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igotanidea · 11 months

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Caught: Jason Todd x fem!reader

Summary: Jason and fem!reader spending the night at Roy's place and poor Lian walks in on something that a little kid should not see (or even hear....)

Warning: SMUT!! MINORS DNI! (make reasonable choices please!)

@parkjammys, @jasontoddsthickbabe @gone-batty-fics I take the liberty of tagging you, lmk if you want to be removed from the tag list :D

***

Hanging out at Roy’s place was a mix of different emotions for both Jay and Y/N. Watching their friend fulfilling the role of a father was something they couldn’t wrap their heads around. Who would have thought that this rough, argumentative, former Green Arrow sidekick could be so…. gentle and caring.

At the beginning Jay would tease Roy about it, but soon Lian stole his heart completely. As an effect, it was Y/N who teased Jason about going soft, so he just had to stop his actions, cause it was becoming unbearable.

The fact was nonetheless, that everyone just loved Lian. She was such a nice kid, so how could one possibly not? And those feelings were mutual on little girl’s part, especially with Y/N. Every time the older girl came by, Lian just wanted the full attention, telling Y/N stories, giving her pictures she drew, asking for stories and entertainment. And she got it all and more. It was just so hard to deny that poor soul abandoned by her mother. Surprisingly, it was Roy who tried his best to make his daughter stick with some basic rules. Like sleeping time.

“Ok, I think it’s time to get some rest, little one.”

The four of them were currently sitting by the table, playing some board game, Lian taking honorary place at Y/N’s knees, hugged tightly, secured and loved and enjoying it beyond recognition. Her wide smile was speaking for itself. But the wide yawning and eye rubbing was a sign of something else and Roy learned how to read the signals.

“But, daddy…..” Lian whined and pouted “I want to stay….. it’s so nice here with aunt Y/N and uncle Jay…..”

“I know, love, but you know the drill. 9 p.m. is bedtime.”

“I’m not…..” she yawned again and it was just so heartwarming Roy found his will crumbling “tired” her little fists travelled up as she rubbed her eyes in a child-like manner. “Please…..”

“Hey there, little one.” Y/N smiled down at her and bopped her nose playfully “you gotta listen to your dad. He’s older and ….”

“Sure as hell he’s not smarter” Jason smirked and threw a glance at his best friend.

“Stop undermining my position.” Roy hissed becoming a bit red on the face. “

“Before I was so rudely interrupted…..” Y/N cut their bantering, her attention traveling back to Lian ” I was going to say that he cares for you, pumpkin. It’s all for your good, you know. One day, when you’re older you will understand it.”

“But…..”

“I can tuck you in.” Y/N offered and smiled “how about that?”

‘Can we do that?” Lian eyes grew wide and shimmered a bit, as she turned her head and silently asked Roy for permission with that pleading gaze “please, daddy?”

“I can’t see why not.” Roy shrugged and it made his daughter squeal in happiness. “I don’t think I ever saw her this excited about going to bed, Y/N. I just have to warn you, you’re up for a challenge.”

“I was never one to back down from one. Just look who I ended up in a relationship with” the girl laughed and pointed head towards Jason. “He’s more of a dare than all the little girls I know combined.”

“There are more little girls?” Lian smile dropped as she looked down.

“Of course not, sunshine. You are my priority. Now, let’s get you up….” Y/N wrapped her arms around the girl and stood up carrying her towards the bedroom “say goodnight to the boys.”

“night daddy. Night uncle Jay….” Lian waved her little hand at both of them, earning herself two chuckles and some loving words wishing her sweet dreams before both girls disappeared from the sight.

“She’s good with Lian, you know” the second they were out of earshot Roy turned towards Jay. Now it was time for some men time.

“I know. Y/N just a natural caretaker.”

“Speaking from experience?” Roy reached under the table and grabbed two can of beers, hidden there from Lian. He passed one to Jason who took it with a appreciating nod.

“I’m not exactly the easiest one to deal with.” Jace shrugged “I give her hard time, make her worried, got her walking on the tightrope. And yet, she never left. She’s still with me. The best thing that ever happened to me.”

“You sound so cliché right now.”

“Look who’s talking. The perfect father.”

“Have you ever wondered how we evolved from those violent, angry teenagers? How we ended up here?” Roy trailed taking a sip of his beverage “have you ever wondered if we actually deserve it? Deserve them.”

“constantly.” Jason sighed deeply “maybe that’s the while point. Our girls make us better. Make us want to be better. For them. Cause they see something more to us? I don’t know. But what I do know is that we are fucking lucky, Roy. And I have no intention of pushing that luck.”

“Neither do I.”

“Yeah.”

For a moment they were both just sipping on their drinks without a word. Silence was never awkward between them. Those two men were through so much together that sometimes they could literally read each other’s mind.

“Do you love her?” Harper asked a couple minutes later.

“Yes.”

“Have you told her?”

“I’m not good with words. But she knows.”

“You sure about that?” Roy teased “girls like words. They like being told that you care. Actions are one thing, but sometimes are not enough. Use your tongue.”

“Oh, trust me, I do” Jason smiled wildly, some dirty memories running though his head. Memories of her underneath him, tasting so sweet, tugging on his hair with surprising strenght “she never complained.”

“Please, spare me the details.” Roy rolled his eyes “all I’m saying is if you really don’t want her to leave, you should take care of her not only in bed. Otherwise someone might steal her away. She’s just a full package – beautiful, smart, caring, sexy.”

“Woah! Hold right there, Harper! Cause if you don’t I might have to beat you up, and as much as I’d hate to do it, I would if you start focusing on my girl’s attributes to much.”

“Just proving my point here.” Roy smirked “you are worried about her going away.”

“I am not!” Jason yelled in objection.

But for real, Roy’s word got him spinning. Worry, jealousy and doubts overwhelming his mind. He had to see his girl. Now.

***

Y/N was sitting by Lian’s bed, finishing the story watching the little girl slowly drifting off, writing in her sleep to find comfortable position. The older girl smiled lightly, care and love written all over her face as she pulled the cover over that little dreaming figure, tucking her in and kissing her forehead gently.

“Good night, angel. Sleep tight.” She whispered

Jason watched her from the slightly opened door and his heart clenched at the sight. God, he loved her. He loved her so freaking much. And even if that subject never came out between Y/n and Jason and Roy did not ask the question at their little conversation, but more often than not Jason was thinking about having a family with his girl. Having all those things adults were supposed to have. House with garden and picket white fence. Huge kitchen were they could prepare meals together. Rooms that would be filled with laughter and happiness. And maybe, maybe¸ a few pairs of little feet on the floor, running towards him, wanting hugs and kisses and love and attention. Maybe.

“Jason…..” he didn’t even notice when Y/n stood up and walked towards him

“I….”

“Sh…” she whispered putting a finger on his mouth and that simple gesture made him melt, but also turned him on “Lian’s asleep. Let’s get out of here.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” He agreed grabbing her hand and pulling her towards their room “you’re mine now….” his eyes darkened, planning all the things he was going to do to her body.

***

“Jason…..” she couldn’t do a single thing when he opened the door to the bedroom, immediately pushing her onto the walls, pressing his entire body onto her. Trapping her, getting her so vulnerable with no way out.

“You’re mine….” He hissed, his mouth attacking her hungrily, hands landing on her waist, gripping it so tight she could almost feel the bruises forming already. “You’re only mine….” He bit on her bottom lip, tugging at it, making her wet and moaning.

“I….oh, fuck” his calloused fingers found a way under her shirt, caressing her skin, goosebumps showing on her body. “Are you jealous of my time with a little girl next door?”

“Yes.” He breathed, his lips travelling to her cheek, jaw, neck, nibbling on her skin, going completely crazy, unable to stop once the fire started. “I am jealous of everyone and everything that got your attention. People, things. I envy the flowers in our flat that got to feel your soft touch when you take care of them. I am jealous of your favorite cup, cause you touch your lips to the brim of it. Fuck, you make me crazy.” He panted, hands moving higher, one brushing over her clothed breasts causing her to arch her back, the thin material of the bra and t-shirt doing nothing to hide her pebbled nipples.

“Stop talking and just do something” he whined, reaching the edge of his jacket trying to pull it off his arms.

“It was pointed to me…..” he nibbled on her collarbone, the other hand reaching towards her hair, pulling them off the knot, making them flow down her shoulders and back, tangling fingers in those silky strands, pulling her head closer “that girls like words. So tell me, baby…..” she whined when he pull the strap of her bra down, pressing open mouth kisses on her shoulders “do you need words?”

“No. No, fuck no. I need action. More of it. More….” She clawed his back.

“Whatever you want, princess” both of his hands landed on her ass, palming it for a moment, lips connecting again, this time rougher, harder, faster. Jason was a tease and a bit of sadist. He wanted her pouty in her hands, he needed to see her fall apart, even before taking her to bed. He wanted her mind blurry, the only thought on her mind being him. But he wasn’t made of steel and feeling her body pressed into him so tightly got him hard to. Got him relenting and he could not have that.

Despite her protests he broke the kiss, slowly peeling the shirt off her, reaching behind her back, unclasping the bra and bending head to lick and suck on her breast and nipples.

“Ah! Jay!”

“Yes, princess. Tell me how good you feel. Tell me you want more….”

“I want … I want more….”

“I know, baby. I got you.” he grabbed the backs of her thighs, opening her legs and wrapping them around his waist. “Feel this?” he brushed his clothed cock over her dripping sensitive pussy “feel how hard you make me?”

“Ah! Please! I need you…..”

“I’ll give you a choice baby. I can take your pants off andhelp you get release” he played with the waist of her leggings “or I can get rid of my shirt and make you feel my skin and delay that sweet high. I know you need both, but you gotta choose.”

“You are terrible.” She panted, desperately trying to move her hips to get the slightest friction but his strong arms held her still “Jason, please, you’re torturing me….” She cried

“Then choose, baby” he whispered into her ear “you can end your suffering just with one word. What. Do. You. Want.” Each word of his were followed by little kitten lick on her skin and she burst the first thing that came into her mind.

“Take off your shirt.” He moaned “just take it off, now!”

“I was hoping you would say it.” He smirked. He wanted to tease her more and her pants gone would destroy the fun he was aiming at. Instead he shrugged his shirt off, letting her hands wonder around his abs and chest, so gently, softly, sending shivers down his spine and making his cock throb.

“Please….” She whined arching back towards him, but he just pushed her back into the door, causing the loud thump to echo through the room and the girl squealed in undeniable pain.

“Oh, fuck. Sorry, baby.” He kissed her to make her forget what just happened “let me take you to bed.” Taking a few step backwards he tossed onto the soft mattress “better?”

“Mmmmm.” She whined “Yes.” She was so desperate now, that playing with luck she reached towards her pants trying to get rid of them herself, giving him access to her most intimate place but Jason was faster.

“Nah, honey.” He shook his head in disapproval “I am in control. Will you behave?”

“Yes, yes, I will, please.”

“Hm, I don’t think that’s very convincing.” He tapped his chin “just gotta make sure.”

“What….?”

“This will do the trick.” He reached under the bed grabbing the rope and binding her hands behind her head, tying it to the headboard.

“Where did you…..” she panted but was immediately cut out by his lips on her breast, stomach and getting lower

“Does it matter?” he smirked against her skin “I know you like it, don’t you?”

“I do. I do, please, please, Jason. I can’t take it anymore. I need you. I need you.”

“ God, the things you do to me.” He groaned sliding her pants of in one fluid motion and licking and sucking where she needed him most. Oh, the inferno he started just by touching her. Oh, all that craving and longing and lust and love. But she needed more as she writhed and squirmed, trapped underneath him.

“It’s not enough.” She complained

“Not enough?” he raised his head and looked at her, with a challenging look “last time I didn’t stretch you with my fingers you were in pain for days. You want that again?”

“Yes. And …. And I need to touch you.” she tugged on the rope, her wrist already red and swollen “Let me touch you, Jason.” her seductive whispering and that soft, perfect body splayed before him, ready to be devoured and worshiped broke all his inhibitions.

“Fuck!” he groaned “I want you.” he finally confessed, releasing her, pulling his pants down and pressing all his body into her. “Tell me you want me too.”

“I want you Jason.”

“Tell me you’re mine.”

“I’m yours.”

“Good.” His lips distracted her while at the same time he pushed inside, swallowing all her moans and those sounds coming from her mouth. She was so hot, so sexy, and her nails scratching his back only added to his arousal. “Cause I’m yours and I don’t like to share….” He started pulling in and out causing that familiar heat to build inside her.

“Give it to me, Jason. Give me it all.” She panted, heels digging into his ass, causing him to go deeper, hitting her g-spot with every thrust.

“I love you baby. Let me make you feel good…..”

“Yes!” she cried out, getting so close, so fucking close. “Yes, Jason. Right there! Right there!”

“Uncle Jay? Auntie Y/N?” soft, little voice coming from the door made their eyes grow wide, stopping at once, all that sultry, intimate atmosphere gone within second. “Fuck” being the only though on both of their minds. Y/N terrified gaze landed on Jason, unsure what to do know. Luckily it was so dark, Lian could not really see tangled limbs, naked bodies and sweat all over them. Despite all the awkwardness, Y/N managed to reach for the sheet and with a bit of Jason’s help managed to put it all over her boyfriend’s naked ass, trying to play cool.

“Hi, sweetheart” her voice trembled a bit, barely holding back a whine as Jason pulled off her, leaving her unsatisfied and feeling empty without him inside. His face was so red, he just stayed on his stomach, covered bottom up, unable to roll onto his back and face the little girl. Damn, Roy was going to kill them both, he knew that, so he left the talking to Y/N, considering her better in the field. “Did you have a nightmare, little one?”

“Not really.” Lian hugged her stuffed rabbit closer to her chest “I heard some noises coming from here and I came to see if you were all right, auntie….”

“That is so sweet, Lian. Thank you.” Y/N gasped “but didn’t your father teach you to hide when you hear suspicious sounds? That it might be dangerous to follow them?”

“He did. But never mentioned I should do that when I hear someone I love being in trouble.”

“And…. And who was in trouble in your opinion?” maybe that was wrong question but it just slipped thought he mouth.

“You, auntie.” Lian said innocently “you were screaming like someone was hurting you. But there is no one but you and uncle Jay.” She pursed her lips, her gaze becoming a bit angrier “was he hurting you, auntie? Cause he shouldn’t do that and maybe I should ask daddy to give him the talk?”

“The…. The talk?”

“He does that when he’s angry with me. And when he learns what uncle Jay did he would be angry with him too…. I’ll go get him and ….”

“No! God! Lian!” Jason almost sprung out of bed and if it wasn’t for Y/n he would cause poor girl much more trauma. “I mean…. I don’t think I was hurting aunt Y/N. She would tell me if I was, right?” he looked at her face, his eyes serious, searching for the answer. They had that conversation million times before. If she ever felt any pain during sex, she was obligated to tell him, since Jason could be rough without even realizing it. “Y/N?”

“No. No, you weren’t hurting me….” She whispered, cupping his cheek and brushing it gently, reassuringly, making him calm down.

“Then what was he doing?” Lian frowned taking a step forward making Jay and Y/n put the cover up a bit.

“He…. He…..” Y/N’s mind went completely blank “you know, sometimes, when someone have a hard week and get tired….”

“Dad always gets tired.”

“Yes, you see, in a situation like this, relax is needed. And Jace, I mean, uncle Jason, was just helping me relax a bit.”

“Hm….” Lian did not look convinced “but daddy never make such sounds….”

“Shit.” Y/N hissed quietly

“Girls just tend to get a bit more tense, Lian.” Jason chimed in, saving his girl from further explanation “they have a lot more duties and worries about boys and need to be taken care off. You’ll get it when you get older.”

“Adults always say that!” she cried out “How old do I have to be? All this waiting is just annoying! And what if I don’t want to get something. Do I even get a choice?”

“I love this kid, but why does she have to be so smart?” Y/n hid her face in Jason’s chest, unable to hide the blushing even in the darkness.

“What’s going on here?” Roy heard Lian’s cry and acting like a concerned parent busted though the door “Oh, fuck!”

“Daddy, you said a bad word.” His daughter pointed out.

“Sorry, love. But trust me, no other word would describe what I feel now. I’m just…. I’m just gonna get you out of here. Now!” he lift her from the ground hugging tightly to his chest, hiding her face what whatever she may see. “And as for you two…. We’ll talk in the morning” he warned, but neither Jay nor Y/N missed the slightest amusement in his eyes. That bastard was secretly enjoying them being caught in the middle of sex.

“But daddy, I need to know more. Auntie said uncle was just helping her relax and making her feel good.”

“SAY GOODNIGHT LIAN!” Roy screamed, effectively covering the laugh forming in his throat “cause this may be the last time you see them before I kill them both” he muttered towards his friends, leaving the room in a rush and closing the door tightly, but not before warning them to not even think about going at it again.

“Was I making you feel good?” Jason teased once they were alone.

“You were. But now I’m left high and dry….”

“Good thing I don’t care what Roy has to say about us being intimate.” He grinned and rolled over to finish what he started and she was more than willing to submit, just making a mental note to keep her moans and whines on the low.

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motions1ckness · 9 months

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“Letting it linger”

Summary: Roman invited you to a family dinner where you two find a way to enjoy yourselves.

Contents: smut, established relationship, f!reader, dom/sub interactions, exhibitionism, choking, semi public, roman being needy, mention of sexual turmoil

(i’m so sorry if you saw this before i realized i added the same paragraph twice anyways)

This had to be one of the longest nights you have tolerated. You regret accepting Roman’s offer to be his plus one at this dinner. It wasn’t his fault. If it was up to him, he wouldn't have came.

The night was driving you insane. The dinner consisted of the Roy and Pierce families. Roman warned you about the pretentious comments and shitty conversation; you were not prepared for how fucking boring it was gonna be. During the first course, Roman rested his hand on your thigh, normal. It quickly turned into his hand resting close to your heat. You shot Roman a look, but he didn’t meet your eyes. It was a game now.

One of the Pierce's wives made conversation with you. Roman was picking at his food, not paying attention. “Well, I’ve never seen that one. What is it about?” You asked. She started talking and you decided to take action. As she was gabbing about the plot, you brought your hand to Roman’s pants and squeezed. The action made him yelp and practically jerk in his seat, “Rome are you okay?” You asked innocently. He sat at the end, only you could see what happened. He became flushed, his gaze surrendering to you as he sat dumbfounded.

It was risky. He needed a response, “Y-yeah, I'm, fuckin' fine,” he shook his head, removing the attention set on him, and the woman resumed her spiel. Roman’s pleading expression shifted to you, hand in the same place. He didn’t interrupt her; instead letting your hand linger. He adjusted his hips to gain more friction. He was rock-hard. His action surprised you, but it was all the confirmation you needed.

You started palming him through his pants, and he gave a slight huff as you wrapped up your conversation. You began moving quicker. You studied the room to make sure you both were above suspicion. Roman became pale from his arduous efforts to remain silent. You leaned over to his ear, “Stop looking like this is happening, you don't want everyone to see how pathetic you are? Especially your father,” you whispered.

You stayed close to his face as he turned to you. His eyes pleaded with you. Your mind explored the 'what if's?' in this situation. But it was the Pierce family, the dinner was crucial. “P-please, let’s go to the bathroom,” he breathed out. You stopped your action, causing him to repress a whine. Were you really about to do this? No one would suspect anything.

You moved your hand to his shoulder and whispered, “Then let’s go.”

With that, Roman wasted no time, excusing you both from the table. He had to follow close behind you to cover his strained pants. Once you two found the bathroom, you wasted no time kissing him against the door. It was sloppy and needy; one of your hands rested on his neck, the other stroking him.

You sped up your movement. Roman threw his head back, parting his mouth slightly. Provoking you to attack his neck and run your free hand through his hair, tugging at it slightly.

“Let’s fucking do it,” he says, panting. This wasn’t the first time you two had sex, just not as a casual affair. Your eyes lit up as you drew away from him, causing his hips to buck from the lack of sensation.

“Yeah, are you sure? Like actually do it?” You questioned. You weren't going to do anything he wasn’t okay with.

He looked at you, his face red and sweaty, and his eyes insisting. “Y-yes, I want this. Please.” He ensures, focusing his attention on tracing figures into your hip, waiting for a response. You studied his face just for additional assurance before kissing him again. Roman cupped your face as he stumbled, pushing you against the sink. His hands moved down and eventually made their way to your breasts. He kneaded them as you did your best to repress the noises, remembering the dinner outside. As you adjusted against the sink, you heard him undoing his belt. Roman glanced back at you while stroking himself. His eyes fluttered as you heard him spurt profanities.

You grab the back of his neck, “You still sure?” You also took this second to prepare yourself. You were about to hook up with your boyfriend in a bathroom. While his family was 50 feet away.

Roman rolled his eyes while forcing your underwear aside and pushing himself into you. You moan instinctively from the new sensation and dig your nails into Roman's neck. He quickly covers your mouth so you two don’t get caught.

He thrusts himself deeper, pressing his forehead against yours,” F-fuck, just keep quiet for me,” as he cut himself off with a low moan. You looked up at him, retaining eye contact. Roman’s eyes stayed on you, his small whimpers made you want him more. He let you both adjust to the feeling as he adjusted his other arm to keep you against the sink. He began a steady pace.

The room filled with sporadic moans as Roman’s eyebrows furrowed, you could tell he was close. He bucked you closer to him, resulting in him throwing his head back and moaning loudly. Roman moved his hand from your mouth to your throat, causing your eyes to widen from the feeling as a gasp escaped your throat from his noisy reaction. He froze for a moment after he realized how loud he was.

His face turned a deeper tint of red. His demeanor altered slightly, “D-do you think t-they heard me?” he asked. He felt worry trickle down his back. His frightened expression became apparent.

You moved your hand to his cheek reassuringly. “N-no, I think we’re all good,” you answered out of breath. You two waited a couple of seconds to make sure you were in the clear.

Roman looked down at where his hand sat, “Fuck,” he began removing his hand from your neck, but you kept it there.

“No, I like it. You wanted me to stay quiet right?” You said with a lustful grin. Roman’s eyes filled with hunger as he kissed you, returning to the previous pace and now applying pressure to your neck.

Roman’s thrusts started becoming more brutal. He was biting your shoulder to help conceal his whines. It wasn’t long until you felt a knotting sensation in your core. You knew he was close behind from the slight shuddering from his hips with every thrust. “Rome-”

He already knew what you were gonna say, “Do it.” he quickly responded, muffled from your shoulder. To suppress your climax, he tightened the grip on your neck, pushing you over the edge. You felt him bite harder, the mix of moans heating against your skin. Roman wasn’t far behind you. His hips started stuttering as he met his climax. You couldn't make out any of the words he was saying. It was a mixture of praises, swears, and moans.

After you both came down, he pulled out of you and put himself away. He didn’t talk to you immediately after, which made you believe he regretted it. You sat on the sink with your legs slightly trembling, thinking Roman was going to ignore you the rest of the evening.

“I think you'll fuckin' need this.” You look up and see a towel being handed to you. You met Roman’s eyes before getting up and started using the mirror, him directly behind you. You quickly cleaned up and adjusted your dress. “You better hope no one heard,” he said, pulling you closer to his hips.

The tension in your face eases, “It’d be your funeral.”

#roman roy #roman roy fanfic #roman roy x reader #roman roy x you #succession #succession fanfic #roman roy drabble #roman roy smut #roman roy fluff #succession smut #roman roy succession

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ichorai · 7 months

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hell, yeah ; roman roy ; part three (m).

pairing ; roman roy x f!reader

synopsis ; pain was an old friend for the both of you.

words ; 14.4k

themes ; fluff, angst, drama, slowburn, suggestive, childhood friends to lovers

warnings / includes ; depictions of mental and physical abuse, talks of sexual misconduct (cruises incidents), mentions of death, a lot of sexual/suicidal jokes and general foul language, a lot of business talk, roman’s implied demisexuality, kendall is Losing it this chappie, fucked up family dynamics, imaginary dead cats & real dead sisters <3

a/n ; tumblr is being a bitch and not letting me turn off beta editor so :) what was originally going to be one massive chapter of s3 is now going to be broken down in shorter pieces!

series masterlist. main masterlist.

“Logan Roy was personally and fully aware of the crimes committed aboard Brightstar Cruises,” said the news reporter. “Kendall Roy says his father paid millions of dollars to hide and cover up criminal activity at the cruise line.”

You shut the tablet off, pinching the space between your brows as you drew out a deep exhale.

“This is fucking insane,” Roman muttered under his breath as he scrolled through Twitter, under his brother’s trending hashtag. “He’s gone off the rocks.”

Leaning forward, you asked the twins, “You guys don’t think he’s telling the truth, right?”

Rome shot you a quizzical glance. “Kendall doesn’t know how to tell the truth. It’s against his biological nature.” After a moment, he let out a high-pitched, “But…”

“What?” asked Shiv.

“I may not be team Kenny here, but, uh… Dad isn’t exactly unsqueezable right now,” he said. His eyes met yours. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m wondering if Kendall just fucked us over. Again. I mean, obviously I didn’t want him to be the scapegoat for cruises but this is—this is just something else entirely.” Then you nudged Shiv. “What about you?”

The woman screwed her lips into a purse. “I’m thinking we just need to back Dad right now. But… what am I actually thinking?” She lowered her voice to a whisper you could only barely hear. “I’m thinking, ‘Is he toast?’”

Her brows pulled together, wondering if she should’ve divulged that information to either of you.

“Yeah,” you said, clearing your throat. “I think there might be a chance that he could be burnt.”

The three of you stood in silence. Roman closed the stupid bird app before he could see another edit of his brother to a Lana Del Rey song, and slid his phone into his pocket.

It was then that Hugo and Gerri strode up, expressions grim. A Kendall-shaped bomb was dropped on them, and they were all scrambling to get things together whilst Logan stared angrily out of a window.

“Hi. Listen, I’m drowning in calls,” said Hugo. “I just want to deny, you know, any kind of speculation. So, uh, I’m just checking—we’re all good if I say, for a starter, that he never hurt anyone and he never touched anyone personally?”

Roman scowled, as if it was a ludicrous question to even take into consideration, and Gerri answered on everybody’s behalf. “You can reassure on that, Hugo.”

A second later, Logan’s voice rang out from across the room. “Did you know?” he asked. “Connor? Roman? Shiv? Did you know?”

Apprehensive, the siblings crept closer to their father, who still had his back turned to them. You crossed your arms and listened on from behind Roman.

“Did you know he was going to do that?” he queried once they were all close by. “I was wondering.”

“Obviously not, dad,” Rome said.

A muscle in Logan’s jaw twitched. “Uh-huh.”

Roman scratched at the back of his head. “Kendall’s mentally ill. He’s insane.” He needs help, he wanted to say, but wisely bit down on his tongue before it could slip.

There was a long moment of silence. Shiv eyes darted from her father to her husband.

Finally, Logan turned to face his children. “Everyone. Gather up! Battle stations—let’s go.”

The small group rounded around a table with Logan at the very head. It was Gerri who started with a proposal, all heads turned to listen to her.

“I suggest I call the DOJ, and we right away let them know how horrified we were to learn of these allegations. We can tell them we intend to form a special committee and we can inform them which white shoe law firms we are considering to thoroughly investigate and promptly report back their findings,” said the woman.

Shiv watched her godmother with mild unease. She was a woman to look up to, she was competition, she was better than anyone else here, and she was an accomplice. Then, her eyes darted to you, your fingers silently drumming along the table’s surface. There was no doubt Logan would be forced to announce his successor soon. Would you be competition for the throne, as well? You’d certainly make for a formidable CEO.

“Do we cooperate?” asked Logan.

There was a brief moment of puzzled silence.

Gerri’s brows furrowed as she replied, “With the government? Uh, yeah. I think we’re gonna have to cooperate. I mean, we were under pressure already—”

“Unless we don’t,” Roman cut in.

“That’s ridiculous. Not cooperating would be like shining the fucking spotlight right onto us. This is a public company—we tanked privatization in Turkey,” you vehemently protested.

To that, Gerri agreed. “We don’t know what they have or what they might get. There’s only one real play here.”

“What if I don’t want to pull down my panties so fast?” grumbled Logan.

“Then we pull up the draw-bridge. The story would be that he’s exploiting these poor women—and that’s very sad. Twitter would tear him apart. You were grooming him for the top and, wow, would you look at that? He relapsed, and he blew it,” Roman said. Both you and Shiv exchanged worried, distasteful glances. “He’s a bitter fuck-up that needs to be psychiatrically evaluated. Of course, you’re the big baddie, so everybody jumped on board.”

Brows cinching, Shiv asked, “What about these papers he says he has?”

“Uh… fake. Or stolen, if they even exist. Are we even worried about these papers? We’ll go after him for corporate theft, then,” he spouted off. “This is—you know—not a nice thing to say about your son, but maybe chop him up into a million pieces and throw him into the Hudson?

You destroy Kendall, it falls apart.”

It was strange to think, just twenty-four hours ago, the two brothers were quite amicable with each other. As brotherly as people like them could be, at least. Now they were on opposite sides of the chessboard, waiting for the play.

Frank and Karl started listing off a couple stats, and Shiv sat forward in her seat.

“Kendall’s changed the game,” she said. “Noncooperation now, it wouldn’t—it’s just too hot out there. I think it’s very high risk.”

“Everything’s high risk if you’re a pussy,” Roman said, picking at his nails.

You frowned. “If we don’t cooperate, it’ll just make us look all the more guilty.”

And what if we are? The brief thought crossed your mind. What if everything Kendall said was true?

“If I stop picking at scabs and saying sorry, who knows where we’ll end up. Admissions of wrongdoing—that’s billions out the door,” Logan said.

His words made your expression falter just a little bit.

“Get the raisin,” your godfather told Hugo, referring to the American president. “Let’s go to the top.”

The planes heading back to New York were readied soon after. Just as you stepped out of the car that took you to the tarmac, your phone began to buzz in your pocket. To your relief, Roman was busy chattering to Gerri, and you were able to step away from the group to pull your phone out.

Kendall’s contact name stared right back up at you. You sucked at your teeth in thought, before swiftly answering.

“Hello?”

He sang your name then, in a pitch too high for his caliber.

“What do you want?”

“What do I want?” he parroted. “I want you in, Y/N. You’ve got a premium spot right by my side, in the new company I’m going to build. You’re the glue, dude. You are.”

A shifty glance back at Roman and Shiv, Logan and Gerri. You took a few steps closer to the plane.

“Is it true?”

“What?”

“What you said on TV. That Logan knew about cruises and paid it off.”

A brief pause.

“Obviously,” he said. “Obviously it’s true. I’d never lie to you, Y/N. You’re like—you’re like a sister to me, you know?”

“Have you called Shiv? Offered her a place, too? Roman?”

A longer silence.

“No,” he finally said.

It was a lie, you knew it clear as day. But you didn’t know exactly which part of it was a lie.

“I can’t trust you,” you murmured into the phone, shifting the device in your palms. Roman’s eyes were now on you. He waved, and you waved back, shooting him a thumbs up when he gestured to the plane. “You understand that, right? I can’t trust you, as much as I want to.”

Before he could respond, you abruptly hung up, and quickly shoved your phone back into your pocket to jog to the rest of the group.

“Who were you talking to?” Roman asked once you caught up with him, mildly suspicious.

“Karolina,” you quickly lied. “She wanted to know what the play was.”

“Mmh. Right.” He nudged his shoulder into yours. “We’ll be okay.”

“I’m not so sure.”

Roman’s eyes searched yours, but you averted them when his dad approached the group. His sunglasses were perched high on the bridge of his nose—you could see your worried reflection in them. He asked for a lawyer: a good one, preferably a woman.

Lisa came to mind, one of the most reputable lawyers in the country, conveniently a friend of Shiv’s.

“Shiv, Roman, Gerri, Y/N—you’ll all go back to manage New York,” said your godfather. “No need for me to go running back like a slapped girl. Looks weak.”

Pursing your lips, you offered him a nod. “We’ll take care of it.”

“Good,” he said, patting your cheek affectionately. Once, then twice, then his hand fell back down to his side. He used to do that when you were a young child, sporting pigtails and scraped knees. “Good.”

Then, he ruffled Roman’s hair. “Fuck off down there, Tumbledown Dick.”

And with that, the two of you, along with Shiv and Gerri, boarded the plane.

“As I step back temporarily…” began Logan, surveying Karl, Frank, Hugo, and Tom in front of him, “who do we like as CEO?”

They stared at him blankly.

“I don’t give a fuck,” Logan huffed in exasperation. “It’s name plates. Come on! Brain dump. Speak, and let a hundred flowers bloom.”

Unsurprisingly, Frank and Karl didn’t hesitate to offer themselves up first. Tom watched the older men apprehensively. The two were quick to be pushed to the side, and Logan snapped his fingers.

“Who else?”

“I mean, I imagine you’re looking at a kid. Or Gerri,” said Frank.

“Yeah. Yes. I’d like a kid, obviously. So—Shiv or Roman. But we’d love a woman. So, Shiv or Gerri. But I’d like experience. Which would be Roman or Gerri.”

Leaning forward in his seat, Hugo cleared his throat. “Well, there’s one obvious person who’s got all three of those. Y/N, she’s young, she’s a woman, and she’s experienced. A perfect candidate.”

Silence stretched thin between the men. Logan tilted his head in thought. Tom quietly excused himself to run to the bathroom.

On the plane heading to New York, Shiv’s phone began to ring, and she excused herself to the back where neither you, Roman, or Gerri could hear her. Gerri pushed her glasses further up her nose as she studied a text message on her phone. Silent, she gestured to the two of you to take a look.

A message from Frank. They were picking a new CEO, right then and there.

When Shiv came back quiet as a mouse, Roman started up a bitchy catfight with his sister for not sharing with the group.

“How come Frank called you and how come you told them?” Shiv asked her godmother.

Gerri shrugged. “I’m just a very straightforward person, Shiv.”

“What’d you hear?”

She glanced at her phone once more. “Just that there’s a number of names in contention.”

“All of us, probably,” you said with a mild grimace.

Roman slung his arm over your shoulders, jostling you ever so slightly. “Care to make it interesting? Throw a bit of money on the table?”

“I’m already pretty fuckin’ interested,” Shiv replied, nose wrinkling. “I think I’m good.” With that, she turned to her side to look out the window.

Drawing in a shallow breath, you loosely intertwined your hand with Roman’s. “You think you’d be ready to take on the mantle if you got the job?” you quietly asked him.

“Fuck, yeah. It should be me, right? I’m the most logical option.”

You stared at him for a moment, wondering how much of what he’d just said was utter bullshit.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?”

Roman tapped your nose twice and you fixed him with an exasperated look. “Like you don’t agree with me. But you do, right?”

“I don’t know, Ro. I don’t think what Kendall pulled means you should suddenly be crowned king,” you muttered. “I don’t think any of us should.”

When you eventually passed out beside Roman, your legs thrown over his, he waved a hand in front of your face, just making sure you were actually asleep. As gently as he could, Roman slid away from your legs to get up and set them back down on his seat. He bent at the waist to kiss your forehead and you murmured something in your sleep, but thankfully didn’t stir anymore than that.

He made a bee-line for the plane’s bathroom, locking the door behind him.

Then, he called his father.

“Oh, Romulus,” Logan’s voice buzzed through once he answered after the second ring.

“Hiya, Dad. Can I just—can I speak to you for a moment? You free?”

“Sure.”

Roman leaned his weight against the sink. “Well, um, it’s already getting out what you’re thinking about so… I just wanted to throw a couple things in the ol’ lobster pot.”

“Mhm.”

Squinting at his warped reflection, Roman said, “I think it should be me. It’s my time. I can do it, I want it, and I think I can pull it off.”

A long silence.

Roman scratched at the back of his head, a bout of nerves suddenly scratching within his chest. “Uhm, yeah, I think it should be me. But… if you don’t think I’m ready, which, uh, totally valid, I would completely understand, and I’m not saying I’d agree with that, but, you know—maybe it could be Y/N. She’s… she’s a good, fresh face for the company. She’s good at this shit. All the corporate managing shit. And if—if she doesn’t work, Gerri is a prime contender, too. A couple years under her, then maybe… maybe it could be me.” He cleared his throat and drummed his fingers along the faucet. “And, listen, I know you’ve been sweet on Shiv. I love her like a brother, seriously, but I just don’t think that it’s time for her, you know? For whatever reason it ain’t Romey time, then, uh… maybe it’s crony time.”

He winced.

“Mmhm,” was all Logan said.

“I hope I haven’t, uh, overstepped here.”

On the other end of the line, Logan smiled. “Nope. Thank you, son.”

“Okay. Alright. I’d love it, but, uh, you know, I’d understand if—I do want it, though. No hard feelings if, uh…” He was rambling. Logan never liked it when he did that. One time when he was thirteen, Logan gripped his cheeks so tightly that it ached and snarled out a warning that if he heard another uhm come out of him, he’d toss him to the fucking wolves. Good times. “Yeah. Love you, Dad. Bye.”

“Uh-uh,” Logan said, and hung up first. He locked eyes with Frank. “Roman’s out.”

When the plane landed, Shiv got a call from Logan.

“What?” asked Roman. “What’d he say?”

“He wants me to go get Lisa to be his lawyer,” she said. “He told me to tell you guys to wait airport adjacent, though. He might need someone to fly to Boston for investors.”

You frowned. “Fuck. I thought I’d be able to go home for a bit.”

Shiv arched a brow. “You’re more than welcome to. But, you know, Dad wouldn’t like that very much.”

That kept the rest of your complaints quiet.

Once the four of you disembarked the plane, Shiv took a car to head after Lisa, and the three of you were taken to a fancy hotel nearby.

Gerri got her own room right beside yours, and she told you to shoot her a message if anything of importance came up. You gave her a half-hearted smile and a nod. You were rooting for her, really.

Roman took a step in the direction of your room despite having his own across the hall, shooting Gerri a smirk and a salute before she could make her way in. “If you hear the bed rocking through the walls, that’s us having wild, passionate sex. Feel free to drop in if you want.”

Rolling her eyes, Gerri shut the door in Roman’s face.

The hotel was large and spacious, and you were quick to shed your outer layers, sinking onto the bed with a groan.

“I miss home,” you said when Roman kicked off his shoes and loosened his tie. “I’ve been held hostage in a different country and then stuck on a fucking yacht with the most dysfunctional family for way too long. I wanna go home.”

He laid down beside you. He couldn’t really understand how you were feeling. His house was mostly empty and lacked any true life. It didn’t actually feel like his home.

“Yeah, I’m fucking exhausted.” he said nonetheless. Then he tugged you closer and pressed his nose against the side of your head. “But I’m not too tired, if you catch my drift.”

“I’m not having sex with you in a random hotel with Gerri next door,” you deadpanned, though there was a slight laugh to your voice.

Roman snapped his fingers. “Would you prefer to have her here, watching? You little sicko.”

Finally, you laughed, and shoved him away. “I’m tired, Ro. I’m gonna go take a shower and knock out.”

“Hm. Can I join?”

“You tell me,” you said, knowing that Roman wasn’t ready for that just yet.

The two of you stared at each other for a few seconds. Roman shrugged. “I’ll be here if you need me.”

You kissed his cheek quickly, before pushing off of the bed.

A steamy shower later, you stepped out of the bathroom in the comfier clothes you made sure to pack. Roman sidled past you to wash himself up next, but not without pinching your side on the way. He shut the door and locked it before you could retaliate.

You waited until you heard the spray of the shower start up.

Only then did you grab your phone, dialing Logan’s number. You hoped he was still awake.

To your relief, he picked up after the third ring.

“Hi, Uncle Logan.”

“Hello, dear. You and Romulus are doing well in the hotel, I hope?”

You sat down on the edge of the bed. “Yeah! Yes, he’s just in the shower right now. So, I just wanted to clarify some things.”

“Go on.”

It felt as if there was a heavy weight on your chest. “I just… I know that you’re in the middle of picking a new CEO, and I know I probably look like a pretty good option to get the company out of hot water right now. But…” You exhaled softly. “I love you, Uncle Logan, but I don’t love this company. And I—I just don’t want to be the face of it.”

You drew your knees up to your abdomen and wrapped an arm around them.

“Mhm,” Logan said.

“I hope that doesn’t, uh, hinder your perception of me in any way, but… yeah. I don’t want it. I’m perfectly happy with the job I have now. And—if you ask me, I think Gerri is the best person for this role.”

“Hm. Thank you, Y/N. I appreciate your honesty.”

Well… that was certainly a better response than you anticipated. You half-expected him to get angry and cuss you out.

You bit down on the inside of your cheek. Did you do the right thing?

“Bye, Uncle Logan.”

“Sleep well.”

With that, the call ended.

Five minutes later, you got a text message from Gerri. Two words, and that was it.

It’s me, it said.

Another one pinged through a minute later.

Shiv blew it with Lisa.

Your brows raised. Roman was certainly going to have a field day once you told him.

You shot her a reply.

Congrats, Gerri. I’m glad it’s you.

The next day, Shiv was nowhere to be seen. She wasn’t answering her phone, and she’d turned off her location. Logan was beyond furious, yelling through the phone at both you and Roman to keep a watchful eye on Gerri and to try and find Shiv. Once the call ended, the two of you gave each other meaningful glances. There was only one place Shiv would go after she felt slighted.

She’d gone to confront Kendall. Maybe to scope out what he was doing for Logan. Or maybe just for herself. You didn’t quite know her motif just yet.

“So… we’re going to Kendall?” Roman asked you.

“That’s where she’d be,” you replied. “But let’s not… tell your dad yet.”

“Sounds good with me,” he snorted. “He’d have a fucking heart attack.”

Before the two of you got into the car, Roman mumbled something about not wanting to turn up empty-handed, and bought a box of a dozen fresh cinnamon rolls from the airport.

The drive there was quiet and tense. Roman began anxiously drumming his fingers on the car seat, then moved to doing it on your thigh and you didn’t bother stopping him. You pulled out your phone and shot Shiv a text, though you were nearly certain she wasn’t going to answer.

Everyone’s looking for you. I hope you know what you’re doing.

Once you got to Kendall’s base—which was just his ex-wife Rava’s house, because he had nowhere else to set up—Jess was the one to greet the two of you on the lower levels.

“Kendall’s a bit busy at the moment, but he’s told me to just send the two of you up.”

“Thanks, Jess,” you told her, not unkindly. Sometimes you felt bad for the woman. She was bright and intelligent and a hard-worker, and it was clear that she had so much potential. It was a shame she was glued to Kendall’s side.

An elevator ride later, the two of you stepped into Rava’s living room. And, to none of your surprise, Shiv was right there on one of the clean grey couches.

“Oh, wow. Lookie, lookie. Alright, okay,” deadpanned Roman. “How come you’re not answering your phone?”

Shiv lifted one of her shoulders nonchalantly. “I’ve had it off. No agenda.”

“Right. No agenda.”

“How is he?” she asked.

“Fine. Worried about you,” you said. You took a seat on the couch across from her and Roman took to wandering around, touching just about every single piece of decoration he came across.

The red-head narrowed her eyes at you. “So, uh, how are you feeling about Gerri as CEO?”

“Great. I think she was the best choice.”

“Uh-huh. And you didn’t want it for yourself?”

“No.” There was no hesitation to your answer.

“Right.” Shiv laughed as if she didn’t believe you. “Of course you didn’t.”

Roman’s lips twitched as he leaned against the backrest of the couch, leering over his sister. “What’s your fucking game? What are you even doing here?”

“Why? What are you guys doing here?” she shot back.

“Here looking for you,” said Rome.

“Sure.”

Rolling his eyes, Roman haughtily said, “As far as you know, that’s the fucking truth.”

Before anyone could say anything else, there were echoing footsteps down the hall, and Kendall appeared, a silly smile plastered across his face.

“Here he comes,” said Roman. “The attention whore.”

“Hey, Rome. Y/N.” He stood in front of his brother, glancing back and forth between you and him. “How are you guys doing?”

Tilting his head, Roman replied, “Great. Thanks for asking. It’s just been a really—great few days. You know, being a hostage held at gunpoint, and then my brother decided to fuck the family company over on a whim. It’s been great. How about you?”

“I’ve been good!” said Kendall, propping his hands up on his hips. “Certain amount of regret, but you know—pretty cleansed.”

It took all you had in you not to heave out a grand sigh. “Cleansed,” you mumbled. “You could’ve just gone on a spa retreat for that. Didn’t have to pull all this shit. I think a clay mask would do you good.”

Kendall shot you a mildly amused look. “I needed to do this. And yeah—I still meant every word of what I said to you.”

You frowned. He was clearly alluding to the phone call where he was offering you a spot with him. “Right. Oh, and, uh—Ro brought you those cinnamon rolls from the airport.”

“That’s so sweet. That’s kind. Thanks, Rome,” said Kendall, glancing at the blue little box on the table.

“Shut up. Just eat ‘em or don’t,” Roman said, standing behind the couch and patting your shoulders. You reached over and rubbed his hand.

Finally, Kendall rubbed his palms together and addressed all three of you. “Look, guys, can we start on a clean slate? You didn’t like how I handled things with Dad. Sure. Whatever, I’m sorry. But that’s for me and him. Here’s the thing… he’s over, so let’s work together to take the company over and help him move on out.”

Roman wrinkled his nose. “Uhm… well, I’m just here to spy on Shiv, so—”

“And I’m just here to get you to back down,” Shiv told her older brother.

The four of you fell silent when a group of Kendall’s busy worker-bees crowded into the living room, holding stacks of files and papers and binders.

Shiv blew out a sigh. “I’m sorry, I’m trying to tell you how much of an asshole you are, but can we do it somewhere we don’t have to fold in Rava’s dog-walker?”

“Yeah. Sorry, yeah. Follow me. Uh—we can go into her room. Sophie’s room.”

Roman helped you up off the couch and snorted, “I’m surprised he remembered his kid’s name. Uh, which one was she? Right! Sophie. Or was it Sophia?”

The two of you snickered under your breath, and filed into the room behind Kendall and Shiv.

“Don’t touch any of her shit,” said the oldest out of the four.

Of course, Roman reached out and brushed his hand along all the little toys and trinkets lining her desk and drawers. You were the last in the room, and you didn’t even get the chance to reach out and shut the door behind you before Kendall was rubbing his hands together.

“Okay. So… uh, it’s pretty simple, really. Let’s gang up on dad and take him down.”

“Well, fuck. At least wait until the door’s closed,” you said, just before kicking it shut. Patting Roman’s shoulder, you took a seat near the foot of Sophie’s bed while Shiv made her way to the very top.

Kendall grinned sheepishly, though you could see the apprehension in his eyes.

“Why didn’t you come to us before?” Shiv asked. “Because look—it’s a real fucking mess now.”

You thought back to the yacht. How Kendall was offered up as the sacrificial lamb, unexpectedly. Of course he’d have no time to confer with any of you.

The grin on his face seemed to taper away. “It came together in my head a bit late. And, you know—I mean, I knew what I was gonna do, but…”

Roman’s brows furrowed. “That was spontaneous?”

“Well, I spoke with a lawyer—”

“Oh, wow! He spoke with a lawyer?” Roman parroted in a mocking tone.

“But they advised against it. I don’t wanna rehash it all but—I was effectively acting alone.”

The words made Roman roll his eyes so far into the back of his head it was a wonder he couldn’t see his brain. “Right. A spontaneous, heartfelt out-pouring of thoroughly lawyered emotion.”

“You guys can think whatever you want, in the end, of me. My offer still stands.” His eyes were on Shiv, then on you.

You drummed your nails against Sophie’s soft blanket. “Kendall… you can’t just expect us to drop everything and trust you blindly. Do you understand how much we’d be risking? You have to give us something to work with here.”

Scoffing, Shiv said, “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m here to get him to back down.”

“On Dad’s behalf,” Roman added. Was it a question or a statement?

Kendall nodded twice. “Right. Uh-huh. So if I say that I won’t back down and I’m not interested in negotiating any deals, you’d just call him and tell him to take a hike?”

Before anybody could say anything else, there was a knock at the door, and Jess’ head popped through.

“He’s here,” said Jess.

“What? Who?” asked Roman.

“Con. Yeah, send him in,” Kendall said. The grin was back on his face.

Roman laughed under his breath. “Right. Thought I heard a clown car pulling up.”

“Ideally I’d like to make a media appearance. All of us,” Kendall told the three of you.

Immediately, he was met with noises of protest and sour faces.

“Sweet,” Roman droned. “Are we gonna be wearing costumes that you have designed, asshole?”

“Yeah. That’s not happening,” Shiv chimed.

More hesitantly, you added on, “That sounds like an awful idea, Kendall. No offense.”

The door opened again, and Connor came in with a wide smile. He greeted Kendall with a hug, then swung his gaze to the rest of you.

“Pop’s looking for you guys, you know,” he said. He sat down beside you and rubbed your shoulder comfortingly. “You okay? You look tired.”

“Could be better, Con. Could be better.” You spared him a half-hearted smile, then shrugged.

Shiv leaned back against the headboard. “We’re here on his behalf.”

Connor laughed, and sent his half-sister an amused glance. “Oh, sure, honey. Me too. All about Dad. That’s why we’re all here.”

Bored, Roman began wandering around the room, glancing and poking around in Sophie’s walk-in closet. He pulled out a frilly pink t-shirt and held it up to his chest. “You think this color suits me?”

“Put that back,” Kendall admonished dismissively, but didn’t bother to take it away from him. Instead, he continued right on with the topic of conversation, taking a seat on an ottoman. “Okay, can we just—can we turn off the devices and get into this? If this shit was just epiphenomenal, maybe it could be ridden out. But these incidents are symptomatic of a foundational sickness within our father and this company.”

Roman snorted. “Hmm, don’t he use that tongue prettier than a twenty-dollar whore?”

Chuckling, Shiv tilted her head. “So what’s your point?”

“My point is… the milk is going sour. You know, the great whites from politics to culture, they’re rolling off the stage. It’s our time.”

“You mean us?” Roman asked, giggling. “The multi-fucking-ethnic transgender alliance of twenty-something year-olds we got here?”

You shot the man an incredulous look. “Kendall, you’re a rich, middle-aged white man. I’m sorry if your image doesn’t exactly scream woke extravaganza.”

He waved the two of you away. “Okay, listen. Big picture, we’re at the end of the long American century. Our company is a declining empire inside of a declining empire. People are killing themselves with guns or dope so fast that we’re losing pace. We’re, uh, we’re fat-fingered fucks and we can only live on cream. US supremacy is waning—”

“Why is that a bad thing?” you cut in, nose wrinkling.

Kendall held his hand out, as if to gesture at you to keep quiet. “What I think is, within that context, we can become omni-national and reposition. Because actually, we’re not tied to anything culturally or physically. So, we’re actually in a great position to leapfrog tech. Information is going to be more precious than water. Combine all our news operations, and become the global news information hub.”

You winced. It was a bad idea. A terrible idea. It reminded you of the Pierce acquisition but just… a hundred times worse. And what the hell does omni-national even mean?

“Amazon is twenty years old, and Gates is an old geezer. Detoxify our brand, and we can go supersonic.”

Silence. Utter silence.

You and Roman stared at each other, as if trying to reassure each other how bullshit everything he was saying sounded.

“What do you say?” Kendall asked. “Are we interested?”

Roman hummed. “Mmh. There’s just something about betraying our father that doesn’t sit well with me.”

“He’s a central player in a rotten cabal that has basically eaten the heart out of American democracy—”

“Rotten Cabal is a good name for a band,” Roman chimed.

“Dad’s not on trial for that, though, Ken,” said Shiv.

Hotly, Kendall defended, “Maybe he should be.”

“If he didn’t do it, it would’ve been someone else making the same dollar off the same shit,” said Roman.

Leaning his weight onto his knees, Kendall turned to look back at his brother. “Yeah, maybe. Maybe we’re all irrelevant. Maybe there’s always going to be death camps and maybe the planet is going to fry, and there’s nothing we can do. Or maybe… maybe people make a difference. I don’t know. Do you think human beings matter, Rome?”

The conflict danced across Roman’s eyes clear as day. It disappeared quickly once he crossed his arms and said, “I’m just gonna say it now—I’m a spy and I’m gonna go back and tell him everything. I’m with Dad, so… fuck you.”

Kendall frowned. “Fine. Fine. I actually don’t give a fuck. I can perfectly well do this alone. I’m actually just trying to be open-hearted and invite you in here. I mean, it’d actually probably be simpler to go alone, but I want to offer you guys a fucking ticket to the escape pod.”

“Nice fucking guy, huh?” Rome chortled.

Finally, the ball dropped. “You’re happy he went over your head and put in Gerri?”

Roman’s expression fell. You knew he’d wanted the job. “I think Gerri is a good choice.” Shiv laughed, and Roman defensively spat out, “What?”

“Defend Dad all you want, but Gerri can look after herself.”

“Yeah, I know that, I’m not defending Gerri, I just—”

Shiv sat up straighter. “You can’t hide under the covers with Mommy.”

Roman shifted back a step. “Oh, fuck off, Siobhan.”

“No, no, let’s talk about it. You always need someone to hold your fucking hand. You use Gerri as protection, and then you run off to Y/N every time something just barely inconveniences you. You just love showing your pee-pee to everyone but someday, you know, you’re actually gonna have to fuck something.”

His nose twitched. “Fuck you. Bitch.” With that, he made his way to the door and stormed out of the room.

You and Connor both called after him, but he was already gone.

“Okay… that was… that was low, Shiv,” said Con, frowning.

“That was an overreaction!” she exclaimed.

Huffing, Connor shook his head. “Can we just try to keep things nice? Yeah?” He patted your shoulder again. “I’ll go check on him.”

“It’s not my fault he’s got a sex thing,” Shiv laughed. “Was I too harsh?”

“You kidding? He loves it. He’s probably out there jerking off, wearing my ex-wife’s panties.”

You buried your face in your hands, pulling exasperatedly. “You guys are fucking assholes. You’re fucking two-faced, Shiv, and Kendall, you’re just… you’re just using us. Fuck. “Media appearance”? Give me a fucking break.”

With that, you stood up from the bed and made your way out of the room. Worry scratched away at your chest for Roman. You stepped into the living room, expecting to see him lingering around there, but you heard Connor’s voice echoing down the hall. He was standing in front of the closed bathroom door, a hand on the gilded doorknob, the other rapping against the wood lightly.

“Rome?” he asked. “You okay?”

“Go away,” his muffled voice replied from the other side.

You stepped forward, right next to Connor. “Hey, Romeo?”

There was a pause. Then the door swung open.

“Hi,” you said, mustering up a tired grin.

“Hi,” he said. Roman tried his best to mirror your smile, but failed miserably.

“You okay, Rome?” Connor asked again.

He shrugged, scratching at the back of his head. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just needed to piss. Am I not allowed to do that?”

Finally, you ambled another step forward and enveloped Roman into a tight hug. “What Shiv said isn’t true, you know. I’m the one that ran to you this time.”

Roman mumbled something into your shoulder, but you didn’t quite catch it. Maybe it was an off-handed thanks. At least, that’s what you hoped he said.

Connor smiled at the two of you with a huff, clapping a hand on each of your shoulders. “Maybe it’s time to head back. I don’t think we’re done discussing things. Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

With that, you let go of Roman and nudged him back in the direction of Sophie’s bedroom.

As soon as he made his way back in, Shiv met his gaze with a half-beam, half-grimace etched across her features. “Sorry,” she said. She didn’t really sound all that sorry.

“For what? I went to the bathroom,” Roman dismissively replied. “I don’t give a shit. You whore.”

Shiv smiled, and he grinned back. Haughtily, he snatched up your hand and crowded you into sitting down on the loveseat with him. He swung a leg up to throw over your thighs and you traced aimless circles along his shin.

“Here’s how I see this,” Kendall started up, “Dad is complicated. But he did, or he let, bad stuff happen. Yeah? And now it’s a part of us and our sickness, and we have to take responsibility because we knew. This is our chance to pay our dues and wash our hands for absolution.

You narrowed your eyes. Knew?

Thinking along the same lines as you, Shiv snorted out a derisive sound. “Okay, well… I didn’t know.”

“Sure, whatever, but—yeah, you did,” Kendall said.

“No, obviously we didn’t know,” Shiv exclaimed. “Did you guys know?”

“No,” you were quick to say. “What kind of question is that?”

Roman leaned further back into the seat. “No, we didn’t know.”

Incredulous, Kendall rounded his gaze onto the two of you. “The fucking pipeline of sad dancers who got used and abused and promised some Hollywood bullshit? We all fucking knew.”

Brows cinching together, Roman acquiesced by saying, “Yeah, well, I kinda knew about… you know, that there was some—but I didn’t know about any of the actual fucking… the fucking shit that went down. I really didn’t.”

“Come on, guys,” Connor said. “We knew.”

“Maybe you guys did,” you protested. “But I didn’t fucking know. I was a kid! We were kids!”

“But we still fucking knew! Okay? And I—I don’t like all this fucking bullshit!” Kendall propped his hands on his hips, staring down at his siblings.

“What did we fucking know?” Roman asked.

“Yeah!”

Leaning closer to his sister, Connor said, “Listen, I’m obviously not saying that you guys are responsible. But, come on. The guys, Dad, Mo—the wolf pack.”

“We knew,” Kendall parroted. “All those jokes and the weird vibes to the women and to the grubby fat-asses who took the cruises. The blind eyes and the pay-offs and the hush-hush about Dad’s pals or foreign workers who got crushed like—like meat in a fucking grinder with zero training! And, you know, no, it wasn’t our fault. And if you want to pretend that your shit doesn’t stink, be my guest, but we fucking knew.”

Solemn, Connor nodded. “We knew what those guys in Dad’s study were laughing about.”

Hotly, you said, “How many times do I have to say it? I didn’t know that the dancers were being sexually harassed! That—that fucking workers were being grilled under terrible work conditions! And I sure as hell didn’t know anything about these million-dollar pay-offs you love to parade around without actually showing us.”

Shiv drew in a breath. “We didn’t know what they were laughing about.”

“Don’t get in the pool with Mo?” Connor asked. “Remember that?”

“Well, yeah, that just sounds like fucking common sense,” you replied. “It was all so… grey. There were so many rumors. I just—I didn’t know if what Mo did actually happened or just a part of a huge fucking joke.”

“Yeah. And I didn’t get in the pool with any of those creeps,” said Shiv.

Kendall nodded, “Yeah, because he let those creeps run cruises.”

“No, Kendall, because I was fifteen!” Shiv finally asserted. “Y/N said it before—we were kids! Y/N was barely fourteen! We were hardly ever around them, and when we were, they were talking about shit we didn’t understand, and we didn’t want to understand. Because we were teenagers, and they were creepy old men that constantly told us about how mature we were for our age. Obviously we didn’t know what they were talking about, because we didn’t even want to know.”

Waving his sister’s words away, Kendall stressed, “Well, you know now, right?”

“Of course I fucking know now, that’s why we’re here in the first place!” Shiv yelled.

A beat of silence.

Kendall’s shoulders squared. “This is all a sidebar. Okay? All I’m asking is for us to move forward from a position of truth.”

“Are we excluded from this kingdom of heaven unless we accept the one true truth?” Shiv asked.

His phone dinged with a text message, and Kendall reached down to pull it out of his pocket. His kids were here.

“Look, I just wanna go hug my kids. Okay? I’ll be right back.” He started back out, making his way to the door. “We don’t even need to get into this. This is just sideshit.”

Once he was gone, Roman’s hand rested against the side of your face, gently pulling your head down to rest against his shoulder.

“We were kids,” you mumbled tiredly. Blurry memories of leering, smoking men and jaunty laughter crossed your mind. “How could I have known?”

Roman hummed, but he said nothing more.

“So… where are we at?” Shiv asked. Her question seemed to be directed at anyone in particular, but her eyes were on you.

“I don’t know. I don’t trust him. He clearly doesn’t trust us,” you said, pursing your lips.

Roman nodded. “We’re just hearing him out—then we report. It’s simple, Siobhan.”

“Right. Yeah. We gotta protect Dad… because if we knifed him now, he’d just bleed out, so…”

Roman reared his head back. “Hm. I don’t know about that.”

“Well, it’s just true. It’s a statement of fact.”

“Is it, though?” Roman wrinkled his nose. “It’s not necessarily true. This is Dad. He’s like fucking—fucking Moby Dick. He could take us all down with his back riddled with harpoons.”

Scoffing, Shiv arched a brow. “Yeah? You think he can take on all of us? If we back Ken, he’s toast. I’m not saying we should do it—we just need to decide what the fuck we’re gonna do because this is our moment.”

Finally, Roman’s features softened. He gave you a nudge. “What do you think?”

You bit down on the inside of your cheek. “If all of us back Kendall, that’d spook Karl and Frank onto our side. Gerri, maybe. The board… they’ll be split at first, but I think most of them would be swayed with enough convincing. I don’t know. It’s hard to gauge.”

“It’s very hard to imagine him surviving if we allied,” Connor agreed.

“Yeah. Sure, it’s his board, but it’s a lot of fresh blood. A lot of fear. I think if we pulled a pin today, and tomorrow, we got a spooked board. We could win.”

Tilting your head, you asked her, “I’m confused, do you or do you not want to back Kendall?”

“Depends.”

“On what?”

“On you guys!”

Roman shook his head. “My only concern with stabbing Dad in the back—it might actually kill him.”

You thought back to how scared and worried the two of you were when Logan was in the hospital. Certainly not something you wanted to relive.

It was then that the door opened once again, and Kendall stepped in. “So—where are we?”

“Okay. Let’s say you win, and take Dad out. I don’t see us coming through in the proxy battle. Shareholders don’t like confusion—they’ll pull out the moment they realize the condom ripped. How does the family stay in control?” Shiv asked.

“We give Dad the revolver, show him to the office, proxy battle is over,” Kendall stated matter-of-factly. “Sandy and Stewy will back down. I’ve spoken with them.”

“Busy fucking bee,” Roman snorted.

Bobbing his head, Kendall said, “If Dad went fast enough, we’d have a settlement. Look, guys, I don’t know what I think about Dad. Uh… I love him, I hate him—I’ll outsource it to my therapist. But he was going to send me to jail, you know. He’d do the same to you, Rome. Con. Shiv, I don’t know. Maybe. Don’t you guys see that? Y/N—he’ll… he’ll fucking throw you to the sharks if he needed to. I mean, how many years have you been scurrying around doing all of the yardwork for him?”

You met Kendall’s intense gaze, but you remained silent.

It was Roman who spoke instead: “Well, what would the shape of this new fucking reality be, anyway? Us leapfrogging Amazon?”

“Oh, yeah. We’re looking at 323 BC, naturally. Alexander’s dead. I take Asia, Rome takes Egypt, Shiv takes Europe, Y/N has the Americas, North and South. Con—the rest of the world.”

Connor smiled. “Thanks.”

“Separate divisions. I could oversee us as CEO on paper as we shift to these spheres of influence and evaluate what the core is. We move forward—”

A migraine began to pulse in Roman’s temple and he rubbed his head gingerly. “You’re overseeing us?”

A second of silence. “I’d offer my leadership initially as a—as a necessary part of a transformation process, yes.”

“You’d do that for us?” Roman mocked in a baby-voice. “Oh, you’re so generous! Thanks, Ken!”

“No! In your position, it just doesn’t work,” Shiv protested.

“It’s a stretch,” winced Connor in agreement.

“Stretch?” Roman scoffed. “It’s a fucking scrotum over a timpani drum!”

Shiv straightened her posture. “If I were to back you against Dad, I would need to take over.”

Both you and Rome made noises of surprise.

“What? Woah!” Roman chuckled and you drew in a cold inhale through your teeth.

“Shiv, I’m sorry, there’s absolutely no way you’d be able to steer us out of this mess—” you began.

“What? And you could?”

“Yes!” you exclaimed, thinking back to the phone call you had with Logan in the hotel. “But I’m not going to. I don’t want the fucking top job. I’m looking at this from a neutral perspective, okay? You wouldn’t work.”

Kendall nodded vehemently. “You don’t have the experience, Shiv. It wouldn’t be possible. I wish it was, but it isn’t.”

“Come on, you’re a busted flush! I’m the only person who can reform!”

“You’re too divisive,” Kendall said. Shiv’s lips parted in offense. “I mean, I don’t see you this way, but people see you as the token woman, wonk, woke, snowflake. I don’t think that, but the market does.”

“Jesus Christ,” you mumbled, pinching the space between your brows.

“What? That’s bullshit!” she bit out, volume raising a notch.

Snickering beneath his breath, Roman said, “It’s true, I just spoke to the market. That’s exactly what they think.”

“Guys, listen. We’d get new directors, and a clean broom. And then we can figure out how to split the spoils.”

Shiv pursed her lips. “I have some calls to make,” she finally said, getting up from the bed. “But this stays in here, yeah?”

“Absolutely,” Roman said.

“Yeah,” both you and Connor mumbled.

With that, she left the room.

Roman slipped away from you, saying something about taking his own call. You watched him go curiously, though you were already pretty certain he was going to call Gerri for her opinion, seeing as she was CEO now. With a nod to Kendall and Connor, you excused yourself to go to the bathroom.

You strode down the hall and shut the door behind you. The mirror above the sink’s reflection stared back at you, nearly unrecognizable. You looked so tired. Clothes wrinkled, hair disheveled, eyebags dark. All you wanted to do was go home and crawl into your own bed.

You sniffed, though you weren’t crying. You wanted to cry, though. A cry-session sounded really nice right about now. You blinked once, then twice. No tears, still.

Dejected, you went about your business, before rinsing your hands clean and stepping out to the rest of the siblings gathered in the living room now, all standing around a white box of donuts.

“Someone ordered dessert?” you asked with a mild laugh, quirking a brow at Roman.

“Wasn’t me,” he said, jerking his head to Connor, who had a card in his hand.

“Dad sent donuts. Perfectly innocent, safe-to-eat donuts,” the oldest of the group announced. He lifted up the card. “He wants us all to have a nice tea party.”

Shiv glanced around shiftily. “What the fuck? Ken—did you tell him?”

“Shiv, come on,” he replied. “Why would I tell him?”

“To make him distrust us and force us to back you?” you offered, peering over at the donuts. Connor reached over to take out a glazed chocolate one from the center.

“I wouldn’t eat that,” Shiv told his brother.

Incredulous, Connor said, “You really think he’d send poisoned donuts to the house of his grandchildren?”

“Yeah, I’m, like, ninety-eight percent sure those aren’t poisoned,” Roman chimed.

Kendall shook his head. “Okay, guys. These aren’t relevant—”

“Oh, no. No, no, no, these are really relevant donuts,” Roman protested.

Ignoring him, Kendall held up his phone. “Do we wanna? Guys—are we in? I’ll make the call right now. We can say it tonight. It’ll be over. New dawn.”

A terse silence settled over the rest of you.

“Con, stop staring at the fucking donuts, man. Focus!”

With that, the eldest sibling dropped the card on top of the donuts. “I’m out,” he said.

Kendall’s eye seemed to twitch. “Alright, then. You’re irrelevant, anyway.”

“Hey, fuck you.”

“Go on. Leave. You’re not wanted. You’re not wanted, Connor! Leave!”

“Don’t be fucking mean, Kendall,” you snapped.

Roman shook his head. “Yeah, as if he hasn’t heard that enough already.”

“I just don’t wanna destroy Dad. I’m a national figure. It’s not right to kill one’s father.”

“Yeah, you’re a prick!”

You shot Connor an apologetic glance, but he simply shook his head, gathered his jacket, and took his leave.

Kendall then rounded on his younger brother. “Roman. Come on, man. Let’s do this.”

“Uhm… pass.”

“Pass? Why?”

Roman pulled a sour face, as if he’d just licked a lemon. “A number of reasons, really.”

“Like what? You think I can’t win? Dude—we can win this together. We’ll fucking win! There’s enough for us all, Rome.”

“I told you. I’m with Dad. I always have been.”

Shaking his head, Kendall spat out, “You’re a fucking moron.”

“Don’t call him that!” You bristled. He sounded just like his father.

Kendall looked to his sister. “Forget them, Shiv.”

“I’m with Dad,” she said, plainly. Roman laughed, and Kendall’s expression fell.

“Why?” he asked.

She crossed her arms and shrugged. “Why? I don’t need to tell you.”

“Yes, you fucking do! Is it the goddamn donuts? Have you been spooked by fucking donuts? That’s pathetic, Shiv! Why? You owe me an explanation!”

Shiv tossed her head back and laughed at the irony. “Oh, yeah! Because you’ve always been so careful to keep me informed.”

“What is it? You don’t believe me?” he asked. “Obviously, you believe me! So you’re literally doing the wrong thing over the right thing here?”

Her eyes were intense on her brother. Exhaling lowly, Shiv said, “I can see that you’re angry, but don’t project your disappointment onto me. I should go.”

“Is it cowardice or avarice? I just wanna know,” Kendall called out. “Is it because you won’t take over? Is that it? Good luck with sleeping on that, Shiv.”

“Fuck you, plastic Jesus.”

“You’re a fucking twat.”

“I was the one you wanted. Rome and Connor don’t even matter to you,” she said.

“Yeah, because you’re the fucking token girl! Girls count double now, didn’t you know?”

“No, I know.” There was a crack in her voice. “I fucking know.”

“It’s only your teats that give you any value! You’re calling it wrong, Shiv. You’re fucking over the victims. I hope you know that! Well done, you dipshit!”

She shot you and Roman narrowed glances, before sauntering out of Rava’s apartment.

Finally, Kendall turned to you. His last hope. He stepped closer to you, until he was just in front of you. “Y/N, just listen. You—we could make this work. You’d be the fucking—the fucking glue. The brains. You’re good at this. You know people, you have connections. It could work. You don’t need them.”

“I don’t trust you,” you whispered.

And there it was. There were the tears. Stinging the corner of your eyes and just barely blurring your vision. Only this time, you didn’t want to cry. Not in front of Kendall.

Kendall took your hands loosely, and you couldn’t find it in you to pull away just yet. Roman watched on with part caution, part disgust.

“Remember—remember when we were kids and I told you that I would be leading the company one day? That you could be there with me? Remember that? And you made me swear to give you all the fucking strawberry popsicles you wanted. You could have it all, Y/N. It’s so fucking close.”

You remembered. Of course you did. “I don’t know, Kendall. I don’t remember.” Swallowing, you pulled your hands away from his. “You’ll just use me, Kendall. You’ll just use me and then toss me to the side.”

“That’s what Dad is doing to you right now. I’m not like him. I won’t do that.”

Your expression hardened and you wiped away the tears. “I can’t back you.”

For a moment, you wondered if Kendall was going to scream.

“Fine,” he said, eerily quiet. “You’re an asshole. Both of you.”

Roman took your hand and began to tug you to the elevator.

“You’re all pricks. Fucking idiots. You don’t know what the hell you’re doing!”

He kept calling you and his siblings a variety of colorful insults, but they all blurred into white noise when Roman hurried you into the elevator, his arm wound around your waist.

“Home?” you asked. You were so, very tired.

He nodded. “Home.”

“Will you stay over?”

He kissed your head, chaste and barely there. “Yeah. Sure.”

The company’s annual shareholding meeting started early in the morning. It’d been a few weeks since the eventful night at Rava’s place, and you’d been swamped with work ever since then. Shiv had been promoted to President of Domestic Operations—which was just a fancy title that meant little to nothing—and shortly after, the FBI had raided the company building.

Yeah. All sunshine and rainbows at Waystar right about now.

A vote would completely be slanted away from the Roys, and that only left them with the option of negotiation with Stewy and Sandi.

“We’re gonna lose the company,” said Shiv, hands propped on her hips. “We’re going to lose the fucking company today.”

The rest of you were sitting around on the couches, waiting for Logan to arrive. He was late, as he often was nowadays.

Roman tugged at the lapels of your dark blue pantsuit, wrangling your attention back to him. He offered you a wry smile. “Say, if I lose my job here, do you think I could find work behind a cash register at Target?”

“Haven’t you heard? All those jobs are being taken up by broke college students with at least two bachelor's degrees under their belt,” you dryly replied. He barked out something akin to a laugh. Since he was straightening out your suit for you, you reached out to fix his loosely-knotted tie. Once you were done, you patted his cheek fondly and pulled your hands away.

It was then that Logan came ambling through the entrance, clutching a dark cane in one hand and Kerry right behind him.

“There he is. The big beast,” Roman said. “Ready to kick ass with his ass-kicking boot.”

“You heard?” Shiv queried him, without bothering to even say hello. “You know where we’re at?”

Logan stared at his daughter for a good few seconds. “Uh-huh,” he finally said, stoutly. Then, he looked to senior management. “Karl? Gerri?”

The man shrugged. “Uh… I guess we have to delay the vote. Squeeze Sandy and Stewy’s airtime. Run the long versions of the speeches. ”

Gerri spoke up, “I emailed a list of assigned shareholders for last minute persuasion.”

“Good, good. Yes,” Logan said. He sounded winded.

Brows furrowing, Shiv incredulously asked, “That’s it? There’s nothing else we can do?” There was an anxious lilt to her voice.

“What about the Raisin?” Logan asked. The president.

Shiv, Tom, and Cyd scrambled to answer for him, and he barked out a few more orders, before taking a seat.

Gerri’s phone began to ring, and her eyes widened when she checked the caller ID. “It’s Stewy Hosseini,” she said. “Should I take it?”

Wordless, Logan nodded once.

The call was short, but brief. Gerri’s eyes were narrowed and calculating when she hung up.

“They want to meet up,” she announced. “They have thoughts.”

Head tilting, Roman asked, “Thoughts? What kind of thoughts?”

“Ideas for a deal space around a settlement,” Gerri told the group.

“Fucking A! That’s great!” exclaimed Roman, before he was cut off by his father.

“Why have they suddenly decided to settle?” he asked, voice low.

Shiv replied, “Well, because they know it’s the smartest move?”

“Or they’ve had bad news,” Logan said. “What do they know that we don’t?”

You bit down on the inside of your cheek. “Well—we’d find out when we speak to them.”

Logan shook his head. “No. I’m not doing a tap dance. Shiv, Karl, Gerri, Y/N, Romulus—go and report back.”

Lifting a hand, Frank offered, “I think that’s smart. Yeah. But, uhm, Gerri should be out front helming, so should I go?”

“We nail you to the cross, Frank, alright?” Logan dismissed. “Let Sandy do the soft shoe. He’s wriggling. Let’s screw them out.”

The hotel you were meeting them at was lavish and over-the-top—you expected nothing less from Sandy and Stewy.

Inside the elevator up, Roman queried, “Does Sandy really have syphilis? What if he has sores all over his body? What if his groin’s all eaten away and the top half of him just falls off?”

“That’s disgusting, Rome,” you said, wrinkling your nose.

He stuck his tongue out at you. “You’re disgusting, fuck-face,” he shot back, childishly.

Gerri hummed. “I think we started that syphilis rumor.”

Raising a brow, you exchanged a look with Roman, neither of you all that surprised. Gerri was a cutthroat, cold-stoned bitch (in Roman’s words), and she’s definitely done worse than starting up a few nasty rumors.

“Late stage symptom is dementia, I believe,” said Karl, tucking his phone away into his back pocket.

Roman laughed. “You been doing some late night, panicky googling, Karl?”

With that, the elevator doors slid open, and the group filed out down the hall. A hotel employee showed you into one of the larger suites, where Sandy, Sandi, and Stewy were situated amongst plush seats.

“Hey,” Sandi greeted with a cautious smile. “Thanks for coming. My father is very excited to see you all.”

You glanced at her father, who was slumped over on a wheelchair and silent. It seemed his condition had worsened much more than you expected. You took a seat beside Gerri, and Shiv stiffly eased down next to you. Roman lingered behind, far too restless to sit.

“Look,” said Stewy, pulling your attention away from the older man to him, “after careful consideration, if we can make a deal here, we’re willing to agree to a standstill. No takeover. Provided we lead on deal-making options moving forward, we’ll accede to a continuation of combined Chairman and CEO roles, so that’d be all yours.”

“I think that sounds reasonable,” said Gerri.

“And the three board seats?” Stewy asked. His eyes darted from the siblings, to you, to Gerri and Karl.

Nodding, Shiv said, “Including yours? We can do that right now—I have my dad’s authorization to go there.”

“Would you be willing to sign off on this?” you asked. Stewy’s gaze met yours, mildly amused. “We’d like something physical to hold onto.”

Sandi then leaned forward when her father began to mumble under his breath, too quiet for you to decipher from where you were sitting.

“He wants our costs covered,” Sandi finally said. That was reasonable. Then, she added, “And… veto right over any Roy family member ever taking over as CEO.”

Your brows furrowed. Gerri seemed just as taken aback by this condition as you were.

“Stewy?” she asked, hoping he’d give some sort of clarification.

“That’s what the man said,” Stewy replied languidly. “It’s a very important protection for us.”

Wincing, Roman scratched at the back of his head. “I feel like I just have to put it out there and say it, since there’s a eighty-five billion dollar baby on the table here… how do I know he’s not your… meat puppet?”

The term made you think of Kendall before he’d waged war on his own father.

Sandi smiled, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I just do what my dad tells me, like you guys.”

“You mind if we take a beat?” Gerri asked, standing up. You stood with her, following her to the next room. Stewy said something snarky, but you consciously chose not to listen.

Karl ducked his head and whispered, “Well, I mean, other than the new proposal, it’s a very, very attractive prospect.”

Shiv frowned and incredulously bit out, “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing to discuss. It fucks us and it’s designed to humiliate dad!”

“It’s all just optics,” Gerri defended. “I’m not sure it’d even stand up.”

“You could probably work around it if it ever came to it!” Karl piped in.

“Uhm, with all due respect, Gerri—get bent,” said Roman.

Shaking her head, she reasoned, “I know it’s humiliating, and I’m sure your dad would agree, but given where we’re at, I have to check in with him. Sorry, excuse me.”

With that, she stepped away to call Logan.

“Is she gonna fuck us?” Shiv asked.

Roman pulled a face. “No. I don’t know.”

“Logan’s not going to say yes,” you murmured. “He wouldn’t allow it. It’s pride over everything, no?”

Shiv shot you a sharp look, but she didn’t say anything. From farther away, Gerri hung up the phone and made her way back to Stewy.

“We will meet your costs, but… no veto,” she told them. Of course—Logan wouldn’t refuse to be the first to bend the knee.

Sandy began murmuring again, and Sandi leaned in to listen.

“We need the veto,” she said once she backed away.

“Is there no alternative shape here?” Gerri queried, shaking her head.

Growing frustrated, Shiv said, “Come on, Sandi. We all want this to work.”

With one final lean-in, Sandi nodded her head at her father’s mumbled words.

“We’re gonna go have a think. But, uhm… it’d be a shame if all this hard work is destroyed over a small detail,” she finally concluded. “Thanks for coming to see us.”

You blew out a breath and scratched at the back of your head—a habit that you seemed to pick up from Roman.

The two of you began walking out, and Gerri caught up, just a step behind. “Sorry, about back there—”

“About what? Trying to fuck me over to consolidate your position?”

“No. It just seemed to make sense. Business-wise.”

Roman shot her a glance over his shoulder. “Throwing me overboard to drown? You picked your prince, Gerri, don’t fuck it up now.” He began to walk faster, and you gave her an apologetic shrug.

“We got this in the bag, Gerri. Don’t—don’t worry about Roman.”

She patted your shoulder with a reassured smile. “I can count on you to keep him in line, right?”

“Yeah. Of course.”

With one final nod, you jogged ahead to catch up with Roman, linking your arm with his.

“Hey, stompy,” you greeted, bumping your hip into his. “Stop pouting. Gerri was just trying to broker a deal. It’s not her fault they suddenly wanted a veto right.”

“I know. I’m just fucking—worried that I’m making the wrong choices all the time.”

“Yeah. But you’re doing okay. We’ll be fine. Everything’s going to blow over in a few months, just watch.”

The corner of Roman’s lips tilted into a lopsided smile, and hummed out that hyena-laugh of his. “You are so fucking fake. Y’know what the fucking Gen-Z’ers are calling it now? Toxic positivity. That’s what you are. A barrel of toxic, radioactive, neon-yellow smiley emojis. I love it. Never change.”

He kissed your cheek then, sounding out an obnoxious ‘mwah!’ before tugging you into the elevator.

By the time you rejoined Logan, Karolina, and Tom (hell, even Greg was there), Gerri’s phone began to ring again.

“It’s Sandi.”

“Which one?” Connor asked.

“The one that can talk,” Gerri deadpanned. She gave Logan a confirming glance, before answering it. Her expression rippled with incredulity and apprehension. “Uh… are you sure about that? Alright, but—seriously?”

With one final sigh, she hung up the call.

“They have one more proviso,” she told the group. “They want to take away the private jets.”

“What? No!” Roman protested.

“They said it’s elitist and out of touch.”

A frown crossed his face. “Duh-doy, but—no. They’re just trying to humiliate him.” He gestured to his father, who was slumped in a chair, eyes staring aimlessly at the ground.

“Was it real or were they just basting the turkey?” asked Karl.

“I don’t think Sandy’s the kind to be pulling a prank on us, Karl,” you said, pinching the space between your brows. “It’s gotta be real.”

Gesturing emphatically, Shiv said, “Let’s just eat it, Dad. You can tell them to fuck off later.”

“Yeah, we can just offer to cut personal use, or put on a mileage cap,” offered Karl.

“No!” Roman protested once more. “We give them this—first they come for the PJs and we say nothing, then they come for the outsized compensation payments, you know? This is—no. This is bullshit. They’ll back down, they won’t blow it over this. Right?”

He looked at you, and you lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know. They’re fishing for something here, but we still have to take them seriously.”

“Dad?” Roman asked.

The older man was silent for a long time.

“Hm.” He paused, glancing around. His eyes were glazed over. “I need to piss.”

“Oh,” said Shiv, uncertain. “Do you… do you need some help, or should I reach out and call—?”

Logan ignored her, and pointed at Tom. “You.” He loosely gestured at the rest of you. “Stay.”

“You want to make a decision now, before you go? Dad?” Shiv called out after him, but he was already walking away.

“Is he—is he okay?” you whispered into Roman’s ear. “He doesn’t look too good.”

Roman pulled a sour face. “He’s fine. He looks fine. Why, you think something’s wrong with him?”

“Well, I don’t know, he’s just acting so weird. This is—this is a big fucking deal and he’s been shrugging it off like it’s chopped liver.” At Roman’s worried look, you gripped his arm and squeezed comfortingly. “I mean, I don’t know, though. Maybe he’s okay.”

Nearly fifteen minutes later, you were about to eat your own words.

Logan was most certainly not okay. When he came back, he was out of breath, and his eyes were unfocused.

“What’s it gonna be, Logan?” Gerri asked. “We need an answer.”

“Uh-huh.”

“What do you think? Yes or no?”

A staggered exhale and a wild look around. “Fuck ‘em,” he finally spat out.

Shock spilled over the group. Shiv made noises of protest.

“Fuck ‘em!” he repeated, gruffer this time.

“I—are you sure, Dad? That’s… you sure you wanna do this?” Shiv asked.

His breathing was getting heavier and heavier. It was clear to you that business was the last thing Logan should be thinking about right now. You stepped forward, concern splayed over your features.

“Uncle Logan, are you okay?” you asked, under your breath. He didn’t give you an answer, but you took his arm to slowly lead him to a seat. It didn’t go past your notice that he was sweltering hot and trembling quite a bit—you could feel the heat and the quaking through the fabric of his suit.

Despite the fact that he was in no state of mind to be negotiating, Gerri and Shiv pushed him. “Do you know something, or…? That’s a big call you’re making.”

“Pills!” Logan hissed to Colin, who came forward immediately.

“I just gave you some, sir. You need something else? Tylenol?”

Logan nodded, mumbling incoherently beneath his breath.

The rest of the group discussed what the next steps were, and a part of you wanted to join and offer your input, but you stayed by Logan’s side.

When Colin returned with the Tylenol, you furrowed your brows and told him, “He’s, uhm, he’s really hot. Like—feels like he’s burning up. Can we—do we need to go get him a medic, or…?”

“I’m fine,” he said, waving away your words. But then he smiled at you, and that was the most surprising thing of all. “Thank you, dear.”

“Okay. Just let me know if you need anything.”

“What’s going on with the Raisin?” he asked.

Gerri, overhearing, stepped closer with cinched brows. “I’m sorry, with—with the President?”

“Can we get Ravenhead on air?” Logan queried. “Call Michelle-Anne. Tell her to get the SEC to shut this meeting down.”

It was clear that Logan was spouting out utter nonsense, and you exchanged several confused looks with the rest of the group.

“Okay… we’ll look into that,” said Karl.

“I need a piss,” Logan announced once more. Hadn’t he gone just a few minutes ago? “Where is he?”

Tom pointed at himself. “Who, me? Again? Yeah? Sure—okay.”

Greg, who had just returned from sending off a note to Frank on stage, came bounding back to the group, sweat and hair slightly disheveled. “You guys going off to the bathroom?” he asked Logan and Tom.

Logan stared at his grand-nephew incredulously. “What fucking business is it of yours?”

You and Roman glanced at each other. “Jesus. You were right. He’s off his rocker,” Roman whispered.

A few minutes later, Logan staggered back with Tom helping him, and Shiv came forward to ask if he was alright. To everybody’s surprise, Logan called his daughter Marcia, and then started rambling on about a speech he was meant to give.

Tom came up to the rest of the group. “Hey, uh, hey everybody—Logan’s not really himself right now.”

Shiv rushed back after phoning Kerry. “He’s got a fucking UTI.”

“That explains it,” you said, glancing back at Logan, still murmuring something to a nodding Colin.

“Well, is that—I mean, no, it isn’t. It’s not that fucking serious, is it?” Roman asked. He was worried, you could see it clear as day.

“At his age? That can make you crazy!” said Connor. “Reagan had one and nearly nuked Belgium.”

“What?” Shiv asked, incredulous. “How long has he been like this? What the fuck?”

Brows furrowing, Gerri chimed in, “Was he like this when he risked the whole company?”

“Nobody hears about this,” Shiv warned, voice steely. “What do we do?”

“Get a doctor,” you said, as if it were obvious.

“Can’t we just get him some cranberry juice and ask him about the deal again?” Roman asked.

Tom shook his head. “He was just asking for Caroline.”

“Oh,” said Roman, mock-pouting. “Aw. He misses mom.”

“He’s gone mad,” Shiv blew out.

“Well, we don’t actually know when he got this way. We don’t!” Roman said.

“No, no, I think he’s been piss-mad for quite some time,” Tom interjected, glancing back at Logan. “Shiv, do you think—should you overrule him? Go back to Sandy and Stewy and say we’ve changed our minds?”

You sucked in a deep breath. “Logan’ll be furious.”

“How can he be furious when he can’t even tell me apart from his wife?” Shiv shot back.

Haughtily, you told her, “I’m saying when he’s gotten through it, he’ll be angry that you went over his back—!”

Before you could finish, Hugo came running up. “Guys—he insists that he still has to give his speech.” He hurried off when Logan called his name. Or, a garbled version of it.

“Can he give his speech?” Karolina asked.

“What? The demented fucking piss-mad King of England?” Roman responded with a scoff.

“He could say anything up there. No fucking way,” Shiv asserted. “I say we drop it. Right?”

“But at the very least, he should be onstage,” persisted Gerri.

Karl nodded along. “It would be great to get the body up there.”

“Right. Like a human fucking spectacle,” you said, cocking your head. “You don’t think people would find it weird that he’s up there and not saying anything?”

“Okay, we’ll just push it as late as we can, and maybe if we can just get him on stage, that’d be enough?” Shiv proposed.

Connor laughed. “Oh, yeah, maybe send him up through a trapdoor surrounded by dry ice.”

“Where is this doctor, anyway?” Gerri asked.

With no time for anyone to reply, Hugo hustled back to the group, expression twisted with uncertainty. “Uhm… he’s concerned there is a dead cat under his chair.”

Everybody blinked, clueless.

“Great,” said Shiv. “That’s great.”

“Well, is there anything under his chair?” Gerri whispered, ducking her head to check herself.

You stared at your godfather from afar, watching as he vehemently gestured down below his seat.

“He says that, uh, he doesn’t want Rose to see it,” said Hugo. “And he wants Colin to take it out.”

Rose. The name sounded familiar, something you’ve surely heard in passing, but you couldn’t quite place who she was.

Clearly, Roman was beginning to grow more and more agitated, and he gritted out, “Fine. Have Colin take it out. Jesus Christ.”

Finally, Kerry arrived, hurrying to grab her bag, mumbling something about doctors and pills and secrecy. As if to make it even worse, Kendall appeared out of nowhere, and Shiv let out a long and loud string of curses.

“Great—hey, who invited you?” Roman sneered at his older brother.

Kendall ignored him. “What the fuck is going on? He’s squashing the fucking deal?”

“It’s fine! It’s fucking fine—we got it under control,” Roman vehemently pressed, though it didn’t sound too convincing with Logan in the back yelling for the cat to be carried away. The cat that didn’t, in fact, exist.

“You have to turn this around right now!” Kendall yelled.

“We’re figuring it out,” Shiv told him.

Logan screeched again and grumbled incoherently, shifting on his chair.

“What—what the fuck is going on with him?” asked Kendall.

“The doctor’s coming, Ken,” you tried to reassure him, but he shook his head.

“No, no, I want to know what’s wrong with him!”

Colin hurried away with an empty box—supposedly holding the dead cat. A part of you wondered if this dead cat was a distant memory from Logan’s past. Maybe he was trapped in a fragment of time he could never quite move on from.

“What is that?” Kendall took a few steps to follow after Colin, but halted to look back at his siblings in utter confusion. “Guys, what—?”

“Can you just leave, please?” Roman hissed. “That is an imaginary cat, now can you please fuck off?”

Raising his voice, Kendall addressed the entire group, voice stricken and strained, “Listen to me very carefully. This is you throwing it away. You think they’re bluffing? They’re not fucking bluffing! And you’re putting everything I have fought and bled for on the fucking edge and I am not gonna let that happen! Do you understand me?”

“You’re not welcome here,” Shiv said, cold. “You have no right to be here.”

“Fucking fix it!” he yelled. Kendall sounded like his father.

“You may go! You’re excused!” Roman told him. “Thank you very much for your concern, please go.”

You and Connor stayed silent, watching the other three scream at each other.

“Go! You’re fucking delusional!” shouted Roman. “There’s a fucking delusional man leaving here!”

Kendall began to walk away, but not without screaming back, “Figure out a fucking doctor or I’m calling mine!”

“Thank you so much for your concern, like you give a flying shit!” Roman spat back. “You probably slipped him something, Putin! You piece of shit! Fuck off!”

It was a game of tug-of-war, and both sides were backing into a cliff’s edge.

Roman was taking out his frustrations and his fear onto his brother, and you stepped forward, placing a hand on his chest.

“Hey, Rome, that’s enough. He’s—he’s leaving, okay? Bye, Kendall.” You brushed a stray strand of his hair away from his forehead. “It’s fine. You need to… you need to take a beat.”

Roman pulled a pained expression, his features crumpling under the weight of stress. He nodded several times, before crossing his arms and walking off to get himself a swig of water.

When the doctor finally arrived, you pointed him towards Logan, quickly explaining what he’s been like for the past half an hour. He nodded and got to work, pulling out a few medical instruments to check up on Logan.

“So—how is he?” Shiv asked the doctor.

“I’ll put him on some fluids to hydrate him—it should be pretty quick.”

“Will he definitely be okay?” Roman asked

The doctor didn’t have the chance to reply when Shiv cut in, “But how quick, exactly?”

“Well… he’s not a cup of instant noodles.”

“Sure, but can we speed it up? Like a—a blood bag or an adrenaline shot?”

Roman scowled. “Geez, take it easy. You wanna give him a fucking Tabasco suppository?”

“Fuck you! It’s what he’d want,” Shiv defensively replied.

“Fuck you, too. The main thing is that we look after him, okay?” Roman slung an arm over your waist and you leaned into him with a sigh.

“Obviously, I agree.”

“Oh, do you, though? Sounded like you want to jumpstart our father like he’s a fucking pick-up truck!” Roman uneasily glanced at Logan, who’d fallen asleep on the chair. “Shit. Can you guys call us when he’s less… scary?”

With that, Roman dragged you away from the group. You could still feel Shiv’s angry eyes burning into your back.

“Where are we going?”

“Bathroom.”

“And do you want me to aim your penis for you?” you asked, laughing slightly. “Why are you making me come with you?”

Roman shot you a loose grin. “I could come up with twenty different sex jokes with what you just said. But I’m not going to, because I’m a gentleman.”

“He says, as he shoves me into the men’s bathroom,” you scoffed, before striding in and locking the door behind you. “I hope you’re not looking for a quickie here. I don’t think it’s very sanitary.”

Laughing nervously, Roman’s grip on your hand left so it could curl over your hip, tugging you close.

“You don’t want a little distraction? Just give me five minutes,” he mumbled. His head dipped forward to kiss the junction between your neck and your shoulder.

“I can’t tell if you’re joking or not,” you whispered, so low that Roman only barely heard it.

In truth, he didn’t know, either.

“Besides, I don’t think we’d have the time, anyway. The floor is fucking lava out there,” you murmured. “Also, I wouldn’t want our first time together to be in a bathroom at a shareholder’s meeting.”

Roman smiled, almost shy, almost disbelieving. “First time? Wow. Is this your way of telling me you want to have sex with me?”

“As if you wouldn’t throw yourself on your knees begging for it,” you bit back, wrinkling your nose affectionately. Then, you cupped his face and kissed the side of his nose, leaving a faint mark of lip tint against his skin. You smiled at that. “You’re cute, Romeo. But I know you. If you wanted to have sex, you’d be dry-humping me against the sink as soon as we stepped foot in here. What is it you actually want to talk about?”

Roman blew out a heavy sigh. His hands fell away from you as he hoisted himself up onto the sink and leaned against the pristine mirror. “I wanted to come clean to you. No secrets right? During the plane ride back to New York, I called Dad. I told him I wanted the top job, but I also told him that… that you and Gerri would be my second choices if he didn’t think I was ready. I just—I wanted to know if you maybe gave him a call, too?”

There was a moment of silence.

“I did.” You bit down on the inside of your cheek. “I told him that I didn’t want it.”

“Oh.”

“And I told him that Gerri would be my choice.”

Roman’s eyes met yours. They twitched with incredulity. “And you didn’t—you didn’t mention me anywhere in there?”

“I didn’t.”

“Wow. Great fucking friend you are.”

“Rome—”

“You chose the croney over me?”

Your features hardened. “Rome. Fuck, I just… I told him I didn’t want it because I didn’t want to be marked as the token figure that roped the company out of hot water. And I don’t want that for you, either. Don’t you get it? Not to mention it’d ruin your relationship with your siblings.”

“So you just—you don’t think it’d ever be me?” Something in his voice broke.

“It could be,” you admitted. “But I don’t want it to. Not now, at least.”

There was a longer silence. Roman pulled at his face tiredly.

You opened your mouth again, but he waved you away. “I know, I know, you didn’t offer me up because you love me and you’re trying to protect me. Thanks, fuck-face.”

He hopped off from the sink, cradling the back of your head so he could give you a chaste kiss on the forehead.

“You still up for that quickie?” you tried to joke, nudging him with a half-hearted smile.

“Sorry, I’m saving myself for Marcia. Nothing like fucking your father’s leftovers, I’d say.”

The two of you laughed and linked arms, unlocking the bathroom door to walk out and make your way back to the group.

It seemed that the two of you came back at the perfect time, because Shiv was worriedly telling everyone, “His moans are getting louder.”

“Okay, but can he do that on stage?” Hugo questioned.

“Is it a wheel-on and wave situation?”

“Fuck, no. We’re not gonna make the piss-mad bear dance with fucking cattle prods!” Roman angrily put out. “We need to be looking after him.”

Shiv propped her hands up on her hips. “So he’s not gonna do his speech? Is that it, though? Do we just—does that mean we go down? We’d fucking give up?” She hurriedly turned and asked one of the analysts what the stats on the vote were. “God, okay. I think we should just go back to Sandy and Stewy and try to save the deal.”

“No, no. You can’t. Dad said no deal,” Roman reminded her.

“Dad didn’t say shit, Rome!”

“He said no deal! Are you fucking deaf?”

“No, he didn’t! His urethra had wrestled control over his brain! I could at least talk to them, right? If we go to the vote, we’d probably… we’d lose. Karl? Frank? Tom?”

They all babbled incoherently—mostly in agreement.

“Y/N?”

You pursed your lips. “Yeah. I think you should try.”

“Rome? You back this?”

Roman pinched the space between his brows. Sucking in a deep breath, he said, “Go on, yeah. Go fuck it up, you moron.”

With that, Shiv rushed away, pulling out her phone to give them a call.

Before the shareholder meeting ended, the President called and the group had Roman answer, since Logan was currently… unavailable. He was extremely upset with Logan and said that he wouldn’t be running for another term, which was a major blowback for the company, since he was the stilt to Waystar’s political survival.

It was safe to say that things were going to shit.

Then Shiv called to say that she’d finessed four seats out of the board, which was a good fucking deal, so—maybe things weren’t all that shit.

Roman wasn’t happy with going against Logan’s wishes, but he frustratedly nodded. “We’re good. We’re all good. Hold the voting.”

Everyone cheered and sighed in relief.

When Logan came to, Gerri filled him in with all the details. He didn’t like what Shiv did, not at all, despite her defensive arguments that she’d saved the company. He yelled at her then, and everyone was quiet for a moment.

But Logan smiled at you, and patted Roman’s shoulder minutes later. He was fine, right? Things were fine.

Things were going to be okay.

#roman roy x reader #roman roy fanfiction #roman roy smut #roman roy fluff #roman roy series #roman roy ff #roman roy angst #roman roy x you #roman roy fanfic #succession roman #succession roman x reader #roman roy #succession fanfiction #succession x reader #roman roy imagine

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melancholicmaxine · 2 months

Text

Enough for me. (Roy Kent x Fem!Reader)

pairing: (Coach) Roy Kent x Fem. reader

word count: 824 words.

warnings: roy being sad/doubting himself, roy x reader fluff, reader comforting roy, slight sexual themes suggested (near the end), roy hating on trent crimm

a/n: hi!! this is my first ever fic so... pls be gentle. this fic is based on season 3 episode 2 of ted lasso. thanks for clicking on my post out of the millions, i appreciate you :)

summary: roy comes home, frustrated and in need of some comfort after a confrontation with trent crimm about the column he wrote on roy's premier league debut.

It was a normal day- mundane if anything. You had not too long ago returned home from work, now lazily being slumped over the couch scrolling on social media. Your shared home with the newest coach of AFC Richmond was quiet, but not uncomfortable. Roy, you expected, would be home soon, probably coming through the door stringing curses together. Something of course happened at work, the only question was who exactly he would be pissed at this time.

Just as the scenario of an angry Roy played in your head, he walked through the door. You chirped up, happy to see him after a long day, when you noticed the down look of his face. It was less angry and more...disappointed? "Hey, Roy" You spoke, gently due to the unawareness of what was happening. As you stood up and walked toward him, his eyes planted on the ground, you noticed closer the expression splayed on his face. His brows were furrowed, and he seemed to be in a deep solemn thought. It was only when you lightly touched his harm that he seemed to snap out of his thoughts.

You offered him a comforting smile, "You alright? Talk to me." After you spoke, you moved behind him, beginning to take of his coat. "I don't know." He finally spoke, his tone being gentle. Silence filled the air for a brief moment until he spoke again, "Can I ask you something?" He was now meeting your gaze. "You know you can."

"Do you think I'm good? Like, good enough?" What? A puzzled look fell over your face, and he spoke again before you got the chance to. "I don't know- fuck. It's hard to explain." His gaze diverted once again, now focusing on his fingernails he softly picked at. "Roy, I'm not sure what's going on, but you can talk to me. What happened today?"

"Today was fucking fine. It was normal until that prick Crimm had to interfere." he paused, alternating his eyes from you and the floor, "It's bad enough he prances around the fucking place like he owns it, but today he just had to come talk to me and shit." He picked at his fingernails, a little rougher this time, and you could tell he was wallowing in a mixture of hate for both Crimm and what had gone down today.

You knew he wasn't very fond of Crimm, but not exactly why. You had always figured it was because he was a-in his words-pretentious dick. But this was deeper than that, you just had a feeling. You shot Roy a concerned look. He slowly reached for his wallet and drew out a slip of paper, placing it in your hand and urging you to read it.

What welcomed you was a small excerpt claiming "Newcomer Roy Kent is an overhyped, so-called prodigy whose unbridled rage and mediocre talent rendered his Premiere League debut a profound disappointment.” As soon as you read it, you shot Roy a sad glance. You were angry for him, not believing someone had the will to write such negativity.

"Crimm wrote that." He paused to take the small slip out of your hand. "I was 17, and I had just started playing. Seven fucking teen." He gritted his teeth, grimacing. You rubbed his arm, waiting for him to start again. "I have been living my life since then feeling like I was shit. Then today Crimm revealed he did it just to be 'edgy' and make a name for himself."

Not knowing exactly what to say, you continued to rub his arm. "Roy I'm so sorry. I can't imagine the dejection you’ve been feeling all these years.” He gave you a weird look, a mixture of solemn and happy.

“You know what I really can’t believe? I kind of want to forgive his ass.” You were shocked at what you could assume was Ted’s influence. “Really?” He nodded. “As much as I don’t want to fucking admit it, yeah. He was trying to do his job I guess. I just wish he would have picked on..some other prick, I don’t know.” He was now stifling chuckles, just as shocked from the situation.

“You know what Roy?” you spoke, not breaking eye contact. “Hm?” He tilted his head. “I’m proud of you for coming to that conclusion. You could have blown up, yeah? Been angry, upset. But you handled it all well.” Your graze moving up from his arm, now on his cheek. A good minute passed as you enjoyed holding his rough face.

He leaned down to kiss you. It was gentle and sweet, spreading a honeyed heat through your being. He continued placing small kisses on your face, your neck. Slowly turning into esurient nibbles.

“I fucking love you.” He spoke through kisses.

“I love you too.” You felt him smile against your skin. “And Roy?”

“Mhm?”

“You will always be enough for me. Always.”

#ted lasso #roy kent #roy kent x reader #trent crimm #ted lasso fic #apple tv #fanfiction #trent #crimm #roy #kent

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spidey-x-male-reader · 8 months

Note

Howdy! Could i make a request for arsenal Roy harper from young justice?

Lian is adamant that reader is her uncle Roys boyfriend.

Reader teases Roy about it everytime it happens (for this, I'd prefer that Roy is coming to terms with being bisexual, and reader is also bi)

Pairing: Roy Harper x male!reader

Summary: Roy is babysitting Lian when she once again refers to you as his boyfriend. shenanigans ensue

A/N: AAAAAAAAAAAA Finally I have written something again and hopefully I will manage to do it more in the next time. I will probably work on my Roy Harper Requests first because...well...he's my husband. Thank you for everyone who's supporting me :3

REQUESTS ARE OPEN

Roy Harper was leaning against the kitchen counter, watching Lian, his niece, bouncing around the room with boundless energy. Well…he called her his niece. At some point he just got tired of the whole ‘Yeah i got cloned and that clone had a child with an assassin’-talk. But he liked Lian. He really did.

"Uncle Roy!" Lian's voice cut through his thoughts as she came to a skidding halt in front of him. "When is (y/n) coming over again?"

Roy raised an eyebrow, trying to suppress a smile. He almost hated how easy the mention of you made him smile. "Why, Lian? Getting bored of me already?"

Lian giggled at that. "Maybe! And besides, I wanna show them my new art project."

"Your art project, huh? You know I’m really not sure if (y/n) has time to come by today. You know how busy he is with Uncle Dick and the whole crew”

Of course Roy loved Lian. He loved hanging out with her, even if babysitting was not on his usual agenda. But the thought of you being out there on a mission without him made him…he wasn’t sure. He didn’t like it.

Lian's eyes widened innocently. "He’s there without you? I thought he was your boyfriend.”

Roy nearly choked on the glass of water he had been drinking, caught off guard by Lian's bluntness. At this point it shouldn’t even surprise him anymore. Lian did mention it a lot. He had no idea what made her so insistent that he was dating you.

It wasn’t even realistic considering you were way out of his league. (he would never say that outloud)

"Well, Lian," and of course in that exact moment you had returned to Will’s apartment because who are you to say no when the little girl begs you to come by. Roy was hoping you hadn’t heard anything but his hopes weren’t high. "I don't know about being Uncle Roy's boyfriend, but I do like spending time with him."

Lian's face lit up with excitement. "See, I told you!" She pointed at Roy, triumphant. "I knew it!"

Roy rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a warmth creep up his cheeks. "He said he likes hanging out. He also likes hanging out with Dick and Will and Kaldur.”

You chuckled and draped an arm around Roy's shoulders. "He’s right, Lian. Cut your uncle Roy a break. We’re just good buddies.” you looked over at him, giving him a quick wink. “Even though I do like hanging out with him the most.”

Lian rolled her eyes dramatically, clearly unconvinced. "Sure, just good buddies. Like I believe that."

Roy groaned playfully. "You're impossible, you know that?"

You just chuckled. “Wonder who she got that from.” he lightly hit Roy in his side with your elbow. “Surely not from Roy Harper who never manages to keep his mouth shut.”

“Hey!” He gave you a playful pout.

“To be fair, Will isn’t better so it might just be the Harper gene.”

“Oh wait, I can show you the picture I drew!” Lian grinned and skipped out of the room, leaving you and Roy alone.

Roy sighed, looking at you with a mix of exasperation and affection.

"You know, one of these days, she's gonna get it into her head that she's some kind of matchmaker."

You laughed, leaning in to bump your shoulder against Roy's. "Well, can you blame her? She's got a great judge of character. Can’t blame her for wanting me in the family either. Do you have like…arrow family game nights"

Roy's gaze softened as he met your eyes, not being able to hold back from giving you a soft smile. "You're something else, you know that?"

You winked again. “I’m gonna take this as a compliment, Arsenal.”

The way you looked at him made his heart skip and it was hard to deny that he had some feelings towards you.

You knew of course. Or at least you thought about it. You were the last person to just assume Roy’s sexuality especially after the guy apparently had been frozen on ice for some time and now had to pick up on all the stupid shit you do as a teenager.

Like figuring out your sexuality which you thankfully already had behind you. And you were really glad about that. Because you know how hard it is. Especially if you have literal world ending scenarios to worry about.

He opened his mouth to say something when Lian raced back into the room.

“Here, Uncle (y/n)! Look!” she said and held up a piece of paper to you.

Roy leaned over your shoulder to also catch a look at it. His breath hitched in his throat.

It was the usual colorful and stickman drawing you would expect of a small child. It took you a few seconds but you eventually managed to recognize the figures in the picture. The small one and the big one were Lian and Will. There were Oliver and Dinah, and Chesire on the other side. And on the far left of the drawing were two figures that were unmistakably you and Roy, holding the others stickman hands and having a few hearts drawn around each other.

You moved to kneel down in front of Lian. “This is really beautiful.”

“You like it?!” her eyes were basically glowing.

“We like it, right?” you looked up at Roy.

Roy was a bit speechless for a moment, hoping no one was able to see the faint blush on his cheeks. “Yeah…yeah it’s nice.”

“Yay!” she excitedly started jumping around in a circle.

That’s when you heard your front door open. “What are we being excited about?” Willa asked while walking in.

“I draw (y/n) a picture! He likes it!” Lian said with a wide grin, running over to her dad.

“Really? That’s–” Will stopped when he looked at you and Roy. “...are you two crying?”

And you were TOTALLY NOT getting really emotional over the child’s drawing of you.

“No.” both you and Roy said at the same time.

“...ooookay” Will slowly nodded. “Well..eh…thank you for babysitting, Roy.”

“No problem.” Roy awkwardly looked at you.

You looked at him at the same moment before looking at your watch. “...I know this really great Italian place. Hungry?”

“Are you paying?”

“Aren’t you using Ollie’s credit card? Isn’t he like a billionaire?”

Roy looked at you for a moment. “...good point. Let’s go.”

With that Will watched you two leave the apartment after you both said goodbye to Lian.

“...they are going on a date, aren’t they?” he looked down at Lian.

“No. They are just very good buddies.” she giggled while going back into her room to get another picture she drew for her dad.

Will just decided not to question it.

#x reader #gay #pride #male reader #young justice #young justice x male reader #young justice x reader #young justice imagines #roy harper #roy harper x reader #roy harper x male reader #arsenal #arsenal x male reader #arsenal x reader #roy harper x you #arsenal x you #roy harper one shot #young justice one shot #request

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midnightfictionlibrary · 10 months

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Silver Springs - Jamie Tartt x Fem!Reader/Roy Kent x Fem!Reader

Silver Springs - Jamie Tartt xFem!Reader, Roy Kent x FemReader!

Content - angst, flirting, friends to lovers, love triangle

Word Count - 3k

Summary - Whilst Jamie is in the throes of preparing for the Man City game, Roy tries to show the reader that he's noticed her past just being the coaches’ assistant, even if it makes him feel guilty.

Read Part One Here

A/N - Part 2 of this love triangle fic, let’s gooooo. As always like and reblog if you enjoy and let me know what you think <33

It had been about a week since Jamie had kissed you, and things weren’t official. You couldn’t say you weren’t disappointed, but you understood the mental stress he was under with the upcoming Man City match. Being able to be intimately close to him was enough, because you knew he needed the comfort. Sitting on your couch and stroking his hair as you felt his breathing become deeper made you more than content.

You sigh slightly to yourself and open your laptop, your color coded calendar coming to life. You glance to the corner of your screen, looking at the time. Bright and early with plenty of time to move appointments and schedule other needed meetings. You sat at your desk in the small room off of Ted and Beard’s. Your deskmate wasn’t there yet. He actually grunted every time you called him your “deskmate”, but annoying Roy Kent was one of the perks of this job.

“Hey, love.” You would recognize his voice anywhere, and you look up to see Jamie leaning on the doorframe. He crosses the room and gives you a sweet peck on the lips, then plants another kiss on the top of your head. He crosses through your office to the locker room and you smile to yourself. What a perfect start to your day, a kiss from the man you had wanted to be with for so long. You look back to your screen and start moving appointments, adding in the important dates Ted left on a football shaped sticky note, including the latest visit from Henry.

A slight thud on your desk has you tearing your eyes away from your computer screen. You see a take-away coffee cup with the name “RAY” written in big, scratchy letters. You look up, greeted with a glowering, bushy eyebrowed face. “Can I help you…Ray?” You grin gesturing to the coffee cup.

“Fuck’s sake.” He grunts. “I brought you coffee.” He scoots the coffee cup closer to you, and you raise an eyebrow, Roy Kent was bringing you coffee?

“Thank you…but why?”

“What do you fuckin’ mean why? Cause you’re nice and you’re always bringing everyone else coffee.” He says gruffly, dropping his iconic black leather jacket onto his own chair, revealing his tight fitting black tshirt underneath. You take a sip of the coffee to avoid gazing at him, you had eyes and knew he was fit. You were pleasantly surprised at your drink.

“How’d you know my order?” You say, taking another delighted sip of your drink. You watch Roy’s jaw jump slightly and he shrugs.

“Must have just picked up on it.” He says nonchalantly. In reality, he snooped around your desk the night previous, but he wasn’t going to admit to that. That sounded insane. He felt like a terrible person. He and Tartt were on good terms again, friends even, and here he was trying to win over the girl he knew Jamie was mad about. He was a prick. And a bad friend. But he couldn’t help it. Something about you drew him to you, and you made him want to open up to the possibility of being in a serious relationship again.

You smile slightly at Roy’s back, flattered that he had done this for you. You were still a bit baffled as to why. It’s not as if Roy wasn’t nice to you, he was. But usually he answered you in growls, not full sentences. “Well…I really appreciate it. I didn’t have time to grab coffee this morning before getting to work.”

Roy turns to look at you, one corner of his lips ticking upwards. “Don’t mention it.” He says. “Seriously, fuckin’ don’t.” You openly laugh at this and turn back to your computer screen.

“What is all that shit anyway?” Roy asks, and you can feel him cross the tiny space to stand over your shoulder. When he leans over and places one hand on your desk and one on the arm of your desk chair, you feel your heart skip a beat. Which was dumb. Why would that be your reaction? You ignore the feeling and shrug.

“This is how you get your extra physio appointments, how Ted has time to review game footage every other day, and how Beard knows when it’s time to exchange his library books.” You look up at him. “It’s all color coded for every member of the team. I’m pretty proud of it, if I do say so myself.” You give him a small smile and go back to typing in the extra appointments Ted had asked you to put in.

“Fuck.” Roy says, watching you work the schedule around. “Now I understand why Ted said he didn’t know which way was up without you.”

“Aw, you talk to Ted about little ole me?” You flash him a teasing grin and his heart wrenches. Fuck you and your stupid, pretty grin.

“Uh…” Roy starts, coughing slightly to cover his embarrassment.

You pat the hand resting on your desk before you continue typing. “I’m just kidding, Roy.”

Roy clears his throat, but still hadn’t moved from his spot. He seemed content to watch you work, which was unusual for him, but you didn’t mind. He was a little close, sure, but if he wanted to watch you put in appointments and move Sam’s restaurant re-opening for him then who were you to tell him no?

“Love?” You look up at the sound of Jamie’s pet name for you and smile brightly at him.

“Hi!”

“Am…I interruptin’ somethin’?” Jamie asks, pushing his hair back with his headband, looking from you to Roy. Why was Roy so close to you? That made him feel uneasy, but he wasn’t sure why. He knew that you had feelings for him, but he hadn’t made anything official. He supposed he couldn’t blame you for exploring your options. His eyes meet Roy’s, who clears his throat and straightens up, away from you.

“No.” Roy says gruffly. “I was just looking at the insane color coding she has in there.”

Jamie nods slightly, looking to you, who he was relieved to see, only had eyes for him. He crosses the room to you, kneeling in front of where you sat, and you look down at him, eyebrow raised. He grins at you.

“I jus’ wanted to come see if you wanted to have lunch with me today.” He says, ignoring Roy completely at this point. You nod enthusiastically, pushing a strand of hair that came loose from the headband back.

“Course I do.” You said, smiling at him. “Meet you at the kebab place around the corner?” You ask, to which Jamie nods. He glances at Roy, who is pretending to be preoccupied on his phone and presses his lips to yours in a sweet, soft kiss.

“Great. See ya then, darlin’.” You smile as you watch him walk out, quickly turning back to your work. Next on the agenda, emails.

“So.” You hear.

You turn towards Roy’s voice. “So..?”

“You and Tartt, yeah?”

You shrug. “Nothing is official yet.” You say nonchalantly, trying to hide just how giddy you were about Jamie openly kissing you and referring to you as “love” or “darlin’”.

“Not fuckin’ official?” Roy says, incredulous. This was news to him.

“Not yet.”

“Why the bloody hell not?” Roy crosses the room again and peers down at you.

You look back up at him and wave your hand absentmindedly. “Jamie is already stressed about this upcoming match, I can wait until his head is completely clear to have a serious conversation.” You pick up your coffee cup again, taking a sip of the delicious hazelnut latte.

But you nearly choke when Roy leans down, one hand on each of your chair’s armrests, caging you in. His face is inches from yours.

“That’s fuckin’ dumb, babe.”

You lower the coffee cup from your lips, studying his face intently. Your heart was pounding. Babe? What was he doing? Never in the entire few years you had been here, had the Roy Kent paid so much attention to you.

“Hm.” You say, quirking an eyebrow. “And why is that dumb?”

Roy smirks slightly. “Because if I had you, I wouldn’t even fuckin’ hesitate to claim you.”

You realized you were holding your breath and you laugh nervously. “O..oh.” You say, swallowing. “Well I don’t think Jamie is hesitating to claim me.” You look into his face, because he was making it impossible not to notice how handsome he actually is. Sure, you weren’t public with your relationship, but Jamie didn’t hide how he felt about you, at all.

“Maybe not here. But I would be shouting from the fuckin’ rooftops if I had someone as nice as you smiling pretty at me like you do Jamie.” You can see him studying your face, and in reality, Roy’s heart is pounding. He’s getting a bit too carried away here and he didn’t know when or how to stop.

“Maybe you could have someone with a pretty smile if you weren’t such a grouch.” You counter, leaning in closer to him, aware now that you were having some sort of effect on him. You watch him swallow, his eyes flicking down to your lips. You smirk at him.

He growls in response, catching you completely off guard that you had elicited such a sound from him but making you smirk even more. You press a single finger against his lips, standing up as you push him back.

“See? Grouch.” You tease, moving your finger but before you can rest your hand at your side again, Roy looks down at you, catching your wrist in his hand.

“Fuck’s sake, woman.” He says, almost breathlessly. You look up at him, fluttering your eyelashes innocently, but trying to deny the fact that you liked how his large hand had caught you. The look on your face was all it took for Roy to back you into a wall, his lips on yours. One hand with his fingers splayed across your hip, digging greedily, almost possessively, the other letting go of your wrist to yank you closer to him, if that was even possible. The kiss was sloppy, heated, needy. The heat of your body pressed against Roy’s was making your head cloudy. When he deepens the kiss, your breath hitches and a slight moan escapes your lips, causing Roy to smirk into your lips.

You felt so bad that you kissed him back. When Roy pulled away, he immediately lets go of you.

“I…I shouldn’t have fuckin’ done that.”

What were you doing? What about Jamie? “I..shouldn’t have kissed you back.” You whispered, wide eyed. Roy has stepped back and away from you, but he’s watching you with such a look of longing. “I’m the worst girlfriend ever.” You say.

“Not his girlfriend, technically.”

You shift your gaze and focus your eyes on him. “What?” You say.

“You’re not his girlfriend officially.” Roy grunts, before stepping closer to you again. “I get if you don’t ever fuckin’ speak to me again. Just don’t tell me you regretted that.”

You gaze up at him. No, you’re not Jamie’s girlfriend. But Jamie is everything you ever wanted. And it made you feel horrible that you didn’t regret that little kiss-attack. You shake your head slowly, watching as Roy came close to you again, hovering above you, his torso pressing into you. “Please.” He says.

The gruff, broken plea in his voice makes your knees weak and you shake your head. “I can’t tell you that.” You say, clearing your throat and straightening up, your breath slightly heavy.

“Even if I know you don’t?” He says grabbing your chin, looking into your eyes.

Your eyes flutter closed and you breathe out. “Yes.” You hated him right now. How did he manage to get a rise out of you so quickly? You pull your face away from his grasp and push yourself off the wall. “I need to go.” You say bluntly, gathering your laptop and your bag. Roy steps back and watches you go, rushing out the door.

You cannot believe what had just happened. You were so distracted that you run smack into someone in the carpark, their arms grabbing you and steadying you.

“Woah, love, what’s wrong? You look like ya’ seen a ghost.”

Jamie. Because of course it was Jamie. You can’t even look him in the eye and he moves his head to catch your gaze. “M’startin’ to worry here, darlin’, what’s wrong?” He asks again, his grip tightening a bit on you. He had a horrible sinking feeling in his stomach. Like he knew what was coming next.

“We can’t be together.” You say bluntly.

Jamie blinks once, then twice. “What?”

“You deserve someone better than me.”

Jamie still looks dumbfounded, but was becoming almost desperate to find out what you were talking about. “Please tell me what you’re talkin’ about, because I’m gettin’ a little scared.”

“I…” you look away from him again. “I kissed Roy. Or…he kissed me.”

Jamie winces. “Y-what?…kissed Roy?”

“It just happened. And we can’t be together because I’m a horrible person for doing this to you.” You pull out of his grasp, but Jamie grabs you again. “Jamie, please let me go.”

“No.” He says, simply, grabbing your chin much like Roy had done minutes before. “I’m not pleased, but this is almost like karma for how shitty I’ve been in the past.” He shakes his head when you open your mouth. “Do ya care about me?”

“Of course I do.” You almost sob, looking at him with the most pathetic eyes he’d ever seen.

“I know ya do, or you wouldn’t have told me right away.” He kisses your forehead. “M’not happy about it. But I can’t say I blame ya for exploring options when I haven’t even asked ya on a proper date.”

You groan, hiding your face in the crook of his neck. “You being so understanding is making me feel worse. I know we’re not officially together or whatever the hell -“ you pause and look at him. “But I feel so, so, awful that it happened.”

Jamie shakes his head. “Stop that. M’not going to turn my back on you. I’ve cared about ya too long to let the messy beginning of what we’re tryin’ to figure out be the end of us. Besides, I did this same thing to Roy when he was with Keeley. Sometimes you just…like who you like.”

You stare at him. “You’re spending too much time with Ted.”

Jamie actually throws his head back and laughs at that, rolling his eyes once before pulling you in. “Now that you’ve kissed me coach I guess we’re even. Cause I used to be with Keeley and the two of you are thick as thieves.” He really didn’t blame you for any of this, but was making a mental note to maybe punch Roy in his face later. He couldn’t say it didn’t hurt, the thought of you kissing someone else. But he wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of what he knows is meant to be. He knew that was corny, but with you he wasn’t worried about any of that. He wanted it all, the house, the love, the kids in the future.

“I’m sorry Jamie. I really am. All I could think about was how much of an asshole I was being.” You look up at him, realizing he’s already gazing at you.

“Be me girl. Officially.” He says.

You blink. “I thought you weren’t ready to have a serious conversation until after the match?”

“Don’t care about any of that anymore.” He says. “Me dad, me reputation with Man City. Don’t matter.” He mumbles into your hair. “Only you matter to me.”

“Okay.” You whisper.

“Okay, ya believe me? Or okay, ya wanna make this official?”

“I want to be yours, Jamie.” You catch the smile on his face and he leans in, cradling your face. The kiss he gives you is so different from what you had experienced with Roy. This was slow, sweet, and loving. Jamie pecks your lips, once, two, three times, and when he pulls back, he runs his thumb over your bottom lip. You sigh, contentedly.

“That’s me girl.” He whispers, holding you close. You realize that this, with Jamie, was what you wanted. He kisses along your jawline, and you can’t help yourself, you smile. “Knew I could coax that gorgeous smile outta ya.”

Jamie was infatuated with you, and if he was being honest, completely in love with you, and had been since you had been the only one willing to speak to him when he initially came back to Richmond.

Jamie leads you to his car, and when you both get in, he pulls you across the center console onto his lap, sliding his large palm up to cup your face as he continues to kiss you. You were breathless, tangling your hands in his hair.

When you both finally pull away, you smile. Jamie tucks a piece of hair behind your ear, just like he did that night in the bar. “I’ve waited so long to be able t’call ya mine, love.” Jamie murmurs, your noses touching.

You stay like that, Jamie nuzzling you in his lap, while you think about everything that had happened. But you knew that nothing made you feel better than when Jamie held you. You stroke Jamie’s hair absentmindedly. You just hoped that you weren’t truly as terrible as you still felt.

You close your eyes, reveling in the feeling of Jamie’s presence. This was more than enough.

#jamie tartt x reader #ted lasso fanfic #jamie tartt x y/n #jamie tartt #friends to lovers #roy kent x reader #roy kent x y/n #angst fic #longing fic #jamie tartt fanfiction #roy kent fanfiction #love triangle

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donovanlizzie · 2 months

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Hidden affections - Joe Liebgott

Masterlist

Band of brothers masterlist

The tension between Joe Liebgott and Y/N during basic training was palpable, their constant bickering earning them a reputation as the pair who couldn't stand each other. Yet, hidden beneath the surface, there was a strange connection that bound them together.

One evening at the bar, the air was thick with the familiar scent of cigarette smoke and the low hum of conversations.

She found herself watching Him from across the room, despite the tension that existed between them. His animated conversations with friends drew her attention, inadvertently coaxing a smile from her.

As she observed, George Luz snuck up behind her, curiosity etched on his face. "Who are you smiling at?" he asked, a playful tone in his voice.

However, his smile quickly faded and his expression shifted from playful to concerned as he followed her gaze to Joe Liebgott.

"Really? " George scoffed, looking at her like a disappointed parent "Liebgott?, after the way he acts around you?"

"It's complicated Luz" she replied, taking another sip of her beer.

Luz raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. "Complicated? That's one way to describe it. I mean, he acts like he can't stand you half the time."

She sighed, her gaze lingering on Joe as he laughed at something Talbert had said. "Yeah, well, maybe it's his way of dealing with things. Doesn't mean there's not something else there."

George smirked, leaning against the bar. "You're telling me there's something more to Liebgott than meets the eye? Colour me intrigued."

Chuckling she shook her head. "You wouldn't understand, Luz. It's like we're constantly at odds, but when it comes down to it, he's got my back. And I've got his."

George gave her a skeptical look. "Got his back? More like got each other's throats."

"Trust me, Luz, i know there's a lot more to Joe Liebgott than what he shows. " she replied cryptically, swirling her beer in her glass.

George sighed, "Well, just be careful. Liebgott's a complicated guy, and complicated usually means trouble."

She nodded in acknowledgment, a hint of a smile playing on her lips. "I can handle a little trouble."

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

Liebgott sat at a nearby table, the conversation he was engrossed in had become irrelevant as his ear pricked up at the mention of Y/N's name from the table behind him , overhearing Roy Cobb, a fellow paratrooper, running his mouth about her to a group of new replacements.

"Y/n? Oh, you mean Easy Company's little sweetheart," Cobb remarked with a mocking tone, eliciting a few chuckles from the newcomers. "she's just a liability. She should've never shown her face in easy company! My bet is she's been playing the commander, putting on a show of competence that's going to get someone killed. Sobel should've gotten rid of her a long time ago."

Anger flared in Joe's eyes as he clenched his fists, his jaw tightening as Cobb continued to tarnish her name.

"And have you seen her? No wonder she hasn't found a man yet. Who would want to be with someone like her? It's not surprising she's still single; she's probably too busy ruining missions to care about settling down."

Unable to contain himself any longer, Joe jumped up from his table and approached Cobb's group with a scowl on his face.

"What the fuck did you just say about her?" Joe sneered at Cobb, who tried to laugh it off and reason with him. "Come on, Joe, you know what she's like – my bet is she's had half the company now-"

Before Cobb could finish his sentence, Joe's fist connected with his face, sending him sprawling to the floor. The commotion drew the attention of the entire bar, and the rest of Easy Company rushed to stop the impending fight.

She and Luz watched, exchanging puzzled glances. "What was that about?" She asked, concern furrowing her brow.

George shook his head. "I don't know, but Liebgott looks pissed."

As the men of Easy Company pulled Joe away from the scene, Cobb nursed his bleeding nose and shot a glare in her direction. She met his gaze with a cold intensity, her eyes daring him to say another word.

Joe, still seething, was restrained by his comrades. "You talk about her again, and I'll do more than just break your nose," he spat at Cobb, the words laced with a dangerous edge.

The bar returned to its uneasy quiet, the rumours quashed by the unexpected confrontation. Joe may have acted on impulse, but his protective instinct for her had been laid bare for everyone to see.

She watched as Joe stormed out of the bar in a huff, cursing under his breath. She placed her empty pint glass on the table in front of her and felt a sense of urgency to follow him. "Hey, where are you going?" George called out, walking back to the bar - no doubt to get another drink.

"Don't worry about it," she mumbled back, not wanting to explain as she made a beeline for the door Joe had just stormed out of. Once outside, the cold air hit her like a thousand tiny needles, causing her to shiver. Walking a few steps away from the door, she scanned the darkening area, the sun just starting to set, painting the sky with an orangey-red hue.

Her eyes fell upon Joe, leaning against one of the nearer barracks, smoking a cigarette. She took a deep breath and began walking towards him, the stones crunching under her shoes catching Joe's attention almost immediately , his jaw tightening in response.

"What are you doing out here?" Joe asked, stubbing out his cigarette. Ignoring Joe's question, She confronted him,

"What the hell was that back there?"

"Never you mind," Joe replied dismissively.

"Joseph Liebgott, I will mind. You punched a fellow paratrooper in the face!" Her tone carried a mix of disbelief and frustration, feeling as if she was scolding a schoolboy.

"Cobb said some shit that wasn't true, and I hit him – no big deal," Joe responded, trying to downplay the situation.

"What did he say, Joe?" She pressed, her voice rising a little.

"Damn it, Y/n, what is this, 21 questions?"

"Liebgott, tell me what he said!" She insisted, her frustration evident.

Joe sighed pushing off the barracks wall and walked over to her, the distance between them closing until they were almost nose to nose , his breath fanning her face, the smell of the recent cigarette lingering in the air.

Joe's gaze softened, and he let out a heavy sigh. "Look, I might not always show it, but I don't like hearing lies about people I... care about," he admitted gruffly, avoiding direct eye contact.

Her expression softened in return. "Care about? Liebgott, you're not known for being the sentimental type. Why would you care about what Cobb says about me?"

Joe hesitated for a moment, his jaw clenching. "I hate to admit it, but... I don't like the idea of anyone talking crap about you. Especially when it's a load of bullshit."

Her eyes widened, surprised by his admission. "Joe Liebgott, did you just say something vaguely nice about me?"

He scoffed, trying to deflect. "Don't get used to it. I just... I don't know, I just don't like people thinking less of you because of some idiot's lies."

A small smile played on her lips. "Well, I appreciate that, Joe. It's strange, you know? Despite all the bickering, I never thought you'd... care."

Joe mumbled something incoherent, avoiding her gaze. The tension between them lingered, the unspoken words hanging in the cold air. , Feeling a mix of emotions, She took a step closer to Joe.

"I don't hate you, Y/n. I might not show it, but I..." Joe's gruff words trailed off, and before he could finish, She closed the remaining distance between them, pressing her lips against his. It was a moment of unexpected intimacy, fuelled by the unspoken emotions they both struggled to express.

Breaking the kiss, Joe sighed, his forehead resting against hers. "I hate to admit it, but I... I like you, a lot."

She looked at him, a mix of surprise and a small smile playing on her lips. "Well, that's something," she said, a teasing glint in her eyes.

Joe rolled his eyes but couldn't hide a smirk. "Yeah, yeah, don't get used to it."

As they stood there, the realisation of the unexpected turn of events settled in. The tension that once hung between them had transformed into something different – something neither of them had anticipated.

#hbo war #band of brothers imagines #joe liebgott #joseph liebgott #band of brothers x reader #band of brothers oc #band of brothers

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scarletttries · 11 months

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Roman Roy x Reader Headcanons from Succession Episode 4.09 Church and State

Roman Roy x Reader Headcanons Part Three: Funeral Episode

Pairing: Roman Roy (Succession) x Reader

Word count: 1.8k (warnings: spoilers for the new season/episode of Succession, mentions of Logany child abuse and a violent crowd)

Author’s Note: Oh Roman Roy, you lost me with your dedication to a right-wing president, then drew me right back in by whimpering through the better part of an hour in the last episode. Thank you for all the messages asking for some headcanons from the Funeral episode, because it was a doozy! I hope you enjoy and thank you for every request that's come in during this season of Succession, I know it's going to keep me busy for a long time and I love that! Roman Roy masterlist here 😊

Roman Roy Headcanons from Logan's Funeral:

- When you stood straightening Roman's tie that morning, hearing that same rehearsed speech for the hundredth time, you felt like you were loading up an aircraft carrier with too many passengers and not enough fuel; it was an impending disaster that could only be of the most mammoth proportions. Since the day he said that strangled goodbye down the phone to his father, Roman had been stoic, blasé even, in his grief. Or his pre-grief as he proudly called it. But you knew him and you knew grief better than that, watching over the course of days as each of the threads holding his grinning mask in place slowly seemed to unravel, leaving his upbeat façade hanging on by a thread.

- As you tugged at your own black outfit, never a comfortable occasion to dress for, you watched him pace behind you, unable to take his eyes off his own reflection, smoothing out his eyebrows with a flourish.

"I'm kind of the man today right?" The question was rhetorical and the tone was smug as he turned on his heels to race over to you, wrapping his arms around you in a way you know he would have never dreamed of a year ago. You were so proud of how comfortable he had become with you, but you wished it extended to his feelings about his father's death.

"Oh definitely, and you look the part too." You retorted with a matching, albeit false, smile leaning in to steal a kiss before tenderly picking up his hand. " How are you feeling?"

He shrugged and sighed loudly at the question, tired of everyone asking him, even if he knew you were the only person who genuinely cared.

"I feel great! I'm going to absolutely kill this thing, and Menken's going to eat it up with his little silver spoon, and then we're one step closer to stopping the GoJo deal and then bing-bang-bong me and you rule the world." He said it so matter-of-factly it was almost like you'd asked him if he'd been to pick up his dry cleaning, clearly not quite facing the reality of the day. You just hoped that would last past the funeral and until he was safely home again.

- Unfortunately we know that was never meant to be. The moment you see him gingerly walking up to the microphone, all eyes on him, you know he's not okay. His hands are shaking as he picks up the familiar flashcards you helped him write, his voice cracks on the first line and then he glances up and finds your eyes in the crowd, with a desperate pleading look that has you and the Roy siblings quickly on your feet and approaching him like he's a wounded animal, scared it will dart away and do itself more damage.

- He breaks into uncontrollable sobs the minute Shiv's hand lands on his arm, and you feel just awful for letting it get to this stage, the whole world watching a beaten dog unable to defend itself even after its cruel master has long died. As his siblings comfort him, their own grief welling up in their eyes as his tiny frame seems to shrink in on itself, unable to support the weight of its own suffering, he mumbles out, "Can you do it?" It takes you a moment to realise he's looking at you, and Ken and Shiv don't seem happy with the idea, but Roman's eyes are pleading and his whole body is trembling and you've heard the speech enough times and it might salvage something for Roman so you reluctantly nod, walking up to the microphone before your brain can kick in enough to stop you or think about just how high the stakes are here.

- You don't apologise or acknowledge Roman's tears as you start, launching straight into "Logan Roy was a great man," to the relief of everyone in the church. You're careful to deliver it with the gravitas it deserves, sticking to his professional accomplishments and forcing yourself to stare dead ahead, not daring to glance at the shivering child of a man sniffling into a tissue in the front row. As the well-rehearsed lines come to an end you can't help but try to damage control for Roman, with a line about the "overwhelming love Logan's children felt from him, today and every day of their lives" hoping desperately people will show some small mercy to the man you've grown to love. As you carefully descend the stairs to the polite applause, Ken gives you an approving nod, shuffling to microphone himself, unable to let the day pass without making a performance of his own. But you don't hear a word he says as you sit stiffly next to Roman, shoulder to shoulder like you used to do in work meetings before he knew how to ask to hold your hand. You use every ounce of restraint to keep him upright, knowing he's desperate to collapse in a heap on your lap, but knowing you can't let that happen until you two are safely back in the privacy of your home, knowing Roman will thank you for your resolve another day.

- As the Roy siblings approach the showy mausoleum you hang back by the car, letting them have their moment of privacy alone. You receive a few words of praise from the old guard for stepping up today, and have to apologise again to Willa that Connor didn't get to say his piece, but mostly you just brace yourself for the inevitable, ready to fling open the car door as Roman stomps away from the ceremony just moments after it begins. Following him into the car and pulling the door shut behind you, you finally pull him into your arms, grateful for the dark tinted windows as he starts to fall apart, splitting along every crack that Logan Roy carved into his fragile skin. His chest heaves against your legs as he begs you not to let them put him in that cold, stone crypt, that wants to stay with you, he wants to be wherever you are. You stroke his hair and make him a promise that you'll always be by each other's sides, whatever this or the next life brings, reassuring him just enough that he can lift his tear-stained face and press his lips to yours, wanting so desperately to feel that familiar rush of life as reminders of mortality close in around him.

- You're not exactly sure what Roman did to deserve any help from Gerri, but by the time you get to the evening soiree, she's already got Hugo spinning the narrative that Roman's tears were planned and rehearsed, an act of sympathy to show that Waystar is no longer under the control of a cold tyrant. There are a few doubtful looks from Lucas and his posse but the president seems half-convinced, commending you on 'your whole stand-by-your-man act' commenting that he's sure it will play well with voters in the Midwest, whatever that means. You just have to politely smile and nod, almost grateful he's the kind of man that doesn't think women should be heard considering the venom you're sure would pour from your mouth the second it opened in his direction.

- Despite the best efforts at damage control Kendall still finds a video of his brother sobbing trending on twitter, and the moment you leave his side, Ken's there to tell Roman that's he fucked everything, that can't do anything right, that's he lucky Ken still needs him or he'd be out of Waystar, and then you'd been done with him too. By the time you return from an extended trip to the bathroom, having hidden in a stall for five minutes rather than face interrupting a bizarre interaction between Shiv and her mother happening at the sinks, Roman's nowhere to be found. You can feel your stomach acid rising up and eating at the back of your throat as you try and ask his staff if they saw which way he'd gone, a deep pang of panic rushing through your system when a waiter tells you he's gone to see the protests outside.

- Formal black heels cast aside you sprint down the street, praying he hasn't done anything to get himself killed, knowing more than anything Roman will be craving a taste of violence to fill the void his father left. Over the deafening sound of your own frantic pulse, you heard him before you saw him, chastising the crowd as he leaps over the fencing, shoving a man twice his size and crumbling to the ground as he pushes him right back. By the time you get through the gap between guard rails Roman is on the floor, curled in the foetal position, exactly where he'd found himself whenever he'd let his father down. Every stomping foot and aching bruise made him feel close to Logan again, like he was finally playing his part, until a pair of hands dragged him back to his feet.

- Preparing to lash out again he snatched his hands away from his good Samaritan, only to be met with you, sobbing at him, looking as downtrodden as he had all afternoon. Roman was taken aback - he'd always been the one reduced to tears, trying to disguise his sobs with echoing laughs and rubbing his eyes a little too hard, but he didn't think he'd ever made someone cry before, certainly not over him. His stomach dropped as you tried to call out his name, choking on your shaky breath and tears, looking half-broken as you brought your hands up to his grazed face, wiping a trickle of blood from a cut over his eye. Your eyes looked almost frightened as you waited for him to push your hands away again, but instead his arms closed in around squeezing you tightly again his chest as he dragged you both back behind the barricade.

"Hey, it's okay, I'm okay, we're okay." Was all Roman could bring himself to repeat, new to reassurance but desperate to stop you feeling the way he usually did, hoping for once to be the cure to tears, rather than the one left spilling them. He just stood there, holding you in his arms as the line of armoured police went past, feeling you shake against his chest, so relieved that he was okay, and so exhausted with the fact that you both always had to be, despite everything. But as he clutched you tight, resting his cheek on the top of your head, chanting endless 'it's going to be okays', feeling every ounce of the concern and love shared between you, at some point he started to really believe it.

#writing #fanfiction #one shot #requests #roman roy angst #roman roy fluff #roman roy imagine #roman roy x reader #roman roy #succession imagine #succession hbo #roman roy succession #succession #succession headcanons #roman roy headcanons

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mrprettywhenhecries · 5 months

Text

don’t waste your time (on me) [g.t]

02. | Just a Coincidence, I Guess

Gator Tillman ✘ Win Lewis (OC)

⇾ w.c. 5.3k words ⇾ warning(s). canon x oc pairing, f!oc, masturbation, slight misogyny, attempted assault, pervy!gator, inexperienced virgin!gator, subby!gator to switch!gator pipeline, nipple play, vaginal fingering, unprotected sex, p in v, creampie ⇾ a/n: I know a lot of people write dark/dom!gator, but he's the subbiest sub to ever sub to me

Gator just keeps turning up, like a bad penny, but when he happens to be in the right place at the right time, saving Win from a would-be assailant, she can’t help but be grateful.

[ masterlist • win bio ]

“Oh fuck yeah, fuck, that feels so good, baby.”

Gator’s hand slipped down his length, fisting himself to the grainy video playing on his laptop screen. Several days later, their run-in was still fresh in his mind.

“Fuck, Winnie, you’re such a dirty girl, ain’tcha?” he drawled under his breath, his hips jerking up into his hand. “Suckin’ me off right out in the middle of the road. Shit—“ he groaned, remembering all too well the sweet way her doll eyes had flicked up to him, moaning as he’d flooded her velvety mouth with his spunk. She’d been feisty to begin with, but by the end she’d obeyed so nicely, showing him the mess he’d made before swallowing it down like a good girl.

Gator’s phone vibrated across the desk and he swore under his breath, speeding up desperately, not wanting to stop when he was so close, even though he knew Roy’d be pissed if he didn’t pick up promptly enough for his taste.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he drew his bottom lip between his teeth, thinking hard of Win’s sweet mouth and seconds later he tensed, hips jerking as he spilled his load over his hand, shuddering as he milked the last of it and immediately grabbing his phone with his free hand and answering it, panting hard in the receiver.

“What took you so long? You go for a run or something?”

His father’s voice filled his ears and Gator fought to catch his breath. “Yeah, something like that,” he answered, wrinkling his nose as he reached for something to clean himself up with as Roy sighed through the phone, launching into the reason he’d called.

Gator listened distractedly, his mind still swirling with thoughts of her and how he might go about seeing her again.

“You listenin’ to me, son?”

Roy’s voice once more jerked him back to attention and he grimaced, sitting up in his chair. “Yeah, yeah, I heard yeh. I’ll be right there.”

It had been several days since Win’s little traffic stop, and ever since, it seemed every time she turned around, there was Deputy Tillman–in line at the bank when she stopped to deposit her paycheck, stalking the convenience store aisles while she payed for gas at the Revere, in the booth next to her at the shooting range, and finally, at the bar she worked at. At first he just watched, as if working up the courage to talk to her. It was kind of pathetic, though she supposed she couldn’t exactly blame him for not knowing what to say.

What did you say to the girl who sucked you off to avoid getting a speeding ticket?

Unable to take it any longer, Win set a beer in front of where he sat at the bar, fiddling with his vape pen. “Y’know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were stalking me, Deputy.”

Gator jumped slightly, his brown eyes snapping up to her face before his brows pulled down and he grabbed the dark bottle in front of him. “What do you mean?” he asked, hunching over slightly to lean his elbows against the polished wood of the bar top.

“Cut the shit, Gator. You’ve been turning up everywhere I’ve been for the past few days,” Win scoffed, watching him expectantly, just waiting for him to deny it.

Gator shrugged, bringing the mouth of the bottle to his lips. “Just a coincidence, I guess,” he drawled, taking a swig and Win nodded, expecting it.

“I know what you’re doing, okay? And it ain’t gunna work,” she huffed, throwing him a level glare.

Gator’s brows rose and he spread his hands innocently, a hint of a grin gracing his features. “And what’s that?”

“You’re just following me around, hoping to get lucky again,” she answered, and Gator’s grin grew.

“You offering, Lewis?” he asked, tilting his head coyly.

Win crossed her arms over her chest as she rolled her eyes skyward. “Stop tryin’ to be cute.”

Gator blinked at her, his dark eyes flashing mischief.

“You think I’m cute?” he taunted, cocking an eyebrow at her.

Win opened her mouth, a scathing comeback on the tip of her tongue despite the warmth that rushed to her face, but before she could loose it, another patron stumbled up to the bar, interrupting them.

“Hey sweet thing,” he exclaimed obnoxiously, grinning at her as he leaned heavily against the bar next to Gator, ignoring him completely. “Think I could get a refill, doll?”

“Alright, this is your last one though,” Win sighed, grabbing the bottle of Jack from the shelf behind her and pouring a splash in the bottom of his tumbler before sliding it across the bar back to him. He caught it with a grin, but didn’t move to leave the bar just yet.

“So, I was wondering when your shift ends, and if you’re doing anything later,” the man drawled, looking pointedly at Win, causing Gator’s brows to furrow deeper, a scowl marring his features.

“Hey fella, we’re kinda in the middle of something here, actually, “ he huffed, turning on his barstool to size up the other guy.

“Yeah well, I wasn’t talking to you Deputy,” the man sneered back, noting the badge hanging against his chest.

Gator’s jaw flexed, but he didn’t respond, bringing his vape to his lips and taking a hit.

“So what do you say, doll?” the guy asked again, flashing Win a grin that didn’t impress.

“Sorry, I’ve got plans,” she replied and Gator couldn’t help but smirk at the look on the other guy’s face.

“You heard the lady, she’s not interested. Now if you’ll excuse us–” he drawled, blowing his cloud of scented water vapor at the man and lifting an eyebrow expectantly.

Grabbing his glass, the man sneered, looking between Win and Gator. “Ain’t like she’s going home with a loser like you,” he scoffed.

“Enough!” Win snapped and the man shot her a confused look. “I think you should leave,” she added, her voice level, though she was almost as surprised at herself for the flash of anger that had filled her when he’d called Gator a loser.

“You can’t make me!” the guy scoffed incredulously and Gator got to his feet.

“No, but I can,” he exclaimed. “So why don’t you get scarce? Unless you want me to drag you outta here in handcuffs?”

For a moment the man didn’t back down, puffing his chest out and holding Gator’s hard gaze before letting out a heavy snort and finally turning away, leaving his empty glass on the bar. As soon as the door shut behind him, Win let out the breath she’d been holding and turned her gaze back to Gator.

“Thanks,” she murmured, running her hand through her hair in relief. “I thought you were gunna actually have to cuff him for a second there,” she laughed.

“Me too,” Gator chuckled, finishing off the rest of his drink. “Y’know, if you really wanted to thank me, you could, uh, you know, take me home with you,” he said nonchalantly, leaning against the bar, a hopeful look on his face, and Win groaned, her amusement shifting to disgust.

“Really, Gator?” she exclaimed, throwing his empty bottle in the trash bin with more force than necessary. “And here I was starting to think you might actually be a half decent guy, but apparently you can’t even do anything nice without expecting something in return.”

Gator quickly opened his mouth to defend himself, but Win didn’t give him an opening, barreling on.

“Maybe your daddy shoulda named you after a different animal, you pig!”

“Win, wait! Shit–” he hissed under his breath as she stalked away to the other side of the bar, ringing the bell for last call while defiantly avoiding his gaze.

“Fuck,” he grunted, running his hand over his slicked back hair as he decided what to do, finally heading for the door.

Win watched him leave, chewing her lip. God, but she needed a cigarette.

For a moment, she wished she hadn’t stood up for him. He was a loser, but the hurt look in his eyes had felt like a kick in the stomach, and Win had acted on impulse. As much as she wanted to hate Gator, she couldn’t.

For a moment, he’d seemed so earnest, and then he’d gone right back to his misogynistic asshole self, and Win began to wonder which was the real Gator, and which was an act he put on.

Sighing, she put it out of her head. She needed to focus on closing up.

By the time Win stepped outside to lock the back door, all was quiet. A few lone cars sat parked in the lot, their occupants sleeping off their buzz before driving home, and Win paused to dig for her pack of Marlboro’s out of her jacket pocket, tapping one into her hand as her boots clicked across the asphalt.

Lighting her cigarette, she took a deep draw, watching the cherry burn brighter before a dark shadow waiting by her car brought her up short.

“Who’s there?” she called, wishing she hadn’t left her pistol in the glove compartment.

“Just waitin’ for you to get done, doll,” a voice drawled, the man from earlier stepping out of the darkness, showing his face.

“I told you, I already have plans. My friends are waiting,” she lied, discreetly positioning her keys between her knuckles as he took another step closer.

“I could show you a real good time,” he said, sucking his teeth, his voice slurring slightly. “You wouldn’t regret it.”

“Wish I could, but I’m already late,” Win replied, glad at least her voice didn’t waver, giving away how scared she was, her heart beating against her ribs like a bird in a cage.

“Aw c’mon, don’t be like that, darlin’,” the man cooed, spreading his hands as he circled her.

“Stay back, I’m warning you!” Win exclaimed, getting ready to make a run for it.

The man’s smile only seemed to turn more predatory and fear shot through her like a bullet. Suddenly, a pair of blinding headlights flooded the night, and the rev of an engine was the only warning before the vehicle it belonged to charged straight at Win’s assailant, the bumper grazing him as he frantically dove out of the way.

Win stared at the car that had saved her, ‘Stark County Sheriff’ emblazoned on the driver’s side door before it opened and Gator stepped out, tipping his hat to her before circling the cruiser to grab the guy by the collar, punching him square in the face and knocking him out before cuffing him.

“Jesus fuck Gator!” Win cried, finally finding her voice as she hurried over, Gator throwing his arm out to keep her behind him as he reached for his two way, calling the dispatcher.

“10-26, I’ve got an assailant in custody outside Frankie’s Tavern, but I’m off duty. Can you have someone come pick this asshole up? The victim’s pretty shook up, I wanna make sure she gets home alright.”

Win opened her mouth to argue that she could drive home just fine, until she realized with chagrin that Gator was right, she was shaking like a leaf. The adrenaline that had flooded her veins moments ago was leeching away, leaving her shivering.

“You okay? He didn’t touch you, did he?” Gator asked, shrugging his leather jacket off to drape around her shoulders.

“No. No, he didn’t get close enough,” Win murmured distractedly, jumping slightly when she felt his jacket wrap around her, warmth seeping back into her, the scent of Gator’s Axe body spray filling her nostrils. “Thanks,” she mumbled distractedly, pulling the sides of the jacket tighter around her.

“C’mon, let’s get you home,” Gator murmured, leading her to the cruiser’s passenger door as another sheriff’s vehicle pulled into the parking lot. “I gotta go talk to my officer for a sec, I’ll be right back,” he said, holding the door open for her before going to meet the other cop, helping him haul the unconscious cuffed assailant into the back of his SUV.

Win couldn’t make out what the two were saying, but Gator glanced over at her several times, so she figured it had something to do with her.

It wasn’t long before the other officer nodded to Gator and the two parted ways, Gator climbing into his seat and shutting the door. “You doin’ okay?” he asked, his eyes flicking to Win as he put the car in drive.

“Yeah, m’fine,” she murmured, keeping her gaze on the dark windshield. “You know where you’re going?” she asked, wondering if he knew already exactly where she lived. She wouldn’t be surprised if he did.

“It’s on Euclid, right?” he asked, turning off the main highway.

“Yeah.”

Gator nodded, drumming his fingers idly against the steering wheel.

“How often you drive past my place?” Win asked, watching him out of the corner of her eye.

Gator snorted, his lips twitching. “Only a few times, had to make sure you weren’t getting into trouble,” he chuckled, sparing her a wry glance.

“Uh huh, sure,” Win countered doubtfully. “You sure you aren’t stalking me, Deputy?”

“I don’t care for that insinuation, Miss Lewis,” Gator drawled, the yellow light of the street lamps overhead illuminating his face as they passed. “I’m an officer of the law. My concern is purely professional.”

Win barked a laugh. “Professional, right,” she scoffed. “That’s rich, coming from the guy who accepted a blow job in exchange for a speeding ticket.”

“Hey, you were the one who offered,” he pointed out, reaching in his pocket for his vape pen. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were the one trying to seduce me.”

“As if,” Win muttered, glad it was dark in the car so he couldn’t see the flush that rose to her cheeks. “Bet you just loved saving my ass tonight,” she huffed bitterly, shaking her head with a sigh.

Gator was silent for a moment, turning his face away to exhale his plume of sweet smelling vapor. “Ain’t gunna lie and say it didn’t feel good,” he admitted, adjusting his grip on the wheel, his tongue darting out to wet his lips.

“That don’t make you any less tough though,” he murmured, finally glancing at her, his words taking her by surprise.

“Hell, you’re probably one of the most capable girls I know. I’ve seen you at the shooting range, your aim’s about as good as mine.”

Win snorted, a grin tugging at her lips. “Almost? It’s better than yours,” she teased and Gator rolled his eyes, though he shared her grin, not refuting the fact.

Falling silent, he pulled into her drive and threw the cruiser into park. “You gunna be alright by yourself or…?” he asked after a moment, watching Win wring her hands silently in her lap.

“Uh…” she hesitated, waging an internal battle with herself for several seconds before cracking.

“Look, this isn’t because I owe you or anything, but… would you come inside with me for a bit? I just don’t wanna be alone right now,” she admitted, certain if she looked up, that he’d be wearing a smug grin, no doubt already thinking he’d be getting lucky, but Gator merely nodded, a concerned expression on his face.

“Yeah, course,” he murmured, turning the car off and unbuckling his seat belt.

As silly as it seemed, Win couldn’t help but feel a little safer as Gator’s shoulder brushed hers as he escorted her to the door. Fumbling with her key in the lock, she swore under her breath, hating the way her fingers trembled. Finally, the deadbolt turned and she shouldered the door open, reaching along the wall to flip on the light switch.

Gator’s eyes traveled the small living room that opened to an equally small kitchen and dining area, taking in every little detail and filing it away.

“Nice place,” he murmured, shifting his weight as Win locked the door behind them and toed off her scuffed boots.

“Thanks,” she replied, handing him back his jacket. Gator seemed to notice the way her hands shook and frowned.

“Why don’t you go change into something more comfortable and I’ll make us some coffee or something.”

Win hesitated, unsure if she should get too comfortable with Gator in her house, but she felt dirty after what had happened, and the idea of her pj’s did sound nice.

“Alright. Holler if you need anything,” she said, leaving him in her kitchen. She could feel his eyes on her back as she walked away, but she fought the urge to glance back at him, and eventually she heard him turn on the tap and pop a coffee pod in her Keurig.

Stopping in the bathroom, Win splashed some water on her face and scrubbed her hands before heading to her room to strip, keeping her back to the door as she dressed, figuring she’d be quick enough not to bother shutting the door completely.

“I didn’t know how you took your coffee, but I saw some creamer in the fridge so I used that—“ Gator said, his words cutting off as he stopped in the doorway, two steaming mugs in hand, unabashedly watching as Win reached for her tank top.

A low whistle left his lips and Win quickly pulled her shirt over her head before turning to look at him, fixing him with a level look.

“Perv,” she muttered, though there was no heat to it and she took one of the mugs from his hand before sitting down on the edge of her bed. “Want some whiskey?” she offered, reaching for the half empty bottle on her night stand, unscrewing the lid and pouring a splash in her mug.

“You’re something else, you know that?” Gator chuckled, joining her at the edge of the bed and letting her spike his coffee as well.

Win shrugged, blowing on her drink before taking a sip. “I guess.”

“Really. I don’t think I’ve ever met a girl like you before,” Gator murmured, wetting his lips, brown eyes flicking to grey.

“Bet you say that to all the girls,” Win teased, a sigh of relief leaving her lips as she wrapped her hands around the mug, the warm liquid burning pleasantly down her throat, warming her inside and out.

Gator snorted into his mug. “Why do you always doubt me, huh? It’s hurtful,” he exclaimed, placing a hand over his chest, his eyes dancing with amusement.

“Maybe I like messin’ with you,” Win murmured, the whiskey dulling her inhibitions. “You get cute when you’re all huffy,” she admitted.

“I’m not cute,” Gator scoffed, his expression twisting in offense, though a dusting of pink crept up his neck. “Cute ain’t manly.”

“You seemed to be fine with me calling you that earlier,” Win pointed out, rolling her eyes and taking another drink.

Gator grimmaced. “That was different.”

Silence fell and Gator looked down at his mug, searching for something else to say, not wanting the moment to end yet.

“Noticed your sweet gaming setup out there,” he said, nodding toward her living room. “Didn’t know you were a gamer.” He sounded kind of impressed.

“I wouldn’t say that, but I do enjoy a good first person rpg,” Win replied, a small smile tugging at her lips. “Lemme guess, your game of choice is COD?”

“Nothin’ more satisfying after a long day than kickin’ some ass and rackin’ up some headshots,” Gator boasted, making Win snort in amusement.

“Oh my God, you are such a dude bro.”

“And what’s wrong with that?” Gator exclaimed, gaping at her. “You’re the one who thinks I’m cute!” he pointed out and her mouth fell open.

Setting her mug down, she poked him in the side, grinning as he yelped, and soon she was trying to fight his hands away in his attempt to get her back, the two of them ending up falling back to the bed in laughter.

For a long moment, Win laid there, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath, heat washing through her as she watched Gator’s face. He really was cute, especially when he laughed.

He’d managed to take her mind off the events from the night, and now all she could think about was how close he was. All she had to do was lean in and she’d be able to press her lips to his. His eyes flicked up to hers expectantly, pupils dilating with want, but he didn’t move, waiting for her to decide.

“Oh fuck it,” Win whispered, her lips crashing into his before she could think better of it.

Gator groaned, reacting instinctually, his hands clutching at her hips to pull her closer as he kissed her fervently, swallowing her surprised moan as his tongue invaded her mouth, writhing and rolling against hers.

Overwhelmed by his eagerness, she bit down, just hard enough to elicit a hiss from him before sucking on his tongue, a strand of saliva connecting them when she finally pulled back to gasp a breath. Gator chased her retreating lips, not ready to break the kiss yet.

Hungry for more, he nipped at her bottom lip as his hand slipped under her tank top, his palm greedily sliding up her stomach til it found her warm breast, her nipple already a hard peak, nestled between two smooth ball bearings and he moaned deep in his throat.

“Didn’t know your tits were pierced,” he breathed, pushing her shirt up the rest of the way, wanting to see them. Tweaking her piercing, his mouth fell open as Win let out a gasp that turned to a moan as his mouth descended hungrily on her nipple, his tongue swirling around it before flicking it playfully.

“Gator—“ she whined, grinding against his thigh that found its way between her legs, the lean muscle putting just enough pressure against her aching cunt to earn her a little relief, but not enough.

As soon as his mouth left her nipple to switch to the other breast, the cool air against his left over saliva sent Win’s skin pebbling and she arched against him, running her fingers through his slicked back hair, uncaring if she messed it up, her nails biting lightly into his scalp.

“Fuck, you’re so hot,” Gator mumbled as he sat up to get a look at her, her arms thrown back against her head and her bare chest heaving. “Want you so bad,” he groaned, his voice breaking.

“Strip,” Win ordered, pulling her own shirt off and tossing it away before slipping her pyjama pants and damp cotton panties down.

For a moment, Gator didn’t move, his gaze trained on her naked body until Win tugged at his tight black t-shirt, practically ripping it off him as he fumbled at his belt and cargo pants.

Knowing what to expect when his cock finally sprung free, Win swallowed, her mouth watering, remembering the weight and feel of it on her tongue and she couldn’t help but wonder how good his girth would feel inside her, stretching her. Despite her reputation, it had been a while since she’d slept with anyone.

“Like what you see?” Gator boasted, noticing the look on her face and Win pulled him closer, her lips colliding with his to shut him up as she grabbed his hand and guided it between her thighs, needing to be touched.

“Oh fuckkk,” Gator groaned into her mouth as his fingers explored her dripping folds. “You’re so wet,” he marveled, his cock twitching against her stomach and Win opened her legs wider for him, rolling her hips against the heel of his palm.

For a moment his thumb slipped up too high and Win let out a frustrated huff. “Here,” she breathed, guiding his fingers to her clit. “Right there, little circles,” she gasped, electricity coursing through her as he obeyed, careful to follow her movements over her sensitive nub, exploring and tucking the knowledge away.

When his digits delved deeper inside her, his own hips grinding desperately against her, slick pre cum leaking from his pink head, Win gasped. “Curl them,” she instructed, moaning loudly when his fingertips grazed her spongy g-spot. “That’s where you wanna hit with your fingers or cock,” she breathed, kissing him deeper, tasting the warmth of the whiskey from the coffee on his tongue.

“Want you inside me, Gator,” she whined, wanting more than his fingers, her entire body aflame with need.

“Yeah? Want my cock, Winnie?” he drawled, kissing down her neck as he continued to pump his fingers into her, her cunt squelching noisily around them. “You’re such a little slut for me, aren’tcha?” he teased, latching onto her pulse point and sucking hard, his teeth sinking into her soft flesh before soothing the sting with his tongue.

Win let out a hiss. “You leave a mark where anyone can see and I’m decking you, Tillman,” she grumbled, but her threat was undermined by the moan that bubbled up from her chest as she said it.

“What? Don’t wantin’ anyone knowin’ I own this pussy?” Gator chuckled darkly before yelping in surprise as Win pushed him to his back and threw her leg over his hips, straddling him.

“You don’t own me, Gator,” she growled, slipping his length between her folds only to grind against him, not letting him into her yet. “No one does,” she added, watching with pleasure at the way his brown eyes pleaded with her, a string of needy moans leaving his pretty mouth.

“What was that?” she cooed condescendingly and Gator’s fingers bit into her hips where he grasped her.

“Jesus Christ, just fuck me, Winnie, please!”

“Oooh if your daddy could hear you now,” she teased, but relented, reaching between them to grasp his length and position it at her entrance.

Whatever retort Gator had ready on his tongue was quickly swallowed as Win lowered herself slowly onto him, allowing her time to adjust while careful not to make him cum too soon. That would be a waste, and though she’d deny it, she wanted to show him a good first time. She’d never taken anyone’s virginity before.

“Holy shit—“ Gator whined, trying to buck up into her impatiently, his eyes rolling up into his head as she sheathed him. “Shit, oh shitttt you feel good,” he breathed, a flush creeping up his neck and chest.

“You’re so cute like this,” Win whispered, leaning in to steal a quick kiss before moving her hips, riding him in earnest.

Gator couldn’t seem to formulate words for a moment, a slew of needy whines and groans the only sounds leaving his kiss swollen lips. His hands roamed her body, slipping up her hips and around her back, pulling her down against him as she ground down on his cock, relishing the friction where their bodies came together.

“Need to feel you,” he mumbled, kissing her sloppily as he held her against his chest, the warmth of her feverish skin against his exactly what he wanted. “Oh Win,” he whimpered, moving in time with her, the way he moaned her name going straight to her head.

Fuck, but she wanted to ruin him, wanted to be ruined by him.

With a gasp, Win fell to her back, Gator rolling atop her, taking the lead while she was distracted. “Wanna fill this pretty pussy,” he growled, taking her by surprise by his sudden burst of dominance and Win’s breath hitched.

Desperate to finish, his hips snapped into hers, the room filling with their staccato breaths and the slap of skin on skin. Afraid he was gunna cum and leave her hanging, Win quickly slipped her hand between them to desperately rub her clit, letting out a cry as the added stimulation drove her to the precipice.

“Holy shit—“ Gator hissed as Win’s cunt clamped tighter around him, her velvety walls fluttering and contracting deliciously.

“C-can I—?” he choked out, his thrusts turning jerky.

“Yes! Cum inside me. On the pill,” she managed to stutter, that familiar heat licking up her body as her muscles tensed, the spring inside her gut snapping and spilling over.

“Fuck, Gator—!” she cried, her back arching as she came and he pounded into her until his cock swelled, suddenly spilling his load inside her, a high pitched whine leaving his lips as he tensed, twitching and spasming before he collapsed atop her, completely spent.

Realizing he was probably crushing her, Gator rolled off her to his back, panting heavily as he caught his breath, his dark hair in complete disarray and a sheen of sweat coating his pale skin.

“How was that, huh?” he asked, rolling to his side and propping himself up on his elbow as he watched Win pull the sheets up around her chest, a hint of insecurity hiding behind the bravado in his voice.

Win laughed, letting her head loll against her pillow as she turned toward him. “It wasn’t bad,” she replied, a small grin playing at her lips as Gator’s brows furrowed.

“Not bad?” he huffed, gaping at her. “You were practically screaming my name by the end!” he pointed out smugly and Win rolled her eyes, her fingers trailing mindlessly down his chest, counting the small moles that littered his body.

“Yeah yeah, don’t let it go to your head, Tillman,” she murmured. “I was the one doing most of the work, remember? Better not go fallin’ in love with me just cause I took your virginity,” she joked.

“I’m not!” he spluttered, hesitating, his brows scrunching up further. “I just… wanna know if it might happen again, that’s all,” he mumbled, avoiding Win’s gaze, which turned distant at his words.

“I don’t know… It would probably be better if it didn’t,” she muttered, sitting up and reaching for his vape pen, needing a hit of nicotine to calm her sudden rush of nerves.

“Why?” Gator countered, pushing himself up as well. “What’re you so afraid of, Winnie, that you might actually start to like me?” he scoffed, a bitter note to his low voice.

“Oh c’mon, you’re exactly the sort of guy that I should stay far away from,” Win huffed, letting her eyes flutter shut as she exhaled, the vapor curling lazily around her parted lips.

“Yeah? And why’s that?” Gator demanded, not backing down, a hurt look contorting his face.

Win fought the urge to look at him, knowing if she did, she’d lose her nerve. “Hell, Gator, look at us. It ain’t like we got all that much in common!” she pointed out, chewing her lip.

Gator snorted, glancing around her room at the band posters covering her walls, many of them bands he himself listened to, thinking of all the other little things they shared in common. “From where I’m lookin’, it kinda does,” he muttered, his eyes boring into her back and Win growled in frustration.

“I mean, like our fundamental principles,” she exclaimed, shaking her head. “I shouldn’t like you,” she insisted quietly, more to herself than to him and Gator watched her, realization dawning on him.

“But you do,” he whispered.

Win grimaced, finally looking at him, not wanting to admit it, and a grin slowly spread across his face, tugging at his chapped lips.

“You like me,” he repeated, his voice turning insufferably smug once more.

Win felt an angry rush of heat fill her face and quickly looked away again, not wanting him to see. “Will you shut up?” she huffed halfheartedly, but Gator only laughed, reaching over to turn her face toward him, his grin melting away.

“Give me a chance, Win. Maybe I’ll surprise you.”

Helpless, Win searched his face as she bit her lip, knowing he already had.

“Alright,” she finally breathed, heaving a heavy sigh. “Don’t make me regret this.”

“I won’t.” Gator leaned in to kiss her softly, grinning against her lips as his callused thumb brushed her cheek.

“Think you’re up for round two?” he murmured, arching an eyebrow at her when he finally pulled back.

“Jesus Gator, you’re insatiable,” Win huffed, but she didn’t protest when he rolled her to her back, reaching between her legs with a needy groan.

⇾ taglist. @super-unpredictable98 @b1tchy3lf @heartbreak-sandwich

#gator tillman #gator tillman x oc #gator tillman fanfiction #fargo #fargo fx #fargo s5 #oc: win lewis #joz.fic #fic: don’t waste your time on me #otp: wingator

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