#could be next week since it's a two-parter! but might also be later | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

swtki · 3 years

Text

HP Boys: Surprise Pregnancy Head Cannons

Summary: The HP boys and their reaction to their s/o (afab) being pregnant when its not planned.

A/N: This takes place post Hogwarts so all characters are 18+, though no real smut happens in this so its not an 18+ fic.

WARNINGS: UNPLANNED PREGNANCY, MENTIONS OF PRO CHOICE OPINIONS, MENTIONS OF SEX IN LITE TERMS, SWEARING, FLUFF, MENTIONS OF ALCOHOL, ALSO THIS IS SUPER LONG SORRY LOL

Draco

So everything is going great for the happy couple, you two just moved into a flat together and are working normal jobs, drinking wine like adults.

And sure, Draco knows he wants to marry you, but he knows you’re not ready to settle down like that so he just plans and dreams.

Due to poor choices, when you’re late by two weeks, you know what it probably is.

Draco doesn’t even notice that you ran out to the store and came back and hid in the bathroom for 10 minutes. CEO of minding his own business ig

You just kinda...walk up to him and hand him all 3 tests while your eyes fill with tears because what if he demands you get an abortion?

Or what if he fucks off to god knows where?

But instead he just looks at you with the most un-draco like smile. Like his face was soft and it looked like he could cry any moment.

“Oh my god,” He says, putting his hand on your belly, “I can be ready for this, but if you aren’t then we can you know...”

“No, I want it” then both of you rejoice bc yay baby!

Cut to 6 months later when your feet hurt so bad you have to lay down and watch while Draco fails to put a crib together.

He eventually gets it done tho.

And when the time comes, he’s built and arranged everything for your bundle of joy.

Harry

So you guys are probably already married, but with everything at the ministry going on, it makes Harry less than a family man.

You both agree that it’s probably better to wait so you can be home and yk...raise it.

Well smart man Harry forgets that to not have a kid you need to use protection.

So of course when your period is late you don’t think about it, until its four weeks late.

That night, you and Harry are laying in bed, and thats when you tell him.

“Harry..I’m late.”

“Late for what?” headass.

You: 😳😐

Him: 👁👁😲😲

He’s hesitant to say anything, because he knows its ultimitley up to you what happens with it until its out.

“I think I want to keep it...you know it wont remember much for the first year and a half so if things are stressful it will be okay and-“

“Love...Its going to be perfect”

Mf built the crib in like 45 minutes I swear.

And of course he forced you to keep up with your vitamins, pre natal care, and appointments.

Swear tho you’re about to kill him because cofFeE

But the way he holds your baby 🥺 its his most valued thing ever now.

Ron

Ron is iffy on the kid thing sometimes.

He does want them, but only later when you guys have lived and travled.

So no, you two haven’t planned nor is it even in the picture when your wedding roles around.

It’s in the early days of the marriage when you see his family at the burrow on the way back from the honeymoon.

And of course Molly knows

Because Weasleys are hyperfertile I swear.

She takes you into the kitchen and puts her hands on your arms, shes got that big Mrs.Weasley smile on too.

“I knew it!” She says and pulls you in for a hug, “How far dear??”

You’re just standing there like🧍🏻

“I can see it by the way you glow! Oh my you and my Ron must be so happy!” This woman doesn’t notice that you’re confused.

“Wait what? Mrs. Weasley what are you-?” Then you count the days, “Oh. Well I guess I just found out for myself”

Her face falls slightly, but then she tells you can make you a potion that will tell you if you are or not, stan.

The stupid potion turns green when you spit into it, so everything is confirmed.

That night, you and Ron are getting ready for bed in the guest room and you decide to tell him.

“Ron, sweetie. We need to talk.” He looks like he’s gonna start crying but sits next to you on the bed.

“Y/N...I know its scary but please, we just got married I don’t want to divorce quite just yet 🥺🥺”

“Ron I-“ you start smiling, “I’m pregnant you dufus.”

He just freezes, for a while. Not saying anything, he just looks at the wall with his mouth ajar.

So you get up and go to Ginny.

“Gin, I broke him.”

“Ew, I don’t want to know about how you and him”

“No, I told him that I’m pregnant.”

“Oh, yeah that would do it. Just I don’t know... Give him a minute?”

You give him several, getting a glass of water then heading back up to the room.

Ginny was right, he needed a minute.

“I don’t...I wasn’t...you were.?”

“You don’t have to stay, but I think we can do it. Plus, you would disapoint your mom if you left so...”

“Okay...we’ll do it. I’ll be the best damn Father you have ever seen.” He says, talking to your womb.

Well...he’s a father I’ll give him that.

Pro of having a Weasley baby: free crib thats already put together.

Even if it looks like a death trap.

“We’ll put some blankets over it don’t worry”

You know how some Dads hold their parters hand during the delivery? Yeah he got sick and was moral support from the outside.

To be fair, you weren’t screaming in pleasure by any means.

Scary. But beautiful.

He shows the kid to everyone, he might be more in love with the baby than he is with you.

Ron see’s the appeal of having kids now.

Neville

Moving in with your boyfriend is always fun, right up until you guys go at it so much you forget protection more than once.

You think about it, then move on with your day.

Until the doctor calls, then “oh fuck”

Romance Neville bf

“Why aren’t you having any wine? I thought it was your favorite?”

“I don’t think fetal alcohol syndrome is my favorite.” BRO HE SPAT

But he looks up with tears in his eyes, and runs over to you to grasp you in a hug.

“Oh my god! You’re pregnant! Oh my - We’re gonna be parents!! Oh my god we’re gonna be parents oh-“ Que you petting his hair till he’s calm again.

Lets be honest, this man probably swapped the herbology books for the parenting guides.

“Well I mean I’m just wondering if we should go with this color or this one”

“Nev, it doesn’t matter. Our baby will not care.”

“I read in my book that Infants actually can recognize mood in-“

He won’t let you do anything during your pregnancy.

Gotta love a man who cries because he loves you so much and you’re having his kid.

“I never had a father, what if I do it wrong? What if the baby hates me and runs away at seven?”

“We’ve got quite a lot of time before then.”

He was there during delivery, letting you crush his hand like a champ.

You can’t help but cry when you see him sleeping on the floor next to the crib, its so sweet.

Fred

You two most likely already had two kids, so you decided to wait a bit so your hands weren’t quite full.

Well...your body decided not to wait.

A test provides the two lines, another wild child.

The two toddlers already run around like thing one and thing two, only with red hair.

I think Fred would gladly make the family dinner, and wear an apron. He’d own it, as he should.

But mf gotta not drop the salad bowl when you tell him of the fetus inside you.

“Fred we are going to have a bee-ay-bee-why.”

Your five year old has just begun to spell 😐

He’s happy tho.

Like over the fuckin moon.

He buys the two kids big brother/sister shirts too 🥺🥺

He knows the drill pretty well, so he isn’t too worried about the future.

But its funny that he still freaks out about the crib and feeding chair since he gave it away, you know because you guys werent having another kid.

He packed a hospital bag and kept it in the trunk, counting down the days.

Hours of delivery (He just sat back and held your hand) only to end up with a room full of 7 Weasley family members.

Fred always said that 3 was his lucky number :)

George

You guys were taking it slow, no marriage until you both felt it was time. And certainly no children before that.

Well you know...things changed when the test was positive.

You slid it over on the table, tears pooling in your eyes. He was stunned and quiet, which made you burst out sobbing because you knew that neither of you planned on having a baby.

But to your surprise he starts to smile.

“I want whatever you want, I’m staying by your side no matter what.”

“I mean...would it really be so bad? A house, a kid, a dog?” He holds your hand as you think aloud.

You both give it a week to think it over and the virdict is to keep it.

Thats when he decides he has to marry you, asap because he loves you and will never let you go especially now.

He loves to gush about the carrier of his child, to him you are a godess.

He’s the Dad with a predestination complex.

“Y/N, I just see him being a star quiditch player”

“George, we don’t know if it’s a him.”

He rolls his eyes “Okay then I can see her being a star-“

He made Hermione take you out for a movie date so he could rearrange your bedroom, since you only had a single bedroom flat.

You come back to a new set up including a cot.

Damn pregnancy hormones make brain go 🥺😭😭

He freaks when your water breaks lol

ceo of driving like a maniac to the hospital.

He can’t hold your hand, he’s pacing back and forth, sweating and maybe crying though he’ll never admit to it.

You get the joy of watching him cuddle the baby while refusing to give your child to you.

“George I’d like to hold-“

“No, you need your sleep honey, don’t worry”

Hogging the child.

Cedric

Its no secret that Cedric wants a baby someday.

And he makes it clear your wedding will be spectacular too.

However, finding out you’re pregnant the week of your dream wedding was a shock.

A shock that made you bang your head into the wall because how could you be so stupid?? We had a plan??

So you decide to wait until after the wedding, that way it wont add onto the stress (happy stress) of the wedding.

Cedric keeps trying to fill your glass at the reception, to which you kindly refuse saying you want to remember the night entirely.

Yeah he’s like 🤨 mhm okay.

You can only pick at the dinner because ew salmon doesn’t sound like an option if you want to keep the contents of your stomach.

As everyone waves goodbye to the car, and you both set off into married life, he leans over.

“I may be out of my mind, but are you...?”

“Pregnant.” His face lights up, pulling you into a hug.

Finally, your car pulls up to a small cottage with lush garden scapes all around, putting a hand out, he walks you both from the car to the door.

“Ced, where are we?”

“Home.”

Somehow it was perfect with Cedric, even when it was rushed.

He loved talking to your womb, even if it was weird that he was talking about the babies future brothers and sisters.

“Cedric, slow down. We haven’t even had this one yet”

Basically he is father of the year before he’s a full father.

He’s there while you deliver, holding your hand and telling you how great you’re doing.

He doesn’t even complain when you insult him <3.

He updates you on everything.

If his eyes aren’t on that child, he’s either asleep or dead.

I think Cedric was meant to be a family man, because he loves everything about being one.

Taglist: @truly-insatiable @amourtentiaa @imdoingathingmom @annasdani @anchoeritic @mullthingsoverinthehotwater @cedricsyellowscarf @faeinorbit

652 notes · View notes

aalbedo · 3 years

Text

injured!tartaglia x reader (part 2)

part two of this

request: Hello I absolutely loved your one shot of Tartaglia helping an injured reader sdjgksjfkf if you don't mind I'd like to request a part 2 where reader asks him the story behind that big scar he pointed out? Maybe reader finds HIM injured and returns the favor and asks about his other scars while they treat his wounds?? Ahaha reader's just like "fuck I can't just leave you here to bleed out but don't you dare think this means I care for you or anything" lmao

format: two-parter (again, read part one first)

ship: tartaglia x reader

tags: fluff, reader is the traveler-ish (a completely separate character from aether and lumine, but still the traveler, does that make sense?), author forgets basic wound care halfway into the fic

warnings: blood, mildly graphic depiction of injury, stitches and needles

words: 3027

notes: hey so uhhhhhhhh i kinda went off the rails with this one, i didn't really follow the prompt in some points since uh... the part about the stories behind the scars... i kinda forgot about that... or like... eh you'll see, anyway, - banner still fucked up it will be fixed i prommy

Despite the high number of hilichurl camps, abyss mages, fatui agents, ruin hunters and ruin guards, Lisha was still one of your favorite places to explore, it was full of treasure chests to open, sweet flowers to pick and ore to mine. Plus, the atmosphere managed to still be peaceful, the open fields where the sun would shine uninterrupted for hours and hours on end were your favorite place to sit down and bask in the sunlight.

Your leg was still recovering from the tough hit you had taken a few weeks prior, which meant that you had to take more breaks while adventuring. Not that you would complain, taking breaks, putting some numbing cream on your wound, eating some reinvigorating food and drinking fresh water was just as satisfying as exploring.

After resting for about half an hour, you decided to get up, careful not to put any pressure on your injured leg. You threw your bag over your shoulder and walked north-west, towards the road to the chasm.

In the distance, you started hearing sounds of fighting, and as you got closer to them, you could see a tall figure fighting not one, but two separate ruin hunters, with a bow. It was too far away to see the person’s face, but you had half an idea of who it could be.

Then, out of nowhere, a bright purple flash, and in less than a second the ruin hunters were both on the ground, completely destroyed. Yep, it’s Tartaglia.

You thought about turning away and changing your direction before he could see you. You had already reluctantly thanked him for helping you that day, as well as paying for your medication out of his own pocket, but you still felt like you owed him a favor that you really did not want to fulfill. He was still the guy that almost destroyed Liyue, and made you fight for your life, despite everything.

Until you saw him fall to his knees, and as he turned to face your direction you could see his chest covered in blood.

You acted on instinct, ignoring your brain telling you to leave him alone, that he could tend to his own wounds, and you sprinted towards him. He may be an asshole, but you just want to avoid him, not leave him to die.

He was resting his back on a wall, head thrown back. Even from far away, you could see that he was breathing heavily. That same backpack you had seen on him the day he helped you was now sitting next to him, his left hand already rummaging through it.

His head shot up, he had definitely heard you coming towards him, his eyes widened as you kneeled down right in front of him and got a better look at his condition. You could see a cut crossing his chest, from his right shoulder to the middle of his torso, right over his heart. His grey coat was soaked in blood, as it pooled on the bend of his hips and slid down to the ground.

“So you do care about me.” he broke the silence, struggling to talk through heavy breaths and groans. He was completely out of breath, covered in blood, definitely in pain, and all he could think about was joking.

“I don’t. Just because I hate you, it doesn’t mean I want to see you dead.” You didn’t have time to get mad at him. “Also - I owe you a favor, I guess.” The only thought in your head was to help him, so you did not think twice before quickly unbuttoning his coat and undercoat and moving them out of the way.

You got a look at his chest and through the blood you could see several other scars, most of them looked years old, a few of them looked pretty large, carving his chest and abdomen. You wondered if his entire body looked like this, and why his face didn’t.

“Like what you see?” he joked again, his voice sounded hoarse, strained, very clearly struggling to talk. You sighed, couldn’t he just shut up for a minute?

You turned to your own bag to pull out anything you might need to help him. Potions, numbing cream and even a stitching kit laid next to you. You had bought the kit after that day, and started learning how to stitch wounds.

“No,” you dismissed him again. He whined quietly, you weren’t sure if it was because of your response or the wound.

All of the sudden, you felt… fear? Fear of what? Him passing out? And anger, at the fact that he wasn’t taking the situation as seriously as you were. He could easily die from this wound and all he was doing was making jokes.

You quickly started cleaning the blood with a cloth in one hand, while holding a bottle of antiseptic potion in your left, ready to pour it on top of the cut. You were being quick, passing your hand over his chest as fast as you could, trying to gather all the blood while avoiding the open skin, but there was so much of it that in mere seconds the cloth was soaked and completely useless.

You looked up at him and he was staring at the ground, his eyes completely unfocused. “Childe,” you called him and he squeezed his eyes closed, “try to stay awake.”

“Easy to say,” he muttered. At least he was awake.

You threw away the bloody cloth, and poured the antiseptic potion directly on his scar with no warning. Despite knowing that you were just helping him, a wave of guilt washed over you as you heard him cry out from the pain and throw his head back, wincing again when he hit the wall.

Half a bottle of potion and another clean cloth drenched in blood later, the wound had completely stopped bleeding, and you finally breathed out all the tension you were holding in your body.

His face, and body, were completely pale from the blood loss. His mouth was agape, eyelids half closed - looking at you, he sighed, barely letting any air out. You glared back, but by the way his head was positioned, you couldn’t help but look at his lips, the way they moved slightly every time he breathed out, they seemed so… soft, sweet. You brushed aside a thought that had snaked into your brain. His mouth curled up and he barked a laugh, but he stopped immediately and groaned again. Had he noticed that you were looking?

“Don’t laugh, it’ll hurt you,” you reminded him as you threw away the second blood drenched cloth.

“Sure,” he replied, voice still strained. “Whatever you say.”

You find a third cloth, the only clean one you had left, used some water from your bottle to make it damp and used it to wash your hands.

“Don’t talk either,” you looked at him as you opened a small glass jar containing numbing cream. “What were you thinking, being here alone and fighting two ruin guards?” He opened his mouth. “Don’t answer, you’ll tell me later.”

“I was just collecting some debts when those two attacked me.” He groaned again.

“I said, don’t talk if it hurts.” You made it clear from your tone that you were annoyed at the way that he was acting.

You dipped a couple of fingers into the cream, and hesitated before placing your bare hand on his chest, carefully placing the cream around the wound, so that he would not feel pain when you would be stitching it closed. As you got a better look at the cut, you noticed how the skin had been basically mangled, it looked like it would not be an easy recovery.

“You look like you know what you’re doing,” he pointed out, before groaning again. You were starting to wish you had taped his mouth with something.

“Because I know what I’m doing, I’m not an idiot. And you’re making me regret helping you, just shut up already.”

“Make me.”

Your hand froze over his skin. You moved your eyes back up to him, trying to decipher his expression. Was that an invitation, or just teasing? He hadn’t even tried to put on a smug face, his expression just looked tired and worn out, which made it even harder to decipher.

The longer you looked at him, the weirder it would get, you would have to do something before it got awkward and that thought from earlier slammed back into your head.

You wanted to wish you had run the other way, but the truth was that you were glad you hadn’t. Maybe it was all of the tension you had accumulated while seeing all that blood flow out of him, maybe it was the heavy lidded look he was giving you, but you placed your clean hand on the side of his face, cupping his cheek. His eyes widened, mouth parted ready to say something, but, before he could, your lips were on his.

The kiss was fast, you pulled back almost immediately and averted his gaze right away. You could feel him staring at you as you put your hand back into the jar and picked up some more cream.

“I didn’t think you would actually-” he didn’t finish the sentence.

You quickly caught a glimpse of his expression before focusing on taking care of the wound. You contained a laugh as you saw him look absolutely dumbfounded and flustered, he had seriously been rendered completely speechless by what could barely be considered a kiss. If he hadn’t lost that much blood that day, his cheeks would definitely be red.

Honestly, you couldn’t believe what had happened either. You couldn’t believe you had even done it. You could’ve just laughed it off and kept medicating him in silence. But you were glad that you didn’t.

Neither of you uttered a word for a while, and even though the atmosphere wasn’t explicitly awkward, you wished he would say something. After a thick layer of numbing cream and several minutes of silence, you finally gathered the courage to look back at him. He was clearly pretending to look away, as if he hadn’t spent the entire time looking at you working.

“Is the pain gone? Can I stitch it now?” Your voice came out unexpectedly soft. You touched the skin around the wound, waiting to get a reaction from him.

His head snapped back to face you, and he nodded. “Can’t feel a thing,” he said as he touched his own chest. “I can stitch it though, if you wa- Ah!” He lifted his right arm, the injured one, and immediately stopped mid-air, “fuck- shit, not this,” he almost yelled.

“You ripped a tendon.” You gently took his right arm, putting it back down for him, and looked at his shoulder. “I’ll stitch it, don’t worry - I’ve learned.”

He didn’t say anything, and you took it as permission. You opened the kit you had bought at Bubu pharmacy weeks prior: recurved needle, thread and tweezers. You could feel Tartaglia’s gaze on you as you struggled passing the thread through the needle, but in the end you managed to do it.

As you hovered over the wound, your gaze fell on a large scar, the one that would normally be visible from over his coat on his neck, and it went down over the left side of his body down until his hip. It looked pretty old, but it was still very visible.

“Can I ask you… how did you get that?”

“Mh?”

You pointed at the scar with your pinkie and slightly traced over it, “this scar, what happened?”

He followed your finger with his gaze, and kept his eyes on the scar even as you moved back to the still open wound. “Oh, that?” You passed the needle through the skin and pulled it out on the other side. “I was 14.”

You saw some blood trickle from the cut as you carefully pulled the thread and passed the needle through one more time. By the way he had spoken, you felt like he was going to continue talking, so you didn’t interrupt.

“Uhm, when I was 14, I-” you heard him pass his tongue over his lips, “the Abyss, you know.” You nodded quietly as you passed the needle through a few more times.

“You don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want to,” you reassured him, you knew that it was a pretty sensitive topic, or at least you imagined it would be. You stitched a few more loops with ease, getting progressively more comfortable with what you were doing.

“It’s fine, I- I was in-” his voice was starting to shake the slightest bit, but you noticed the change of tone in his voice.

You finally reached the end, and you cut the thread, tying it tightly at the end. You put the needle and the tweezers back into their container.

“I had to fight this… huge- and when-” once you looked up at him, you realized how lost in thought he was, looking at his scar, unable to take his eyes off it, he was probably getting some flashbacks. “I-” his voice cracked, his lower lip trembled ever so slightly, and you could not bear it anymore. Without even thinking about it, you grabbed the side of his face and dragged him in for an actual, proper kiss.

He fell right into it and reciprocated immediately, placing his left hand on the side of your waist. It was sweet, and tender, and you got a better feel of what his lips were like: just as soft as they looked.

You pulled back first once again, and as you got to look at his surprised face, eyebrows raised and everything, your mind started racing. You had just kissed not just a Fatui, not just a Harbinger, but the Harbinger that had tried to kill you, that manipulated you and that nearly destroyed Liyue for the second time. And he was sitting in front of you looking like an idiot.

You couldn’t figure out what you were feeling, but there was something going on deep in your chest, and stomach.

“This doesn’t mean anything,” you quickly clarified before he could say anything. “Neither of them do, they were just to shut you up.”

“Were they?” he asked. And just like that, he came full circle back to the false smugness.

You really, really did not want to think about the weird feeling that was growing in your stomach. “Look at what I got from Baizhu.” From your bag, you pulled out a thick strip made out of cotton and a small vial full of Slime concentrate.

“You’re avoiding the question.”

“What do they mean to you?” you bit back, waiting to see if he would face the question himself, or back out like a hypocrite.

“What did you get from Baizhu?”

You both chuckled, and you noticed his bare chest rising and falling back down as he laughed. “He said it’s a new type of bandaging, you use slime concentrate to stick it to the skin.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “I don’t love the sound of that, actually.”

“I was skeptical too the first time I tried it, but trust me - it’s much more comfortable.” You heard him sigh in defeat as you already spread some of the slime condensate over the strip, and set down the half empty vial. “It won’t hurt.”

“Do you promise?”

He looked into your eyes with a relaxed expression, you looked right back. “I promise,” you replied with a kind smile, before turning your attention to the strip and stuck it over the wound, carefully placing it so that it would cover the entire cut.

“All done,” you said as you started getting up, but you felt a hand grabbing your arm, another one grabbing the side of your face, and tugging you back down, and before you could realize it your lips were once again on Tartaglia’s.

You couldn’t help but reciprocate the kiss, his lips were still soft, and at that point you felt like you could get used to them. The kiss was exactly as gentle as the one before, you could feel your fluttering in your chest as Tartaglia’s thumb started gently rubbing your cheekbone.

He pulled back first this time, and as you opened your eyes back you could see a wide smile on his face.

“Sending me mixed signals, huh?” you pointed out.

“I told you, I never had anything against you personally,” he said as he put his clothes back on, trying to fix them as much as possible, despite the very clear cut on his chest and the blood covering them completely.

“I’m gonna need some time before I’ll believe that.” You got up and reached down a hand for him to get up. “You’re gonna need to prove it to me.”

He grabbed it with his non-injured hand and stood up beside you. “While you take your time, care to walk me to Bubu pharmacy, so I can buy some of these sticky bandages?” he asked, a wide smile still on his face.

“Sure,” you simply replied, picking up both of your back and tossing them over your shoulder.

You watched him move his injured arm slightly, to figure out how much he could move it. Unsurprisingly, not much.

He hummed. “I’m gonna have to take some time off from duty, hopefully they won’t kill me for it,” he said in a joking manner, but you could sense that he wasn’t kidding about the killing part.

“Well,” as you both started walking back to the harbor, you got an idea, “you could use the time off to show me that you truly don’t hate me.”

“Like what?” You could feel his gaze on you.

“Like, we could go out for dinner,” you suggested, keeping your eyes in front of you. “In a completely neutral way, and then see what happens from there.”

“Sounds good.”

“It’s a plan, then.”

#likes; comments and reblogs are incredibly appreciated!!!#next one is gonna be albedo x reader again lmao i cant leave the man alone #i'll try posting once a week i guess #more than that i just cannot do #genshin #genshin impact #genshin childe #gi #genshin tartaglia #genshin x reader #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact childe #genshin impact tartaglia #tartaglia x reader #childe x reader #genshin childe x reader #genshin tartaglia x reader #how many fucking tags #x reader

280 notes · View notes

cjsinkythoughts · 3 years

Text

FATWS One Shot #2 - The Beginning of a Family

Word Count: 1804

Warnings: Cursing, Mentions of Human Trafficking (once, it was a mission Reader did), Minor Character Injury

Setting/Characters: The first half-ish of The Avengers in 2012; Reader, Steve Rogers, Nick Fury, Natasha Romanoff, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Thor, Mentions of Loki, Phil Coulson, and Clint Barton, OC!Agent Anderson

A/N: Here’s One Shot Number 2! I was thinking of making it longer and adding the actual Battle of Manhattan, but I dunno if I’m gonna do that. I just wanted these to be One Shots of first meetings and other smaller events. I didn’t want to do scene-for-scene two parters. If you want me to, I can, I don’t mind doing it, I just wasn’t planning on it. I’ve kinda been slacking today, which is why I haven’t cranked out more than this one, but I’ll see if I can finish one more for tonight. Tomorrow’s another late night for me at work, BUT! Tomorrow night FATWS comes out! So I will be doing the next Episode! I also don’t have Friday off this week, so the Parts might bleed into Saturday, but they will come this weekend!

Reminder that this has nothing to do with FATWS the show, but I don’t have a title for my FATWS Series, which is what these are based off of, so this is what they’re called for now! If you have any ideas for names, feel free to send them in! I’m just too lazy to come up with something clever for the whole Series.

Thank you so much for reading! As always, not beta’d so please excuse any mistakes! Be kind to yourselves and others! Stay tuned and enjoy!

FATWS Masterlist

cjsinkythoughts Masterlist

You were exhausted, coming back from an assignment that lasted a little over two months. It’d been your first one since you were assigned to help Steve adjust, and you were guessing they’d keep you on desk duty for a few months before sending you back out again. Which frustrated you to no end.

But then you got back your personal cell phone from a fellow agent and, seeing you had a few voicemails - which you never had - you flipped it on.

“Hi, Y/N.” Your lips turned up at the man you started growing close to over the past year. “I-I know you’re on a mission right now. I mean, you just left last week. Anyways, I just…I hope you’re doin’ okay. You probably won’t get this until later, but…still. I hope you’re safe. I, uh, I got that book. The one you were joking about me getting. The U.S. History for Dummies one. It goes farther back than I need to know, but I still read all of it. It helped. I wish you were here though. But I know you’re working. And that’s important. Um… I guess I’ll see you in a few months.”

The phone beeped before the next message played. “I took your advice. I got a sketchbook and some other stuff. There’s a ton of new supplies. I’m kinda excited to try them out. Maybe they’re not new but they’re more accessible now than they used to be. And I found a gym. In Brooklyn. It’s kinda run down - a hole in the wall type place - but they don’t do memberships and they don’t care how long you stay as long as you pay for your time. So that’s nice. I guess. Anyways…hi. I don’t think I said that earlier. It’s Steve, by the way. But you probably guessed that. Um…that’s all. I just wanted to let you know. Stay safe, honey. Abbyssinia.”

You listened to the next couple ones, all along the same lines. Steve telling you about his day; about the dog he was allowed to pet on his run or the different coffee he tried this morning at your previous suggestion. You snickered a little, shaking your head. You would never guessed that Hitler hitting, Nazi punching Captain America was so…soft. Cute.

His last voicemail was from earlier that morning, and it made her brow furrow. “Hey, honey. I, uh…God, I really wish you were here. I was told you’d be getting back last week, but then they said it might be another couple weeks because something happened? I hope nothing happened. Please be okay. I’ve really missed you. I know it’s only been a year, but…you’re the only familiar thing I have right now. I guess Fury was right to choose you since you were the first person I saw. There’s a, uh, problem. Fury’s got a mission for me. Some guy named Loki stole the Tesseract. Which was HYDRA’s secret weapon. That blue cube thing. I was just getting used to laptops and fast food and this…it’s just a lot. Overwhelming. You were always good at making things less intimidating. I’ve gotta go. Some SHIELD personnel are picking me up now. We’re going to…somewhere. I’m sure you would know, but they haven’t exactly told me. Hoping to see you soon, Y/N. Please be safe.”

You frowned at the information, looking up at one of your fellow agents, Anderson. “Hey.” He turned his head towards you from his conversation with the copilot. “Is something going on at HQ?”

“The Helicarrier.” Anderson corrected. “Fury just called it in. Something with the Tesseract. And some guy’s mind controlling people. He’s got Barton, apparently. The director is bringing a few people on board; Banner, Stark, Romanoff. Rogers, too, I heard. He wants you to be there ASAP, so we’re going there now.”

Letting out a sigh, you rubbed your eyes and nodded. “Alright. Let’s go see what’s going on.”

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

Fury met you as you walked off the jet, lugging your duffle bag over your shoulder. You were still in your clothes from the mission; a human trafficking ring in Guam. Dirty, torn up jeans along with a white tank top hugging your torso and a flannel, unbuttoned, over your shoulders. One of your sneakers had a hole in it, too, and you were walking with a slight limp from the dislocated kneecap you got a few days prior.

“Agent.” He nodded in greeting, passing you a file. “The others are waiting. We just brought in Loki.”

You chewed your cheek, narrowing your eyes as you scanned the information in the file. It had personal files of the others, but you didn’t need to look through those. You knew Natasha very well, considering she taught you half the things you know, along with Barton. You knew Stark - of course you did - especially after you helped set Natasha up to be his secretary a while back. Banner you were also knowledgeable about, seeing as you went undercover to find him when he first took off and had been part of the tracking team on him ever since. Thor you had learned about after his fiasco in New Mexico from Coulson. And, last but certainly not least, Steve Rogers, who you knew better than any file could explain.

“Walk me through this; Thor and Loki are the real Thor and Loki? Like, from Norse myths?”

“Apparently so. You know about the New Mexico incident with the two last year, don’t you?”

You nodded, pinching your lips together tightly. “Well, yeah, but I thought…I dunno. I guess it just didn’t click. So,” you tucked the file under your arm securely, raising an eyebrow at Fury. “We’re fighting a god? An actual god?”

“With an army of aliens.” He confirmed.

“Wonderful.” You huffed as the two of you turned a corner, making your way onto the bridge, just in time to hear Stark talking to Banner about him turning into the Hulk.

“Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube.” Fury butted in. You crossed your arms behind Fury, leaning on your good leg. “I was hoping you might join him. Before you do, this is-”

“Y/N! You’re back!”

You shot a grin to the blonde, who perked up upon seeing you. “Hi, Steve. Just in time, too, huh.” You nudged Natasha slightly. “Hey, Nat. Sorry about Clint.”

She shrugged. “I’m just glad you’re here to help.”

“I’m sorry.” You looked over to find Banner frowning contemplatively at you. “Do I know you?”

You opened your mouth to answer, but Fury beat you to it. “Formalities later. Y/L/N, we’ll bring you up to speed-”

“I’ll get there, sir. How are you boys planning on tracking down the Tesseract?” You questioned, nodding in the two geniuses’ direction.

“I’d start with that stick of his.” Steve suggested, turning to look at the duo as well. “It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.”

“I don’t know about that, but it is powered by the Cube.” Fury stated. “And I’d like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.”

A tall, broad as hell blonde looked at Fury, confused. “Monkeys? I do not understand-”

“I do!” Steve jumped in, pointing at Thor, before leaning back in his seat at the silence that came after his exclamation. “I-I understood that reference.”

You chuckled and shook your head, winking at Steve when he smiled bashfully at you. As the two scientists - was Stark a scientist? - started heading out, Steve hopped up, padding over to you.

“You’re back early.”

“Late, technically.” You shrugged, letting him pull you in for a hug, your hand rubbing his back. “I got your calls.”

He pulled away, his ears turning red. “Oh, yeah. I, uhm-”

You sniggered. “It’s fine, Steve. You can call me whenever you need to. I’m just sorry I couldn’t answer you sooner.”

“You were working.” He shrugged half heartedly. “Did it go okay? Are you okay?”

“Yes, Steven. I’m fine.” You rolled your eyes just as a yawn threatened to escape your lips. “If not a little tired.” You tapped on the star against his chest. “Nice suit, by the way.”

“Ha ha.” He grinned, eyeing your own clothing. “You’re matching me.” He tugged on the red, white, and blue flannel hanging from your arms. “You also look like shit.”

You snorted. “Wow. What a gentleman. Let’s get this whole Loki situation over with so I can go to bed, yeah?”

He chuckled a little with a nod. “Sounds like a plan, honey.” The two of you started out of the bridge. “You should shower first, though.”

“You’re a bully, you know that?”

“I’m just sayin’!”

“I’m just sayin’!” You mocked with a huff. “Leave me be, Rogers.”

His laughter was cut short, making you look over at him curiously, only to find his slitted eyes studying your movements. “Why are you limping?”

“Relax, Captain. I just dislocated my knee. It’s fine. Shit happens on missions, you know that.”

“Is that why you came back late?”

Shaking your head, you lead him to one of the private rooms the Helicarrier had so you could shower and change. “No. I just needed a little more time. That’s all. Now let’s focus on the problem at hand. We can talk more later.”

He hesitated, leaning against the doorway and watching you set your bag on the small cot. “Okay. As long as you’re alright.”

Your heart jumped a bit at the concern laced in his tone, the apprehension in those blue eyes - which you found out had some green in them - making your breath hitch slightly. “I am.” You spoke softly with a firm nod of your head, trying to assure him and his worries. “I promise.”

“I’m gonna go check on Banner and Stark, then. Come find me when you’re done.”

You cleared your throat to recover yourself, throwing him a cheeky grin. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

He rolled his eyes with a smile, before turning and walking out, leaving you alone and confused.

What was that? You’d never had that reaction to anything. Your heart doesn’t race whenever someone walks in the room. Not like it did with him. What the hell did that even mean?

You shook your head, clearing your throats. You didn’t have time to dwell on that now. You doubted it was anything more than a fluke. You were just tired and seeing someone familiar, who was genuinely excited to see you was like a breath of fresh air after your operation. That’s all. Yeah.

With that decided, you headed to the shower, head spinning with new thoughts of this problem with the God of Mischief and that stupid blue cube.

All Works Taglist (Open):

@happygoreading @bibliophilewednesday

#cjswriting #fatws series oneshots #falcon and the winter soldier series oneshots #fatws series oneshot 2 #fatws series #the beginning of a family one shot #steve rogers x reader #kinda #💛🧭#❤🐦💙🦾⏪

290 notes · View notes

chaoticallysapphic · 4 years

Text

Oh my heart

Summary: Lin never expected to have a soulmate, in a world where your mark appears whenever your soulmate is born she grew up completely blank. So when she’s thirty and it finally etches itself around her arm, she vows to never be with the one meant only for her.

A/N: there is an age gap so if that's not your thing, then please don’t read. This will be a two, maybe three parter and the reader is Korra’s older sister who is also a waterbender, besides that I’ve tried to keep any physical descriptions of her as vague as possible.

Word count: 4k

Lin was terrified. Something she had longed for her entire life had finally appeared but at the worst possible time, those strange words etched onto her forearm stared back at her in a taunting manner, making fun of her new attempt at happiness. You wished for me all your life, aren’t you pleased? The voice in the back of her head taunted, but she wasn’t. A moment meant to be filled with joy was one drenched in dread. Lin had finally accepted her feelings for Tenzin, despite him having had his soulmate mark since he was sixteen. Her glances grew longer, her smile seemed reserved only for him, and she finally felt happy, until now of course. Thirty, that’s how old Lin was, which meant she was thirty years older than her soulmate which seemed wrong, disgusting even, so Lin did what she thought best, she burnt it off. She blamed it on a work-related incident when asked, a pesky firebending criminal got a little to close and she paid the price. No one knew she did it to herself in the darkness of her apartment with tears on her face, a hint of regret gnawing at her heart.

Two months later, Tenzin asked Lin out on a date and despite that nagging feeling that this was so wrong, she accepted. After a few months Tenzin made her forget about the burnt skin on her forearm, the shameful secret she’d take to the grave. She felt happy, so happy, she felt loved and accepted, like maybe she had a shot at a happily ever after despite his mark and her own. Lin knew he’d choose her, knew he loved her, and had nothing to worry about, so she laid her head on his chest as they basked in the sun on Air Temple Island.

-----

“You can’t force me into wanting kids!” Lin shouted, her hands waving around as she glared at Tenzin, his usual calm demeanor seemed to crack, his voice rising as he shouted back “I’m the last air bender there is! I have to keep the line going, I have to repopulate my kind!”

“I would be a terrible mother, I hate kids and I’d have to leave my job for at least nine months, I just made Chief!” Tenzin pinched the bridge of his nose, his pale complexion turning red with frustration, he loved how dedicated she was to her job, but it seemed to be all she cared about since getting promoted.

“I think we need a break from each other, maybe a week or t-”. Her eyes widened in horror at his words, her hand's grip at her hair in frustration as she cuts him off “fine, but I am coming back in a week and we are working this out for good, I’m tired of this argument.” Without letting him say another word, she stormed out and made her way back to republic city.

As the week dragged on, Lin put her colleagues through hell. Slamming doors so hard the glass on them shattered, an even shorter fuse than normal, she even fired two of her best detectives for trying to ask her what was wrong. Her apartment seemed cold, her nights seemed never-ending and an undeniable sense of dread clawed its way into her heart like she knew he was slipping away. Maybe she could have one kid, to make him happy and keep the air benders going. If it was an earth bender then fine, she’d have another, but she wouldn’t quit her job, wouldn’t loosen up on the hours and Tenzin would understand, right? He’d just be so happy to be a father that he wouldn’t care, he’d always respected her work before, what was to stop him after a kid or two?

She caved, she decided to go back to air temple island on the fifth day, a sense of determination to fix their relationship fueled each step and she tried to dismiss any fear she had of becoming a mother as she made her way up the steps to where she’d known Tenzin would be. In her state, she didn’t notice the pitying looks the acolytes sent her way, all she cared about was finding him. When she found him in the courtyard, she thought nothing of the young woman speaking to Tenzin with a wide grin but when she put her hand on his shoulder mid-laugh, Lin paused. Tenzin noticed her then, a million emotions flashed through his eyes before his shoulders sagged and a sorrowful expression settled on his face, and somehow, she knew.

Who could blame her when she wreaked havoc on a place she once called her sanctuary, when she wished misery on him before leaving her destruction behind, her fists clenched tight as the best thing she ever had slipped through her fingers.

-----

“Korra!” a feminine voice shouted from behind Tenzin, you pushed past him and ran forward to hug the avatar in the interrogation room, murmuring something to her in a furious tone. Lin rolled her eyes as she looked over at Tenzin who said smoothly “Lin, you are looking radiant as usual.”

“Cut the garbage Tenzin” she replied in an annoyed tone “why is the avatar in republic city? I thought you were supposed to be moving down to the south pole to train her.” you, who came in with Tenzin let go of Korra and walked over to stand by him, your arms crossed over your chest.

“It was too cold for his bald head” you answered right as Tenzin opened his mouth to speak “now why is my sister in so much trou-”. Lin tuned the rest of her words out as shock slammed into her like a rock wall. No. This wasn’t meant to happen, she’d scorched off any chance with her soulmate twenty years ago, or so she thought. But this… this twenty? Yes, a twenty-year-old water tribe girl with brows furrowed, and an expectant look on her face was it. You were what sometimes kept her up at night when she was so lonely it felt like the feeling would surely eat her up as Lin imagined some faceless figure who loved Lin with all their heart, someone who would never leave her.

“Lin?” Tenzin asked, putting his hand on her shoulder which successfully pulled her out of the raging ocean that was her thoughts, no not ocean, definitely nothing water-related. Lin looked into Tenzin's eyes, completely ignoring her one chance at happiness.

“Just get her out of my sight and keep her out of trouble” she practically growled out before storming off. Her heart was racing so fast she’d thought it’d surely give up any second now, maybe she should have known that her hasty decisions from her past would one day come back to sucker punch her in the gut.

“Well that was weird” Lin heard you say behind her as she continued to rush away from you before she accidentally said something. Lin vowed then that she would never say a single word to you. It was better this way anyway, who would want her? Bitter, old, scarred Lin who was practically married to her job and hated all things romantic ever since Tenzin crushed her heart beneath his shoe.

-----

She learned that your name was y/n a few days later, she heard Korra call out to you at the gala and when Lin followed Korra’s excited figure and her eyes landed on her soulmate, the wind was successfully knocked out of her for the second time since meeting y/n. You were wearing a deep blue satin dress that went down to the floor with a blue sheer shoulder shawl that had silver snowflakes embroidered onto it. Your hair was down instead of up, and you had a small amount of makeup on, just a bit of rouge and red lipstick. Lin thought it was the perfect amount, any more and it might distract someone from your beautiful eyes, or your enchanting smile. Her heart began to pound despite her desperate attempt at keeping her emotions in check. A large part of her hated this, hated you, and what this feeling blooming in her chest meant.

When Bolin came up to you and threw an arm over your shoulder, which caused you to laugh, Lin remembered that it would never happen. She shoved her feelings down and turned away from you as her thoughts went from how beautiful you were to how you would never love her.

Later on in the evening, Tarlock calls Lin over and she sees you peek around Korra to eye her curiously, a look of intrigue settles on your features as Lin pushes down any feelings she has at the fact that you’re looking at her and it feels like her whole body is on fire under your stare. “I believe you and avatar Korra have already met” Tarlock looks over at her with that sly look of his that she’s already determined means he’s up to no good.

“Just because the city is throwing you this big to do, don’t think you’re something special. You’ve done absolutely nothing to deserve this” she says to Korra, leaning down a bit to glare at the young avatar. Your curious gaze turns to one of annoyance as you glare at Lin. “Hey! Who gave you the right to be mean to my little sister,” you step in front of Korra almost protectively, as you stare her down. Don’t speak to her, look away, don’t reply, she tells herself. Lin turns on her feet and walks off, trying to seem as if she doesn’t care about what you said. “Why does she always ignore me?” she hears you say in an exasperated tone before she loses your voice over the loud music playing nearby.

-----

When Tenzin stands next to Lin at the pro-bending arena with you by his side, she’s not surprised. It seems the universe has decided to continuously throw you in her face, dangling you teasingly despite knowing her decision regarding your bond. You're holding a bag of fire flakes as you eagerly watch your sisters match, but soon your once excited expression turns to annoyance once the game starts. The Wolf Bats tipped the referee off. Lin wants to go beat the referee up until he starts being fair, just to see you smile once more.

“C’mon! This is bullshit” you shout as the Wolf Bats gain another point. Lin can’t help but notice the way your nose scrunches up as you continue to shout at the referee or how your hair which originally was pushed behind your ears has come loose and is framing your face so beautifully. Her left hand unconsciously grazes over her armor where her burn mark is as she watches you, completely tuning the game out. As Tenzin goes to shout something alongside you, his eyes catch Lin staring at you with a look of longing, he takes a step closer to Lin causing her to tear her eyes away from you and back to the match.

“Lin....” Tenzin begins but she clears her throat and mutters out a sharp “drop it.” To which Tenzin does, for now. Later on, as the match intensifies, Lin says “I can’t believe your sweet-tempered father was reincarnated into that girl, she’s tough as nails.” Lin doesn’t see it, but you smile at her words before deciding to tune out the rest of the conversation between the two, too focused on your sister to care.

You're practically seething at the outcome of this botched game, fire flakes are flying out of the bag as you shout in anger, not noticing the figure approaching with sinister intentions. By the time you do, it's because you're in excruciating pain as something electrifies you, your vision blurs and you make out Lin dropping onto the floor. The figure who electrocuted you steps over your body, you reach out to the Airbender, trying to warn him but nothing comes out of your mouth as he falls to the floor beside you. Soon your eyes droop closed due to the pain despite trying your hardest to stay awake.

When Lin awakens her muscles feel like they're about to give out and she lets out a weak groan as she slowly goes to stand up. Her eyes land on you the second her vision is no longer a blur and her heart fills with panic as she sees an equalist take you into their arms. She stumbles forward, not fully awake, and catches the attention of your capture. You let out a pained groan, in your unconscious state, the sound tugs at her heart and she’s suddenly filled with boiling rage. The equalist is shaking as he continues to stumble backward, another appears to help him take you away and without a second thought Lin shoots out her wires and wraps them around both of their ankles, she gives them a harsh yank which causes them to fall to the ground with a loud thud, for good measure she cuffs them to the floor, warping the metal of the floor beneath them around their wrists and ankles. You land on top of your capture, your eyes begin to flutter behind your lids and you finally stir awake. Pain wraps around your muscles, in your head you think maybe it's best to just lay still, momentarily forgetting about your situation.

You let out a whimper, knocking Lin out of her frozen state as she had gazed at you. Lin rushes forward and wraps an arm around your waist as she pulls you up onto your feet, you open your eyes, blinking the blurriness out of your eyesight. Lin takes you over to the railing as Tenzin also begins to regain consciousness and she props you up against the metal railing. You stare up at her in confusion, your mind is buzzing a mile a minute, not only at the situation at hand but at how her arms felt wrapped around you. “Uhm… Thanks for that.”

“Amon probably ordered them to kidnap you to hurt Korra” she replies, not realizing what she’s just done. Your eyes widen in shock at her words but before she can even notice your shocked state an explosion sets off behind you, sheets of metal from the bending platform go flying and she wraps her arms around you, forcing you to duck down so she can shield you with her body. You pull up a wave of water to protect you from oncoming flames. The heat of the steam from the water causes you both to begin sweating before the flames from the explosion recede only seconds later. You let go of the water, suddenly the discovery of Lin’s secret doesn’t seem so important as you think of your sister. When you passed out she was in the water below, surely she’s somewhere safe, right?

As if to answer your question, Korra appears as she hurtles herself up into the air with a large twisting waterspout. As it begins to falter and then completely goes out you let out a shout filled with terror “Korra!” Lin quickly gets up and shoots her metal wire out towards the roof to send her flying across the arena towards the avatar, before Korra can hit the fiery platform below, she shoots out a second wire to her waist and with all her might yanks her up into the air.

You stand beside Tenzin with wide eyes and bated breath, suddenly the two most important women in your life, I mean Lin has been ignoring you and you’ll have to figure out why later but she is your soulmate which does make her incredibly important to you, are out of your sight and dangerously fighting above as you uselessly stand there with your water bending abilities that won’t get you up there to help fight off equalists. Not being able to just stand by you summon water from below and create an ice bridge to the platform, if you can’t fight, you can try to put out the raging fire caused by the explosion.

“Y/n, wait!” Tenzin calls after but you're long gone. If you just stand there you’ll go insane and you have powers that can help, even if you don't get to kick some equalist ass. Up above Lin finally lands on the glass dome and immediately sets out to take down as many people as she can at once, Korra watches in amazement for a moment as she wraps her wire at some guys foot and slams him into the roof before she gets knocked off the rope and lands onto the dome with a loud thud and the crackling of the glass starting to break below her.

It’s a collision of fire and electricity with metal wires flying towards the men and from below where you are using all your strength to put out the fire, it looks almost beautiful with the sparks of blue and flashes of red if not for the current circumstances. Tenzin has taken to help you with the fire by trying to use air to snuff it out. Suddenly glass from above sprinkles around them and you look up to see your little sister free falling once more.

“Tenzin can you do something with your air?!” You shout and he goes to try and send a force of air to help slow her down but she's going too fast, she’s flailing and if she doesn’t do something soon she’ll most likely die from the impact. As you run to the edge of the platform to try and save her yourself, Lin appears from above Korra and shoots a small wire to her so she can hold onto it like a rope.

Your shoulders sag in relief as you stumble away from the edge and use everything you’ve got to summon a massive wave to once and for all put out the fire. It works and the force of the water has it crashing into the stands taking with it some of the seats and any trash left behind in the frenzy. When you see Lin and Korra land you race off towards the now soaking wet stands, using the water below as a set of frozen stairs to reach them. When you do, Lin has her hand on Korra’s shoulder and is saying something but you don’t make it out before you crush them both in a hug. Some sort of strangled sound of relief bubbles up through your throat as your hold on them tightens.

Korra wraps her arms around you, softly saying “thank the spirits you're okay” as Lin stays perfectly still. As her adrenaline slowly leaves her body and she realizes you aren’t in danger, she suddenly can’t be touched by you. She remains frozen until you pull away, you know it's not the time to bombard her so instead you offer Lin a thankful smile, too worried about how she’d react if you did anything else.

-----

A few days later you finally let Korra out of your sight, letting her run off to deal with her boy problems as you head towards the main police station. You tried to casually ask Tenzin what kind of tea Lin liked best, to which he’d furrowed his brows and said “why?” You simply shrugged and repeated your question. Apparently, it was jasmine, which was a favorite of yours as well so you stopped by your favorite tea shop and grabbed two to-go cups. As you enter the station you square your shoulders and give yourself a little pep talk “You can do this, you just need to march in and figure out why, maybe butter her up with the tea first of course, and then ask why, that’s if she lets you into the office…” you trail off once your eyes land on the door of Lin’s office, the words “Chief Beifong” are written in gold on the glass door which has a blind pulled down so you can’t see inside, which your slightly grateful for.

“Chief Beifong doesn’t want anyone to disturb her” one of the cops called out, but you ignore him and open the door, who cares, you deserve answers.

“I said I wanted to be alone, how brain dead are yo-” her words cut off as you walk in, balancing two cups in one hand so you can shut the door. You swallow, suddenly being in front of her has made most of your bravado slip away, along with your original plan, leaving you speechless. She doesn’t say anything, seeming to forget that she already spoke to you in the arena. You set the cups down and lift your shirt, which causes Lin to blush but you don’t stop until she can see her own words.

“I used to hate them… y’know,” you say quietly before dropping your shirt back down, Lin glares at her desk. “I used to be jealous of Korra and all the attention she got, so imagine growing up with her name etched onto your skin.”

She goes to open her mouth to speak, most likely to spew out some lie so you beat her to it. “I don’t know why, exactly, you kept it to yourself, I asked Tenzin the other day and he said you didn’t have a mark which is odd seeing as you are my soulmate." You pause, your voice softening, "you could have just told me straight away that you didn’t want me, didn’t want this instead of ignoring my existence and leaving me to wonder what I'd done to offend you.” Finally, she looks up from the desk and you make eye contact with her. You're trying so hard not to cry as you try to figure out what's going through her head, will she kick you out? Is your soulmate going to reject you?

“I thought…” Lin begins, she looks away from you, not being able to look you in the eyes anymore. “I thought I was doing you a favor, I’m old, and I’m not the most personable or charismatic person, I thought maybe you’d want someone your own age, maybe someone like your sisters' teammates.”

“So someone who is young and a guy? Did you think that maybe you should let me decide what I wanted instead of just assuming?”

“Look I gave up on the idea of having a soulmate years ago!” Lin shouts and you flinch away in surprise, “thirty years is a long time, do you know how I felt when those words suddenly appeared on me at thirty?”

“Oh, so you do have a mark!” You let out a disbelieving, angry laugh. “So you just went around telling everyone you didn’t have one, pretending the idea of me, of us, didn’t exist.” Tears cloud your vision and you let out a frustrated groan as you quickly gaze up at the ceiling in an attempt to keep them from falling. Lin’s gaze softens and she slowly stands from her desk.

“Y/n… I thought about it every day, but… We can’t be together, I’m far too old and I’ll just hold you back.” You scoff and aggressively wipe at the tears falling down your cheeks, your heart feels like it's beginning to crack.

“Your mark?” You croak out and cringe at how you sound. Lin hesitated before using her bending to take off the armor on her right arm. On her arm is a massive burn scar, you keep staring at it, not knowing what to say. Did someone else do that to her? As if she can read your thoughts, Lin says softly “I did it to myself a few days after it appeared.”

Oh. So this is what it's like to have your heart cleaved into two, what you felt just minutes before seems like nothing compared to the pain wrapping so tightly around you that it seems hard to breathe. She hated the idea of you so much she'd rather hurt herself and lie to everyone in her life. Without another word you turn your back on your soulmate, despite the sound of calling out to you, just like she did to you twenty years ago.

#lin beifong x reader #lin beifon/reader #lin beifong #fanfic #legend of korra #lok #tenzin #korra #pema #soulmate au #bolin #lin #beifong #angst

365 notes · View notes

immaturityofthomasastruc · 3 years

Text

#10: Felix, Part Two: The Episode Itself

Here’s Part 1

So, uh... here's the thing. I was going to divide this post into three parts, but I had to cancel the third part where I analyze the stuff involving Astruc defending the episode on Twitter, specifically a certain scene that really showed off some serious double standards in regards to the way Adrien is being written, because Astruc deleted most of his tweets regarding the episode. I wonder why he did that? I thought he wanted to expose himself publicly and interact in a peaceful way.

So yeah, instead of a big three-parter, this is going to be a two-parter, and I apologize for that. I might be able to do a third part if anyone has any screenshots of some of the tweets Astruc made after “Felix” aired. If you did, I would really appreciate it, but if not, it's fine.

Either way, let's just get this over with, because I have SO MUCH to talk about. My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts about Season 3, Episode 23 of Miraculous Ladybug, “Felix”?

So we start off with what Gabriel does for half of his scenes when he isn't Hawkmoth, monologuing to his (possibly) dead wife, Emilie about how Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous will soon be his and all that crap. Sure, he's sent God knows how many Akumas after Ladybug and Cat Noir, and they've all failed miserably, but I'm positive he's getting close to his goal.

After he finishes cleaning his and Emilie's silver wedding rings that sadly don't allow them to transform into Ultraman Ace, Gabriel goes to check on Adrien, singing to a statue of Emilie (glad to see the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree), intending to tell him that he is Hawkmoth.

Gabriel: There is something important I have to talk to you about. I think about telling you every day, but I don't know how to find the right words.

Adrien: I think I already know, father.

Gabriel: But, how?

Adrien: I've noticed how close you and Nathalie have become. If she can make you happy again, then... as far as I'm concerned, she's already part of our family.

youtube

Yeah, apparently it's obvious that Gabriel and Nathalie are close or something, with how casually Adrien assumes they're planning on starting a relationship. I mean, it's not like Nathalie is close to Gabriel because she's his secretary or something like that.

Gabriel's response isn't any better, as he immediately jumps down Adrien's throat for daring to assume he might try to move on from his wife.

Gabriel: How could you possibly think such a thing?! Nobody could ever replace your mother! As long as she is still in our hearts, she lives on!

Even Adrien's face shows he's a little taken back by his father's brief outburst.

Part of me likes to assume that Plagg is trying to not break out into laughter at how crazy Gabriel sounds, while Nooroo is mentally questioning the sanity of his master.

Plagg: Wow! Your father's like a piece of tomme cheese, where the rind's so thick it's almost impossible to get inside the center.

Adrien: Don't be so hard on him, Plagg. It's been a year today since Mom... went away forever.

Oh my God, just say she DIED already! Why are so many kids' shows afraid to say the D-word? How can I cite an episode of Caillou of all shows as something that that actually talked about death to it's audience in a nuanced way?

It turns out that Adrien's aunt is visiting for the day, as it's the one-year anniversary of Emilie's “going away forever”. We also learn that the gene pool in Adrien's family is so shallow, a toddler could swim in it, because Emilie's sister looks exactly like her.

Even better, her name is Amelie. I bet the parents thought naming their kids Emilie and Amelie was hilarious for like three minutes.

And of course, she also brought her son, the asshole of the hour.

Someone cue the Imperial March.

So Felix is finally here, and of course, he looks just like Adrien. It's almost like the animators didn't want to create any new character models for this episode, so they thought nobody would notice if they just reused a few. Seriously, towards the end of the episode, we see Felix wearing the Cat Miraculous on his hand, and none of the animators noticed it.

So while Adrien is happy to see his cousin, Felix isn't. I'll talk more about it in a minute.

Amelie mentions that the wedding rings are actually heirlooms in her side of the family, so she naturally wants them back. Of course, Gabriel, being Gabriel, responds accordingly.

Gabriel: These rings are obviously very special to me.

Amelie: And they're very dear to me too, Gabriel. Those jewels have always been in the Graham de Vanily family, not the Agreste's.

Gabriel: We'll discuss it later.

“Yeah, yeah, these rings are priceless family heirlooms or whatever, but why can't you think about how important they are to me?”

Meanwhile, Marinette and her friends are planning on recording some messages for Adrien to cheer him up on this day, but Marinette isn't sure what to say before she decides to confess her love to him. I'm sure Adrien will get the message and return Marinette's feelings this episode... and Cliff Hanger will finally escape that cliff he's been hanging from for years.

Speaking of, Adrien and Felix are hanging out in the former's room where we learn that Felix's father passed away recently. We don't know how long, but with the way they talk about, it's clear the funeral wasn't too long ago. Keep this in mind.

So while Adrien leaves the room to get a chess board for the two to play a game of, Felix, for no reason, decides to search through Adrien's things and crush a piece of cheese that Plagg had been aging for two weeks. And here is the interaction that helps this episode go from mediocre to aggravating, just because of what they imply here.

Adrien: Listen, Plagg. Felix lost his dad not so long ago, he's probably not himself.

Plagg: I'm sorry, but there's just no excuse! You never touch my cheese, and yet, you just lost your mother not so long ago, right?

youtube

Yes. The show is actually implying that Adrien is better than Felix because Adrien isn't acting out because his mom “went away forever”. Keep in mind, we know that Felix just lost his father, while Adrien has had a year to cope. I'm not saying he can't be sad anymore, as everyone processes grief differently, but you can't set up Felix as a foil to Adrien just because they both lost a parent, as their situations are entirely different.

Oh, and when Plagg's statement upsets Adrien, it isn't because he's angry at Plagg for making the comparison, it's because he mentions Emilie. And this argument is never brought up again.

I still can't believe this episode is basically saying that even if you lose a loved one, that's no excuse to get emotional. This isn't just a horrible lesson to teach children, but it pisses me off on a more personal level. Why?

My grandfather died last year after a long battle with lung cancer.

He had been in and out of the hospital for a few years at this point, and part of me was relieved that he was finally free of the pain. I tried not to let it bother me, as I had already mentally prepared myself for the day he would die whenever he was readmitted to the hospital. But it was still painful to go through because he was so important to me. Instead of simply telling someone how I was feeling, I threw myself into my schoolwork in an effort to distract myself from actually confronting my emotions. After seeing A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a movie where the main character made peace with his father on his deathbed with some encouragement from Mr. Rogers, it made me think about how unhealthy it was to bottle up my emotions, so I started to open up more about how I was feeling. When I told my mom (who was his daughter) about why I was so conflicted regarding his death, she said it was completely understandable, as she had been an emotional wreck as well. I also talked with my therapist about how this was affecting me mentally.

What does this have to do with the episode? I don't think Felix had access to this kind of emotional support when his dad died, or that he tried coping the same way I did initially.

And the worst part is that this could have been used to teach people a lesson on how to cope with losing a loved one. Maybe Adrien could have helped Felix find a healthier coping mechanism, or simply help him open up emotionally, teaching him that it's okay to be upset when someone close to you dies, but that you just need to be honest about your feelings.

But no, rather than portray Felix's actions as a troubled youth lashing out because he's angry at the cards the world dealt him, Felix does several awful things this episode for no other reason than because he's evil, even though he has a good reason to hate Adrien and Gabriel.

So the very next scene, we see Felix has stolen Adrien's phone and is going through the messages that Adrien's friends sent him, but not before insulting his crush on Ladybug. I'm not sure if that's supposed to reflect the fandom's criticism of Adrien's crush on Ladybug, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Nino's Message: Hey, my dude! I'm not quite sure what to tell you, except that, you're my man, dude! And bros are always there for their guys!

Felix: (Mockingly) “Bros are always there--” blah, blah, blah! Moron.

Rose's Message: Unicorns have a saying: even when there's nothing but gray skies and rain, all it takes is one little sunbeam for a rainbow to appear!

Felix: Loser.

Max's Message: It's one hundred percent proven, you should feel fifty-two percent happier with a healthy dose of laughter. So Markov has uploaded a few jokes for you! Starting with--

Felix: Freak.

Chloe's Message: When my mother left for New York, I felt so sad. It felt like she was... (sighs) She came back, and I know how lucky I am. So, you can count on me, my Adrikins.

Felix: Chloe. Just as annoying as usual.

And that line right there is the only time Astruc actually liked writing Felix, as it gave him the chance to satisfy his need to insult Chloe.

And then when he sees Marinette's message, he deletes it because... hell if I know

Again, this scene could have worked if it was interpreted as Felix saying stuff that he wasn't dependent on others for support and that he could easily power through life on his own, but nope! Instead, he hates Adrien's friends and only deletes Marinette's message instead of all of them simply because he's evil, heart blacker than Don Cheadle.

Felix continues to show how awful he is by dressing up in Adrien's clothes and—Oh, son of a bitch, SERIOUSLY? This is the SEVENTH evil doppelganger plotline we've had in THREE SEASONS! You're telling me this isn't doing the same thing over and over again, Astruc?

Yeah, so Felix records some messages to send to his friends that, once again, could have worked if this episode was actually teaching a lesson about dealing with grief.

“Adrien's” Message: First of all, thanks so much for all your messages, guys, really. Sending me messages on today of all days... (angrily) to remind me how sad I'm supposed to be feeling? Why, that's great! Really, Thanks a lot!

But because nobody ever considers how Felix is feeling, it's never acknowledged, because that would actually involve writing him with complexity.

Gabriel gets a message from Lila, who recently became one of his confidants to spy on Adrien, tells him about the fake message, and decides to use the negative emotions felt as an excuse to get rid of his in-laws. No, seriously.

Gabriel: All this disappointment might just help us get rid of our unwanted guests.

To be fair, I'd probably do the same thing just so I wouldn't have to talk to some of the people I hate at my job.

And so, Hawkmoth akumatizes Alya, Juleka, and Rose into the Punisher's Trio, who are basically just their previously akumatized forms Lady Wifi, Reflekta, and Princess Fragrance. Because why would you expect anyone to use an original character model for this episode?

All joking aside, this development raises several questions. First, why wasn't Nino one of the Punisher's akumatized? He's Adrien's best friend, so shouldn't be just as upset as everyone else? Hell, the whole reason he was akumatized into the Bubbler in Season 1 was just so he could throw Adrien a birthday party after Gabriel said no. Then there's the fact that Chloe could have also been akumatized because she's just as close as Adrien, which is another wasted opportunity here.

Second, why bring back Reflekta and Princess Fragrance of all villains? It doesn't even make sense when you consider their motifs are based off of the circumstances that led to them getting akumatized in their respective episodes. Juleka became Reflekta because of her anxiety over easily blending in, so she got the power to turn everyone into an exact copy of herself so they could understand the feeling. Rose became Princess Fragrance when Chloe destroyed her letter and perfume bottle dedicated to the prince of a foreign nation, so the perfume bottle was the basis of her powers. At least Lady Wifi makes sense as the akumatized object this episode is a tablet used to record the messages to Adrien, but Reflekta and Princess Fragrance have nothing to do with the plot of this episode, and just feel tacked on. If it was just Lady Wifi or the Bubbler, I'd get it, but this just doesn't work.

Third, what exactly is this show's obsession with Reflekta? We saw in Reflekta's first episode that her powers had a huge drawback as if either of the heroes is zapped by her, she can't get their Miraculous, like what we saw happened to Cat Noir. Yet, this is the second time this season that Hawkmoth had the bright idea to bring back Reflekta (even giving her a giant robot to amplify her powers). At least Lady Wifi and Princess Fragrance's powers worked together well (Lady Wifi could freeze someone in place, while Princess Fragrance can brainwash them with her perfume), but Reflekta just feels like the odd one out here.

Fourth, and most importantly, why did we only get to hear the line “At your service, Princess Fragrance!” A single time this episode?

So the Punishers head to Adrien's house to take their revenge, but see Felix, still dressed in Adrien's clothes, and are naturally confused. Adrien pretends to be Felix by running away while laughing evilly (so not too far off from how Astruc sees Felix), while the real Felix and Nathalie put up a good fight against the Punishers.

And then... here is the moment that shows just how skewed Astruc's view of Adrien really is.

Felix pretends to confess his love to Ladybug as Adrien, trying to force a kiss on him, making Ladybug punch him in the face by claiming that the real Adrien “would never be so pushy”.

youtube

BULL. SHIT.

Yes, Ladybug doesn't know that Adrien is actually Cat Noir, but it's clear that this scene is meant to solidify just how Felix is far worse than Adrien because according to Astruc, he would never do that.

But maybe I'm being too hard on him.

It's not like Adrien has ever forced himself onto Ladybug, right?

I mean, imagine if the show just ignored something like that.

All while trying to teach kids the importance of saying no when someone harasses them.

Can you imagine if someone was that oblivious to their own hypocrisy?

I'm not saying that the lesson is a bad one, but you can't call someone out for doing something bad, and then ignore one of your main characters doing the exact same thing!

Even in the context of the episode, the comparison doesn't work. We know that Felix is only doing this to make Adrien look bad, and has no romantic feelings towards Ladybug like Adrien does. Felix knows what he is doing is wrong, while Adrien doesn't. Whenever Cat Noir tries to kiss Ladybug, he is never aware that what he is doing is wrong, and while he is almost always stopped from kissing Ladybug for one reason or another.

Like when the episode tried to compare two different characters reacting to losing loved ones when there are different circumstances regarding them, the comparison DOESN'T WORK.

And to add insult to injury, Cat Noir shows up just to insult Felix by implying he doesn't have a lot of friends because of the way he acts, because why would he? After all, he's a complete loser that nobody would want to be friends with, and if you like him, you're an idiot for thinking so! At least, that's probably what Astruc was going for.

Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, leading to a brief Mexican standoff, until Felix steals the tablet containing the Akuma, making a deal with Hawkmoth that he'll help out the Punishers as long as he gets the wedding rings. Do you hate Felix yet? Come on, do you hate him? WHY WON'T YOU HATE HIM, GODDAMN IT!?

This whole bit is completely pointless as Ladybug immediately finds a way to stop all four of them and de-evilize the Akuma.

And when it looks like Felix is actually apologizing for his actions this episode, it's naturally a ruse he put on to steal one of the wedding rings from Gabriel to give to his mom. Because why would Astruc even think of portraying him sympathetically, or at least have him learn a lesson?

So Felix stares out the window with an evil look in his eye (possibly foreshadowing another appearance), as Gabriel takes Emilie's wedding ring to wear for himself, and the episode mercifully ends.

It also means that I never have to watch this episode ever again.

Do you understand why it took so long for me to fully analyze this episode? Hell, it would have taken longer if Astruc didn't delete his tweets defending the kiss scene and how Cat Noir is totally a gentlemen unlike Satan, I mean Felix.

What else do I have to say about this episode that hasn’t already been said? Well, I do have one thing.

I’m not that big a fan of Felix.

I think he’s an okay character in fanfics, but I’m more indifferent to him and fanfics that ship him and Marinette together. I don’t know, maybe that’s because there are so many Felinette fanfics that are heavily seasoned with salt, or it could just be because I’m complete Love Square and Lukanette trash.

But just think about the fact that the scathing criticism of this episode was delivered by someone who isn’t that into Felix. That is how bad this episode is.

In addition to being an obvious mouthpiece for Astruc to yell at fans why they’re idiots for actually liking Felix, it does so by touching on delicate subject and trying to act like it’s easy to tell how Felix is worse than Adrien when the circumstances are nothing alike.

But the fact that Astruc takes a popular character just to portray him as a complete menace just to antagonize his fans is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.

274 notes · View notes

saphirered · 3 years

Text

Betrothal

This is part two of a request because part one already was already too long. I cut this one down too but didn’t want to turn it into a three-parter for one request 😅 but that does mean this is also a long one. Anyway. Enjoy!

Time for another social event. There’s been way too many already in your opinion and you don’t think you’d be able to smile through another one. Lucky for you Essek shares this sentiment. Nevertheless you were expected so you’ have to attend, so attend you will.

Ready to depart you walk down the stairs, fingers drifting over the handrail as you go. The hem of your fine garments of pristine white and silver trail a step or two behind you as you go. Appropriate jewellery of diamond encrusted platinum adorns your neck, fingers and ears like pure starlight. Already waiting at the door you see Essek, a similar style of attire shifts in the purple and night blue colour schemes, something you’ve grown more accustomed to the more time you’ve spent with him. It suits him.

“You are quite the visage, dear.” You put a sarcastic emphasis on the pet name, something both of you have taken to when out of earshot. Ever since the arrangement between just the two of you gleeful sarcasm has replaced the belittling resentment. As you stated before, you’re much better off actually coexisting than you are making each other’s lives miserable.

“And even the brightest stars pale in comparison to you, beloved.” The compliment is genuine but with a highly exaggerated lovesick undertone in reply to your comment. You lift your hand to your forehead and bat your eyes in a ‘I might swoon’ gesture before the both of you break and chuckle.

“If we were actually lovers I might have to worry I’ll have to fend off the many suitors attempting to take my place.” You swat at Essek’s arm with a grin.

“I doubt I have any suitors left wishing to take your place. They are entirely afraid you’ll turn them into frogs or perhaps float them into the skies never to be seen again if they even dare to vie for my attention.” You laugh as Essek offers you his arm. You take it lacing it through his, another thing having become second nature in the past few months.

“Only if you’d ask me to would I resort to such measures. Ready to travel in style?” The comment and seriousness behind it is enough to raise your eyebrow in a ‘really?’ response but he doesn’t dignify you with an answer instead waiting for you to answer his question.

If you’ve learned anything from the negotiations you’ve had, Essek doesn’t just give anything for free, especially not his precious time, so to say he’d go out of his way and use his precious resources without a second thought simply because you’d ask him is… new… Even more so without expecting anything in return. No favour for a favour? Odd…

“Always.” You put on your smile and in an instance the two of you are warped through space, appearing in the foyer of your hosts for the evening. Gotta love magic.

Immediately you’re approached by the hosts, excusing themselves from whatever guests below your stations they were previously engaging with. Essek lets you take the lead and do most of the talking. He seems a bit more reversed than usual but you simply brush it off as boredom. Something is up with him and you’ll be damned if you don’t get to the bottom of it, you’d simply have to! What if he falls through and does something that could reflect badly on the both of you? That’s a proper reason to do so, right?

The night continues but you’re not given any opportunities to excuse yourself and Essek just yet. Every time you’re interrupted by someone wanting a word with either or both of you. Topics mostly revolve around your respective work, political topics but some particularly daring people carefully try to navigate your conversation to more private matters looking for the latest gossip.

After the public announcement of your courtship, when can they expect a formal engagement or have you gotten engaged informally already? Any wedding plans on the table? If you decide to raise children which one of you will stay at the Bright Queen’s side or will you both keep your places at the Bastion? Is the Shadowhand much of a romantic despite his cold exterior? If it comes to the engagement, will you ask him or he you and have you got anything planned yet? How was your first kiss? Was it romantic fireworks and all or have you learned to love each other?

Each and every time when you didn’t want to fabricate an answer, you made it up as you went with such conviction that some of your answers made even Essek think twice if some of these events had really transpired or not. Whenever you’d ask him for his input or suggest him saying something he did but his replies had to be pulled out of him or he’d stay in his own world unless directly asked. What in the world is going on with him?

Yet again not being able to get a single step closer to a word in private with Essek you’d given up and decided to leave the matter until you returned home. Home. No matter how many times you say it it still feels weird. You’d never truly considered any place home, just a place you resided and could leave behind in an instance.

You’d come to realise the towers had begun to feel like home and you’d have a much bigger struggle leaving behind the books, the studies, the meals not spent eating alone, the room with the fireplace you’d spent going over your shared paperwork with to cut down your workload and have the evenings free, those evenings spent in absolutely roasting some of your fellow court members, or discussing what rumours might have some truth and you could use to your advantages in the future… You’d miss that place if you’d go back to living elsewhere. There’s something else but you can’t quite put your finger on it. Nevermind. You’ll figure it out if it’s important.

“Excuse me. May I have this dance?” A daring drow you recognise to be from one of the other dens approaches you and Essek. You’re about to brush him off and let the man down gently but before you can Essek interjects.

“Please, do not feel obligated to keep me company. I can entertain myself for a moment, darling.” Essek’s not much of a dancer and never had been. You enjoy it every so often but don’t necessarily jump at every opportunity you get. You take the offered hand of the drow.

“You may.” You tell him. While you’re guided to the dance floor you give Essek a confused look. You don’t get any kind of response from him as he continues the conversation you’d been having prior to the interruption. Other pairs join in and a new song begins to play. Nothing too fancy to particularly intimate. A simple nice waltz you’d be able to execute perfectly eyes closed. Blessed be the life of a noble-born schooled in any and all social graces from a young age.

Your dance partner is a good dancer but by the light is he a dull conversationalist. You’re dying on the inside. One moment he’s boasting about his accomplishments within his den, the next he’s asking your professional opinions on political matters and how you’d navigate them, the next your opinion is insignificant because he knows exactly what he’d do and why it would work. Before you know it he’s asking if there’ll be any spots on the Bright Queen’s side opening up in the future because he thinks he might make a good candidate…

But you let him talk and smile through it until you feel gracious enough to rip him to shreds instead of letting him be laughed off by the inner circle. Gently you correct every statement he’s made, with examples of the past and what happened to the poor fools that tried. You’re not brutal about it, and bring it in the nicest way possible no matter how much you might want to tear him down and face this idiot with the facts. Then you suggest perhaps he’d want to try smaller scale things first, maybe more locally to see if he has a taste for it.

Of course your charm works. Of course it did. Much to your dismay this ‘act of kindness’ made the poor drow more interested in you than he’d already been. You were schooling him like you would a child for the Light’s sake! You brush off any and all attempts of charming you and getting into your good graces but apparently this thickheaded idiot doesn’t catch on. Maybe he should stay away from politics entirely if he can’t even get a hint. Luckily the dance it about to end.

“Perhaps we could go for a walk later this week? Or maybe a lunch if you’d prefer?” The fool smiles suggestion clear. You want to roll your eyes so hard but refrain.

“My apologies. I’m occupied this week.”

“Another time then?”

“I’ll have to check my schedule. I’ll get back to you on that.” The waltz ends, you curtsy. Some couples leave the dance floor, others join to replace them. You’ll have to be quick. You look around the room. Essek where are you? You don’t see him.

“Excuse me. I believe the Shadowhand is waiting for me.” You give the fool an apologetic smile and rush off before he can do or say anything else to keep you on the dance floor. Much to your dismay you’re whisked away by another drow from a lesser den as you’re unable to reach the outskirts before the next song starts. It’s inappropriate to leave a partner standing on the floor in the middle of a dance so you’ll have to go through yet another routine.

You thought the former one was a dull conversationalist. This one’s worse. So. Much. Worse. You can’t wait for this to end. Essek would probably find it entirely hilarious once you tell him how much you’d prefer a quiet dance partner, or at the very least one that can feign an intellectual conversation without breaking the illusion in under a minute. Even then, could they please stop trying to stroke their own egos in the hopes of getting your attention?

Before your betrothal you only had to deal with advancements, people trying to win over your heart, or your hand in marriage, but now, they’re entirely after not only your favour but Essek’s as well, wishing to get into your good graces and climb the social ladder; be that through (attempted) smooth words, gifts or your beds. It’s a disgusting reality. Maybe if this engagement goes through between you and Essek you’ll have to ask him how he feels about displaying a monogamous relationship for the public just to keep these people away from you and by default him? He wouldn’t be opposed to keep romantic and sexual advancements far away from him now would he?

Eventually you struggle your away from the dance floor making excuses as you go and find a calm and quiet place. You had to approach the host coming up with excuse you weren’t feeling well and needed a moment away from people. The host understanding and wishing to please you, offered you access to one of the private sitting rooms upstairs where the guests aren’t allowed to go. It’d be calm and quiet and you’d be able to have some fresh air on the balcony too.

This moment of peace and quiet gave you a chance to think over some things, mainly Essek’s behaviour of the night because don’t think you’d forgotten about that one nor were you going to just let that slide. Any and all theories you came up with in the next several minutes made no sense and held no reasonable credibility. You’re at a loss.

To play people’s emotions you’d need to have an understanding of them but what do you do when you can’t place those emotions or explain the reasoning behind them? It’s easy when someone disagrees with you. How passionate are they about the subject and how willing to defend it? It’s easy to draw out anger from that, or frustration, more passion, and even pity. That’s child’s play. It makes sense. Essek does not currently.

“Okay. You got this. Set things straight. You can figure this out. Take a step back and analyse.” You say to yourself sitting down on the plush couch, elbows on your knees and head leaning on your clasped hands. After going over every explanation you came to the most reasonable conclusion.

Essek’s internalising his problems. There’s no one he feels he can confide in. For some reason he’s realised only tonight he’s distancing himself from you. If it’s selfishness it’s because he thinks you might be able to use it against him. This goes against his need for self-preservation. If it’s because it’s something he’s committed to whatever it is, he’s limiting the people involved because of the need of secrecy be that witnesses or possibly collateral damage.

“But that’s not it is it?” You groan frustrated. There’s a knock on the door so you quickly recompose yourself; hands clasped on your lap, back straightened and welcoming smile back on. The door opens and you see the familiar floating drow enter.

“I was informed you were feeling unwell?” Essek asks more than says giving you a once over and coming to the conclusion nothing ails you physically. Dropping your facade you take a deep sigh reflecting your current mood but not reasoning. He steps inside and closes the door behind him giving the two of you the chance to speak freely.

“I take it your dance was not to your liking?” There’s a hint of humour in his voice as you throw yourself against the couch looking at the ceiling with an audible groan. From your slanted position forgoing any and all social graces you were taught. If anyone else could see you now you might be in trouble but it was only Essek and you’ve seen him in similar states.

“I might take you up on your offer to tap into the sacred arts of Dunamis to get rid of some of these fools. I don’t think I’ve ever met people more dull and lacking of refine and intelligence. One could find more brains in a gelatinous cube. ” You adjust your seating arrangement and pat the spot beside you inviting Essek to sit down but he stays where he is.

“I’ll make sure to order some new expeditions to the Barbed Fields. While they may make for poor company the rocs might just find them a decent if not bland meal.” While the offer is made with jest you can’t help but hear a tinge of sincerity in it. What’s going on? Were the people you danced with someone Essek’s been at odds with? If so why did he suggest you go dance with them in the first place? That doesn’t add up… But you’re not going to find out more without him talking. Keep him talking until he slips up or until your run out of words and face him with your questions directly.

“Or maybe being surrounded by someone praised for intelligence and refine just dulls everything in comparison. You’ve truly ruined me Shadowhand.” You laugh and again pat the empty spot on the couch. This time seeing your insistence and lack of intent to leave this room any time soon, Essek sits down, a bit more distance that usual between the two of you.

You give Essek a once over getting some insight in his behaviour. He’d be aware you’re doing so so you don’t even attempt to hide it, if anything you make it obvious to push for a response. You tilt your head to the side as you lean it on your curled fingers in tough. He’s more rigid than usual. That’s uncomfortable or anxious. It’s looking closer to both now. Essek is staring back at you but his gaze is not focused on you, but whatever reaches his vision as a whole. Avoidance. He mutters something under his breath but you can’t make out the words.

“What was that?”

“Nothing. Nevermind. Will you be coming back down or would you prefer we go back to the towers?” ‘The towers’? He’s never referred to them as this in this context. It’s always just been ‘home’. It is his home so why cease to refer to it as such because you’re in that context.

“What time is it?” Essek gives you the time and you let yourself sink back into the couch once more. Why must the universe be so cruel?

“Still another half an hour before it would be acceptable to leave.” You look around the room. It’s a higher end sitting room definitely decorated to receive more important guests. The candles are lit with an arcane flame so it was set up to possibly receive guests. The view from the balcony or close to the windows allows the people outside to see silhouettes when the fine iridescent drapes when drawn, or reveal when opened as they are now. While muffled if the room is quiet you can still hear the music and chattering from the ground floor.

You push Essek to talk about what he’d been up to when you were dancing but his answers are right to the point, just barely detailed enough if not a bit absentminded. His behaviour shifts throughout from neutral to cold to the way he’s been around you since you both had come to terms with your arrangement, almost as if he’s preoccupied and trying to multitask equally difficult tasks. He doesn’t allow the conversation to flow naturally. Every time he’s answered he wouldn’t elaborate or carry the conversation. If you didn’t ask any other questions or give your input you doubt there would be any back and forth between the two of you.

Deciding you’ve had enough and this wouldn’t give you much more answers you were looking for, you give up. You turn your body to face him, look at him directly suspicious and watching his every move. You press your lips together and squint.

“Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on or am I going to have to pry it out of you?” While there’s some worry in your voice, because you do worry, it is still a threat. You won’t let go unless he explains himself or has a damn good reason not to.

“I assure you, it’s inconsequential. You have nothing to worry about.” Essek forces a smile. Inconsequential? To you? Because definitely not to him!

“With your attitude? I think I do. There’s two reasons why I you refuse to tell me. One, it’s secretive and possibly dangerous therefor limiting the amount of people you want involved in fear of hurting them or you getting hurt because of their opinions. Two, I’m directly involved or to blame for whatever is going on and you’re pushing me away to avoid conflict.” A sense of dread washes over Essek, you notice. Biting his tongue he holds back whatever comment he had.

“It’s nothing you need concern yourself with. I can deal with this on my own.” Okay so confirmation first suggestion is out of the running. This had to do with you.

“Essek, Light be with me, if this involves me please just tell me. I swear if this is how you’re going to be I need to teach you some proper communication skills or I fear for our future.” You watch him closely and there’s a hint of shame peaking through as well as guilt.

“Would it hurt you so much to trust me?” Before Essek’s given the chance to answer there’s a knock on the door and the handle begins to turn signalling someone is entering. Thinking quickly you clench your teeth at the interruption, scoot to Essek’s side of the couch and lean your head against his shoulder, a pained frown on your face and eyes closed entwining your fingers. Essek, freezes for a second at the sudden contact but recovers quickly and joins in the act wrapping an arm around you to massage at your shoulder and neck.

“Apologies for the intrusion. The master of the house asked me to check up to see if you needed any assistance.” The head servant peaks in and peaking from under your lashes you can see she almost melts at the sight she sees; a loving drow comforting his unwell partner.

“Thank the master of the house for his concern and kindness but we’re alright. Will you be fine to rejoin the festivities, beloved?” Essek asks you sounding every bit the part he’s expected to play while still pushing to avoid continuing your conversation before the interruption.

“I think I may need a few more minutes I’m afraid.” You’re not done yet and won’t let Essek get away with it so easily as you feign a heavy migraine. The head servant excuses herself and leaves closing the door once more. Essek stops massaging your shoulder expecting or rather hoping you’d remove yourself from him. You don’t and sit up just enough to be face to face with him. You have a stare down with him until he relents.

“Fine. It is not a matter of trust.” Blunt and short. You squeeze his hand tightly narrowing your eyes not satisfied with the answer. Essek will have to do better and he knows it.

“I’ve simply come to some conclusion I do not wish to share with you.” Okay, that’s not that bad. If that’s it, you might let it go. If he has things to sort out on his own, you’re not going to stand in the way of that.

“And these conclusions you’ve come to have to do with me?” It’s more a statement than a question but Essek still nods not meeting your eye and instead focusing on your entwined fingers. You place a hand on his cheek lifting his face until he’s forced to look you in the eye.

“You’ve come to me with your concerns before just like I have to you. Even when they have to do with me, know you still can. I won’t think any less of you nor will I be offended as long as you’re honest.” You’re about to pull away from your position to allow Essek some space but when you do it hits… You remove yourself from Essek’s side and hide your face in your hands. You could punch yourself right now.

“Remind me to never claim I’m the cleverer one out of the two of us.” You groan muffled by your hands as you look back up with a frustrated exhaustion. How could you not have noticed? Idiot. Idiot. Idiot. You should have caught on but no, you were so occupied on keeping an act going you lost sight of it. And then in your little thinking process, you analysed Essek the Shadowhand, not Essek, your friend and partner.

“So you figured it out.” Essek breaths a weight lifted from his shoulders hides the slight deflation and is that disappointment?

“Not to be rude but after spending this much time with you, you’re not exactly a good actor.”

“But you are and have been an exceptional actor. You could even have fooled me should you have chosen to.” A compliment with a hidden dig at himself. Is he… blaming himself for growing attached to you? That’s just terrible.

“I could have and that would certainly explain my every action in public portraying the perfect loving couple. However, that doesn’t explain literally every interaction outside of social environments.” You can’t believe you weren’t aware of your own shift in behaviour. Before your betrothal you might have had an interest in Essek. If it weren’t for your own career you might have taken a shot prior to everything given the chance but attraction is not love.

Your betrothal, forced on you by your families closed both of you off because you’re both people that want to be in control of a situation and make your own choices. That’s why you’d been less than friendly with each other. You try to pinpoint when exactly it might have started.

“I can’t believe I didn’t realise I had feelings for you. This is stupid.” You’re exasperated with yourself but Essek covering up shock catches you off-guard.

“Don’t tell me you think this is all one sided. We’re both to blame for turning our lives into some cliche love story when we said we wouldn’t.” Essek looks on in shame hoping to neither confirm nor deny anything but you know him better than that. His silence gives him away.

“You are a very convincing actor.” He defends blandly. “Are you sure you’re not still playing?” Essek adds as a joke upon seeing you roll your eyes. Your embarrassment and frustration with this whole revelation gives you a mote of courage and since this day couldn’t get any worse, you’ll take your chances.

You move over right next to Essek sitting as close to him as you possibly can without climbing on top of him and grab his chin. Slightly confused thinking you’re about to retort his remark, Essek awaits his verdict. You bit the inside of your cheek in a last attempt to tell yourself this is a terrible idea but your mind is just blank.

“I don’t know, my dear. Would a true love’s kiss reveal the truth?” You speak in a singsong manner that would make the bard’s colleges cringe making sure you sounded like the worst actor possible. Essek takes a hot second to figure out your words before it dawns on him what you’re asking. Do you really have to spell it out for him?

“Is it reasonable to say one may only be able to make up their mind through trial?” With that you pull Essek towards you allowing your hand to slide to his cheek. Making eye contact one final moment to make sure he’s alright with it, no hesitation is visible so you press your lips to his in a simple kiss. Essek’s hands find your hips and waist.

You pull away awaiting his response if any. The kiss is entirely too short, in Essek’s opinion but you’re just being mindful of his boundaries not sure where this will lead and if the public displays of affection are something you’d both be comfortable with in this new context. Essek looks at you thoughtfully so you raise an eyebrow; a nonverbal tell to elaborate.

“I think, I may need more examples to make sure you’re not just playing me.” You gasp feigning offence at his joke. Next you lean in close, hair’s breath away from kissing Essek.

“Luckily I have many more kisses to give you should you want them.” Essek leans in but you pull away just before your lips actually touch getting up from the couch and heading for the door; smile on your face. He takes a second and heads after you stepping between you and your direct path of the door but you could still easily walk around him should you wish to do so.

“Am I to understand you’ll remain a tease regardless of our involvement, beloved?” He empathises ‘beloved’ with the same sarcasm as ever. That might just have to be a habit you’ll never lose. You can certainly get used to it.

“Did I give you any reason to expect differently. If you desire a kiss you may take it.” You blow Essek a kiss but are surprised he steps closer to you and makes eye contact giving you a chance to deny him.

“So he does find his courage.” You grin Essek’s lips meet yours in a deep if not slightly hesitant kiss. The hesitation fades quickly but the kiss doesn’t end as quickly as yours. Not that you mind. A habit you could get used to. Very used to but never tire of.

#critical role x reader #critrole x reader #critical role #mighty nein x reader #mighty nein #essek x reader #essek thelyss x reader #essek theyless #essek

50 notes · View notes

popculturebuffet · 3 years

Text

Goof Week: Goof Troop: Forever Goof Review (Everything’s Coming Up Goofy, Good Neighbor Goof, Gotta Be Gettin Goofy) (Commission for WeirdKev27)

Yahhahhooooeeeey all you happy people! WELCOME TO GOOF WEEK! Now normally when a character who got their start in theatrical shorts has a birthday, I do a marathon of them. I have since last year with Donald and it’s one of my favorite things: it allows me to explore Disney’s rich history of them I was largely unaware of till Disney+, and allows me to revisit the shorts I grew up with in the case of The Looney Tunes or Tom and Jerry while discovering new favorites. SO naturally with Goofy’s birthday in two days I intended to do the same for him, especially since I’d covered Donald and Mickey the same way.

But fate had other ideas. Not thinking about this tradition, Kev, my patreon, friend and the guy who commissions a LOT of reviews from me ($5 an episode if your curious and I WILL make room on the schedule so your commission gets done as soon as possible), suggested reviewing the Goof Troop pilot movie Forever Goofy, later split into the episode Everything’s Coming Up Goofy and Good Neighbor. I loved the idea since I genuinely loved Goof Troop, and decided to do both that week.

It’s then I got a great idea.. why limit myself to JUST doing two things? I hit my 15 dollar patreon stretch goal, so a review of the Goofy Movie was on the Horizon anyway, and for it’s anniversary year Kev has been commissioning House of Mouse Episodes, so it wouldn’t be THAT much of an ask (and it wasn’t) to simply randomly select from a pool of Goofy-Centric episodes instead of all the episodes.

Thus GOOF WEEK was born, and Kev once again proved vital to all this by suggesting the special Sports Goof from the 80′s. I’d like to give him special thanks as outside of the Shorts Special, which as a patreon he still got to pick one and if you’d like to pick one for Donald’s special, sign on up even one dollar patreons get the honor. , this week is either entirely paid for by him or in the case of A Goofy Movie, is partly thanks to him. I wouldn’t be able to do NEARLY as many reviews nor make money off this without you bud, so thank you.

So naturally given the idea to do this two parter gave me the idea for this week and that Goofy Movie makes a logical finale for said week, it only made sense to start the week with Goof Troop. Bop-dop-da-da-do-bop, YEAH.

Goof Troop is the first Disney Afternoon show I ever watched and the only one I watched when I was younger, as Disney Channel used to play it ocasinally when I was younger and Toon Disney would do the same and I even got to Marthoon it when Disney XD did a weekend marathon. Given it starred my faviorite Disney Character, Donald hadn’t worked his way up to tying with him quite yet, I loved what I could grab of it. And as an adult.. it still holds up. It has problems i’ll get into, but it is a real good time so I was exastic to get an excuse to watch some of it and much like with Darkwing wish I had sooner.

Before I can h-h-h-hit it though, I have to talk about the series history. I ALMOST didn’t find anything: much like the other Disney Afternoon shows there really wasn’t much on the Disney wiki nor wikipedia, google turned up nothing... it wasn’t till I went to the Tv Tropes Trivia Page for the series, where i’d remembered reading about some early versions of the show, that I hit gold: A two part behind the scenes blog post by series co-creator Michael Peraza. You can find part one HERE and part two HERE. It’s a short but fascinating read.

Speaking of fascenating Peraza himself is someone i’d never heard of till reading this article but damn if he isn’t a legend. Seriously the guy’s career is as an unsung hero, starting work under the Legendary Nine Old Men, and working on some of disney’s greatest films: The Great Mouse Detective, Aladdin, The LIttle Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast, along with live action cult classics Tron and Return to Oz via concept art. And concept art is where he’d hit his stride: he did conceptual work for all the big Disney Afternoon shows apart from Gargoyles, being one of the key guys in the early days of Disney Television animation. He didn’t stop at just designing things either as he worked as Art Director for Ducktales, The Proud Family and of course given how vital he was to it’s creation, Goof Troop, and to this days gives lectures with his wife to aspiring animators. He even did some guest work for the 2017 Ducktales Episode “Treasure of the Found Lamp!”. So yeah dude’s awesome

So how did he come to be a key part of this show’s creation? Well he’d just finished up some concept work on some other Disney Afternoon shows, and being a company man was glad to report to the Goof Troop..ers to help as the show was having trouble getting off the ground. The reason for this was the creative exec, who Peraza didn’t name out of kindness as the guy wasn’t a BAD person.. just a clueless one, this being his first job in film and tv. As such rather than work hard to develop around goofy or focus on his strengths the kid threw out one concept after another: The series got it’s name from a pitch that had Goofy as a scoutmaster, something I was glad to finally know. To quote Peraza

“ Although while I was doodling versions of the show that were destined to never see the light of the TV screen, the pitch date remained etched in stone and kept creeping closer. Various versions would find their way to the surface only to sink again into the wasteland known as the roundfile (trashcan). One moment Goofy was the Captain of the Fire Department, the next day a detective out of the Maltese Falcon mold, or a swash buckling hero fighting The Flying Dutchman.

The supporting cast he came up with really wasn't very supportive when you consider they sometimes included alien dragon babies with wings along with a large gorilla. Somebody at Walt Disney Television Animation must have really had a thing for giant gorillas around this time as they were plugged into almost every concept we assembled.”

It was clear that while Goofy COULD fit into just about anything, this exec was just throwing everything at the wall, nothing was sticking, and rather than try to refine his supporting cast, they kept having to throw them out and start over. And dont’ get me wrong, cartoons go through a lot of development and changes as they go.. but it’s usually born from a concept and usually by this point, they at least have what the show will be ABOUT in stone. While i’ve had the same creative changes and what not when coming up with projects that ultimately never saw the light of day, and currentlly some I hope to but might not, I’m not being paid by a studio to do this nor had a hard deadline. I was just spitballing trying to get something anything off the ground before reviewing gave me a steady outlet for my creativity and thus ballanced me to take my time with stuff. Peraza WAS turning out amazing art, like this concept art for the fireman pitch that honeslty makes me want to see it as a series. Who DOSEN’T want to see 9-11 with Goofy as the main character? Throw in Donald and grown up versions of Max, PJ and PIstol (And even not THAT much for the former two, as they did go off to college and all), don’t forget Roxanne this time out and you have a worthy goofy movie sequel.

So yeah this wasn’t working and the latest pitch was not great: Putting Goofy in ToonTown as a cabbie driving the Cab from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. As Peraza TRIED to point out to the exec, putting Goofy in a naturally goofy setting didn’t really play to the characters strength, his whole shtick being a goofus in a normal world. Enough of an every man to root for but also a slapstick joly weirdo.

The executive’s INCREDIBLY douchey response, especially since Peraza was a Disney Vetran at this point and had spent quite a lot of time on Ducktales, so he knew what he was talking about was “Do it anyway and leave the “Visionary” part to me”

As you can tell by MR. OOC there, this might be one of the most punchable sentences i’ve ever read.

So Peraza wasn’t in a great place and was naturally terrified when he got a call from Gary Krisel, president of Disney TVA, asking about the show and to see him about it.

Turns out though Krisel was a nice guy who already had a great working relatinship with Peraza, and genuinely wanted to know what was going on there and wanted his honest opinion. It’s why i’m not AGAINST executives in animation as sometimes they can come in when somethings clearly not working or allow a smooth transition of power if a propelmatic creator has to be booted off their own show so the show and i’ts crew don’t suffer as a result. It’s just more often than not they cause headaches or cancel shows for entirley stupid or self motivated reasons. But I will give credit where it’s do and point out times where there NOT stupid or homophobic or what have you and this is indeed one of those times.

Peraza was indeed straight with him: pointing out all the concepts they’d gone through, and like with the other guy honestly gave his opinon the ToonTown Pitch wasn’t working.. and he not only agreed but asked Peraza himself, actually respecting his experince instead of yelling at him that he has a vision that wouldn’t last the end of the day probably.

Peraza was HOPING this was where this was going and gladly gave him a far less high concept pitch and one truer to the character, quoted in full bellow:

“ My spiel went as follows, "Goofy is a recognized star of Disney animation, so why re-invent the wheel? His son is an average kid dealing with many of the usual issues they face: peer pressure, young love, grades, school bullies, and so on. On top of all that, he has the zaniest, wackiest GOOFIEST dad to live down. No matter how insane the situations get though, they will always love each other. They're a family." Gary asked how I would pitch it and I replied, "It's ONE day in the life of Goofy and son. From getting up in the morning to fixing breakfast, we see their difference side by side as his son tries to distance himself. No matter what though he knows deep inside that his father will always be there for him, whether he likes it or not."

If your wondering if Peraza noticed that that original pitch line is basically the peremise and emotioinal core of The Goofy Movie down pat.. your extremley correct and he notes that the film was based on said pitch even if he had no involvment with it that I could tell. The series would still use this but the whole embarasment aspect was toned down, and honestly fit a teenager better than an 11 year old..

So the exec loved it and Peraza shaped the core of the series: the idea of having Pete as his nemisis, pete having a nuclear family including a gorgeous wife, and the show being more slice of life and what not. He made some great sketches, got roaring approval and then pitched it to rousing success and the rest is history. Goof Troop was a moderate success and The Goofy Movie after it is a classic beloved by all. We have this wonderful man to thank for all that and I also thank him , on the offchance he ever sees this, for bringing Goofy into modern times in a way that did the man-dog justice. It’s thank to you we got this fun series, two great movies, and a goofy the way he is today: the best of everything about him rolled into one. Thanks man, free review.. not htat you NEED It since you’ve worked on things i’ve covered and what not, but I feel like I should offer. Outside of Peraza, I found one last bit of making of stuff before I get to the premiere proper. These two early concept shots:

The first has Max who both looks older and has red hair like he did in the shorts. Honestly I see a lot of his Goofy Movie self in thiis design, the only diffrence obviously being the red hair which was wisely changed to make the boy look more like goofy, something kept for the movie.

The more intresting one is this shot of the Pete’s. Starting with Pete he’s more athletic and has a perfectly tacky outfit. While changing him to be a bit more slovenly honestly fit this version of the character better, I do wish they’d kept hte outfit as the tacky gold and green jacket, the gold chain, the open ollar.. it all fits this version of pete so well, as well as his illusion of being a big shot when he is in fact a medium one. Peg is both slightly younger looking and far more doting and is so different I swear this picture looks like Pete remarried after the divorce and got some lipo. Pistol has about the same design but with a vastly different, more Isabella-ish outfit. Finally we have PJ who looks the same, but has a diffrent outfit and a far more sour demeanor, probably meant to be a bully. My best guess is sthis stuff comes from the pitch, and was likely made to simply get the basic premise across before fine tuning the characters for series

So with all of that out of the way i’m calling eveyrone to join in the fun under the cut and report to the Goof Troop.

Everything’s Coming Up Goofy:

Our first episode opens in a small but cozy trailer, where Goofy’s cooking up lunch as only goofy could: by making osme meatballs then serving them to his son over a game of table tennis, with Max doing the same. It’s really freaking adorable, and a dynamic i’m not used to since i’m more familiar with Teen Max. Seeing Max genuinely get into his dad’s hyjinks and enjoy them.. it just warms the heart and adds weight to The Goofy Movie by knowing there was a time the two really were thick is thieves before the stygian hole that is high school drained all that out of him.

So the two are like buddies and pals until the Mailman arrives, not even phased at this point. Turns out it’s a Diploma, and with this Goofy can get a job he’s been up for in Spoonerville and plans to move immediately. Max is devisated he’ll loose his friends and runs away to use a magical mystery box to keep them together only to end up in a land full of frogs with an old man who sounds like his dad minus the drawl and two other tinier frogs and ... I may have the wrong show. In fairness you try dislodging a finale where Keith David runs a 13 year old through with laser sword and then talk to me.

Goofy is sympathetic though: While he seems a tad oblivous to Max’s worries, it’s very clear he’s jumping on this job and this move so far to give his son a better life. Sure he runs through all the cartoon moving away talking points that don’t work in real life or most other cartoons such as there being a nice lake and that max can make new friends, and Max accepts it weirdly fast because this episode is only 22 minutes and they don’t have time for that subplot... but it’s clear the idea of a better paying job, a secure home not in an alleyway, and some stablility for his son is the real reason Goofy’s doing this, and he probably wants to simply give the boy the childhood he had growing up.

Meanwhile in Spoonerville, we meet Pete. To my shock this is where Jim Cummings took over the roll he was born for and has played since and with good reasons as Cummings is just amazing with Pete no matter the incarnation and excels here his penchant for playing jerks, hams and gravely voiced guys all coalesicing. Pete is planning on building what modern toxicly masculine weirdos such as himself would call a Man Cave on his lawn, because Pete is a very SPECIAL kind of douchebag. He also plans to stretch it into the neighboring property, tear down the house there and set it up.

This is news to his wife Peg, played by fellow voice acting Legend whose stillg ot it, April Winchell in her star making role. Peg is Pete’s strong willed wife who dosen’t put up with her husbands crap.. you know that trope that infected sitcoms for kids and adults of the doofy husband whose either a manchild , a skeevy self serving quipy asshole or some horrible combination of the two. The kind that has still been so prevealant the wife from one of said sitcoms helped produce a show about the wife finally doing the logical thing and plotting to kill the bastard. No really.. that’s an actual thing that’s happening. It’s even got a Little Bit of Alexis as Anne Murphy plays the poor, poor wife.

youtube

And why yes the series is called Kevin Can Fuck Himself. And why yes said former sitcom wife was the same one on a sitcom called Kevin Can Wait who was fired because they wanted to retool the show with the wife from Kevin James other sitcom. That also is very really a thing that happened. Payback is a bitch aint it? Fun too.

But yeah from minute one Pete is a terrible husband: Peg is a realtor and thus is trying to sell the house because it’s her fucking job instead of letting her husband throw their family deep in debt to very likely illegally demolish a house so he has a giant yard to play in. I mean even if this is all played for jokes i’ts just not funny enough to not make him an utter bastard. The fact his response to her VERY valid criticism and subtextual worry he doesn’t’t take her career seriously is to fake a panic attack, from a very REAL tendency he turns out to have giant breakdowns under stress, to try and guilt her into letting him have his giant public man cave just backs this up.. as does the fact she simply glares at the camera as he’s clearly DONE this before.

Since I have to put up with this version of him for the rest of this episode, the next, AND a portion of the movie, i’m proudly introducing the Pete Sucks Counter. This will carry over to any other appearances of the guy from here on out. So that’s one for his insane plan, one for disrespecting his wife’s career and one for faking a panic attack to try and win an argument Pete Sucks Counter: 3

So because this episode ran short Peg caves and compromises: He can have the property if it isn’t sold by 9. So Pete does what ANY husband would do: uses his spy camera and booby traps he’s set up in the other house to try and scare away prospective buyers.

Yeah.. while the show TRIES to have Pete not as his old-timey villian self.. they traded in for him being fucking MODOK. I mean he is a grotesque monstrosity who has a nuclear family and spends all his time in a chair thing and can barely function as a Husband or Father. Though at least I can belivie MODOK LOVES his family which not so much with Pete.

To prove this Pete tries using a fake spider to scare some buyers then CALLS THEM TELLING THEM PEG IS A CON ARITST. I.e. something that if they mention to her bosses could get her FIRED. He respects his wife’s autonomy, what she wants and what she’s asked him for, which is a fair shot to sell the place before he tries to wreck the place, as well as likely what his neighbors want. I mean I can accept breaks from reality for comedy, snakebird is my boy.

So I can accept pete has this stuff.. I just can’t find it funny when these shenanignas very transparently show that while he surface level loves his wife he dosen’t respect her or actually listen to her except when she gets angry. He IS the villian so he’s still a slight step among monst sitcom dads but i’ts not great. I can find it funny that his den also functions as a super villian lair though. That shit will never not be great. Also Pete Sucks Counter: 6 For the record: one for the spider itself, one for having traps set up in a property hat both isn’t his and his wife is trying to sell and another for threatening her job and her self esteem as she is baffled at what she possibly did wrong.

So Goofy and Max get on the road, leaving moving the rest of their stuff to an old coot whose a friend of theres. So it’s goodbye Duckburg, Hello Spoonerville! And yes I headcanon this as Duckburg. Goof Troop is one of two shows that very clearly happened in SOME form, the other being Tailspin, the only difference being the time period (Goof Troop taking place in the 90′s and Tailspin in the 30′s or 40′s) and any adjustments for clashes with the 2017 verse. So going off that, we also know Donald and the boys KNOW goofy and didn’t remotely question his presence, as did the rest of the cast.

So figuring out the timeline, Goofy likely met Donald in college, even if he never finished college as per an Extremley Goofy Movie, which may not happen the same exact way given Goofy still has his old job and may not loose it in this timeline, though i’d like to think he still meets Sylvia. But point is he drops out, possibly to marry Max’s mom, they end up moving to Duckburg for her work, she sadly dies, and Goofy is left raising Max alone. Donald and Goofy likely bonded as single parents struggling in low paying 9-5 jobs. Goofy left here, likely said goodbye to Donald and the 5 or so year old boys offscreen , and left. As for how anyone else knows him that’s simple: he probably visits whenever he can. He’s a good friend, genuinely loves Donald like a brother in all continuities, and of course would show up with a progressively more then less grumpy Max every time. As for what I think the rest of the cast would think of him: Scrooge would hate him for his disaster area ways, but at least respect him as a hard worker, he just wouldn’t personally hire him which is.. it’s fair. Beakley would be aggravated by him. Webby would of course like him because she’s essentially him but competent and gay, and Launchpad and him .. god that’d be a joy to see. And drive up Scrooge’s insurance. Della would also like him obviously. I”m really disappointed we didn’t get a season 4 if for nothing else the fact we probably would’ve got another Goofy episode. It also feels weird he’s not in the finale in any way shape or form you know? Why have such a big guest spot for him and then just not bring him or Max back? GIVE ME MORE MAX DISNEY DAMN YOUUUUU So they move right along with Goofy excited to get back to where he once belonged, and to call Pete with the good news on his 90′s cell phone. Pete is utterly TERRIFIED finding out Goofy Comin and tries to send him off course to prevent it. Naturally despite nearly running into a truck, Goofy makes it to Spoonerville by evening anyway and we get a delightful bit that shows off BilL Farmer’s comedy skills as he rapidly lists off all the things in town while driving Max through town. It’s so damn smooth. This also is notable since before this farmer had just played the character in some DTV music videos, which stands for Disney not Denton but god I now want Shock Treatment with the Disney Crew. I mean who wouldn’t want Donald as Brad, Daisy as Janet, and Gladstone as Farley Flavors I ask you. Not sure who every one else would be i’m sorting that out. And if you don’t know what Shock Treatment is, here have this trailer with a nightmarish opening.

youtube

Dammit now I want to watch Shock Treatment again... so I am. Found it in full on YouTube, and I feel no shame in sharing that as it’s not on VOD, nor any streaming service, the DVD, which I own, is out of print, and the Blu Ray is a UK exclusive. This film both needs to be seen more and needs another proper US release damn it!

So naturally Goofy somehow finds Pete’s house.. I dunno maybe Peg’s been sending him letters. Can’t blame her for having a wondering eye long as she dosen’t act on it. She’s married to a walking lump of ego, selfishness and cholesterol and likely only held on as long as she did for the kids. Which for the record Peg as a child of divorce whose parents got divorced rather than keep up a sham marriage or anything.. it’s not worth it. I was MUCH happier that way in the long term.

Anyways Peg and Goofy happily reunited while they awkardly try to get the kids to meet, with Goofy and PJ not warming up to each other at first, likely because Max just lost all his friends, and PJ clearly had none going into the series from context we’ll get later in the pilot. We also get a hilarious bit where Peg alternates between warmly greeting the goof’s and hilaroiusly shouting at Pistol to not play with worms.. in what honestly sounds like a protype for Miss Finster’s voice.

Meanwhile the kids try to hide a small crack in Pete’s boat.. which he notices as he’s just about to steamroll the house despite NOT having asked Peg if she sold it yet and just assuming, possibly opening himself and her to a lawsuit

Pete Sucks Counter: 7

Discovering his boat is trashed, he has a comical panic attack, which I can forgive since this was 1992 and they weren’t as well known as a serious problem. Seriously while pete is a bastard man.. the animation on him is GORGEOUS as it is HILARIOUS, while Jim Cummings brings the hell out of it. He’s kept the roll for three decades as of next year for a reason. Goofy ends up accidently destroying his boat in the process of trying to help him as you’d expect.

So Pete reluctantly lets the goofs sup with them.... and by reluctantly I mean he don’t wanna but Peg’s forcing him, which is pretty much the other half of their relationship in a nutshell: When pete isn’t lying and betraying her, Peg is forcing him to do stuff. As you can probably guess by how harsh i’ve been this aspect has aged INCREDIBLY poorly for me. This is your standard sitcom setup: asshole or dumbass or both dad, put upon wife who has to keep him in line.. but it’s just not how a GOOD marriage works and got so damn draining over time. Again and again we got things saying marriage is awful, comitting sucks unless your young, again and again. It’s why i’m REALLY happy we’ve been getting far better sitcom dad’s and marraiges lately. Bob’s Burgers is naturally the example, with the wife being the less sane one but both having their quriks and neither being so entirely dysfunctional you ever question the marriage. The Louds are another good example: Lynn Sr. And Rita NEVER right with each other that i’ve seen, have a perfectly happy relationship despite 11 kids, and wholly support each other, with Rita happily giving her husband the go ahead to quit his soul draining desk job so he could pursue his deream as a chef, and later letting him take a massive fincial gamble and open up a restraunt, purely because she belivied in him. Finally we have the Williams from Craig of the Creek who are easily one of the best married couples i’ve seen in western animation and one of them’s played by Terry Crews so that shoudln’t be a shock. I could prabobly find more but my points made: this trope REALLY ages the show poorly, more than any of hte 90′s specific tech or swinging theme song I just realized I forgot to talk about. Eh i’ll save it for the next episode.

I have NEVER liked this trope anyway: only simpsons has really made it work for me and Family Guy did until they just stretched it too far, and with Simpsons at least they freqeuently have episodes pointing out how unehalthy it is. It dosen’t help this trope somehow STILL isn’t dead, as evidenced by the fact Rick and Morty has it in spades and for SOME damn reason got them back together.. I mean they don’t fight anymore but it dose’nt fix the problem. So yeah while I’m not holding against the show TERRRIBLY as this trope wasn’t as widespread at the time, it still dosen’t make it GOOD even at it’s core.

Things get worse for Pete though as while Goofy praises him (And the Pete Kids rightfly wonder if Goofy is from space given the logic of ANYONE being that fond of pete. ) Pete finds out GOOFY bought the house he was going to demolish and will be staying with them till they move in. I have only one response to his misery....

Max also futzes with the tv which you THINK would lead to Peg finding out her husband is the antagonist of a Blumhouse movie but instead just does nothing.

So then we have Dinner where we find out SUPRISINGLY, Pete actually has a somewhat valid reason for resenting Goofy: Goofy cost him the big game in high school as Goofy and Peg were on the cheerleading squad together and Goofy accidently kicked pete in the face at a crucial moment, which Pete got the blame for. Granted I did say SOMEWHAT: Goofy is genuinely apologetic and says Pete shouldn’t of been blamed and Pete’s apparently been hiding the truth from his kids this whole time. I do call bullshit on that as while admittedly i don’t get into local football or any sportsball, Pete works at a dealership. At least one asshole would bring it up to either rile him up or out of genuine rage at something that happened at the very least a decade and a half ago. Pete hasn’t let go of this footbullshit DESPITE owning a successful dealership, having two wonderful children, an even more wonderful wife, and a friggin nice boat. But really.. it speaks to Pete’s character in any version: His ultimate undoing is his greed, his tendency to keep going and never settle. It’s something he oddly shares with Donald but Pete lacks Donald’s’s heart or redeeming moments. Pete just wants and wants and wants no matter who gets hurt because he’s inehently selfish and will simply TAKE It if he can’t get it. But it’s why he’s miserable, and ultimately ends up divorced: He can’t be satisfised so he often looses what he has.

So with Pete on the rampage Peg sends the boys upstairs. It’s here we get PJ’s first Woobie Moment: He has a room FULL of cool toys, comics and what not but his dad is such a greedy asshole he refuses to let the kid actually use them. He even knows this isn’t normal but is just resigned to it. Rob Paulsen is phenomenal as PJ, being funny and energetic, snarky and off to the side or depressed and fearful all with grace and ease and all making this all feel like the same sweet kid.

I mention this because Paulsen’s action is so good it highlights an issue with PJ: the writers lean way too hard into how much a hardass Pete is, to the point the series, likely intentionally, HEAVILY implies he physically abuses pete and the stuff on screen isn’t over the top enough, at least for tehse episodes, to get away with how he emotionally abuses him either. He talks down to him, doesn’t let him play toys and as seen by various episode synopsis and the next episode, uses mind games to keep him in line. THIS is why I can’t stand this version of Pete. He’s an abusive monster to this poor boy and I won’t stands for it, nor it being played off as a joke, especially since they try to ping pong between using it for comedy and using it seriously which just.. doesn’t work.

So Max earns his future best pals’ friendship by trying to help him.. and succeeding by pointing out that while he said not to use the Tank anywhere on the ground.. he didn’t mention the celling or walls and has the tank going up the walls. And clearly by the fact PJ is seen sleeping with it later, despite Petes’ss anger at this, Peg presumably ripped him a new one once she found out about the toys thing.

So that night Pete can’t sleep with Goofy tromping around the house and tries to whack him with a Golf Club. I’d give him another sucks count..

But given my brother lives in the basement and I sometimes accidently wake him by tromping overhead without meaning too, I DO get getting a bit fed up with someone clomping around and waking you up, and it is a slapstick cartoon so trying to physically assault someone is less of a crime here and more a setup for a punchline.

So get an UTTERLY hilarious scene as teh combination fo tripping on golf balls and Goofy singing his family lullabye, camptown races with lyrics

So Pete proceeds to have another freak out this time RUNNING ALL THE WAY TO DUCKBURG, THROWING THE OLD MAN OUT OF THE CAR AND THEN BRINGING IN THE GOOF’S BEDS AND BOXES BEFORE TOSSING THEM IN THE HOUSE. It is truly an amazing combination of Jim’s utter talent as he babbles hialriously and the animators as they just make it sing. It’s a great climax to part one. So with that the goofs are home and Pete semeingly gets to go to sleep.. until they start working on unpacking.

Final Thoughts On Good Neighbor Goof:

This is an excellent start to the series. The jokes are really well paced, the characters well introduced and the humor top notch> I had my complaints obviously.. but i’ts more systemic issues with the series, and stuff that honestly it dosen’t hamper my viewing experience for the most part. The PJ stuff does, but it’s not as big a deal this episode as he barely interacts with his Dad, but otherwise it’s stuff that just hasn’t aged well and they can’t be faulted for not seeing a deluge of terrible sitcoms a comin. The cast is top notch: I didn’t get to them in the proper review so Dana HIll deserves praise as Max, giving just the right amount of 90′s TV Kid mixed with real honest emotion and i’ts a tragedy she’s gone. She would’ve been right up there with the rest of this amazing cast in history. Though at least she got a worthy succesor.. but that’s not for now. For now we’re taking an interlude to look at the wonderfully 90′s music video that was aired along with this special:

youtube

Gotta Be Gettin Goofy:

This was my raw reaction to this video. Now is it bad? No the song has great flow it somehow manages to scratch Bill Farmer’s goofy vocals with the beat, the rapper makes the cheesy lyrics work, and the chorus of “gotta be getting goofy” backs a great bit. It’s not a bad SONG.. but the video is a hilariously insane mess. We have two of the poor dancers forced to wear just.. HORRIFYING looking Goofy costumes that look like the Dog based sequel to cats that thankfully only exists in my nightmares

I pityt hose poor dancers. Meanwhile the rest of the dancers are wearing Goofy Baseball uniforms and letterman jackets for some reason. is it beause Goofy likes sportsball. I thoguth they just had them lying around but now I see the g’s on the uniform. They CHOOSE to do this. Max also does a shredding guitar solo, not the max up there the animated max. Combine that with LOTS OF random clips from the show and you get this thing.. and i’ts worth a watch> it’s just hilarously what the shit.. not the most hilariously what the shit thing i’ve seen.. not even this week... that would be this thing from the Eurovision Song contest...

youtube

Your welcome. So moving on because this is already badly behind.

Good Neighbor Goof:

So our second episode opens with the Goof’s trying to move in and pete being upset their being loud. Now being upset your neighbors are being loud is one thing: Mine set off fireworks all week around fourth of July. Granted Pete would probably be the one doing such nonsense but still, I get it.. but it’s fair to have a lot of noise when your moving in and in Goofy’s case also trying to patch up a massive hole in the place.

So he does what any reasonable man would do and activates the earthquake machine he hid in the basement.

I wasn’t kidding about the MODOK comparisons. Granted the thing uses a belt to somehow do this.. but it’s designed to SIMULATE AN EARTHQUAKE AN DDOES SO WELL. The only reason Goofy’s not dead is that pete uses a low setting that instead ends up unpacking everything. IT’s a neat gag but again... PETE HAS AN EARTHQUAKE MACHINE.

Which Goofy accidently destroys his boat with. Meanwhile the boys try to talk over tin can phones only for Pete to notice and try to stop it because he’s a dick and doesn’t want his son to be happy because he hates Goofy. So Pete’s idea of a punishment is for PJ to wear the family shoes to go crush cans while wearing a helmet and given Pete mutters to himself about this keeping PJ away from Max i’ts likely something that he made up to torture his son soooo..

Pete Sucks Counter: 8 Max being a good pal agrees to help his friend crush the cans down to recycle for money and comes up with a zany scheme to do so

Meanwhile we get a few scenes of Pete trying to eff with Goofy’s day: Peg is making food for Goofy like a good neighbor/someone planning for their eventual divorce, so Pete makes him some too with tons of hot sauce. By the laws of classic cartoons, naturally Goofy loves it and wonders if Pete has hot sauce, while Pete trying it explodes his head Scanner’s style.

He then tries giving Goofy a chainsaw loaded with some kind of explosive or something... so yes he’s esclated to MURDER over.. Goofy annoying him a bunch as he’s apparently given up on the whole taking over that lot thing.

Pete Sucks Counter: 9 But it is hilariously petty and naturally backfires again by cartoon law as Pete ends up starting it for Goofy who can’t get it going.

Meanwhile PJ and Max inact the plan which is to drop a bolder with a rope on the cans, but end up having to ride the cans down when PJ lets it go too early and it ends up sweeping both boys on top of the box. They have fun though, with PJ actually getting to enjoy life for once and loving having a new friend.

So as his lot in life Pete has to ruin it by yelling at PJ for getting diryt, then for hanging out with max as he can SMELL the goof on him.. which means he’s either exaggerating or he knows what goofy smells like.

So he forbids PJ to see him insluting max.. while Max is hanging out the window and ends up crying. Oh and Peg never gets involved in any of this across both parts, likely because she dosen’t know.. which makes it even MORE horrifying as it gives off the implication Pete gets away with his abuse of his son because he hides it, like a real world abuser. But even then some things like trying to break up his and Max’s friendship or the toys thing you’d THINK she’d notice.

So we get more untetionally telling stuff as PJ says he’ll treasure this day and the only time he was happy.

Pete Sucks Count: 14 2 for the last scene, 3 for ALLL this one implies. But Max won’t give up the ghost no he won’t give it up. They haven’t the strength to hold on for long but if they both hold on together they can make each other strong. So he has a plan: have Goofy throw a Luau and invite the petes.

Peg naturally forces him to attend and Pete is a dick about it at first, but eventually enjoys himself when they do a conga line. The pets, Waffles and Chainsaw get into some antics. I do love Waffles because I love a kitty. Chainsaw is okay even though I love me a good doggo. Especially this one.

You are a Good Boy, Good Boy. But eventually while playing a party game about passing coconuts, Pete considers the coconut and considers the trees but dosen’t consider Goofy kicking him in the face AGAIN

So Pete is naturally a dick about this despite it being you know, an accident. But he takes it a step further by insulting Max Pete Sucks Count: 15 So Goofy gets mad. But here’s where a rather sizeable flaw shows up in the episode as Goofy.. acts exactly like Pete does about the insuing feud. He forbids Max to see PJ makes up rules and is generally petty and vindictive. And look Goofy could be in the shorts. He’s endlessly adaptable.. but here nothing about his character has shown he’d sink to this and it feels forced to bring abotu the climax.

Thankfully said finale salvages thing: That night Max pulls PJ into his room via the cans, and comes up with a plan.. weirdly asking PJ to hit him with a muffin to save their friendship... but it’s not random it turns out. His plan.. is brilliant. While I really don’t like these types of feud between neighbors make our kids suffer by making them not be able to be friends because we’re being petty children plots, this one has a REALLY clever solution to that: Max and PJ FAKE an oversclated fued similar to their parents, starting with insutls and throwing mulch and escalting to taking down each others fences and then throwing food at each other, before injuring their dads with planks and stuff, nothing serious just slapstick stuff, all to get both to settle down and try and get the boys to stop fighting.. it works like a charm, it’s full of great bits like Peg offering the boys pie only for Max to use it as amuination and i’ts just a great way to end one of these episodes. Not that I WANT more of these episodes but if your going to do this stock plot you might as well be creative with it.

So we end on the Petes and Goofs having a BBQ, all friends again, with Pete having his marina and Goofy nearly burning Pete’s house down and us getting a photo to end the episode.

Final Thoughts:

This one was a step down. Pete’s abuse is REALLY highlighted here and the plot is very paint by numbers and forces Goofy to be out of character for the last act for it to work at all. He just strikes me as too genuine and noble to hold onto a grudge this easily. Peg is also reduced from her usual feisty self to being oddly useless, not stepping in at ANY point to stop any of this depsite it being grossly otu of character. There’s a few great gags and a great climax, but the whole product is just okay

Later Today: Goof Week and Goofy’s birthday continue as I complete the trilogy of Shortstaculars with one about my boy! Featuring Goofy’s first apperance, his first short and the first apperance of what would eventually become Max!

If you liked this review, follow me for more and consider joining my Patreon which you can find RIGHT HERE. Even a buck a month helps me keep doing these and more gets me to my stretch goals, the next one up being the two remaining ducktales mini series, a darkwing duck episode a month and a reivew of the danny phantom film the ultimate enemy. And even a buck a month gets you access to exclusvie reviews, my patreon exclusive discord and to pick a short any time I do one of my shortstaculars. My next one is for Donald’s birthday next montha nd there’s only 6 days left to get on that pay cycle so if that sounds good to you get on in NOW while you still can and i’ll see you at the next rainbow.

#goofy goof #goofy #goof troop #max goof #P.J. Pete #PJ Pete #Pete Pete #Peg Pete #Pistol Pete #Sponerville #Gotta Be Getting Goofy #disney channel #the disney afternoon #disney afternoon #disney xd #disney plus

33 notes · View notes

amintyworld · 3 years

Text

Sunset - Dream SMP Drabble

WATERFALL (Part one) - SECRETS (PART 3)

A/N: Okay, I’ve decided to make this a 3-parter, so yay! Third part should be coming out later this week. Hope you all enjoy! -Minty

TW: Arguing/fighting, character death mention(?) (Let me know if I need to tag anything else!)

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

Ever since they met at the waterfall, Phil saw Sally around a lot more lately. Not to say he minded it, the girl was very nice and kind, but she fit right into his chaotic family, a little too well. He heard the normal loud crashing through the trees at nine in the morning - Techno sparred when he couldn’t sleep - as he walked downstairs for his morning coffee, yawning a bit. As he poured himself a cup, he took a second to smile as he mouthed ‘3...2...1…’, and then yelling began upstairs that made Phil’s head throb. He rubbed the spot with a sigh as he took another sip.

“STOP STARING AT ME WHEN I SLEEP, YOU WEIRDO-!”

“I’M NOT A WEIRDO, YOU’RE THE WEIRD ONE WHO KEEPS TRYING TO SLEEP IN MY BED!”

“YEAH, WELL I’M JUST TRYING TO PROTECT YOU FROM MONSTERS!”

“TOMMY, MONSTERS CAN’T GET IN HERE!”

The two boys yelled and called for their father, and Philza slowly meandered back upstairs, still half asleep, coffee cup never leaving his hand. He yawned. “What seems to be the problem?”

“Tommy keeps sleeping in MY bed,” Wilbur said harshly. “And I keep waking up to him clinging to me like some weird koala, it’s creepy!”

Tommy glared at his older brother. “Oh, I’M the creepy one?! You’re the one who I wake up to staring at me-!”

“Because you keep sleeping in my bed-!”

Before it broke out into another yelling match, Philza simply raised his hand and the two fell silent - Wilbur crossed his arms as the two brothers just looked to the floor. “Tommy, Wilbur wakes up before you, remember? He’s a light sleeper. When he wakes up and you’re holding onto him like a teddy bear, he can’t exactly move without waking you up, can he?”

Tommy’s eyes furrowed in thought. “Well, but he-”

“Wilbur,” Philza interrupted. “Tommy’s still young, he gets scared. We’re all getting used to sleeping apart, we’re all used to sleeping on the road and huddled together. He just wants to be near you because he loves you.” The two brothers looked at each other. “Now, can the two of you please move past this and try to understand each other?”

Wilbur slowly uncrossed his arms. “Do you really miss me that much?”

Tommy quickly scoffed. “Wha- no!”

“Oh.” Wilbur’s face fell.

“But,” Tommy said, crossing his arms as he stared at the floor. “I do miss hanging out with you and exploring like we used to. You and Sally are so busy now, and I get bored. So I guess, maybe, psychologically, some part of my mind just… subconsciously makes me sleep-walk over here…?”

“Aw, you DO miss me!” Wilbur said, smiling as he pulled Tommy in for a hug. Tommy struggled to get away from his strong grasp.

“I do NOT-!”

Philza smirked from the doorway at the scene, turning and walking off. “Come on down for breakfast when you’re ready-” He chuckled a bit to himself as the two began bantering again, and from the sounds of it Wilbur was trying to take a picture from the number of protests coming from Tommy. He walked downstairs to find Sally sitting at the kitchen table idly, and Philza would admit it was a weird sight, even with the amount of normal strangeness that came about in the house. “Uh, hi...?”

“Oh, hey,” Sally said, turning around a bit quickly. “You startled me.”

“I could say the same thing to you. How’d you get in here...?” He asked, confused, and trying to figure out what possible scenario let the girl wander in.

“Uh, the door was open,” Sally said. “You really need better security.”

No kidding. “Techno may have left it open. It’s kind of early, what are you doing here exactly…?”

“Couldn’t sleep. Didn’t exactly notice the time.”

“Ah, I see,” Philza said cooly, going on to lecture the teen on a proper sleeping schedule while grilling eggs on top of the furnace. The dad was surprised to learn how quickly she’d moved and set up shop in a nearby treehouse she constructed during the night.

“I’m just an expert at moving during the night, it’s the better cover for survival.”

“Smart. But not really healthy.”

“I guess, but safe is better than not in the long run, at least from my experience,” Sally said confidently,

“But you don’t have to run from anything, at least not anymore. This is the safest place to set up shop I’ve seen in miles.” Philza said matter-of-factly. “Now you finally have a home.”

“Home…” Sally repeated with a small laugh. “I haven’t heard that word in a while.”

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

“So, how’d you get that beanie?”

Wilbur sighed as he looked up at the sky, Sally next to him, both soaking wet from a splash fight they had earlier, and now decided to lay on the rocks and dry off in the sun, both of them tired. Wilbur instinctively reached up to touch the soft knitted hat in his hands, fingers fumbling through the fabric in a bit of comfort. “It was a gift... from my Mom. Or, at least, I think it was my Mom.”

Sally sounded curious. “What do you mean? Is Phil not…?”

“He is. I’ve known him for as long as I can remember, there’s no possible way he isn’t. But my Mom… I’ve never met her.” Wilbur said thoughtfully, recalling faded memories.

“Oh, so… how’d you get it if she…?”

Wilbur was quiet for a moment. “It’s not going to make any sense, it doesn’t even make much sense to me if I’m honest. It’s weird anyway-”

“Wil,” Sally said, giving him a comforting smile. “It’s okay. What’s the point of life if everything made sense?” Wilbur couldn’t help but smile.

“Don’t laugh?”

“Never.”

The teen took a breath. “The first thing I remember was a voice talking to me. I couldn’t see anything, it was so dark. The voice said it was my Mom, and that her name was Sam. Anyway, for a long time, I couldn’t see anything, but I wasn’t ever really worried. I felt safe as long as my Mom was there, you know? When it got colder she gave me the beanie and my old green sweater, and I know it sounds weird, but with the warmth - it felt like a hug, almost. That’s why I really love my beanie so much, it reminds me of her and her hugs. It’s like even if she isn’t here, she’s here. I miss her a lot, and-”

Sally pulled Wilbur in for a tight comforting hug as Wilbur’s voice hitched. A few tears slid down his cheeks as he returned it, and he mumbled a few ‘thank you’s before continuing.

“One day, she told me that she had to go, that I was going to go be with my Dad and everything was going to be alright. A door opened, and there was Phil. He pulled me close to him, and I remember hearing fizzing... smelling smoke, but he didn’t let me look back. He just grabbed me and left.”

“That must’ve been hard.” Sally said. “Do you ever talk to Philza about it?”

“Sometimes.” Wilbur said honestly. “Other times I feel like it’s something that he just wants to forget and move on from, and from the way he talks about it, I can’t blame him.”

“No wonder that beanie means so much to you.” Sally breathed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry and bring it up if I made you uncomfortable.”

“No, no.” Wilbur waved off. “It’s nice to talk about it with someone other than Dad.” He turned to face Sally. “What about you? Anything you keep that means the world to you?”

“No. The way I live, or used to live, only had room for the essentials and nothing else. Putting so much value in an object like that, would only lead to disaster waiting to happen.” Sally said simply. “There’s no use in getting attached to anything when you could lose it.”

“That sounds lonely.” Wilbur said thoughtfully.

“Yeah, but that’s surviving.” Sally sighed, laughing a bit bitterly as she sat up. “Stupid logic, isn’t it?”

“It’s not, it’s not.” Wilbur retorted, sitting up as well. His mind wanted to ask who she was running from, but it seemed like she didn’t really want to talk about it right now. He gave her a comforting joking smile. “I bet you had the biggest emo phase-”

Sally’s face lit up in a grin and Wilbur felt his stomach begin to flutter uncharacteristically, a knot forming in his throat as she snorted slightly, playfully swatting. “Yeah, as if you didn’t go full emo - I’ve seen your poetry.”

“How’d you-?!”

“Your brothers know how to get a hold of blackmail like nobody’s business.” She snickered, and Wilbur cursed under his breath. “Awe, come on, I thought it was cute-”

“Cute…?” Wilbur repeated, and the unfamiliar fluttering feeling in his stomach grew more intense.

Sally laughed. “Yeah, like a little hissing kitten-!” The two friends burst out laughing, Wilbur feeling lighter, happier, but also extremely confused.

“Come on you two, dinner!”

“Coming!” Sally called, smirking. “Beanie Boy’s just embarrassed-!”

Beanie boy?

Wilbur could definitely feel the unmistakeable tingling feeling in his stomach as they began to race back to the house for dinner.

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

Wilbur paced in his room as Techno intently listened, pausing to talk and get a word in before quickly realizing he had to wait until his younger brother stopped ranting. He focused on twiddling with his dagger as he listened, sitting on the bed facing a distressed and confused Wilbur,

“And, AND it just keeps getting worse, every time she smiles or laughs I feel like, really, really warm and I don’t know what’s going on because this has never happened before and I can’t talk to her about it because she’ll think I’m weird and I don’t want her to stop being my friend because she’s the only real friend I’ve ever had, and things would be so awkward but I just can’t stop feeling like this and it’s driving me crazy and I just want it to stop-”

Techno let out a breath as he sharpened a stick, not looking up. “Are you done?”

“Y-yes. I think.” Wilbur said as he tapped his foot to release some nervous energy.

“Have you considered, and stop me at any time,” Techno said calmly. “That you might like her more than just a friend?”

Wilbur’s voice was soft and filled with nervousness. “What… what do you mean?”

“Like,” Techno sighed. “Like you want her to be your girlfriend…?” At the mention of girlfriend, Wilbur turned red as a tomato, his mind racing. Did he want that? His mind imagined her snuggling close to him, holding her hand and leaning in to kiss her on the lips-

Wilbur’s face turned redder as he ran his hands through his hair quickly, trying to breathe with the large knot stuck in his throat. Technoblade smirked as he chuckled softly, looking back down at his work.

“I’m guessing that’s a yes.”

“Y-yes.” Wilbur managed to stutter, giving his brother a nervous smile. Suddenly, Techno’s ears perked up at quiet giggling outside in the hallway, and with a soft throw, he threw the sharpened stick hard against the wall next to the doorway, earning a loud yelp from the other side as Tommy appeared, angry.

“Aw, I missed.” Technobalde said, feigning disappointment.

“You almost stabbed me!” Tommy yelled, but Technoblade glared down at him, making Tommy’s protests quickly quiet.

“And you were eavesdropping on me and Wil.” Techno walked up to the younger, retrieving the stick and talking scarily calm. “Eavesdropping spies get stabbed, them’s the rules.”

“I wasn’t eavesdropping, I was… listening.” Tommy defended. “Anyway, i was just trying to help my poor older brother with his ‘woman problems’.”

Wilbur smiled, his nerves beginning to fade away as his mind got distracted. “Yeah, what do you think I should do, Tommy?”

Tommy’s chest puffed out with confidence as he strolled over to the bed where Wilbur sat. “Now, Wilbur, in my many years of experience and research on women, I know exactly what you gotta do - you walk up and ask her who her favorite woman is. If she says anything other than the Queen, she’s not real.”

Techno and Wilbur burst out laughing, and Tommy smiled. “As much as I appreciate your advice, I don’t think Sally would like that very much. It’s gotta be romantic.”

Techno’s eyebrows raised. “You’re gonna confess to her…?”

Wilbur pushed down the nervous knot in his throat thickly. “Ye...yeah! It’s better to get everything out in the air, right? Whatever happens, happens. If...if she says no, at least I was honest.”

Techno’s warm smile met Wilbur’s nervous one as he sat down next to his brothers, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. “And if she says yes…?”

A flicker of hope glimmered in Wilbur’s chest. If she says yes… His cheeks turned rosy as he took a deep breath. “If she says yes, I think I’ll faint.” He stated as he flopped backwards on the bed, trying to hide his lovestruck gaze and goofy smile at the thought.

“So, it seems we’ve got a date to plan.” Technoblade said as Tommy looked over at his flustered older brother, smiling.

“I knew she was your girlfriend-!”

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

Wilbur took a deep breath as he walked to meet up with Sally by the waterfall, wearing his nice yellow sweater and signature red beanie, carrying a few sweets he knew she liked from town. As he sat and set up the blanket on a rock overlooking the entire forest, a salmon leaped out of the water, shifting in the air and landing gracefully on the rocks, was Sally - her body and strawberry blonde locks dripping wet. “What’s all this…?”

“I have something I want to show you.” Wilbur smiled. “The perfect view of the sunset.”

“Sunset…?” Sally repeated, looking down at the picnic blanket and few torches lighting the area, the sun about to sink over the horizon.

“Yeah, I wanted to get you something special. I thought ‘what’s the perfect gift for a girl who’s seen everything?’ and I just knew ‘The things she hadn’t been allowed to stop and notice’.”

She sat down quietly, looking in wonder as the sun sank lower, turning the sky an array of breathtaking pinkish purples. “It’s beautiful. How’d you know I-?”

“Lucky guess, maybe a hunch?” Wilbur laughed, his heartbeat in his ears as Sally looked to the sunset in pure awe, the smile on her face the brightest he’d ever seen.

“I can’t believe all of this was just out of view, the entire time.” Sally breathed, looking relaxed and content as a cool breeze blew through her hair. Suddenly, Wilbur noticed a fluffy tail, and were those… ears…?

“Uh, are you shifting, or…?”

Sally went red as she realized what was going on, scrambling to hide her ears and squish them back in her head to no avail. “Oh my god, this is so embarrassing-! D-don’t look, okay?! You weren’t meant to-”

“No no, they’re cute!” Wilbur said before he chastised himself for calling her cute.

“They don’t… freak you out at all?”

“No, not really.” Wilbur responded. “I just can’t believe you hid them for this long, how did you even hide something like this-?!”

“It’s painful, but it’s safe. Animal ears and tail are telltale signs of a shifter. While people were chasing me, I had to blend into the crowd so I forcefully shifted them away. It’s exhausting and can hurt me a bit if I’m not careful, but it’s safe.”

“But, you’re not running anymore.”

“I thought you guys would think I’m weird. I wanted to show you, I did, but I just kept putting it off and making excuses so I wouldn’t have to admit I kept it from you at all.”

“You don’t have to hide from me, or anyone else here, I promise, we won’t judge.”

“Thank you.” Sally said. “For this, for giving me a place to be, for being so accepting.”

“Of course.”

Sally yawned a bit and leaned closer to Wilbur’s side, which made his heart leap to his throat as she started out at the sunset, beginning to purr a bit in content, which made Wilbur’s heart flutter. “You know, I’ve heard that the sunset looks like pink lemonade, but it looks more raspberry to me.”

“Raspberry lemonade?”

“Hm, that would taste good.” Sally murmured sleepily, letting out a laugh. “Sorry, all the exhaustion is hitting me, I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“I don’t mind.” His hands brushed over her ears amazed at how soft they were. He looked down at Sally, his heart seizing at the sight as the sunset’s glow radiated off her face, and he felt a heat flush his face at the sight as his heart beat loud in his ears. Sweat gathered at the back of his neck as he tapped his fingers nervously on his thigh, seeing the sun almost completely set.

It’s now or never. Don’t chicken out now.

He cleared his throat nervously as he scratched behind his neck. “So uh, I actually wanted to tell you something, something kind of important.”

“Yeah…?”

“I’ve actually been trying to find the right time to tell you for weeks now, looking back it seems kind of obvious and I don’t know how you never noticed, it’s kinda funny really-” Wilbur rambled, dancing around what he needed to say, not knowing if he really had enough courage to say it, could he even say it?

“Wil.” Wilbur looked down to notice Sally’s concerned gaze. “You’re shaking, are you okay?” Her hand squeezed his, and Wilbur’s nerves rose as any words he had began to die in his throat.

“I...I…”

“It’s okay, we’re friends. You can talk to me about anything and everything, okay? I won’t judge.” Her strawberry blonde hair swayed in the breeze as she talked softly and calmly, her usual cocky grin replaced with one that showed pure care. In that moment, Wilbur realized just how scared he was of losing that, of losing being with her and seeing her smile every day. What he was going to say was going to change everything, it was going to risk it all. Wilbur didn’t know if he was willing to risk it, risk losing her.

His mind told him no, told him to back down, that she didn’t like him like he liked her, and that he was going to lose her forever, that she’d hate him. That when he told her she was going to walk out of his life for good and leave him behind drowning in heartache. His heart whispered something else - maybe it was in her face or the way she gripped his hand just enough, or the way she laughed, the way she cared so much about him that it felt… it felt like…

...Love.

His body trembled in nervous fright as his hand rose up to scratch her ears softly, trailing down her face to tuck a bit of hair behind her ear just so, and softly cupped her cheek. The world around the two turned silent as Wilbur’s heart hammered in his chest. “I love you, Sally.”

Sally’s cheeks tinted pink at Wilbur’s words, before turning to a smile and she began giggling. Wilbur’s expression lowered for a moment. She’s laughing at me…

Then, suddenly he was pulled by his yellow sweater to crash their lips together, the movement unstable as they both fell off the rock and crashed into the river below. Though he was falling, Wilbur felt like he was on Cloud Nine. They both crawled into the beach, giddly giggling as their faces flushed with excitement. Wilbur pulled Sally in close and kissed her again, his heart drumming along as the tight nerves in his stomach finally faded. The shifter wrapped her arms around his neck as the two savored the moment, the moon rising behind them.

When they pulled apart for air, Wilbur smirked. “An ‘I love you too’ would’ve been fine-”

“Shut up, Beanie Boy. You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to do that.” Sally’s cheeks flushed as Wilbur gently took her hand in his.

“Well, we can do it again...” He raised her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles, as Sally’s face got redder. “My salmon.”

Needless to say, they kissed more than a few times that night.

#young sleepy bois inc #sleepy bois inc #dream smp #dream smp drabble #sally the salmon #wilbur x sally #dream smp fic #my writing #wilbur soot #philza #tommyinnit #technoblade

71 notes · View notes

ipuckwithhockey · 4 years

Text

Always in Your Corner- Boone Jenner

a/n: So i wrote a Boone fic. This is at least a 5 parter, and I have the next few parts written. Let me know what you think. I hope y’all enjoy it!

Summary: You were happily engaged to your perfect boyfriend when everything came tumbling down on you. The person you turned to just so happened to be your long time friend, Boone Jenner. The ever loyal Boone is there to help you get back on your feet. Little did you know, Boone had been pining after you for all these years, he’s just not sure if you’ll ever feel the same way about him.

Warnings: Cheating, Swearing, Anxiety if you squint, Sex, talk about sex and the use of protection

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

Boone met you years ago when you were doing a two semester internship with the Blue Jackets. Boone’s career had just started to take off and you were still in your undergrad. Although you were only at your internship a few days a week, you quickly got to know the guys on the team. Now, all these years later, you had a marketing job in Columbus and you were still friends with the boys.

You and Boone really hit it off all those years ago, and you’ve become close friends. However, no matter how many times your friends chirped the two of you about dating, neither of you ever crossed that line of friendship. You loved Boone, but just as a friend. And you knew he felt the same way about you. Or at least you thought he did.

Unbeknownst to you, Boone had been pining after you since the day you met. Back then you guys were just kids, and once he settled on the fact that you would never see him as anything more than a friend he tried to brush off his feelings as a small crush. After your internship ended you continued to hang out with the guys on the team. Boone had watched you go out with a number of different guys and for a while he thought he had grown out of his feelings for you. It wasn’t until Craig came around that he realized he was still very much in love with you.

Craig was now your fiancé of almost four months, and your boyfriend of three years. He was going to law school while you were in PT school, and a mutual friend had set you up. He was the perfect guy. He was handsome and smart, and said all the right things. He was romantic and sweet... and good in bed. There really wasn’t a single thing wrong with him. You fell hard and fast, and it seemed like the first year of your relationship flew by. On your one year anniversary he asked you to move in with him. Then, this summer while you were on vacation with your family, he popped the question. You couldn’t have been happier.

Boone on the other hand was crushed. He knew that the reason he disliked Craig so much was because he really was perfect. It was always easy to pick out major flaws with the other guys you had gone out with, but even Boone had a hard time hating Craig. He was a nice guy who treated you right. Boone even thought that had Craig not been dating the love of his life, they would have actually been good friends. It’s not that Boone was rude to Craig, he was always friendly, and they had gotten to know each other pretty well, but he could never get over the fact that at the end of the night you were going home with a guy that wasn’t him.

Being the good friend that he was, Boone was always supportive of your relationship because he knew Craig made you happy. He wanted you to be happy, but that didn’t stop him from feeling sad for himself when you called to tell him you were engaged.

That was the end of July, and now it was November. The season had started and quickly picked up pace. The Jackets were doing well, but because of how busy you had been with work you hadn’t made it to a game in a while. The last time you saw Boone may have been their season opener. Between work and planning a wedding for the following year, you didn’t have much free time. Boone understood, and his busy schedule never made a social life easy anyway. That’s why it was even more surprising to see you behind his front door that night. He was just cleaning up from dinner when he heard a knock. Thinking it was just a neighbor he quickly went to open it, but when he did he was greeted with you. You were still dressed in your work clothes and he assumed you had come straight from your work.

“Hey! I didn’t forget we made plans did I?”

You follow him in the door and take off your jacket as you head for his couch. “No, I just needed somewhere to think that wasn’t my house or work, and your place is about half way between the two so it seemed like a good option.” You’ve barely even looked at Boone and the concentrated look on your face tells him there’s definitely something on your mind. When you got into your head like this you couldn’t be stopped. You just had to think it out on your own. But when Boone offered you some water, and you requested a glass of wine instead, he realized this was probably a little more serious than what color the bridesmaid dresses should be.

“So are you going to tell me what’s going on?” He hands you the wine glass and you just shake your head. You still needed to think some more before you were ready to talk. It wasn’t uncommon for you to go to Boone with your problems, you were close and he was someone you felt comfortable talking about anything with, but this was something that if you said it out loud it might just become real, and you weren’t sure if you were ready for that yet.

Nearly 20 minutes pass before you look over at Boone who was scrolling through his phone. He looks back at you and sets his phone down thinking you might be ready to talk, but instead you just turn away again.

Your glass of wine is long gone, and knowing that you have to get home you don’t ask for a second. It’s been almost an hour since you got to Boone’s and you still haven’t spoken a word since you greeted him. You’re not sure what to do at this point, so you think that leaving may be your best answer. You start to get up and walk towards his door, but he catches your arm as you round the corner of the couch.

“Woah woah woah. If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine, but if there’s something serious going on you can talk to me. You know I’ll always be there for you.” This is the Boone you loved. The loyal to a fault, caring, Boone. The genuine concern he has in his eyes is what gets you. You swear he’s like a puppy, you just can’t say no to him.

You let out a big breath before looking back at him, “I think Craig cheated on me.”

It’s the first time you’ve set it aloud, and you can feel a sense of panic rush in.

Boone isn’t even sure he heard you right.

Cheated on you?

Craig?

What the fuck.

What Boone is sure of is that you wouldn’t just throw an accusation like that around without being pretty damn sure you were right.

“Wait. What? Why do you think he cheated on you?”

“Well, about a week ago I was doing laundry and I found a condom in his work pants.”

You say it so casually, and Boone isn’t really sure what the problem is, “Okay… Why does that mean he cheated on you?”

“Because I’m allergic to latex. And the condom I found wasn’t latex free. I know I sound kind of crazy but we’ve been together for three years and one, he would never buy a condom that was made with latex, and two, we rarely even use condoms…”

There are a few other reasons too, like the fact that you barely see each other. Between your two jobs you’ve been super busy the last couple of months. Craig was working crazy hours trying to make partner at his firm, and you had been brushing off his lack of interest in you for him being stressed at work. You also hadn’t had sex in nearly a month. The lack of conversation combined with the lull in your sex life didn’t seem like that big of a deal until that damn condom showed up, but when you saw it you knew.

While you’re talking about your sex life Boone is mentally trying not to puke at the thought of another man touching you. Not only that, but he’s boiling at the thought of a man treating you this way. He’s not here to be a jealous friendzoned idiot, he’s here because you’re in crisis, and he has to remind himself of that before he speaks again.

“Y/N, what are you going to say to him?”

This is another reason why you didn’t want to say anything before. You weren’t sure if you were even going to mention it to Craig. You were supposed to be getting married next year. He had just proposed in July. There was no way he didn’t love you. Right? He wouldn’t have asked you to marry him, just to turn around and cheat on you a couple months later. Right?

You’re afraid to look at Boone’s puppy dog eyes so you just keep looking at the floor when you finally reply, “I don’t know… I don’t know if I’m even going to say anything.”

Again, Boone is shocked by your words. He might be more shocked at this statement, than the actual news of Craig’s indiscretions.

“I’m sorry but the fuck do you mean you’re not going to say something? Y/N, if you’re so sure that he cheated on you why the fuck are you just going to let it go?”

He’s pissed, and you can tell. His boldness takes you by a bit of surprise but you’re quick to retort, “Boone, to be honest I shouldn’t have even mentioned it to you. This is between me and Craig. I don’t expect you to understand, but we’re ENGAGED. We’re getting married. He loves me, and I love him, and if he messed up once then maybe I just don’t need to know about it. Everybody makes mistakes.”

It’s like you know you’re lying to yourself in the moment, but the weight of the ring on your left hand is telling you to ignore that feeling in the pit of your stomach.

“How is this “between you and Craig” if you never even talk about it with him?? How can you just ignore this? This isn’t like you.”

“Well Boone, it’s really not up to you... It’s late. I should get home.” You turn and head for the door, and Boone doesn’t stop you. When he hears the door slam behind you he’s seething from knowing that the ‘perfect Craig’ cheated on you and that you were just going to let it go.

When you wake up the next morning Craig had already left for work, and you turn your phone on to find a text from Boone.

Booner: I’m sorry about last night, you know I just want you to be happy. Don’t forget I’m always be in your corner.

You know he means what he says, but you can’t bring yourself to confront Craig. If you can’t do that then you know you can’t reply to Boone, not when deep down you know that he’s right.

——

It’s been almost two weeks since you opened Boone’s message, and you still hadn’t replied. He tried calling a couple times but you haven’t heard from him in days. Boone knew that eventually you would come to your senses, or at least he hoped that you would. Even if you didn’t end up with Boone, he knew you deserved to be with someone better than Craig. Against everything else in your body something in you told you that you were going to make this work. You loved Craig. He loved you.

You left work early that day and when you got home you changed into a new lingerie set that had been collecting dust for weeks in your closet. When Craig got home you greeted him, and like any man, he was thrilled at the site of a woman in lace.

You thought that maybe sex would help bring some fire back into your relationship, but it didn’t work the way you thought it would. The sex was quick and when he finished he didn’t even bother getting you off. He just rolled off you and headed for the bathroom.

That night as you heard him snoring next to you, you laid awake knowing it was true. You couldn’t keep kidding yourself. He wasn’t the perfect guy you had met three years ago. You had to talk about this, and even then there was a part of you that hoped you would be able to work though this.

You’re not sure if you even slept that night, but you get up before he does and you decided that it was time. As you quietly get ready for the day you try to decide how you’ll bring it up. How are you supposed to confront someone who cheated on you? They definitely didn’t teach this in your PT classes…

You decide to grab the condom in question from where you hid it in your bedside table, and you set it on a plate at the kitchen island. As you move around preparing your breakfast you hear him get out of the shower and you know he’ll be coming out any minute. When he eventually rounds the corner he’s dressed in a suit and is looking down at his phone. It’s not until a couple minutes later that he even sees the condom sitting, in all of its glory, on your kitchen island.

“Babe? Why is there a condom on our counter?”

You turn around to face him and look him right in the eyes. “I found it… I found it in the pocket of your pants two weeks ago.”

“Ok, It’s just a condom…” He’s a good lawyer and therefore a good liar, but you know this man like the back of your hand and you know you’ve got him caught. The feeling that washes over you doesn’t feel like victory, it feels more like defeat.

You sigh, “Craig. Please don’t make this any harder than it has to be. For both of our sakes, just be honest with me.”

His phone and briefcase have now been gently set on the island that separates the two of you and he lets out the secret he’s been keeping for longer than you expected.

“I umm.. I uh- I’ve been sleeping with Chelsea for a few months.”

A few months. That means three, right? You’ve only been engaged for four… Somehow you still hadn’t prepared yourself enough for what was unfolding in front of you. You thought maybe he had messed up, that he made a mistake one time. But no, he had been having a three month long affair with his fucking secretary. The secretary that congratulated you at your engagement party. The secretary that had gotten you beautiful engraved wine glasses as an engagement gift. On any other day you may have even considered Chelsea a friend.

“Were you going to tell me? Or were you just going to let me walk down the aisle next year, knowing that you were going to go back into work a married man and fuck your secretary?”

The words you spit out were laced with hatred. The layers of bullshit that you had built up convincing yourself that he loved you had been quickly torn away. No longer were you looking at your relationship with rose colored glasses. He hasn’t even said anything back. The coward had the balls to cheat on you for months after your engagement but couldn’t even look you in the eyes when he got caught.

“Why the hell would you even ask me to marry you if you were just going to go cheat on me?”

There is silence in your kitchen until he surrenders an answer to you, “It just felt like the right thing to do… We’ve been together so long and everyone was asking when we were going to get married… and then I thought my bosses would probably like it if I was engaged since no one really makes partner unless they’re married… and I knew you wanted to get married. And I love you I really do. And we can make this wor-“

He’s the one panicking now and you can’t even believe he’s trying to salvage this right now. The perfect guy you once knew was long gone. It’s clear to you that your impending marriage was only a strategic move to influence his career.

You can’t listen to his bullshit any longer, so instead you just turn and walk back to your bedroom. He starts to follow you, but you close and lock the door behind you. You lean back and slide to the floor. Finally letting your emotions get the best of you, you let out choked sobs.

Eventually he leaves you and you hear the door to your apartment close behind him. As you cry you lay on the floor of the bedroom you shared with the man you thought you were going to spend the rest of your life with. You don’t know how long you cry, and you’re not sure when you fall asleep either.

When you wake up your clock tells you that you’ve been on the floor for almost two hours. Your body feels numb and all you want to do is stay sprawled out on the carpet, but you know that the battle isn’t over yet. After you text your boss to let her know you’re sick, you get yourself up and start packing. You grab suitcases from the hall closet and start grabbing your clothes.

You get as much as you can in your car and before you know it the apartment you once shared is only half full. You’re actually surprised you packed so quickly, and that it all fit in your car. You leave your key and your ring on the kitchen counter, and you know you don’t need to leave a note explaining anything. He already knows it’s over.

Before you walk out the door, something catches your eye. Two wine glasses. They’re sitting on the bar cart you had bought Craig for Christmas last year. You don’t even think, and before you know it you’ve taken them and tossed them into the kitchen sink. They shatter on impact.

You didn’t bother with taking stuff like the dishes or furniture the two of you had bought together. The things you took with you were only yours. Clothes and items you owned before the two of you lived together. You took things like the pictures from your graduation, your favorite blanket, and the puck Boone had given to you after your last game as a CBJ intern.

Boone. You hadn’t even spoken to him since your argument… You didn’t have anywhere to go now, and Boone did say he was always in your corner, so you start the ignition and turn your car in the direction of his apartment.

#boone jenner #boone jenner imagine #boone jenner fic #boone jenner fanfiction #nhl fic #nhl fanfic #nhl imagine #hockey imagine #hockey fic #columbus blue jackets #always in your corner fic

148 notes · View notes

hookedonapirate · 4 years

Text

Accidentally on Purpose

Summary: They shared one incredible night together five months ago, and after she disappeared from his life without a trace, except for the intoxicating scent on her pillow, he never thought he'd see her again.

That is until his colleague, David, sets him up on a blind date with his sister.

When fate brings them together again, she's full of surprises. Two to be exact.

A/N: This is something I've been working on, but I have no idea what inspired me to write this, it's just a concept I've been wanting to write that popped into my head quite randomly. This will most likely be a 2 or 3 parter, depending on the muse. She holds the reins here, I just do what she tells me to do lol.

Thank you @onceuponaprincessworld for looking it over and for your feedback!!!

Also on: Ao3 I FF.N

Rated: M

Part 1

“Just because you’re pregnant, doesn’t mean you can't have a little fun.”

Emma rolls her eyes. It's her fault they're having this conversation though. “Yeah, except you’re forgetting an important part of the equation—I need a man in order to have that kind of fun.” She never should've confessed to her sister-in-law she's been feeling erotically charged lately. “No one wants to bang a pregnant woman.”

Though the crafty woman pretty much figured it out on her own, Emma didn’t need to confirm Mary Margaret’s suspicions. Even if she was spot on. She caught Emma flirting with a bald man at the grocery store, which according to Mary Margaret, was a dead giveaway. Not only did Emma rarely, if ever, flirt with random strangers, but also, the guy wasn’t even her type. He wasn’t attractive, which didn’t really matter to Emma in the first place, and she's not against men being bald, but Emma enjoys a full head of hair on a guy, something she can yank on and pull while he’s thrusting into her. And that day she was even considering settling on the idea of using his ears as something to grab onto, but as Mary Margaret pointed out after having to drag her ass out of the grocery store, the man was very creepy, which further lessened his overall appeal. Having gone through a pregnancy of her own before giving birth to Leo, Mary Margaret knew all the stages; she knew the telltale signs of a horny, pregnant woman. And Emma’s been displaying most, if not all of them.

During her first trimester she never would’ve imagined she'd be horny during pregnancy, never would've thought it was possible. She felt miserable for three goddamn months; she was constantly exhausted and nauseous and rushing to the bathroom to vomit. So perhaps Emma’s unpleasant experience has made her second trimester all the better. Perhaps it’s the reason she’s feeling so wanton lately. She doesn’t feel shitty; she has this sudden burst of energy and wants to enjoy this golden time of her pregnancy before the last few grueling months creep up on her, before she’s feeling uncomfortable and constantly drained once again.

A conspiratory smile crawls over Mary Margaret’s lips.

Crap.

Whatever’s brewing in that dirty little mind of her sister-in-law's cannot possibly be good. She appears to be innocent, but Emma knows her more than anyone, well except David. She knows when Mary Margeret’s conspiring something, and it rarely leads to something good, or at least something Emma approves of. “There is this one guy David works with at the office... he might be interested.”

Ha, she knew it! She knew Mary Margaret had something up her sleeve, and now she’s involving her brother too? This isn't good. Far from it.

She doesn’t even want to think about her sister-in-law having a discussion with her brother about how horny and desperate she is. There is no fucking way Emma is going through with this.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Does he have some sort of fetish for pregnant women?” The thought of this guy having said fetish intrigues her though if she’s being honest. Emma’s not looking for a long-term relationship, she just wants to have one satisfying night with her legs wrapped around a man as he drives into her, or as she rides him, seeing as she’s too far along to lie on her back during sex. That’s another reason why hooking up during her pregnancy is a terrible idea. It’s not sexy. There are only so many positions Emma can engage in and only so much energy she will have for any sexual encounters she may have. An all-nighter is definitely out of the question.

“No,” Mary Margaret screeches, and then further ponders Emma’s question. “At least, not that I’m aware of. I just meant he’s a gentleman. He didn't even want to go through with this in the first place—”

“Oh great, that makes me feel so much better,” Emma snaps with a frustrated sigh. Wait. Emma mulls over her statement. He didn't want to through with this? What the hell? Emma's eyes shoot daggers at her sister-in-law. “Wait a minute, you told him about me? You told him I was horny and pregnant?!”

“No, of course not!” Margaret Margaret argues defensively, placing her hands on her hips. “I wasn't finished. He’s not looking for a casual hookup, he had an unpleasant experience that completely rattled him. In fact, he’s still not over it, but he agreed to go on a date with you because we told him what a great person you are and that you just needed to get out and have a relaxing evening with a good man.”

A shiver jolts down Emma’s spine. She doesn’t feel like a great person, quite the opposite actually. She had the chance to let a good man into her life. But she was too scared and blew it. She was too scared of being wrong about him, like how she was wrong about Neal.

The night she conceived the twins, she'd witnessed traces of something that could’ve developed into something good. Really good. If only she’d been willing to take the next step. The right step, of course. Because while she did take a step—she took many steps that night—she stepped right out the door of the motel room. She hadn't told him because she'd been embarrassed about it, but she lives with her brother and sister-in-law, so there was no way she was bringing over a man to have sex with him in her room. Even if she were that desperate, her room was in chaos at the time because she was still in the process of unpacking. And he was staying with a friend at the time, so they agreed to just get a motel. When she missed her period and discovered she was pregnant, even if she wanted to tell him, she didn’t even know how to contact him.

They hadn’t even exchanged names that night. And she's regretted it every day since then. She regrets it because she can't stop thinking about him and really wants to see if her intuition was correct. She wants to see if they really could've had something good. If she's being honest with herself, she wants someone she can start a family with; she's tired of living in her brother's guestroom. At least now she has the twins. She always knew she'd have children someday, she just always pictured herself adopting like David's mother had adopted her and got her out of those foster homes. She didn't think she would get pregnant after a one-night stand with a random stranger she met at the bar. He bought her a drink, and the second her eyes met with his intense blue ones from across the room, she knew she was doomed. And she was right. They had an instant connection, and the chemistry between them was off the charts. She went to a motel with him for a good fuck, a really good fuck. But that was all she was looking for at the time—all she was capable of—and he’d been willing to give that to her no matter how much she knew he wanted more.

Fortunately, she woke up before he did, when the last vestiges of the night were evident through the window, and she ran.

When it came to relationships, short, lighthearted flings were her modus operandi, but one-night stands were rare. After what happened with Neal, she barricaded her heart and became reluctant to trust people. She typically needed time and many dates to trust a man enough to share her body with. But, all work and no play had drained her energy and sanity and made her cranky. Being a bail bonds person was a full-time job; she hadn’t even taken a vacation after she moved from Boston to Storybrooke. And with this complete stranger, it took no time at all for her to realize he would be a generous lover and would treat her with respect. More than that, she knew he would make her feel good. And her instincts had proven spot on. He made her feel incredible.

She could still feel his touch on her skin days later, she could still taste his kiss and feel his lips on her skin when he’d explored every inch of her body, every curve, every nook and cranny, leaving nothing untouched or unexplored. She felt the satisfying ache in her core from when he drove into her so rough and so deep, his sizable length fitting her so perfectly like a lock and the matching key. The images from that night still haunt her to this day; she swells and flushes every time he invades her thoughts. But she knew running away was best. Or so she thought.

Even before she missed her period, she kept hoping fate would somehow bring him in her life again, but it hasn't happened yet. She doubts it ever will. Now more than ever, she wishes she’d at least gotten his name. She doesn't even know the name of her babies’ father! How fucked up is that? At least she knows without a doubt he’s the father. Had she slept with anyone else within that two-week timeframe, she could’ve been on one of those tv shows Mary Margeret watches, like Maury, where the mother doesn't know who the father of her child is among several men. Emma knows very much who the father is, considering he’s the first guy she’s slept with in a year, and the last guy she slept with. So yeah, she knows he’s the father. She just doesn’t know him.

And every day that passes, every day she carries these tiny babies in her womb knowing the father has no clue he created them with her, is just another day she carries around this guilt. Not for getting pregnant, but because the twins will never get the chance to grow up knowing their father. Her little ducklings will never have those precious moments with him, and it’s all her fault. She deprived her babies of that the night she walked out of the room. She deprived him of the chance to know his children. That regret will haunt her and harbor inside her until its poisonous venom creeps through her blood and completely consumes her. She’ll carry around this guilt for the rest of her life.

~*~

Killian is a nervous wreck as he pulls in front of the restaurant, dragging a hand through his hair for the hundredth time, wondering why he agreed to this. Well, he knows why he agreed; he was promised he’d meet a beautiful, feisty woman who needed a good man in her life. He was a willing participant, don't get him wrong, but the pressure of it all is making him sweat under his suit jacket and dress shirt. The pressure of not screwing this up, of not doing anything that might award him with a fist in the face from his date's brother.

David said he didn’t normally set his sister up on dates. He was usually against her dating anyone, let alone a man she didn’t even know, but since his wife, Mary Margaret, was on a mission to set her up, he needed to have a say in the selection process. And if his kid sister was going out with anyone, who better than his good friend and trusted colleague? Killian had never met the sister; she lived in Boston until over five months ago when she moved into her brother’s guestroom in Storybrooke for a fresh start. Killian didn’t receive many of the details of why she left, he only knew it was time for her to leave Boston and return to her hometown. He’s really surprised he hasn’t met her yet, but David says she works a lot and is rarely at home. She’s a bail bonds person, always tracking down her next mark. Well, she was until she became too pregnant to chase her marks. Now she has a desk job at the station, or so he’s been told.

Killian takes a moment for his nerves to calm a bit before he grabs the red rose from the passenger seat and gets out of the car.

Some say it's odd to take a pregnant woman on a first date, but why? Because she might have mood swings? Killian has found pregnant women to be exquisite, not only because they’re carrying around a growing, breathing human being inside them, but because he loves when a mother-to-be puts her hands on her belly and speaks to her baby in a gentle, motherly tone. And if she’s not in a pleasant mood, what with hormones, aches and pains and generally feeling unpleasant, well there are many ways to help her feel better. It would just give him an excuse to take more care of her and pamper her. Not that he’d need one of course, but generally women are stubborn in that way. They don’t like to be treated like damsels in distress, they like to do things themselves, take care of themselves. Killian likes to remind any woman he's with it's okay for her to be spoiled once in a while, and if it were up to him, he would spoil her all the time.

So when David told him his sister was pregnant with twins, he was not at all deterred from going on this date, he's just wondering what happened to the father. He has no idea, but he didn’t want to stick his nose where it didn’t belong. He's actually honored to go on a date with her. And he plans on showing her the gentleman she deserves.

He doesn't realize exactly how nervous he is though until he's about to walk inside the restaurant and meet the sister David went on and on about. It's been far too long since he's been on an actual date, which doesn't really help with his anxiety. He adjusts his tie and pauses at the door to take a deep, shaky before pulling the door open.

Here goes nothing.

~*~

Emma’s going to kill her sister-in-law.

But then she’d have to explain to her brother what happened to his wife, and she’d have to explain to Leo what happened to his mother. They’d never forgive her, so she supposes she won’t, but for goodness sake, why did Mary Margaret set her up on this blind date?!

Emma's sitting at the bar in this fancy Italian restaurant, staring at the drink menu, wondering if her date would be bothered if she ordered water.

She sighs and sets down the menu. She never should’ve agreed to this.

Despite Emma's best efforts, Mary Margaret had talked her into it. And she’s completely terrified. Terrified of what this man might think of her for being a soon to be single mom after a very irresponsible one-night stand, she wonders how he’d think she looks naked if it even got that far. Terrified he’d regret sleeping with a pregnant woman. Terrified he’d think she was a lousy lay. It terrifies her so much, it’s depressing. But in the end, the possibility of forgetting everything for a night, of getting caught up in a night of passion is too appealing for Emma to pass up. She almost feels selfish for going through with this, but it’s not like she would be the only one deriving pleasure from this; she would make sure he was satisfied as well. Plus, he's getting sex with no strings, so she can't feel too bad for the guy. “She was just using me for sex and I fucking hated it,” said no guy ever.

She places a hand on her belly, rubbing her palm over the soft fabric of her dress in soothing circles. “Why am I doing this again?” she mumbles softly at her belly as if the twins could hear her or even supply her with an answer or some words of encouragement.

Emma hates dating in general. She hates wondering whether the guy will like her. She hates having to dress up and think of something interesting to talk about. She hates having to behave in a certain way, wondering how the guy truly acts when he’s not trying to impress a woman. Because no one shows their true colors on a first date.

Dating is like interviewing for a job. Whether you’re a suitable match doesn’t matter, it’s all about how you sell yourself. You may not be completely qualified or good enough, but if you can convince the other person you are, then chances are, they’re none the wiser until it’s too late. Until they’re far too invested in the relationship to care or do anything about it. Dating is all about how much you can trick the other person into falling in love with you. And if you’re not looking for love, it’s about tricking the other person into having sex with you.

Has she mentioned she hates dating?

What’s worse is going on a blind date where you don’t even know the person beforehand and worse yet, she hates going on a blind date while she's five months pregnant. So why she agreed to this, she has no clue.

Her mind goes back to the conversation she had with Mary Margaret before she left for this stupid fancy restaurant.

“Most dates that begin at a fancy restaurant almost always end in a hotel room.”

“A bar works just fine,” Emma mumbles, suppressing a smirk. Though it wasn't exactly a hotel, it was a motel.

“What's that?” Mary Margaret asks, looking up from zipping the back of Emma's dress.

“Nothing,” Emma shakes her head, trying to stay calm as she studies herself in the mirror, seconds away from calling this entire thing off. She looks like a blue whale. “I may be pregnant and horny as fuck, but I'm not going back to a hotel with this guy. I don't even know him.” Which is a lame excuse considering she didn't know the guy who’d knocked her up. She didn't even know his name. Which is very unfortunate because when her twins eventually grow up and ask their mom who their father is, Emma won't even have a name to supply them with, only a face to describe. A very handsome face, but still only a face. “I’m only doing this because I don’t want to hurt the guy's feelings. I'm not sleeping with him on the first date.”

Mary Margaret laughs.

Emma arches a brow at her sister-in-law's reflection in the mirror.

“That's what I said before my first date with your brother. But things definitely did not happen the way I planned. He ended up charming the pants right off me.”

Emma groans at her sister-in-law, her nose wrinkled in disgust. "I so did not need to know that. Besides, that was different. You weren't five months pregnant, or pregnant with twins! David wasn't going on a date with a blue whale!"

Mary Margaret scolds her for saying those things and places a hand on Emma’s shoulder urging her to turn toward her. When Emma faces her begrudgingly, Mary Margaret cups her cheeks in her palms. “One, you are not a whale, you are a beautiful and glowing mother to be, and two,” she smirks, “don’t worry, you'll thank me later.”

Emma rolls her eyes and walks away. “I doubt it.”

~*~

Killian tells the maitre d’ he’s meeting someone here and gives her his date’s name before he’s led to the bar.

He swallows the large lump in his throat when he sees the woman David described as his sister. She’s sitting at the bar, her long, golden hair pulled into a ponytail, and she’s wearing a black dress, her fingers curled around the glass of clear liquid on the bar top, which he assumes is water. He pulls the rose in front of him, donning his best, charming smile.

“Emma?”

“That’s me,” she replies and grabs her purse before rising from the stool, still holding the glass.

When she turns around, his heart actually stops beating, his mouth falls open and he blinks to make sure he’s not dreaming. He almost drops the rose in his hand.

Bloody hell. It's her.

He can tell she’s equally shocked as she places her hand on her protruding belly, staring at him like a deer in headlights.

“You’re Emma?” he asks again, still not believing his eyes or his luck. He never thought he'd see her again.

She nods, barely.

Then he whispers faintly, “I’m Killian.”

#cs ff #captain swan #accidentally on purpose #my fic

81 notes · View notes

jeongyunhoed · 4 years

Text

Spellbound

Member: Yunho Part 3 of 3 (Part 1) (Part 2) Genre: Fluff, angst A/N: Here’s the final chapter of this three-parter! I hope you all like it!

Part 3

She wanted to scream, to lash out at something. She was in love with Yunho, head over heels for him, but this curse placed on her family was the only thing that stood in her way. Why did her great-grandmother have to do this to herself? Why did she have to bring this onto everyone? She knew the clock would be ticking for Yunho, and for her, and the last thing she wanted was for Yunho to be away from her. She wanted him to be near, but she knew she couldn’t.

Even if it broke her heart, as long as Yunho lived, it would all be alright. She didn’t want to go through what her mother, what her grandmother, what her aunts went through, but it seemed like the only way for him to live. She didn’t speak to anyone for the next few days, didn’t answer Yunho’s messages, she couldn’t bear to pick up the phone when he called either. She didn’t want to break down for the fifth time in a day. They had yet to make things official between them, and yet, she knew his time was limited if they did, what more if they got married.

She couldn’t talk about Yunho the rest of the week at work, and she took earlier shifts so she wouldn’t have to see him. She stopped by at her aunt’s apartment, with the slight hope that something could still be done but she wasn’t sure. It felt like a lost cause, but she still had to try. “Hey,” she said, upon seeing her aunt take out the cake from the oven.

“Hi, what’s up? Your mother has been telling me what you’ve been going through. I’m surprised you still manage to find the strength to go to work” said her aunt, who gestured for her to sit down.

“I have to go to work, but I took an earlier shift, as mom probably told you,” She said.

“Mhmm,” Her aunt hummed, handing her a plate with a slice. “She told me about the boy you love, and how you bolted out of his house because you realized he was the one you wished for,” Her aunt gave her a judging look. “That’s why there’s the saying that you have to be careful of what you wish for” Her aunt added, sitting down across from her. “Why didn’t you agree anyway? Why couldn’t you have stayed?”

“Because my heart feels like it’s about to break in a million more pieces the more I think about it. I can’t bear losing Yunho. It’s like he’s already the love of my life, and I haven’t even lived out the rest of my life yet” she admitted, not caring how dramatic she must’ve sounded to her aunt.

“That’s the spell you cast after all, the amas veritas,” Her aunt said. “True love, the one you’ll love forever, didn’t you read the description?”

She could only shake her head as she picked at the sides of her cake. “I told him to stay away if he cared about me.”

“Why on earth would you do that?” Her aunt looked taken aback. “If you’re near him, you’d die of a broken heart, if you’re apart, you’d still die of a broken heart.”

“Aunt-” She gave her aunt a look. “I just wanted to protect him.”

“He’s the one you wished for, what makes you think he’ll want to be away from you? If he really is the one, he will hear your call, no matter how far both of you are from each other, and he’ll hear the same song you’ll listen to on an ordinary day, a spell like that is so powerful, that it can’t even be undone” Her aunt explained, sounding almost amazed. “You two will be stuck for life, one can’t live without the other, almost like soulmates even.”

She looked up at her aunt. “How did great-great-great-great-great grandma die again? What made her cast this vow on herself?” She asked.

“The man she loved ran off with another woman, and she was pregnant with his child out of wedlock,” Her aunt recalled. “Generations later, and here we are.”

That gave her an idea, but it seemed too good to be true. “What if Yunho and I... “ She said, with a slight hope in her voice. “No, that might be unfair for him.”

“What do you mean?” Her aunt asked curiously.

“What if we made it official? What if… if the amas veritas works like you said, that we would be stuck together for life, what if...what if…” She was hesitant to say it. “A blood oath between him and I won’t do any good, would it?”

Her aunt stared at her. “It could be worth a try, but I don’t know if that would work. If getting married didn’t lift the curse, making a blood oath together could somehow help” They said with a shrug.

She looked down at her food. It did seem too good to be true. “There really has to be some way” She muttered.

“Remember, he ran off before they got married, and when she was pregnant with his child,” Her aunt pointed out. “It might take a show of faithfulness to lift the curse,” They looked down. “You two are already there, at that part, because of the amas veritas. It makes me wish I wished for my husband too, maybe then he wouldn’t have run off.”

The revelation made her look at her aunt. “Uncle...cheated on you?” She said quietly.

“Oh, yes, he did. A few times in the last few years of our marriage,” Her aunt chuckled. “I forgave him because I loved him that much, but then he died before we got a chance to start all over again.”

“...Did dad do that to mom?” She asked.

“No, he was the love of her life, and she was his, they were practically inseparable ever since they started dating,” Her aunt smiled upon remembering. “It appears to me, that you might’ve found him. Maybe that blood oath would work.”

“Maybe I could visit another shaman and maybe they could help with this, getting rid of curses thing,” She mumbled.

“You can, but why go there when you’ve clearly got a gift for magic too?” Her aunt said. “If the amas veritas worked, that’s also saying something about your own skills.”

“I don’t think Yunho would appreciate having a witch for a girlfriend.”

“I don’t think Yunho would appreciate not being with you either,” Her aunt countered.

“You know, I can’t help but imagine that if the curse was broken, the amas veritas spell would break too, and Yunho wouldn’t love me anymore.”

Her aunt gave her a look. “I already told you, a spell like amas veritas cannot be undone. If it’s true love, nothing can undo that.”

Silence came over them. Her aunt went back to eating the cake that was on her plate, while she stared at her own slice. “Before I left his house, he said to me that curses are only true if you believe in them and that he wished for me too.”

Just then, her phone rang. She took her phone out of her bag to see who called, and it seemed like an unknown number. “Hello?”

“Hey, hey, it’s Hongjoong, Yunho’s friend? We met at the convenience store one time?” Said the person on the other line. She sensed that something was wrong.

“Oh, hello, yeah I remember you,” She said. “Is there anything wrong?”

“Yunho…” His voice seemed to crack. “Yunho, you have to see him, he’s been looking for you and calling your name...something happened to him…”

She felt her heart sink. “...What happened?” She asked.

“He’s in the hospital...he ran into some bad people on the way out of the studio... got beat up, he’s hurt pretty bad, you have to come, please?” He was already crying. “Please come...he’s been calling for you…”

“I-I will…” Tears were already streaming down her face at the news and as she hung up. She turned to her aunt. “It’s already beginning, Yunho’s in the hospital, I have to see him” She said, getting up and leaving the apartment, sobbing.

She didn’t care at that moment. She had to see Yunho. If this was already death’s call to him after choosing to love her, then she would at least share these last moments with him. She took a taxi to the hospital Hongjoong told her and rushed inside upon arriving.

She skidded to a halt when she saw the group of guys standing outside an operating room, and more tears fell down her face as she slowly approached them. She noticed that his family was there too, all of them looking concerned, especially his mother, who was holding onto his father with worry and in tears.

“He’s been calling your name when it happened, you were all he could talk about” Hongjoong said upon seeing her.

“What happened to him now?” She choked up.

“They said he went into surgery…” Hongjoong replied.

She looked down. “It’s my fault, it’s all my fault” She said, slumping down against the wall and moving to sit down on the floor. “It’s all my fault…”

“How is it your fault?” Hongjoong bent down to sit in front of her.

“I-I told him to stay away from me, I wanted to keep him safe, and now it’s all my fault he’s in there” She buried her face in her hands, sobbing into her palms.

“How would he be safe away from you?...”

“I-my family’s cursed, that’s all you need to know…” She couldn’t bear to look up or at the face of Yunho’s friend.

“Earlier today, Yunho said to us, curses are only as powerful as one believes them to be, was that what he meant?” Hongjoong recalled what happened. She just nodded. “And then he said he doesn’t believe in curses.”

“This one is real, it’s real, and I don’t know how to break it” She kept shaking her head.

They suddenly heard some chattering coming in from the hallway. Looking up, she realized it was her aunt, followed by her mother, and to her surprise, her sister. Her aunt was carrying a thick book that she recognized was the book she got the spell from.

“I think I have found a way to break the curse” Her aunt suddenly said, making everyone else look at them in a confused manner. “We will have to conduct a seance, summon the spirit of great-great-great-great grandma to do it” They said, flipping through the book. “If she cast this curse on us, she will get us out of it, we can only try and hope for the best.”

“Unnie, it will be alright. For Yunho. We finally have a chance at breaking the curse” Her sister patted her on the shoulder.

“We will need Yunho’s parents to come along with us on this seance, their consent is needed for the next step” Her aunt said.

“The next step?” She sniffled.

“Yes. Yunho’s heart is pure, and his love for you is genuine, he’s the real thing” Her mom spoke. “If I couldn’t save your father, I’d at least hope to save my future son-in-law and the rest of our generations to come” Her mom added.

“Future...son-in-law?” She looked surprised.

“Yeah, I mean, you two are stuck with each other for life, that’s true love” Her mother said, in an effort to give her some hope. “You didn’t realize he was the guy you wished for until you went to his house. You two fell in love without the influence of a spell. The amas veritas only seemed to bring the two of you in the same place.”

“Come on, come on, we don’t have much time, Mr. and Mrs. Jeong, may we ask for your assistance with something? We think it can help keep your son safe” Her aunt introduced herself to his parents and explained the situation. To her surprise, they went along, asking Yunho’s brother to stay behind with his friends. She followed them into Yunho’s ward, and all of them sat down in a circle. “We must all join hands in a circle and close our eyes” Her aunt said to them, and they followed.

“Wither, weather, we are all here together, great-great-great-great grandmother, hear us, hear our plea, take away the curse you placed on our family tree” Her aunt chanted.

“Hear us, hear our plea, take away the curse you cast and set us free” Her mother spoke this time.

A bright light shone in the middle of the circle and a strong gust of wind blew inside the ward, having forced a window open. “Take away this curse, please, grandma. Yunho’s the love of my life, as I hope I am his,” She sniffled, her mind racing, her heart pounding as she whispered the words. “You have been hurt through your lifetime, but please don’t pass this on any further…”

As they continued chanting, a shimmering veil suddenly draped itself over her head and disappearing. She lay back, and opened her eyes, making the rest of them do the same. “Forgive me for acting too rashly out of my heartbreak,” A strange voice came from her, making her aunt and her mother stare. It was the voice of their ancestor. “I didn’t mean to curse our entire line, and make you lose the loves of your lives.”

“Grandma, you are forgiven,” Her mother said. “Please, allow your great-great-great-great-granddaughter to be happy, with the man she loves, who loves her just as intensely. I beg of you, grandma. Please let her be happy.”

“That is a promise, the curse is lifted” And the bright light was gone.

“Did it work?” Her sister suddenly asked.

Something blue suddenly blew into the ward from the open window. “It looks like a flower” Yunho’s mother pointed out, watching it land in the middle of the circle.

“Hey! That looks like those paper decorations you used to have” Her sister said to their aunt. “It also reminds me of the flower unnie wished on.”

“They wished for each other” Her mother said to his parents. “True love, and it was because of them, love went back in time to heal our ancestor’s broken heart.”

She opened her eyes. She was sitting on the bench by the window, inside Yunho’s ward. There was a blanket on her, and the room was quiet, save for the low chatter coming from her mother and Yunho’s parents at the side. His friends were also in the room, crowding around the bed where he was, stable and sound asleep.

She couldn’t remember what else happened during the seance, and yet for some reason, she felt like a big weight had lifted itself off of her. “Unnie” She saw her sister go up to her, handing her a cup of water.

“What happened? Did it work?” She muttered.

Her sister only smiled. “You got possessed by grandma. But if you want to see him, he’s sleeping, and he’ll be just fine” She said.

“Can I?” She asked, trying to be careful. She couldn’t be too sure if everything was alright.

“Just go to him, unnie. The love of your life is waiting” Her sister teased. “Or well, being all sleeping beauty.”

“Shush” She said, and her sister chuckled. As she got up, she saw something fall out from her lap. It was a blue flower. “This was on me the whole time? It even looks like those party decorations we used to have” She muttered.

“And the one you wished on to get him.” Her sister pointed out with a satisfied grin.

“When did you get here anyway?” She raised a brow.

“Didn’t mom tell you earlier? I was coming back for break, unnie. Imagine my surprise when my arrival couldn’t have come at a better time” Her sister teased.

They suddenly heard her name being called, breaking the silence. Yunho was beginning to stir, and he was mumbling her name. Hongjoong immediately gestured for her to come closer and she did. She stood next to the bed. There were some bruises on the sides of his face, and stitches near his hairline, but even then, it never took away from his handsome face. She gently held his hand, being careful not to press or touch any of the cords and saw that his knuckles looked bruised, hinting that he fought back.

“Yunho?” She whispered, and his eyes opened. A soft smile appeared on his lips. “Hey” She said.

He was still smiling. “I dreamt about you,” His voice was a little hoarse. “I dreamt that you were coming back to me, and it came true.”

She felt her eyes well with tears. “Of course I would. It was painful enough having to keep you away.”

“See? Curses are only as true as someone believes them to be. I’m still here.”

She smiled. The doctor suddenly came in. “Ah, I see he’s recovered this quickly. But I’m sorry if you have some plans for the next few weeks. You are not allowed to engage in strenuous exercise.”

“For how long?” She asked.

“A few months?!” His friends looked shocked, but nodded in understanding a moment later.

“It’s okay, we’ll win the competition for you, buddy” Mingi assured him.

“We can work around the choreography, just cheer for us, hmm?” Hongjoong assured him as well. “As long as you’re okay, and alive, that’s what matters.”

“And at least you have her to take care of you,” Wooyoung grinned.

She just smiled and gently squeezed his hand. “I’ll be there. We’re stuck together for life, there I said it” She muttered, cheeks heating up.

“Good” Yunho was beaming.

A few months later:

The two of them were taking a walk in the park. Yunho was transitioning to using a cane to walk properly after being wheelchair-ridden for the majority of his recovery. The bruises and stitches on his face were gone, as where the cuts and bruises on his knuckles. His hair had gotten slightly longer but he still looked good to her. “Just a little bit longer and I’ll be back to normal” He said, with one arm around her shoulders as they walked.

“Just take your time, there’s no need to rush into going back to your normal activities,” She said, keeping close so he could use her as support. “Your friends did say they were going to win the competition for you,” She added.

“I know, I just can’t wait to dance again, I miss being in the studio, I miss picking you up every night so we could go home together,” He pouted at her.

“But on the other side, I’ve been coming to you everyday since you got out, helping your parents take care of you, except for when you go to the bathroom” She teased.

“When we get married, you’ll have no choice but to go with me to the bathroom” Yunho laughed.

“Pretty bold of you to say that” She gently squeezed his side.

“Of course I’m bold enough to say that. Everyone knows we’re stuck together for life!” He smiled. “Imagine that, my dreams all came true this early.”

“There’s room for more dreams, bigger dreams” She said.

“Yeah, and all of those bigger dreams involve you too. Traveling all over Europe by train, going to a hot spring, sleep in a tent by the beach, those kinds of things” Yunho turned to her. “Probably go to a comic convention sometime, I never got to go to those.”

“You’ll have time to do that now while you can’t dance yet” She said.

“I guess I do,” He smiled. “What about you?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, I guess all this time I never had much of a dream. I want to do all those things you said, and just live a satisfied life.”

“You went for a deep answer while I just listed down all the things I want to do” Yunho pointed out with a laugh.

“There’s nothing much else, is there? I guess that’s my only dream. To live a satisfied life, to live a curse-free life” She said.

“And your aunt said it was now over so you can breathe a little easier” He kissed the side of her head. “I wonder how it would be like when we finally live together.”

Her cheeks heated up. “We’d probably watch a movie until we fall asleep. Or we’d probably fight over what show to watch on tv. I can’t say we’re not going to fight, but I know we won’t ever sleep without making things right.”

He let go of her to hold up his pinky. “That’s a promise?” He asked.

She linked his pinky finger with hers. “That’s a promise” and they paused to see a van had pulled up at the end of the path. The doors opened and to both of their surprise, his friends came out, cheering as they were holding up a trophy. She saw that Yunho had the biggest smile on his face. “Time to celebrate with your friends.”

“And with you” Yunho nodded, the two of them walking down the rest of the path to join the group.

The end.

#this could potentially suck #ateez #ateez fic #ateez scenarios #yunho #ateez yunho #jeong yunho #jung yunho #ateez au #fluff #angst

21 notes · View notes

writerfangirlbooks · 4 years

Text

Alive Again

Gabriel x Reader

Prompt: Imagine finding out Gabriel is still alive and keeping it a secret from the Winchesters until one day it slips when you are chilling out with the boys at the bunker.

This is a two parter from my collection on Wattpad that I mixed together here!

Word Count: 2200ish

Credit to gif owner!

"Movie night?" You suggested. There were plenty of popcorn packets in a large cabinet. You were still getting used to the Bunker, but one night when you could not find a hunt, decided it was a good time for a night-in with the guys.

"Sure. As long as I get to pick." Dean yawned, his flannel shirt unveiling the lower part of his stomach as he stretched. He noticed you were flicking through DVDs, though most of them were fairly old. He continued into the kitchen and grabbed a beer.

"Um, no." Sam and you answered in unison. Sam was sitting in the chair next to the couch you lounged on, reading. His coffee was still steaming, but the horrifying thought of allowing Dean to pick the movie was enough to grab his attention. For once, he appeared fairly relaxed, in a fitted grey shirt and sweatpants.

Dean sat on the other half of your red-dust colored couch with a frown. "Why not?"

Sam and you made eye contact, both with raised eyebrows. You knew you were both thinking the same thoughts. It reminded you of someone else that you knew, but would only choose a movie like... that, just to tease you and either put you in a mood or end up changing it to a comedy. You actually have not seen this person in a few weeks, but didn't worry too much despite knowing he was on the run. It was crazy to fall in love with an angel, heartbreaking when he died... but he didn't stay away long, as who could keep the great angel Gabriel down? And now you're hiding the secret that he's alive, even from your own friends.

You cleared your throat, trying to distract your thoughts away. "Like it isn't obvious, Dean. Let's think of something actually... good. Horror, maybe? Or a documentary..."

"I think we have enough horror. Maybe we should just skip the movie and call Castiel to see if he can help us with our main problem at the moment." Dean suggested.

"We're taking a night off, Dean. No hunts, no cases, nothing. We don't have to watch horror. It was just a suggestion," you responded.

You realized you might have spent too much time thinking about Gabriel, even if it was just for a few moments. Sometimes your thoughts come off as prayers to him, and if he's busy, you don't want to distract him. It made you miss him even more, so you tried to focus on the whole out of sight - out of mind, kind of thing.

Sam remained silent, now flipping through a magazine. You sighed. "Well, if we're going to watch one of your favorite movies, then I'm going to need a drink."

Three drinks and a movie later, you closed your eyes slowly before reopening them. You were a little passed buzzed and your toes were tingling by the end of the movie. Sam had continued to read his magazine and jotted a few notes down before setting his stuff down and actually paying attention. The movie was more romantic than you expected it to be, was obviously intimate, and a fair amount of action. Dean nearly seemed bored throughout, but you guessed that was just a trained reaction.

A conversation began to pick up between the brothers and you went to switch from your daytime chilling in the house clothes to more appropriate sleep wear. You sat down for a few minutes to write a letter to Gabriel. Every once and a while, he would send you an address, and leas often, an always different phone number. The first few times you visited, he was only there once. The timing didn't always add up, but it was okay for the most part, as long as you always had a way to communicate. It seemed like he would stay in one place for at least a few days because he would respond to your letters, which you had to carefully intercept as the bunker does not have a mailing address. You took a deep breath and began.

Hey lover,

In response to your last letter, I will start with no, I have not watched any new episodes of our show since the last time we were together.

You know I don't mind us hanging out inside, but I have missed going out in public with you. Just the simple things, like holding hands or going out for coffee.

Things have slowed down a bit at the Bunker. The boys have been spending time with Castiel. I think they're worried, since they have lost Balthazar... and you.

You paused to clear your thoughts and went to the restroom, leaving your door open and lights on. When you returned, the letter was no longer on your desk. Okay. That's strange. Maybe you put it in the drawer. Nope. You scanned the room, searching to see if anything else appeared misplaced. Other than the missing letter, your room appeared to be in order. Even the hidden box of letters received from Gabriel were in its place. You said a quick prayer to calm your nerves, hoping he was nearby.

You did your best to act as if nothing was wrong when you walked back into the main living room, but the guys' faces exposed the truth. They were sitting next to each other. Dean's arms were crossed. Sam's leg was tapping anxiously and his eyes were stuck on a sheet of paper that laid on the coffee table. Your letter. Dean jaw was clenched and you didn't like the look on his face when his eyes met yours, stopping you in your tracks.

"Y/N, why were you writing a letter to Gabriel?" He asked, his voice too calm.

"Why were you in my room?" Answering a question with a question is always a good idea and most certainly will end wonderfully.

Dean ran a hand through his hair. "We wanted to know if you were changing because you wanted to go to sleep or if you wanted to watch another movie. Y/N, why were you writing a letter to Gabriel?"

Man, you really hated lying to them. "Is that such a bad thing? You know he was my boyfriend-" You tried to find a good excuse. You could see Gabriel talking to you, holding you the first time you reconnected after what was meant to be his death. It's not good for them to know, cupcake. It'll only complicate things and things are already complicated.

"No." Sam cut you off, finally meeting your eyes, and standing up. "This is writing present tense to a dead angel. To Gabriel. The trickster. He betrayed us, Y/N. And I know you loved him, but this letter makes it seem like you're hiding things from us."

You could easily lie and act as if everything was as fine as it could be, that you were just writing letters to your dead boyfriend. You knew you would be able to convince the untrusting brothers, but you did not want to. They were your friends and the three of you shared so much. Frankly, you had met them because of Gabriel. You were both on search of what you believed to be the Trickster, ran into each other on the job, and worked your way into being friends and hunting buddies. But you had also fallen in love with a hidden archangel that you would do anything for. The scales were weighed and you opened your mouth to speak as the faintest creak from the kitchen gathered your attention.

“Don't shoot, it's only me." A sweet voice sang out. He was shorter than the brothers and it was a nice change. His green eyes were mesmerizing, as you felt it had been an eternity since you had gazed into them. He winked at you as he stepped out of the shadows. Dean shot out of his seat, grabbing the knife that lay on the ground next to the couch. Sam stared in shock.

It was Gabriel.

Don't shoot, it's only me." Gabriel winked and moved closer, cautiously with his hands raised.

"Gabriel..." Sam's voice trailed up, the ghost of a smile playing on his lips.

"What the hell, man? Where have you been?" Dean yelled, his jaw clenched angrily. He noticed Gabriel's eyes flicker from the gun and back, so he set it down on the coffee table. He sighed. You stood silently, flicking your y/e/c eyes between the brothers and the angel, uncertain on how this scene will play out.

"I've been a bit preoccupied in the underground scene, trying to avoid being spotted, and all that jazz. After my death-by-brother, I realized it was not safe to be around my siblings, or those from other religions. You two were such a large part of the upcoming war at the time and I couldn't risk it anymore..." Gabriel trailed off, lost in thought. His death scene was something the two of you had discussed after the thought, leaving everyone shock and distraught to be genuine.

"Risk what, Gabriel? Your life? You know with how many times that Sam and I have died combined you should know by now that death doesn't always stick. You just left us!" Dean shouted, clearly setting into a defense mechanism of arguing and putting up walls.

You saw Gabriel falter, torn. You wished you could know what was running through his mind at this moment, between longing for safety versus a family. But maybe you didn't. He just saved you from being torn a new one by the brothers and exposed himself. You wanted to comfort him, take his hand and tell him it would be okay. You supposed that's what love was, knowing the other person was suffering and something understanding there was nothing you could do for them except be there. Sometimes that really sucked, but it was how life was meant to be. Although you knew one day you would die and Gabriel would continue to live, but you wouldn't trade your relationship for the world.

"It was better for me to be away. I was no help. I didn't intend to fake my death that night, but I realized I could not find my brother. In the end, no one would win. So I applaud the tribulations you faced." He took a deep breath and you felt yourself step closer into the room. "I'm sorry. I should have done things differently, but I didn't."

You watched Gabriel completely open himself to the Winchester brothers. You were angry for a while after his death, even once it was shown to you he was well and alive, and it took time to heal and get over his lies and the pain he caused. But he bared his soul to you more than once, and after time, you forgave him. You hoped the boys could do the same.

"What, you expect to waltz back in here and all is forgiven? That's not how that works. The second Y/N is under heat for you - you're here. What's really going on?" Dean's voice was louder, his arms crossed. Sam still hasn't said anything.

You stepped forwards, pleadingly. "Dean, please don't be too mad. I know I hid this from the both of you and I'm sorry. You knew my feelings before what happened and when I discovered Gabe was still alive, he asked me to keep it secret, and I did."

Sam saw your nerves and though he seemed to be unsure of his own emotions at the moment, spoke up. "I get it, Y/N. I'm not thrilled about it, but I get it. But Gabriel, you died. We trusted you and got thrown into this whole mess of a whirlwind between Lucifer and Gabriel and things have only been getting worse for years."

Gabriel repositioned his feet. "I know. And I'm sorry. Sam, I am. To all of you, but I would not fight my brothers. This was a battle I could not get in the mix of. I hope you'll forgive me one day."

Dean still appeared angry, but his eyes softened when they looked at you. He could see the anxiety building up, how torn you must have been. He sighed. "Maybe, one day. But not right now. I'm going to go out for a drink. Sam?"

Man, did movie night get intense.

#short story #supernatural #spnfandom #spn fic #spn imagine #gabriel #archangels #the winchesters #winchesters #dean winchester #sam winchester #gabriel x y/n #gabriel x you #supernatural story #supernatural reader insert

17 notes · View notes

language-rxgers · 4 years

Text

Four Words (Steve x Reader)

Summary: Steve is simple. Steve is a planner. So why can’t he just say four simple words to the best thing he never planned?

Characters: Steve Rogers, Female Reader, Bucky Barnes

Request from @witch-of-letters :

“Can I request a Steve Rogers one-shot, where he wants to propose to Stark!Daughter!Reader? They've been together since the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., and after Sokovia, Steve realizes that he can't wait any longer (after the wedding, the R gets pregnant with twin girls). When the Civil War starts, R stays on Steve's side, much to Tony's fear (and chagrin).”

A/N: I’m thinking this will probably be a 3 parter. This chapter is the proposal!

masterlist

part 2

Steve Rogers is a man with a plan. Every morning, he wakes up at 5:30 with the alarm and checks his emails. He then pours himself a cup of black coffee in the kitchen while reading the morning paper and going over his schedule for the day. At 6:00 he returns to the bedroom to wake you up after your half hour sleep-in, and lovingly drags you back to the kitchen where the two of you prepare breakfast and Steve relays to you the morning news. Of course, you could read the damn paper yourself, but it sounds so much more interesting coming out of his mouth. After breakfast, you both get dressed and ready for the day. Day in, day out, Steve knows every step of the domestic part of his life to a T. In a job where you go in without the slightest idea what might happen in the day, it’s nice to have even a morning’s worth of stability, if that. So yeah, Steve Rogers is a man with a plan, simple. Simple. So why is it so hard to add one teeny, tiny, simple step to his routine? For chrissake, it’s just a four-word, yes or no question.

“Will you marry me?”

The young man gazed up with hope glimmering in his eyes, sunlight sparkling off the golden band clutched between his fingertips. His partner’s mouth dropped open in shock and surprise before reality caught up to him, and his answer tumbled out of his lips. “Yes- yeah, yes, of course!” He stood from the park bench that the couple had been sitting on as his now fiancé rose from his knees to meet him in a tight hug. Steve felt a spread of warmth in his chest for the happy couple, but also tried to ignore his guilty jealousy of how easy it had seemed for that man to ask the question he himself had been trying to spit out for so long.

He looked down to you at his side, admired your beautiful wide smile as you watched the newly engaged couple, and he wished with everything in him that the two of you would soon be in their place.

Steve had met you when you moved in down the hall from him only a few months after he himself had rented a home in the building. At the time, he believed you to be a quiet nurse named Kate, but it wasn’t long before he discovered this to be extremely untrue. It was only two weeks later when you admitted to Steve that you were in fact Y/N Stark, a SHIELD agent sent by Nick Fury to keep an eye on him. Far from a nurse, you actually worked as a field officer, tech specialist and information broker for the law enforcement organization. You were also the daughter of Tony Stark- someone with whom Steve could certainly do without interacting again. Needless to say it was difficult for the soldier to hide his shock, hurt and betrayal, especially since he had already begun to develop feelings for you in the short time he’d known you- or whoever you led him to believe you were. Did this mean you weren’t actually the sweet, selfless girl who had become the reason he looked forward to returning home right after work every day? He knew it had only been a couple of weeks but he already found himself craving your late night hallway interactions and that sweet, warm smile that always seemed to be hiding in your eyes.

You patiently allowed Steve to come to terms with your revelation, before disclosing that you genuinely did want to be his friend, and felt that lying when he would undoubtedly become suspicious and figure out your true identity eventually was just unnecessary. After the fall of SHIELD, you revealed to Steve that you had been the one to alert Fury of the organisation’s corruption from the beginning after some suspicious encounters with, and inconsistent reports filed by, the STRIKE team, led to a fruitful independent investigation. It was then that you’d been assigned to watch over Steve.

In the years that followed, you became one of Steve’s closest friends, a beautiful constant in his eternally unstable life. The development of your relationship to something more than friendship was only natural… ish. One day you asked if he would join you for coffee- nothing out of the ordinary for the two of you to do, but this time there was a certain intimation of deeper feelings in your tone. Of course, this subtlety completely went over Steve’s head, and he proceeded to spend the next hour speaking of nothing but the results of your latest mission with you in the corner of the nearest crowded Starbucks.

The next morning, you corrected your mistake of assuming the most clueless man on Earth when it came to women would pick up on your vibe change, by marching up to him in the kitchen and informing him that you would like for him to accompany you on a date to the movies that evening if he so wished. Taken aback at not only your bluntness but also the fact that you fancied him in return, what was he to do but nod his head and respond with a cheeky “Yes, ma’am.”?

Evidently, one date turned into two, three, four, and so it goes.

After Sokovia, you both became brutally aware of how easily life could change in a split second. Steve realized that he didn’t want to wait anymore to continue his life with you. You were all he wanted, all he could see when he imagined his future. He never thought he would want a family again after coming out of the ice, but with you, it was so easy to picture that. Steve didn’t want that to stay as just a dream when he slept next to you. Now, it was his turn to take the leap, yet he found himself hopelessly lacking the same self-assuredness that had never failed you.

“Oh, Steve, check the time, we should be heading back.” You tugged at Steve’s sleeve as you stepped to continue your walk back to the car.

“Huh?” Steve shook his memories back to their storage cabinets and glanced down to his watch. With a start at how much time had passed, he followed you promptly.

For the rest of the day, Steve couldn’t for the life of him shake that nagging voice in his head, urging him to pop the question on the spot. It was maddening; every time he spoke to you he had to plan what he was going to say so he didn’t accidentally blurt out an impromptu proposal in the middle of the conversation. It was even more annoying because on top of planning his words, he also had to focus on keeping you out of his thoughts. He had always been able to keep his thoughts guarded when he didn’t want you reading him, but he loved that for the most part, you were the one person he wanted in his head. But ever since he started seriously thinking about proposing to you, he’d had to keep himself exceptionally blocked off, which he knew frustrated you.

The most frustrating thing of all, however, was that logically, he knew there was no reason to be so nervous. You had discussed your futures together before- marriage, kids, retirement. You both wanted to be married eventually when the time was right, but you also knew there would never be a right time. Your entire relationship had consisted of playing things by ear and “taking the next step” as it came naturally. Nothing felt more natural than marrying you, nothing felt more right. He knew you would say yes. But there was also that annoying, little punk in his subconscious egging on his insecurities.

“She’s still free to leave any time without consequences until you tie the knot.”

“Things are perfect the way they are right now, don’t screw it up by asking her to make the biggest commitment of her life.”

“You can barely work the tv remote, how are you going to navigate a marriage?”

“What if she’s about to break up with you right when you propose?”

Steve stared with wide eyes at the ring in his fingers, overwhelmed with all the reasons he shouldn’t propose. He was pulled from his anxiety by a rap at his door, and looked up to see Bucky leaning against the doorframe.

“Stare any harder and it’ll burst into flames.” Steve put the ring back into its box and let out a sigh.

“Part of me wishes it would. It’s too nice, isn’t it? She won’t like that it’s too flashy.” Bucky scoffed.

“It’s a plain metal band, bud. Don’t think you can get any simpler than that.”

“Well it’s got the infinity twist, might snag her sweaters or something. I don’t know. And there’s a couple diamonds.”

“I don’t think a diamond the size of a crumb is gonna snag any of her damn sweaters. Steve, she’s gonna love it. Quit procrastinating. Sam’s got 100 bucks saying you’re gonna take more than a month to pop the question and I don’t like how cocky he’s been since they upgraded his suit’s wingspan.” Steve exhaled a laugh and shook his head, rubbing his eyes.

“I know I’m being ridiculous. It’s just a big step, you know? I don’t even have a plan.”

“No plan, just ask.” Bucky quipped. “You and your goddamn plans, I swear I’m gonna rip my hair out. Steve, Y/N’s the simplest person I know. She doesn’t want any of your plans, she doesn’t want you to make a show of it. But she does deserve a little bit of effort. Make her dinner at your place, something she likes, get down on one knee and fucking ask her to marry you. Soon, before she does it first.” Bucky raised his eyebrows to show he was serious. And he was. You would ask Steve to marry you. But you were always the one to make the first move, and it was Steve’s turn. “Tonight, pal. Tonight’s the night. No missions, no meetings. Take advantage of the time you have. Stop putting this off.” Bucky held Steve’s gaze with stern eyes until the lovestruck soldier nodded with gratitude. Satisfied, Bucky stepped back. “Alright, I’ve got some paperwork to not do, I’ll see you tomorrow, Mr. Star Spangled Man with a Plan.”

***

That night, you returned to your and Steve’s floor with curiosity blooming in your chest. All day you had had this… feeling. A phantom expectation, an unwarranted sense of anticipation tingling in your fingertips. You just couldn’t shake this feeling that something was going to happen, and you had no idea if it was good or bad. You’d attribute it to the telepathy, but you hadn’t heard anything suspicious all day. Actually, you did notice one thing. Steve had been unusually guarded lately- you could read people when their guard was down, but if they really didn’t want you to know something, you were as good as powerless. At first you weren’t too concerned; usually after a tough mission, like the ones you had been having pretty regularly of late, Steve would board up like a closed down mine shaft. It was impossible to read him until he let you in, which was the most frustrating thing you’d had to accept when you met him. He was like a brick wall sometimes, and all you wanted to do was break through to help him. But he always came around, in his own time. However, it seemed like lately he always had his guard up.

You arrived to an apartment filled with the homey aroma of spices and cooking meat. Steve was making Y/F/F? Oh, lord, what did he do this time?

You made your way to the kitchen, increasingly suspicious. “Steve? What’s up?” Your boyfriend spun around to face you, oven mitts on and your gingerbread man apron tied around his waist.

“Hey, I thought I’d make supper tonight. You know, to celebrate the end of the week.” You raised your eyebrows.

“Um, okay, but why? I’m not complaining, but you haven’t made Y/F/F since you spilled red wine all over my suede jacket.” Steve smiled nervously.

“Right, don’t worry, I didn’t ruin anything else, I don’t think.” You narrowed your eyes. “It’s just been a while since we sat down and had a nice meal together that wasn’t half-hour delivery. You go get changed into your sweats and I’ll finish up.” You shrugged and muttered out an okay before heading to your room.

When you returned, the table was set and Steve was pouring the two of you drinks. He pulled out your chair for you and set the meal on the table before taking a seat himself. As you ate, he asked about your day, as he usually did, and you asked about his. You shared funny work stories about the interns in your department and told Steve about how far you’d gotten in your training session with Wanda to continue controlling your similar powers. Throughout the meal, Steve listened with a gentle smile as you gestured animatedly, admiring the passion in your eyes. By the time your plates were empty the wine was half done, Steve began to feel his nerves building up. He tapped his thumb anxiously on the tabletop as he tried to listen to your story about your father’s latest experiment with a stretchy material for Bruce to wear that wouldn’t rip when he turned into the Hulk. Steve couldn’t believe you were in his life. He couldn’t believe you were here, right now, living with him, in love with him, choosing him.

“For now, you mean.”

“She’s going to get sick of you eventually, or find someone better.”

“She’ll get tired of you choosing missions over her.”

“You won’t have time to raise kids, you’ll be too busy fighting another battle you sought out.”

“You can’t live without war, what kind of father are you going to be to children, let alone a husband to a wife?”

“You can’t do this, coward.”

“You can’t-”

“Marry me,” Steve breathed out. You halted yourself in the middle of your sentence, leaning forward.

“Sorry, what was that?” Eyes wide and beautiful with curiosity. Steve blinked, unsure if he had even said anything at all. Did he just say that? Out loud? To you? The words fell out so easily despite how much that stupid voice tried to stop him.

But Steve was never one to back down.

“Marry me, Y/N,” he repeated. “Will you?” Your mouth opened slightly to form an O, the breath seemingly knocked from your lungs. You stared blankly at him as you realized what he had asked, and that he expected an answer.

Was this what had been consuming his thoughts lately, what he had fought so hard to keep a secret from you? You felt an exhilarating tingle run from the center of your chest to your fingertips, so strong you clenched your hands into fists to contain your elation. You and Steve had talked about marriage before and you both knew you wanted to be married someday, but you never knew whether Steve would be the one to take that step towards making it a reality. All you understood was that Steve was all you knew in this moment, all you saw, all you felt, all you wanted. It was laughably easy to answer his question.

“Yes.”

part 2

____________________________________________________________

Tag List:

All Works: @the-instrumental-mortal-blog @crazy4thewinbros @palaiasaurus64 @winterboobaerchen @thefridgeismybestie @becauseifuckingcan @libbyjune24 @erisan @pitubea1910 @friendlyneighborhoodnazgul @sixweekcure4dreams @im-an-angel-of-the-lord-you-ass @moderapoppins @fandomsstolemylife00 @bookgirlunicorn @hottrashformarvel @stargeek727 @fuckthatfeeling

Steve Rogers: @promarvelfangirl

#steve rogers #bucky barnes #steve x reader #steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers fanfic #steve rogers fluff #steve rogers proposal #female reader #tony stark #bruce banner #marvel #avengers #marvel avengers #cute #fluffy #proposal #enhanced reader #steve rogers x reader

94 notes · View notes

pkmnjesus · 4 years

Text

The 2010s Decade of PokéAni (An overview - Part 1 of 2)

It is now 2020! Hope everyone had a wonderful New Year. We are now entering a new decade of new adventures. Before the next new episode (first episode of this decade) that airs this Sunday, I’d like to reminisce the past decade on the Pokémon anime’s most memorable moments. Besides the annual PokéAni Rewind post I did, I want to additionally do a decade’s worth review of the anime throughout the different series from 2010-2019 just for this new year. From Sinnoh to Galar, we’ve seen many major events throughout the anime. Contests, Gym Battles, connoisseur battles, performances, races, leagues, Legendaries, Mythicals, Ultra Beasts, specials, introductions, farewells, evil organizations, shippings, background stories, emotional episodes, and crossover we’d never thought we’d see happen! There were also a lot unique PokéAni films shown within the decade from Zoroark: Master of Illusions to Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution. We've had movies with 2 versions like the games, more telepathy Pokémon, and a new format/alternate universe of Pokémon movies starting with 2017's I Choose You! But right now, let’s just keep our focus on the main series anime for this particular post. I will not be counting Origins, Generations and other mini-specials shown this decade since these were more in the game-verse continuity of the franchise. This might be really long (and annoy some people’s dash), so I’m going to split this into two posts. *These posts will be following the original Japanese air dates, but will still be using the English/game dub names for a universal understanding by all.* So, let’s get right to it! Here are my personal favorite PokéAni moments of each year from this decade, starting with the first half of the 2010s:

2010: Ash vs. Paul - their final battle at the League

August 19, 2010 With the climax of the Diamond and Pearl series approaching, this is by far my favorite battle in the Pokémon anime (next to Ash vs. Gary in the Johto League) because of how well they developed this rivalry. Paul was a real jerk when it came to training his Pokémon, releasing them when he felt like it. Paul was honestly THE REASON to watch this series because of how well they built up this rivalry up to this final showdown. Every character involved with their story from Cynthia to Paul’s brother Reggie to Pyramid King Brandon, played an important role adding to the story especially when it comes to their Pokémon teams. Paul was also an anime original rival (he shares a bit of similarities with rival Silver from the games) so his character was really fresh and new. The hype surrounded their final battle was astronomical to me! I clearly remember during this time I was still in my sophomore year of high school in the middle of an exam week but all I could think about was this battle!

It was a 3-parter, but I would like to focus on the decisive outcome. Both had one Pokémon left, Ash had Infernape and Paul had Electivire. All this time, Paul always thought of Ash’s Infernape was weak and pathetic not being able to control its Blaze ability which is why he released it as a Chimchar when it was still under his care. In the end, when thought he won and called it weak once more, the Blaze fully kicks in showed him how powerful it has become ever since training with Ash. In the final moments of the match, Electivire throws a Thunder Punch, while Infernape charges Flare Blitz. When the smoke clears, everyone thought that Electivire withstood that attack, but it was only a few seconds later it would faint resulting in Ash defeating Paul for the first time in their most meaningful battle that they ever shared. It’s almost symbolic as this was once the Elekid that first battled with Ash when he first arrived at the Sinnoh League. This battle was intense, fun to watch and superb storytelling between the two trainers and their Pokémon. But most of all, seeing Ash overcome and proving a stubborn and prideful trainer in Paul wrong by beating him in battle was one of the MOST satisfying feelings for any Pokémon anime fan to ever watch (unless you’re a Paul fan).

They properly end their rivalry with Paul finally giving the rightful respect to Ash, as he looks to challenge Brandon again to get stronger. Meanwhile, Ash advances to the semi-finals and has a battle with Tobias...we all know how that turned out, but was still a hard hitting battle. But still not as awesome Ash and Paul had. That to me was the battle of the decade! And this was just the start of the 2010s. A bar set so high that no other battle can compare it to, so far.

Honorable mentions from this year: The DP series’ final year! Dawn had some great moments too with her “Dee Dee” (’Pikari’ in Japanese) nickname story to be finally revealed after all these years, meeting her royal doppelganger and getting a Togekiss in the process. Let’s not forget that Dawn also had her first Grand Festival, ending up at 2nd place after Zoey defeated her in the final round. This was also the same year where we saw Monferno evolve into Infernape that helped Ash win his final Sinnoh badge. The return of his old Pokémon he caught in previous regions made appearances in the Sinnoh which was the last time we saw them considering that Ash is now only using the Pokémon he caught in his currently traveling region moving forward after this. Doc Brock is born with a new dream, and how can I not mention the debut of the Best Wishes (Black & White) series?! Iris’s accidental encounter in the wild and Cilan’s gym challenge was a great way of introducing the new characters! Finally, we got to see Ash caring for an abandoned Tepig that was tied to post, and the smoothest and coolest Snivy that Ash caught. 2010 was a great year!

2011: Excadrill trusts Iris again

September 17, 2011 Ever since Iris was revealed to have another Pokémon besides her Axew, I always wondered how she ended up with an Excadrill that won’t seem to listen to her and just get stuck on its own curled up body in drill-mode as if it doesn’t want to move. This heartwarming episode explains it, and explores Iris’s past growing up with playing with wild Pokémon. This was the same episode they introduced the self-professed “Dragon Buster” Georgia whom would start a rivalry with Iris, forcing her to use every Pokémon she had with her, preferably Dragon-types. When she called Excadrill out, the same thing always happens resulting in being unable to battle. Iris finally opens up about why this happens.

When it was still a Drilbur, it had been causing trouble with the other Pokémon Iris played with because it was always stealing their berries. Iris decides to teach the little thief a lesson with her own skills to counter its powerful Metal Claw attack, but would fail every time she attempted to. One day, when she finally outsmarted the Drilbur, he ended up getting tangled on vines that he couldn’t get out of. Iris then rescued the Drilbur from getting hurt, and the two became battling partners. During their battles in the Village of Dragons, that Drilbur eventually evolved into Excadrill and would learn Drill Run. When the powerful Dragon Master, Drayden shows up, Iris boldly challenges him to a battle. This would be the mistake that would strain their relationship as Drayden and his Haxarus easily defeated them. Iris was overconfident going into the battle giving commands without realizing that none of Excadrill’s attacks would do any effect on a very experienced Haxarus. It was a crushing defeat that would lose Excadrill’s trust on Iris and her capabilities of being its trainer.

Fast forward to the night after Georgia defeated Iris, she decides to sleep with Excadrill and tearfully apologizes after realizing all these years that she shouldn’t have pressured it to battle against a very powerful opponent in Drayden without considering her Pokémon’s feelings going into it. It was clear that they still needed more training before going up against a Dragon Master, but Iris selfishly went for it anyways. After the heartfelt apology, Excadrill finally gets out of drill-mode and trains out in the forrest trying to learn Focus Blast. After Iris wakes up seeing its new determination, she decides to train with Excadrill until they perfect the move. With a renewed partnership, Iris has another rematch with Georgia’s Beartic. Although the battle still resulted in a tie, it was the first time we saw Excadrill fully in-sync with Iris, and more importantly is very happy to be his trainer again. The trust between the two is rejuvenated better than ever, and will continue to get stronger until their next big challenge. This is one of my favorite BW episodes because I simply love redemption episodes like these, and this made me appreciate Iris’s character more.

Honorable mentions from this year: The BW series’ first full year! We had 3 Gym battles that year. How can I not forget the birth of Ash’s Scraggy hatching from egg? I miss that little guy thinking its the strongest Pokémon out there. Also, the beginning of the Snivy-Emolga rivalry, Oshawott overcoming his fears opening its eyes underwater to learn Aqua Jet, the group meeting an aspiring filmmaker, and Zorua-trainer, Luke, the beginning of the explosive Don George Battle Club tourneys, Bianca’s father attempting to get her daughter home instead of traveling, Ash & Cilan challenging subway bosses Ingo & Emmet, Unova Champion Alder making his anime debut, another heartwarming Iris episode with caring for a lonely Deino, a brotherly visit from Cilan’s brother Chili, and the Unova Forces of Nature trio made their presence felt after Team Rocket attempts to capture them. Speaking of serious Team Rocket agendas, this year was supposed to feature Team Plasma’s debut clashing against Team Rocket in a double special episode however had to be postponed due to the impactful 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan the week it was supposed to air. These two episodes was scrapped and re-written completely for future plot involving Team Plasma. It was such a shame really considering how much hyped I was for this (I’m sure many others as well at the time). Though I kind of understood why they had to. I was living in Southeast Asia at the time (this was before I migrated to the U.S.), and my country was dealing with heavy typhoons during that same week too. In the end, we never really got to see an epic clash between the two evil organizations as their stories became separate arcs that never even crossed with one another. Team Rocket had to revert back to their old white attires, and had to scrap/retcon Pierce’s character completely. He was one of the more interesting Team Rocket members they’ve ever had, and it’s a shame that we never got to fully see a different approach they were trying to do with Jessie, James, and Meowth’s character having a more serious role in the anime. Maybe one day we can see these unaired specials if they decide to release for a novelty watch, and we’ll all be happy...including myself :)

2012: Ash proves Skyla wrong

March 1, 2012 In one of my favorite Gym battles, I had to put this satisfying victory on my list. Skyla was one of the more stubborn and prideful Gym Leaders we had in the anime because of her appointment “Air Battle” method where she would predict the outcome of challenger battles mostly based off of type disadvantages. But you know our Ash, “type disadvantage” doesn’t really apply to him and of course he heavily disapproves of what she is doing as a Gym Leader. She would much rather fly in the skies for her enjoyment rather than actually do her job as a Gym Leader doing proper challenges. During the day of their scheduled Gym battle, he hopes to avenge Cilan who tried to prove her wrong the other day that Gym battles shouldn’t be based off what she sees in her head but what happens in the battlefield. Skyla still believed that based on the team Ash was using against her that she’d still be victorious.

During this 3-on-3 battle, sometimes you can’t predict the unpredictable. When both are down to one Pokémon left, Skyla had her ace in Swanna out while Ash had to bring back his Tranquill who already had been in battle. The sky battle was fast paced but in the midst of it all, Tranquill evolves into Unfezant! Ash finally takes down Swanna thanks to the new moves Unfezant had to offer making him the victor and more importantly exposing how her “Air Battle” prediction was never 100% accurate in the first place. I love episodes like these when characters like these get shown up and learn the error of their ways (and I loved Skyla in the games). After this battle, Skyla officially retires Air Battles, and apologizes to her grandfather that she was wrong all along that it truly depends on how the trainer and Pokémon bond in battle and not just go off on basic type disadvantages. She saw that with Ash and his Pokémon proving him to be a unique trainer that takes all challenges no matter what. It was a great battle and a well-earned Jet Badge for Ash on his road to the Unova League!

Honorable mentions from this year: The BW saga continues with hard hitting episodes with the final gym battles Ash had to fulfill before entering the Unova League. This League even kicked off by Ash taking out his rival, Trip, in the first round! If you ask me, the pacing of this series has great. The distance between Ash’s next gym battles, and the good amount “fillers” (which some comprise of mini-tourneys like the Club Battles) in between them were great. It was straightforward, even while tackling the Team Rocket Operation Tempest storyline with Meloetta. Speaking of which, it’s been YEARS since Giovanni played a prominent role in the anime, and it was great to see him in action as the big bad villain again. It also marks the big return of Dawn (continuing the tradition of returning previous main PokéAni girl...which actually breaks after this series), and she really blended well with this group! Especially from her friendship with Iris (much to Ash’s dismay xD). And of course had a great bunch of episodes from our favorite Dragon trainer. I was so surprised and hyped and she actually caught a Dragonite! A main character in this show has a DRAGON FREAKIN’ NITE. It took a while for him to actually obey Iris, but she eventually was able to get a hold of this aggressive Pokémon. We also get a glimpse of her pass when we finally got to see the Village of Dragons, and her long awaited rematch with Gym Leader Drayden. Another one of my favorites from 2012, was Tepig confronting his old trainer and cruelly abandoned him (because of being too weak for battling) before Ash rescued him. Ash, the trainer of proving people wrong, with the help of QUEEN Snivy, helped Tepig show his old trainer that he was strong all along by defeating his Emboar & Heatmor in a tag battle. In the process of all that, Tepig evolved into a Pignite in a very satisfying mid-evolution during that tag battle. Oh and how could I forget that Ash dressed up like a cute girl again along with Cilan to help Iris teach some rich ladies a lesson. Definitely gotta note that in here! xD I LOVED 2012 PokéAni.

2013: The bonding between Ash & N

July 6, 2013 The climax of the Team Plasma/N arc quickly approaches, and Cedric Juniper acquires the Light Stone from the White Ruins near Dragonspiral Tower in hopes to study more about its powers related to summoning Reshiram. Juniper then tells a story on Unovian mythology (“White chapter”) which is about the relationship between Reshiram and a hero whom it had trusted. Eventually that hero’s pure heart will be lost in the riches he will gain. Suddenly a familiar friend shows up to conclude the disturbing tale. N shows up to the scene interrupted Juniper, and grabs the Light Stone away from him because he feels that it is in the wrong hands and should not be examined whatsoever for scientific interest.

Ash wants to understand why N feels the way how he feels, so he chases after him. The ground gives way under Ash’s feet while running and gets stuck on the floor. The kindheartedness of N went back to help him up, but both ended up dropping deep underground the White Ruins due to the collapsing floor, trapping them from reaching the surface. When Team Plasma arrives, they plan to ambush Iris, Cilan, and Juniper until Ghetsis arrives. But Cedric Juniper’s assistant, who turned out to be Looker, attempts to stop their planned attack with a PIPE! When Coloress arrived to the scene, he successfully brings his machine to take control of the Pokémon who has been helping with the excavation on the site including a huge Golurk! It was looking bad, and there was no way Looker could handle this situation all by himself.

Meanwhile in the underground, N and Ash are having a deep conversation about their ideal relationships between people and Pokémon. N wants people to treat Pokémon like family like what his sisters Anthea and Concordia envisioned, and believes that there are some good in people out there just like Ash who truly love Pokémon. N has spent enough time in previous episodes to know what kind of heart Ash has toward Pokémon. However, he still thinks Pokémon would be better off without people living in peace on their own which is why he didn’t want Juniper to get his hands of the Light Stone in fear of the knowledge he’ll gain and possibly abuse it. Ash defends Juniper’s scientific research for good and believes that he just wants to learn more about Pokémon, just like how much he really wants to be good friends with all Pokémon including Reshiram. I just love N’s character so much and that I’m glad they did a slightly modified version of him from the Black & White games, still keeping his close communication with any wild Pokémon. His ideals with Ash are quite similar, but there was a clash when it comes to how other people treat Pokémon besides themselves. This why I loved their interactions so much because it was just couple of dudes having a healthy discussion/debate with something they both care about. Like in the real world, some people take advantage or abuse the things or riches benefitting them without thinking of others, and N’s truth and ideals symbolizes those real-world problems. Eventually, they did reach the surface. When, N saw Ash’s Pokémon helping their trainer trying dig their way out, he knew that maybe he should give others a chance to see if Pokémon and humans can truly co-exist like partners or family. Even Pikachu adversely overcame Colress’s device that attempted to control him, that costed Ash a bit of physical pain from trying to get to Pikachu. N saw that too, and it changed his views. This is what helped them to later on save the world from Team Plasma’s attack and and foil Ghetsis’s diabolical plans even after awakening Reshiram with the Light Stone.

Honorable mentions from this year: The farewell year of the BW series was bittersweet as we saw the conclusion of Unova League, and the bummer of Ash coming up short again, but still with a great effort. Meanwhile, Team Rocket’s Meowth thought that he could get Colress to leave Team Plasma, but to no avail. Besides getting to know N in the post-league, we got see him battle the Gym Leader Cheren! In the final stretch of this series, they were able to go to the Decolore/Decolora Islands where they had some fun adventures meeting Pokémon like a Jirachi and Beheeyem. We got some old school feels when Ash reunited with Charizard earlier on, and got a Butterfree flashback episode. Professor Oak met-up with them to catch a Rotom, and we even saw Johto’s own Clair in her updated attire searching for a rare Druddigon. Cilan had to defend his gym from an icy female trainer, plus even met another good chef in Brock after parting ways with Ash and Iris! This was turning over to Generation VI and along the way in their Decolora adventures, they met Alexa, a reporter from the Kalos region who brought her Gogoat with her. Then we get our first glimpse of the Kalos region! Remember the out of control Garchomp Ash had to save from the top of Lumiose Tower? Blaziken Mask does...we were introduced to our new buddies, Clemont, Bonnie and later on Serena who would join the group finding for her little childhood friend that helped her at camp. We got to see a fearless Froakie who chose Ash to be his trainer, and a cheekrubbing Dedenne that is under the care of Bonnie in her bag. Finally, Serena’s Rhyhorn racing background, Ash take on his first gym battle against Alexa’s sister, Viola, and Clemont trying to take back control of his gym from a malfunctioning robot. Ahh 2013...this year was the start of my first semester in college, and boy was I entertained during my breaks between classes! Also, the year where I got my “PokémonJesus” name and started being active on Pokémon forum sites.

2014: Ash vs. Korrina - an intro to Mega Evolution

September 25, 2014 The moment has finally arrived for Ash and Korrina to have their Gym battle. Korrina has been traveling with their group for a couple of episodes on route to Geosenge Town in order to learn more about Mega Evolution from her grandfather, Gurkinn. She fit it really well with the group and has a similar spunky fighting spirit with Ash. At the time, I actually thought she was going to be a permanent member of their group for a while (dang you OP) and I would have been fine with it. Their little adventure is what helped her achieve Mega Evolution with her Lucario. We already got preview of what Mega Evolution can do with the special that aired earlier on, and it is clear as day that Korrina and her Lucario are capable of handling the power of Mega Evolution, despite the earlier difficulties with controlling Mega Lucario. Now that she’s ready, you know our boy is ready to face her as well with full force!

Their 3-on-3 battle was exhilarating! Team Rocket tried to interrupt it (as usual), but luckily Clemont & Serena takes care of them before even trying to sabotage this long awaited showdown. Ash struggled a bit at first with Hawlucha attempting to use Tierno’s rhythmic battle style, but he soon later realized (thanks to Serena) that he has his own unique battle style that he should use just like he always does. Ash finally battling like himself was able to take down Korrina’s Mienfoo and Machoke easily. But Korrina still has her ace left.

Of course it was her trusted partner, Lucario whom we saw developing its strength throughout their journey towards achieving Mega Evolution. They immediately utilize their Mega Evolution, and do quick work of Ash’s Hawlucha and Fletchinder. In the final matchup, Ash sends his Pikachu to the field. At the end of the day, Mega Evolution wasn’t enough to counter Ash’s unique battling style as his Pokémon’s hard work and coordination earned him the Rumble Badge. The episode ends with the fist bump of the decade as Ash sets off to his next Gym in Kalos. Korrina to me was definitely one of the best gym leaders that they were able to significantly portray in the anime.

Honorable mentions from this year: The first full year of the XY series has been great, especially Ash traveling in a quarter for the first time since the Advanced Generation series. We saw a couple of debuts like Ash meeting his Hawlucha, Clemont catching his Chespin, and reuniting with a Luxio that turned out to be the Shinx he befriended during his childhood, Serena catching her first Pokémon in Pancham, plus her rivaly with Miette on Ash on Pokémon Performing, the gang meeting Kalos Champion Diantha, introducing new rivals in Shauna, Tierno and Trever during the summer camp episodes, Sky Battles, and the Battle Chateau. One of the more emotional episodes was the lonely Espurr in the “haunted” mansion, while one of the more creepy episodes was the evil Malamar trying to take over the world! And, I can’t forget the time where they had to meet their mirror selves in where Ash was a complete crybaby and Serena was the aggressive on in the group xD Ash also faced off against Grant in rocky gym battle, while Serena had to defeat her mother in a Skiddo race for her mother to approve her dream on becoming a Pokémon Performer. 2014 was truly a Mega year for the Pokémon anime, and the year I even joined the #pokeani fandom here on tumblr. It started with this portion of the XY series :3

Next half of this PokéAni 2010s overview to be continued on part 2 →

47 notes · View notes