#dark steve fiction

[p3sephone]

No way out. (Dark! Steve Rogers)

Summary: you are a worker in the Stark Tower, only aiming to grow your career and keep your life simple. Actually, you were the kind of person who admired the avengers but from afar but Steve Rogers didn’t have the same plan once he started talking with you. 

Serie warnings: this is a serie so there are going to be many specific warnings that will be given throught all the chapters. This is a dark! Steve Rogers x reader, dark! Bucky Barnes x reader serie. This serie is DARK, so expect heavy themes such as non-con, unwanted touches and all that. If you do not feel comfortable with this or if you’re a minor, do not read and block this account. 

Chapter 1 warnings: feeling uncomfortable. 

Word count: 1,5k. 

Note: this is my first serie ever and it was inspired by this one shot here. Reblogs, comments and likes are always welcome and well appreciated! <3 

┆ ° ♡ • ➵ ✩ ◛ °

You were nervous, looking at the building in front of you. You could hear the voice inside your head grin and tell you that you would never make it. You weren't able to hold a person's attention for more than 5 seconds, imagine doing a work of this caliber. You were a professional looking for a job and you expected a somewhat mediocre or at least moderate job. You didn't expect your candidacy sent to Stark Tower to be seriously accepted. The salary was just perfect, more than adequate for you living alone in a small apartment. You could have bought several things and not worried about not being able to make ends meet, but could you have made it through the first day of work? Or rather, every day? You sighed looking at the smartwatch on your wrist, deciding you had to go inside. It certainly couldn't stop time and you couldn't be late on your first day. With a decisive, albeit fake step, you headed towards the large building. You saw people at the exit mingling and getting less and less as you went, until you showed your e-pass to enter. You entered without problems and looked around: a classic building, yes, but by Stark. And it looked good. You inhaled through your nose trying not to show your nervousness, on the contrary, forcing a small smile on your face. You had to make an effort to at least look happy and satisfied with this new job. Everything had already been explained to you in advance by email, you even had an interview to ensure that no confidential information ever came out of your mouth. You had turned your nose slightly up at this: your job was simple and those files weren't really that secret, what could they worry about? But of course it wasn't your business and you certainly didn't have a say about it. You went to the third floor, take the right. Your office was there: there were no new colleagues to talk to, just a coffee machine on the ground floor and your office waiting for you with a great view outside. It was tiny but perfectly adequate for your job. You smiled slightly, placing your briefcase on the desk and taking a few seconds to admire the place. You found it minimal, perfect. You loved simple things. You heard little noises at the door, so you briefly composed yourself as you turned around. "Can I help you?" the question came out almost spontaneously, so much so that you had not taken into consideration the person in front of you. Steve Rogers. He was one of the avengers, you knew him and were grateful for his work. You knew the story of him, you had seen the videos. 

He was the perfect hero and soldier, but heroes weren't really your thing. Maybe you were wrong, but you felt gratitude, yes, but not as much gratitude as felt by the many inhabitants of New York and other cities. You were okay, the avengers were too and did their job while you did yours, and it didn't seem like a really bad thing. You wanted to leave things as they were and had made it clear right away that you didn't want to be involved in any kind of danger. "Well no, actually I just wanted to say hello. I saw you outside... you looked very nervous." he giggled nervously, putting his hand to his hair as if to fix it.

 As if he had something out of place. You suppressed a little twitch in the eye of nervousness, annoyed that someone had seen you. You hated being seen that way, not because there was something wrong, but because all your life they made you believe it was wrong and now... you just got used to it. You put the most fake smile on your face and then you shake your head. "I was actually nervous, but only for the amount of work. I'm really happy to be here and for the welcome, thank you very much." you have denied how much he may have understood of your nervousness, making your voice silky and gentle. You had to behave like this with the public, you knew that. You could see that he was not at all convinced of your answer, almost as if he knew you were lying. You didn't care, after all your work wasn't in contact with the avengers. And to be honest, you could admit that deep down you were scared of men with abilities like Steve Rogers or others. You loved simplicity, they weren't simple, they were anything but. You were hoping that the golden soldier of America might give up and leave you alone to do your job, but he didn't. Instead, he decided to go further into your office, crossing the threshold of the door and frowning around. "Tony should do something about these offices. They're so bare." he frowned, then paused on you with a small smile. "I really hope you brought something to decorate them with. It’d mean, you know, that you will stay here a long time. Nice to have company." he tried to make you comfortable, but he only got the opposite. You frowned completely this time, dropping the mask and pointing out your confusion. "Company? There are a lot of people in this building." you commented with a nervous laugh, not understanding what his point was. You never thought in your entire life that you could say that, but Steve managed to make you deeply uncomfortable, as well as that overwhelming body. Normally it is thought that the bigger a man is, the more he can offer protection and safety, right? For you it was the other way around. It was as if you were afraid of it, deep down, but you didn't want to admit it. So when he approached you further with a little smile and a frown you pretended to be fine, stopping the urge to play with your nails or look away. He tilted his head slightly, giggling, shaking his head. "The third floor is almost completely empty. It's a new sector, Stark needed a few professionals and they have all already been distributed. Your office is very close to the rooms of us avengers, but in this corridor you are almost alone. Most of the rooms are archives. Weren't you informed? " his tone was almost mocking, you almost found that he wanted to discredit you. Or maybe it was your paranoia that spoke. You nearly choked on your own saliva upon receiving and processing that information, but you couldn't go back now. You had to get used to it. So you did what came naturally to you: pretend to laugh in situations of profound discomfort. "I think I missed it in the email sent, but thanks for the information, now I know why there were very few people here." you offered one of your best smiles, looking first at his blue eyes and then at the door, as if to indicate that he should go. He smiled back at you in the best possible way, almost seemed to commit himself. But he didn't get your message. You then cleared your throat, heading over to your desk and opening your briefcase. A photo of you came out but you didn't worry about it at that moment, thinking of sitting gracefully in your armchair. It was only time to turn around, that only after you surprised the infamous Steve Rogers with your photo in hand. Without thinking twice, you took it from his hands, holding it tight to your chest. Only when you saw his shocked expression on him did you realize your mistake: you lost control. You then cleared your throat, looking down embarrassed. "Sorry, it's just that important but I wasn’t-" You didn't really know what to say, there was no real excuse. The truth was that you were right and he didn't have the right to take your things, but could you really start your first day like that? Fortunately, his gallantry preceded him. "No really, I'm sorry! It was my fault, I shouldn't have... I just saw it and you, it was really beautiful. The view too." he giggled nervously, backing away. He felt deeply uncomfortable, like you. There was an awkward silence, followed by a brief "see you later" and his footsteps farther and farther away from him. You thought Steve Rogers was a great soldier, a good avenger but you didn't think he was capable of making you so uncomfortable. You didn't think about it, shaking your head and getting to work. You didn't have the time or the will to think. You knew you weren't nice and didn't need to believe otherwise, and above all you knew you weren't in that building to make friends or get acquainted. You loved the simplicity of your work, you would not have allowed someone to ruin it even just by entering your mind for a bad impression.

#dark steve rogers #dark marvel #dark avengers #dark bucky barnes #dark winter soldier #dark! steve #dark steve #dark! steve rogers #dark steve rogers x reader #yandere steve rogers #dark stucky #dark! stucky #dark steve serie #dark steve fiction #dark bucky x reader #dark! bucky x reader #dark bucky barnes x reader #dark james buchanan barnes #dark stucky x reader

[georgiapeach30513]

Your Mark On Me, Part 3

Summary: you keep pushing his buttons...

Pairings: Steve Rogers X Reader

Rating: explicit

Warnings:  explicit language, explicit sexual content, degradation, dirty talk, non con/dub con, spanking, inspecting, spitting, fingering, squirting, oral sex (F receiving), skinny dipping, pussy job, just the tip, a bit of cream pie, 18+ ONLY

Word Count: 7.1K

Previous

Series Masterlist

*Tattooed Steve edit by @randomagnes0210

*Dividers created by @firefly-graphics

You take a long look out the window, your eyes casting around in every direction until you see him. Bucky gives you a cheeky grin, holding up his hand, and you back away from the window, hiding yourself. Annoyed at not even being able to walk around in your panties in your apartment if you wanted to. He was always going to tell Steve. You couldn’t escape him. And staying cooped up in your apartment was thoroughly starting to piss you off.

It was supposed to be your break in between semesters, and you should be having fun. But no. Instead your every move is followed. You have a feeling Bucky even writes down what you do with time stamps just to let Steve know. He was there when you wake up, there when you leave your apartment, and even there when you go to sleep.

Did he sleep? Was he going to go crazy with a lack of sleep? You pace around the apartment, tempted to open your curtain, and put on a show for Bucky, just to piss Steve off. It’s what he deserved after he did what he did.

When he did what he did…

You hadn’t stopped thinking about that night. The moment when you had forgotten about everything around you, and just let him take you to a different world. A world of blinding pleasure. You had forgotten your name. There has been a numbness in you since that night. And you wanted him to help you live again, and also feared the things he was making you feel.

You ignored the frequent text messages from Steve. At night the messages got filthier, and you wanted to scream in your pillow. While his face was buried between your thighs, and he was doing whatever he did with his tongue, and even his teeth.

“No!” You scream out loud as your hands start to shake. What was wrong with you? Why was you letting this man lead you to temptation and right to a shortcut to hell?

You wanted him. You feared him. You hated him. You need him to…to do something. You didn’t want to say it, and couldn’t say it. This was new. All of it was new, and you didn’t understand Steve’s strong obsession with you. You! You? What was so special about you? Why did he want you? What was his end goal? Was it only to fuck you and then leave?

Taking another look out the window just to find Bucky in the same spot, sucking on a cigarette. He would know, Bucky knew everything. Putting on some coffee you leave your apartment, and walk out to Bucky, who stands up straight immediately. Hand at the phone in his pocket while he looks at you questioningly.

“Don’t call him,” Bucky struggles with your request. You were not where you were supposed to be. You hadn’t even left this town, and ventured back home. “Have some coffee with me. I feel bad that you’re out here all alone, all day and all night. It isn’t fair.”

“I have my orders,” his hand still taps along his pocket, and the last thing you want is for him to call Steve. You couldn’t handle Steve being in your home, and your place of peace.

“Some coffee would be good for you, come on,” you go to reach for his hand, but he stands up completely straight, and his eyes fix behind you. “I’m sorry.”

“Dove, you should know by now not to touch me; ever. Especially without him present. I’m running out of lives, and I don’t want to die today,” you give a little bite to your lip, your feet shuffling around nervously, wondering if you had pushed too far. You weren’t an idiot, even if you wanted to play as such.

Bucky wants to roll his eyes at just how perfect you are for Steve. How you had enough fight in you to keep things interesting, but also his undying love for innocence. For the chase, and you were running; sprinting away from him even if your body was yelling for him to come back. You just weren't so fast enough that Steve couldn’t catch you. “Fine. Coffee, but you deal with the consequences.”

“Consequences? For having coffee?” Oh you did love to play this silly little girl game. Judging by the swishing around of your thighs, you knew exactly what the consequences would be.

He leans close enough into you, whispering just slightly off from your ear, “Don’t play dumb, little bird,” before heading straight towards your building. “So?” He pauses, turning to look at you when you don’t move. “Are we having coffee?”

“Yes,” you answer with such certainty that it scares you.

“I see why he likes her,” Bucky mumbles, waiting for you to take the lead. He didn’t have to contact Steve. Steve would look down at his phone, and see that Bucky was in your apartment. Would see Bucky in your space, but with you. Alone. He could already feel Steve’s anger prickling on his skin once he realized where he was, and just who he was with. You were just dangerous enough to yourself, but also for Steve.

“So…what’s yours and Steve’s story?” You pour him his coffee, sitting at the bar, and push out a chair for him. He doesn’t take the chair, but instead lifts himself up on the counter. “You and him seem to go back further than him and Sam.”

“Steve trusts very few people. Sam and I are two of them. But you are correct in thinking that Steve and I have known each other longer. Sam has been more than loyal to the both of us,” your head tilts to the side, listening to Bucky. It was almost normal. Steve was anything but safe though. However, he had people that believed in something. Believed in him and whatever empire he was building.

“Why drugs?”

“Don’t worry about it,” he gives you a wink. Lifting his arm up to look at his watch with a smirk. “Why were you buying?”

“You know why. I needed to stay up to cram for finals. Math isn’t exactly my strong suit,” he cocks a brow up, while he drinks his coffee, and you almost feel guilty for staring at him. It was silly because you weren’t with Steve. You could look at whoever you pleased.

“Have you ever tried any other drugs?” Shaking your head rapidly, you cast your eyes to anything in the kitchen. Making silly notes about what you needed to do to keep it clean. Wondering where the cameras were in here. “Was that your first time?”

“Yes. I’ve always just taken my medication as it’s prescribed.”

“Ever been drunk?” You had piqued his interest. Bucky was just wasting time because Steve was already enroute, and he was about to be yelled at, but you were getting far more than screams. “Hmm?”

“No,” your voice whispers, and you dare to look back up at him. “I just recently became of age.”

“Wait…you’ve never had anything to drink?” You shake your head no. There couldn't’ be that much that you had missed from getting drunk. Alcohol stunk, and it was illegal for you to have consumed before now. “Wow, you really are…”

You jump off the stool, your mug shattering on the tile as Steve bursts through the door. His nostrils flaring, and his skin looked like it was on fire with the way his muscles are tensing up. Backing up from him with every step he takes closer to you.

Taking his eyes off you only to glare at Bucky, “I’ll deal with you later. Dovey,” he tsks, turning to look at you. He is too calm with his words, but the way he slung that door open, he was anything but calm. He was pissed off at you.

“You’ve been a bad bad girl,” you can only squeak, as you look around the apartment. “We both know there's no hiding places in here. I’ve looked at the blueprints, little bird. Where are you gonna run to?”

“Steve, don’t,” you gulp, flinching away as he tries to grab you.

“Do you remember what I told you about your tears?” You shake your head no. You couldn’t think. There is a searing light in your eyes and loud ringing in your ears that was keeping you from thinking straight. He had mentioned something about tears, but exactly what you can’t recall.

“When you cry all I can think about is splitting you open for the first time. It will hurt, Dovey. You will cry, and I will lick the tears off your cheeks, as I wait for that tight little cunt to stop screaming from the stretch.’

“Steve, please,” you tremble, but he moans in return. He mistook your pleads as begging. “I’m not begging!”

“And I’m not asking,” you scream as you dart past him, but his inky hand grabs onto your wrist, pulling you into his hard chest, and nearly knocking the breath out of you. Covering your wails with his hand as he hauls you over to the couch.

Letting himself sit down before he lays your belly over his lap. “I am thankful that you wear skirts,” hearing the malice in his voice only makes your entire body shiver with anticipation of what is coming next. “Bucky, close the door, while I have a chat with my little bird.”

“Steve, I’m sorry,” you hiccup. Wiggling around, you try to get off his lap, but it wasn’t helping. “I don’t know what I did…Bucky?”

“Don’t call for him. He protects you when I’m not around, he doesn’t protect you from me. Did he or did he not say you would have consequences for being alone with him?” You whimper as you nod your head, and you get a swift smack on your ass. “Words, Dove.”

“Yes, sir,” tears start flowing down your face, and it just angers you. This stupid man that rushed into your life has you draped over his lap like a toddler, and was intent in spanking you.

“And not only did you bring him in here with you alone, you then had the audacity to talk about me, hmm?” You don’t answer fast enough, and he smacks you again, but this time on the other cheek. Flattening his hand out, he rubs over the stinging skin.

“I didn’t…I-I-I didn’t know.”

“If you want to know anything about me, then you better fucking ask me. That sneaky bullshit will not fly with me. Do you understand?” Another smack on your ass with an even more soothing rub this time. “Can you fucking hear?” One more slap.

“Yes, sir. I under…understand. No!” He places his elbow on your back as he lifts up your skirt. Chuckling when each hand pulls apart your cheeks. “Steve, stop! Don’t look! Don’t!”

“Why not, Dovey?” He moans, leaning down closer he inhales deeply. What you assume was a pinky finger flicks up and down your cotton covered slit. “Your cunt is crying for me. Just as hard as those pathetic tears rolling down your cheeks. You know why we work, Dovey? I enjoy this just as much as you do.”

“I don’t,” he has your panties pulled down in one second. Each hand stretching your cheeks wide as he gazes at your virgin hole. Everything is too quiet as he stares at you in the most vulnerable state you have ever been in. Sure that Bucky was watching your core as hard as Steve.

Seconds go by that feels like hours. And then a drip of Steve’s saliva flows through your lips. “You’re a fucking liar,” his voice cutting deep inside of you. “Why are you lying? That tight light hole is clenching, Dove. She wants a big cock to fuck her so hard and deep, huh? Hehe,” he looks up at Bucky, pulling you even further apart.

“See, Buck. She’s throbbing just thinking about me fucking her. Look,” Bucky has been a target of Steve’s anger many times. And there was no right answer here. Steve would be offended if he didn’t look. “Dove, I’m going to fuck you so deep you feel me in your belly.”

“Oh,” Bucky tries to sound interested as your walls flutter around nothing. Searching for something to squeeze tightly. Pulsing in vain. But something more catches his eyes, “How are you going to fit in there?”

“Oh, I’ll make it fit,” he spits down to your center again as two fingers roam through your slick. Coating themselves in your juices, and you clench your eyes close. Biting on your lip as he plunges two thick fingers into your warmth, and you lift your head up sobbing his name.

“That’s just two fingers, pretty girl,” pumping his fingers in and out of you he moans at the sound of your wetness. Lewd squelching sounds scream into the quiet apartment. “See how easy I fit in there when you have a sloppy cunt like this? It’s because I am made for you, and this is my pussy. I wish you could see your pussy cling onto my fingers. She doesn't’ want to let me go. She is weeping out onto your legs just thinking about me, Dovey.”

He speeds up his motions, curling his fingers and he hits a spot inside of you that makes orbs of fuzzy light pop up in your vision. Sounds you have never heard before leak out of your mouth, and your body chases his fingers. Reacting and needing him to stay deep inside of you. And you seek out him to constantly fill you whole.

Hugging his digits so tightly that you can’t help but to pant out his name, “I know, baby. It’s what you’ve needed. You needed to be punished for acting like a sneaky bitch. But it gets you so worked up. Your body craves this attention. Has been begging for this, huh? You like this, Dovey?”

My god, you loved it. Thoughts just didn’t even register because of the paralyzing pleasure. You just take it. Take every bit of his fingers. Eyes rolling in the back of your head as he scissors himself deep inside of you. Pressing a thumb on your clit, and you speak in tongue.

Euphoria you have never felt. Your cum coats his fingers, but it only eggs him on. Going harder into you. The only thing for you to hold is his leg, and you dig your fingers into him. He hisses as he pounds into you. Not stopping until you're screaming his name, and you squirt out your release. And Steve moans, delighted at how messy you are.

“Good fucking girl!” Jerking his fingers out, he grabs you at the hips. Lifting your bottom up to him, and he buries himself between your thighs. Laving and slurping up every bit of your release. Moaning at your tastes as he sucks every bit of it up.

Your eyes roll into the back of your head, but as soon as it starts, he stops. Steve pulls apart your body, and stares at the tiny gape of your hole. You could take so much more, and he was tempted to add a third finger next time. But he wanted more than anything for you to cry when he bottoms out into you. Addicted to something he hadn’t properly got to experience. And that was all of you.

His sight never leaves your cunt as he tells Bucky to pack you a bag because the two of you were going on a short little trip. Bucky nods, knowing exactly where Steve was going to take you. He whispers a prayer for you. If Steve had it his way he was going to fuck this ‘brat’ right out of you.

Bucky wouldn’t call you a brat, but you knew what you were doing. Driving Steve crazy enough to both pleasure and humiliate you. One day you would learn, you didn’t have to push his buttons to get him to play with you. You had this power over Steve that neither of you understood. And Bucky had never witnessed anything quite like this.

“Dovey, if I hear you talk back to me once on this drive, you’re going to ride the rest of the way with two of my fingers in your cunt, and both your titties hanging out of your shirt. Please tell me that you understand.”

His hold loosens on you, and he gives you a moment to sit up. Waiting on you to roll your drenched panties back up your body, and you nod. You couldn’t look at him because he had seen such a private part of you, and showed Bucky, “Yes, sir.”

“Good, girl. You’re learning. Seems like you’re starting to break. Buck, you make sure Sam understands that the two of you are in charge,” Steve holds out his hand as he stands up. Waiting on you to take hold before he leads the two of you to the door.

“Steve, take it easy on her. She’s not ready,” he whispers to his friend, but Steve returns his warning with a smile. He was going to do whatever the fuck he wanted with you. You wanted to know about him, so he was going to give you the opportunity to ask. If you could focus. He’d tell you everything you need to know. He just hopes it’s the right questions.

“Steve, I don’t want to be here,” your lip trembles as he steps out of the car. Stalking over to your side while you stare at only one thing. One cabin. In the middle of fucking nowhere. It had been miles since you even saw the las

“Steve, no!” Screaming as he opens your door. There isn’t any flight left in you. It is just complete shutting down. He holds out his hand for you to take, but you violently shake. He was going to murder you here. “Steve, don’t. Don’t!”

He gives a growl as his hands try to wrangle you out of the vehicle, and you thrash around. If you were going to die, at least you’d die trying. “Please, just…”

“You wanted to ask questions, now get out of the fucking car!” Pulling you a bit harder, you let your body turn to dead weight, and you drop to the ground with a hard thud. Blinking your eyes and coughing as you try to catch your breath.

“Would you shut up?” His voice rattles, hauling you up over his shoulder. “What exactly do you think I’m going to do to you? We’re going in the fucking cabin, and you’re going to ask your stupid damn questions.”

“B-b-b-but we’re alone! You’re going to…” dropping you onto the couch, his body hovers over you. Those blackened with ink arms caging you. He rolls his hips, and his hardening cock skims over your core, and you squeal.

“You like that, huh? You like feeling me on you?” His breath is hot on your skin as he does it again. “We’re all alone, Dovey, and no one can hear your screams when you take every inch of me.”

“I’m not b-b-begging.”

“Aw, but aren’t you?” Readjusting himself, his hand cups your covered core. The face of pure sadistic torture grins down at you. “You’re so hot and wound up you’re going to burn the cabin down, Dovey. You’ve ruined these panties, you're so wet. Quit letting your mind take control, and trust me.”

“I’ll never trust you,” it is something you felt deep within your soul. How could you trust someone that was like him? Someone that got off on your embarrassment, and enjoyed showing it to everyone. “You just want to use me.”

A flash of tattoos comes at your face, and his fingers dig into your cheeks as he grabs you tight. Forcing you to quit looking around, and look straight at him. “Dovey, if I wanted to use you, I would have had you that first night. I did you a kindness in marking you up. People know not to fuck with Steve Rogers. You’re just the stupid girl who came into my lair thinking you would outsmart me. Do you realize how many times I could have fucked you by now? I could have put the cameras on us, and let the club watch as I took the gift that could never be returned. And you’re the brat that wants to keep pushing my fucking buttons.”

You whimper as his weight starts to settle on your body. His monstrosity of a cock pressing into your center, and a flash of blinding light covers your vision, and all you can do is feel. Feel his pulse through his cock as it pounds right at your entrance, and the way his breath blows out over your face as he chuckles. You hate him.

“Sweetheart, it would loosen you up in more ways than one. You need this as much as I do. You’re denying us the ultimate pleasure when all you have to do is let me squeeze through your walls, break them down, too.”

Gulping, you keep perfect eye contact as your head twists back and forth, whispering out, “No.”

A rumble climbs up his chest, and the vibrations go right to your weeping cunt as he sits up. Putting his weight on his heels, and kneeling before you. His body keeps your legs wide, and he pulls up your skirt, watching your covered pussy as he pulls his shirt off.

He is a god amongst men. Rippling cords of muscle stretch over his chest, and it was accentuated perfectly with the most beautiful and intricate designs. The man clearly enjoyed art, but also pain. No inch of his chest wasn’t touched with a needle.

While you’re in a trance with his tattoos, Steve undoes his pants, and gives them a little tug down. “Oh my god!” You screech as his monster dick flops out of his pants. The only thing not covered in tattoos, and right at the tip. “You’re pierced?”

“If it scares you that much, our first time, I’ll take it out. It’s quite pleasurable for you,” Steve wraps his fist around the base, and gives the growing member a few pumps, “You can’t take your eyes off it. Have you ever seen a dick before?”

“Yeah. Plenty of times.”

“Tell me whose dick you’ve seen, little bird.”

“Why?” You look up at him, unblinking. There is a fire that is burning all the way from the pit of his stomach to his eyes. Looking almost demonic as his pupils spread out so wide.

“So I can kill them. No dick that has touched your body is going to stay alive,” he tilts his head to the side, smiling when you finally look up at his face. “I am very serious, sweetheart. Tell me. Their names.”

“I don’t know — I don't know their names,” he tenses in front of you, and you cover your eyes. “They were on the internet,” the walls of the cabin rattle with his booming laughter. While you’re trying to melt away, he runs the tip of his length over your panties, and you flinch. Trying to sit yourself up, but he pushes you back down.

“You mean to tell me I wasted showing you my cock, and it’s the first in life one you’ve ever seen? Dove, no wonder you’re on edge. You just about came undone from my tip at your panties, or maybe it was the piercing. You like the way this feels, my sweet little angel. Come on,” standing up, he fully gets undressed, proving that yes, he was pretty much covered in tattoos. His face and his dick are the exception. “They’re too pretty, darling. Let’s go.”

“Where?” It’s a struggle to sit up with the high emotions you have been feeling. Wobbly legs keep you from standing too quickly. There’s a dizziness that you feel in every part of your body.

“Bucky packed you a bathing suit, put it on, or join me in the hot tub naked. You need to relax,” there was a shift in his voice. Typically there is some grit to it. As if it was constantly filled with anger. Now it sounds — normal. He stands watching you as you try to process what it is you wanted to do. “Do I need to turn around for you to change? I wouldn’t advise running. There’s nobody here for miles. And if you run again, my patience and kindness will be gone, and I can’t promise what I will do.”

“Can I go get my bag?” He nods his head, gesturing for you to go out to the car, and you take careful steps. Counting each inhale and exhale as you walk to the car. Looking back at Steve who remains calm. He dares you to run just so he can capture you in his snares, but you won’t.

This time, you want to listen. Especially if he was going to grant you with asking questions. Bucky sucked at packing your bag. A shirt, panties, and the skimpiest bathing suit you owned. At least he remembered a toothbrush. Feeling a bit more irritated now, you walk back into the cabin, and gawk at Steve.

“Can you turn around?”

“Good girls say please.”

“And I didn’t,” giving you a crooked smile, he turns around. Giving you the smallest privacy to undress.

“I bet it feels nice to get out of those wet panties,” you ignore him. It did feel nice. Everything had started to stick to you, and it was like peeling wet clothes off. “That skin would look really pretty with a needle in it.”

“Why are you like this?” Looking up, you notice a mirror pointed right at you. Steve saw everything. Saw you undress, and didn’t look away.

“Tell me I didn’t make you so wet that you had to use your clothes to wipe your honey off your legs. We’re getting in a hot tub, Dove, it’ll wash right off.”

“Do you ever give privacy?”

“No. But you do have some nice tits. Let’s go,” Steve reaches back to give you a little tug, but you shake your head no, pointing at his dick. “Oh, I don’t get in the hot tub with clothes on. The anaconda will be underwater, you won’t be able to see him.”

“Clarence,” he scrunches his face up as you walk past him, and out on the back porch, assuming that’s where this hot tub was. You just need to not have that thing staring at you right now. “That’s what I’m going to call your penis; Clarence.”

“Clarence? Why not something like The Hammer or…”

“Clarence,” it’s what it was going to be. If he wanted you to look at it, you were going to give it a name that wasn’t so imposing. Steve walks past you, and settles himself into the pool. Giving a soft moan at how the heat was working out his own tension.

“Is it hot?”

“It is, but it’s not as hot as your tight little cunt. How’s she feeling?” Don’t answer him. Allow him his cocky little comments, and do what is asked. Make this easy and unpainful, and you’d feel better for it.

You wait on Steve to settle back into the water, and his eyes roam over your body hungrily. Watching as each inch of it gets swallowed by the heat, and he chuckles when you sit on the opposite side of him. Looking at anything that wasn’t Steve. He cracks his neck, and uses his thick fingers to trace around his lip, and he just smirks at you.

“I don’t like people who go behind my back.”

“I didn’t,” you finally meet his gaze, and it’s hard to look away. He is even sexier with water lapping up against his skin. The same skin that was setting your body ablaze. He had seared into every part of you, and your body craved him. Needed him to touch you.

“Didn’t Bucky tell you that there would be consequences?”

“Yeah, but…”

“I’m talking,” he interrupts, wading over closer to you. Both hands plant themselves on either side of you, and he stands up out of the water. His giant cock wet and bouncing right at your face. “You continue to talk over me, and I’ll slip something in your mouth to keep you quiet. Bucky warned you about the consequences of taking him into your apartment without me. You disobeyed. You chose to ignore him. Playing your stupid fucking childish game of being too naive to realize what you acting up does to me.”

He removes one hand from the back of the hot tub, and grips his cock. Rocking it right at your lips, but never touching you. “I can see it in your eyes how curious you are to know what a real cock feels like. I can show you.”

“I’m not begging,” you cross your legs, clenching them tight together. Refusing to let your pussy get you in any more trouble.

“Yet. Your body is, but your mouth is stubborn. Maybe I should give her a little taste. Come on, suck my dick and join me in the underworld.”

“Continue your threats.”

You whimper when his low growling laugh vibrates at your core. Wondering how he was able to make you feel him in a place he had hardly touched. “What do you want to know about me? I’ll give you five questions to ask, so you better make them count. That is going behind my back, little bird. You want to act all innocent, but you want to know what makes me tick. Why did I become who I am? So ask.”

“Why? Why do you do this?”

“I’m going to count that as two. Be careful next time,” sitting beside you, his hand runs up and down your thigh, and without realizing it, your legs start pulling apart. Giving him ample space to get to your cunt.

“I do this because I can control what’s out there. These streets ran rampant with cheap drugs cut with who the fuck knows. I sell pure. It costs more, but you won’t die from a damn accidental overdose because your drug of choice was laced with something. Three more.”

Your mouth drops open when his hand settles as high up on your thigh as possible sliding down, and rubs over the apex of your thigh, but never where your body truly wants it. You even lean back further, granting him more access, but his fingers don’t drift around. “How…why the playground?”

“You really fucking suck at this. There’s two more. You’re down to one question after this.”

“You’re fucking distracting me!” He grabs you up, placing you in his lap. Your body facing the same way as you. Using his legs to lock your own in place. Moving your bottoms to the side before pressing his dick right in between your pussy lips. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry!”

“You want to say fuck, you better make sure my dick is so deep inside you that you feel me in your filthy little mouth. I will not give you another chance, Dove. I mean it. I won’t wait for you to be blubbering, and crawling on your knees as you beg for me to be inside. I will take it. Is this your tactic, Dove? I don’t want to take. I want you to fully give that to me. You are so hot and slippery, you’re ready, but are you ready for me to have you down on your knees?”

“Please…” what were you asking him for? Why was he able to make you melt and repulse you simultaneously?

“Please just put it in there?” You shake your head no, and his mouth attacks your neck. Kissing and sucking at the sensitive column, while your hips buck up and down. Allowing his sinful dick to roam through your folds. His tip knocks against your clit, and you lean your head back against Steve.

“Easy, baby. You’re going to make yourself pass out before we get to the good part. That’s my playground. I have fond memories of bullies throwing me around the yard. If it wasn’t for Bucky, I would have died there. I promised myself that not only would I survive, but I was going to be bigger and meaner than any of those pieces of shit, and they would all cower just hearing my name.”

“Steve. Steve!” He is only holding his dick up against your body, it is you that is moving, grinding on him and searching for more, and terrified to have it. But he feels like heaven. He hadn’t even entered inside of you, and you are a mess.

“One more question, Dove. Be a good girl, and ask your pathetic little question since you need to know about the big bad drug lord that is following you around, and becoming more and more obsessed with you. Go on.”

“Why me?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” He is marking every inch of your neck with his filthy mouth. Yet again making sure that everyone knew that you were taken. And he would kill someone that would just look at you. Willing to murder anyone who’s cock you had seen. Even online porn couldn’t prepare you for this.

“I love challenges. I have this pretty little bird that is dying to be fucked deep and hard, but because of her upbringing or some shit, is denying herself pleasure. You need someone like me,” his voice starts going up an octave, and you grind on him faster. Harder. Both of you are needy and searching for something.

“That’s it, Dovey. I’m…I’m,” he holds your lips apart with two fingers, and presses his spongy tip in your entrance, and as soon as you are screaming at the intrusion, his cum spurts through you. Most of it spilling out, and mixing with the water, but some of it is a glorious warmth that you loathe.

He holds you in place, keeping you from squirming around as he looks down into the water, “I could do it you know. You’re breathing heavily, and this isn’t even the painful part. I’m getting tired of you acting like a little bitch. Do you see how easily I can take, Dove? Do you see that I have you right where I want you, but I’m giving you enough grace and power to tell me when our first time is?”

“But…you’re inside me…Steve, I wasn’t begging.”

“And I’m not fucking. I’m not even an inch inside. Enjoy my seed in you, Dove. Pretty soon it’ll be second nature to take my cock, and be filled with me. You wanted the consequences, this is it. But next time, it’ll be so much worse.”

“Just fuck me then,” you spit out, but he lifts you off him, and stands up. This time rubbing his tip over your pouty lips. You notice the bit of change in him, but keep your mouth shut. Letting him paint you with the remnants of the two of you.

“I’m no longer hard, and you’re not begging. But soon, Dove, soon you’ll wake up to me thrusting into you. You’ll sit on my lap, warming my cock while I distribute the drugs. You will be on all fours at the table, letting me inspect that greedy cunt before I plunge into her, and Bucky gets to see me fill your belly with my child. Get out of this tub, and let's go to bed.”

“Why are you so mean?”

“Why are you?” The audacity! You aren’t mean. “You’re mean to yourself, and I never said I was nice. Get out of this fucking tub, and let’s get in the bed.”

He doesn’t even turn around to look at you as he walks back into the cabin. There was no escape, and you are coming to realize that everyday that you are with him. Were you the problem here? Would it be so bad to let him inside of you?

Questions abound quickly in your mind, and you couldn’t process them long enough to answer. Allowing your body to go on autopilot just for tonight. Even if you are angry at what he just did. But are you? Are you really denying something that was living in between heaven and hell?

“Get in the bed,” Steve growls, pulling back the covers. “I have on underwear,” you gulp as you look around the room. Bucky hadn’t given you much thought to pack your clothes. Barely anything was in your bag.

“Here,” Steve says, tossing you a shirt. And you’re just stubborn enough, and still pissed at him from earlier. Undoing your bathing suit top you let it fall to the floor. Letting Steve angrily stare at your curves, and peaked nipples before letting the bottoms fall.

“You’re pushing me, Dovey,” he growls out. Stunned, and refusing to move. Your skin still damp from the tub. Water drips creating a trail right between your legs. “Dove!”

“Now, you know how it feels,” you’re sure you will pay for that later, but at this moment, it feels like you are taking the power back. You’re choosing to show him your body. Letitng him see how hard your nipples are with desire.

Pulling only his shirt on, you crawl onto the bed, tapping the other side, “Aren’t you going to get in?”

“You didn’t put panties on.”

“But you have on underwear. Seems a fair trade,” he grouses something under his breath, but crawls in behind you, pulling you completely flush with his body. Easing a thigh in between your leg, and pressing it firmly against your core. “Steve?”

“It’s my turn to ask questions,” he ignores your hands that try to push his hard leg away from you. Tense in his embrace, but he starts melting into you. Snuggling his face right behind your ear, and you hate the hold he has over you. “Why are you a virgin?”

“Because I haven’t had sex.”

He growls right up next to your ear, and you bite your lip. Hoping that he couldn’t feel how amazing that sound felt. “Why haven’t you had sex?”

The real question. You didn’t have a smart remark to get you out of it. He wanted the truth, and you weren’t ready to give it to him. “Because…”

“Because why?”

“That’s three questions, Steve.”

“I don’t care about the others. Just answer that one,” you wiggle around, wanting to actually give him the attention he wanted, but his hold is too great. “What are you doing?”

“I want to look at you while I answer,” immediately he lets you go. Waiting on you to flop to the other side, but he still pulls you in tight to him. Lifting your leg to throw over his hip. “I’ve never had this.”

“Yeah, I know. You’re a virgin. I’m sure if you laid like this with a — boyfriend,” the taste of that word is rotten in his mouth. No one deserved you. He didn’t deserve you, he was just desperate enough to capture you and make you his.

“No…not even that,” he cocks up an eyebrow as his features soften. He was beautiful. You had a crazy feeling no one ever saw this soft side of him. He had spent years creating his drug lord persona, that he forgot what being a lowly human was like.

“Boys aren’t interested in me. All my friends had them, and I…I was the third wheel. Or the fifth. But you get the point. No one has ever told me that I was — that I’m beautiful.”

He lets out an exasperated breath, and drifts closer to you. So close his lips brush against yours when he whispers your name, “You’re beautiful. And I’m no boy. I am a man, and you are mine. You don’t have to worry about all the boys that didn’t see you. The boys that didn’t realize what diamond that they had in front of them. And I won't have to worry about murdering them.”

“I’m thankful for that.”

“Look at me, and tell me that you’re beautiful,” it’s a strange request to make, but when you open your mouth nothing comes out. You were taught not to lie, and you didn’t fully believe it yourself. You had spent most of your life invisible, and no one ever noticed you, until this man came out of the shadows, and was trying to bring you into his own world of darkness.

“Say it. Tell me that you’re beautiful. Dovey, please,” you can’t. You shake your head no, letting your eyes start to close as you try and fight away the tears. He wasn’t going to see you cry. “You’re beautiful. And if I have to be the one to tell you that everyday for you to realize that you are, I will. Maybe that’s my purpose. You’re beautiful. You’re gorgeous. And sexy. And kind. And I want to corrupt you and bring you over into my darkness. Make you my whore, so you realize how irresistible that I find you.”

“Stop. Please, don’t…” he hears the crack in your voice. He would kill everyone that dared to make you feel unworthy. You were worthy. You were everything.

“You’re beautiful, darling. I have perfect vision, and I have seen a lot of women. None are as spectacular as you. Close your eyes, relax in my embrace because I’m never letting you go ever again. You’re stuck with me. I don’t want you to lose your fight, but just for tonight. Let’s call a truce.”

“Fine,” you mumble, finally letting his warmth envelop you as you relax in his embrace. It is an oddly satisfying and safe feeling. You were close enough to smell his musky cologne that lingered on his skin. His heartbeat creating a perfect rhythm to lull you to sleep, “Just for tonight.”

“Yes, yes, of course. Next time I’ll make sure we fall asleep with your cunt squeezing my cock,” insufferable asshole. You started to feel something. Not your body, but you. And then he opened his mouth. But at least it meant you weren’t falling. And you wouldn’t. Not with him.

Next

Masterlist

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#your mark on me #steve rogers #dark!steve rogers #drug lord!steve rogers #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x fem!reader #steve rogers x y/n #steve rogers x you #Steve rogers smut #Steve rogers fan fiction #Steve Rogers fanfic #Steve Rogers fic #Steve Rogers fics #chris evans #chris evans characters #marvel #MCU #Bucky Barnes #brat taming #D/s dynamics

[buckets-and-trees]

Warm Shadows - Carving Through the Dark (3/4)

Fandom: MCU Collection: Warm Shadows [ part one | part two ] Title: Carving Through the Dark Characters/Pairings: established Alpha!Bucky x f!Omega!Reader, Alpha!Steve x f!Omega!Reader Word Count: 14.4k

Summary: Worse than a nightmare because it's real, Bucky has to track down his kidnapped omega and the man - the super soldier - who had been his closest friend turned into the dark, rival alpha, Captain Hydra.

Content Warnings: DARK, a/b/o dynamics, angst, explicit smut, vaginal intercourse, consensual forced orgasm

Logistical Notes: Shhh - yes this was the final story update I had planned for the Dark Forest Fest and it's the first week of January! But. Well. The word count. But we're here now, okay? Title taken from Hozier's Who We Are.

Additional Notes: Okay, I know that I did a poll asking last month if folks wanted the final chapter split into two parts or just one long chapter and - er - I kind of did both. I did not split this chapter, but a couple of days ago I realized we needed a fourth and final part. Lastly, @biteofcherry has been an absolute lifeline during the composition of this chapter - thank you for putting up with my conjectures and letting me piece together some of the elements. And even a little thank you to @rookthorne for cheering and bullying me over how long this got.

↠ Masterlist | Aspen's Ask Box | Field Guide to the Forest

“I can’t help you,” Shuri states, though there’s the flicker of it almost being one final question of it in her eyes.

“No,” Bucky confirms. “No more than you already have.”

He knows she says it as one last opportunity for him to change his mind, but also in acknowledgment that he must do this on his own. They clasp hands and then he turns to walk up the ramp of the aircraft.

“James,” she says when he’s nearly gone. He turns back to look at his friend, one who has seen him at the best and worst of times. “Whoever he is now, he knows Bucky, he knows the Winter Soldier, he will have learned everything about the Soldat from their archives, so you must truly be the White Wolf. She knows the wolf, but he does not.”

He nods and then walks further into the aircraft, leaving Shuri behind.

After you’d been violated and taken from him, Bucky had lain in anguish until just before dawn, raging over the loss of his world and everything he’d worked for, built, found, cherished. He would find you again – when he’d sworn, “There’s no corner of this earth you can go where I won’t find you,” it had been a promise to you as much as a warning to the monster – but none of you three were the same after that night.

To be the White Wolf…

It will take all the tactics he learned in the army, that he was forced to acquire as Hydra’s finest assassin, and since he escaped and then truly reclaimed his freedom. As angry as he is, as desolate as he feels, he holds the emotions at arms’ length, he needs to be at the eye of the hurricane so he can maneuver the way he needs to.

Bucky hasn’t been able to feel you. His desperate hope is that it’s because you’re sedated and unconscious and not … not anything else.

In Wakanda he and Shuri hadn’t been able to find even a sliver of a trace of the jet that had come and gone for Steve to enact his plan. It was a statement that whoever he was now, Captain Hydra was utilizing every ounce of knowledge Steve had and blending it with whatever Hydra hat put in him.

Bucky won’t leave a trail either.

It will take Steve time to figure out how Bucky left Wakanda – on foot, ground transport, or air transport – if he can figure it out. But Bucky was the untraceable ghost over fifty years of missions for Hydra, and he didn’t have the motivation he does now.

Bucky devised that going on the already-scheduled aircraft to the Wakandan Outreach Center in Oakland gave him the best options. He assumes Steve would have managed to get into the networks used by the Avengers and SWORD, and since he flew an aircraft in and out of Wakanda undetected and Bucky won’t be able to use Wakandan technology to best him either, so landing in Oakland also puts him in proximity to the hardware, software, and network resources he would need to build his own tech. During his convalescence in Wakanda before the Infinity War, it had been days of goats and technology research and development in the most advanced science facility in the world. He is not the expert that Shuri is, but he knows enough. His aversion to much of “modern” technology has always been due to how primitive it was compared to anything from Wakanda.

It takes weeks, but Bucky acquires the hardware he needs, modifies software, creates the network and protocols he needs to start Hydra hunting, and puts it all to work. He knows what to look for – the patterns, the seemingly innocuous inconsistencies – and he knows it because he was running data point for the team of analysts dedicated to Hydra hunting before this. He had taken more responsibility at the base of operations and fewer and fewer field assignments to be home and build his life with you.

Bucky doesn’t hesitate in ignoring any ethical limits whatsoever for his surveillance protocols. When he was working within the system, they had established some lines they weren’t willing to cross.

With seven billion humans in existence and him alone looking for two, lines to cross no longer exist.

He knows he will never get his life back, but he will not let anything prevent him from getting you back.

He puts every piece into play immediately as he builds, sleeps only the bare minimum. Truthfully he had only indulged in more than the minimal sleep a super soldier needed these past years because it was time spent blissfully with you.  Without a reason to rest, he didn’t have any problem cutting back to short sleep allotments to keep him operating at peak condition.

In putting his own tap into the Avengers’ database, he studies the work that had gone on while he was gone for his annual retreat away with you. He discovers that Steve and Sam followed leads in Europe.

“Damn you idiots,” he murmurs.

The reports show his two friends go dark after losing comms nearly a month ago. A team went in after them and their debrief says they found only their communication devices. ‘Search ongoing…’

That was a month ago.

He knows the status of Steve.

Sam could be a live asset in play, an asset still being trained and molded by Hydra, their prisoner for torture, or he could have been eliminated already.

It takes him sixteen days from the beginning of his build to finish – he’d been collecting intelligence, but once everything is in play and he continues to hone in on incoming results, things progress systematically, satisfyingly, in a foreign familiarity that evokes memories of this time hunting as the Winter Soldier.

Two more days and he’s got enough evidence in the intelligence to confirm you’re somewhere in Europe. Within two hours Bucky recalibrates calculations based the new findings, conducts new searches, gets confirmation of a face on a traffic camera in Gdańsk that looks like Steve, and when he’s able to piece a clear trail that follows him through the city and then to an aircraft that he’s further able to track until it disappears over northern Italy. He knows this for what it is – a trail tempting him closer to the trap. A challenge, an invitation, but only if he can put together more pieces to find you. How many times did he set beautifully complex traps for some of his prize targets when he was the Winter Soldier? Breadcrumbs to entice, to drive his opponent to work harder, to put their prowess to work, to make them feel confident so he could trick, trap, and kill them in the end.

This monster of a man tricked him in Wakanda. It will be the only time. Expert and intricate traps of this sort are something his opponent has been playing with for a few weeks. Bucky has more practice and expertise, infinitely more motivation, and no distractions.

He travels under cover of transports between Wakandan outreach centers from Oakland to Washington DC, and then from Washington to Bilbao. When he touches down in Bilbao, his information relay device has a new lead based off a visual of Steve in a bookshop in Turin twice in the previous week.

He takes the train to Turin. Within twelve hours he finds the location of the Hydra facility, and Bucky makes enough noise to reveal to Hydra that he’s in the city and trigger the personnel to raise the facility to its red alert security status. He plants a false trail indicating that he’s given up and gone further north, all the while watching every aspect of the base, making plans to infiltrate, and ensuring sure none of the vehicles or teams moving in and out look like they’re transporting you somewhere else. They drop to an orange threat level, and then yellow – standard caution and operating procedures.

Bucky would have been floored that they believed he’d missed them in Turin and moved on to search somewhere else, but it spoke to one of the weaknesses of Hydra’s organization: the arrogance. Instead, Bucky hacks into their base network as well as their external communications channels.

This observation, research, recon, and analysis Bucky does not rush. Everything he cares about is at stake. If he’s going to be successful in getting you back there can be no room for error as he’ll be up against Hydra and the only other super soldier on the planet who could potentially match or outmatch him.

And as the weeks wear on, the other thing he cannot deny, that he’d known from the beginning of this nightmare even if he’d wanted to try to ignore it, it that he isn't in this to rescue only you.

When all is said and done, the reality is he has to get Steve back, too.

Bucky knows the longer it takes, the more dangerously close he gets to your next heat. He knows an omega being in a distressed environment will affect the heat cycle. It could bring it on early, or potentially also push you to the extremes of a dry heat depending on the conditions they are keeping you in, and how you’re feeling. Once he determines he knows enough to start putting together a plan of extraction, he also determines it’s too close to when your heat might hit, and he can’t risk trying to extract you if you’re in heat – it becomes an element he can’t predict and ensure that his plan will still be successful.

His own senses are strained with the tenor of your unease in a way that’s different from before. It’s driving his alpha side mad, and he wants to storm the facility and reclaim you, and that’s one more element contributing to the volatility of the situation. He knows he can’t gamble on so many unpredictable elements.

He must wait.

But when he sees Captain Hydra leave in his jet right when Bucky is certain you are close to your heat, Bucky is stunned.

It might be too damn close to your heat, but clearly you’re not in heat yet or the other alpha would not leave you. This was not his plan, but it is a prime opportunity he can’t ignore – not if he can get to you alone and save you from a heat away from him. His heart can’t deny this unexpected opportunity.

After Bucky had hacked into the Hydra base’s network, he’d discovered that the small jet Captain Hydra had exclusive use of had been excluded from all navigational tracking and that the man only communicated by radio with one individual whenever he left. He’d further discovered that Captain Hydra was a weapon still cloaked from most of Hydra, with nothing about him other than his existence as a new asset available on the network. Even his former identity was not yet disclosed or recorded anywhere digitally.

This means Bucky has no idea where the man is going or when he will be back, but he hears Captain Hydra and his liaison discuss and confirm his time of arrival and his estimated time of return. Bucky must work quickly, but there is a window.

As he had not anticipated infiltrating so soon, he still has to finish putting things together for the actual extraction – like transportation, supplies, and thoroughly planning out three escape routes and destinations – and while he works quickly, he does not rush those final preparations, and so that takes him a significant amount of the window of time he knows he has.

But he only needs long enough to get you out.

He will have that.

He ambushes the delivery truck bringing in the week’s food shipment with no trouble and drives it right into the base as he has all the proper credentials on his person and its still pre-dawn hours, so lack of light works in his favor to get through the first gate.

But of course when he doesn’t follow delivery procedures once he rolls up to the shipping and receiving dock, that’s when his limited time really begins. The first decision he must make is whether or not to take out a man of average height but portly build that approaches the truck – one of the cooks, Bucky has studied the personnel files for everyone registered on this base – and Bucky evaluates as he steps out of the truck. He could kill him, but this man should probably be spared. Bucky doesn’t want unnecessary blood on his hands. So with lightning fast moves and a choke hold, the man goes down. But next are two security personnel, and them Bucky shoots point blank, taking each of them out with single shots. He leans down to lift the comms off one of them, putting the piece in his ear so he can hear everything as it unfolds across the base.

He yanks open the first door and moves down the hallway. And then there’s a frantic message over the comms, “Code Red! Winter Soldier, loading docks, two personnel down, in pursuit!”

Bucky growls and turns back down the hallway and swears when he sees the man putting comms in his ear and squaring up a gun he’d clearly lifted off one of the security guards was the cook he thought he’d put out cold. Apparently the man had more in him than Bucky had accounted for, and so now Bucky takes aim and shoots him once he’s close enough to secure the kill shot, only having to dodge two close but errant bullets himself as the cook had tried to run him down.

Lethal force for everyone it is, he thinks.

He’s irritated he wasted extra time on this man trying to keep down the body count.

He does not make that mistake again, killing everyone who comes across his path. The silver lining working in his favor is that this base in Turin is a science facility, not a military facility, so he has fewer muscle personnel to deal with than other places you could have been kept, and he can hear over the main comms that scientists and researchers are being given orders to shelter in place while there are instructions given over the security comms in Bucky’s ear that prime-level scientists are to be evacuated. It’s the directive he expected, which benefits him as the security personnel are split between pursuing him and evacuating those individuals deemed indispensable.

But dealing with those who are in pursuit of him is simple. When he’s out of ammunition, he makes quick work dealing what should be lethal wounds with his knives. Every man or woman down is one less he will need to contend with while trying to safely get you out, and while he’s reasonably sure he’s dealing death to everyone, there are a few he thinks may survive.

He has studied every aspect of this facility while making his preparations, and he sends a message to Captain Hydra that he was prepared by shooting glances cleanly into every camera he knows he passes.

There’s a flash of fear that ripples through him – it comes from the bond he’s tried to keep dormant between you since you were taken, but this is too powerful, and it’s a barb he can’t ignore. It flares and then dies out, which could be either a good thing or a bad thing. He squares his shoulders and moves more quickly.

As Bucky reaches the quadrant they’ve been keeping you a few moments later, the words, “The Omega is secured, sedated, and ascending to the roof with team Foxtrot, thirty seconds until air evac.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

He knows he can’t make it in time, but Bucky still races down the hall to the stairwell, launching through the door and then hurtling up the stairs, taking them three and four at a time. His super speed isn’t enough to scale four flights of industrial facility stairs, and he bursts out on the roof to see the coaxial helicopter already twenty meters up in the air and navigating away to the north.

He wants to shout until his lungs bleed because he was so close, but he knows he can’t afford to indulge in emotions that strong in this moment. Instead, he takes huge gulps of the fresh air, pulls the door from its hinges, and hurls it across the roof before going back down the stairs.

He does not engage with anyone but comes across few through his retreat. Instead, his focus now is decimating what he can of the facility without wasting time or going out of his way as he escapes the base, rigging explosives quickly in key areas on his way out.

While he left destruction in his wake, and he leaves alone, he was precise in how much damage he dealt. He left the area of main logistical operations intact because he didn’t want to destroy their network and communications, eliminating his ties to tracking their next moves.

Bucky immerses himself in tracking and monitoring everything the second he’s back in his hideout with his tech. He sees the Captain return. He watches the final evacuations. They send him to Geneva, and Bucky is ready to follow, knowing exactly where the Swiss facility is located since he’s fully infiltrated the Hydra network of information. He can’t travel as quickly since he doesn’t have access to any Hydra aviation, but he makes it there by sundown.

He wouldn’t risk trying to disrupt your heat now, not with everyone moved and on high alert, it would be dangerous for you. Instead, he works on setting up his new undercover observation point in Switzerland. He fine tunes his information tap into the Hydra system. As he works, he notices the rise of an anxious feeling pulling at his hind brain. He’s felt the press of you trying to reach across the bond while you’ve been apart, but this is different – there’s a frantic, wild tug, and while it’s insistent, it’s more erratic, like the flickering of a flame, as if you aren’t even concentrating on the connection to him.

He knows so much of you that he knows you have to be on the brink of your heat but that you must desperately be trying to fight it. The discomfort he can sense continues to ebb and flow. It morphs. It becomes tinged with more discomfort. Then there’s a lick of desire that is almost imperceptible. That’s followed rather quickly be a flare of adrenaline – or is it fear? Another shift a few minutes later, and tone of this is pure arousal, the feeling he’s shared so much of with you, and the thought that you…

He grits his teeth, shuts his eyes, and abruptly stills every muscle in his body. You are his omega. Another alpha bonded you. Your heat is undeniable. His brain knows that – it’s one of the things he’s been focusing on, acknowledging the various scenarios that could play out for this heat, he just did not want this, nor was he prepared for what it might feel like. And so, with forced, measured breaths, he does everything he can to concentrate on shutting down the connection, to put his alpha side to sleep, because he can not bear this. He has suppressed so much of everything since losing you, only holding onto the faintest tether, but he cannot endure this – not and keep his rationality and do what he needs to do now, which is to formulate the next steps, the things he needs to figure out and watch for now that this cruel game has changed. Emotion will distract him, but there’s also the flow that could go the other way and throw you off, and he swore to keep you safe.

Diving into the network databases of this new Hydra facility, Bucky notices something he noticed in Turin: there are no records that contain any of your names on file – not you, not Steve, not Sam. He thought it was strange before, but he had a theory it could have been the nature of secrecy around all the projects at the research facility in Turin – there were very few data files on the science being explored on that base. But in transferring the Turin personnel out, with a contingent of them going to Geneva, he pours over all the documentation and the only he finds is the transfer of a high-level asset referred to only as Waffe SR4718. He easily knows the German word for weapon, and without missing a beat Bucky knows the letters and numbers are supposed to seem random but clearly refer to Steve Rogers whose birthdate is the fourth day of the seventh month in the eighteenth year of the previous century. It’s innocuous to anyone coming across it, but abundantly clear that it’s specific for those who were supposed to know.

With all Bucky knows of his own time with Hydra, how there were always layers within layers, secrets buried, hidden, withheld, he’s certain the acquisition of Steve and metamorphosis into Captain Hydra is as dark and as quiet as his own existence as the Winter Soldier.

There are quarters assigned to Waffe SR4718, and Bucky tags it track all status alerts – comings and goings, services, requests. He also puts the cameras for that hallway up on a constant feed monitoring protocol with the AI he’s adapted to bring up the imagery if there’s any movement in or out of the door.

Knowing you’re in heat, Bucky concentrates on new extraction tactics and mapping out escape options from this new facility.

But at three in the morning during the second night in Geneva – the second night of your heat – the door movement alert goes off, and Bucky immediately turns his attention to watch as Steve slowly emerges.

Why would he have any reason to leave you during your heat? He knows he could order food, clothing, bedding, medical personnel if absolutely necessary…

A quick check of the log shows that there have been no such requests.

And then he sees the unthinkable.

You’re right there behind him, following as he starts to make his way down the hall, dressed in darker clothing as he is. He has a small tactical pack slung across his back.

“What the hell are you doing?”

The question is only uttered out of frustration and disbelief because he could immediately decipher what is happening.

As precarious as it is to interfere with your heat, the two of you are clearly on the move.

The other alpha has no intention of staying at this base.

But why?

His mind begins deciphering even as he’s pulling up security cameras as the pair of you move through the facility, tracking your movements and actions.

The calculated risk is to get out when you’re supposed to be in heat. Bucky did see that status reported on the log – omega in heat. The protocols were to leave alpha and omega Hydra personnel undisturbed unless a priority one situation developed – typically reserved for life or death and rarely anything less urgent or pressing. It meant no one would think to check after the asset immediately. Even if an alpha skipped regular ordering for a meal or two to the living quarters, that wouldn’t be taken as out of the ordinary, merely unnecessary or forgotten due to being otherwise occupied, or deciding to make do with the food already with them.

The movement logically progresses toward the transportation hangar under the building – intending to employ ground transport.

On the way, the two of you duck into a room and close the door. Bucky accesses the schematics to discover it’s a data analytics workspace – cooperative computer sharing area. There weren’t any goons to hide from, so Bucky works quickly, trying to pull up the specific workstations in there. He sees the log in for a science officer. The user accesses the personnel transfer files for everyone from the Turin base submitted due to the evacuation. Four names are brought up on the roster and their locations are changed from Turin to the other the other bases anyone from Turin was reassigned to – a pair of them to Odessa, the other pair to Trondheim.

Subterfuge. He’s displacing security agents – or at least their location statuses.

Bucky frowns.

The rest of your course takes you directly to the vehicle hangar. Moving in the dead of night has capitalized on as few people as possible moving around the base for you to encounter, and it paid off. The other alpha selects a smaller SUV, loads some readily available weapons and supplies from the nearby vicinity into the back and then – faster than lightning – he withdraws something from a pocket near his chest, presses it over your mouth, and Bucky can see you seize up and then slump into his arms. He tucks you in amongst the supplies before throwing a canvas over everything and closing the hatchback.

Clearly you had been cooperating with this escape, so why was it necessary to knock you out?

Then he leaves the vehicle, leaves the hangar, goes back up two floors to the security personnel floor, and knocks on one of the doors.

Bucky accesses the database to see who’s assigned to that room as he watches this man converse briefly with whoever answers the door.

The two names assigned to the room match the two names reassigned to the Trondheim base on the evacuation transfer records.

“What larger game are you playing, Captain Hydra?” Bucky murmurs.

Because it’s back down to the hangar and the SUV with you stashed in the back, but then he waits.

And within five minutes, two men in full tactical gear get in the vehicle as well, and only then does he start up the car and leave. There’s a tracking device on this vehicle, so Bucky starts to pack up his tech, and pulls up the tracking on his smartphone.

He’s about to shut and pack away his laptop when he thinks of doing one more thing. It will take time, and this is why he knows Captain Hydra didn’t do it, but it will be worth it. But after his time in Wakandan labs and building up his own robust systems, within twenty-five minutes, Bucky has gone through the security camera system and successfully removed all footage of you and the captain moving throughout the base, rewriting it with the empty hallways from just before and after, effectively erasing the evidence of your escape. This will buy more time. No one may have thought to look for any movement in and out of Waffe SR4718’s quarters, but now they won’t find it when they ultimately go back and try, extending Bucky’s time to tail you without Hydra in the mix. They will assume the alpha and omega are still in heat seclusion now without any reason to doubt it.

Bucky leaves his temporary Geneva hideout with the essentials he arrived with. He chose this location because it was two streets down from one of the larger private car services in Switzerland. Bucky knows he can pass as a mechanic with his clothing, and the service staff works overnight to keep up maintenance for the large fleet of vehicles that provide VIP transportation, airport pick up and drop off, limousine transfers, corporate chauffeur services, ski transfers, and event chauffeuring. Acquiring a non-descript vehicle is as easy as he hoped, and it’s more than simple to de-activate this car’s GPS tracking system.

Within half an hour, he’s comfortably in pursuit. The vehicle he’s tracking has maintained its course and is an hour out of the city now, but an hour ahead is reasonable.

When the Hydra vehicle is three hours outside of Geneva, it makes its first stop. Bucky presses a button on his phone to pin the location. The stop is for less than five minutes, and then it continues, but Bucky will stop there as well to assess the purpose and glean any information he can.

Bucky is an assertive driver, making up speed, but not at a point to draw attention. When he reaches the pin he’d set on the route for the stop your vehicle had made, it’s on a bridge.

There’s only one reason Bucky can think of to stop on a bridge.

A reason that could make Bucky’s heart stop with devastation, but he must continue to operate under the assumption it wasn’t your body dumped into the river. Anything else wouldn’t make sense.

Unless the other alpha has become completely unhinged and all of this is an elaborate game to drive Bucky beyond all limitations of his own reason.

Within the next two hours, he sees you pass the border into Germany, and then another stop is registered on the GPS tracking near the city of Albstadt. Bucky has made up a significant amount of the head start the other alpha had had. When he arrives in Albstadt, he finds the SUV. It is most likely that this vehicle had been abandoned for another, but Bucky has to stop at this point and tap into security feeds for the city to see whether you’re here or not. He picks a spot that advertises wifi with their sandwiches, refueling his body while setting up his tech in a spot most won’t question him to hunker down for some serious work on a laptop. He gets into the city’s street cameras, sees Steve steal another vehicle, pulls the license plate, and then he programs his algorithm to watch for the number to track the route now. He won’t be able to smoothly follow the route of a GPS-tracked vehicle anymore, but Bucky knew this would grow more difficult. As long as his goal was to draw out the Soldat, Captain Hydra will still leave a trail of breadcrumbs, but it will be scant if he’s trying to evade Hydra.

While Bucky has questions of intent, he has no question that it’s what the Captain is doing now.

Bucky is able to pick up the trail with license plate tracking and route mapping into Stuttgart. All the way to the train station. But this is where the other alpha shows incredible skills for blending in. It’s a busy station. Bucky will have to run thorough security camera assessments of the Stuttgart station, figure out when – or if – they got on a train, and then continue tracking from there. If the alpha and omega got on a train, Bucky can at least narrow his search to that route and its stops for that schedule, but Bucky used train stations to cover his tracks as well, and sometimes that involved never boarding the train but leading anyone tracking him to believe that he had.

With that much information, he writes new coding into his overall system, sends it back to the larger machine he left in Oakland to do the heavy computing so it can start the work he’ll need to fine tune once he can settle in a more permanent stopover, pays for his meal, and then drives to Stuttgart. The hacking into facial recognition has been so enhanced beyond boundaries though – especially because he can tailor it to look for only two faces he knows as well as his own – that he sees the two of your board a train headed west, targets the route, sets up the watch parameters for the schedule, and catches you getting off in Paris.

Another smart move blending into the vibrancy of a large city, but Bucky is sure it’s not the final destination either. But Steve knew enough French to blend into the country, as well.

It takes Bucky and his systems six more days, but he confirms three separate facial recognitions for the other alpha in a town outside of Bordeaux small enough to be off the beaten path but big enough to blend in and go unnoticed by its people.

Bucky travels there as quietly as possible. He does not want to tip his hand. He’s too close now to have you slip through his hands again.

After two more days and with the assistance of satellite imaging, he has found the small house in a forested area outside of the town.

Bucky grips the edge of the small desk he’s been working at, grounding himself. Adrenaline had immediately surged through his veins, but he must keep everything contained. He has practiced so much control and restraint that if his heart betrays him now, he’ll carve it out himself and leave it behind. He cannot compromise this delicate situation.

He drives out to the area and leaves his vehicle well-hidden a kilometer out from the house and approaches on foot, circling at a large perimeter and slowly moving further in, cautiously, taking in everything. He doesn’t want to trip anything the other alpha may have set up to alert him to intruders.

What he discovers is minimal, and all old tactical elements – things they’d done as

Cap and the Howling Commandos back in the old war.

Effectively things that would have worked on anyone from this day and age but that only Bucky would know to look for.

He doesn’t trust it.

This is another trap.

But he has to walk into it and fare as best he can.

That’s what Captain Hydra had said was his plan from the beginning – draw out the Soldat.

The White Wolf would enter the trap but would need to control it and come out on the other side with his omega. 

He can’t even think those words without his pulse racing now, and he digs his vibranium fingers into the trunk of the tree under his hand, splintering the wood while he closes his eyes and stamps down everything that wants him to sprint to the house he can see, break down the door, and launch himself into your arms.

He timed his approach when he’d seen the other alpha leave – likely for more food and supplies – but he knew the time alone would be limited.

Bucky takes measured but determined steps to the green wooden front door of what’s essentially a little cottage.

Straining his ears and focusing on his enhanced hearing, he doesn’t pick up anything beyond ambient noises – and your soft, slow breathing.

He takes a deep breath, slowly twists the doorknob, and opens the door.

There you are, curled up in a cozy armchair, dozing, hand pressed up against the spine of a book that has fallen to your chest after you clearly fell asleep reading, and this.

This simple scene nearly knocks him to his knees.

The way you’re there, feet away from him, it’s the most beautiful sight of his entire life.

But still, he is quiet, cautious.

His entire chest aches for you.

He shuts the door softly behind him, then crosses the small living room and kneels next to you. He eases the book out of your hands and puts it on the small side table. He’s done this before so many times. You make a slight hum through your sleep.

Brushing his fingers over your cheek is almost enough to make the nightmare of the last six weeks vanish as if it really had only been a nightmare.

He almost doesn’t dare to breathe.

But the warmth of his hand against your skin evidently reaches in to stir something in your subconscious, because you shift slightly, sigh, and tilt your head into his touch and murmur, “Bucky…”

The stutter of his chest is both painful and euphoric at once, and everything wells up in his chest, everything he’s been holding back.

He drops his hand from your cheek to your shoulder, gently trying to nudge you awake.

Coming back into consciousness, you take in a deep breath before blinking your eyes open. Your gaze drifts to him, and then your body seizes up one moment, and the next you’re scrambling up and away from him, whipping over the back of the armchair you’d been curled up in.

“Bucky?” your voice comes out in a wounded whimper of a tone that pierces him, confounds him.

“Yes, it’s me,” he answers, brow furrowing. He hadn’t allowed himself to think over what this moment was going to be like – he knew the fixation would have been too painful to hope over – but it was not supposed to be this, with you looking at him with caution, with hesitancy, with your guard up.

“Omega?” he questions tentatively, rising from where he’d been crouched on the floor.

You don’t move your position, but you draw yourself up to your full height as well.

Bucky maneuvers around the furniture, wanting to remove the barrier between you, but he changes his position slowly, allowing you time to retreat if you feel compelled to. You hold your ground but do keep yourself squared off facing him as he moves. He does what he hasn’t done since this ordeal began and definitively opens up the gateway of the bond between you, tentatively reaching out, trying to read you.

Your mood is hard, and it doesn’t fluctuate. There’s a steady mix of fear, doubt, and what he thinks is exasperation there.

No, it’s more than that.

“You’re angry with me?”

“I’m more than angry with you!” you hurl the words at him and cross your arms over your chest. “I’m livid.”

“I came to you as fast as I could!” He steps closer, and now you step back. He moves closer again, but with a smaller step.

“It’s not that, I know you worked as hard as you could–“

“Then what else could you possibly be upset about, Omega?” His tone is desperate, earnestly seeking the answer, but also tinged with a warning he can’t help from bleeding into the question.

“I couldn’t feel you.” The anger gives way to let the anguish of your words bleed through, and they sweep over both of you. “You cut yourself off from me. I was desolate and scared and alone, and you withdrew any hint of our connection.”

He steps forward once more, finally close enough to reach for you, and as he continues to close the distance, you unfold one of your arms and backhand slap him. “I needed you!”

Bucky staggers a step back from the raw force you hurled at him, but it only takes him the space of a breath for him to recover enough, and he surges forward and pulls you into his arms, uttering your name the way one pleads in a fraught prayer. You try and push against his chest and squirm out of his arms, but he only secures you more firmly, holding you dearly and desperately to him.

“I needed you,” you sob out. Instead of continuing to try to struggle away from him, to hold your hurt at bay, he feels you stop fighting and the turn as you let everything out. He holds you, soothing you, but not trying to quell any of this yet. He knows everything you’re feeling is warranted, can feel now that you held back as much as he did while you were apart. Endured as much hurt as he did – more in many ways. He won’t tell you to settle down, because the hurt needs to be acknowledged and not minimized.

Once your chest is no longer wracked with sobs, when your crying has abated from steady streams of tears to the small sniffling, he gently wipes the tears from your cheeks. Then Bucky decisively nuzzles his face down into the crook of your neck. Slowly, tentatively, he presses his lips to the place he claimed and bonded you as his omega, his mate. You whimper, but your hands clutch at his shirt, and the immediate flood of relief, of love, of devotion, washes over you both. He can feel it, he knows you feel it.

His large hands are planted firmly on your back, one at the curve of your spine, and one between your shoulder blades, pressing you as close together as he possibly can. He plants a longer, more concentrated kiss to the mark, and your right hand slides up to thread your fingers into his hair and press him closer.

The more he kisses into your neck, the more whole he feels. He had ignored the hollow, empty feeling in his chest, had truly rejected all feeling, as cold and empty as he’d operated while being the Winter Soldier. He’s feeling human again. Himself again – or at least it’s all coming back to him now.

He doesn’t even realize when your body has fully melted into him, too caught up in the mending of the connection, but then you’re urging his face up away from your neck, but only so you can press your forehead to his, and you say, “I need you, Bucky.”

He nods, and then you kiss him. In a movement familiar to you both, his hand moves down, curving over your ass and to the back of your thigh, and he picks you up. Your legs wrap around him as you deepen the kiss, nipping at his lips. He carries you across the big open space to where there’s a bed in the far corner.

He sets you down gently on your feet, and his hands are already reaching for the hem of your shirt, and you readily lift your arms so he can pull it cleanly off your body. You’re reaching for his belt, and he’s pulling his own shirt over his head. Your lips eagerly seek each other as much as they can. You push his dark jeans down, and he huffs and sits down at the foot of the bed so he can hastily unlace and yank his boots off, so he can shuck his pants off all the way. When he raises his head, you stand before him in nothing but your simple underwear, one hand pressed against your torso, biting your lip.

You’re so damn beautiful to him, his heart aches again at the sight of you nearly naked before him again after so long torn apart.

He reaches for you, and though you don’t hesitate to take his hand, as he tugs you into his lap, your thighs straddling either side of his hips, he doesn’t miss the slight tremble of your body, and it kills him but there’s a deep part of him that resonates, recognizes the feeling. The separation had been hell on an alpha and omega level, and this is still too much, overwhelming, and altogether not nearly enough to soothe the deep loneliness he had pushed beneath the surface. His arms wrap around you again. While your left arm wraps around his neck, your right hand roams over his bare skin – shoulder, arms, chest, neck, face – questing to rememorize him.

He wants to be inside you, but having your chest pressed into to his chest, it’s like your heartbeats are syncing back together, and he almost needs this more. The side of your face rests against his, and the way he can hear you breathe in and out right next to his ear, can feel the warmth of every exhale, it’s yet another inimitable balm he didn’t know he longed for.

He murmurs your name softly against your shoulder.

“Mmm?”

He knows you can tell he’s working out something to say. Every season you two had been together had been time you had worked to only continually knit your souls more tightly to each other, not only to love each other more, but to understand each other, to work together, to support and lean into each other as true partners.

It had made the separation all the more painful.

He squeezes you more tightly for a moment, then inhales to speak. “I need to tell you why I put up the walls I did.”

He feels you tense slightly in his arms – of course he does, there’s no way for him to miss it any more than there was any chance for you to try and hide it when this intimately entwined. He bestows a soft, light kiss to your bonding mark, and you whimper, but turn your head to brush your lips over his cheek, and then both of you draw back just enough to look at each other.

“I’ll never know if it was the right or wrong thing to do to you, but it felt like the only way I could hope to survive navigating back to you. Immediately I knew I couldn’t allow the anguish of pain and anger I was feeling to flood to you when I knew you were living your own nightmare. When I held that back, the way Hydra had conditioned me to repress all feelings when I was their fist resurfaced, and I knew shelving the emotions would leave me to focus and be more effective in everything I was doing to track you and find you.”

“Bucky,” you start, but he shakes his head slightly, his eyes pleading for you to let him continue. You give a little huff. “Okay.”

The corner of his mouth lifts, and he pecks your lips before going on. “When I was closing in on where they were keeping you, I didn’t want to alert you and have you have to worry about how to hide that.”

“That’s a fair strategic tactic,” you grudgingly admit.

He grins at your tone, but it abates quickly. “I also…”

He pauses for half a beat and takes a breath to steel his resolve because you deserve his raw honesty as it’s still a concern in play.

“Also what?”

“I didn’t know how much of our bond he would feel. I didn’t want to tip him off, but I – I didn’t want to feel what might go the other way and bleed from him through you either.”

“Oh, Buck,” you bury your head into the crook of his neck now, nuzzling against the bonding mark you’d given him. “Our bond is ours, not his.”

“It’s not?”

“No, no,” you press quick successive kisses against your bonding mark on the juncture of his neck and shoulder. “You might feel the wake of what I feel from his bond to me, but the ties to each of you are very distinct within me. I’m especially sure of it now that ours isn’t dormant anymore.”

He holds you close while he sorts through this revelation from you. “I didn’t know – and I was worried if I felt him it would either devastate or enrage me and either way make me overrule logic and slip up, do something rash.”

“Now I understand,” you speak right into his ear. “Concentrate though, what do you feel right now?”

He breathes in. Breathes out. Another breath in. Out.

“Only you,” he says, no question.

Your lips drift back down his neck, and you press an insistent kiss to your claim on him this time, then you open your lips and suck over the spot.

Bucky shivers and groans, and you wince and laugh when his arms flex around you so tightly it actually hurts. Because he reacts so strongly, it doesn’t shock him in the slightest that you’re spurred on to seek more, but now he’s ready, so when you’ve satisfied with your initial torment and he feels you slot your teeth over the mark, he bares his neck, ready when you bite down to renew your claim on him, and he shouts – euphoric, flooded and overwhelmed with the way everything opens in such a raw way when a bonding mark is refreshed.

It drives you to rock your hips against him. You’re both still in those last pieces of underwear, but the friction of your cunt against his cock is glorious, and he can’t help the satisfied rumble in his chest in answer to the simple action.

His hand clamps on your plump, round ass, and he pushes you hard against him and holds you there – he doesn’t want the rocking, for a moment he just wants the intense pressure, the reality that you’re here with him.

You crash your lips to his desperately. He slants his head and works his tongue along the seam of your mouth, which willingly parts for him, an open moan passing between you both, your tongue inviting him into your mouth, stroking against his. Both of you fiercely hold onto each other, keeping that close chest to chest contact while you kiss more than you breathe. When you ultimately have to break off from each other to get air back in your lungs, the heaving expansion of your ribcages against each other is such a simple but intense intimacy, breaths mingling – another moment that adds to the replenishment for how much his soul had been depleted without you.

“Need you inside me,” you plead.

He nods while turning and tossing you onto the bed.

As he climbs up to join you, you quip, “No more clothes, Alpha.”

“Bossy Omega,” he chuckles, but complies in pushing his boxer briefs down and tossing them away.

You quirk your lips. “Give me what I need, and I won’t need to be so demanding.”

He growls, but it’s teasing, the feeling in his heart is a light one, a feeling he feels echoed in you, lines of it running through the overwhelming need.

Bucky moves up the bed, hooks his fingers beneath the band of your underwear, and you lift your hips so he can remove them immediately. He leans down and presses a broad flat lick of his tongue over your hip bone, causing you to squirm – desire and a sensitive spot of skin he discovered on your years ago. “I know what you need, Omega.”

“Yes, Alpha,” you nod eagerly, and he flips you over onto your stomach

He hears your breath hitch. He knows you love roughness and to be handled as often as you love softness, but the latter isn’t what you need right now. He crawls up over you and plants his left arm up by your shoulder while he slots himself between your legs. Your left hand finds his, twining your fingers together while he lines up his cock with your slick entrance, and the sigh of ecstasy that escapes you as he pushes his length in sings in his ears. The feeling of your warm channel gripping him is better than he remembered – or at least it feels that way – and he tries to push in as slowly as he can to savor coming home to where he belongs inside you, but it’s not nearly as slow as he wants it to be.

Once he’s fully sheathed in you, he kisses your shoulder, then nips along until he’s at the juncture of your neck, and you keen and bare your neck to him. He licks over his bonding mark, then bites down, reclaiming you, and you cry out, body thrumming beneath him. He starts to move behind you, pulling his hips back before thrusting back in. Your right leg hitches back to tangle up and over his, urging him on. He grips your hip, and then he fucks you. It’s the most primal it’s ever felt with you, the force of it rocking the bed to knock against the wall, and he almost worries about whether or not it’s too much, but you rock back against him, meeting his thrusts as much as you can in your prone position, eagerly taking all of him.

“That’s it, darling, take my hard cock inside you,” he urges you both on.

You sob out a breathless, “Yes,” that makes his chest rumble in satisfaction.

He can feel your cunt fluttering around him, can feel you on the edge of ecstasy, but it also feels like you’re refusing to fall over the edge.

“Come on, darling, let go.”

“No.”

That shocks him but doesn’t slow him down.

He maintains his pace and slips his hand down between you and the mattress, cupping your pussy and finding your clit. “Yes.” He starts to rub quick, concentrated circles over your tight bundle of nerves.

You shake your head desperately. “No, I don’t want it to end,” the words tumble out, and he hears the sound of you crying again.

“Omega, I will give you more. I’ll give you as much as you need, but I need you to give in to this, surrender and fall over the edge with me again.”

“Bucky!” you cry out as you’re unreservedly flung over the edge. Your cunt clamping down on him was the last of what he needed to reach his own climax, and so his shout echoes your own, and he exerts those final thrusts to pump his seed deep within you.

He stays sheathed within you but rolls both of you to your sides, brackets his arm around your waist, and keeps you close, nuzzling into your neck. You sink back against him, resting your arm over his and threading your fingers together.

“That was…”

He nudges your chin for you to turn your head back so he can kiss away the tears that escaped during the emotions that came through there at that end.

“Intense?”

“Yes.”

“We both needed it, Omega. I need you as much as you need me. Do not doubt it.” You shiver in his arms, and he swears, “I’ll make sure you never question it again.”

“Never let me go.”

“Never again.”

You shift and turn over to face him. He’s just as content to wrap you in his arms this way. You tangle your legs with his as you have so many times before. This is so familiar.

You brush your fingers over his face, retracing the lines and angles that define him, and he watches your face as your eyes drink in his features.

“I’m yours, Omega,” he says in a quiet, low tone.

A soft smile lifts the curve of your mouth. Your hand cradles his jaw and beckons him in to kiss you, and he is happy to acquiesce. The kisses he shares with you now are slow, solemn promises of lips and tongues, heated but not demanding.

When you eventually come up for air, you tuck yourself more closely into his chest, humming with contentment. He’s half hard again, and the frantic last moments of the sex he shared with you flashes back to the forefront of his mind. “I promised to give you more. What do you need from me? Tell me how I can please you, how I can love you.”

You reach up and press your fingers delicately against his bonding mark. “Just this. Hold me. I only need to be with you.”

He can feel how true it is as your fingers stroke lightly over the place where you claimed him all those years ago, reclaimed him here in this bed, flooding him with more peace. His brushes his lips over your forehead. “Whatever you want, sweetheart.”

There’s a little chirp that bubbles up out of you when he calls you sweetheart again, and it makes him just as happy as it does you. He slowly caresses your back, hand moving up and down, up and down, in a soothing motion, soothing himself as much as you.

There is still so much ahead for you both, but this – your connection to each other – he can feel that again so strongly. He never doubted it, but after being deprived, the return of how powerful it is engulfs him. This will anchor him through what’s coming.

“Buck?” you murmur against his neck.

“Mmm?”

“I can tell your brain is beginning to work away from here.”

He sighs. “Can you blame me?”

“No, but talk to me, take me with you if you’re going to think.”

“There’s so much to think through.”

“Start with one thing.”

You’ve done this with him before – late nights, afternoons, mornings, on a drive, on a walk, sharing a meal – you could always feel when he started to get tied up in his brain with his thoughts, and you’d listen, ask questions, sift through with him. He was perfectly capable of sorting through things on his own, but sharing with you made it altogether different. It was one of the best parts of having you as his mate.

“Why…?” He frowns and trails off. “No, nevermind.”

“No, Buck. I worked hard to soothe and relax my alpha. I want this gift of respite with you, however brief it is, and whatever string you don’t want to tug on first clearly is one that’s important.”

He nips your shoulder. “My gutsy omega.”

“Alpha,” you press, also literally pressing a finger insistently against his chest.

“Alright…” His tone turns serious. “Why didn’t you try to escape – especially here where he leaves you alone sometimes?” From the way he’d found you, it was clear this wasn’t an anomaly.

You cluck your tongue impatiently and roll your eyes. “First, how was I reasonably supposed to outrun him, hide from him, and try to find you? I don’t have any of the tactical skills or training you two do.”

“Fair enough. And second?” The first point is obvious now that he’s asked it and heard you answer, but he wants to hear the rest of what you have to say.

“Second,” you continue, your tone altering to something more somber, “he took me to lure you to him, so the most logical thing was to stay and wait for you.”

“Ah,” Bucky nods, the smallest of smiles taking over his mouth. “My smart omega.”

“And third,” you continue, though your words tone is cautious now, and you drop your eyes to his chest.

“Yes?” he urges you to finish the thought.

“He’s my alpha, too.”

This isn’t news – he’s known it from the second he witnessed that bite to claim you, he thought of it frequently while he was hunting for you both, he knew it would be the new reality, you’d even discussed the two bonds together in this bed – and yet having to think about it yet again in this light is still straining on him.

Clearly you feel his unrest, because your hands come up to cup his face and basically attempt to soothe him with gentle but insistent strokes along his jaw. “Bucky, I’m always going to be yours.”

He sighs and angles his head down to touch his forehead to yours. “I know.”

And it’s not jealousy that drives his unrest – it’s the not knowing what this means, not right now and not for the future. He’s started thinking about possibilities, but he’s limited until he can confront the other alpha. So, he decides to concentrate on what it has meant so far.

He makes sure his tone is soft but serious when he asks, “Did he hurt you?”

You’re quiet for a beat, then say, “I don’t know how to answer that.”

Bucky starts to sit up, but you pull him back down to the mattress, trying earnestly to soothe him. “What he did hurt us both, and it was meant to hurt. It was absolutely calculated. But they broke him, Bucky. They tortured him and tried to make him comply for weeks. They were experimenting on Sam, trying to pull the science they could from old records on you and what they could pull from analyzing Steve’s blood, but they weren’t having success, and so they enacted their last use for Sam – and they killed him in front of Steve. It destroyed him.”

Bucky’s own chest aches as he listens, throbbing painfully at this reveal, and his vibranium hand fists the sheet.

“And when he was at his most devastated and spent emotionally, what I have been able to piece together is that that’s when he couldn’t stand to feel anymore, shut off his emotions – or his humanity more like, and it’s his humanity that made him Steve. That’s when they were able to take over and mold him into the fist they wanted in Captain Hydra.”

Hurt, anger, the horror of his own past life as the Winter Soldier, it’s surging through his veins, but you continue.

“So that night in Wakanda? That was Captain Hydra at his height of cruelty. I haven’t seen that iteration of him since that night. It’s been slow, but he’s different now. He’s not our Steve, but he’s not Captain Hydra.”

It’s a few moments before he registers that you’re done – at least with that piece of sharing.

He cups your jaw and looks into your eyes. “Do you trust him?”

He sees you clearly put thought into your words before answering, worrying your bottom lip. “The heat he and I shared was intense in every way. It changed things fundamentally between us, but since the heat our connection has still been very tenuous. We’ve both been very guarded with each other. I know he’ll keep me safe, but I’m still wary of him.”

He nods.

“Where is he right now?”

A wry laugh tumbles out of your chest. “I don’t even know where we are right now, Bucky. I know we got off a train in Bordeaux, but then he moved us here while I was in one of my heavy end of heat sleeps. From the food, books, and supplies he’s brought for us, I know we’re in France, but that’s it. There’s not a lick of technology kept in here while I’m alone. We don’t even a radio.”

Bucky grunts at this news. He doesn’t like this, but other than being kept here cut off from the rest of the world and having claimed you and separated you in the first place, it seems you’ve been appropriately cared for.

“Wait, no radio?” He growls. Bucky had looked away to consider the new information, but his eyes snap to you again. “Have you had any music?”

“No,” you groan, and he can feel the pained irritation.

“That won’t do.” 

He quickly rolls off the bed to a small whine of protest from you, but it was so rare that he’d ever been in a space with you and there hadn’t been music playing – loud for you to sing, or low in the background keeping you company – and this is something he can fix easily.

He fishes the small communications device he had put together out of the pocket of his discarded pants, then comes back to sit on the foot of the bed and begins typing away. You’re quick to crawl up behind him, and you wrap your arms around his chest and settle your chin on his shoulder while he works. You don’t see the smile that breaks across his face as he feels your excited impatience radiate off you, having figured out what he’s doing. It’s so palpable he wouldn’t have needed your emotional bond as alpha and omega to sense it.

Once he’s modified his device to play music, it doesn’t take him much longer to hack into your music account. He pulls up the list of your most-played songs, picks one that he thinks will be perfect for this moment, and hits play.

You croon with joy and then fall back on the bed, arms spread out in pure rapture. He beams and then crawls up next to you, handing you the device. You hold it close to your chest with one hand and pull him in for a kiss with the other.

You break off the kiss so you can sing along to the chorus, and he laughs. He knows exactly the last time he felt this happy: the last day by the river with you in Wakanda. When the chorus is over, you actually kick your feet in delight, grinning at him. You kiss his nose, scoot your body as close to him as possible, then settle back into the mattress and pull his arm to rest over your stomach.

The two of you talk, sing, and continue to hold each other for a while. A string of two or three softer songs play, and you and up drifting into sleep, late afternoon sun pouring over both of you, its warmth too much for you to ignore after the physically and emotionally exhausting afternoon. He watches the rise and fall of your chest, his hand over your heart, no thought for time. He doesn’t want to move, doesn’t want to take his eyes off you. How did he survive without you for all those weeks?

A flare of light across the room pulls his focus though. It’s a repetitive flashing coming through the window to the wall.

Morse code. His blissful mood evaporates.

C-O-M-E  O-U-T-S-I-D-E

The other alpha is out there, summoning him.

He identifies which window the light is being directed into, then pads over, and releases the drape to cover the window, pulls it back, covers it again, and then secures it back in its open state. The other alpha will know he’s received the message.

Bucky has referred to him as the other alpha for so long now, but he’s ultimately about to discover who this man is. You say he’s no longer The Captain Hydra that he was, but not yet his Steve either.

He doesn’t hurry getting dressed. The other alpha isn’t going anywhere. He’s waited this long. He can continue to wait.

Bucky takes a long look at you from across the room before he leaves.

He’s relatively sure he will come back to you. There’s only one outcome that will keep him away, and now that he knows the potential danger, he won’t let this man ambush him ever again.

Bucky stalks as carefully to the tree line where the signal had come from as he had when he’d first approached the little house. He can smell the other alpha on the breeze that rustles through the trees. He tracks him in a kilometer or so – not in the direction Bucky had left his vehicle, but that works fine for him because if he needs to cut and run, he’ll be able to get to you in the house and then continue on to get to the getaway without having to double back and without the other alpha being able to cut off the route.

Bucky will think through every possible scenario as each moment of this unfolds.

His brain got him here.

His brain can get him out.

He will keep you safe.

The scent he’s known nearly his whole life grows stronger, and when he reaches a small pocket of the forest devoid of trees – not quite large enough to be called a clearing – instead of slipping silently out of the shadows, the other alpha steps out unabashedly to meet him.

“What took you so long, Buck?” he has the gall to ask, his voice barely covering notes of anger.

Bucky roars and hurls himself at the man standing before him, taking him to the ground easily, and they scramble against each other. They’re so closely matched in skill, prowess, and power, and the energy they’re both exuding is raw, primal, and angry. Bucky is incredulous that the other man is angry with him.

His own rage lands him a punch. He takes a blow to the ribs, and the other alpha gets a hand on the collar of his shirt, resulting in a tear, but it allows Bucky to grab his wrist, twist him around harshly, and pin the arm behind his back as he decisively thumps him into the ground, pinning him there.

The man beneath him only makes two attempts to struggle and shift out from under his hold, but then he sighs and sags into the tall grass they’ve been tussling in.

Is he feinting?

Bucky honestly doesn’t know.

“Who am I talking to?” he asks – the same line of inquiry Steve used on him in an abandoned warehouse outside of Berlin.

He knows it, letting out a guffaw beneath him. “I’m not him anymore.”

“Not who?”

“I’m no longer their Captain Hydra,” he pauses before adding, “but I’m not the kid from Brooklyn either.”

Bucky knows they’re not going to stay like this forever, and he needs to see this man’s face and look into his eyes if he’s going to be able to sort out any of this, so as swiftly as he can, he releases the alpha, pushes himself up, and takes a wary stance a few meters away.

Steve remains on the ground, but rolls over and sits up, planting his feet on the ground, and leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. It’s almost a casual.

Bucky will have the advantage of already being up on his feet if the man before him tries anything.

Bucky needs to know how to read whoever this is, so he decides to go with a different line of questioning – things that are more cut and dry.

“When you left the base in Geneva, there were two Hydra security with you. You stopped over a bridge two hours into your journey, and they weren’t with you when you switched vehicles in Albstadt. Who were they, and why the elaborate ruse only to drop them in a river so quickly?”

Rather than being surprised, it seemed he was satisfied that Bucky knew this much about what had played out. “Alright, we can start there. Leaving under the initial guise of a mission on security footage was supposed to be helpful when they started looking for me.”

“And why move the records of their transfer files to other facilities with two others?”

“I’m glad you picked up on that, too. Buying more time for some missing personnel before it was suspect and they figured out they really didn’t know where they were.”

“And why them?”

“Arbitrary.”

“Bullshit. You’ve gone on solo missions as Captain Hydra and you didn’t buy enough extra time by leaving with a two-man team to make it worth the set up only to drop them in the river without a reason.”

Steve’s brows knit together, and he chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment before answering. “One was arbitrary. He just happened to be the roommate of my target. The one I was after? He was part of the extraction team who took our omega out of Turin. Specifically, he’s the one who handled her so roughly she had bruises from his casual brute strength. I watched the footage to figure out who hurt her.”

Bucky cocked his head and studied the man before him.

“I had only been an alpha to her for a month and I was willing to kill someone who harmed her. What are you going to do to me, Buck?”

Bucky turned and paced way, running his hands through his hair. He didn’t want to show this much unrest in front of the other alpha, but he was thinking and feeling so much, trying to read and decipher too many pieces.

He lets out a long exhale and just speaks the truth. He can’t try and take any other angle. “I haven’t decided yet.”

Before all of this, if there had ever been a situation in which Bucky would have needed to trust someone else to keep you safe, Steve would have been his immediate answer.

Steve waits silently.

There are so many questions he wants answers to, and so he starts asking them. The answers don’t shock him, and he can see that even when Steve doesn’t tell him the full truth, it’s a cautious guarding of information, but he detects no lies in any of it. That Steve has some guards up also seems tenuous, possibly temporary, like if he can only ask the right question, the tide will turn.

But it couldn’t be that simple with Steve, could it?

And when did he start to think of him as Steve again?

Bucky deals out one of the questions he’s had the longest, since the very beginning of this. “What you said that night in Wakanda – you did all of this to draw me out. Why?”

Steve lets it hang in the air for a moment, but Bucky can see this is a crux for this conversation with him, too.

“I can’t explain everything that went into that plan – I don’t know if the machine of Captain Hydra was fully in control or if part of the old me was trying to grasp at you as a lifeline, but as the weeks wore on, the strategist in me knew he needed either the Soldat to join him or his best friend to save him.”

Those words sink into Bucky, and he can understand that explanation as no one else in this world can.

“What took you so long?” Steve asks again, but this time it’s tinged only with angst, not anger.

The accusation in it unsettles Bucky.

He’s still not sure how to address the question, but he starts with, “The Soldat is gone. The Winter Soldier? Not who I needed to be to get here either.”

Steve pushes up from the ground but maintains the distance Bucky put between them. “Who are you now then?”

Bucky narrows his eyes. “Depends on who’s standing in front of me.”

Steve looks off into the trees for a moment – in the direction of the cottage.

Bucky’s instincts have failed him less than a handful of times.

They’re telling him now that’s where to start, even though he’s not sure exactly where it will end. “I’ve seen a lot of versions of you – my childhood best friend, the punk who couldn’t stay out of trouble, the stars and stripes symbol, Captain America, the target who wouldn’t let me assassinate him and then refused to finish me off in the hellicarrier, the Cap who went against the Accords, Nomad in exile – but always Steve. You’ll never be who you were before – I never was. Doesn’t mean you’re irredeemable.”

Steve scoffs. “It’s not that easy.”

Bucky gives a wry laugh and shakes his head. “I more than know that. But you’re shades of all those men right now in front of me. She sees it, too.”

“God, she…” Steve shakes his head, puts one hand on his hip, and scrubs over his face with the other.

“If you can be you, if you can be Steve, she will have you.” He’s not sure where the words came from, but he himself believes them as he says them.

“I don’t know if I can be.”

“Do you want to be?”

Steve doesn’t answer immediately. Bucky can see him sincerely work over the question in his mind. It’s a simple inquiry, but one that will define everything, and Bucky knows he will be completely behind whatever answer he gives because that is the core of who this man is and always has been – fully committed to his convictions.

When Steve says, “Yes,” Bucky can hear the heaviness in his voice. Bucky nods.

“What about you?” Steve asks.

Bucky shifts his weight from one foot to the other as he digs back into himself and where his head, his heart, and his gut now sit with all of this. But the answer is clear enough. “Till the end of the line,” he answers.

“Even after I–“

“Stop,” Bucky cuts him off. “I’ve had little more to think about over the last six weeks than us – all of us. And it felt like my heart started beating again when I found her, but you… Before this I never fully understood why you fought so hard to get through to me when I was trying to kill you in DC all those years ago, why you searched for me for years, why you were a goddamn pain in the ass who wouldn’t abandon me in Berlin and believed in me without question, but now I get it. We are in each other’s bones.”

He doesn’t move, but Bucky sees the look change in Steve’s eyes, and he can practically feel the air alter between them. They’ve always had an acute awareness of each other, and Bucky can feel the tentative return of it, like déjà vu even though he’s still figuring out who this Steve is or who he will be.

“When did you start giving Captain America speeches?” Steve finally asks.

Bucky shrugs. “One of us had to do it.”

“What now then?”

Bucky has sketched out many scenarios for how things play out from here, but every stage of this, every new revelation shifts the direction they’re heading. Even in the last two minutes things have significantly shifted again.

Bucky licks his lips and stares at Steve for another beat before he decides to head down a path he hopes is the right one. “You’re always a man with a plan, so you tell me. Tell me where this started, when it changed, where you think it ends. I figured out a lot, I have theories, and I still have questions.”

“We went to Italy to investigate a lead that came up on our radar. We thought it was an innocuous enough whisper about a couple of Hydra scientists. And don’t,“ Steve pauses to pointedly look at him because Bucky was already opening his mouth to argue. “I already know you’re going to say we should have involved you, I thought of it every day they were holding us captive. I thought it the second I heard their boots. It was a week after you left for Wakanda, and Sam–“

He pauses again, and his shoulders fall just a fraction.

“Sam and I weren’t gonna bother you.”

“She told me about Sam,” Bucky says.

Steve closes his eyes for a moment, pressing his lips together. “I told her enough about what happened, but I didn’t tell her everything.” He opens his eyes and meets Bucky’s again. His face is truly haunted, and Bucky nods, his own chest tight. He knows more than enough about that. He had still had to face the demons of his past, but when he was ready, and he had fought to find his way to do that. Steve would find a way, but it would take time, and not likely be the same journey.

“After they killed Sam, they got a raw version of me, shut down, and they went to work conditioning me, shaping me into Captain Hydra. I was too lost to fight anything. I couldn’t save him. I failed us. I didn’t want to be me. It was easy too easy for them to get the version of me they wanted when I was like that.”

There’s a full shift in how Steve lays everything out – and as he shares, Bucky knows it’s still not everything, but he can feel that it’s everything Steve can bear to tell him.

“It wasn’t your fault.”

Steve tilts his head and looks off into the forest. “It was and it wasn’t. It will always haunt me.”

“It will, but less and less.”

Bucky walks to the edge of the small clearing and sits on a fallen log. Steve follows him.

“When I was trying to find you after DC and taking down S.H.I.E.L.D. I read everything they had on record about you, how they conditioned you. They used some but not all the same methods on me.”

“I couldn’t find anything on you, and I found more than enough other hidden monstrosities in their networks these past weeks.”

“I think they got smarter after we were hunting them after exposing them – they couldn’t keep everything off the databases, but they have projects now that they keep paper-only, small teams. There was the team that captured us, but after they put us in a holding cell, we were transferred. From that point through the torture, the breaking point, and the conditioning I only saw four faces – three scientists and one officer who became my liaison. When they sent or let me out into the field, I never went with a team of more than four of their men, always the same four. Two of them I ended at that bridge.”

Bucky nods.

Already his mind is calculating – this means they could potentially contain and eliminate all of the people who knew any specifics about Captain Hydra.

“One of the scientists was killed when you stormed the facility in Turin.”

Bucky raises his brows. Even better.

Steve goes on to tell him about how he was sent on a few missions to test his loyalty before he was given the task to bring back the Soldat.

“I didn’t have a chair, and they were very adamant that my point person was my liaison and not a handler, they gave me a fair amount of autonomy. They didn’t want me to drag you in. They wanted you to join me. I think they felt like an asset who had to be controlled could break free as they saw with you the first time around, and this time they wanted operatives who weren’t giving controlled compliance, but allegiance instead.”

Bucky grunted. “A tether rather than a leash.”

“Yeah.”

“But you knew who I was tethered to.”

Steve’s head drops. “Yeah.”

“And you knew I’d be the most vulnerable and off my guard in Wakanda.”

“I did.”

Bucky lets him sit with that discomfort.

Bucky has replayed that night in his mind so many times.

“But your plan changed that night. I didn’t register it in the moment, but everything about you changed the moment you bit into her neck to claim her.”

Steve doesn’t deny it.

“Before you sunk your teeth into her, you were taunting me, dangling her like something to be smashed and discarded, you didn’t even know if it would work, and I think part of you thought it might even kill her.”

Bucky sees Steve’s jaw tick.

“You were in no way prepared for how a bond would change you fundamentally as an alpha.”

“Obviously it didn’t flip a switch immediately, but yes, it altered what I intended to do,” Steve admits.

He goes on to explain some of the things that happened in Turin – missions he went on, how things had developed with you, the clothes, and the books.

“The books were for her?” Bucky breathes. “I saw security footage of you in the bookshop.”

“I wasn’t worried about exposing myself because you were already taking longer than I wanted you to take, but when you didn’t access any of the Avenger networks, bases, or safehouses, I expected you were underground and untraceably hunting for us.”

“What else did you expect?”

“I wanted you to get foolish in your desperation and tip your hand.”

“Not with her on the line.”

“No.” Steve narrows his eyes. “You never left Turin once you showed up on our radar, did you?”

Bucky scoffs. “Course I didn’t.”

Steve nods. “A ploy to see all the defenses of the base.”

“But you left dangerously close to her heat,” Bucky shoots, the disapproving accusation blatant in his tone.

“And that’s when you made your unsuccessful move to get her back. If you’d killed everyone you’d encountered from the beginning, you probably would have made it to her in time.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

“No, I know you do.” Steve sighs. “You know, back in 1945, I thought you were dead when you fell off that train.”

Bucky doesn’t interrupt. He knew Steve knew he knew this. They’d touched on it before. But clearly there was more and a reason for Steve to bring it up again now.

“The thing is, when they found you, I know Zola did what he did to you because of me, your tie to me. When they took me and Sam, they tortured him and killed him because of me, again. You were both people I cared about, and you were hurt for it. I was not going to let it happen to her. The sense of responsibility I felt for her had already been growing and evolving, but when I felt that surge of adrenaline and fear through the bond when you attacked the base and they moved her? It had been a slow melting of ice, what was developing there, but that shattered the ice. When I found out they had moved her, I kept my personal weakness guarded, and I knew I would do everything I could to get her out of their web and keep her safe.”

At this admission, Bucky is quiet. So is Steve. Bucky knows Steve is letting him think. There’s so much to consider there – the guilt Steve has still carried for him for years, the fresh hell of Sam, and the fervent determination to keep you from being another victim by association.

He could think over this for much longer, but there are more pieces he still needs context for, so next Bucky asks, “Why did you leave the Geneva facility during her heat?”

“Best cover for time – alphas are given room to take care of their needs during rut or care for omegas if they’re bonded during their omega’s heat.”

It verifies what Bucky had theorized himself.

“But it’s been eight days since you came here.”

“Yeah,” Steve nods.

“And you’ve just…been here.”

“Yeah.”

This is the piece Bucky has been suspicious of now.

“Explain.”

“When I took her to Turin, yes, it was a trap to lure you. When I brought her here, it was to wait for you to find us. I couldn’t find you when you went underground before, and I couldn’t find you this time, and if I tried too hard, I didn’t want to risk Hydra finding us, but I knew if we stayd in one place and I focused on keeping us hidden from Hydra, you could find us.”

Bucky furrows his brow, frowning.

“Simple as that?”

“Simple as that,” Steve confirms.

Bucky studies him for another quiet few seconds, then says, “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay.”

“So, what now?”

“Her,” Bucky replies simply. “We’ve still got a lot of shit to figure out, but we’ve got to do it with her.”

↠ Masterlist | Aspen's Ask Box | Field Guide to the Forest

Still with me? This was a lot. I hope I've answered some of your questions, and there are some more that have been brought up, but... we're here. We're this far.

This is the single longest story/chapter I've ever published. You can see where I've left off, and there's clearly more story, but Bucky reuniting with his omega and with Steve were the primary objectives, and both of those elements I didn't want to cheat or shorten as they began to unfold. I hope they've truly done justice to these characters and relationships, and we'll see how they can possibly move forward together in the conclusion. These three still have big things ahead.

read more from the Dark Forest Fest

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes smut #steve rogers #bucky barnes fan fiction #captain hydra #aspen wrote something #bucky barnes x female reader #steve rogers x reader #omegaverse #marvel omegaverse #warm shadows au #aspen's dark forest fest

[pedroshotwifey]

To The Flame chapter twelve

Series masterlist

Pairing: Dark!Javier Peña x afab!reader

Chapter w/c: 2.6k

Chapter warnings: mentions of physical abuse, manipulation, mental abuse, steve and connie!!, fluff but like backhanded fluff?, Javi being a dick, alcohol consumption, mild description of injury

Chapter Summary: Javi takes you out on your date and you meet some potential friends

A/N: Hey, y'all! Super excited about this one! These character introductions mean a lot to this story. Hope you like it! (also sorry about not posting last week, pls forgive me ❤)

*****

“Shit,” you mutter. 

You’re staring at yourself in the mirror, fixated on the ugly welt marring your right cheekbone. Your right eye is a bit swollen as well, but not too badly. You’re mostly worried about how the hell you’re going to hide the discoloring. Even with your makeup, it’s going to be a feat. 

It makes your stomach twist up to remember last night’s events. You still don’t understand why you had chosen to freak out like that. It was completely immature and irrational. He was just worried about you and you chose to berate him for it. 

Thankfully, Javi seems to have completely forgiven you for your outburst. He woke up as normal this morning, planted a kiss on your forehead, and made your breakfast. You smile to think about it. Despite everything that happened yesterday, everything today is back as it should be, just how you like it. 

You sigh and turn the sink on. You’ll wash your face and get dressed, then worry about this monstrosity last. You’re excited for your date. Javi told you that he’ll be taking you to a small restaurant a few blocks from the apartment. He’s out running an errand right now, or so he said. He wasn’t very specific, but he did promise to be back in time for your dinner date. 

You lean down and splash your face with the cool water, suppressing a wince as it hits your bruised flesh. You really didn’t realize the hit had landed that hard. You scrub it anyway, being careful to not press too hard. You don’t think Javi got a very good look at it this morning, which is probably a good thing. He’d likely be devastated to know he caused such an injury. 

You finish washing your face and reach for your dress hanging on the back of the door. It’s one of Javi’s favorites, and you’re excited to finally have an excuse to wear it again. You slip it over your head and turn around to zip the back with the help of the mirror. You pull at the edge and smooth it out so it falls effortlessly just above your knees. 

It’s a beautiful color in contrast with your skintone, hell, it’s a beautiful dress in general. You smile at your appearance in the mirror. It’s not often you feel confident, but this dress never fails to bring it out of you. Maybe that’s why Javi likes it so much, too. 

You hear the front door open as you fix one of the sleeves of the dress, a smile spreading across your face at the sound. Javi calls your name in greeting and your stomach flutters. 

“I’m in here,” you call back. His footsteps grow closer.

“You ready, sweetheart?” 

You peek your head out from the bathroom, careful to hide your right side behind the door frame. Javi’s standing in the middle of the bedroom. He looks gorgeous—as usual. He’s wearing a blue button up with his jeans and his regular boots.

“Yup, I’ll be just a second.” 

“Alright, baby, take your time. There’s no rush.” He sends you a wink. 

You flash him a quick smile before ducking back in and cracking the door behind you. You pick up your compact and lean in close to the mirror. The first layer doesn’t do much at all. The second makes a small difference, and by the third, all that’s left is to touch up certain spots. Even then though, you know there’s nothing you can do about the swelling of your eye and one of the deeper bruises. You take a step back. It doesn’t look so bad when you’re not too close. 

You sigh and finish up the rest of it, only putting everything away once you’re satisfied that you look pretty much normal. Like it’s any other date night. You turn the light off and step out of the bathroom. 

“Javi?” 

“In the kitchen, sweetheart.” 

You follow his voice, finding him leaning against the kitchen counter and craning his neck slightly to look out the window.

You grin as you step into view, giving him a small twirl and watching his smile widen when his gaze lands on you. You do your best to hide your right side, but try to be casual enough that he won’t think that’s what you’re trying to do. 

“You look gorgeous, baby,” he says, walking toward you with open arms. 

You let him embrace you in a hug, wrapping your own arms around his middle as he presses a kiss to the top of your head. “Thank you, Javi,” you mumble into his chest. 

He lets you go after a moment and picks something up from the counter. 

“Here, hermosa, got something for you” he offers you the bouquet of flowers. You gasp, sure that it’s the most beautiful bunch you’ve ever seen. That must have been why he went out. You’ll really never get over how thoughtful he is. It must have taken him a while to pick these out. 

You beam at him as you take them in your hand. “Thank you,” you say again. He nods at you, warmth in his gaze as he watches you softly sniff the flowers. You look up when he clears his throat. 

“Wanted to say I’m sorry,” he tells you, eyes flickering to and from yours. You frown a bit. 

“It’s okay, Javi, I was the one acting up,” you assure him. You don’t want him to feel bad over something that wasn’t his fault. Just thinking about it puts a bad taste in your mouth. He’s much too sweet of a man to ever think that he’s done something wrong. You’re the childish one who threw a temper tantrum for no reason. It’s not fair for him to blame himself for what happened. 

He nods solemnly, giving you a soft smile. 

“I think we were both in the wrong there, sweetheart. I just don’t want it to happen again.” 

Now it’s your turn to nod. You’re beaming inside at the fact that everything seems to be back to normal, but there’s also a sudden threat of tears pricking at your eyes and you’re not sure why. You look away, refusing to let them fall as you busy yourself putting them into a vase. 

“Let me just put these in some water, and I’ll be ready,” you say as you turn on the sink. 

****

You’re walking out the door minutes later, hand in hand with Javi as you try to contain the smile on your face. You’re way too excited about getting out. A part of you feels a bit guilty about getting your way after last night, but you suppose that Javi would have told you no if he thought it was really a bad idea tonight. 

You stay silent and let him lead you downstairs, and you actually have to bite down on your lip to keep from full-on grinning when the evening air hits your face. It’s not too busy of a night, not many people out on the street at all. Still, Javi holds you close to his side as you make your way to the restaurant he was telling you about. 

It’s not far, maybe a four or five minute walk from the complex. It’s small and cozy, exactly what you would hope for. He keeps his hand on the small of your back as you go to sit at an empty table, pulling your chair out for you and making sure you’re comfortable before sitting down in the seat across from you. 

You smile at him as a waitress comes by and drops off a couple of menus. She takes your drink orders—a soda for you and a beer for Javi. You busy yourself with looking over the food options, failing to notice the way Javi’s started to stare at you. 

His hand comes quickly across the table, making you flinch from surprise when he grabs your chin and tilts your head enough to see your right cheek. 

“What’s this?” he demands. 

You wince, really wishing you could have avoided this. You should have kept layering your makeup. 

“”S from last night,” you mumble, ashamed even though you know you shouldn’t be. You just don’t want him to see what physical damage he may have done. He’ll tear himself up over it. 

But he instead snaps, “And you didn’t fucking cover it?” 

You’re taken aback, your head snapping away from his grasp. Shame fills you. Why can’t you just do something right for once? Tears again fill your eyes, only adding to your shame. 

“I-I’m sorry, Javi,” you say quietly, staring at your hands in your lap. “I was just really excited to go out and—” 

He sighs and leans back in his chair, cutting you off from your pointless excuse. “Just make sure nobody sees it,” he tells you. “Do you have any idea what that could do to me in my field of work?” 

You nod, sniffing as your ears burn with embarrassment. Here he is taking you out and you ruin it by making another stupid decision. At least you’re not getting angry again. You have enough sense to keep that at bay. 

You catch the waitress walking back with your drinks out of the corner of your eye and do your best to quickly collect yourself, giving her a warm, tear free smile when she sets your soda down in front of you. She smiles back and takes Javi’s order, which you order as well since you forgot to choose a dish for yourself. 

You flash Javi a shy smile when she walks away, and, much to your relief, he gives you a small one in response. He’s still obviously not very thrilled with you, but at least he’s not straight mad. 

“How have things been going at the house, baby?” 

You know he means with renovations. 

“They’re pretty good. Almost finished with all the painting and stuff. I might just need you to help me with some of the tile and cabinets.” 

He nods. “Alright, I’ll see if I can get it done tomorrow.” 

You nod back, trying not to be too tense. The conversation almost feels…awkward. It’s confusing. Luckily, the waitress comes quickly with your food, placing it in front of you and leaving you to it. 

Conversation gets a bit better as the two of you eat. More casual and free-flowing.It’s not quite how it’s been the last few months, though. More like when the two of you had gone out together the first few times and had been a little shy. You brush it off though, sure that it won’t last too long. Even the two of you haven’t ever really been in a ‘post-fight’ situation yet, you believe that your chemistry is good enough for it to work itself out soon. 

And it pretty much does by the time you’re finishing up your dinner. Javi’s smiling as you gush to him about a book you’re currently reading. It’s a very cute romance, one of the ones he’s brought you recently. He’s listening intently, happy to see your eyes light up with excitement. 

The waitress comes back with the bill just as you’re telling him about the ending, and he hands his card over, along with a cash tip, as he continues to listen. It’s so nice to have someone who enjoys hearing about your interests. Before Javi, you can’t really remember having a person who would genuinely want to hear about your books. 

You finish just as the waitress comes back, revealing the plot twist dramatically. His eyes widen with your reveal, both to indulge you but also probably a bit out of surprise because—in your opinion—it was a pretty insane plot twist. 

But then his gaze darkens, pointed over your shoulder, and you frown. 

“Javi?” 

Your mouth is open to say his name, but it wasn’t you who said it. You snap your head around to see a couple walking toward you, the man smiling broadly. There’s a woman holding his hand, looking a little less enthusiastic than the man about seeing your husband. 

You see Javi tense out of the corner of your eye as they reach your table. The man drops the woman's hand to round the table and clap Javi’s shoulder. 

“What are you doing, you son of a bitch?” the man asks in a joking tone. “Thought you said you didn’t date.” 

Javi’s jaw clenches as your brows furrow. 

What?

“Uhm, yeah,” you supply, ignoring the way your stomach churns at the fact that he hadn’t mentioned you at all. “That may have something to do with the fact that he’s married.” You hold your left hand up, flashing your ring. The man’s light brows go up in surprise, a slight smirk overtaking his features. But then the smile drops and he shoots his gaze down to your husband. 

“Well I’ll be damned,” he says slowly. “Didn’t think you were the type, Peña.” His tone is almost flat now. You don’t understand why it changed so quickly. Javi looks back up at him, a flicker of dark emotion that you can’t quite place showing in his eyes. 

“Sweetheart,” Javi addresses you, keeping his eyes on the stranger. “This is Steve, my partner at work.” 

He doesn’t talk about work much, but from what he’s told you about his partner, your understanding is that they get along pretty well. So you don’t quite understand the surge of hostility between the two of them right now. 

You smile nonetheless, standing and reaching your hand out to him. You state your name. “It’s nice to meet you.” 

He nods as he shakes your hand, giving you a tight smile in return. His expression is almost hard to read. He nods to the woman next to you. “That’s my wife, Connie.” 

You turn to shake her hand as well, and you can tell you’ll immediately like her. She gives you a bright smile as well, telling you it’s nice to meet you. She seems very nice, but also like she wouldn’t be afraid to speak up for herself. You find yourself hoping that you’ll be able to see her again. Maybe be friends. 

“We were just leaving,” Javi says from where he watches the two of you. Steve has taken a step back now, and is also watching you both with his arms crossed, though he doesn’t look mad, exactly. More like he’s contemplating something. 

You frown though, having thought that you still had a little while before you had to go back. 

“But—” 

He flashes you a warning look, and you quiet down. Maybe you misunderstood him and he doesn’t like his partner. Either way, if he wants to go back, it’s probably for a good reason and you shouldn’t fight it. You nod at him instead, smoothing out your dress. 

“Well, it was nice to meet you,” you say to Steve and Connie as Javi comes to your side and takes your arm in his.

“You, too,” Connie says, and Steve nods, another small smile offered as Javi starts to lead you out. You don’t turn to watch them as you leave, instead keeping your eyes on Javi, who has his on the exit. 

“What was that about?” you ask. 

He glances at you with a softer gaze than you’ve seen all night. Again, you can’t place the look. 

“Don’t worry about it, sweetheart,” he assures you and kisses the side of your head. So you don’t. 

When the two of you get home, Javi cracks open another beer and holds you on the couch until you both fall asleep watching TV.

*****

You for reading! Taglist is always open!

Series taglist:  @corazondebeskar @yorksgirl @nerdieforpedro @axshadows @melaninmommy @survivingandenduring @kewwrites @oldenoughtoknowbettersstuff  @callachloe @missladym1981 @sofiparallel @koshkaj-blog @sheepdogchick3 @movievillainess721 @jessie8605 @casa-boiardi @justlulu @iamsherlocked-1998 @hjzghi-b @solarecI1spe

#pedro pascal #fan fiction #ao3 #pedro pascal smut #pedro pascal characters #fluff #pedro pascal fanfiction #javier pena fic #javier pena fanfiction #javier pena narcos #javier pena smut #javier pena x you #javier pena x reader #narcos fanfiction #javi p #steve murphy #connie murphy #javier peña #javier peña x reader #pedro pascal x reader #dark pedro pascal #dark javier pena #ttf #to the flame

[resident-gay-bitch]

a steddie modern au idea that i probably won’t write because i just Don’t have the time or energy for another wip but i’m putting it out here so i remember it, and if anyone wants to write this or gets inspired Please tag me so i can read it <3

okay so imagine this right, rockstar eddie & popstar steve - on complete opposite ends of the music spectrum, forcibly brought together by their label to collaborate on an album!!

read more under the cut :)

( i basically wore the fic lol )

okay, eddie’s in his band right with CC, and they’ve come so far and are doing so well in the metal industry. eddie’s made quite the reputation for himself as the loud, bash, pushy, stuck up, bitchy rockstar who makes his own rules, parties fucking hard, and is a certified sex symbol across the globe.

once on stage, playing out under the stars, a bat flew down onto stage and it was freaking gareth out so eddie Caught it with his hands and held it up simba style, named it ozzy, sent it back off into the night sky and dubbed the bat the bands - and eddie’s own - personal mascot. this was way earlier on in their career so metal snobs started calling him an ozzy osbourne wannabe - the prissy Princess of Darkness. untill he started making way and then the name stuck and one time eddie came out onstage in full pink princess dress and crown and played their gnarliest show yet.

steve harrington though? he’s an angel. the youngsters drool over him and have pictures of soft sweaters and stawberry lipglossed steve on their walls, middle aged women look at him and wished their husbands could be the kind soul that the world knows him to be. the “men” call him a queer and pathetic, and when people ask steve about it in interviews he just smiles and shrugs and says in his soft voice “if that’s how they want to perceive me, that’s okay. i know who i am, i’m just steve. why should we spread hate when we can just be nice?”

girls from highschool started posting about their own experiences with the soft boy sensation that is steve, saying he was the kindest boy they’ve ever dated, he brings girls flowers and kisses them on the doorstep and Holds Their Hands during sex. gen z start calling him a “king 💅” whenever Anything comes out about steve because he just Can’t do anything wrong, and eventually he gets dubbed the King of Pop.

eddie munson is best friends and living with five time gold medalist olympian chrissy cunningham, the gymnast young girls look up too. they’re often speculated to be dating, and half the world thinks they’re actually married concidering they have a cat together, often wear matching outfits when out, and hold hands when walking around. one time eddie was captured giving her a forehead kiss when standing in line for smoothies. but concidering eddie is also seen leaving venues with girls under his arm, and chrissy following behind him with a couple of guys, the rest of the world says they can’t be. who knows, maybe their open or polly, it’s the twenty first century everybody! (but in truth eddie’s walking with chrissy’s hookups under his arms, and chrissy’s chatting away with the guys eddie plans on ruining for the night, and they’ll swap once sage inside the trailer)

steve has a house right next door to up and coming actress robin buckley, and they took down the fence between their homes and built a corridor combining them. they’re as close as chrissy and eddie seem to be, but after robin was seen making out with one of her female costars at a red carpet after party, and wearing a lesbian flag pin on her jacket in paparazzi pics, those rumours have died significantly.

chrissy cunningham is in love with steve harrington, she thinks he’s the perfect man, “if i had to date a guy, eddie, it would be that one and that one Only. i’ll excuse the penis if he looks at me with those pretty boy eyes.” she has posters of him on her wall, listens to his music on the regular, and eddie knows way more about him than he’d like to admit. not that he pays much attention, just when chrissy plays his latest single on an endless loop and quotes things he says on the daily, a guys gonna pick up on stuff.

robins little sister, max, who by platonic-soulmate-law, is steve’s little sister is Obsessed with CC. she listens to them all the time, along with a bunch of other metal and punk bands, and has a poster of him shredding on her wall. her boyfriend lucas gets jealous about it all the time and even took to learning one of his solos on steve’s guitar.

the thing is, though, eddie and steve are perceived the way they are because their label actually Sucks and they’re signed in for too many more years to find a way out.

queer aligations got shot around about Everyone in CC. people think they all fuck guys, people think they all fuck eachother, people think so many things and the label twists and turns those stories to make them “acceptable”.

the thing is though, they’re all so fucking gay… and they all have fucked eachother. eddie and gareth were boyfriends back in highschool, jeff and grant have been together for the last couple of years and they’re talking marriage. they’ve all hooked up with eachother separately, they’ve all gotten together for a few foursomes, they’ve all gangbanged a bunch of groupies of Multiple genders together, so eddie Knows where the rumours come from. he wants to be out, hates hiding, thinks it’s stupid and backwards and Who Cares if they loose a few followers? those aren’t the kinds of people eddie wants listening to his music anyway.

it’s only when gareth settled down with his new wife and popped out kid number one that the rumours about him started to die out… even though, before the kid came around, gareth and his wife would sleep with eddie, jeff, and grant like… all the time.

the only queer speculations about steve are the ones coming from the “alpha males” and younger queer boys that connect with him and want someone like steve to look up too and say “he’s queer too, we’re the same, and it’s okay”. but his label hasn’t given steve a voice… like at all. he got signed because of his gorgeous voice and soft lyrics about losing love and being alone, and being conflicted in your sexuality, and then they signed him and his contract states that he’s Not allowed to write Any of his own lyrics. not a single one of his own songs have been published, to this day.

the label tried to restrict eddie like that too, saying his lyrics were too controversial, but CC refuses to be fake. they agreed to only write songs about death and drugs and sex and satan and blah blah blah metal. eddie’s never really published much from the heart, but he sneaks metaphors in there all the time, that only hardcore fans can pick up on.

the labels getting bored of steve. it’s just the same music, the same tours, the same questions in every interview. he’s Boring them. it’s only a small amount of time before the world gets bored of him too, plus, it’s not like he’ll stay this pretty forever. they want to discard him - he’s locked in by contract though, has to release one more album and tour before they can be done with him.

and then grant dies. it’s a horrible accident, car crash, some drunk driver t-boned him and flipped his car off the road. it Breaks jeff. it breaks all of them, but mostly jeff. he’s distraught, turns to drugs, ODs and it’s then that gareth and eddie send him to rehab.

there’s no corroded coffin without grant, the band breaks up. the three of them Won’t play stadium tours and write albums together without him, and- “are you fucking CRAZY? of course we’re not Replacing him, get a fucking grip.”

it takes Months for any of them to get to a point where they can be seen in society again. it’s then that the label says they Have to bring one more album an to the table. but they’re willing to drop CC if eddie goes solo. he’s the face of the band anyway, the voice, “he’s who the women want, guys.”

eddie agrees, because he’s legally obligated too. and he writes the most dumbfuck album anyone’s ever heard. it’s all preschool-esque lyrics and about farm animals and potty training and it’s also just fucking Gay - like there’s one song that just goes on and on an on about some guys ballsack. he records a demo to go with them, has his guitar perfectly out of tune and sings so terribly his voice cracks, if singing is what you can actually call it. the label gets So fucking mad at him.

so here they are, newly solo artist eddie munson, the fucking prick, stuckup rockstar, entitled rich as Princess of Darkness, and steve harrington, the sweet soft boy turned boring, King of Pop; both locked in for another album, and tour, and Useless.

they’re going to Lose the label money at this rate.

so they try something. something that will bring in Buckets.

CC and steve harrington are the labels two biggest musicians. they’re constantly fighting to be top of the charts, shooting past eachother with every new album, new single, new tour, new pap photos, new relationship spectacle, each red carpet appearance… evetything. They are who everyone’s obessed with, they are who have the Biggest markets. every woman on the globe has to be obsessed with at least One of them.

why not pool those two fanbases together? get them to collaborate on a song together, the fans will go crazy and it will surely break the charts. the company will get So fucking rich.

but if they can make buckets off one song… than why not a whole album? why not make them Tour together.

which is how eddie and steve find themselves nervously sitting in a recording studio together one afternoon, going through introductions and contracts and provosos with the label and blah blah blah boring rules and legal shit.

eddie’s dreading working with this guy. he’s a total Phonie! King of Pop? who does he think he is, this harry styles wanna be. sure he writes poetic shit about love and making soft love to women, but it’s all so vapid. eddie Knows music, and he knows when lyrics are bullshit. i mean Sure, eddie knows a good handful of his songs on guitar, but that’s Only so he can play them to chrissy because it’s special to her. doesn’t make his music Good - and that’s not even eddie being a snob, he can vibe with pop, taylor swift is a lyrical goddess, he is an all too well girlie and he and chrissy scream the ten minuet version in the car together late at night.

he’s also dreading the clear over kindness. steve’s meant to be this darling angel, and sure that’s why the girls and gays love him so much, but eddie doesn’t think he could Handle someone being so fucking nice up in his face like that because he’ll Know it’s fake. he won’t be able to tell if the guys actually being nice because he actually gets along with eddie, or if he’s being nice because it’s his job.

and steve is dreading working with eddie because eddie is supposed to be one of the Hardest people to work for. he’s stuck up and dickish and Snarky and so fucking confident and a Rockstar for fucks sake. steve is way too tired to deal with a cunt right now - let alone Tour with one.

everything about this meeting and collaboration is Completely under the blanket. the label doesn’t want to announce Anything until they have a good album from them, because they know how hot headed and temperamental eddie is - given the last thing he gave them, which was immediately scrapped.

so they meet, sign a bunch of non disclosures. they’re not even allowed to tell robin and chrissy that they’re Meeting eachother - they do, though, but it doesn’t go past those two.

they’re left alone, once everything is signed. they’ve been standoffish, haven’t said more than ten words to eachother. eddie’s all glares and attitude, steve’s all soft smiles and bats of his eyelids.

they both want to be sick - this is torture.

everything’s signed. everything’s legally a secret. they’re behind closed doors in a recording studio to themselves to “get creative”. and so the masks come down.

turns out, steve is Not nice. three minuets into their alone time, eddie kicks his feet up onto the desk by steve and steve… he picks up a pen and uses it to push eddie’s shoes off the table and away from him with a bitchy glare.

steve’s Bitchy. he’s got bite and he’s So fucking sarcastic. he keeps looking eddie over and scrunching his nose, he keeps making snide comments about eddie’s over sexual behaviour and drug culture. he even goes so far as to insult eddie’s hair, “the eighties called, van halen wants his wig back”.

and eddie’s… we’ll, he’s a little turned on by it.

to the world, steve’s this perfect little soft boy who sings about love and sugar and spice and all things nice, but when there’s a contract saying eddie’s legally obliged to shut his trap about Anything steve related, he lets his true colours show.

and steve? well, once he sends out a Bunch of snarky remarks eddie’s way, he’s realising that eddie’s not reacting the way he’s been conditioned to believe eddie would. he’s expecting mean quips back, jabs at his career and “queerness” and pastel colour pallet, maybe even a meltdown. but eddie just sits there slack jawed and actually.. encouragers steve’s insults and bitchy nature. and eddie’s kinda sweet, when steve tells him to keep his shoes off the table, eddie complies and actually apologises. he even pulls out a random compliment, telling steve he actually has a really nice voice.

and he’s making steve nervous… he’s getting butterflies.

they talk for a little while longer before eddie conducts a plan. they have to go home and listen to each others music and pick a few favourites or memorable things, stuff they think they can get behind mixing with their own style. they need something with Both of their sounds combined.

steve only has a few albums out, so eddie says he’ll listen to them all. corroded coffin though? they have Heaps of music out, so eddie writes down a list of their top albums and some of His favourites from other albums that he thinks steve might be able to get behind.

steve goes home and recruits robin to listen with him, gets max to send through all of her favourites and Why. he writes down a little list with his top five songs and a couple quotes and times where solos fucking rock. by the time he’s done he’s got about an a4 page worth of notes.

eddie goes home and he and chrissy spend the night analysing All of steve’s music. they print out the lyrics to every song and scribble all over them, listing to his two albums, one EP, and a single, on an endless loop. chrissy is Always happy to spend hours talking about Steve Harrington, and eddie is the biggest fucking nerd and loves analysing music and figuring everything about it out. he learns chords, flips some of steve’s songs to make them a little rougher so he can show steve and give him a taste of the stuff they Could create.

steve feels so embarrassed with the lack of shit he’s got when eddie slams down a Folder full of notes. but eddie hurriedly stops steve’s apologising and looks at his notes and Actually awes at them “you like this song? it’s your favourite? i wrote that secretly about my fuck off dad and missing my mamma- you really like it? gosh, not many people do… this is so cool, i can’t believe you listened to it”

eddie starts talking about - and dissecting - steve’s music, telling him things about his lyrics He didn’t actually know. eddie tells him they’re all kinda… vappid. like steve doesn’t sing them with Emotion. they don’t come from the heart, they’re just stories. steve tells him he’s not allowed to write his own stuff, even though he has books full of lyrics at home.

eddie has an entire wall of his house turned into a bookshelf filled with journals for lyrics and writing music, different shelf’s are for different moods and different journals are for different themes.

they start to jam and eddie plays a few of steve’s songs. they figure out some stuff and eddie declares they’re going to make “the most outer worldly album that’s ever graced our mortal plane, king stevie, i can promise you that” - he gives steve a mission. he has to go home and find One song he’s written that he’d like the world to know about, and text pictures of it to eddie - and eddie will make sure it’s label appropriate (if it’s not, he’ll sit down with steve and they’ll tweak it to hide controversial themes behind metaphors) and tell their boss he wrote it so they can put it on the album; steve will sing it of course, and it will come from the heart.

they talk about their experiences over the next few weeks. it’s basically paid fucking therapy. eddie talks about grant, talks about CC, talks about highschool, talks about chrissy. steve talks about robin, talks about highschool, talks about the mall fire he got caught in, he talks about his abuser billy hargrove. eddie opens up about his own abuser, reefer rick, his old supplier. steve opens up about getting cheated on with the first girl he loved. eddie opened up about getting cheated on by reefer. steve opens up about neglectful parents and eddie opens up about his time through the foster system and having a druggie mother and a dad in jail.

that’s what they write music about.

steve finally sends eddie a song. it’s a song about learning to care about yourself. he wrote it when robin stepped into his life, when she conditioned him to gain his self respect back and love himself. it’s about how fucking Important loving yourself - no matter your difference or your experiences may be.

eddie cries when he reads it, he thinks it’s perfect just the way it is. the few undertones of queerness he’s picking up on from deep analysis will go right over the labels heads.

eddie suggests he write a song completely on his own for the album too, one without steve’s imput. then they both have one song that’s completely Theirs. he writes his song about grant, it’s an ode to him, a goodbye, and hidden behind metaphors and poetic tear stained lyrics, it’s about having your true self hidden by masks and flashy cameras and men in tight suits; it’s about jeff, it’s about their love, it’s about the love eddie had for grant, it’s about the love they all had for eachother, it’s about the bandanna they all wear in their back pockets from time to time.

steve reads it and he… he gets it.

he knows eddie’s queer, eddie let it slip the second time they met, when he was talking about another of his songs about the first guy he had sex with. so it’s not a shock to steve to read this kinda shit.

but when eddie’s reading steve’s lyrics, it’s kinda shocking to him. steve hadn’t come out, even though he’s given ample opportunity, hadn’t mentioned anything about men and talked plenty about women, so eddie just fairly assumed he was straight.

on the last day of recording the album, they’re in the studio together. all the backtracks are done and they’re just recording lyrics. they’re both there in the sound booth with headphones on, and eddie’s singing his ode to grant, steve backing up his vocals, but letting eddie take centre stage. eddie cries and takes a good break before they can record steve’s song - steve’s song that they think eddie wrote.

they record steve’s song, eddie eddie backs up his vocals occasionally when asked, but it’s Steve’s song. its litterally titled steve’s song, because eddie felt sick with the idea of Actually taking credit for something steve created. he’s only doing it for legal reasons and because he Needs steve to get his lyrics out into the world. they worked on all the other songs together - the label doesn’t know that - but this is Steve’s. it should have been on his first album.

steve cries whilst singing it, because it comes from the heart. he sings it with raw fucking emotion and.. oh jeez, it makes eddie cry too. steve finished singing and eddie pulls him into a tight hug and whispers to steve so no one else can hear “that’s the best you’ve ever sounded, stevie”.

what they didn’t know was that their manager snapped a photo of their hug and sent it to rolling stone along with an announcement of a new album and upcoming tour.

the internet goes bazerk! “the King of Pop and the Princess of Darkness? what an odd pair… someone write me this fan fiction rn.”

eddie and steve go home that night feeling a little useless. they just spent weeks crammed up in the recording studio together, making music and talking about things they are too scared to tell the world, and now they’re… no where near eachother.

they both sit there in their houses and come to the realisation that they Don’t just think the other is only adorable and totally their type… that maybe they were falling in love and feel kinda empty without eachother.

they start texting, chatting, keeping eachother updated on their lives - mostly on their platonic soulmates. steve prints off a selfie he and eddie took together one night a few drinks in, guitars on their laps, cheesy grins on their faces, and signs it for chrissy - she Freaks Out.

eddie sends over a CC sample hoodie he had lying around that ended up getting discontinued before selling at all, and he signed the spot over the heart with fabric pen for max.

the single drops - steve’s song - and fans go crazy. steve’s fans And eddie’s fans have collectively come together to Scream about it. it reaches top of the charts in under a week. who knew a bunch of teenage girls could be so powerful?

the tour gets announced - tickets sell Fast.

the rest of the album drops and the label hosts a party for it. steve and eddie bring their other half’s and robin and chrissy hit it off immediately, and they start dating at a lesbian pace. steve and eddie get plastered and wake up cuddling - fully clothed, but cuddling - in… chrissy’s bed? they barely even remember going back to eddie’s place, but when they go out to the kitchen they find out that they ended up keeping the party going here - robin and chrissy are curled up together half naked on the couch.

they keep texting. they can’t stay away from eachother. they know the flirting is bad and helpless, but they Can’t Help it. they’re both smitten and falling more and more each day.

the tour starts and there are strict rules they have to oblige by, via steve’s original contact. eddie breaks half of them.

one of the rules happens to be Zero queerness - but that’s the same for eddie’s contract. they’re also both talked too about acting too “gay” on stage, they’re not allowed too. whatever that means.

the tour is fucking amazing. they both love looking out to the crowd and seeing all the different people. there are teenage girls in pastel skirts and sparkly dresses with bedazzled glasses and friendship charm bracelets, there are girls with dark eyeliner and ripped stockings and chunky silver jewlery and an obscene amount of leather, there are boys in lightwash jeans and crop tops, and boys in black ripped jeans and the wrong band tees with jewlery all over their faces, their are middle aged mothers wine drunk, there are older men with goatees, there are father there with their daughters and mothers there with their sons, and So, So many more different people. it makes them both emotional.

after show four of their massive tour, they’re both having a few drinks in eddie’s trailer and listening to music and continuing the game of truth or dare robin and chrissy started before they got distracted and wandered off to steve’s trailer. they get drunker, and gigglier, and closer, and more lose lipped, and steve tells eddie he’s bi, and eddie tells steve he’s the most beautiful (inside and out) man he’s ever met, and they kiss.

they spent the rest of their tour keeping their relationship VERY secret. steve’s trailer is now permanently robin and chrissy’s, and he and eddie share eddie’s. no one suspects a thing, they’re both used to keeping their queer relations under wraps.

they say i love you in the last month of their tour. when they get home, they want to move in together. they’re going to buy their own mansion with all the fucking money this albums made them, and they’re planning what their room will look like, and their kitchen, and their garden, and their future. steve wants kids, always has. eddie’s scared to be a dad, but he thinks he’d like to try with steve, just not for a few more years. they both think marriage is stupid, but they’re also both hopeless romantics who have each pictured and planned their own weddings so they think they might even get married one day. they get matching tattoos, a little crown on eddie’s ribs under his heart for steve, and a tiara in the same place on steve for eddie.

the label asks to sign them both on for a few more albums, another tour. they’re bringing in So much money.

eddie says no, straight away. he’s not letting steve get suffocated by these fuckers anymore. there’s nothing here for him anyway. he’s already working with gareth and jeff on creating their own label, it’s almost up and running.

for steve’s birthday, three nights before the tour ends, eddie tells him he’s now the co-ceo of his own production company, named after grant, to carry on his legacy. eddie slides over a wad of paper and tells steve he wants the first artist they sign to be steve - he works on his own conditions, writes whatever music he wants, sings from the heart, writes them one album and then once that’s done (when steve is Ready for it to be done) they’ll draw up another contract, if that’s what steve wants. steve signs, starts working on his first album right away.

he lies in bed that night with eddie’s head on his chest, and they’re scribbling down lyrics about sex in satin sheets in the dark of a tour trailer, and falling in love.

they perform their last show, and they cry hopelessly.

that’s it. they’re done. their no longer signed to the label, evetythings Over.

eddie’s wearing the tiara steve put on his head on their First show, he’s also wearing leather and stompers and no shirt. steve’s wearing lightwash blue jeans and a flowey shirt made of lace and a crooked crown on top of his perfect hair. they’re both heaving, and crying black mascara and eyeliner tracks down their cheeks, and sweating buckets. but they both think the other is so fucking beautiful and they can’t resist it

it’s not like they’re locked in by the label anymore anyway.

eddie shoved his guitar off and lays it very neatly on the ground before full pelt running for steve and just Kissing him. the crowd goes fucking crazy. they loose their shit and it breaks the media.

“i love you…” eddie pants into his mouth and kisses him again “i love you so fucking much baby”

“i love you too.” steve says and then he swiftly drops to one knee, pulls a ring box out of his pocket and asks eddie to marry him

it’s there in stage, with a the most diverse and random crowd in the world, sweaty and hot and in love, that eddie and steve break history. not only did they Just come out to the world as queer… and dating, they’re also the first famous queer couple to get engaged on stage like this.

so yeah… that’s my “little” fic idea :)

and then they obviously get married and get their mansion or whatever and adopt a kid a few years into the marriage, when eddie feels stable enough to be able to responsibily raise a little gremlin. she’s totally a little menace like eddie, but she’s for sure got his pure sweetness when she’s with people she trusts and loves but holy shit is she steve’s kid, because she’s gotta be more snarky and more bitchy than steve was during their first meeting… and what’s worse is when they gang up on eddie with double bitchy glares.

#steddie #this was supposed to be a little fic idea but i got carried away #jay writes #jay talks #steve x eddie #rockstar!eddie #popstar!steve #eddie munson #stranger things #stranger things 4 #steve harrington #fluff #fic idea #fan fiction #drabble #king of pop steve #princess of darkness eddie #buckingham #bi steve #gay eddie #gay #eddie x steve #gareth emerson #jeff stranger things #grant stranger things #robin buckley #chrissy cunningham #platonic stobin #platonic hellcheer #corroded coffin

[fantasies-fairytales-n-fics]

Code Blue Ch. 33- Theater of Pain

Summary: Jason Morgan is back! He and Craig bicker. Josie gets the shock of her life. Both men get their just deserves during an emotionally long and dramatic showdown. Orlando is sought out. Some bar fun is short lived. Josie saves Orlando once again and keeps him from making a huge mistake.

*Warnings* language, dark and super angsty, mob depictions, alcohol use, mentions of abuse and molestation, violent tendencies, weapon use

Stories Stories Stories Masterlist

Chapter characters: Jason, Craig, Josie, Orlando, Luke Sr.

Salem, Massachusetts

March 7, 2023

Twenty minutes after you left Craig's apartment, he received a knock on his door. Thinking it was you, he rushed over and swung it open.

"Hey, Josie, you forgot your box of....Woah. What the hell are you doing?! Get in here before someone sees you!" Craig commanded to none other than your dead and buried brother, Jason Morgan, and then slammed the door shut behind him. "Where the hell have you been??!!"

"Sonny's. Where else?" the blue-eyed muscle man dressed in black retorted.

"Oh well, THAT would have been nice to know after you just snuck out of here like I told you NOT to do! I should have kept you drugged. Did you know my father is out?? He was just here an hour ago! Wanting to know what I've been up to while he was away!"

"I know he was, and my sister too. I have been watching and waiting for them both to leave. Does Cyrus know I'm alive?"

"I have no idea, but I'm sure he suspects it. Why else would he come here?? It sure wasn't to catch up with his beloved son over a cup of tea! Being his son does not protect me from his wrath. He's ruthless in case you haven't gotten a clue yet. If he, or the Zacchara's know you're alive and that I aided with it, all hell is going to break loose. And heeeere you are, literally a dead man walking, coming to my home! You could have at least wore a damn hoodie. Are you trying to get yourself killed for real this time??? I'm not so sure I can heal a fucking gun shot!"

Jason wasn't one for being scolded or told what to do, which triggered him to blow up at Craig's reprimand.

"I would have survived! Just like I survived every gun shot!"

Craig was just like Jason, fearless and blunt, so he continued on with his rant to his best friend.

"Yeah and every explosion??? You only survived that because I fucking drug your ass out of there, otherwise, you would have been an unrecognizable corpse like the one in your grave!! A little thank you would be nice for following you around and knowing what's up and handling all of the dirty work!"

"Right and let me thank you for handling me by holding me against my will and shooting me up with horse tranquilizers!"

"Exactly what were you gonna do?? You're in over your head! I had to do that so you wouldn't go after them too soon and half cocked and ruin the entire plan! YOUR plan remember??? To make them believe you're dead so they wouldn't see you coming and here you are, walking around in broad fucking daylight. My father is clearly watching me so it looks like you've already shot your plan to shit because you have no damn patience. Not to mention, your sister lives right down the damn hall and I have to lie to that sweet girl!! Oh, and my father met her today!! He asked her last name to prove to me that he knows who she is!"

"Who's fault is that??! Why the hell did you let her move in here??? And why was she even here with you?? Wasn't screwing and marrying my ex not enough for you, that you gotta go after my sister too??"

"Ohhh hell no. You didn't just say that to me. Beth pursued me after you dumped her and went after that woman doctor, with very good reason I might add though, but that's beside the point. She followed me to New Zealand. Although I guess I got my karma for it huh? Can't even see my kid, who I'm one hundred percent certain is not even my kid. I'd bet my life on it that Blaise belongs to that punk Ethan. Countless times I had seen them together before she wound up pregnant, in which I think she already was when she found me because the timing just never added up. Blaise was born early and she wasn't a preemie."

"Well at least your kid is alive and knows you as her father. Jake only knew Lee as his dad, which I was alright with. He's a good man from what I know and he truly loved my son as his own even after he found out the truth that he wasn't. I thought Jake would have been better off not being a part of my life, you know, safe and having a normal family. That sure bit me in the ass."

"You're right man. I am truly sorry about your loss and what Beth did to you and that boy. I wish you could prove what she did, then maybe I'd be able to take Blaise from her psychotic demented ass. She has no business being a mother."

"No need for that. Liz will get hers, all in due time and then Blaise will be all yours. So...tell me you didn't tell Jo any of this? I mean, Jake was her nephew that she never knew existed and now she's dating his dad. I would rather her hear it from me at some point."

"No...of course I haven't...and I hate it, with every bit of my soul, lying to her about everything." Craig remorsefully said until a light bulb turned on in his head, causing him to panic.

"Wait....did you just say, oh no no no....Beth's ex Lee is Josie's Lee??"

"Youuuu seriously didn't know that??"

"NO I didn't know they were one and the same! Fuck me...I can't believe I didn't figure that out. She did say....she knew someone going through what I was with Blaise not being mine but never said who...All she had ever said about her boyfriend was his first name which is all I had ever known about Beth's ex...I had never seen the guy and I wasn't going to ask either of them to see photos so I...I didn't place it....and I...I figured when Josie told me about Ethan, that she only knew him because of you...oh Jesus... she is going to hate me when this all comes out! I think I know what a panic attack feels like now."

Craig aggressively ran his hand over his face and then he began pacing, snatching up the wine bottle and drinking straight from it as he did so.

"Yeah Craig, they're the same entity and again, who's fault is it if she hates you? You wouldn't even know her on a personal level if you hadn't let her rent here. My sister was never supposed to be involved in any of this. Why Craig? Why did you do that when you knew I was right downstairs at the time???"

"Honestly, I thought it would be best, for you, ya know, to have her close. Keep an eye on her, help keep her safe. I mean, she was a victim of the Floating Rib's explosion too and that damn dog sniffing cop was her ex....and it's probably a good thing she's here because she told me Ethan is becoming a problem in her life. I guess he recently put his own brother in the hospital, attacked him or some shit and is harassing Josie and LEE. But trust me, I'm going to put a stop to that REAL quick."

"First of all, just stay out of all this and away from my sister. I will handle Ethan and Johnny both. They're the ones who had that bomb planted and I also know Liz was in on it too."

"Yeah well, I can't stay out of it, nor hardly stay away from my own tenant, NOR do I want to. Especially now and besides, you know as well as I do that there's no getting out of the mob because I tried when I left to go home....and don't forget my father. He was the mastermind of it all. You know he's allies with the Zacchara's and he wants you dead for sending him to prison, and then there's Sonny, the real target, who he despises more than anything. Your Sonny's right hand man, the deadly weapon of the Corinthos family and taking you out was the perfect way to weaken him, hitting him where it hurt the most."

"I'll handle Cyrus too, once and for all, like I should have before. Sonny knows he's free and has his eyes and ears everywhere....and Sonny is far from weak without me. You of all people should know that since you work for him too."

"Just as my father has eyes and ears all around, which is how he planned your entire hit from prison. So, I'm still in one piece so I assume you talked Sonny out of busting my knee caps for assisting you in your warped plan??"

"He's grateful that you had my back and saved me, so consider this your lucky day. I'm grateful too. I'm just frustrated, like you are. You're not the only one my sister is going to hate and then there's my mom man. She'll probably disown me, which would be for the best anyways. All I have ever done was try to keep her and Jo safe...but my sister, she's stubborn as hell and extremely fucking smart. She saw right through me and all my dealings. Jo knows me better than I know myself...and I will most likely lose her over this just like you. But with that said, she can't know. Not yet. Not until all the threats are eliminated. I don't want her hurt again because of me."

"Yeah well, I certainly am not going to tell her. Oh and by the way, she also said that Ethan is hanging around your other sister now. He was there today, at your mom's picking her up."

"One way or another, he's going down. Traitorous piece of garbage. I don't give a crap about my sister Megan. He's just her type and they deserve each other, but messing with my mom and Jo, he will soon regret. I'm gonna head back to Sonny's before Jo gets back. Just so you know, I didn't just walk here in broad daylight. I used the old underground tunnels and then I came up the back stairwell exit."

"Ahhh, the old smuggling catacombs. Bet that's an interesting sight."

"Trust me, you don't want to know. I feel like some sewer rat."

"Is that what that smell is?" Craig grinned as Jason rolled his eyes.

"I'll be in touch soon. Look for my code in a text so you know it's me."

"Got it. Watch your back man. Let me go out first to check the hall."

Up the stairs you came, fuming. Not so much over Lee, but over the phone call you had with your mom on the way back from seeing him. It was true. She was selling the Haunted Star and to make matters worse, it was who she was selling it to. You had called Lee right after, needing to talk to him about it and even Orlando too but now both seemed to be ghosting you.

All your thoughts were soon ceased as you headed to Craig's to get the box you forgot, for as you turned the corner, you got another surprise like earlier, only this one was enough to rock your world.

There stood your deceased brother, very much alive, beside a mortified Craig, who like you, forgot to breathe.

"You...you're alive?? How...." was all that came out of your gaping mouth as you stared with wide eyes at a very stunned Jason before everything went black.

As you began to faint, Craig charged past Jason to catch you, then he swooped you up and quickly carried you inside his apartment with Jason swiftly in tow.

"FUCK!" Jason shouted as he slammed the door and stared at you, cradled like a child in Craig's arms.

All Craig could do was gaze down at you, knowing that very soon, you would never want to see his face again and for some reason that he did not understand, it sent a pain through his heart that he had never felt before.

"Craig. Snap out of it. Put my sister down." Jason flatly and firmly ordered.

The addled artist blinked and then whipped his head up. "It's an art studio. I'm not laying her on the hard, cold and filthy ground. My apartment's through the back. Lock that door."

Jason bolted up the steel door, then rushed around the corner to see Craig gently laying you down on his bed.

"What are you doing??"

"She's warm. Open the patio door to let the cool breeze in from the bay and bring me a damp wash cloth from the restroom." Craig rambled off while concentrating on making you comfortable and watching your breathing.

The miffed mob man went to do as his obviously smitten friend asked, knowing you would come to at any moment and he would have some serious explaining to do, which he also knew you would never understand. Could Jason really blame you? He put you and his mom through the hell of believing he was dead. What possible justification for that could there be?

Jason rang out the rag and promptly brought it to Craig who was now sitting beside you, stroking your hair.

"What am I missing here Craig?"

"Huh?" he muttered as he tenderly patted the cloth over your forehead.

"That. This. The way you are with her. The way you look at her."

"You're reaching Jason. I...I just care for her, that's all."

"Yeah, maybe a little too much. Don't forget, she loves someone else and also don't forget who you are."

"Speak for yourself about who I am....and who said anything about love?"

"I did. I know you better than anyone and I see it. You're getting caught up in her. You're the last thing she needs. Look at all she has been through just because of me and my life."

"First of all, I don't need your approval or permission to do a damn thing in my life and second of all, you won't need to even worry about that once she wakes up and tells me to fuck off. Like she'd ever be interested in someone like me anyways, especially now....and quite frankly, it's the last thing I even want in my life after Beth and every other girl who I was never good enough for. Like you said, she loves someone else so drop it Jason."

"You're the one going on and on about it. Who you trying to convince? Me or you?"

"ENOUGH!" Craig barked, causing you to stir. "Heyyy there princess, can you hear me?" he softly said as he took your hand.

Your eyelids began to flutter open and all you saw was Craig's worried face coming into focus, for Jason stood far back, hands on his hips and head down, slightly peering up at you under his arched brow, calmly waiting for the heat he was about to take.

"Craig? Wh...what happened? Where am I?" you asked, squinting a few times at the unfamiliar bed you laid upon and your hand inside of Craig's.

"You...you fainted sweetheart. You're in my apartment....well, my...bedroom."

Craig lightly gulped as your confused eyes then fixated on his. "My panic attack...I...did I...dream of going to seeing Lee? Did I never leave?"

"No, princess, you left and....came back for your things that you forgot and...."

"JASON!" you shouted and flung up with bulging eyes that quickly spotted the icy blue eyes you thought you'd never see again.

The moment was intense and so surreal for both of you. Jason knew that when you found out, it would be a shock any way that he revealed himself, but it wasn't supposed to be like this and not now.

You yanked your hand free from Craig's and abruptly pushed past him to stand up and face the man the who you were told had severe head trauma and was burned beyond recognition. All you could do was gawk at him, studying every detail of his face to make sure you weren't hallucinating or even dreaming....and of course to make sure it was really him because...then who's body did Lee work on?? Who was in the casket and buried six feet under with a tombstone naming Jason Steven March on it???

"I ummm, I'm gonna go in the other room and give you both some privacy." Craig quietly said, attempting to escape and headed to the door.

"Hold it!!" you snapped, holding your arm out, pointing at him as your eyes remained trapped on Jason.

Craig pursed his lips as he froze, then slowly turned back around.

"H...how??? How are you here???!! I...I...I was there....I...the explosion...Lee...he...he saw your...body??? We...we fucking buried you...oh my god, I have got to be having some break from reality right now...this...this is just not possible! I...I want to hug you so bad and at the same time, I want to rip your head off! Someone start talking!!!"

"Craig, you're right. leave us...please. I need to talk to my sister alone." Jason said as he finally worked up the nerve to speak. The six foot assassin feared no one, except for four people. His mother, Sonny, Britt and ...you....and all for very different reasons.

Craig couldn't move fast enough because he was sure his head would be the next target and he was right.

"Don't go far....you and I have our own conversation to have....friend!" you warned with a glare at the man who clearly knew your brother, the man you told only hours ago that you trusted him, the man who now made sense that he was one of the family. When would you ever learn?

Craig's baby blues were remorse ridden, much like Jason's, as he nodded and quietly walked out, closing the door behind him. He began to finish off his bottle of wine from earlier while not being able to help overhearing the crying, shouting and either a slap or a punch, all coming from you....and he knew he would be next.

Almost an hour went by while Craig fretted and drank another bottle. Your voice had become softer at times, then loud again as Jason's could be heard explaining everything and then...the door flung open and you came storming out in a rage.

"YOU! You were a part of ALL this???!!! You KNEW my brother was alive this entire time??? You helped him orchestrate it all because YOU are one of them. My god how blind and stupid could I be...once more?? I trusted you! I actually believed you were a good guy when you're no better than any man I ever believed in because they all let me down. But you knew all about that. You knew everything about me before I ever even met you. You lying son of a bitch. I recant ever calling you my friend."

Craig lowered his head in shame, releasing a soft sigh as he had stood there motionless the entire time, holding his wine glass in one hand and fidgeting with his other while taking the verbal beating he knew he deserved as Jason also stood quietly with a lingering welt of a hand print across his cheek.

"You're not stupid...and you're right...Josie. I am a son of a bitch and a liar, but I swear...I swear on my daughter, please believe me when I say I cannot express how sorry I am for hurting you. I hated every minute of it but I...I had no choice. Please...please tell me you at least believe that. I care about you..a lot. We connected and I know you felt it too. Can I please tell you my side of things? Just you and me?" Craig softly pleaded as he took a step towards you. One he shouldn't have taken, for he also then earned his awaited slap.

He took it with a flinch and then slowly brought his humiliated eyes to yours as you began to cry. The one thing you had told him you never did in front of people if you could help it... and you couldn't help it. He hurt you deeply and he was going to know it and feel it. And he did too. It tore him to pieces seeing you cry.

"Why, so you can manipulate me some more? I know all I need to know. Any connection there may have been, you killed it. You had a damn choice Craig and it certainly wasn't caring about me. The only thing I actually even believe about you now is that you truly love your daughter...and I really hope she's not Ethan's, mostly for her sake, you know, the guy I told you about that you actually knew way more better than you let on?? Like umm, Elizabitch, I mean BETH is your baby mama of all lying cheating whores. Apparently I AM stupid for not realizing that when Britt flat out argued with her about you once, defending you, even said your name...and considering you even knew who Ethan was...a con just like you, that should have been a red flag...and YOU should have known who Lee was too. Guess you were just as stupid as me because YES I WAS STUPID!" you argued to his denial of it, throwing your hands in the air and then continued berating him.

"God how it all makes sense now and then there's your creepy ass dad, another mob man, who clearly had you all in some way after his not so random visit... but you said nothing, you wouldn't talk about him. Guess I can see why now. I mean shit, he just got out of PRISON for the typical not so legal shipments on the docks. I could go on all day here about what I have learned. I mean, what could you possibly say that I don't already know? Just more...'pretty words' huh Craig??...Oh...and then there's the fact that I had a nephew I didn't even know about or ever meet! A nephew who happens to be the dead son of my boyfriend who's life has been turned upside down over it all, but yet he's not his son now is he? He's my brother's son which you both knew. How do I even tell Lee something like this? Like, oh by the way Lee, that sweet little boy you've been grieving over for 4 years now, well guess what, I know who his bio daddy is...it's my not so dead brother and that makes me his aunt. And believe me, I will tell him. Unlike you both, I don't keep fucking secrets. Well, except for mom. Jason can fix his own damn mess with that. ALL I know is you both deserve each other and can go to hell!...OH...and Craig...I am NOT a fucking princess. What I am is a damn fool who was made to feel like one by those pretty words. But hey, thanks for trying to cheer me up."

Your words were getting colder and colder, mocking things Craig had said to you, and you hated it. You hated this side of you, stemmed from always being fucked over, and you needed to get out of there, so you went to walk out , but Jason quickly blocked the door.

"Jo, no. You can't go off like this and you definitely can't tell Lee about me."

"The last time I checked, I could do anything I damn well please, now get the hell out of my way Jay. As elated as I am that you're alive, I can't deal with this right now. It's too damn much. I need to go and let it all soak in... and even then, I don't know if I can ever forgive you... and I'll tell you right now, mom won't."

"Look, I know you're angry and you have every damn right to be, but take a little advice that I was given. Don't go out there all half cocked and do something stupid. That's what has kept me alive. Craig... he kept me alive Jo. Don't put Lee in danger by telling him things he don't need to know. Sometimes you have to do it Jo, to protect those you love. Just like I did. Let me handle this."

"Right, because you done such a stand up job so far at handling things. How is making me and mom suffer and have to bury you, protecting us??? Silly me, what was I thinking? And just how does telling Lee about Jacob put him in danger???"

"Because I never told anyone but Sonny and Craig about him being my son and you know Lee will go straight to Liz about it in anger and she'll figure out I'm alive because she knows they would never tell anyone and then she could easily shoot her mouth off to Ethan and then he'll go to Johnny... do you see now??"

"That sounds to me like it only puts YOU in danger. Story of your life. I can't even believe this... how everyone knows everyone and is involved somehow. It's not like Salem is a small town. All the signs I get in my life, how the fuck did I miss all this??? How do I keep this from him when we are having problems for the same damn reasons???? You can't do this shit to me Jason!!! Not after everything. I won't lie to him. He won't say anything if ask him not to."

"I can't stop you Jo, but I really hope you think about it long and hard before you do. You're already having trust issues with him and..."

"Are you really playing that card with me right now???!!! You may have been spying on me all this time but you know NOTHING about my relationship with Lee. Nothing! I DO trust him. He's obviously not the only one with skeletons in his closet so just back off of him! Go worry about your damn boat that mom sold to Ethan's dad!! And why?? To get rid of everything that reminded her of your criminal life. That was dad's boat Jason, and he trusted you with it! And you went and changed your will, leaving it to mom. Why didn't you leave it to me?? I wanted it Jay. I wanted to make something good out of it and now... now it will continue to be a craft of crime. Better go get your bike before she pawns that off too! Maybe Ethan would like it since the one he rides is a piece of shit like he is! What is wrong with you Jason??? Look what you have done to our family!! Why didn't you just stay dead!!!"

"That's enough Jo!! I get it that you're hurt and angry and with every right to be, but you need to calm down!!"

"Don't yell at her man. She hasn't done anything wrong." Craig firmly stated as he stepped out of his corner.

"Stay out of it Craig and stop trying to suck up to my sister because you have some thing for her." Jason retorted.

"Stay out of it?? You keep saying that and yet here I am, in this shit clear up to my damn neck, and why?? ALL to help you. Why did you even have to come here when you knew the risks???? You could have called!!"

"Yeah, I'm sorry I ruined whatever delusions you had going on here but this was all going to blow up in your face eventually and it was better sooner than later from what I can see."

"Delusional? This is fucking reality. A reality that YOU created Jason and me...her, your mom, Lee, Britt... are just collateral damage in your mob war."

The two bickering men had become within a foot of each other's faces and you had had enough.....although you were inclined to agree with Craig on what he had just said.

"Oh stop it! Both of you! This isn't a damn soap opera, but Craig is right about that Jay. You're like a fucking tornado, destroying everything in it's path and I...I am just done here. I need to go find someone to talk to that I actually DO trust. Someone that worked his ass off to earn it because he genuinely cares for me and I have neglected him because of all my bullshit."

"Josie...wait...please." Craig calmly pleaded, although extreme desperation was written all over his face. "Please, just don't hate me. I'll do whatever it takes to make this right. I'll work my ass off too to earn your trust back. I can't stand this. I never wanted to hurt you."

There was that sincere side of him again and it slightly softened you, but not to the point of oblivion.

"But you did hurt me. What this other person did was something petty, like a high school kid would do. What you BOTH have done is indescribable to me, completely beyond measure to that and I don't see what you could ever possibly do to make that right. I do...I do know it was not intentional. I don't hate you Craig....I feel sorry for you. You're actually a lot like me. You have a good heart in there...I've seen it and I've even heard it, but you let my brother and the shit you been through take you to the dark side and you took me down with you. You can't fix this. As they say, you never get a second chance at a first impression."

You glanced at Jason who held his head low and back at Craig's attentive and somber eyes as tears streamed down your cheeks, in which he then bravely marched forward and gently took your face in his hands. It happened so quickly that you just caved and let him touch you. Maybe you subconsciously wanted him too?

"But this is not the first impression, now is it? You've already seen that in me long ago. You know that and you know me. The real me that I don't let anyone else see. And you even just said you know I have a good heart so you contradict yourself, just Josie. That connection I mentioned. It's there... right now." Craig softly said, bearing the bluest of eyes and kindest smile. The real him that that carried that connection to you. The real him that you secretly didn't want to lose.

Nope. You weren't going to let him work his ridiculous magic on you that you could feel starting to work. You shoved his hands down and then walked out as fast as you could, completely ignoring your resurrected brother and forgetting your box of stuff that caused this entire revelation and situation to unfold.

You headed straight to your car and called Orlando...but as usual, he didn't answer. You needed to warn him about his dad buying the boat because that meant his father had every intention of sticking around Salem. You also missed the good doctor Bloom.

Off you went as dusk was setting in, to see if he was home, for you knew he was still on medical leave from the hospital according to Britt. You didn't have to go that far though, for on your way through town, you happened to see Orlando getting out of a cab and heading into the Brady pub, your family's bar and eatery. It was like you were meant to find him. Signs again?

You circled back around and parked, then headed inside. It was almost as if Orlando sensed your presence as he turned around and immediately locked his chocolate eyes on you. He then slowly approached you with furrowed brows as those now shocked eyes looked you up and down.

"Hey..." you quietly said, coming to a stop only a few feet away from him.

"What are you doing here?" he simply asked with no expression. You just wanted to hug him, needing comforting arms around you but he seemed less than pleased to see you, so you refrained.

"I...I tried to call you. I really needed to talk to you so I..."

"Since when do you need me? I haven't heard from you or seen you since I was in the hospital. Guess you had better things to do."

'You're...angry with me...I'm...I'm sorry...you're right, I've been so wrapped up in things and..so much has happened and...it's no excuse but I...you're the only one I wanted to talk to right now...and I just need..." you stammered as you began to choke up.

Orlando's flat expression instantly became that of concern and he took your hands into his.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked with such compassion, which triggered your tears paired with a pathetic frown.

"Everything." you squeaked as you squeezed his hands in response to the once again tightening of your throat. Thank god there was no one working that you knew and thank god Orlando pulled you into his arms. His scent was refreshing and natural, like Gain laundry soap, reminding you of the other time he had held you in your mom's kitchen during your inebriated mourning of Jason's death.

Orlando rested his cheek against your head as he gently caressed your back with his fingers entwining in the ends of your hair. Orlando was shorter than Lee and Craig, so this time yo couldn't hear his heartbeat but you could feel it against yours as your face was burrowed into his neck. Instead of a slow steady pace like Craig's, Orlando's was racing and as the hot breaths from his nose pulsed over your ear. Strangely though, it was still soothing.

"Feeling better now?" he whispered and slowly pulled back to look down at you.

"Yeah.." you answered in embarrassment for imploding into him in public and quickly released the comfort zone of his body.

"I was just about to get a beer. Join me? I'm buying." he asked with that cute ass smile of his where the corners of his lips slightly curled up.

"Yes, please!" you anxiously agreed and sat down at a secluded table.

Orlando then brought two large glasses of tap and before he could even sit down, you began chugging it. He then plopped down with gaping eyes, watching the last drop enter your mouth.

"Thirsty??" he asked with a slight chuckle.

"You have no idea. Can I get another??" you called to the bartender.

She quickly brought it over and left, then you lifted it up in a tilt to Orlando.

"Cheers!" you cheered.

"I'll drink to that. Cheers." Orlando replied with a silly smirk and toasted back to you.

"So I see your hand is healing up nicely. I'm sorry Lando...that I haven't been around."

"Yeah it is, although I've gotten quite accustomed to using my left hand now. Don't apologize. I'm the one who's sorry for sounding cross."

"Well you kind of had a right to be, but thanks...for being so great, just like you always are. So, where's your mom and Luke?"

"Around somewhere I guess. Luke's off being my brother Luke, always disappearing so who knows what the hell he's up to. Mum's got a place at the Salem Inn for now. I don't stay home much to know anything. Can't stand the silence. Glad I'm going back to work next week. Ironically the same day as Lee's conference. You'll be there right?"

Your eyes fell from his and you continued to drink.

"Josie? What's going on? And don't tell me nothing. This great guy here can see right through you."

"I...umm...I think Lee and I...are over. Story of my life." you told him as you shrugged and fought the sting in your eyes.

"You may not believe this...but...I really am sorry to hear that. I don't ever want to see you hurt Josie. Do you...want to talk about it?"

"Not much to talk about really. It's pretty simple. It's all over Ethan as usual and I think that Lee has some feelings for him to face that he will not be honest with me about or even to himself. I hope Ethan has been leaving you alone because he sure hasn't stayed out of mine or Lee's life and Lee won't make him stay away which speaks volumes. Fucking menace. Ethan's fucking my sister now, did you know that? Came to my own mother's house this afternoon to pick her up. I'm just so disgusted with everything right now."

"Jesus...Josie, no I didn't know. Ethan is always with someone knew all the time and no, he hasn't bothered me. I think Luke did something to cause that."

There was so much you wanted to tell Orlando, about Jason, about Ethan and Liz and Craig, but you couldn't. As mad as you were at your brother, you were so grateful he was alive and you still had to protect him. The question was, were you going to tell Lee?

Speaking of...Luke, the other one...your uh...dad....have you seen him at all?"

"No...and I better not. I want my hand to stay healed."

You saw it in his darkened eyes, the instant rage when he spoke of him....and now, you were fretting over having to tell him what you knew. You let out a deep sigh and forced yourself to do it.

"Landy...he umm...my mom sold him Jason's boat, the Haunted Star."

If someone had dropped a pin, it would have been heard through the entire bar.

"Wwwwwhat???" he snapped as he sat straight up, staring you down.

"Yeah, that was my reaction as well. I..don't have an explanation other than my mom was trying to rid of Jason's things that reminded her of his life of crime and...I think your dad intentionally bought it to bring back that life that once existed on that yacht, which means...he plans on staying around here... I'm so sorry...I dreaded having to tell you but you deserved to know."

"That son of a bitch." he growled and chugged down his beer, then motioned for more. "And I can guarantee you, Ethan will be right at his side through it all. After everything Ethan knows that piece of shit did to me...to him even that he won't admit. Just proves how sick in the head Ethan really is. Like father like son."

"Well, if it's any consolation, I may not have known your dad, but I can tell you're nothing like him. You're a healer and a good person Landy."

He gazed at you for a moment and then chugged down the new glass and motioned for more. "Just keep em coming, please and thank you!"

"So...what's up with you calling me Landy now?" he then asked with a soft smile.

"Hell I don't know. I guess it just rubbed off on me from hearing Lee and Luke call you that. I...I hope it's ok?? I will stop if you don't want me to."

"Nah...I don't mind. I kinda like the way you say it. It has a different kind of ring to it." he grinned.

You forced a smile and then fondled your glass as you stared at it. You just couldn't get Lee out of your head and all the shit with Jason. Orlando then reached across the table and took your hand.

"Hey...you ok?"

"I'm just trying to wrap my head around it all."

"Well, how about for one night, you stop trying and let loose a bit. I'm supposed to meet Jimmy and some guys here in a bit. Stay and have some fun with me. I've missed you."

"You want ME to hang out with you and a bunch of dudes?" you chuckled.

"Yep...I sure do. Come on. Jimmy likes you....and well...so do I. It would make my night if you'd stay with me."

All you could hear in that moment was Lee's voice telling you that Orlando was in love with you, and you never wanted to believe it...but now...you did. The way his eyes lit up when he looked at you told on him and you now wondered if it was a good idea to stay....but then, why not??? you thought. It was better than going home and crying yourself to sleep in the apartment across from Craig.

"Fiiiine. You twisted my arm. Bring on the drinks!"

About fifteen minutes later, Jimmy and two guys came in and you all moved to a larger table and then everything became somewhat normal with conversations and loud laughter, music and drinking. This went on for about two hours and for once, your mind was free of pain....and so was Orlando's. It was good to see him smile again.

As the music played, a song came on that resonated with you big time and you were feeling damn good too, so you got up and began dancing and singing without a care in the world, even if it the song made you think of Lee.

"I didn't wanna leave babe, I didn't wanna fight, started to cry but then I remembered I can buy myself flowers!! Write my name in the sand!! Talk to myself for hours, say things you don't understand. I can take myself dancing!! i can hold my own hand...yeah I can love me better than you can!!"

"Wanna bet!!" Orlando shouted and pulled you on his lap, wrapping his arms around you and laughing while Jimmy bellowed in laughter, clapping like a seal.

Everything was good. You didn't mind his arms around you. It felt nice. You didn't have a shadow of a doubt in your mind that Orlando was into someone else and that's what you craved. To be someone's one and only and not just because they said and showed you that you were, but because you KNEW you were....and with Lee, you didn't know that like you once believed you did.

Annnd, no matter what you did, it still hurt like hell and Lee plagued your mind. Damn him, you thought and got up.

"I need to use the lady's room."

"Ahh, yes. Me too. Oh...no no..I mean the boy's room." Orlando said as he stumbled up in laughter.

Orlando was still laughing as he relieved himself. He hadn't had this much fun since he could remember and it was all because of you. But he felt terribly guilty for feeling even the slightest bit happy that you and Lee may be at the end of the road. Did he really have a chance with you if that were the case? The doubts were there, for he knew deep down inside, it would always be Lee that your heart desired, even if you couldn't be with him.

As he washed his hands, his thoughts were intruded by a familiar face that walked in and didn't see Orlando. The man he stared at in the mirror was none other than his father....Luke Sr.

In his stunned state, Orlando held his head down as his dad did his business and left without even washing his hands. That was a perfect example of the dirty ass man he was.

Orlando quickly walked out to see where he was. Had he been in the bar the whole time, stalking him from a dark corner and decided to follow him into the bathroom to taunt him?? His thoughts ran wild and he couldn't focus as he watched Luke drink the last of his beer, then put on his coat and leave. In his frazzled state, Orlando spun around and accidentally ran into some woman, knocking her drink all over her.

"Are you fucking blind???!" she barked.

That did it. That was enough. Orlando was seeing red. He had to get the hell out of there and follow him. He had waited a long time for this moment and there was no better time in his eyes to unleash his fury on the man who abused him as a child in the most sinful of ways.

He grabbed his coat and stormed out the door with you running after him. As he got outside, he caught a glimpse of his dad heading to another bar down the road.

"Orlando!! Wait! Where are you going???"

"Nowhere...I just need some air." he flatly said, looking like he was going to hyperventilate.

"Hey, what's wrong?? What happened?? You're sweating. Talk to me."

"Nothing Josie. Just go home. I gotta go." he anxiously said as he shook his head and then marched off down the sidewalk.

"What??? Like hell I will. Wait up!!" you shouted and ran back to get your coat and purse, then after him.

Orlando rounded the corner, wanting to get it over with because he knew you were coming after him and he didn't want you to witness it or also try to stop him like he knew you would do.

There stood his father, smoking a cigarette on the sidewalk as he snuck up on him.

"Hello...dad." he said with extreme sarcastic emphasis.

"Ahhh. Landy. I was wondering when you would seek me out."

"Shut the fuck up. I would rather eat broken glass than be anywhere near you. It is you that has come here to find me, is it not?? To torture me some more because years of rape and battering wasn't enough for you???"

You just came around the corner and froze when you saw Orlando and heard what he said to the man who was obviously his dad. Now you understood what happened, that Orlando had seen him back in the bar.

You decided to stay back and give Orlando some privacy to let him have his long awaited say, but you got your pepper spray and phone out, ready to call 911 in case something bad happened. if that man even attempted to hurt Orlando, you would make sure the poor excuse of a father had no eyeballs left.

"Always were a drama queen, weren't you Lando. A real piece of theater, lost in your fantasy world of make believe."

"Fantasy??!! What you did to me was no fucking fantasy!!! Nor was it make believe!!"

Actually, you wanted to go over there right now and rip his other balls off for what he had done to him and for basically calling Orlando a liar when you knew it was true.

"So, what are you going to do? Kick my ass? Is that why you followed me boy?? I saw you back there at the bar. If you think you got what it takes to take me down, give it your best shot you pussy ass little girl. You can't even fucking swim. Why don't you do yourself a favor and go take a dive in the ocean."

Why did Luke's last words instantly send a flash through your mind of the two dreams you had of Orlando and you both drowning??? You prayed to god it wasn't another sign of some sort.

What you saw next, you couldn't quite conceive. Orlando pulled something out of his pocket that appeared to be a small sledgehammer and then he immediately began walking towards Luke.

"Orlando NO!!" you shouted as you came running up, which caused him to back away.

"Give it to me Landy...Now!!" you commanded as you tugged at the weapon which he refused to let go of.

"Damn it josie, I told you to go home! Get out of here!"

"I am NOT leaving you here with him! He's not worth spending your life in prison! Please...please give me the hammer and let's leave together Ok???"

"Would you look at that? Why Lando, you actually got yourself a girlfriend and she has bigger balls than you do! Where'd you find this one? On some porn site? Are you sure she's even a girl? I mean, I know how you enjoy dick."

Orlando charged him and pinned him against the wall by his throat, holding the hammer up and ready to swing it.

"You shut your filthy mouth!! Don't you ever talk about her like that!!!"

You don't know how you did it, adrenaline maybe? But you rushed up behind him and yanked the hammer out of his hand as hard as you could and then held your pepper spray out.

"Get the hell out of here before I call the police, you piece of trash."

Luke belted out a laugh. "Call them. He's the one who attacked me. I know who you are little girl. Your Morgan's sister. Hey, you'll have to stop by the boat sometime and let me know what you think of the new look it's going to get. You're more than welcome to....COME aboard. Hope to see you soon."

Off he strolled while you turned to hold Orlando back. He then glared at you.

"Are you insane?? That was my chance to end him!"

"Stop it! You're drunk and not thinking straight and I know you'll thank me later for saving your ass yet once again! Now come on. I'm taking you home! Let's go!"

@redeemer46

#code blue #lee pace fanfiction #lee pace #orlando bloom #craig parker #steve burton #mob fiction #organized crime #mafia #doctors #jason morgan #love stories #dark stories #dark fiction #fantasies #fairytales #soap opera #angst

[blackwood4stucky]

something wicked this way comes | aspen blackwood

series: the call of darkness

james “bucky” barnes x steve rogers | mcu

🆃 | word count: 1435 | complete

tags: alternate universe, bucky centric, witch!bucky, vampire!steve, steve rogers implied, pre-stucky

Bucky woke up in a cold sweat, his breaths coming in harsh pants. What could a dream like that even mean? — Dreams can be omens and Bucky’s was unlike anything he normally has.

bingo fills + event prompts

@anyfandomangstbingo | vampire au

@buckybarnesevents: babb2023 [babb060] | 3am talks [march]

@buckybarnesevents: connect 4 - into an alternate june-iverse [c4013] | c2: vampire, c4: witch

@marvel-smash-bingo | bucky barnes

@sebastianstanbingo | free space

@stuckybingo [5080] | natasha romanoff [march adoptable]

@stuckygeekevents: stucky geek bingo | free space

sweetspicybingo: sweetheart bingo | sweet pea

@yearoftheotpevent | may: “who are you?”

read: ao3 | ffn | sqwa

mini playlist

#stucky fiction #marvel fanfiction #anyfandomangstbingo #babb2023 #into the june-iverse #connect 4 #marvel-smash-bingo #sebstanbingo #ssbingo #stucky bingo round 5 #stucky bingo #stuckygeekevents #stuckygeekbingo #vampire steve #witch bucky #vampire natasha #the call of darkness #something wicked this way comes

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

#tumblr polls #movie polls #film poll #ming na wen #alec baldwin #donald sutherland #ving rhames #steve buscemi #street fighter #the joy luck club #one night stand #prom night #ralph breaks the internet #the darkness #push 2009 #pulp fiction #con air #final fantasy the spirits within #i now pronounce you Chuck and Larry #be cool #movie stuff

[puppy-bitch24]

FanFic alert!

I need help finding a fairly old fanfic. imma explaining the plot the best as I can as I remember

it is a Marvel fic. Steve and the others manage to bring Bucky back to the tower but something is still off. the only person who knows is Tony.

Problem? Tony cannot tell anyone without the risk of Bucky hurting him. Bucky at every chance would hurt and harm him. it started off with pinches and bruised or light pushing. but now has escalated into leaving bruises and snarling threats.

Tony still tries to tell Steve but is ignored. he goes for a walk only to get ambushed by Bucky who kidnaps him and begins choking him. The Avengers arrive and fight him off of Tony. steve, who's still in denial, starts to reason with him thinking it is the winter soldier influence. Tony barely breathing reminds him that it is not. They beat Bucky and take him into custody and Tony is taken to the hospital. bucky wakes up and tries to play dumb but it doesn't work. so he admits the truth with no shame. confident that they couldn't truly hold him. steve sick to his stomach goes to leave the room but Bucky stops him and says

"Call me when you finally get sick of Stark. Til the end of the line. right,"

and laugh as Steve runs away.

#fandom life #marvel #ao3 fanfic #fan fiction #fan fic problems #tony stark #dark bucky barnes #i can't remember who wrote it #steve rogers #hurt/comfort #hurt tony stark #bucky is not a good guy in this story #it been so long since i read it #tw abuse #tw assualt #tw threats #iron man #winter soldier

[p3sephone]

Can’t run, can’t hide (Dark! Steve Rogers)

Summary: you try to get away from Steve, but things don't go as you expected.

Warnings: past abuse, past kidnapping, hints of torture and cutting, toxic relationship, delusion, forced affections, hints of victim blaming, future abuse implied. Please if you do not feel comfortable with dark themes, do not read. This character does not belong to me. Minors do NOT read. 

Note: it was meant to be a drabble. I've been on a pause for a very long time, any feedback is welcome. <3

You tried to grab as much as possible. You didn't have time to organize everything that passed through your hands inside the backpack, you just knew that you had to take the essentials. Even if you wanted to, you couldn't have put aside what you needed days before: he was always attentive to everything. Your every movement, look and word. You had to coordinate every little thing, try not to attract attention. After all, he paid attention to the details, which was why he had already discovered you the other five times. When he had decided to lock you up, you were ready to flee, you still had that fire inside that commanded you to do everything possible to get away. And you had tried, you had really tried, even to kill him. That didn't help either. None of the five attempts were really useful. He not only always managed to find out about your plans, but also understood when and how. It was as if no detail had ever really escaped him and he was playing with you, not you manipulating him. Then came the worst part, the punishments. Because of him you wore indelible scars, you tended to cover them with loose and comforting shirts, but you still had them on your skin. You no longer looked in the mirror, they were a constant reminder of how miserably your belief and being had been crushed by him. Then came the even worse part. You thought that corporal punishment was more than enough to make you obey and keep you calm, silent, but no. He needed something more, something of his times. He hurt you and every look from him made you live in fear, in the constant thought that you had done something wrong that would cost you another bruise on your body. Shortly after the punishments, you remembered that he didn't even give you time to hate him, to cry about yourself and how you couldn't escape once again. You remembered how he forced you to lie down with you, still with your wounds fresh with blood and your dirty clothes. It didn't matter what time it was or how you were dressed, but he had to show you his sick love. He forced you into his suffocating embrace and looked at you as if his life depended only on you, as if he really could have feelings for you. And then, he always said the same thing to you: “You know, I don't want this, I just want us to be happy. Don't make me do it again darling, okay? Tell me you're sorry." It was your undoing to get those words out of your mouth, and after five times, you gave up trying. But your mind couldn't adjust to that hell, you still remembered too well who you were before he kidnapped you, and you were a person with your own life, with control. You wanted those times back, before his attentive eyes could rest on your figure. With a shaky breath, you prayed that this was the right time. The backpack was completely full, filled with objects and memories that you needed to keep going. You didn't have the faintest idea of what to do, if you could go any further. Were you able to see the password of the system, the one that allows him to lock you up in four walls. It was sudden, your escape wasn't planned at all, but then you saw it. And all that context was too spontaneous, he was too furious and devastated to make it his proof. Steve was not a calculating person, he never was, and you paid for that too at your expense. From forced demonstrations of love to the good manners he demanded in all respects: those that have allowed you to become a more attentive and precise person, just to guarantee you the freedom that you already deserved. "Make it the right time, I beg you." You didn't actually talk to anyone, but you had to vent. You felt like you were freaking out and your hands were shaking as you hurried to the door. You knew well that the cameras were framing you, you knew that maybe Steve was watching you, but it wasn't of interest to you. He'd been on a mission for two days now, far too far to return quickly, even for him. You would have disappeared in time, or at least you hoped so as you stared for a few seconds at the camera pointing to the entrance. You entered the code into the code display and only realized you weren't breathing at all until you heard the door unlocking sound. It was open, you had it. Or maybe it was too soon? Maybe you were dreaming. You headed outside and started running. All around you you had only greenery, trees and no city signs. You were hopeful that there was something else nearby, but even if it wasn't, you vowed to kill yourself before you could even let Steve get his hands on you again. You knew this sixth time would cost you your sanity, it was your last chance. You ran for several minutes, then took a long break due to the little strength you had. You still walked for a long time, always aimlessly. You were exhausted and by now the sun was setting, but you didn't want to give up. You were going to move forward and continue down whatever path you were taking so that there was more distance between you and him. In hindsight, you would have defined yourself with one word: naïve. You knew your ride was over when it came upon you. Like he was waiting for you, but at the same time he had that look that told you he wasn't expecting it. You, on the other hand, felt your world falling apart. You didn't understand what you did wrong, what? “I didn't expect you to see the code, I'll give you that. But what I expected, even after all this time, was that I was stupid enough to think I wouldn't take precautions. Five times is a lot, too many, you know?” Steve spoke in a livid tone, and his eyes took on an even more glacial color. His arms were folded and he was several feet away from you, as if he were still holding back. Like he wants to give you a chance to redeem yourself and ask for forgiveness, like the good wife you should be to him. Instead, you chose to ask for the one thing that mattered to you. "How did you do?" it was a single broken voice, but Steve heard it. He sighed with a mix of surrender and exasperation, then leaned closer to you and looked at you like he was sorry. “You were already mine before I spoke to you. Today's technology is quite interesting, you know? I could have put you in a collar or something more humiliating like I was advised to keep an eye on you, but instead I just had a minor surgery done. It's under your skin, safe and where I know you can never get to remove it." That moment almost made your heart stop pounding. A chip? Did he know where I was all along? Your breaths began to become more and more labored and your vision filled with tears. The backpack, already quite heavy, became decidedly too much on your shoulders and you slipped it off. You too wanted to slip away, away from him and his pitying gaze. But you saw the patina under those blue eyes, he couldn't wait to teach you again what your responsibilities were at his side. And for the first time, you've never been terrified. Your broken voice began to be heard against your consent as you started to roll up the sleeves of your shirt. You started looking for any scars, anything that didn't relate to Steve's punishments. You started trying to scrape the skin off feeling the desperation coursing through your veins. He had taken everything from you, even the last shred of humanity. You were his property, you had nothing left. Steve approached with a concerned air, gripping your wrists tightly and stopping you from scratching the skin on your arms. “Stop it, it's okay, it's okay now. Let's go home and I'll take care of you baby, just listen to me-" "No!" you screamed furiously, trying with all the strength you had left in your body to move it. But moving Steve Rogers was a feat you could never have faced. You fought with everything you had, teeth, kicks, nails. Nothing worked, only Steve's gaze full of compassion, severity and so much disappointing love allowed you to keep fighting. Until even the physical forces left you and Steve managed to lift you up. “You've come a long way, you'll be tired and hungry. Today I'll cook, after dinner I'll still try to make you understand how lucky we are to be together. I'm lucky and happy, and I'm not going to throw that away just because you want your life back. That's over, no one is looking for you anymore, and now I've definitely shown you that you can't run away from me." He held you as if you were a bride, with such delicacy and devotion, but his gaze was simply sick. Because he believed every single thing that came out of his mouth and you knew that, sooner or later, the sixth detention would come.

#dark marvel #dark steve rogers #dark! steve rogers #dark steve rogers x reader #dark fiction #yandere steve rogers #yandere! steve rogers #yandere steve rogers x reader #dark! steve rogers x reader #dark steve x reader #yandere marvel

[rosyxcc]

I’m just curious. Where does it clarify that this is in fact Bucky and Steve RESCUING the reader from being kidnapped, and not being the ones who kidnap her? I’m just curious! I’m just wondering! I’M JUST CURIOUS! It’s a very innocent question! I’m just curious about what impression this was supposed to give! I’m talking to the author, and currently waiting for a reply after giving my reasoning, and I couldn’t resist saying this SOMEWHERE! To clarify: I did enjoy the fic, a lot, it was very nice, and it was a lot fluffier than I expected, and it was very sweet, and I did like it. HAVING SAID THAT. It was very definitely not what I expected. I feel duped. I liked it, but like, clarification? Maybe add a tag that says “rescued reader” or “rescue mission” or “saved from abuse” or “reader/JERK” or SOMETHING! Please? It would be nice.

… honestly the funniest part is that in the comments, I think the author thought I was upset about it being dark. Like, it sounded like they were thinking I was expecting something lighter because of the description, and didn’t see the tags, but no, I actually was expecting something much darker, and completely misinterpreted the description. I kinda feel bad for that author...

#fanfics #fan fic things #fan fiction #ao3fic #marvel fanfiction #stucky #that’s Steve x Bucky #if anyone wanted to know #authors on ao3 not clarifying in the tags #OR the description #being duped by ao3 once again #warning: this is a dark fic #it has smut #be careful #not that I mention that #but if you want to read the fic #you should probably be aware #also don’t judge me #i like what i like #and that happens to be kinda dark sometimes

[missacidburn928]

My Ao3 is where I post all of my stories.

There's 26 works total spanning multiple fandoms. Click the link to give em a read 🖤

#poc reader #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes smut #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers smut #steve rogers x you #bucky x reader x steve #captain syverson x reader #captain syverson fic #captain syverson x you #henry cavill characters #spn smut #sons of anarchy #dean winchester fan fiction #thor smut #avengers smut #avengers x you #darkish #dark humor

[kiss-me-im-emo]

is anyone else not doing well after chris evans wedding?

#lovesick #fictional characters #chris evans #marvel #steve rogers #dark romanticism #escapism

[leiamorgainedelalune]

Fanfics by Leia - The Master List

You can also find my work on Wattpad and coming soon to AO3. I will start to post them here very soon. I’ve got to get some graphics and everything too. I have several WIP fics and quite a few planned that I haven’t started. I’m only listing the ones that I’ve currently started writing with complete chapters. Everything I write does come with a mature rating whether or not it begins that way. The majority of my fics are mostly plot with some smut though I’m writing one that’s definitely more smut than plot. I will link to the chapters once I post them. For now this is just to show what’s coming.

The Magnetic Saga (X-Men/MCU Crossover)

About the Saga

The Reading Master List

Mafia Princess Series

Multifandom Chris Evans Characters/Dark Mafia AU/Erotic Romance

Go to the Mafia Princess Master List here.

Steve Rogers Fics

Go to the Steve Master List here.

Andy Barber Fics

Go to the Andy Master List here.

Ransom Drysdale Fics

Go to the Ransom Master List here.

Ari Levinson Fics

Go to the Ari Master List here.

Multifandom

Go to the Multifandom Master List here.

In Development

I have three books for The Magnetic Saga in development, see the Series Post for the covers and titles. There will, also, be a third book in the Mafia Princess Series. There is also a Ransom Drysdale and Ari Levinson fic being developed. I have some more Andy Barber and Steve Rogers fics forming in my head too. There’s always more ideas coming!

#chris evans #chris evans smut #captain america #marvel #MCU #xmen oc #xmen #polaris #cevans #steve rogers #fanfic #fan fiction #steve rogers smut #steve rogers x oc #dark tony stark #tony stark #andy barber #ari levinson #ransom drysdale #andy barber smut #18+ readings #smut fanfiction #bucky barnes #bucky barnes smut #sebastian stan #natasha romanoff #magneto #wolverine #lloyd hansen #Spotify

[fantasies-fairytales-n-fics]

Code Blue Ch. 42- Duck Duck Goose

Summary: The trip to the train bridge commences. Jo is overly annoyed with Lee and makes sure he knows it. An intense rush is shared. Lee meets Jake's bio daddy. Jason and Jo make up for the most part. He and Lee send her reeling. A shocking moment is witnessed. Lee confesses something already suspected by Jo. Liz goes to Ethan.

*Warnings* DARK!! language, angst, alcohol use, murder plots, depictive mentions of child death

Stories Stories Stories Masterlist

Chapter characters: Lee, Josie, Jason, Liz, Ethan,

Salem, Massachusetts

March 16, 2023

10:30 p.m.

The car ride to the train bridge was silent as Lee drove and you stared out your window, unable to stop seeing his lips on Angel's and her disrobing before him half naked. Sure he beat feet out of there but it didn't make your anger any less that he chose to even go in the first place. Still, you were curious as to what she told him although in that moment, you didn't even want to speak to him or even look at him for that matter.

Lee parked the car at the place you took him on your bike, then turned it off. A few minutes went by as you both sat there in the dark before Lee broke the deafening silence.

"Are you going to talk to me about this?"

"You mean like you talk to me about things?" you snipped and got out. As much as you wanted to slam his door to make him cringe, you quietly shut it in caution of your dark surroundings.

Lee sighed heavily, reached in the back to grab the flashlights and then got out too, handing you one.

The night air was crisp and the moon half full as you began to walk towards the sound of the horn to the train that now ran on the newly rerouted track under another bridge close by. It was a good fifteen minute walk, so you picked up the pace.

"Jo...could you slow down? It's still early and the path is not level. You're going to trip."

"Just keeping my distance. I can smell the rank of her cheap ass dollar store perfume all over you."

You no more than finished your snarky comment and down you went, tripping over a large tree root.

"Owww, fuck. Damn it."

"Jo, babe...are you alright?" Lee asked as he tried to help you up.

"I got it! I'm fine." you snapped, pulling away from him and continuing on with a slight limp.

Lee shook his head and chuckled. "Of course you are. Tough as nails. One of the many things I love about you."

"Can you just shut up?"

"Yes ma'am." he said and smirked, loving how damn sexy he thought you were when you were mad.

When you both arrived at the bridge, there was no sign of Jason yet. He was always punctual so you had at least an hour to sit there with Lee.

Lee looked around at the unfamiliar territory as he stood atop the bridge constructed of stone that overlooked the train tracks beneath. It had an old dirt road that crossed it and there were actually street lights and an old functional payphone nearby.

"So, you mean to tell me I could have drove here?"

"Well sure, if you don't mind driving your precious classic over two foot pot holes the entire way here." you retorted as you climbed up on the ledge and sat down.

"Yeaaaah, that would be a big fat no. Sooo, now what? It's only 11."

"A train will be though soon. It's pretty surreal to sit up here when it goes under. The entire bridge shakes and the wind will make your eyes water. I like to dangle my feet over the edge and swing them. It's like I'm running over top of the train."

"Interesting. The girl who's afraid of heights likes to be so daring."

"I'm not afraid of heights. I'm afraid of falling." you told him and finally looked into his eyes. Lee understood the look and your words that reminded him of previous conversations with you.

"I won't let you fall." he softly said and at down beside you and gazed down below. "That's still a hefty drop. If it didn't kill you, it would definitely break a lot of bones."

"Probably, but this ledge is nice and wide. I just hold onto the back when I let my legs hang over."

"You can always hold onto me."

You looked away and stared out into the darkness, feeling the softness towards him coming on...damn it.

"You want a drink?"

"A...drink?" you asked with a raised brow.

"Yep. Brought this little friend with me."

Lee pulled out a small pint of whiskey from inside of his coat pocket, then removed his coat and opened it up, handing it to you.

"100 proof. It'll warm you up and take the edge off." he said with a smile.

You half smiled and took it, then knocked back a swig, cringing instantly at the burn as the highly flammable liquid seared down your throat.

"It'll take more than the edge off. Like possibly the lining of my throat and stomach, holy hell." you stammered with a cough.

Lee chuckled. "You alright?"

"Yep." you grunted and handed it back to him. "Tough as nails, remember?"

Lee took a large gulp of the potent fire, completely tolerant of it's stinging burn, then hopped off the ledge and walked around the corner of the bridge.

"Cool, there's steps over here to go down to the tracks." he raved with a grin and headed down to look around. "You comin?"

"Nah...I'm good."

You then carefully turned and let your legs hang freely so you could view him.

"Yep, you're pretty far up there." Lee said and laughed as he peered up at you.

"This is nothing compared to the old unused trestle way up there just behind the trees that runs over the river wild. That's the one I'm afraid of. The fall and the water. Nope."

"You're not afraid of the water either. You're afraid of drowning...right?"

"You gonna save me from drowning too?"

"Always." Lee said. "But maybe you'll trust me enough someday to let me teach you how to swim first."

You became silent again so Lee put his hands in his pockets and began walking around, kicking rocks with his head lowered, and then he stopped and looked back up at you with a story telling smile.

"Do you know I was afraid of trains as a kid? They were so big and I was so small. They were so loud, much like the storms that I also feared as you do."

"Not Jacob though. He was fearless for his size. In his mind, he was six feet tall and bullet proof. I guess we know who and where he got that from."

In that moment you realized how frightened he was to meet Jason, the man who was biologically Jacob's father, yet Lee was the one who who fathered Jacob for his entire short years and he was the only one Jacob knew as his dad....and now that reveal was going to become reality for Lee. Also in that moment, you forgave him about Angel, for Jacob was the only reason he did it. You saw Lee shove her away instead of continuing on and even if you hadn't been watching, you knew he still would have done the same thing. Lee was just a desperate father wanting to know what happened to his son.

"I...I remember your stories about your dad easing all those fears and how you ended up loving trains...and how Gordon helped you deal with the storms too. Parents are great when you have the right kind and you...you Lee, were the right kind for Jacob...and Jason knew and believed that. That's why he stayed away, to protect Jake physically from his life of crime and also mentally from being ripped away from the only father he had ever known. Now Liz...well, she wasn't nor is the right kind of parent and if Jason had knew that earlier, well...he would have handled her....in fact, he was going to and she knew it, which is why she aided in taking him out first. Lee....it's going to be ok. You and Jason, you're both victims in Liz's lies and manipulations. He's on your side, although he may not be too happy that I brought you here. I know your worried to see him but...Lee, his presence, it changes nothing. You...are Jake's daddy...always and Jake knows that."

"You really are so beautiful, you know that? Your heart, they just don't make em like you anymore." he chuckled. "I guess that's why it took me so long to find you. After everything I have done and everything I have put you through, you're still in my corner and I couldn't love you more than I do right now...ok well yes I could but you know what I mean. Jo Jo....about Angel...I..."

"I know baby."

The train horn blared from the darkness behind Lee and then a dim light came into view.

"Lee, the train, it's coming. Come on! You gotta sit up here and experience this!!"

Lee came jogging up the stairs, sat beside you and whipped his legs over the ledge. You both stared at each other with adrenalized expressions as a light breeze began to creep up, being carried by the speeding bullet.

You gasped at the echoing horn blaring one last time as the beast came straight for you and Lee, inching closer by the second. Lee laid his palm out as he gazed at your glowing face. You slapped your hand down onto his, fingers weaving tightly together in unison as the repetitive clanking of the rails grew closer. Your chests were tightening, but in a good way as you both stared the oncoming monster in it's glowing eyes.

Lee's arm went over your lap like a seatbelt, his other hand still clasping yours as your bodies became engulfed in a blinding bubble of the whitest white. You gazed at Lee who was in a relaxed trance like state as he faced his past fears head on. His eyes then closed and he tilted his head back, taking in the rush as the light took over him.

The train then rushed and roared beneath your swinging feet as it's violent wind of fury burst through your hair.

"WoooooOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" you screeched into the night as Lee released the breath he was holding in a hard puff and he then turned with gaping eyes to watch the train disappear into the darkness followed by the fainting sound of the thumping tracks. All was dark and quiet once more except for the pounding of your hearts.

Lee's eyes quickly met back with yours, both of you panting with slowly forming smiles and then his hands came firmly to your face, his fingers gripping the back of your head. His gaze was intense and your eyes screamed with desire, both of you high on dopamine. Your trembling fingers grasped his wrists and then his lips swiftly made their way to yours, forcing a soft mewl to squeak out of you. The wind lightly lingered, swirling about as you both shared a deeply passionate kiss filled with urgency for one another. If it weren't for the fact you would be meeting Jason very soon, you would have knocked Lee to the ground and took him right then and there.

But then, the faint rumble of a motorcycle broke the heated moment and then it went silent. Gasping, you jumped to your feet.

"Jason's here!" you loudly whispered, grabbling Lee's wrist to look at his watch. Midnight on the dot.

As you gawked down the path with anticipation, Lee stood right at your side with his arm around your waist. Jason was quite stealthy, so you knew he would appear without a sound and then...there he was.

Jason halted briefly when he saw Lee and then he continued on his way to you, his face full of emotion that most would say he didn't possess but the truth was, only those he loved could keep stone cold at bay.

He then slowly approached you, one hand in his pocket as he reached for you with his other arm and hugged you, one thing he wasn't big on doing.

"I'm so sorry for everything." he whispered into your ear.

One thing though, when Jason was wrong, he admitted it.

"I know. I'm just so glad you're alive and that you're here."

Jason released you and smiled, then looked at Lee, making your heart sink as you expected stone cold to surface, but once again, your brother shocked you.

"Lee. It's good to finally meet you." Jason softly said and extended his hand out.

Lee reached back and shook his hand. "You too Jason."

Flabbergasted, you gazed at Lee, then at Jason. "You...you're not mad that I brought him?"

"I knew you would. I know you better than you know yourself Jo. I get it. I've already put you in an unfair predicament in keeping my secret. I never expected you to keep it from the one you love."

"Well umm so...let me cut right to the chase about my code red text. It's not so secret anymore Jay. Liz knows...accidentally by me, at the hospital. The witch was hiding and listening to a conversation I had with Lee. I'm SO sorry...I didn't mean to..."

"It's ok. Is she the only one?"

"As far as I know, she told Lee's neighbor, Angel, who's her friend and a nurse at the hospital....but...I don't know. Lee saw her with Ethan yesterday at the hospital and then there's Cyrus who...."

"I know all about Cyrus's new position. I also know you were admitted. Are you ok? You have to know I would have been there if I were able."

"Yeah, I..I know you would have and yeah, I'm ok now. Just stress basically. Lee...he...he got me there right away and..."

"I know that too. Thank you..Lee...for saving my sister."

"No thanks necessary. I would lay down my life for her if needed."

You smiled and rubbed Lee's arm.

"Ok, how do you know all of this?" you then asked Jason.

"I was eavesdropping on Mom's phone call to Livvie at the house before I took my bike."

"WHAT??? Jason! She's going to notice that it's gone, are you nuts?? How the hell did you get the keys, which she'll also know is missing??"

"Extra set I kept at Sonny's. Mom don't go in the garage often and as long as she sees my keys, she'll have no reason to look. If she does, I'll cross that bridge when I get there."

"Ummm, she was just in there and saw my car, asking me all about that."

"Yeah, why is your car there?"

"That's a story for another time. God Jason, this is all going to blow up in our faces. I mean, you're out riding your damn bike for fuck's sake. You couldn't have had Max or Milo take you??"

"Ok, so you know? I am wearing my helmet for once in my life. Many guys have similar bikes and dress like me when they ride...hell, Lee's dressed like me right now AND it's not like I'm joy riding through town Jo. And you know Sonny's guys are being watched by Cyrus's men and most likely the Zacchara's too, so no Jo. I didn't find it feasible to taxi around in Sonny's cars."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, if mom calls me about your missing bike, you know I'm going to have to tell her. I'm not going to lie to her like I've been doing now for all this time. When Jason, when is this going to end???"

"I'm working on that Jo."

"So you keep saying Jason and yet, here we still are. If I hadn't seen you, would I still be in the dark??"

"You were going to be the first person to know, I swear it. It just wasn't supposed to be so soon."

"Oh really? Sonny knew before me. Sonny and Carly always come first."

"Jo..don't do this. Not now. I didn't come here to fight. I missed you and needed to see you after knowing you were in the hospital."

You began to cry. "This is bullshit Jay. Having to meet in a desolate dark place because we can't just normally call each other or text without stupid fucking codes, or go to lunch together like we used to or...."

Jason pulled you into another hug, this time with both arms.

"I know. I'm so sorry. Soon Jo...soon. I promise you it will all be over and we can do those things again."

Lee watched in envy as you cried in the comfort of Jason's arms, for he wanted to be the one to hold you, but he knew you needed your brother in that moment, so he stayed silent and gave you both space.

"So, you're not going to tell me what you're planning?" you asked as you pulled back and wiped your tears as you sniffled.

"No Jo. It's better that way. You know that. The less you know, the less danger you're in which is why I couldn't tell you I was alive."

"I knew something was wrong Jay. That day you asked me over to Sonny's restaurant. You knew you you had a target on your back and told me you changed your will, but what you failed to tell me was that you left the boat to Mom and now look. She fucking sold it....and to Ethan's piece of shit dad of all people. Why Jason?? Why didn't you leave it to me???"

"Because I knew you'd keep it and Mom wouldn't. Jo...I wanted her to sell it. The Haunted Star has been a thorn in our family's side with all that I let go on there."

"Well a lot of good THAT did, because now it's just going to continue and get worse with dirty daddy Bloom running the show. I could have turned it into something good, like it once was!"

"Jo...just let it go."

"And why do I feel like you're not talking about the boat?? Oh, that's right, you can't or won't I should say, tell me. OK...so now what? What about Liz? What if she goes shooting her mouth off to make sure you really are dead?? How easy it would be for Cyrus or Johnny or even Ethan to do it since you're already legally dead."

"I told you I would handle her and I will."

"Yeah well...did you know she's dumped Craig's kid off with Angel?? Or should I say, Ethan's kid?"

"Craig will get Blaise back, mark my words. There's no way Ethan will ever get his hands on her. Craig will kill him before I do if that happens."

"Honestly? It should have already been done! God, I can't believe I'm saying things like that."

You turned to Lee and laid your head on his shoulder. "You...ok? You're so quiet."

"Yeah baby. I'm just letting the two of you talk."

"You can too...if...you want. About, you know."

"Phew...yeah. So uh...Jason. Jo...she told me about Jacob."

"I knew she would tell you that too. How could she not? I'm sorry for what Liz did to you. For the record, you're Jake's father. You always have been and always will be. I didn't know you but I knew who you were and knew Jake loved you. It's how I wanted it. He was better off with you." Jason told Lee with sincere eyes.

"Thank you, truly, for saying that but it turns out he wasn't though."

"That wasn't your fault Lee. I was going to remove her from the equation so you could raise Jake but then things got twisted around as you know."

"Jason...I was driving the car that night. It was dark and raining and I...I didn't check his buckle because she told me she did and I...I stupidly believed her....and I...crashed. How is that not my fault?"

"Because we all know it was hers." Jason immediately answered.

"And she will swear her innocence until she's blue in the face, which I wouldn't mind at this point. There's no proof. She'll never admit to it."

"She already did. That's why I was going to finish her. That's why she wanted me dead." Jason revealed, his blue eyes burning with tears.

You and Lee looked at each other, both stunned, then back at Jason.

"Wait...what?" you asked. "What do you mean she already did? You told me at Craig's you only suspected it. Jason, Lee deserved to know this! My god, he has blamed himself for so long!"

"I didn't know how to, I still don't but you're right, he deserves to know and it's time I tell you. So...here it goes. A few weeks before the accident, she let me see him one time in hopes it would make me change my mind and want to be with her. It was at the hospital when he went for a routine doctor's check up. He had just turned 5 and his hair was super blonde then...like mine was when I was that age and his eyes....I saw mine. She told him my name and he looked at me and said "Hi". While we waited, I sat and played with him. He had this toy train, the locomotive part. I guess I wasn't doing it right, moving the train about, so he showed me how to do it and when I did it to his satisfactory, he looked up at me with the biggest smile. And he said to me very proudly, "My daddy made this for me for my birthday"."

Lee's hand went to his mouth and he turned around to hide his welled up eyes. You immediately went to him and hugged him, unable to even imagine what he must be feeling.

"Lee, I'm sorry...I...I just thought you would like to know how much he adored you and that train, but I'm sure you already did. I..I should have left this part out, it was...really selfish of me. It's just that...it's the only moment I ever had with him after finding out he was mine...well, my blood anyways." Jason regretfully said.

"No...no...it's alright. I remember that day. I was upstairs working." Lee replied, his voice a bit choked up. "Please....just go on about Liz."

"Ok. Well.....about a week after Jake's funeral and I was out on some business one night. I came across a highly inebriated Liz and she was with Ethan, walking on the pier. It was the first time I had seen him in awhile and found out he had come back for the funeral after we talked for a bit. Then Liz asked Ethan to leave her and I alone for a minute and as soon as he walked away, she started in on me, blasting me about choosing Britt. She was belligerent and slapped me, more than once but I took it with a grain of salt, believing that she was just grieving and clearly three sheets to the wind, just like she was the night she told me I was Jacob's father."

The grain of salt comment had you and Lee briefly glancing at each other.

"She then began to belittle me with excessively added vulgarity and then she said...."

Jason had to stop for a moment, for it was very hard for him to relay what he was told.

"Whew man...umm...ok...she said....."You should have chosen me, then your son would still be alive." Her eyes were so sinister and I...I think for the first time in my life I was speechless. I just remember blankly staring at her as she rambled on how she purposely started a fight with Lee, striking him and grabbing the wheel and also how she.......how she intentionally left the buckle to Jake's car seat undone and lied to Lee, saying it was latched. She screamed at me, saying this is what you get for choosing that slut and in that moment, I...I thought, no, she's drunk and lying to hurt me but her cold eyes told me she was telling the truth. I wanted to strangle her but Ethan came out and then a few civilians came down the steps. He got her to leave with him and that's when I vowed revenge. She knew I would come, so that's when she took off to New Zealand. She conveniently came back two months later with Craig and knocked up, claiming the kid was his so I had no choice but to back off. She had used him and her pregnancy and he wouldn't listen to me that I believed her to be pregnant before she left. Of course he learned the hard way a year later when they split up and she took off with Ethan and Blaise. I stupidly let her go because I was having problems with Britt over my guilt and deemed Liz to be Craig's problem as I felt he deserved and then she resurfaced with Ethan, hanging around with Johnny and then a year after that, all that shit went down with Cyrus and he went to prison for two years, but shortly before he was released....I learned of the target on my back and then....I died."

Lee's lips were bound tightly together as he visibly shook. You took his hand and tried to calm him.

"Lee...hey...look at me. Breathe baby."

"I'll breathe when she breathes no more." he said in a cold dark tone. "She stood over my hospital bed after the accident, not a fucking mark on her as I laid there all cut up and told me Jacob was dead before I even knew what happened and then she told me it was all my fault and her eyes....they were the same as you just described them. Jesus...I...can't right now."

"I remember you telling me about that. God Lee, I'm so sorry and for you too Jason. She belongs locked away for life."

"She deserves much worse than that." Lee reeled. "You've said you're going to handle her Jason...so...when?? I'll gladly assist."

'What?? Lee, don't say things like that, please." you said in panic.

"Why not?? She killed my son! She planned the whole sick fucking thing and I now I know the truth, finally."

"Ok, Lee, this is another reason I didn't want to tell you. Trust me, I know what you're feeling and I myself had to literally be tied down so I didn't run out there half cocked and do something stupid. You don't need the back blow. Let me handle this. You have a lot to lose if you get involved. Your career and my sister. Is Liz worth all that???"

You anxiously stared at Lee, your eyes full of tears as he hesitated to look away from you and give his answer.

"I think I'm way past involved. You have a lot to lose as well. Britt for one. Don't you want to be with her eventually? You can't do that if you wind up in prison or really dead because you know you'll get back blow too."

"Lee, respectfully, I didn't do all this to just go lay down. They all tried to kill me and could have killed Jo in that explosion."

"I get it man. I've done things to get results, such as earlier tonight but it was flat out stupid. I wasn't thinking straight. Why not just kill two birds with one stone and then go from there?"

"I'm sorry?" Jason asked, confused.

"You need a fall guy and there's no one better than Ethan. He set you up for a fall now do the same for him. He was seen arguing with Liz today and it's all over her kid. I want him out of our lives as badly as you do."

"So you're saying to set him up for her death?" Jason asked, seemingly interested in the idea.

"Ok, whoa!! Lee, are you really standing here right now, plotting a hit with my brother???? Do I really have to ask you WHO you are again??? You've all lost your damn minds! You just said you did something stupid because you weren't thinking straight and then you do a 180 right into a pre-meditated murder scheme. This cannot be happening right now. I'm dreaming. I'm fucking dreaming. You're a doctor! You chose to save lives Lee. You took that oath. You're not a fucking assassin like Jason with a death warrant! I never should have brought you." you raged as you began to pace. "And you Jay, you're actually considering this??"

"Jo...you've known my plan all along so why is this so shocking to you?? You know how this ends Jo whether you like it or not."

"Oh I don't know, maybe because it involves my fucking boyfriend who I don't want to be like you! You do what you gotta do Jason, but you leave Lee out of this. This ENDS here. This conversation NEVER happened. I'm done and I'm going the fuck home."

You stormed off, climbing over the metal guard rail and marched down the path to get back to the car.

"Jo! Hold up." Lee shouted. "I gotta go man."

"Yeah, of course, go. I'm sorry about all this."

"No worries. Just do what Jo said. Do what you gotta do. There's no judgement on my end, so you know." Lee assured and then ran off after you. "Jo, wait up!"

It was another silent ride home, for it was always one step forward and two steps back when it came to happiness anymore. You and Lee had shared such a wonderful moment together at the bridge and then just like that, it all went to shit in a matter of minutes. Sure, you wished Liz would disappear, the same as Jason and Lee wished she would, but to plot her demise was utterly insane.

Your thoughts were soon distracted as Lee neared his house.

"Lee, stop!!"

"What??!"

"Stop the car, stop the car!"

He quickly pulled off to the side and parked behind another car.

"Turn your lights off!"

"Jo, what is going on???"

"LOOK!"

Lee turned to see Mr. Carpenter speeding out to his car from Angel's house, looking quite pissed off while tucking his shirt in and adjusting his jewels.

"You've got to be kidding me. Gross!" you reeled.

Lee felt even more humiliated now and disgusted that he allowed that woman's lips to touch him and your reaction made him feel ten times worse.

Angel then came running out behind him and they stood at his car loudly arguing but not enough to hear what they were saying and then....he grabbed her by the throat and began screaming at her. You gasped as your hands flew to cover your mouth and Lee sat frozen, not sure if he should intervene. Angel wasn't the greatest human being but she didn't even compare to what Liz was and also, she was Dash's mother. Then there was the fact she had been really good to Lee's father.

Just as he had made the decision to get out and had his hand on the door handle, Mr. Carpenter freed Angel, then got in his car and sped off.

Lee waited until Angel went inside and then he backed up, keeping his lights off and turned down the alley that led around the back to his garage. Once inside the house, he went straight to the kitchen, turned on the light, then the music and grabbed a beer.

"Jesus...well if THAT didn't prove he was violent with his family and probably caused Henrietta's tumor. He's clearly dangerous." you anxiously puffed out and sat down across the table from Lee.

"If I see him put his hands on another woman, or even Angel again, I'm going to finish what I started with him....unless it's Liz." Lee expressed quite seriously as he calmly drank his beer.

There was that side of him again, angry and vengeful words paired with a relaxed nature and that truly frightened you.

"Tell me you weren't serious about Liz earlier tonight. Just tell me that, please." you quietly said.

"How do you want me to feel Jo? Because I can't feel a certain way just because you want me to. I want her to suffer like she made Jacob suffer and if that makes me a bad person, then so fucking be it." he quickly and flatly stated.

"But you're not a bad person Lee. You're not."

Lee was silent for a moment as he stared at and fondled the label on his bottle, then he gulped down the entirety of his malt beverage.

"It was me Jo. I did it."

"Umm, w...what...was you?"

"I cut her seatbelt." he bluntly answered, then got up and slowly trekked up the stairs.

You closed your eyes and sighed. Deep down you already knew that but you weren't going to make a big deal out of it, for you knew at the time, he only did it to taunt her like she had done to him for so long. But now, he was talking of harming her and conspiring with your brother to do so and that, you would definitely make a big deal out of. This is the kind of thing Jason did. There was nothing you could ever say or do to make him stop and his influence had already rubbed off on Lee in a matter of only thirty minutes. That severely worried you because that's how Jason got sucked into Sonny's world and you were not going to let that happen to the man you loved more than life itself and the way Lee spoke tonight and the look in his eyes while doing so, scared the living hell out of you, for it seemed to come so natural to him.

You decided to let Lee have some space and whipped up some leftovers from the dinner he made, then took a plate full in the living room and ate on the couch as you listened to the music he had turned on. Behind blue eyes came on and all you could do was listen to another sign being thrown in your face, because the song was a lyrical elucidation of Lee.

"No one knows what it's like to be the bad man, to be the sad man behind blue eyes."

"Ahhh, to what do I owe this displeasure after 1 a.m. when I'm drunk and cranky? I've been looking for you all day Lizzy." Ethan snarked as he played a game of solitary in the party lounge aboard the Haunted Star.

"Well, here I am, unfortunately. I debated coming here, you know, to have to listen to more of your ludicrous accusations about Blaise?"

"Then why did you come? Because that's my story and I'm sticking to it. She's my kid."

"Because you owe me."

"Excuse me?? How do I owe YOU anything??"

"Remember when you called me over to Johnny's after you got your ass kicked by Luke and needed help?"

"Oh...that. Yeah so?"

"Well now you can repay the favor and give me a place to stay. There's plenty of cabins here."

"Why the hell do you want to stay here? and where's my daughter??"

"Stop it Ethan." Liz snapped as she sat down at the table with him. "Stop believing everything your twisted butt buddy Johnny feeds you."

"Ok, he is NOT my butt buddy. He prefers women so you know."

"So do you but that never stopped you from swaying in the opposite direction. Anyways, speaking of your brother Luke. What's his deal? I saw him tonight at the bar and the dude was creeping me out. He kept staring at me, but it was more like a leer. You haven't been telling him shit about me have you?"

"Nobody has to tell him anything. He just knows stuff. That's what's creepy. As far as his look, it just got stuck that way. He's pissed off at the world and takes it out on everybody else. But fair warning. Steer clear of him. Lee's his friend. I'll bet my right nut he don't like you and that look he served, it was personal. Like Jason, he has no feelings of remorse. I'm his own brother and look what he did to me."

"Oh, you mean like what you don't and like what did to your own brother too?"

"Are you of all people judging me Lizzy B?? Paint it black why don't ya. Of all the years I've known you....it seems I don't really know you at all. Even Johnny said that the night you came to his penthouse. And he's not twisted you know, he's smart. He sure has your number."

"Whatever and you always fall for his line of BS, because that's what it is. Speaking of Zacchara, I also ran into him tonight, literally as I walked out of the bar and as usual, he was full of his rude wit, joking about me being a dead woman walking and pointing his finger at me like a gun and firing it, which he made no secret of at his place that same night you speak of that he wanted to off me. Luckily you talked him out of it."

Liz recalled that night. How could she ever forget how Johnny revealed all of her darkest dirty deeds, secrets and motives, hitting the nail right on the head about every single bit of it when she never even told a soul. Well, except for Jason in her drunken stupor...who was now alive and would eventually come for her.

"Oh right, when he toyed with you by holding a gun on you and made you go wee wee." Ethan jested with a hearty smile and now wished he hadn't talked Johnny down, for Johnny told him the truth about Liz and he had refused to believe it then.

"Ugh...that's not funny! Enough about him. Can I stay here or not Ethan? He creeped me out but honestly, it's Cyrus that I'm the most worried about." she said, wondering if she should even tell Ethan Jason was alive, for she believed it would highly distract him when she needed him to be focused on her. But at the same time, she also felt Ethan should be aware and ready, because Jason would come for him too. When was the question. Jason was strategic and stealthy. A thief in the night.

Ethan laughed. "Let me get this straight. You want to stay here to be protected from a notorious mob boss who hates your guts about as much as he hates Corinthos? I already got his hulk of a son on my ass with blackmail which he will soon pay for so I don't need Cyrus after me as well. And once again...where is Blaise??"

"Not that it's any of your business, but she is tucked away from Craig and his whack job creator. That's all you need to know. And if you fuck with Craig, you can bet your ass that Cyrus will be after you like flies on shit, that's if Craig don't get to you first."

"And keeping Blaise from Craig is your answer? That's why Cyrus despises you if you haven't noticed. Come on Lizzy, you don't have connections and resources like I do to keep you both under the radar. Renault has plenty of those as well. If he wants to find her and end you, which I would bet my left nut that he does, then he will. I mean, he actually gave you a head start by firing you. He likes to hunt and you're now the hunted. If you want to stay here, you need to tell me where she is so I can keep her safe from him and Craig if something were to say....happen...to you.... or no deal. You see...I am your only hope it seems, not that I want to be. It's simple really. I'm capable of keeping you both safe. Isn't that what you want and why you're really here? You gotta throw me a bone. I don't do shit for free."

"You'll really do that? Take care of her?"

"You know I will Liz. We can go get her right now and bring her here and then we can get out of dodge....go to the other side of the pond back where you won't be a sitting duck waiting for the goose and we will live happily ever after. Just you, me and our daughter. No way in hell Craig is going to have her. I'll put both my nuts on that."

"You're going to take us to England? Umm, what about Lee??"

"What about him?"

"Oh come on Ethan. Like you're just going to walk away from him."

"Well, right now, I kind of have to, but I'll be back for him and no one, not even that little tramp of his will stop me. I don't want to talk about him. These damn blue balls are killing me as it is cuz I'm growing bored of fucking Josie's sister. Now, are we going to do this or what? I'm getting a bit antsy here and you know how I get when I'm antsy."

"Yeah, antsy rearranges into nasty. Fine. She's with Angel. I'll text her and tell her I'm coming and to have her ready."

Ethan gazed at Liz, his dark eyes holding a look that could kill, like a lion locked on it's prey and he formed an even darker grin that quickly faded into an emotionless expression as she texted away. He also had her number and he had orders to carry out.

They then both got up and walked out with Ethan briefly stopping to turn the lights out as he smiled once more, followed by a dastardly chuckle and whisper under his breath.

"Lights out Lizzy."

@redeemer46

#lee pace #lee pace fanfiction #code blue #love stories #dark fiction #dark stories #jason morgan #steve burton #angst #fantasies #nathan parsons #mob fiction #organized crime #Youtube

[camaro-and-smokes]

Fan fiction writers, I have a teeny tiny request to you.

Please do not force color the text in your posts here on tumblr (idc what you do in AO3 or elsewhere) BLACK.

EDIT: This is something that apparently happens if you copy-paste txt from Google docs! :(

Users who use dark mode on the app can't read it and it sucks!

Any color tumblr offers is somewhat readable (red and purple are the worst but you still can read it).

If you must color the text (tbh I don't know why you would need that, normal editing basics work quite well) stick to the main colors tumblr offers even if it doesn't fit your blog's aesthetic. It ensures more people see (also those ones who use dm for accessibility), read, and reblog your post thus spreading it for more eyeballs.

Nonetheless - keep on writing your faves!!! 💜💜💜

#Fan fiction #Writing #writeblr #PSA #Dark mode #writers on tumblr #Harringrove #steve harrington #Billy Hargrove