’s been blurred so much it’s indistinguishable. 
Every other time you’ve fallen asleep together since he moved in, it could be chalked up as either accidental or, like when you were sick, necessary. Excusable if brought forth as evidence by others, or each other, or yourselves. 
But this is different. 
It’s intentional. No plausible deniability in sight. Heat blooms in your chest and between your legs. He feels so far away. 
“Frankie.” 
“Hmm?”
“Would it be weird if I asked you to hold me?” 
He lets out an amused scoff. The bed squeaks and shifts as he rolls on his side as you scoot closer to each other. His hands find you under the covers and he pulls your back to his chest, tucking one arm under your head while the other wraps around your belly. 
“It’s not weird,” he murmurs, pausing for a second before saying, “It should be, but it isn’t.” 
This makes you smile. It’s a relief to hear him say it. You relax into his embrace and rest your arm atop his at your waist. 
The darkness surrounding the two of you seems to hold space for honesty. It’s that sort of feeling you got at sleepovers when you were younger, when you and your friends would whisper secrets to each other in the dark. 
“I have nightmares sometimes,” you tell him. 
“I know.” 
You know he knows. He’s been there to wake you from them and calm you down in their wake at least a dozen times. Regardless, there’s this buzzing under your skin like you need to tell him. 
“I can never remember what happens except—except, um,” you blink your eyes open and swallow the thickness in your throat, shaking your head, “There’s this feeling, like… I know that he’s chasing me, and if he catches me, I’m never going to escape.” 
His body seems to tense a little. He looks down at you, “Who?” 
“I don’t know. I can’t remember.” 
You can feel the question occupying his tightened muscles, and say, “It’s not you.” 
“But if you don’t know—”
“It started before you,” you lace your fingers with his, letting your eyelids drift shut, “And, besides, I don’t feel like that with you. I feel… safe.” 
He relaxes around you with a sigh that sounds like relief. 
“When I lived alone it was hard. I’d wake up alone and scared, and I couldn’t fall back asleep,” you murmur, “But it’s been better lately.” 
He hums. The noise vibrates against the nape of your neck. His thumb brushes against your midriff. 
“I don’t know why I’m telling you this,” you admit, “I guess… I just want you to know it’s nice having you here.” 
The wet swallow of his throat makes you start to worry you said too much, that you showed too much belly. You brace for him to pull away. But when his voice breaks the silence, it sounds raspy and damp. Heartfelt. 
“You don’t think I’m a burden?” 
You almost laugh. Not because it’s funny, but because it’s ridiculous.  
“Not even a little. I’m happy to have you.” 
“I’m happy to be here, mariposa.” 
The nickname stings a little. A sharp, precise prick to the center of your chest. But his arms squeeze around you tighter, bringing you closer to his warmth. 
Your lips curve into a slight smile and you feel the tug of drowsiness on your limbs. 
“No funny business back there tonight, Franklin,” you mumble out, your words fuzzy with fatigue. 
“Yes ma’am,” he nuzzles into your hair, his own voice groggy and low, “Best behavior.” 
That warm, soft intimacy settles deep in your bones and makes you feel at ease. Safe. Loved. And it’s not long at all before sleep overtakes you.
Tumblr media
Your Friday nights used to be synonymous with drinking. 
It meant going out to the bar to get drunk and dance and maybe find another lonely soul to spend time with. It meant blackouts and bar tabs and spending your Saturdays absolutely fucking miserable. 
Truth be told, you much prefer your new Friday night ritual: Movie Night. 
You and Frankie each get to pick any movie you want and stuff your faces while watching them back-to-back. After work, you pick him up from his AA meeting and load up on junk food, then head home. 
Tonight, the two of you walk side-by-side down aisle 5 of your neighborhood grocery store, moving at a leisurely pace across the glossy white tiles. A country music station broadcasts softly over the store’s speakers. From the cash registers up front, you hear the rhythmic beep of customers being rung up. Probably the only other people in here, honestly, it’s fucking dead. 
“What’s your movie pick?” Frankie asks while tossing a bag of classic potato chips into the red basket hanging from the bend of his elbow, “And I swear to god if you say Moulin Rouge! I’m instituting a no-repeat policy.” 
Your laughter ricochets down the aisle and you shake your head, “Don’t act like you don’t like that movie! I know you do.” 
“I mean yeah, but… there are other movies.” 
“Other… movies…?” 
He snorts and shakes his head at you. 
“Actually, I wanna watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” you tell him, slowing to narrow your eyes at a bag of salt and vinegar kettle chips, “Do I want pretzels or salt and vinegar chips?” 
“Why not both?” he shrugs. 
You scrunch your nose up, tossing your head from side-to-side, then grab the kettle chips and drop them into your basket, “What’s your movie pick?”
“I’m between Dazed and Confused and The Wolf of Wall Street,” he says, glancing over at you. 
Your face lights up and you coo, “Ohhh Dazed and Confused, please!”
“Maybe.” 
“Maybe?” 
He grins at you and shrugs, “I will take your opinion into consideration.” 
“What, I can’t help you choose?” 
“It’s my pick,” Frankie chuckles, “You can’t pick my pick!” 
You roll your eyes at him. The two of you round the corner, merging into the vacant main aisle, and you say, “Fuck, I want ice cream.”
“I want a fucking drink,” he mutters offhandedly, then notices your concerned stare and says, “Sorry.” 
“Do you really?” 
His brow furrows as he considers this, eventually admitting, “In a way, yeah.”
You know you shouldn’t take it personally. He’s an alcoholic. But that rationale doesn’t stop the ache that spreads across your chest. 
Frankie must recognize your hurt, because he nudges you and adds, “Not because I don’t like this or anything.”
You give him a warm, reassuring smile as you turn down the freezer aisle. He continues. 
“It just lingers, I guess. Like I think I could drink and be fine,” he comes to a stop in front of the ice cream, glancing around before staring forward into the freezer like it holds all the answers, “Everything is just so… raw without it. All the feelings I’ve never dealt with, they keep bubbling up and it’s—I don’t know, it’s a lot.” 
It surprises you that he’s talking about this so openly, in a public place and everything. Two months ago you could not have dragged these words from his mouth under any circumstances. 
You nod as you study him, “Well, um… I know it’s hard, but I’m glad you’re doing it.”
He doesn’t really react, just continues to look at the ice cream. His eyes are a million miles away, though. Lost in thought. You lay your hand on his shoulder and graze your thumb against him, “Francisco.”
His jaw tightens. 
“Hey, look at me.” 
He blinks a few times, then swings his gaze to meet yours. 
“I mean it. It’s been a pleasure getting to know the real you, in all your, uhhh,” you stop and try to come up with something eloquent, landing on, “sober glory. I know it’s a lot. But I can see that it’s making a huge difference. You’re so far beyond where you started. It’s… it’s really brave to choose sobriety. I’m proud of you, Frankie.” 
It all kind of spills out of you. A collage of sentiments you’ve been keeping to yourself thrown crudely together here in the middle of the freezer aisle. 
His brow creases, eyes all dewy as they flick around your face. You worry that what you said doesn’t make sense, or that maybe it was insensitive. But then, his basket falls to the floor with a clatter and he pulls you into a hug. 
Again, you’re taken by surprise. 
You just stand there for a moment, kind of awkward with your basket dangling in one hand. 
He squeezes you tighter. Unbridled appreciation flows from him. Your stomach flutters and tears prick your eyes. You drop your basket to properly return the gesture, wrapping both arms around his torso, pulling him close. 
The warmth of his body surrounds you. You take a deep breath, inhaling the comforting musk of his skin, exhaling tension, melting into this softness. 
Frankie sniffles and kisses the crown of your head, murmuring into your hair, “Thank you.” 
You part ways, both taking a step back to see the others’ glossy, red-tinged eyes. 
And you’re not sure exactly why, but then you both laugh. Not in a nervous way. More like joy. It bubbles beneath your skin and makes you feel hopeful. 
He picks his basket up off the ground and clears his throat, turning back to the freezer door, “Anyway, ice cream.” 
Tumblr media
When the end credits roll on Dazed and Confused, you stand up off the couch and start towards the kitchen, asking Frankie, “Need anything?” 
“I’m good, thanks,” he answers with a yawn. 
You pull open the cupboard and find a bag of popcorn, then toss it in the microwave. While you wait for it to pop, you check your phone. Three unread messages. 
> RORY: > Hey > How was work?  > Doing anything fun tonight? 
“Hey, I was thinking,” Frankie says as he shuffles past the dining room table, into the kitchen. You set your phone down on the counter and cross your arms, looking up at him. 
“Next week is Sarah’s birthday, Ang is throwing a party on Saturday. Do you want me to see if she would let you come?” 
The question leaves you momentarily speechless. You never thought it would be a possibility, and the offer completely blindsides you. 
Your mouth gapes open and you blink, “I, um—well, I—”
“If you want to, I mean.” 
You frown and meet his eyes, “Well, yeah, obviously I want to, but is Angie really ok with that?” 
“I’ll talk to her,” he says, leaning back on the counter next to you, “She’s been more receptive lately. And—and I think if you brought Rory, she would feel more reassured, that, um…”
Your stomach drops like a rock. 
A clusterfuck of messy emotions tangle and twist inside your body. At the tip of your tongue sits the question: That, what, there’s nothing going on between us? 
You look over at him and search his face. It’s unreadable. He’s frozen like he knows he came dangerously close to mentioning the elephant in the room and doesn’t know what to do next. 
The air thickens. 
Moments go by that feel like centuries.
You can’t stand it anymore, and lead him to continue the thought, “That what?”
He turns to face you and looks fucking terrified. Forehead creased. Eyes wide. Lips parted like apologies are about to come spilling out of them. 
You hold his gaze. Try not to notice the pungent energy pulsing between your bodies, or the way his eyes soften when he looks at your mouth and takes a step towards you. 
For one heart-stopping moment, you think he’s going to kiss you. 
A beep sounds from the microwave. 
He looks to the source, trance broken, but your eyes stay trained on him. On the elongated bob of his throat swallowing nerves. On the restless, twitchy movements that suddenly seem to possess him. 
When he notices you’re still staring at him, he only allows a brief glance before dropping his gaze to the ground and shoving his hands in his pockets, finally saying, “I—I just mean that I think she’ll be ok with it. And—and Sarah would be excited to see you.”
You pause before you react, trying to decide whether or not to ask him the question tearing apart your insides like a rabid dog: Do you want me to go so I can see Sarah, or so you can continue to lie to your wife?
Simultaneously, you cannot ask him and you need to know.
You tell yourself: He’s in recovery. He needs support, not criticism. 
You say: Let him figure out the missing pieces in his life and put it back together. Even if the shape it takes breaks you. 
“Ok,” you give him a tight nod and push off the counter, pulling the microwave door open, “If she’s fine with it, I’d love to go.” 
“Yeah?”
You pinch the corner of your bloated popcorn bag and pull it out, nudging the microwave door closed, then turn to face him, but don’t look up, “Yeah, I’d like that.” 
A small, distant voice says: You fucking coward. 
255 notes · View notes
marsbutterfly · 8 months
Text
Final Mission - Remastered
Summary: The rumbling begins to close in on you and your friends. With very few choices remaining, you have to watch as Hanji makes a decision that will alter the course of your life forever.
Tumblr media
a/n: hello hello!! So ever since part 3 part 1 came out, I decided to start working on rewriting my very first work, for Hanji and for Attack On Titan. This piece has always meant so much to me as it was written with lol sm grief? anyway, I know it's been a while but Hanji pls come back, the kids and I miss you babes.
ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢs: attack on titan season 4 part 3 (part 1) spoilers if you haven't watched it yet, angst, blood, established relationship, soulmate loss, a bit of resentment towards tbh everyone if you squint. | ao3 | wattpad | the original | wc: 3.3k
“You could break my heart in two
But when it heals, it beats for you”
“I’m the one who brought everyone here. I killed my comrades to come this far. I’ll take responsibility for it all,” Hanji says, her hands trembling while grasping the thunder spears firmly, eyes filled with terror while a shallow breath fights to leave her lungs. The ground shakes beneath you and a chilling sensation courses down your spine.
You finally find the courage to turn around to face her as she approaches the group, words dying and being reborn in your throat as you struggle to find just the right thing to say, eventually landing on the bleakest yet most desperate request, “Don’t you fucking dare.”
Her footsteps are heavy, contrasting clearly with those of the colossal titans as they march towards you. Her vision is focused on the young, blonde boy ahead of you and you can tell she is trying with all her might to avoid your eyes, afraid of the reaction you might have.
“Armin Arlert,” her voice is gentle, gentler than it has been in a while, almost as if the heavy burden of the world inside the walls has finally lifted from her shoulders and she could actually think straight, “I hereby designate you the 15th Commander of the Scout Regiment.”
The remainder of the words exchanged between the two of them simply echoes in your brain, going from one ear to the other, almost as if they were speaking sheer gibberish. It doesn’t make sense, none of it does. Why is she making him commander when she is still standing right there? Hopefully not for the reasons you are expecting, right? Your thoughts move a thousand times faster than the actual conversation flows.
Your eyes are fixated on the scenery before you, a mixture of feelings coursing through your veins and your heart feels like it has been missing a few beats as an intense void begins to creep from deep inside of you. The situation is not ideal: the colossal titans get closer by the second, the atmosphere becomes hotter with their steam clouding the air and an overwhelming feeling of despair grows in your chest.
You focus on the sound of her voice, the same sound that has brought you so much comfort in the most trying of times now makes no sense, no matter how you look at it. Her face, which has always been your absolute favorite piece of art to ever exist, now contorted into a pained and saddened expression. In fact, it reminded of the way she looked when Erwin announced she would be taking over the Scouts in case he didn’t make it through Shiganshina.
You are finally pulled out of this trance once she begins to move again, this time towards Levi, confused and worrying eyes following her every move carefully as she moves across the brick bridge. From where you stand, you can see the black haired man tightening his left fist, the breeze hitting every so lightly, just barely enough for it to lift his hair and show you that he is sharing a quick glance with you before returning to Hanji.
“Hey, four-eyes,” he says. That’s the first time you have heard him call her those two words since she became commander. He had told you once before he did it out of respect, seeing that she was now his superior, so for him to say it now, in a moment like this, that is when the realization and truth of the moment finally began to dawn on you.
“You understand, right, Levi?” Her voice trembles in the slightest, in a manner that would be unnoticeable to anyone else but you and the man she is speaking to, “my turn has come at last.”
Hanji raises her hands, fingertips trembling and causing the thunder spears to shake, the sweat glistening on her face as her pupils twitch, it’s a sight you hoped to never see. She tries to play her nervousness off, “I’m giddy with the desire to make a supremely cool exit. Don’t stop what I’ve got going.”
For the first time, her eyes meet yours and you realize only then how many tears she was holding back, a quiet sob dying in your throat as you yelp, your body rejecting your brain’s commands to move, legs stuck in place and swallowing has never been this hard.
With a sigh, you hear those three words out of Levi’s mouth, the same words that are now only chanted by a ghost or a distant memory, “Dedicate your heart.” It feels like a punch to the stomach, air can no longer find its way inside your lungs and you choke on your own saliva, there is no denying what is about to happen anymore and the overwhelming sensation that there is nothing you can do to change it overwhelms you.
She smiles and lets out a gentle giggle, “That’s the first time I’ve heard you say that.”
Lastly, she makes her way towards you. The need for oxygen is intense but the very second that her gentle fingertips touch your face, the world seems to stop for a moment and every worry you have ever had dissipates into the feeling.
“I truly hope that you can forgive me one day,” she says and the tears that dangled from her eyes were finally allowed to fall. With a smirk on her lips, she blew on your face so that your hair would move from one spot to the other and the smell of her breath fills you with a sense of nostalgia and despair.
“Please don’t say that,” you whisper, bringing your body closer to hers, “you are the only family I have left. I don’t know where to go without you,” your voice trembles, your throat is as dry as the deserts you’ve heard Armin talk so much about. The tips of your fingers gently twirl a loose strand of hair that falls on her face.
Hanji turns her face at a precise 90 degree angle to look at Levi, a stoic expression on his face though his eyes tell you everything you need to know about his feelings. A tear runs down Hanji’s face, but only one as she won’t allow herself to fully break down until you are out of sight, “Will you take care of her for me?” He doesn’t respond with words, the only thing he does is nod his head in agreement.
Her eyes make their way back to you as she uses both of her hands to carefully cup your face, lips meeting yours with a desperation you had never seen before, almost as if she is trying to engrave you on her own body. Her tongue glides with yours for a couple of seconds and you feel the butterflies rising in your stomach as if it were the first time you have kissed her.
The moment couldn’t have been longer than a few seconds but it felt like forever and a day, your body nearly melting in contact with her touch. For a split moment, you forgot about the rumbling, about Eren, about the sacrifice she was about to make, nothing mattered anymore. Nothing but this very moment the two of you share.
Everything feels ok for a little while, the warmth of her brown eyes reminds you of the many cups of tea you have shared in the barricades, the softness of her touch bringing up memories of times you’ve met under the apple tree in the courtyard, and the gentleness on her lips stirring butterflies in your stomach, much like the very first time you’d seen her.
However it does not last long. You are brought back to reality by the sound of her ODM gear going off, the hook gripping onto the wall and the cold feeling her lips leave behind. Hanji doesn’t give you enough time to stop her, she simply pulls away before you could even react.
She doesn’t say anything. In the years that passed since she became commander, Hanji had been preparing you for the inevitable moment when she passes away, when her turn to make a sacrifice to save your life would come. In that time, you let your guard down, you had convinced yourself something like that would never happen, not to the both of you.
Your eyes are fixated on her every move, every swing of her blade, every flicker of her cape, and there is nothing you can do. Frozen in place, you watch in horror as she manages to take down a few of the colossal titans on their path of destruction. It wasn’t enough. The engineers still need more time.
Trembling hands struggle to find a way onto your blades as a thought goes through your brain, “How can I help her?” By the time you manage to look back up, you catch a glance of a scene that could only be described as your worst nightmare: your beloved’s body, the person you’ve loved most for the past few years, catching on fire as a result of the bodily heat of the colossal titans.
Your heart sinks in your stomach and all you can do is scream. Your feet begin to move as you make up your mind to run and assist them but a pair of strong hands get a hold of your waist before you have time to move forward.
“Reiner, let me go,” you demand, in vain. No matter just how much you kick, or scream, or scratch him, his grip will not loosen and a sense of utter despair fills you. Your throat burns and your vision is blurred out by all the tears, your hands are shaking and there is nothing more you can do.
The last drop was the moment you caught a glimpse of her lifeless, burned to a crisp body falling from the sky like a meteor ready to destroy your life. You had no more fight left in you, no more strength remaining to try and free yourself from Reiner’s arms.
Something inside of your brain begins to slip away, was it your sanity? Or something more personal, like your spirit? No, this was a feeling you had encountered time and time again, expedition after expedition, titan kill after titan kill, hopelessness. Except this time, the feeling was a thousand times worse.
Without her, how would you be able to find Eren and stop the rumbling once and for all? Not only that, but for the first time, probably ever, you questioned her judgment, after all, how could Armin be commander? The boy who was chosen over Erwin, part of the reason why you found yourself in this situation in the first place.
No, there was no use in pointing fingers at each other. If in a situation like this, where life and death walked hand in hand, she chose him, then you would trust her judgment, even if you didn’t agree with it, even if you believed it to be the wrong choice.
Your eyelids grow heavier the closer you get to the plane, the tears have yet to stop running down your face and a full body spread of goosebumps has taken hold of your skin. You manage to take a deep breath before allowing your exhausted body to slip into unconsciousness and, for the last time, you hear her voice.
“I love you.”
The pounding sensation in your head is nearly too much to bear. You squint through closed eyes, slowly using whatever little strength you have left to raise your arm, shielding your face from the far too close sun rays. The atmosphere surrounding the area is so heavy you could cut it with a knife, but a determined Armin breaks free from the awkwardness. “Listen up,” he says, the confidence is his voice masking his true emotions, “Let’s go over the plan.”
Their voices are now a bit louder, the slight turbulence you come across every so often causes the plane to shake and every last bit of metal to scrape against one another. You can hear the sound of a pencil scribbling on the metal floor, but whether it is writing or drawing, you are unable to realize.
As the conversation goes by, your ears begin to ring and your mind can’t help but wonder how long it has been. You take your hand up to your chest, clutching tightly to the fabric that covers the area above your heart, it feels empty, like it has been broken in two and the pieces have been flung out into space.
Has it been seconds? Has it been days? No, while it feels like an eternity has passed, deep down you know that it has only been somewhere between fifteen to thirty minutes. Tears begin to pool up in your eyes once more, that emptiness eating away at your stomach while you choke down a desolate sob. You don’t want to draw attention towards yourself but yet somehow, you find yourself as the center of everyone’s concern.
For a while, no one dares to move, speak or even breathe. You can’t be bothered by their reactions or lack thereof, the pressure on your chest desperately needs to be released. The tears won’t stop flowing, air fails to enter your lungs as heavy hiccups erupt from deep within your soul. The void you feel could only be compared to a bottomless abyss, not knowing when it will end.
Once you have no more tears left, you try your best to use your arms to sit up, cursing yourself for being so weak in the face of such immediate danger. Footsteps approach you and a helping hand finds a comfortable spot on your lower back, gently assisting you in your attempt to sit. You don’t need to see the person’s face to know exactly who it is.
“Mikasa,” you say, not quite sure if it is a question or if anything else is going to follow.
“How are you feeling?” She asks, her voice is raspy and gentle, like she has been doing some crying of her own. You can’t help but smirk, not out of happiness, but because you know they all already have an idea of what your answer is going to be.
“It feels like my heart has just been ripped out of my chest and I had to watch as it burned,” you say and they all immediately understand that you are referring to the condition you were forced to leave Hanji’s body in. It is a stupid question but, for some reason, it does make the aching a tad bit more tolerable.
“Your hand is bleeding,” Armin points out in a serene voice as he walks towards you, his footsteps seem lighter than a feather in an attempt to not spook you away, as if you were a wild, injured little animal, “How did that happen?”
“I cut it,” You respond, dryly. Your lower lip quivers as you open your palm, revealing the smallest piece of green fabric. It is clear from the patter and the design that it came from one of the cloaks owned by the Survey Corps, no extra words are needed for all present to understand that it belonged to their fallen Commander. Though no one desires to talk about it, Reiner decides to take the fall.
“I may not have been so gentle when we were boarding the flying boat,” he says, using his left hand to scratch the back of his neck while the right one holds onto the rail above his head, “I’m sorry, y/n. I should have been more careful.”
You know what he is trying to do. It is clearly a lie and there is no denying any of it, but you appreciate his efforts to remove the attention from the sore subject. You purse your lips in what could be considered a small smile while quietly nodding your head.
“Would you mind if I took a look at it?” Armin asks, kneeling beside you while reaching his hand underneath your own. Perhaps he was right to treat you like a spooked animal, seeing as your immediate reaction was to move your hand far away from him, clinging onto the fabric for dear life as you push your body towards the back of the ship until you collide with the metal wall. “Please.” He begs.
“No,” you cower away, “This is the last part of me to have ever touched her. It doesn’t hurt, in fact, I can barely feel anything anymore.”
Once more he asks, “Please,” and you realize he isn't going to let the subject go. So before too much of your blood has a chance to soak the bit of cloth, you switch it towards your other hand, extending your injured arm until it touches the top of his thighs.
You whimper as a stream of clean water comes in contact with your open skin, dirt debris being washed away by the contents as best as possible. Your eyes never leave his face, the now 15th Commander of the Survey Corps taking care of you, your heart gets heavier the more you think of him in such a manner. His shoulders are slumped forward, as if there is a “not so fictional” weight on them. It doesn’t take long before he is finished bandaging you up.
“I am fully aware it is not the same but,” a masculine voice comes from the front half of the ship, “you still have us.”
Your eyes now meet Levi, whose crossed arms and stern face somehow brings you the slightest amount of comfort. With a helping hand from Connie, you make your way towards him, gently placing yourself between Pieck and the black-haired man, who ever so gently places a comforting hand behind your back. It is rare for him to demonstrate any sort of affection, so by the way his fingers feel against your clothes, you can nearly feel his own grief. Another lump forms in your throat, but you swallowed it this time.
“We’ll make sure that Hanji’s death wasn’t in vain,” Mikasa swears, false determination taking over her words, “We’ll return Eren into his old self, I know he is still in there somewhere, just waiting for us.”
Any sort of emotion gets drained from your face as you stare deep into her eyes, gray orbs looking deeply at you in hopes of any approval of her message. You raise your chin as you cross your legs, bringing your body forward, closer to her. You don’t want to be mean, nor do you want to make her feel like her attempt at comforting you fell into deaf ears, but all present right now know that what she has said is bullshit. 
“Mikasa,” your voice is stern, “do you remember what Annie asked you once in the forest and then again after we attempted to communicate with Floch?” She doesn’t respond but, by the expression on her face, you realize that she knows exactly what you are talking about. With no indication that she plans on acknowledging the subject, you continue, “She asked you if you would ever be able to kill Eren.”
She looks away, gripping her knees tightly. “That won’t be necessary!” Armin says, the nervousness in his voice is palpable as he desperately tries to change the subject while still hoping to provide you with the comfort he knows you need at this moment.
You sigh before continuing, “I know you want to bring him back. I may know that better than anyone else at the moment. But I need you to listen closely as I tell you this,” Your voice is louder than the engines, the tears begin pooling in your eyes once more, you bring the small piece of Hanji’s cloak towards your chest, a determined expression on your face, “There is no bringing him back at this point. He has gone too far. Even if you did bring him back, the remaining world population would kill him with their bare hands.”
“Why are you saying all of this?” Someone asks, though your mind has become nothing but fog so you can’t quite tell whose voice it is at the moment. You take a deep breath, allowing the cold air to fill your burning lungs.
“Because no matter what you all say,” any emotion is drained from your voice, “my final mission is to kill Eren Yeager.”
“If I could do it all again
I know I'd go back to you”
150 notes · View notes
e-r0da · 7 months
Text
A Strong Sorcerer
AN: First work so please let me know what you think! Don't really know where this came from tbh, just wanted to try my hand at writing :) Might make a part two if the inspo strikes!
Word Count: ~1.5k
CW: Mention of severe injury. Fluff hinting at a potential Yuuta x reader pairing.
----------------------------------------------------
You were never going to be the strongest sorcerer.
Perhaps that’s not what the doctor said, but it’s what you understood.
Your fingers trailed your face softly, inching above your cheekbones and around the bridge of your nose, mapping out the bandages that hid what came of your first solo assignment. 
Perhaps this is how it feels, you thought. To prove yourself.
It wasn’t your mission, at least not originally. But as a newly enrolled second-grade with an untested talent for handling shikigami, the sorcerer commission was curious enough to sub you in for Megumi, who was busy enough. So you took the mission. You just wanted to be of use.  
But no one anticipated a special-grade curse to be there to greet you.
Curious, you tried touching your right eye. A searing bolt of pain wormed its way into your brain as your hand jolted from your face, white stars blooming in your mind’s eye. Fuck. You felt a bit sick to your stomach, trying your best to calm your breathing and bite back a yelp.
You forced yourself to think logistically.
You would never be the strongest. Fine. This was never about that, anyway.
Would the commission even name you a grade-one after this? Maybe. It was undeniable that you had potential. And even if they never did, well. That wouldn’t be what stopped you.
Most importantly, could you still do it?
Could you still kill that curse?
You sat silently. You didn’t know how to answer the question that mattered most.
Without your sight, how much longer would it take to do what was needed?
*
“We’re here. Hold still for a minute, I’ll grab your stuff first and help you in.”
“Thanks.”
You felt Megumi’s hand leave your shoulder, his warmth slipping behind you quietly, presumably down the hall where a duffel of your equipment and medical supplies had been set down at the dorm’s entrance.
He felt bad, you knew that. But you wish he hadn’t. Megumi didn’t need another burden to shoulder.
The sound of wood creaking distracted you. It sounded like it came from your upper left. Huh. He moved fast.
“Megumi, I should have it from here so you don’t ne—”
“Wait-no Rika I didn’t mean—!”
“YUUTA YOU LIAR!”
You couldn’t help but feel your eyebrows shoot up as the floor shook beneath you. You searched for a wall to keep you balanced. Wait...Rika?
“Please it’s really okay—”
“BUT YOU TOLD THEM NO ONIONS!!” The floor shook again. 
Oh yeah, yup. Yuuta was definitely back.
The corner of your mouth twitched as you piped up. “Did he at least get the ranch, Rika?”
“-oh my god...”
“—YUUTA WHERE IS THE RANCH??!?”
You heard Megumi quietly step to your left, a small sigh leaving him. “No ranch? Now that’s just wrong, man.”
Turning your head in the direction of his voice, you murmured an agreement.
A door creaked open, followed by the soft sound of Yuuta scratching the back of his head timidly. Even without your sight, you’d watched him do it enough in the past to picture it now with ease.
“...Hey.”
You began to smile at the sound of his voice. But then the air was squeezed from you in one fell swoop.
“EEEE!”
You clambered an arm around Rika’s bear-hugging form, trying to simultaneously give her a welcome-back pat and expand your lungs.
“I missed you too, girlie.” You breathed out.
“Rika, she’s injured.” Bless your heart, Megumi.
You were dropped quickly. 
Megumi quietly grabbed your shoulder once again before you could stumble.
“NOOOO! NOOO! I’M SORRY!!”
You laughed. “I’m fine, Rika. You did nothing wrong.”
You heard the special-grade curse whimper. 
“I MISSED ONEE-CHAN...” Sometimes, Rika reminds you of a baby sister. 
It was easy to forget what the small girl had become at times like this. You wondered a bit if soon it would be even easier, now that you couldn’t actually see her anymore.
“We both missed you.” Your head whipped around. 
Yuuta. It made your chest warm up a bit, knowing he sounded the same as ever.
“How are you feeling?” 
“Hungry, if I’m being honest.”
“WE GOT NUGGETS!!! YUUTA! YUUTA THE NUGGETS!!!”
You let out an excited gasp. “With—”
“—with honey mustard, yes. I’m on it!” Rika let out a satisfied hum as Yuuta went to find your nuggets.
“YUUTA WENT BACK FOR THE MUSTARD. HE WAS SO COOL!!”
“Wooow! How did he forget his ranch then?”
Yuuta let out a strangled sigh from inside his room.
And...did Megumi just snort? 
*
Licking the last of the honey mustard from the counter of your mouth, you took in the silence that filled the hall, jokes of the past hour or so fading into the walls. Megumi had left to help with a mission, but Yuuta was still here, sitting beside you, and now that he was sans Rika he was awfully quiet. 
You missed being able to read people’s faces.
He breaks the silence. 
“We should have been there.”
Ah. You grasp at the floor around you for a napkin before wiping your hands and face clean. It buys you a few seconds to conjure something logical to say.
“At least it's dead. It can’t hurt anyone else.”
“It hurt you, though.” Oof. Okay, we’re being direct today.
“…No use crying over spilt milk, Yuuta.”
“This feels more serious than spilt milk, y/n.”
Man. 
“Don’t worry about me.”
“…”
This kind of silence–awkward silence–between you two felt foreign. You usually found peace in his company, even when it was silent. And even when things went wrong, you were usually the one trying to convince Yuuta to seek out help–whether it be in the form of medicine, company, or a break. Having someone fuss over you so persistently instead made you itchy all over. 
You wanted it to stop.
“...Yuuta.”
“Yeah?”
“Can I…” for a brief moment, you thought you wanted to ask him for a hug. 
“Can I have your onions?” That was equally as bad.
“...oh. Yeah, lemme put them on your plate.”
“Thanks.”
The silence now was worse than before, with the only thing filling it being your obnoxious crunching and the smell of raw onion (why oh why did you do this to yourself) making things even more acidic feeling, if possible.
He tries again, softer this time, if that was even possible.
“You know you can talk to me, right?” 
For some reason his words get the onions lodged in your throat.
You get up quickly mid-retch, trying to escape the fucking onions–and Yuuta’s aura of pity.
He pats your back firmly at some point (while apologizing because he seems to think that this counts as hitting you??) and it dislodges the vegetable, much to your relief. 
“This is all my fault.” Jesus christ.
“Ohmygod Yuuta please–”
“I really told them no onions this time, though.” Oh. Oh.
You let loose a cackle, at the absurdity of it all. And soon enough, Yuuta follows suit, hand still lingering on your back. Suddenly it feels like how things usually are between you two. Easy.
You breathe in deeply, taking a moment to recover from your laughing/choking fit before remembering what it is he said that got you in this state in the first place.
“I know I can talk to you, Yuuta. You’re probably the only person I would talk to...like that.”
The honesty in your voice somewhat surprises even you, making you a bit embarrassed. From the way his hand grips your shirt slightly, you would say the vulnerability shocked him too.
“–But! For now, can you take me back to my room?” you scratched the base of your skull. “I could really use a nap after all that yummy stuff.”
His chuckle is delicate, understanding. “I’d be happy to.” 
You don’t quite hear him move until you feel his warm breath fanning your neck, his hand softly holding your arm. 
“And...”
“Yeah?” Your cheeks feel hot.
“Whether I worry about you or not is up to me.”
At that you were quiet, brows scrunched together as your heart felt just a bit more heavy with every passing moment you spent together.
Yuuta was one of the few people who could still make you…uncomfortable. But not because he was mean. Never because he was mean. People like that had long since stopped bothering you. Rather, he reminded you of your mother’s hand in your hair, calming you between sobs. He reminded you of the freely-given ‘I love you’s’ of your baby sister. He reminded you of the only people you buried. Of tenderness.
He was probably the best friend you had ever made. It was just a shame that you had a death wish.
After a few moments of hobbling around together, he places your hand at the door knob of your room. 
“Here we are.”
You try to be honest. To warn him, inadvertently, as you step from your shared space in the hall to the one that was just your own.
“I still plan on fighting, you know.”
He doesn’t even miss a beat.
“Then I’ll help you train.”
99 notes · View notes
clubdionysus · 5 days
Text
[BAD DECISION #4] The Gym
Tumblr media
warnings: a gym. no further warning. oh and jk is sexy but what’s new?
soundtrack: 20 something - sza, angostura - keshi
wc: 4.1k
bd total wc: 540k (on-going)
minors dni | AO3 | series masterlist 
Tumblr media
Glancing down to the address that Hoseok had hastily scribbled on a piece of scrap paper, you sigh. It's a hearty one. Clears your lungs. Gets your blood pumping a little swifter. There's a weight to staying alive, and it feels like it might just crush down on your windpipe and suffocate you altogether.
Okay, so maybe you're being dramatic. Maybe this is fine. You tell yourself to 'get a grip', but you know it's useless.
It's not that you're nervous - except for the fact you completely are - you just don't like the idea of gyms. They remind you of your ex a little too much. 
More specifically, how he'd force you to go along with him, and how you'd whine and moan, but spend the entire time laughing with him. How he'd lift you instead of weights. How he'd tell you that you look 'far too hot' in a pair of leggings and sports bra, and the way you'd keep them on until you got home just for the simple pleasure of him being the one to take them off.
So, yeah. You don't like gyms. Avoid them when you can.
Partially because you don't know which one he goes to anymore, but mainly because it feels like you can't breathe whenever you see a pair of shoulders almost broad enough to be his. There tend to be a lot of jacked guys in gyms. Makes it a more common occurrence.
Still, you've been trying to remedy that. Trying to face fears. Failing, but trying at least.
You swallow back the lump in your throat. Bite the bullet. Open the door. Easy. 
The girl at the front desk is potentially the most drop-dead gorgeous woman you've ever seen. Blonde, petite, a smile that could end wars. She's laughing with another member of staff - a trainer, you think - before he goes into a backroom.
You're a little unsure of yourself still, but she's glowing in such a way that it feels like maybe this could be okay. Nothing to fear. Plus who would even bother looking at a man's shoulders when someone who looks like she does is around? Far more captivating. Endlessly more appealing.
Her smile focuses on you as you walk towards her, brows lifted, eyes wide and open as if to say 'hiya! welcome!'. Her voice is just as chirpy as you imagine when she greets you.
"I don't think I recognise you," she says, questioning herself before she makes an introduction. "My name's Jiyeong, I'm a trainer here. Are looking to sign up for a membership?"
You shake your head and laugh a little awkwardly. You're not really dressed for the gym - a pair of sweats and a slouchy Carhartt tee. It's not sports gear appropriate for a place like this. Everyone's in skin-tight lycra, and they all look great wearing it. Makes you think that maybe you should try and get over this fear for good. Become one of those people.
"No, actually," you grimace a little awkward, voice sweet. You know you're gonna be asking for a favour, so try and fail to keep it short. Instead, you ramble a little. "I'm meeting someone here, but I don't have my phone - he's got it actually. Dumb accident. Long story actually, completely my fault - anyways, I was wondering if you'd be able to buzz me through so I could just grab it quickly? I'll be five seconds, in and out. Please."
It's at this point the corners of her mouth drop a little. Her lips press together. She's still smiling, but it doesn't reach her eyes anymore. "Hmm?"
"His name is Jeongguk," you begin to explain further - but then she smiles again and cuts you off.
"Oh, I don't think I know a Jeongguk?" She pouts a little. "Anyways, I'm really sorry but I can't let you through without a membership. Company policy. I really wish it wasn't the case, but they track the entry process."
You don't want to put her out. You've worked in customer service for long enough to know not to push company protocol. It's not worth getting fired over just to make a customer's life a tiny bit easier - and so you nod. 
"Of course, totally understand," you say as you glance over to the gate that allows access into the workout area. It needs a passcode. Can't even make a dash for it - although you're half tempted to when you see a couple come through the gate without a care in the world. It takes an absolute age to shut. "Do you guys do day memberships here? I literally just need to get in and out, but I'll pay for a day pass if I need to."
Something about Jiyeong is really throwing you off. She's smiling, and she looks like butter wouldn't melt, but there's a sourness to it all. There's no butter. Just curdled milk.
She winces apologetically. Shrugs. Brings her shoulders to her ears in a way you would have found sweet maybe five minutes ago. Shakes her head. 
"They're referral only. You'll need someone with a preexisting membership with you. But!" She chirps up. "We have a month pass you can purchase instead."
For all of your common sense faux pas, and the bad decisions that have led you here, you're not actually stupid. No gym in their right mind would actively try and sabotage their own earnings. She's spewing bullshit, but is somehow managing to make it smell like roses.
"A month?" You question, trying not to let your frustration show.
"Mhhm," she nods.
Her beauty seems to fade with every smile. Ironic, really. Her friendly demeanour is what had made her so attractive, and now it's shattering the illusion.
In any other circumstance, you'd say fuck it, and head home - but Jeongguk has your phone. 
You said you'd meet him here. You could wait until he finishes his workout but you have no idea when that will be, and you're still suffering from your hangover. You just want to get it over and done with, so you say, "Alright, I'll sign up for a month. No rolling contract."
"No rolling contract," she nods. "Okay. Just need a few details from you."
There's a form to fill out; payment details to be given. A box to tick: which trainer helped you sign-up? Small print: Trainers earn a small commission for every sign-up. Please ask for their name. 
You're half tempted to check another trainer's name, but she's watching you like a fucking hawk.
Should have just chosen the club. Would have been easier. Could have even made a night of it - it's a Saturday after all. But no, you and your tiny marble brain thought that the gym would be easier? Better?
Ridiculous. Hoseok had been right all along. It was the worst choice you'd made all week.
"You're all ready," she smiles as you lament the choices of your past self. She says a goodbye that sounds friendly but feels like a fuck you. You're not sure what exactly you've done to rub her up the wrong way, but you'd quite like it if you never rubbed shoulders with her again.
There's a mechanical whir as you enter a pin into the gate. It opens for you with a small beep, and you feel like your throat is closing up a little bit. There's a wrought iron staircase leading up to the weight area, the bottom level focused more on machines and cardio. A third floor is reserved for studios and private classes according to the signage, so you decide he's probably not there.
You don't know much about this man, but you have seen him without a shirt on. The weight area seems like a safe bet. 
There's an uncomfortable discord in your chest as you head up to the second floor, your black high-top chucks padding against the metal gently. Hair up, not even trying to pretend like you're not still hanging, part of you regrets dressing so casually.
Your skin feels all hot and clammy, and you know exactly why, but you try and convince yourself that it's just the hangover. That's all it is.
It'll pass, you tell yourself. In and out. You're alright.
Jeongguk notices you before you notice him. He's by the mirrors. Caught sight of you, your eyes all wide and worried - presumably in search of him -  as he was checking his form. Putting his weight down, he turns to face you a little more straight on, which is what draws your focus to him.
"Hey," he says a little breathlessly, a tone of surprise evident. He whips a towel over his shoulder, and you're reminded of how he looked behind the bar of Dionysus. Dabs at his face a little. Shakes his head to adjust the hair that is stuck to his forehead from his workout.
"What are you doing up here?" He asks tenderly, conscious of the fact you look like you've seen a ghost. He's aware he probably doesn't look his best, but he didn't think he looked that bad. "I told Jiyeong to let me know when you arrived. Was just gonna bring it down, save you the hassle."
"Oh," you reply, a little stuck on your words. The burning in your throat is subduing. The pressure on your chest feels a little lighter. 
"Sorry, I -" you begin, and then you remember who the fuck you are. You hate being like this. Hate when you get panicked. Hate that he seems to be looking at you with concern. Also hate that Jiyeong is apparently a massive dick, but you'll choose to be frustrated about that later. "I actually have a membership here."
Joy.
Jeongguk hums in surprise, head tilting, mouth forming a cute little 'o'. "You do? Never seen you here before."
Wonder why.
"Oh yeah, here all the time," you nod, because apparently Jiyeong isn't the only one who fancies being a big old liar today. And then you smile. Flirt. "Like, maybe even more than you."
Now, this he does raise a brow at. Smirks. Picks up his weight as he moves to straddle the bench beside him. He sits down and places the weight beneath his arms for something to lean on. "Not so sure about that."
He's wearing black chucks, too. Slouchy black tee. The only real difference is that he's in shorts. Your lips curve upwards, but you catch them before he notices.
"I'm just always downstairs," you shrug, playing off your little white lie like it's no biggie. "Surprised I haven't seen you about here, either."
You don't mean to be such an egregious liar, you're just embarrassed. Ashamed. Disconcerted by the fact you know you looked like a lost puppy when you arrived, and also how you know Jiyeong totally played some weird power move on you. You're not sure what to make of it. Don't like it, but also will likely never see her again. Not worth it. Not over some guy you don't intend on ever seeing again, either.
The logical assumption to be made is that she's involved with him in some capacity. Makes sense. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy to get lonely in the early hours.
Jeongguk accepts your bullshit. He knows it's bullshit because he does cardio as much as he does weights - anyone with an inkling of gym knowledge would be able to tell. He's sure you have your own niche, things that would win you points on a pub quiz, but the gym? Doesn't seem likely.
"Phones just in my locker," he tells you as he gets to his feet again, lifting his weight like it's a cup of coffee. You've no idea how much it weighs. Doubt you'd be able to make it look that effortless. "I'm just finishing up. Can you wait, like, five minutes? Or do you have places to be?"
His skin is dappled in rivulets of sweat. There's too much to take in visually, so you focus on his voice, instead. It's soft. Tender. Kind, you think. 
And so despite the fact there's no place you'd rather be less, you smile. Nod. "I can wait."
He nods back, says thank you, and gets back to his weights. He does a few more reps just to get to his daily goal, and then sets about clearing his area; puts the weights back on the rack, wipes down his bench. Runs his hand through his damp hair. Exhales a deep breath before turning to face you with a smile.
You wonder if he can notice the drool you've been trying not to let slip. 
He can't - but finds it curious how he didn't catch your gaze a single time during his final few reps. The gym is relatively quiet at this time of day, so there's no one in the immediate vicinity. Whenever he'd glanced in the mirror, your eyes were elsewhere.
One place in particular. 
The other mirror; one that's angled in such a way you can see his side profile. Jeongguk's aware of it. Had kind of positioned himself in line with it on purpose. 
"What's so interesting?" he asks and is met with a confused hum. Does he really think you're gonna admit to checking him out? Dream on. "You were just like... absorbed by that mirror. Good reflection?"
"Oh," you mumble, cheeks deepening in tone - and yet your poker face is just so good. "Was zoned out. Didn't notice."
He doesn't call you out on it any further. For all he knows, you could be telling the truth.
You wait for him by the entryway gate as he gets changed. Jiyeong watches you from the corner of her eye, being as discreet as she possibly can - but you can feel her eyes on you. In fact, she's as good at discretion as you were when you were watching Jeongguk work out.
When he finally emerges in a pair of grey shorts and hoodie, you smile. So does Jiyeong. 
He greets you. Ushers you through the gate. Says hi and bye to Jiyeong. Puts a hand on the top of your back as he opens the front door of the gym, but insists you walk through first. 
"How are you feeling today?" He asks as you make your way down the path that leads to the subway station. "Still rough?"
"That obvious?" You laugh. "Ouch. Thanks, dude."
"No," he laughs back. "You're forgetting I was the only sober person in my apartment last night. You drank enough to kill a person."
"That's not true," you accuse, before deflecting the blame. "Was all you and your Purple Starfuckers. Bloody lethal."
"Bloody brilliant," he counters. There's an ease as you walk side by side. You chalk it up to finally being out of the gym. Feels like you can breathe again. "Tell me you didn't keep coming back for more."
He has a point. You're surprised you didn't all drink the bar dry. But you simply laugh. Tap the crease of his elbow lightly with the back of your hand. 
He's smiling, too.
"Tell me you didn't keep giving me them for free! On the house! What kind of maniac turns down free drinks?!"
You've got a point. He can't argue against it - so instead he just gets a little argumentative. It's all in good fun. Shared humour. 
"Well then next time, you'll get nothing on the house, how about that? Not even water."
You snort a little, pushing your head back as you do so. You pass the first subway exit, with no idea if you're heading in the right direction for one another. Neither of you asks; neither of you declares. 
"Next time?" You scoff, still hanging. "I'm never drinking again."
"Heard that one before."
"I mean it. This hangover has written me off. Work almost killed me."
He wonders where you work. Wonders if the work is gruelling, or if you'd been able to recover in peace. He hopes for the latter. Would tease you if it's the former.
"You working tomorrow?" he pipes up. There's curiosity in his tone, but not enough for you to realise just how intrigued he is by you.
He's never seen a girl walk out on Jimin before. Ever. It's kind of remarkable. He wants to know why. Doesn't want to ask why, though.
You shake your head. "Day off." 
Thank god.
Jeongguk considers his options. He knows full well, walk-out or not, that you fucked Jimin last night. It adds complexity. Makes him unsure of his next steps. 
It's not like he's trying to get in your pants - he'd never hear the end of it from the boys if he went for Jimin's leftovers - but he'd be a liar if he said he didn't like your presence at the bar last night.
Not just you. All three of you. You've good energy. He enjoys the nights when punters are actually fun. If tonight is gonna be busy, he'd rather it be busy on his own terms.
"DJ's are doing a throwback theme tonight," he hums, and the way you stop in your tracks is beyond satisfying for him. He loves it when a plan comes together.
"Throwbacks, you say?"
He stops too, and turns to look at you with a slight air of nonchalance. There's a shrug to his broad shoulders, which remarkably don't remind you of your exes, his wide eyes soft as a subtle smile graces his lips. "All bangers."
"Define bangers," you challenge.
And oh, how Jeon Jeongguk loves a challenge. 
"Well," he says as he begins walking again. You follow. "Last time there were a LOT of old-school Taylor Swift songs."
"Keep talking."
"Timbaland, Rihanna - I'm talking proper noughties classics."
"I'm listening."
"Outkast, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys-"
"Offt."
"-Kanye, Mika, you name it. One Direction, fuckin' anything. They'll play it."
"Do they take requests?"
"Well, no I didn't mean they'll literally play anything you name," he laughs. "But you've got an in." He points at himself, seemingly proud of that fact. "I can get them to play whatever you want."
"Offt, I love having friends in high places," you muse, to which he tells you to 'fuck off' with the biggest grin on his face you've seen all day. "I'll think about it. You on the bar?"
He nods. "I am indeed."
"Hmm. Makes it less tempting."
Jeongguk wants to fight back, but knows that he'd probably end up flirting, and it's not his intention - so he changes the topic. 
"Jimin might be there, too. A friendly face."
He doesn't notice the way your face scrunches up a little uncomfortably. 
"I'm not really sure that'll sway me," you tell him. "Was a one-time thing. Sorry about that, again. Waking you, I mean. Not cool."
You really do believe your words - after all, Jeongguk had been the one to return your phone, not Jimin. Chivalry is dead, and apparently men get their housemates to return glass slippers, these days.
It's kind of Jeongguk's own fault.
Jimin doesn't know you've lost it. Jeongguk hasn't told him. Isn't sure why. Didn't really think about it at the time.
"It's fine, really. And I've lived with Jimin long enough to know it's never just a one-time thing."
"I'm an exception."
"Believe it when I see it."
And suddenly you feel challenged now - but you're by the final subway entrance. You've walked past three exits already. Should have really taken the first. Couldn't bring yourself to end the conversation earlier. 
However, now that the conversation has turned towards the topic of Jimin, you find yourself less inclined to continue it. You'd rather not be reminded of your questionable drunk decisions in the cold, sober light of day.
"This is me," you tell him. 
"Ah." He stops walking. Pauses. Looks at his Chuck Taylor-clad feet as he stands in front of you. He's holding onto the strap of his rucksack as he asks, "So you'll be at the club tonight?"
When he looks up, he's nibbling down on his bottom lip—toying with his lip ring. There's a hesitancy to his words, as if he's afraid you might say no.
You pretend as if you're weighing up your options, shifting your weight from foot to foot, lips pursed. You know if you propose the idea to Hoseok he'll jump at the chance to get shitfaced again, and where the pair of you venture, Danbi will surely follow. It's inevitable that you will end up at Dionysus tonight. 
But you simply smile and say, "Maybe."
He rolls his eyes, and it makes you laugh. He laughs, too. It's sweet, the way his energy matches yours. There's an ease to your rapport. You think it must be incredibly easy to be his friend. 
"Promise me a free Purple Starfucker, and I'll consider it a little bit more," you bargain.
He runs his tongue along the inside of his cheek, as he readjusts his bag over his shoulder, shaking his head a little. His eyes are glossy, and dark, and you think they look just like black treacle.  
"Maybe."
"Okay then," you nod. "See you maybe, Jeongguk."
He nods back. "See you maybe, Disco Ball."
"I won't come if you call me a disco ball again," you shout back as you descend down the stairs, leaving him by the exit.
He chooses not to banter back, scared he could ruin the moment; make things awkward, somehow. Instead, he turns on his heel, and begins retracing his steps. 
His turning was three junctions ago. He'd carried on walking just to talk bullshit with you. He chalks it up to him being too awkward to cut the conversation off. 
See, he might like a challenge, but he's plagued by the realities of them, too. Hates the idea of people not liking him. Wants to be loved universally, so refuses to embark on endeavours that could prove otherwise. He's Mr What If, and he's quite content that way. 
Jeongguk's nearly by the first crossing when he hears you shouting after him. You're a little breathless. Panting. He knows there's absolutely no way you do cardio.
"Wait, wait!" You call all flustered and hurried. "Jeongguk! Wait!" 
He's already waiting. The lights are still red. You're too concerned by your own internal panic to notice.
"Phone!" You almost wail, before you laugh. Inhale. Rest your palms on your knees. Exhale. Look up towards him. "My phone, Jeongguk! You still have my phone."
"Oh, shit," he laughs, pulling off his rucksack and fishing about for it. Seems so stupid to have forgotten about it. His cheeks are hot. 
It's returned promptly, apologies tumbling from his lips like laughter is falling from yours.
"This was all part of your plan, wasn't it?" You narrow your eyes accusingly. "Was gonna keep it so I had to go to the club."
He raises his arms, hands next to his ears, palms spread open, as if he's holding a white flag. "You caught me."
But it'll be Jeongguk catching you later - or at least your gaze, as he reciprocates a knowing smile when you inevitably end up in Dionysus, ready to make all the wrong choices all over again.
Tumblr media
AO3 | MASTERLIST | NEXT
29 notes · View notes
sexybabystevie · 1 year
Note
hurt/comfort steve thought (if you’re still accepting them!): he really hates crying in front of ppl so throughout the beginning of your relationship you try to gently remind him it’s ok if he cries in front of you, it’s not a sign of weakness etc. and when something happens that makes him break down in front of you for the first time, he’s like rly shy & embarrassed at first :(
A/n: Oh my gosh this took SO long to answer, I am SO SO sorry about that. Anyways, I enjoyed this thought so much that I decided to pair it with a running idea that I had in my brain lately, so this ended up Steve-Thought-turned-whole-fic, so I hope you enjoy it, lovely!! Once again, thank you for sending this in and partially inspiring this!
His Knight in Shining Armor
Boyfriend!Steve Harrington x Reader
Tags and Warnings: Post Volume 2 Setting, Mentions of Eddie's Death and Max's Coma, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fix-It, Missing Scene, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Guilt, Comfort/Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt Steve Harrington, Steve Finally Gets to Cry, Despite the Title Reader's Gender is Ambiguous, Episode: s04e09 "The Piggyback"
Word Count: 5527
Summary: Even as Steve's long-term partner, you've never once seen him cry. In the aftermath of the final battle against Vecna, and in the very hospital room where a barely-living Max Mayfield lies, that changes.
Steve Harrington Masterlist
“Steve!” 
Your legs burn as you chase your boyfriend out into the hallway, black Converse tapping softly at the dingy grey tiles beneath you. Everything is a blur – white walls and white coats and white lights that are far too bright and probing at you; it’s all blending together – and the smell of chemical antiseptic gives you a nauseating headache. Still, all of your grievances are floating, fading, flying away at the sight of the man before you. 
Steve Harrington is too strong for his own good. A lover, probably one of the most caring people you’ve ever known, and yet he carries so much. The guilt of being Nancy Wheeler’s bullshit for much too long, the awareness of Hawkins’ looming and inevitable doom, the instinct and need to be there to protect you and Robin, to protect the kids – all of these are things that Steve Harrington has placed upon his own back, heaving emotional weights that even a sumo wrestler would struggle to uphold, and yet you had never once seen him cry. Or, rather, he had never once let you see him cry.
You had cried in front of him several times – stress from work and just shitty days in general tearing you down – so it was difficult to imagine just how he was holding himself together. With the thinnest of threads, is what you would assume.
You had always told him that it was okay to be vulnerable, that you would be there to catch him if he ever fell, to hold him during his starless nights, but he was persistent. He shrugged off your offers, not in an unappreciative way, but in a manner that seemed to mean that he wanted you to be under the impression that he was fine. That he didn’t need you to sweep up the broken pieces of him and put them into the dustpan, because he had only ever tried being so defenseless with one other person before, and what had that gotten him? Bullshit…
You never pushed him, hoping with everything in you that he would absorb your words into his heart and come to you when the walls crumbled, but you had a feeling that the first cracks were forming in his foundation when this entire mess with Vecna started.
When you had stepped into Max’s hospital room together, hands interlocked, you almost felt his breathing catch as if you shared the same lungs. His palm stilled against your own, cold and clammy, and he was slinking away from you, back out the door you had barely stepped through to begin with. He was running down the hallway, towards the emergency fire exit at the very end, and you knew that the river was overflowing the dam. 
“Steve, please–” you breathlessly call out to him, gaining a few confused glances from patients and visitors nearby, but he’s out the door before the words have fully fallen from your lips. Whether he’s ignoring you in the hopes that you turn away or he somehow just hasn’t heard you yet, you’re unsure.
Regardless, you’re still hot on his heels, your feet hitting the ground impossibly faster. The force of your speed causes them to go numb, nerves firing like you’re stepping on little knives, but you don’t care. You’re too focused on watching Steve’s hazy outline through the blurred windows to really notice. Everything in you hopes that his silhouette doesn’t get smaller – he’s not walking away into the parking lot, he’s not – and you must be really good at manifestations because your wishes somehow ring true. That, or maybe it’s the fact that you know Steve Harrington like the scenic backroads to your parents’ house.
You underestimate just how rapidly the door to the outside is approaching, too caught up in your own worry to think about your physical body. The breath is knocked out of your lungs as you collide with the exit, harsh metal bruising your hipbone as the force of your being sends the door flying open. Wincing and gasping for air, you wobble and step down onto the concrete landing below, eyes scanning for your boyfriend with the intensity of those futuristic pieces of spyware that Joyce Byers said local conspiracy theorist Murray Bauman owned. Maybe your eyes were as powerful as the spyware too, because you easily found Steve’s mop of ruffled-through hair even when it was barely visible over the stairs. 
Posture slumped, a man – no, younger; he’s a helpless boy now, a boy who has bravely bitten off far more than he’s able to chew – with shaking shoulders, hollow and yet so unbearably full. His palms shield his face from the world, the only way he can go about holding himself up in this moment, and he caves in on himself, a statue who’s been pushed a little too far over the edge and who is now facing the irreparable consequences. Statues only are made for heroes, how did he end up with one anyway? 
You tentatively approach him, walking a little over halfway down the staircase with each move forward feeling like a punch to the gut, and his despondence is like someone has taken your favorite sweater and tried to replace it, but the material isn’t as soft as before and the stitching on the inside isn’t in the same pattern. You stand three steps behind him – his shadow is on your shoelaces – and he says nothing. Three becomes two and two becomes one, and he says nothing. You sit down next to him, a gust of wind and your legs against the cool rock below making you shiver, and again, he says nothing. He doesn’t move, doesn’t acknowledge that you’re there or that your breathing is still heavy from chasing him, and a pit begins to form in the most sensitive area of your stomach. The tides are receding and the morning skies are red – Steve Harrington is becoming a tsunami.
You, then, say nothing. You’re afraid to reach out to him, afraid he will turn away from your touch like he’s been burned, afraid that you’ll try to mend his heart and it will scurry away from you forever, and you love him. You love him so much that you can’t risk it – the prospect of loving him so much that it drives him away is your very own circle of Hell – so you sit and you say nothing.
Minutes pass, and the air feels like it’s rocky – you’re inhaling pebbles when you breathe. There seems to be a mountain between you – better yet, he’s at the top of the mountain and you’re a traveler without the proper gear to reach him – and you feel as though your hand would have to go through lightyears of space and time to brush upon his shaking arm. The silence doesn’t seem like it will let up, and you’re growing to think that maybe he won’t open up to you at all. 
Steve’s position shifts – he buries himself further in his hands, somehow – and that almost gives you the impression that his body isn’t violently shaking. He talks then, moreso brokenly whispers, and if you weren’t right next to him then you might have mistaken it for the whimpering wind.
“I can’t go back in there.”
You stay quiet, unsure of what to do next. Your most basic instinct in that moment is to wrap yourself around him like a warm coat, keeping him from the cold of the air and the cruel of the world, but you don’t even settle for resting a palm against his arm. Any move is a push too far when it comes to Steve Harrington and allowing himself to feel for once.
Instead, you pray that he continues on. To your luck, again, he does.
“I know they need me. The kids need me, Robin needs me…” His voice trails off, and he retreats from his hiding place between his hands. He doesn’t turn to you, but it’s a sign of acknowledgement that’s moving in the right direction, nonetheless. “She needs me. Max–” His voice cracks and he tries to cover his tracks by clearing his throat and biting his bottom lip, but you can already see the sheen of unfallen tears on his waterline.
All thoughts of moving too quickly thrown out the window, you shuffle closer and angle yourself so that your knees are inches away from one of his. The warmth from his body fades into yours, intermingles and creates a voluntary bubble of safety around the two of you, and you don’t stop your hand from reaching out and snaking its way down his forearm. A ghost against his skin, leaving goosebumps along your wake, you carefully interlock your fingers with his, and while he’s trembling and resistant at first – stoic – he seems to surrender to himself as his grip hardens against your own, leaving his knuckles white and your hand feeling a little cramped, but you know better than to say anything. Not now.
The reciprocation of his hand to yours settles his internal battle – it’s okay if he keeps going, keeps feeling – and so he finally lets out a long, quivering breath that is reminiscent of the steam above a volcano.
“I’ve already failed her once, and now I’m doing it again.” 
The words are what you expected to hear from him, but that doesn’t mean that they make your airways feel any less constricted. Imagining the guilt that he must be carrying – the guilt of losing a friend, a sister, almost a daughter – somehow is more painful than when you collided with the heavy hospital door a few minutes ago. 
Everything is suddenly too real. Just days ago you felt like you were on top of the world with your plans to take down Vecna, overconfidence being the sunlight that kept all of you on your toes, and now you were here. Here, with several of your friends gone and one on the verge, skirting the veil between life and death, and you hadn’t really had time to process it all until now. With Steve’s fear and guilt and grief bleeding into you via osmosis of the hand, reality is finally settling in.
It was easier to pretend that none of this was real when you were packing up all of your things to move into Steve’s – all of you had seen the empty ground where Vecna’s gunshot-riddled body should have been, so Steve wasn’t going to have you living in your place alone, even if it meant there was a minuscule chance his parents came back to awkwardly find you there – and it was easier to pretend that nothing had changed when you went to volunteer at Hawkins High, mindlessly going back over the clothes your boyfriend had folded to make sure that they were presentable. The days after the rift was created between Hawkins and its Upside Down counterpart were hazy; it was as if everything before had been some fever dream that all of you had shared, and your schedule was so busy with volunteering and moving that you didn’t have time to fret or to try and tackle what had happened and how that had made you feel.
Everyone had spent those first few nights in sleepless petrification. Joyce hadn’t surprised the group by returning and recovering Hopper yet, and Jonathan and Argyle were still making their way back to Hawkins with El, Will, and Mike. The party was broken, in more ways than one, and so everyone who remained stayed together. 
None of you even bothered with packing up night bags or suitcases – truthfully, no one knew when you would all be returning home – and none of you complained when Steve led the rest of you back to his place on foot, ushering you inside the door with a pathetic attempt at a smile. Max had already been transported to the hospital then, and while Lucas had traveled with her initially, they sent him home after she went into emergency surgery. The home he went back to was Steve’s, and those who were inside – Robin, you, Steve, Erica, Dustin, and Nancy – greeted him with heavy embraces and unspoken solemnity. No one spoke at all that night; rather, everyone piled up on extra mattresses and couches in the living room and huddled together as the TV displayed movie after movie. Each time one went off, Steve got up to find another one to put in the VHS.
Once an old helicopter from Russia and a pizza van from California touched Indianian soil, the family reunion had begun. Some victories and losses were shared with one another, but certain topics remained unmentionable. Max. Eddie. Their names were like lava on your tongues, and saying them meant that it was real – Vecna was still out there and he was real, several innocent people had died and had been declared missing since the rift had opened and that was real, and just as Max was finally becoming more forgiving with herself, she was gone again, and that was real too. It was too much all at once, too much for a group of children who had somehow fought for the world and won, even on more than one occasion, and so, however wrong it may have been, you couldn’t dare utter a word. 
It was still too soon when Wayne Munson touched his nephew’s missing persons poster at Hawkins High, but Dustin was more brave than anyone else and stepped forward. The rest of you watched with grief-stricken hearts as he stood up for one of his best friends and role models, and while you couldn’t say everything that Dustin did because the words wouldn’t stop getting caught in your throat, everyone else did give Eddie’s poor uncle the reassurance that his nephew was, in fact, innocent, and was, unfortunately, a hero.
It was still too soon when the hospital rang Steve Harrington’s house to let Lucas Sinclair know that Max Mayfield was now allowed to have visitors, but you all piled into Steve’s BMW anyway and rushed to the hospital. Steve broke several traffic violations and there were so many people in his car that you were genuinely shocked you could all fit, but none of that mattered. It was almost as if your chance to see her would be gone if you were even a fraction of a second too late, and none of you were willing to take that chance. 
Despite how quickly you all bombarded into the hospital and into Max’s room, your feet never once hit the ground. You were walking on air, somewhere far above the earth that was dreamy and made your head spin, and all of that crashed and burned the second that Max’s mother opened the door. 
The severity of your situation was so dark, so desolate that it took Steve Harrington’s hand squeezing the life out of yours and the declarations of exclamatory guilt coming from his lips to get you to finally adjust to how things would have to be from now on. The crushing weight of it all brought bile to your throat, and you subconsciously returned Steve’s death grip on your fingers.
“She relied on me.” You can hear Steve talking, you can still feel him right next to you, but you’re still floating. You’re still trapped in some kind of daze, and his words only make your chest ache with loss. “She relied on me, and I let this… I didn’t do anything to stop it. I promised her I’d make sure she’d be okay. I promised her that she would make it out of this.”
The pain and guilt of Steve’s voice goes right to your gut, making you feel more nauseous than the chemical scent of the hospital ever had, and dizziness overtakes your body despite the fact that you’ve been sitting entirely still.
Even in his current state, your boyfriend takes notice of the way your palms grow more shaky and rigid. By habit, he turns to direct his gaze towards you – always more concerned about anyone other than himself – and you have one small moment of eye-contact, a glistening of pain and anxiety and understanding between the two of you, before a single tear escapes the confines of Steve’s pretty brown eyes and he panics.
His stare widens impossibly further and he’s too quick to turn away, to shut down anything that might follow afterward. His head shoots away, focus lingering on some wilting bushes that are to his left – any scene without you is suddenly of intense interest – and gradually his body shifts away as well, his knees no longer parallel to your own. A gap is left on the concrete stairs between you, and just the sight of it makes you feel colder than you did when the unrelenting wind previously froze you to the bone. The gap doesn’t just freeze your bones, it erodes them too.
Steve takes what you can only assume to be an attempted deep breath, but he seems to be too forceful and instead lets out a strained half-gasp, half-cough. Sniffles and the sound of poorly restrained tears ring throughout you like a church bell, and you snap out of your stupor as your protective nature kicks into overdrive. You want nothing more than to whisper your mantras of love and reassurance to him, a hand snaking up to groundingly, softly, curl the delicate hairs on the back of his neck around your fingertips, but you hesitate. Again.
“You can… uh, go back inside now,” Steve says, so quiet that a ladybug landing on a four leaf clover would have been an explosion in comparison. The only reason you hear him at all is because the breeze carries his voice over to you like one of the gruesomely thoughtful dead mice a beloved pet cat would leave on your doorstep at midnight. 
In another situation, you may have laughed out loud at his suggestion, but you know the significance of this moment. You know that things are delicate, as is Steve’s relationship with emotions, so you settle for subtlety, a choice that you’re hoping lets him know that you aren’t trying to be pushy, you aren’t trying to push him to the point of driving him away. Truthfully, the very last thing that you wanted to do was leave him, and you hoped with everything in your soul that he felt the same. 
“I could,” you say, voice soft and matching his from before, quiet enough to be spoken between the two of you only – not even the swaying oak tree nearby can hear the words exchanged among you like a sacred secret. “But I’d rather be here with you.” 
Your carefully chosen words imply more, other things you wanted to tell him on the tip of your tongue – I know you need me, I want to be here now and always, I want to be the one you go to forever, please let me. You’re all too aware that his previous offer for you to go back inside was more – that it was his way of letting you know that you can go back, back to the way things were before, when he hadn’t been vulnerable like this – and you hope that your answer speaks the same riddles he does, only in reverse. 
Steve says nothing, which might be alarming any other time, but he hasn’t made any other covert suggestions about how you should be reacting to this situation, so you take that as the small victory that it is. His shoulders quivering, he still keeps his back to you, clearly not quite ready for facing you head on, and you ever-so-gently bring one of your hands to his back, hoping and praying that it isn’t too much too soon. His walls fall one at a time, castle crumbling brick by brick, and you hope that he’s let his guard down enough to finally let you comfort him. You’ll dig him out of the rubble and debris every damn time; you’ll be his knight in shining armor if he’ll let you. 
The muscles in his back tense a little, making you hold your breath for what feels like ages, already expecting him to turn to you, a teary smile on his face as he tells you that he’s fine, he was just being silly, and aren’t you ready to go back inside now? like he’s said in the past. Like when you accidentally stumbled into the bathroom that first night, when he was wiping tears from his eyes in front of his aged, rusting sink. You couldn’t help thinking he was like that sink then, looking broken down and far too old for his true age, and the thought of seeing him like that again is enough to send a cold chill through your chest. Everyone knows what too much rust does to something – it corrodes and eats away at the source until nothing’s left – and it was with cruel irony that the very image of that happening to your ever-loving boyfriend made you feel like something was eating away at you. 
You’re so in your head with worry that you barely notice that Steve hasn’t shrugged your hand away. You shake yourself out of your spiraling thoughts, away from the shock that fights for you to freeze up in uncertainty, and decide to test the waters. Your fingers trace small shapes into the material of his yellow sweatshirt like you’ve imagined doing thousands of times before, their movements a bit stiff and awkward but neither of you seem to care. Steve seems to relax into your touch, feeling his body loosen right under your palm in such a way that makes your heart partially melt – both at being capable of being able to do that for him and also because it was you that was calming him down, not someone else.
Even if it was only miniscule, to be the one to provide him a sense of comfort was an honor. Still, though, you don’t plan on moving away until he’s either all cried out or he asks you to back off. While you’d prefer the former, just this moment in itself is proof that you’ve made progress, and you’ll accept any kind of growth at this point, even if it means you don’t get the chance to hold him in your arms like you know he deserves. One step forward may be twenty steps away from that – your perfect fairytale ending where you can finally share the burdens that Steve has been carrying solo for far too long – but you’ll take ninety more days like this as long as Steve’s finally letting himself feel something.
A choked up sob escapes his throat, a noise that simultaneously relieves you and takes a chunk of your heart from your chest and stomps on it. If you really focus on the sound of him crying, on the way his body uneasily shakes, you begin to feel your own eyes prickle with the potential of unshed grief. Your first instinct is to shove it away, to try and be a rock for the utterly drained man next to you, and maybe it’s the exhaustion eating away at you post interdimensional battle – or maybe it’s just the heat of the moment – but, regardless, you let down the barriers and allow teardrops to cascade down your cheeks. 
Steve doesn’t seem to notice you’re crying with him until he hears you loudly sniffle, and in his haste to check in on you, he forgets about his emotional hesitancy. His body shifts back towards you, a small sense of warmth crossing over your legs as his knee gently knocks into yours. His eyes scan carefully over your face, his eyelashes wet and clumped together and his eyelids slightly swollen and tinted pink. 
“You’re even pretty when you cry,” you blurt out, the words tumbling from your lips before you can even think about having said them, and it takes a second for you to truly understand that you’ve spoken out loud rather than harmlessly thinking it to yourself.
You’re not sure how you expect Steve to react, but what you don’t anticipate is the soft and intrusive blush that begins to creep onto his cheeks. Gaze diverted to the ground, he takes in a long, deep inhale of air before quietly replying with a bashful, “Sorry about that.”
He doesn’t have to explain that, you know he’s talking about his vulnerability with you, and you instantly shake your head at him, the shine of the sun showcasing the half-dried and abandoned trek his tears fell from. With the burning light directly behind him, casting his brown hair a few shades lighter and leaving behind a residual warm yellow glow, he looks like a fallen god.
“Don’t be.” Your hand slinks away from his back and down to where his hand rests upon the concrete, and when you take it into yours, you feel the indents of the rock and gravel below in his palm. “Remember what I said before?”
“Yeah, yeah, you don’t have to scold me about it.” The sprinkle of playfulness in his tone takes you by surprise, and you’re relieved to spot the edge of his lips tilted up into the tiniest of smiles. Despite all the horrific events of the past few days, Steve Harrington can still have a smile on his face, and that makes you feel like maybe everything else is going to end up alright. 
As abruptly as it was there, however, it’s gone, and your boyfriend’s voice is back to the quiet hoarseness of before. 
“It’s just…” He trails off, features scrunched up as he appears to be struggling with words. Luckily for him, you know him better than the flavors of ice cream you had to painstakingly memorize when you were merely coworkers at Scoops Ahoy.
“Hard, I know,” you say, finishing his sentence for him. “But I’m happy you let me in. Even if it was only for a little while.” 
Steve shifts to form eye contact with you, his own gaze softened as he drinks in your words, the gentleness of your hand, and everything about you. For the first time in his life, he finds true trust in another person. Your little smile holds a kind of affection that’s almost dizzying, the kind of dedication one only sees in those horribly cheesy romance movies he’ll never admit he likes watching with you, and he feels like being next to you, showing even the tiniest sliver of his pain to you, is like a baby being swaddled into a security blanket. 
He stays silent, overwhelmed with his onslaught of adoration for you, and the two of you let the moment pass just like that. Hands entangled, gazes interlocked, and thoughts filled with nothing but one another, the comfortable silence filled with words unspoken but understood between you. 
You know better than to bring up his guilty confessions from before. Your conversation has shifted and you’re afraid to backtrack, afraid that doing so might result in him hiding away from you again, so you decide to let it go. Even though the only thing you want to do is relieve his pain, reassure him by telling him that he’s taken on too much – that the best course of action anyone can take for Max is being patient, having hope, and kicking Vecna’s ass – but you let it go for now. 
“Thank you.” Steve breaks though the quietude to beam at you, grin still small but never any dimmer, and practically offers his heart to you alongside it. He’s more than certain that you’ll be careful with it, especially after today. He thinks that maybe he can get used to this, to being vulnerable with you and to seeing your pretty smile afterward, and he’s almost looking forward to it. Almost, but not quite.
The way he looks at you, so full of love that it’s more obvious than the answer to some elementary math problem, is nearly enough to bring you to tears again. Never in your life had you imagined finding someone so soft, so genuine and caring for everyone around him, and your chest is beginning to ache as it longs to beat directly next to his. 
Consumed by this feeling, you reach out with your free hand and grasp the sleeve of your sweater into fisted fingers before using the plush material to wipe away what’s left of his breakdown. Your motions linger as you shake your sleeve back into its proper place and scoot closer to him, index and middle fingers rising and tracing along his cheekbone. You can’t help but get lost for a moment, sidetracked and taken into another world as you closely examine the smoothness of his skin, the tiny little freckles that are sparsely scattered onto the side of his face. You already knew they were there, of course, but you never get tired of finding them. Sometimes you wish you could thank whoever it was that painted them there.
Steve’s breath is warm against your chin, causing your stare to automatically flicker to his. You’re not surprised when you find that he’s been looking at you all this time, absorbing this memory with you while he can make it, but it still makes your lips upturn nonetheless.
“You ready to head back in there yet?” he asks, voice low and a tad bit teasing as his ego undoubtedly takes a boost from how unintentionally hypnotized he’s made you. “Those shitheads are probably losing their minds right about now. Think we’ve left and they’ve lost their ride home or something.”
His joking tone is laced with worry; you both know that just talking about going in there means your minute of peace is over. You’ll be back into the throes of whatever new hell Hawkins endures next, back to living in uncertainty surrounding the safety of not only yourselves, but also your friends. It was true that people had been dying this whole time, the years being tainted with the blood of those like Barb who never really had a chance, but this was your first real taste of a different kind of loss. A kind of loss that’s more than just being sympathetic or upset for a few days; the kind of loss that’s felt in the absence of people at birthday parties, in the way that sometimes conversation seems normal until there’s a lull that should’ve been where someone else was cracking a joke. It’s the kind of loss that you can’t ignore because it’s felt everywhere, and just the minor glimpse of it that you’ve caught in the past few days has you feeling terrified. 
You’d always naively thought that you and your friends were safe, untouchable, too relevant to the status of Hawkins and the world at large to be taken from this world. Eddie and Max had proven your beliefs wrong, and that meant that no one was really safe at all. Vecna could and would strike again, and it was only a matter of time before you’d be walking on eggshells and avoiding stepping on the vines of the Upside Down again. 
A flash of yellow and a hand being offered out to you snaps you back into reality. You weren’t even aware Steve had gotten onto his feet and was no longer sitting next to you, no longer tracing his fingers on the delicate skin of the back of your palm, but you don’t get caught up in that. 
Instead, you accept your boyfriend’s outstretched hold and let him help you to your feet. Your legs are wobbly, halfway numbed from lack of movement, but Steve’s right there by your side, iron grip on your hand like he’s seconds away from rushing forward to catch you, if necessary. You don’t need it this time – your body comes back to life quite quickly, leaving you with legs again in replacement of the jelly-like limbs you had prior – but something in the gleam of his eyes and the sureness of his hold tells you that he’ll be there to catch you next time and the time after that too. 
You give his hand a small squeeze, noticeable enough to act as the okay to start heading back inside, and when he squeezes back, you know that you’ve got one another. Both physically and emotionally. The next move from Vecna is inevitable, but you feel a little more certain about things like this, fingers intertwined and with souls that you chose to be twisted together. When misfortune strikes again, Steve will be there to hold you close, and you’ll be more than willing to do the same for him. You know there’s years of trauma and pain that he hasn’t shown you, hasn’t yet informed you of, and you look forward to the days when he decides to open up. As long as he keeps letting you wipe the residue of his tears away with your sweater sleeves, of course.
290 notes · View notes
brianwashere · 1 year
Note
saw requests were open so might as well request :p ; imagine being peter parker’s younger brother that also has spider powers and during the snap peter turn dust so most likely aunt may did as well. So reader was most likely homeless for a while until matt murdock comes in as daredevil and becomes a father figure for the reader :)
Kicking my feet and giggling. I haven’t got a req in so long and I love getting them so this made me very happy. So sorry the ending is abrupt I really wanted to get this posted!
If anyone wants another part to this I will write more!
**I do not own any characters or part of the franchise from Daredevil or Marvel**
Paining: Matt Murdock/Daredevil x Male!Teen!Spider!Reader
Genre: family stuff(?) it’s all light hearted
Summary: look at req
Tw: a bit of language, probably; Matt punches reader on accident lmao
Fear’s corner
You seemed to only be scared these past few months. You were scared when you watched your brother climb aboard that flying alien donut. You were scared when you lost connection to his com and phone.
You were scared when you held your Aunt May and watched her turn to dust.
You were scared when the landlord kicked you out and called CPS after she realized you couldn’t pay rent.
It had been two months living on the streets. Two months starving; two months waiting for Peter to come home. Deep down you knew he’d suffered the same fate as Aunt May.
The cold winter winds rattled your bones and caused you to pull the threadbare ski jacket closer to your body. You shivered and kept moving down the street.
Tonight was a shitty night. You never stopped your spidey-work because you knew if Peter was here he’d want you to continue. Tonight was too cold for it, the suit doesn’t exactly provide thermal insulation, and the suit that was a gift from Mr. Stark was only for emergencies.
As you wandered through Hell’s Kitchen you searched for any grocery stores or restaurants with accessible dumpsters so that you could dig through and find food. You squinted at the sign of a large glass door entrance and saw it was a grocery store.
Jackpot.
Walking around to the dumpster, you took a running start and scaled the wall, not so gracefully landing on top of the dumpster.
You grabbed one of the two lids and threw it over. The heavy black plastic banged against the green rusted metal and you cringed.
The black bags seemed to taunt you, reminding you of how low you’ve sunk in only two months. You shook your head and jumped down, beginning to tear through garbage bags upon garbage bags.
You found an unopened granola bar and ripped the packing open, gobbling it down without another thought. You gulped heavily, pushing the last of the granola down and taking a large gasp of air. You got back to searching for more food.
That’s when you got the feeling. Your spidey-senses were tingling. You grabbed ledge of the dumpster and threw yourself over. A man in a red suit with devil horns landed in front of you. Stumbling back, your back hit the brick wall of the dumpster.
“Hey, hey. Calm down.” He said collectedly.
You gulped and easily jumped over the brick wall, taking off in a sprint.
“Hey, wait! Hold on!” The man called.
You sprinted even faster, any stranger chasing you and telling you to ‘hold on’ was an automatic threat.
You could hear footsteps following you.
‘Holy shit. This guy’s fast.’
You ran down the dark streets, trying to find somewhere to get up higher. You turned down a pitch black alleyway and jumped onto a fire escape, scaling it as fast as you could. You grabbed the ledge of the building and dragged yourself over it, gasping for breath.
Two red boots blocked your vision and you shot up. The man punched you right in the eye before gasping suddenly and gripping your hoodie.
“Jesus, you’re just a kid, aren’t you?” The question was more rhetorical but you shook your head ‘no’ anyway.
He didn’t need to know your age or that you were on your own. You began to flail to get away but air wasn’t reaching your lungs. The man let you go and you broke into a coughing fit. Collapsing to the ground, you wheezed for breath, desperate for air.
“Hey, hey kid, breathe. Breathe. In and out.” He spoke softly to you.
You followed his instructions and realized there was a weight on your back. This stranger was rubbing soothing circles on your back.
“There you go, just calm down, Kid.” He comforted.
You couldn’t bring yourself to pull away from the first positive touch you’d had in a while.
“Do you have somewhere to go?” The vigilante asked.
You shook your head, seeming to forget that you shouldn’t be telling him this. He sucked in a breath.
“I know someone I can take you to, ok?” The devil said quietly; silently asking if you would go.
You just nodded pathetically. Trying to get up was very wobbly for you. The man helped steady you though.
“You’re in no condition to jump rooftop to rooftop,” He said, seemingly to himself. “We’ll walk instead.”
You just shrugged half-heartedly, suddenly feeling very tired. You met his mask and he gestured near the ladder expectantly. You raised an eyebrow at him but began your descent down the fire escape.
You finally reached the point where you could jump off. You landed on your feet, but your knees buckled and you fell back. The man was standing over you in a second. He reminded you of Peter some.
Peter would always be the first one by your side if he thought you were hurt.
You stood up slowly and dusted yourself off.
“Follow me.” The red man instructed.
You caught up to walking beside him. You glanced around the buildings and cleared your throat.
“So uh…what’s your deal, huh? You just go around finding homeless kids to shove into randos’ homes?” You asked, trying to fill the void noise.
He seemed surprised you could talk and fumbled over his words.
“I am Daredevil, protector of Hell’s Kitchen.” He stated.
“Wow.” You said, unimpressed. “So is that like—the full name or is it just Daredevil?” You teased.
He huffed out a laugh, seeming to realize the ridiculousness of his introduction.
“Just Daredevil.” He smiled.
You nodded some.
“So this ‘guy’ you know…is he like..some foster care guy…?” You really didn’t wanna go into the system; you’d met other homeless kids who had ran away from their foster families because of how awful it was.
“…no. Would you rather he be?” Daredevil responded.
“Hell no. I think I’d rather die.” You laughed some.
The silence was more than slightly awkward. You cleared your throat. Your eye throbbed.
“Soooo…why’d you punch me?” You swung your arms back and forth.
He choked at that.
“Thought you were a criminal. And an adult. Most people don’t run unless they’re guilty.” Daredevil explained.
You hummed in acknowledgement. It was his turn to ask questions now.
“So how’d you just…jump that wall like that?” He asked.
“Oh uhhhh. Parkour…?” You tried.
The red man nodded some, though he didn’t look at all convinced.
The rest of the walk went well. He stopped at an apartment complex and buzzed in.
“Fourth floor. Room 14.” He stated before running off.
You raised your eyebrows as you watched him scurry off.
‘What a weird guy.’
You just shook your head and began your ascent to the fourth floor.
When you got to the fourth floor and room 14 you paused, hearing various crashes and curses. A few seconds later the door opened and a scruffy looking man appeared. He was dressed in a wrinkly t-shirt and pair of sweatpants; he was staring right over you.
You started to regret coming into the apartment complex.
“Uh…the devil guy told me to come here.” You stated.
He blinked and his face morphed into one of what you supposed to be surprise. It more just looked like over exaggerated confusion.
“Yeah come in,” the brown haired man opened the door wider for you to pass through. “I’m Matt. Matt Murdock.” He said with a smile.
“Yeah…so you’re uh…some kinda—“ You made a vague, random gesture with your hands.
Matt just blinked and waited for the end of your sentence. It was then you noticed his eyes didn’t actually track and movement or shifts of light.
“Forgive me for asking, but are you blind?” You attempted to ask politely.
At that he cracked another smile and laughed some.
“Indeed I am. I hope that won’t be much on a problem.” Matt grinned at you.
“No! No of course not!” You rushed to explain, at which he laughed more.
“Calm down, Kid—“ The rest of his sentence faded out as you zoned in on those three words.
The words that had been uttered to you not half an hour before. By the same voice. Matt seemed to catch on that something was wrong.
“Everything alright, Kid?” He asked concerned.
“You’re Daredevil, aren’t you?” You swallowed thickly.
He huffed out a disbelieving laugh.
“No? Why would you say that? Why would I even know Daredevil?“ Daredevil started.
“Your voice is the exact same as his. And you’re the only one who’s ever called me ‘Kid’ before.” You explained.
He pursed his lips, looking more disappointed in himself than anything else.
“Yeah I’m—I’m Daredevil.” He awkwardly stated.
“So…you’re not really blind?” You knit your brows together.
“No, I’m blind it’s just that I can—it’s hard to explain, let’s just get you settled in for now.” He changed the subject.
It left you more confused but you supposed you had no better option but to agree. You hadn’t slept on anything remotely related to a couch in two months and you couldn’t wait to get the best night’s sleep of your life.
347 notes · View notes
slowdownurdoingfine · 2 months
Text
Okay sooo I’ve got a Joel Miller fic on the back burner… but before I post I wanna get a feeler for how people would feel about it!!
So it switches through time periods (and bonus joel pov!), and the reader is a really famous country music star. By the time the outbreak hits shes kinda faded into obscurity (or that stage where famous musicians stay in pop culture but people don’t really listen to their music)… and essentially, and don’t cringe, reader and Joel happen to be going on the same journey to Jackson, Wyoming. And it’ll mostly be Jackson!Joel…. But I don’t wanna spoil anything so i won’t say anything more.
I will, though, give a snippet. (! PLEASE NOTE AND IDK WHY I DID THIS BUT I KINDA LIKE THIS: Belle is the stage name to the reader, and in the flashbacks I use 3rd pov (she blah blah) and in the present I use first pov (you blah blah) anyways. Be mean or judgemental but here’s u gooo
Fucking.
Taylor Swift.
Of fucking course.
She had a few years on her but still, fucking Taylor Swift? Picking her nails and brushing her blown-up hair out of her face, the swing of the guitar hits her ears almost too hard. It was overwhelming.
“Belle?” Her manager sitting next to her pushes through his lips quickly, forceful and strained.
She turns to him and his lips prick slightly, a slap in the wrist reminding her to maintain her facial expressions. Soft, but full of joy. Youthful and light. His words circled her thoughts spinning so fast it almost made her dizzy. Her hands fumble to pick the chain around her neck, gold and dainty, clearing her mind almost like a breath of fresh air.
The dust in her lungs makes her cough in only the way Nashville can in June. She has to turn her head away from the performance from the artist section, which allows much too of a close-up look.
“Billy, I need to step out.” It comes out before it even hits her head, drawl thick in her throat. She can see the question rising in his eyes, after years of working with him she just knows, but chooses to ignore it. Boots scuffing the ground she passes her way through the hot metal bars and serious stagehands to the freedom that comes with the smoking area. She lights her cigarette and pulls up her phone.
June 7th, 2013
She decided to never perform at another Country Music Festival at that very moment.
September 26th, 2013
The worst part of realizing you're no longer who you used to be, is when others begin to realize it too.
The pen rocks back and forth in her hand, trying to make sense of the line. She’s sitting in a limo outside a recording studio in Washington, DC where she created her first album. A country wonder, the sweetest voice with the most soul crushing lyrics. Her soft twang and breathy voice made the studio love her even more. It used to flow for her, it used to click. Now she can’t write a genuine line to save her career. Which evidently, is failing.
She slaps the notebook close, eyes turning up towards Billy who's on his phone pretending not to wait for her to give him something new.
“Nothing new, honestly Bill. My brain is just mushed up.” She hates it, but he shows no signs of mirroring that feeling. He just nods quickly, his sharp suit a little too tight around his wrists, clicking off his phone. He does notice though that, though. She does too.
“I didn’t have time to buy a new one.” He chirps out unbuttoning his pressed black blazer shifting uncomfortably in his seat, choosing to not push her for a moment. It makes her laugh, partially out of relief for the way her manager is still her closest friend.
“You’ve just been drinkin’ too much beer.” She starts, ringing her hands down her designer dress from two seasons ago.
“I’ve been eatin’ too much crab. It’s Baltimore, with the old bay.” He says then looks at her. It takes her back to when they both could afford to support their lives. They both just laugh.
She hated this, and when she was younger and more fresh eyed she would blaze a damn trail if this was presented to her. An impromptu performance at the White House with the president to uplift whatever political statement needed pushing - something to catch headlines, erase any world news. When she started off, and even to a degree still now, nothing else mattered but her music. That’s what got her here in the first place, outspoken to a point where she was even blacklisted from the most prestigious award shows after the release of her second album. But now in her early 30’s it's seemed as though the world had moved on. People didn’t seem to care about what she had to say, they just wanted to hear blank statements that meant nothing to be able to avoid the world around them. Or maybe, she was bitter. They had something she didn’t, something she over the past 10 years had given up for her career. Motivation, joy, or simply put; a life. She had made a bad decision, ran out of money, and signed her likelihood away to some big-name big-shot office. Nothing was hers anymore, not truly. So here she was: on the way to something her 25 year old self would not only despise, but reverently hate.
The limo ride there was alright, bit too bumpy and made it hard for her to gulp down the fizzy lukewarm bottle of champagne in the back of the limo. With the aid of bubbles allowing her to actually move her body and try to block this memory out she’s out of the car, shaking hands and greeting politicians in a breeze. So fast that by the time she stepped on stage to perform the national anthem she didn’t even remember how exactly she had got up there. The first few notes swell in her ears, she takes a deep breath ready to do what she does best, put on a show, cringing when the first few notes hit the air. Men standing close by her, sharp suits with walkie-talkies blasting loud enough to take over the whole room suddenly swarmed surrounding the president. Talking with urgency. Her eyes turned to meet Billy’s blue ones in the crowd, a question of should I stop? in them… before it all happened. It all unfolded right in front of her eyes too quickly to comprehend.
Damn her delayed flight or fight skills, she musta softened along the way on one of her worldwide tours. Soon she was being ripped away from the microphone, the band, the stage, Billy, and in a flurry of secret service she was crowded to an elevator which went down….
Down…
Down…
Down…
All the way to the bottom.
October 12th, 2023
Fuck.
I’m hungry.
You hated Iowa. You also hated how your map crumbles in your hands. You used to have a book with pages on pages of maps hidden cleverly within your brown backpack. That was before, when there was hope for everyone. This is the present. Hope is a laughable feeling. As the leaves crunch under your heavy boot a dilapidated highway sign peaks your interest. Maps Of The World. Maybe there is hope, afterall. Funny. Ducking back into the trees along the side of the road you make a note to turn at the next exit.
The store is dusty and rummaged through, obviously. That fact doesn’t stop the cough that enters your lungs as soon as you shove the door open. Fanning the particle filled air in front of your face, quick eyes land on a shelf of US maps which remain mostly untouched. Score. Walking over on the balls of your feet, your eyes crinkle when you step on a newspaper covered slab on the floor. Stopping for a moment, then ducking down to your knees and pushing your rifle out of the way, you look at the spot. It sounds almost hollow, like a travelingers hiding spot. You consider for a moment, then look towards the door like a person is about to walk through. You wait a long moment out of pure precaution. Then fan the newspaper away and grab your knife out of your boot, sliding the blade between the board and twisting up. To your surprise it gives and reveals a compartment. You just can’t believe your luck. Almost greedily you push the tile away and stare in awe. A pack of bullets. A handgun. Some beef jerky. It almost makes you cry. Zipping your bag you swipe the bullets and the jerky. Debating for a moment if to take the gun you hear light voices outside. Few minutes away, tops.
Quickly and as quietly as you can you slide the board and the newspaper back, zipping up your bag and hauling ass to your feet to grab a map and leave. Guess the owner was coming back to re-up, no way someone random would wind up there. Well, other than you. The two voices get louder as you hear the feet stop and a gun load. The door being open is a bad omen, you suppose. You slip out the back window which luckily leads into a dense forest, and you dash into the lush green trees finding refuge behind a patch of large grown out boulders and greens.
The logical part of your brain is screaming for you to run but the human part is telling you to stay and manically watch the havoc you caused unfold. Plus, it’s not like you’ve got anything better to do.
“Godamnit!” You hear a man shout, voice laced with a thick accent. Texan, you’d recognize your home state anywhere.
“At least they left the gun.” A younger voice calls out. From the large windows you can see them. A young girl, no older than 14 with a maroon jacket and beat up converse, Her brown hair was pulled up into a ponytail, backpack with keychains swinging. Behind her an older man comes up, beard patchy with salt-and-pepper hair, guff and hardened. You can’t look away from him, eyes glued onto his flannel and matching rifle with yours. He turns and you swear he sees you but then his eyes keep moving. Checking the area seemingly unconsciously and you can tell he's danger. Something you would write about in your songs. You let that thought wash over you as he turns and are met with his broad back. You should probably leave. Knees cracking you stand and continue the long journey to Jackson, Wyoming.
In another life, mystery muse.
K BYE
23 notes · View notes
epiclamer · 2 years
Note
Hi! Can you do a scenario of a short villain and Tall hero? I just really really love the Dynamic and I'm STARVED
(Totally fine if not- no pressure :])
Yup yup
Tumblr media
Towering Above
Villain scrambled for the key in their back pocket, wrestling with the countless buttons and zippers that kept them all locked shut. When their fingers finally wrapped around the cold metal, they let out a sigh of relief. Quickly they opened the door to their lair, barely squeezing in before they slammed it shut, re-locking it behind their back.
Finally, they could rest, sliding down the old oak of the surface until they were sat on the floor trying to catch their breath. Villain ran a hand through their hair as they leaned back against the door, slowing their breaths as they began to relax.
That was a close call. Villain needed to pay more attention to Hero’s backup next time because luck would most likely not be on their side.
The villain took a deep breath before hoisting themselves up, using the door to stabilize their wobbly and exhausted legs before they headed for the living room of their lair. They decided that tonight would be one of those “pass out on the couch” type of nights, they didn’t have the energy to do much else anyways.
Shakily, Villain sat themselves down on the sofa, kicking off their boots and working out of their suit. If they were sleeping here for the night, may as well get comfortable right?
“Well hello there, shorty~”
Villain practically jumped out of their skin, lurching forwards and away from the couch, but two hands on their shoulders held them back and pinned them down easily.
“Ah, ah, ah… Take it easy. It’s just me~” Hero’s voice was angelically terrifying, lips brushing the shell of Villains ear.
“Just you?” Villain squeaked, wincing at the high note their voice had taken out of embarrassment. “You are a hero. You are my nemesis. Why shouldn’t I be running for the door right this very second.”
Hero only chuckled, pressing down a little harsher on the villains shoulders. Unfortunately, their difference in height and strength allowed Hero to complete that easily.
“Because.” Hero murmured, lips travelling across the back of Villains neck in a gentle embrace as they made their way to the other ear. “You can’t.”
The certainty in Hero’s voice made Villains skin crawl, every hair on their body standing to attention as goosebumps covered their arms and neck. Muscles tense and jaw clenched as Villain resisted the urge to try and escape their nemesis—they knew it would only make matters worse.
“And even if you could…” Hero chuckled, watching the conflict mirror off the others eyes as they rounded the furniture to face their petrified nemesis. Hero leaned in close, pressing their foreheads together as they whispered against Villains lips. “You wouldn’t want to, would you mousey?”
Mousey.
The horrible nickname Hero had given them when they had first met.
A constant reminder of just how much bigger and stronger their nemesis was through nothing but a simple word. Ever since the first time Villain had heard it they had hated it.
“What? Cat got your tongue, little mouse?”
“Shut up.”
Villain lunged forwards, but Hero was one step ahead, grabbing Villains wrists and pinning them back against the couch. Grinning as they leaned over top of their smaller nemesis.
Hero cocked their head to the side as if they were inspecting their steadily blushing and struggling villain. A smug smirk on their lips as they watched playfully as they crowded the other.
“You’re quite literally the cutest thing I have ever seen.”
There was a knock at the door and Villain froze, eyes darting between their nemesis and the entrance. This didn’t look good.
Hero whisked the villain into their arms, picking them up effortlessly as they headed for the door.
“Mmm, that should be Sidekick now… Let’s have some fun shall we?”
337 notes · View notes
mandu-17 · 1 year
Text
Christmas gift | Kim Yoohyeon x fem! reader
Warnings: G!P Yoohyeon, unprotected sex, scratching, biting
Genre: Smut, fluff, kinda mafia au
Wordcount: ~ 1,606
A/N: this is my christmas gift for you since i don't have lingerie (after you read it, it'll make sense). it's kind of an episode of mafia au actually, that i might have already written a whole story about in my note book, if you're interested i can post it one day. anyway i hope you'll enjoy this piece:) as awlays thank you for sticking around, it means the world to me
Tumblr media
Snow was falling outside, covering everything with its’ pure color. It seemed as if the whole world stopped for a moment. Streets were empty, as if there was no one left. It was Christmas. After spending and celebrating the whole day with your family, Yoohyeon and you finally had a moment to yourselves. It was the first time the two of you were spending Christmas together.
You had hard time trying to find the perfect gift for your girlfriend. Every time you asked her about what she’d like, Yoohyeon would simply grin at you affirming that you’re everything she’s ever wanted.
So no, she didn’t make it easy on you.
Nevertheless you wanted to surprise her, she definitely deserved something for treating you like a princess these past few months. And it was Christmas after all, everyone should get at least one gift!
You gulped nervously while eyeing your reflection in the mirror. It didn’t remind you that much though. You put on black, lace lingerie. This was your gift for Yoohyeon. The satin fabric of the bra hugged your curves nicely, you had to admit that it was doing its’ work incredibly. You felt very attractive and was sure that your girlfriend would think the same.
With one last, deep breath you quietly opened the door to your bedroom. It was cozily lightened up with yellow Christmas lights. There were also few candles on the chest of drawers. The atmosphere was great for some romance.
Yoohyeon was laying down on the bed with her back resting against the headboard. In her hands she held this psychology book she got from your parents earlier that day. You thought it was adorable of them to get Yoohyeon a gift as well. You knew she also appreciated the gesture.
Leaning against the door frame, you eyed Yoohyeon’s black outfit which made her look so elegant and gorgeous. Gosh she was so hot.
"Are you sneaking up on me?” Amusement present in Yoohyeon’s voice quickly left the moment she looked up from the book. Her eyes traveled, taking everything in.
"Yes, Kim Yoohyeon. I was sneaking up on you in order to deliver a message from Santa.” With a chuckle you took slow steps in her direction, enjoying her intense gaze set on you the whole time.
"And what is the message from Santa?” Yoohyeon smirked, putting the book on the bed table.
She turned to you, setting her feet on the floor. You took it as a clear sign to straddle her, which you gladly did. Familiar heat of Yoohyeon’s body welcomed you bringing this beautiful feeling of belonging. Smoothly, Yoohyeon wrapped her arms around your waist while still admiring your figure in that divine lingerie.
"Merry Christmas.” You whispered against her lips before kissing them sensually. "That’s the message.” You shared a giggle not being able to take eyes off each other.
"I’ve got something for you.” In a quiet, soft tone Yoohyeon murmured after analyzing your features lovingly.
The way she was looking at you knocked all the air from your lungs. Slowly she reached to the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a small velvet box. Your eyes widened once she opened it revealing the most stunning necklace you’d ever seen. Its’ diamonds shone brightly almost as if smiling or winking at you.
"I- You can’t be serious, Yooh. It’s so beautiful.” Mouth hung open, you met her hopeful, sincere eyes.
"I’m glad you like it, babygirl.” She pecked your lips happily before putting the necklace on you. "It looks great but can’t even compare to how breathtaking you are.”
Her words caused your cheeks to flush, you bit your lip shyly. Excitement and happiness rose in your body, all thanks to the girl you were sitting on. Speaking of which.
"Thank you, Yoohyeon.” One kiss. "I love it.” Another kiss. ”I love you.” And another one.
"I love you too, my sweet girl.” Shivers ran down your spine at the husky voice of hers.
In the next second her lips were on your neck, leaving open mouthed kisses meanwhile her hands began exploring the skin on your back, as well as the satin material that still covered some parts.
"Yoohyeon-ah.” You moaned loudly when she sucked on your pulse point. She had your body melting already.
Your response to her actions got her going even more. She harshly grabbed your hips and grinded them against her hardening length.
"I love this lingerie on you, but you won’t mind me taking it off now, will you?” Yoohyeon growled into your ear before grazing it with her teeth.
"Take it all off.” With a whine you let your eyes close in bliss. Your bra was gone in a moment giving Yoohyeon another opportunity to please you - something she’d never ever deny.
While she was massaging and sucking on your breasts you did your best to unbutton her shirt. It did take you lot of time and effort since Yoohyeon’s touch felt so good. Once your girlfriend was also topless in front of you, you caressed her skin with love, admiring the lines of her collar bones, muscles and warmth.
Her dark eyes somehow shined at you.
She let you take control for a moment. She let you do whatever you wished. So you lowered your hand to the belt of her jeans. Yoohyeon sighed in relief once her member was standing tall freely. You began to stroke it gently at first before speeding up and pumping her member up and down. Your girlfriend moaned, her whole body relaxing. The way her eyes darkened with lust made you squeeze your thighs in anticipation.
You truly couldn’t wait to have her.
Passionately, you pressed your lips against hers, short before you trapped her bottom one between your teeth.
"I need you, baby.” You sounded desperate, but were far from caring. Besides, Yoohyeon didn’t need to be told twice.
She got rid of your underwear causing you to stand up. Using the situation right away, you also took off the remaining parts of her clothing. Once both of you were nude, Yoohyeon took your hand and pulled you back onto her lap. Humming you kissed her again, enjoying the feeling of her skin directly against yours.
As Yoohyeon’s tongue was exploring the inside of your mouth her hands grew impatient. She lowered your hips a bit signaling that she was indeed ready. You pulled away a bit in order to look into her eyes. It was one of your favorite things when it came to being intimate with Yoohyeon. Watching her and keeping eye contact.
First entrance was smooth, relieving. Almost like putting two fitting puzzles together. You let out a shaky moan feeling Yoohyeon’s shaft deep inside you. She was filling you incredibly while stretching out just right. The two of you didn’t even need words. Yoohyeon’s quiet groans were more than enough to let you know that you were moving your hips in a very good rhythm. It wasn’t fast though, you took your time while enjoying the sweet love making to the maximum.
"Just like that. Don’t stop, baby.” Your girlfriend leaned back to get a better view at you. The sight was deliciously sinful. No one ever made her feel this way. She watched you move your body and ride her, as if hypnotized. Yoohyeon husked, her nails digging into the skin of your hips. "You’ve been such a good girl. Taking all of me in so well.”
"Fuck, Yoohyeon.” You weren’t even able to form a logical sentence. Your eyes rolled in pleasure when you angled your hips differently, hitting that spot perfectly.
Despite the burning spreading through your thighs, there was no way you’d stop. Especially when Yoohyeon finally started thrusting into you, bringing even more pleasure to both of you. Then you felt her hot breaths fanning your neck and her teeth sinking in your skin. Like a hungry vampire she marked you with long-lasting love bites.
If there only was a way to make it possible, she’d stay between your thighs days and nights.
The pleasure was overwhelming, you let out small gasps as you scratched Yoohyeon’s back leaving long, red traces. In response she groaned against your neck sending warm vibrations through your body. Getting a hold of her nape, you raised her head to smash your lips against hers in another lustful kiss. Both of your arms remained wrapped around Yoohyeon, as your tongue was dancing freely with hers. She hugged you closer, her hands assisting your hips while they chased after blissfulness so desperately. A beautiful bubble was created around the two of you, nothing else mattered.
“Yoohyeon, right there.” You suddenly whimpered, your whole body shaking and feeling sore already, yet you were so close. You just needed a tiny little push.
And Yoohyeon knew what it was. She always knew how to satisfy you.
She squeezed your hips and smashed them down on her shaft one last time, aiming for that special spot. You cried out loudly at the sensation, back arching your juices started covering Yoohyeon’s cock and choking it for its’ dear life. With eyes tightly shut you rode out your high.
The unholy sight itself was enough for Yoohyeon to come as well. Your sweet moans built her ego, yet ruined her at the same time. The warmth and tightness of your walls around her member truly felt like heaven on Earth. She was weak for you. Gladly, she let herself get lost in your body as waves of pure pleasure washed over her.
She didn’t lie to you when she said you were the perfect gift yourself.
157 notes · View notes
asteria-argo · 8 days
Note
“Shit. Shit, shit, shit, c’mere.”
So, fun fact about me is that I've never written physical whump before in my life. I also haven't written a batman fic in about two years so I figured this was as good a chance as any to warm up those two skills of mine.
Is it good? not really. Was it fun? yeah. Did the prompt do it's job of getting me to try something new and accept that writing is a skill I need to work at and can't be automatically good at all the time no matter how much I want to be? absolutely.
Anyway here you go!
Tumblr media
In Dick’s defense, he didn’t think Jason would break his arm. It isn’t much of a defense sure, but he doesn’t have a better one. It all started pretty innocently, especially for a pair of child vigilantes. One could argue they were on the best behaviour they possibly could have been when left unsupervised in the manor all by themselves while Alfred was out for the day running errands and Bruce was at work doing whatever it is CEO’s did. They didn’t even sneak out to solve crime or anything.
They’d just been hanging out. Well, sort of. Bruce had tasked Dick with keeping an eye on Jason today, whatever that meant, and for as much as Dick had whined about it when Bruce had first asked him to watch Jay while he was at work, it wasn’t like he actually had something better to do. The rest of the titans were all busy, Babs was preparing for her SATs and had muted Dicks number for the weekend preemptively, even his regular school friends weren’t available. Besides watching Jason wasn’t actually that hard. He was twelve after all, he could feed himself and everything. Dick was just there in case of an emergency really.
Like breaking his arm because he and Dick thought sparring on a trampoline with those foam swords they got at the dollar store when they’d been helping Alfie do the groceries the day before would be a fun idea. And once again, in Dick’s defense, he didn’t think Jason was going to break his arm!
The kid was Robin! They both do way more dangerous stuff without getting injured all the time! Just the night before he and Jason had gone train surfing chasing down some of Penguins goons and come away completely unscathed! Jason being felled by a poorly timed jump and the ground wasn’t something Dick really considered a possibility when he was appointed the responsible adult of the day.
But, despite the extensive combat and survival training at the hands of Batman himself, despite the reflexes he’d been honing for months as Robin, one wrong bounce sent Jason toppling over the edge of the trampoline to meet his greatest enemy yet: gravity.
It all happened fast, but when Dick thinks back on it it’s almost sickeningly slow. Jason had been smacking him in the shoulder with his sword, laughing with the kind of maniacal glee only an adrenaline high twelve year old could manage, at the fact he’d been successfully beating Dick back into one corner of the trampoline, then Dick had lunged forward to whack Jason in the stomach and defend himself just as Jason had bounced himself. Jason, being the smaller of the two of them, promptly went flying right off the edge of the trampoline with a strangled yelp landing on the ground beside them with the kind of sickening crack Dick was very used to hearing on their nightly patrols.
“Shit.” Dick said, standing on the trampoline alone all of a sudden and not quite sure what to do until he heard Jason make a strangled noise from the crumpled heap he was in on the floor. If the crack hadn’t been enough, the mottled red skin around his wrist accompanied by an obviously out of place bone certainly painted a vivid picture of what happened. “shit, shit, shit, c’mere.”
Dick climbs down from the trampoline quickly, kneeling in front of Jason whose biting his lip so hard he’s on the verge of drawing blood, his eyes brimming with pained tears that he was refusing to let fall as he took carefully measured breaths through clenched teeth. Jason sometimes reminds Dick of a stray dog, not that he’d ever tell him that, all gnashed teeth and scary growls to hide the fact that he’s hurt and scared. It proved true enough in the moment, when Jason glared at him with as much fire as someone on the verge of tears could muster and hissed “don’t touch me!”
“I need to look at it Jay,” Dick said, trying to go for soothing. He and Jason weren’t exactly the embodiment of tenderness though. Truthfully, Dick and Jason didn’t really have a relationship at all. They were friendly, could get along by themselves for a few hours at a time, but Dick tried not to be around the manor much these days if he could help it, and Jason tended to follow Bruce like a second shadow, which was something Dick hadn’t wanted to touch with a 10 foot pole, so it wasn’t like they had a well established rapport going. “I need to check if it’s broken.”
“Obviously it’s broken dick.” Jason growled, spitting his name in a way that made it very clear he was using it as an insult. And maybe it would have been insulting, if Jason didn’t look so tiny in front of him clutching his arm close to his chest, his nose red and eyes shiny with a wobbly lip, trying so hard not to cry even with a broken wrist. Even his growling came out meek, raspy and breathless because he didn’t have enough energy to put behind it to really come across as anything but pained and defensive.
It’s easy to forget that Jason's only twelve. Robin has a way of making you seem so much larger than life, even when you aren’t wearing the mask, it’s almost like the kid that’s wearing it hardly exists underneath. Until of course, you’re abruptly reminded just how human you really are by having your wrist broken in a tragic trampolining accident.
“Okay,” Dick said gently, and he was aware he was talking to Jason the same way he talks to the scared animals he finds on patrol sometimes, but he wasn’t sure how else he was supposed to calm him down “yeah, you’re right, but I still need to look at it. I promise, I’m not going to hurt you Jason.”
It was with great reluctance Jason uncurled from the ball he’d screwed himself up into to allow Dick to check his wrist, which after a brief glance was 100% confirmed to be broken. It had taken a minute, Jason staring at dick with wide, teary eyes and a furrowed brow as he sniffled miserably, no doubt in a lot of pain. It was funny, how much more things seemed to hurt when they weren’t in their suits. Maybe it was just the body armour, but Dick was pretty sure there was some kind of psychology behind it all that made it so much easier to take a beating with a mask on.
“I want Bruce.” Jason muttered, as Dick prodded at his wrist and caused him to hiss in pain, flinching at the impact violently and looking at Dick with betrayal.
“I’ll call Bruce,” Dick promised, standing and pulling Jason up with him as gently as he could without jostling his arm “but we have to go to the hospital so they can fix your wrist.”
Jasons face screwed up, his freckled nose wrinkling in disgust at the thought. Dick didn’t blame him, he didn’t exactly like hospitals all that much himself, but for all his first aid training as a vigilante, setting a broken wrist was something better left to the professionals.
“This is all your fault.” Jason declared sullenly. He wasn’t even wrong, even if the whole thing hadn’t been his idea, he was supposed to be the responsible adult vetoing dangerous ideas like trampoline sparring. But again in Dick’s defense, he really hadn’t thought Jason would break his arm!
Dick ushered Jason to the car with a sigh. Bruce was probably never going to leave him in charge again.
13 notes · View notes
extasiswings · 1 year
Note
I have been noticing things, and I don't know what to make of them, so I am bringing them to you, because you have been blessed/cursed by Apollo's dodgeball and are also great at connecting dots. I apologise.
I am worried about Buck's lungs. His sats dropped when he was in a coma, to the point of needing ECMO, but during his recovery we only saw him see a cardiologist, no respiratory rehab was mentioned. Now his PT scores are down. The show has also been weirdly pointed about focusing on sats monitors being put on people's fingers during calls. They've done it on at least 3 of the calls since Buck's been back, and at no point have the people's sats been mentioned - even the woman face down in dough, who was started on oxygen. That in itself isn't a big deal - they're a quick way of getting a heartrate, and its standard practice to put one on. But why keep showing them? Then this week, Maddie had the call with the kid where she had to remind him how to breathe.
So, what do you think? Is there anything there, or am I projecting because I'm having to have respiratory physio after covid?
Just when I thought I couldn't get any more unhinged! No, there is DEFINITELY something there and I'm not gonna be normal about it. There are a couple of different places my mind went to (because it's not just Buck, Eddie's in this too) so apologies if this is scattered:
Buck + Death is the big overarching theme looming over Buck's healing journey. Buck's life has been about Death since before he was even born, when he was conceived to be a savior baby...and was a match...but Daniel still died anyway. And Buck has been running towards Death ever since, seeking it out, courting it like a lover without even realizing why, never knowing that Daniel's ghost was haunting him. He has internalized so completely this idea that his value is entirely dependent on what he can do for others, on how much he can sacrifice, can give, up to and including his own life. The fact that the problem was Buck's lungs in the episode where he was reckoning with Daniel for the first time while trapped in his subconscious mind was inspired and a huge callback to Buck Begins, after Buck first learned about Daniel, with Buck in the warehouse fire taking off his mask and telling the guy he was trying to save that he would just hold his breath. And Buck's been holding his breath in a sense ever since. Spiraling. Stagnating. Regressing. He quit therapy. He trapped himself for a year in a soulless relationship because he was already depressed but then the shooting happened and Eddie basically told him he wasn't allowed to keep trying to kill himself, taking away one of his main self-harming coping mechanisms (passive suicidality brushed off by telling himself he's actually helping people), all of that.
There are also the crush injuries surrounding him (which I wrote about in 6A as being super sus). Thomas and Mitchell and a car accident crush injury, the first call where Buck begins explicitly associating romantic love with death. Buck being crushed under the ladder truck, which ultimately led to the blood clots and a pulmonary embolism because he wouldn't let himself rest and recover, wouldn't let himself heal or slow down, because he was too focused on getting back to work where he could (in his mind) be useful, be worth something, could save lives. And he admitted then that he didn't know what/who he was without the job, and ironically almost torched all of his relationships with the people who love him regardless in order to get back to it. And then of course there's also Lev. Lev trying to find the secrets to happiness but instead being crushed to death by a walkway that collapsed because the hotel identified the problem but never made the repairs. And it was through him that Buck started thinking that he could find all the answers he's been looking for in death.
But...Buck died. Actually died. And despite his joke about his math powers and being the guy with the answers, he doesn't have them all.
At the end of 6x11, he took a breath. He took a step. He allowed himself a little bit of self-awareness, of self-reflection, he dipped his toe into the water of the root trauma that has led him to all the others. But he's awake now, and what has he done? By all accounts it looks like exactly what he's done every other time/like he's falling back into the same bad habits. He let his mom steamroll him into getting him a couch that he didn't want. He threw himself back into work as soon as he could and keeps trying to brush off the fact that he went through a serious trauma (physical/mental/emotional) to the point that the people who love him have to keep reminding him that he literally died. He has the tools he needs to heal, but isn't actually taking the steps to get there. And, as you point out, they're potentially foreshadowing that there are still problems with his lungs that may still get worse.
Because Buck is, at heart, one big crush injury. He has been suffocating under the weight of trauma after trauma since he was born, conceived in grief and then discarded. He has been suffocating under the weight of hiding his true feelings from others (up to and including hiding them from himself) and leaving so many necessary things unsaid. But it also makes me think about Eddie and Home Invasion and the call at Marisol's and everything that I've been saying about insulation as protection but too much protection stifling you so much that you can't breathe. Buck being "the settler" in romantic relationships because he can't get hurt (at least not as badly) if he's not actually attached to the relationship, never going after/asking for what he really wants. Eddie being his own variation on "the fugitive" always running from the things that he's most afraid of. Both of them trying desperately to protect their hearts from getting broken and instead ending up in a place where they are both always dying...
Idk, there's something about Buck + Death and Eddie + Fear and Buck constantly suffocating vs. Eddie drowning, and Buck starting the season not wanting to make the same mistakes but also possibly "misunderstanding the assignment" with this death doula, and water finding its level...yeah...yeah...
118 notes · View notes
Text
I was trying to write a scene for Falling Backwards but it turned into a ‘How Lin got her scars Au’
Tw torture, tw eye damage
Lin’s body started to shake and convulse, involuntary desperate movement trying to pull away from the men that held her head in place under the surface of the water in the troth. They pulled her back just as her vision started to blacken again and she desperately gasped for breath through the horrible cough brought on by the ice cold water in her lungs.
“She doesn't know!” Lin could hear Saikhan’s voice from beside her and she tried to shake her head but the men’s grip on her hair held her in place. She tried to steady her breathing but it was useless, her chest heaved as she caught her breath. Saikhan couldn’t break before she does. She’s been beaten and nearly drowned and he’s starting to worry for her, but soon it would be his turn. Lin didn’t have much time to collect her thoughts before she was being pushed back towards the water again. “No! No!” Saikhan tried to stop the men as they moved to push her head back under the water midbreath. Lin coughed and choked as the water splashed and spilled with her struggle. Lin’s vision faded as she thrashed and tried to kick out against her tormentors, her movements started to slow. She could barely hear Saikhan yelling, muffled by the water and her waning consciousness. Suddenly she was thrown onto her back on the floor, a wretched gasp pulled air into her lungs before she started to cough up the water.
“Boss won’t be happy you two were sniffing around.” one of the lackeys crooned.
“Yeah, best fess up why you’re here without orders.” another finished wrapping leather over his knuckles.
“Like I said, Zolt-” a painful blow to Saikhan’s jaw interrupted him.
“You’ll have to do better than that.” another painful blow. Lin rolled to her side to try to keep from choking on the water in her mouth, a harsh kick to her stomach rolled her back over as a boot pressed to her chest, limiting her breathing.
“Bastards-” Lin groaned as she struggled to breathe.
“Someone mentioned me?” Zolt himself appeared on the other side of the bars, his arms hanging into the cell nonchalantly.
“Zolt! Buddy, tell these idiots we’re here under orders.” Saikhan tried, but they knew they were made.
“Nah, there's no fun in that.” Zolt grinned then his smile fell as he saw Lin. “Wait a minute! Hold on a second my lovely gents. Is that anyway to treat the Chief’s daughter?” Zolt smiled wide now seeing who it was the two had captured.
“What are you talking about Zolt?” the heavy boot on her chest pressed down with more weight on her. Lin tried the ties holding her wrists pinned between the dirt and her back but they held fast.
“We’ve netted a Beifong, boys.” Zolt moved into the cell now.
“She- she's not!” Saikhan was floundering but trying, another harsh blow to his already swollen face and he was dazed, his eyes swimming as he tried to focus.
Lin scowled as Zolt came and pinned her with his own boot to her already aching shoulder, shoving the other guy away. “Hey Lin, remember me?” Zolt was more than enjoying this turn of events. It was only a handful of months ago he had been arrested in the streets after a confrontation with the young Beifong.
“You’re- Mistaken,” Lin coughed, her wet hair clung to her face as the water started to mix into mud under her head and shoulders.
“No, no I don't think I am.” he pulled a knife from his boot. “How about a lesson you learn this time?” He knew how they worked. He figured once they didn’t check in the place would be swarmed by RCPD officers and that was the last thing he wanted with the boss trusting him with this shipment. “A reminder to not try to cross me again?” His hand came down and gently brushed the hair clinging to Lin’s face away. Lin pulled her face away from the heated blade as he then moved to rest the sharp edge at the base of her jaw. His bending causing the blade to start to glow from the handle. Lin gritted her teeth at the burning cut.
“No! You can’t-” Saikhan received a quick kick to his gut in return.
Lin cried out as Zolt dragged the blade deep into her jaw and up her cheek, she tried to move her face away and he pushed harder the metal crossing her eye.
“One for trying to undermine me.” he growled, another harsh drag of his blade and a twin mark to the first appeared on Lin’s face. Lin couldn't help the scream of pain. The cuts were burned severely and her face was hot and stung as tears and dirty water fell into the new wounds. “And another so you won't forget me next time.” he kicked her so her damaged face was pressed to the mud now as he turned to Saikhan. Shock took hold of Lin as her vision blurred as she coughed and tried to bite back a sob. She heard Saikhan cry out in pain behind her before a heavy blow hit her from behind, her eyes rolled back and her body fell limp.
Lin and Saikhan were found the next morning out cold on the steps of the RCPD. The scars of her failure already too damaged to heal properly. Zolt’s brand clear on her face as a constant reminder. Saikhan vowed to never tell a soul and Lin left it out of the reports. The two were removed from the case. Lin was put on desk work until Toph was sure she learned her lesson about not reporting injuries correctly.
Still, rumors spread like fire in the under city and soon Zolt was promoted when people confirmed it was him who ‘took out’ Beifong.
13 notes · View notes