#ear spool

[artifacts-archive]

Ear Spool

Classic Maya, Mexico/Guatemala/Honduras, 250–900 CE

#artifact #Maya #Mexico #Guatemala #Honduras #pre columbian #ear spool #jewelry #jadeite

[ricketybonez]

your ass is NOT beating the cartoon mouse allegations

#.txt #stole a wire spool in order to feel like a mouse on a thread spool little mouse noises when tasting things ass #love u 💖💖💖💖💖 #making weird cartoon mouse noises when waking up from a nap ass motherfucker #sneezes like a cartoon rodent of some kind. perhaps one with large ears who might be seen eating a bit of cheese or weilding a sewing needle #like a sword

[loverdude]

I think I have bought most of the supplies I will need to make Carrie plush become real 😈

#💭 #got blue and yellow minky fabric 4 her body and the like inside of her ears #i'm making her paw pads yellow too (the paw pads and ear insides will be applique) #got blue and black and yellow spools of thread... #got white fabric for her hospital gown and mask... #which for like sturdiness/actually staying on their body as a plush it will just be a tshirt/dress thing kinda instead of a hospital gown #i got various ribbon to make their bracelets... #i have plenty of embroidery thread to make her doodles #and fabric markers for the blood on her gown and the smiley on her mask #i have red and green fabric for like applique of her eyes but i'm not sure how to go about that... #ideally like machine embroidery or like maybe satin stitch embroidery would be good but #i don't have a machine embroidery thing and idk how to do more than the most basic ever embroidery so! #might applique might learn fancier embroidery we'll see

[vanderilnde]

you buy a second-hand laptop from a dodgy craigslist user only to make a carnal discovery hidden between the files.

cw for anal sex, face fucking, pet play, choking, masturbation, noncon filmed sex, overall dubcon, reader is fujoing out

ghoap (x reader)

-

You saw it in a flitting advertisement. Used Acer Aspire V5, female buyers only, and didn’t hesitate to contact the poster.

Ghost was his screen name. Macabre, but not something to dwell on because he’s selling the only affordable hand-me-down you can find. He insisted on meeting at a hole-in-the-wall pub, beneath a metal sheet awning. There’s a cigarette pinched between his lips as you approach, an overripe mask rolled over his broken nose.

“You’re our bird?” He asks in a Manchester hint, exhaling a plume of off-white smoke.

You stifle over that operative word—our—but push through it and meekly nod, preening at his feet.

Beneath the predatory glint of his eyes, you realize you’ve gravely miscalculated the calibre of this situation. Meeting a complete stranger in a gritty alleyway and waiting to pick up his scrap-metal laptop, all because it satisfies your budget.

“Yeah…” you mumble. Try to make yourself invisible even though it’s redundant—he already towers over you, his shadow eclipsing your body, his heat drinking you in.

“‘ere it is,” he grunts. “You’ve got our cash?”

You hand him the crumpled wad of paper, squirming as he passes his thumb over his tongue and folds through the money, counting it with a mean curl of his lips.

“That’s– is everything alright?”

He stuffs the money into his jacket and expells a deep prusten sound, like an idle predator. “Fine. Pleasure doin’ business with you, bird.”

Ghost turns on his mud-clogged boot and strays off, letting the shadows swallow him whole. You hold the bulky laptop to your chest and wield it like a weapon on your way home, finally settling into bed, ready to examine your new purchase.

The hinges creak as you pull it open. A grimace splits your cheeks at the dust crusted in the margins, the rings of juice gummed to the mousepad.

A few letters from the keyboard are missing, and a few strips of tape look dog-eared, peeling from the corners, exposing the laptop’s internal wiring. Gossamer-like, spiderweb cracks work across the edges. The screen is a blotchy eyesore, striated with horizontal lines.

You have to beat your knuckles on the laptop to keep it from jamming. You navigate the desktop with simmering irritation, invaded by the inkling that you’ve been utterly scammed. Nothing matches the photos advertised on Ghost’s account, and just as your annoyance is about to ripen into white-hot anger, something catches your eye.

It’s nestled into a nook on the desktop. It’s an unnamed folder that stares back at you, unassuming, the icon already half-opened and waiting to be examined.

You double click it, more like triple click, actually, since the mousepad decides to cramp, and squirm as the folder flares over the screen. It’s a collection of videos, their thumbnails all spotty and dark, eclipsed by the thumb of whoever’s holding the camera.

Their titles are as cryptic as their photos.

wet.avi; tail_plug.avi; no_prep.avi; with_price.avi.

You find yourself scrolling lower, your fingers working against the mousepad like a rapidly unfurling spool of thread. You decide to investigate one of the videos, one with a foggy, filmy thumbnail, and carefully heed the title before poising your finger above the open function.

johnny_leash.avi

The video is grainy, as if it was imported from a camcorder rather than a phone. The first few seconds are a blurry with grey-scale strobes running across the screen, radiating an aura of seediness that makes a hint of discomfort sink like sediment in your stomach, adhering to your viscera. A deep, damp squelching sound peals out, tempered with the sticky noise of something being broken in, hollowed out.

The camera ebbs, settles, then focuses all at once. You think you’re going to faint.

It’s someone’s puffy ass getting stretched out on a fat cock. It puckers and tightens with each piston-paced thrust, red.

A large hand belonging to the person recording enters the frame. Their hand tattoos stretch as they split their palm across the hind of their spine, the cameraman’s fingers digging sickle-shaped scratches into their back, clawing them down on their battering ram of a cock.

“Quit whinin’, Johnny,” the voice behind the camera loudly grunts.

The one getting split open, Johnny, snivels into the pillow. His spine is curved into the mattress, his ass pert and sticking in the air, rippling with the force of the cameraman’s hips.

A plume of dust travels over the screen, fleetingly concealing the image. When the soot thins into the air and bares the salacious material of the video, you gasp.

There’s a glint caught on something silver from the feeble lightning. It’s a chrome-plated chain, you see, connecting to Johnny’s throat. A leather collar cutting into his ruddy skin. The leash is wrapped around the cameraman’s hand like a reel, and each time he tugs, pulling his hand back as if winding up for an attack, Johnny gets peeled off the bed, his back arching so deep you’re sure it’s close to snapping.

“Shit, Simon—!” He squeals. “Can ye… slow down?”

The aforementioned Simon grunts. Animalistic, like a rabid predator. The camera whirls, the unromantic colours of the room they’re in bleeding into each other, and when it focuses, you see Simon’s large palm splayed against the back of Johnny’s half-shaven skull, gripping his hair, pushing him into the bed.

The man flails like a fish out of water, struggling under his hand. It prompts an emergency response out of you—the way he’s being fucked into the mattress, no doubt pressing a Johnny-shaped chalk outline like the ones at crime scenes into the bedding. Alarm seizes you, and the thought of submitting this to the authorities trumpets like strobe lights in your mind.

The video is written with inept non-professionalism, reeking with the sentiment of a found-footage horror film that it’s not the authenticity that rattles your bones like a wind chime, but the morality.

You tell yourself to stop the video, but as the thought squeezes itself between your ears, Johnny’s hoisting his neck back and peering into the camera, his striking-blue eyes flaring in all-encompassing horror. His lips pop open and wrap around a soundless scream, warbling.

“Yer recordin’ me?”

“Smile for the camera, Johnny,” Simon pants. “Who knows who might see this, right?”

Simon shoots his hand up and bullies his fingers past Johnny’s lips. He sinks his nails into the round of his mouth, stretching his cheek back into a repugnant curl. It’s paradoxial—how Johnny’s mouth is pulled into a smile, but his eyes are wide and wet, wordlessly begging.

Your body betrays your moral plight.

Your rapt ocular vein, the signals rushing to your mind, your nipples stiffening in your shirt. You feel as though you’re made of livewire, not matter, as you watch Johnny’s ass get spread open on Simon’s cock, his eyes rolling like unruly billiard balls to the back of his head.

His ass is red and patchy, burning up. Simon’s hand swats through the air and makes the sound of a whistle, flaring into a booming crack of thunder whenever he brings it down on Johnny’s ass. It makes you jump. Makes you feel as if your ass is being abused by proxy just by sitting, and watching raptly.

Instead of inching your hand towards the button that exits the video, your hand dips below your waistband and moves to cup your cunt.

The gusset of your panties is already hot, clinging to your dewy core. It sticks to your pussy, baring your puffy lips and swollen clit. You give it a few slaps and rub your fingers languidly, pace quickening.

But the video abruptly ends before the ascent to your pleasure is able to materialize. You yank your hand from your pussy, smearing your arousal on the mousepad as you search for another video.

You don’t heed the title—face_fuck.avi—before clicking it and readily spreading your legs, flushing at the sound of your lips parting.

The video starts, and you swear it feels like you’ve been hit with a brick.

Simon—or Ghost, you now recognize—is a behemoth. Huge would be an understatement for him. The camera is set up this time, somewhere across the room, but Simon still just barely fits within the margins. He’s folded over Johnny who sits on his knees with his back against the wall, his neck hoisted up at him.

Simon’s cock is fat and heavy. He’s hard—this, you’re sure of because of how red his balls are—yet still, his cock droops with weight, the bulbous tip scarcely teasing Johnny’s lips.

“You want your snack, boy?”

Johnny nods. He darts his tongue out and tries kitten licking the slit, but Simon isn’t having that. He grips the base of his dick and swats it against Johnny’s cheek, slapping him, the noise so thick and resounding it sounds like a palm that breaks his skin, not a cock.

“Greedy bitch,” Ghost snarls—you decide that name is more seemly for him—“Can’t wait when it comes to dick, huh?”

Johnny’s lips part, a response poised behind his chattering teeth. However, his reply gets snuffed out and shoved to the back of his throat as Ghost feeds him his cock, slamming into him with one, slick motion.

Johnny’s head hits the wall, his face puckering as pain blooms behind his skull. The action makes his jaw clench, clamping down on Simon’s cock, but Simon is quickly gripping his hair and puppeting his head back, sliding his cock deeper, until the tuft of steel-wool hair on his pelvis brushes Johnny’s nose.

“How many times do I have to tell you?” Ghost grunts. “No teeth.”

The only mercy Johnny is afforded is when he sinks his nails into the sinews of Ghost’s thighs, scratching him striated, trying to offset the burn in his jowls. The back of his head thumps dumbly against the wall with each of Ghost’s jackhammering thrusts, his smaller cock springing up and slapping against his navel.

You keen. Rub your clit a little faster, tease your forefinger around your winking hole as spit and precome sticks to Johnny’s chin the same way your juices strings your fingers together. Johnny goes lax and the video abruptly ends, and you almost feel yourself going crazy, hastily exiting the video because you miss the phantom sensation around your cunt getting stretched. You click on another video that has your heart jumping to your throat.

It’s dated from just yesterday, two days after you placed the order with Ghost.

breeding_my_boy.avi

Your panties are completely soaked through at this point. The image of Johnny folded like origami under Ghost, eclipsed by his body, makes you gush. His knees are pressed against his ears and his ass is in the air while Ghost tugs his cock, towering over him and pressing his tip against his hole, slowly sinking into him.

Simultaneously, you hook two of your fingers up your cunt. Your arousal seeps out and pools into the divots between your knuckles, hot and wet, making a sucking sound as you draw your fingers out and thrust them back in, pawing your walls.

Ghost pulls his cock to the tip before driving himself back inside. He’s deeply-seated, knocking the air out of Johnny’s lungs with each stroke. Ghost draws his thighs close for leverage and sinks his fists into the bed, on either side of Johnny before snapping his hips, feeding him his whole cock.

You sink your other hand below your pants and blindly sweep at your clit, watching with keen eyes as Johnny gets pounded into the mattress, his legs thrashing dumbly with the force, his hands twisting into the moth-eaten sheets because he doesn’t know what else to do with his hands and according to Ghost, he’s “not allowed to touch his cock.”

You can barely see Ghost’s sweat in the coarse-grained, gritty video filter. It comes out as glistening dew, dribbling down his neck and onto Johnny’s cheek, to which he swiftly laps up.

It’s the same thing for Johnny’s tears—sparkling in the soft smoulder of light, smearing like spread as Ghost works his rough tongue against his cheek, licking up his brine.

Johnny’s whimpers and the crack of flesh against flesh emanate out of the janky laptop as tinny, thin. However as Ghost lowers his head, grumbling against the hull of Johnny’s ear, whispering, the thin sound travels out of the speakers and punctures your stomach.

“Wish I could breed you, pup…”

Pleasure gyrates in your belly, frothy. You curl your toes into your mattress and buck into your fingers, feeling your orgasm beginning to crest. You pinch your clit the same way Ghost snakes his hand low, trapping the tip of Johnny’s cock between his fingers to squeeze.

“Smile a’ the camera, dog,” he mutters. Takes him by the jaw and dimples his cheeks as he makes Johnny look into the lens, his eyes glossed over.

“Y’reckon she’s touching herself?” Ghost growls. “Watching you turn a mess?”

Your orgasm is on the edge now. Ghost looks at the camera, his eyes glowing like predators do on trail cams, a swill of molten rushing through you. He looks like he did beneath the awning—animalistic, as he seems to stare directly at you, snapping into Johnny’s ass.

“m gonnae come…” Johnny whimpers.

Ghost chokes his hand around Johnny’s cock, sliding his hand up and down to the pace of his thrusts. And with what happens next, your body girdles, throwing itself into the throes of your panoramic orgasm.

It’s Johnny. Bending his back off the bed and squeezing his thighs. He moans your name—your screen name—the one used to purchase the laptop. He treats it like something to bite on to defer the pain of his orgasm, trembling.

Thick ropes of come shoot from his cock just as an off-white liquid escapes you, splattering over the screen. You’re quivering as Ghost fills Johnny, watching as his balls tighten and breathe like a pulse as he comes inside.

The three of you are miraculously synchronized. Your laboured breaths simmer, thinning into nothing, as the two of them turn to look at the camera.

You undertake the decision to keep the laptop.

And a week later while browsing Craigslist’s homepage, you stumble across a familiar username.

Posted by Ghost 32 minutes ago.

Looking for a flatmate in Manchester. Two roommates. Three bedroom. Females only. Serious inquiries only.

A second doesn’t pass before you’re writing up your application.

#ghost x reader #soap x reader #simon riley x reader #soap mactavish x reader #ghost/reader smut #soap/reader #soap mactavish smut #ghost smut #ghostsoap x reader #simon ghost riley #cod mw2 #cod x reader #ghost/reader #simon ghost x reader #simon riley #john soap mactavish #ghoap x reader

[luveline]

Oh oh oh Hotch walking in on a sweet little moment between Jack and reader and he just MELTS when he realises how much he loves them both??💗💗 (pls, only if it inspires you lovely!!)

ty for your request! fem, 1k

“Well, I liked it. I thought it was cool.” 

Hotch puts his keys in the bowl. “It is cool,” Jack says. It's good to hear his voice after so long away. Jack's not often talkative. “It is.” 

“Thank you, Jack.” There's a gap where Hotch can't see anything, peering around the door to the kitchen. He's too far away. “You're such a nice boy. You know that?” you ask. 

You and Jack are talking in the unhurried tones of people close to one another. Hotch has to strain to hear it clearly. “You think so?” 

“I do. You're really, always nice to me. You're brave and smart, Jack, but what I love about you the most is how nice you are. How kind.” 

“Thank you.” 

“You're welcome.” Hotch can see the look on your face in his mind, the softening of your eyes and the small smile. “Do you think you're nice?” 

“Yes!” A small giggle echoes off of the kitchen tiles. “I'm nice. But I want to be brave more.” 

“Yeah? It's a really great thing to be so nice. To be patient with people, and to be forgiving, that's its own kind of bravery, because it can be hard.” 

“It's easy.” 

“I'm glad you think so.” Hotch walks further down the hall and finally spots you. You're sitting on the kitchen floor together with one of Jack's long paper rolls spooled from the door to the cabinets. Jack lays on his stomach with a red marker in his hand, staring at you with wide eyes as you draw. Hotch can't see your face, but he hears your smile. “I love you, Jack.” 

“I love you too… thanks for drawing with me.” 

“I love drawing with you. Maybe I should say thanks to you for doing all the best ones.” 

Jack laughs with the shaken-soda quality only little kids can reach. It immediately gets you laughing, and that combined makes Hotch chuckle. Your heads turn together quickly, Jack's with excitement and yours surprise. “Hi, daddy!” 

“Hi, buddy.”

“You're home early?” Jack asks. 

Hotch steps carefully over the mess of pending and paper, sitting cross-legged at Jack's side. Jack smiles and tips into Hotch's lap without getting up, a flop of limbs into starched pants. Hotch hugs him in similar limbless fashion. 

“Home for two days, at least.” He presses his lips to Jack's ear, speaking softly. “So I hope you saved some room for me on that paper.” 

“I did! Do you want your pyjamas? We've been wearing our pyjamas all day. We had pizza for breakfast.” 

“Jack!” You cover your face. “Jack, that was our secret, oh,” —you part your fingers— “Aaron, I'm sorry, I know he shouldn't lie to you, and I know I shouldn't give him junk but he was asking so nicely and I really didn't wanna make oatmeal.” 

Jack runs away with another bout of giggles, knowing he's entrapped you. 

“You know I don't care,” Hotch says, giving you an easy smile. 

“Yeah, but… I'm supposed to be a good role model,” you say, offering a small smile in return. It half knocks the air from his lungs. 

He reaches across the drawing chaos to touch your face with his thumb. Your cheek is soft. The little wrinkle by your mouth deepens with your smiling, and the incremental weight of your head tilting into his hand is a feeling he can't get enough of. 

“I heard you talking,” he says. 

“What were we saying?” 

“About how he's kind.” He cups your cheek. “I missed you both so much. It's… amazing to be home.”

He knows you like this more than kissing, sometimes. It isn't hard to hold you like you mean everything to him, to caress your skin with a gentle fingertip, drawing a line along the curve of your neck. Your pupils grow to black dimes, and your breathing slows. 

“I missed you too, Agent. We missed you, we've been trying to think of new games to keep busy. See, we're drawing us in different jobs.” 

He's going to look just as soon as he gets enough of you, his thumb pressing circles into your skin.

“Did you frown a lot while you were away?” you ask in a whisper. 

“Can you tell?” 

“A little bit,” you say, still whispering as you lift your hand. You rub the line between his brows. “Should I kiss it away?” 

Jack runs back in with Hotch's pyjamas in his arms, a grey shirt and dark blue pants. “Kiss what?” 

“My wrinkles,” Hotch says. 

“His frowny face.” 

Jack wraps his arms over Hotch's shoulders, almost choking him with the pyjamas. “I'll do it! I will.” 

“Alright, buddy. Fix me up, okay? I can only smile for the next couple of days.” 

Hotch gets a face full of kisses and a great long hug to round it out, Jack in his lap. You're sketching something as they hug but he can't see what until Jack settles, and when he does, he laughs so hard he almost knocks Jack back out of his lap. 

Jack Hotchner, professional frown remover, you've captioned. Jack stands tall and smiling with a love heart on his shirt, his felt marker outlines sewn with care. Aaron Hotchner stands next to him, professional frowner. 

Hotch immediately pesters Jack into giving him the right pens for his own turn. He doesn't caption it, unsure what job he'd label either of you with, but it's clear what he's getting at with speech bubbles full of smiley faces. 

He thinks he might remember your conversation forever without it, but the drawing serves as a nice memento. He only wishes he were a better artist. 

#aaron hotchner x reader #aaron hotchner x you #aaron hotchner x y/n #aaron hotchner #aaron hotchner fic #aaron hotchner blurb #aaron hotchner drabble #aaron hotchner imagine #aaron hotchner fanfic #aaron hotchner fanfiction #hotch x reader #hotch #hotch x you #hotch blurb #hotch drabble

[charliemwrites]

SpecGru au part 9!! (Getting back into the groove of it, but happy to be writing for it again!)

Content: safe/sane/consensual sexual content - fingering (reader receiving)

You wake up warm, in the dark. Pleasantly drowsy and heavy.

There’s a big body behind you, a line of muscle and heated skin. It takes a moment to remember it’s not your captain behind you, but your Nitko, snoring softly against the nape of your neck. He’s cuddled you in close and tight, a thick arm tight around your waist, wrist nestled between your breasts. His hand, broad and calloused, is curled lightly against your collarbone.

His arm is under your head, a perfect plush pillow. You run your thumb over the ruined tattoo wrapping his forearm. He says it used to be a skull, but you can’t ever make out the design with the heavy scarring interrupting the ink.

“любовь,” he rasps into your ear.

You press back against him, twist your head to kiss the lax muscle beneath your head. The change in your breathing must have awoken him. He squeezes you a bit tighter for a moment, feeling like an oversized teddy bear. You smile, realize he can feel it when he puffs with amusement.

“детеныш,” he murmurs, lips brushing tender skin.

You sigh, try to dig your voice out of slumber, but it’s slow to come these days. Even when you haven’t had a bad night, you have trouble speaking in the morning. None of your team minds – but especially not Nikto, who hardly ever speaks more than a handful of sentences a day.

For a while, the two of you doze, breaths sinking, enjoying the time darkness before daylight heralds the return of his mask. You don’t mind it, of course, respect his need for privacy and protection, his discomfort with the scars of his torture. But you won’t feel guilty for enjoying the rare access to his mouth, either.

His fingertips begin to trace over the curve of your collarbone, a featherlight caress that makes you shiver. Eventually his palm travels up to your throat, cradles you there, thumb against your quickening pulse. Not gripping or restraining. Just holding, measuring. You tilt your chin back to give him access, finally manage a soft hum against his palm.

“Can I take care of you?” he asks.

“Hmm?”

You almost mourn the loss of his hand on your throat as it maps down your bare body. But then it stops at the soft hair of your pussy, curling almost playfully. You inhale softly, a thrill jolting through your stomach, sinking low and simmering in your gut.

“пожалуйста,” you whisper.

You’re already warm and wet for him, know it as soon as guides your thigh up and over his own. Leftover pleasure from your private time with the captain and a night with your ass cradled against Nikto’s pelvis. You grind back against him now, feel the delicious bulge of his cock parting your cheeks.

He hushes you, peppering kisses along the line of your neck. “Relax. Let me take care of you.”

You stop pushing back against him, making your body go lax and compliant again. He murmurs praise against your skin, a single finger dipping into your slit, skating over your slippery, swollen clit. You gasp softly, slumping back against him, spreading your thighs a bit wider.

There’s nothing hurried about it, just a gentle, coaxing pressure and leisurely circles. Almost hypnotic, the novel texture of his finger pad setting your nerves alight. You’re still sensitive from the previous night, melting in his arms as pleasure quickly turns your hazy brain to cotton fuzz. When the pleasure starts to crest, he changes the rhythm, rubbing circles in the opposite direction. Doesn’t stop the climax altogether but delays it, spools it out.

You make a soft noise, not sure if your disappointed by the denial or grateful that he’s drawing the pleasure out. When he’s treating you like this, the build up is just as good as the orgasm itself. You could live forever in moments like this, soft and blurry and riding on a constant thrum of ecstasy.

“Easy, easy,” he soothes, “let me take care of you.”

You squeeze his arm in agreement, moaning softly as he changes the direction again. He sucks gently at the sweet spot behind your ear, nothing that’ll leave a mark – but enough to sweeten the pleasure into something syrupy, dripping from your lips on humid breaths. His pace never changes, never hurries or rushes you to the end. Like he could spend all morning playing with your pussy too. Just lets it build and build…

“Whenever you’re ready, любовь,” he murmurs. “I won’t deny you anything.”

The pleasure crests like sunrise, liquid gold pouring over you. You moan, voice pitching low in your throat, none of the desperate high pitch of the night before. His teeth sink gently into the spot he’s been lavishing. No pain, just a pleasant ache that makes you tingle from head to toe.

Nikto doesn’t stop until you whimper softly, tapping twice at his arm that you’re overstimulated. He stops instantly, eases away, squeezes your hip and thighs until you catch your breath.

“Alright?” he asks.

“A-alright,” you breathe, craning your neck back to receive a languid kiss from his rough lips. “Do you want to…?”

“Not today,” he replies, sparing a moment to adjust himself in his underwear. “Just wanted to be good to you.”

You hum in understanding, wriggling around to press your hands to his scarred chest. “You’re always good to me.”

He hums, drops a lingering kiss on your forehead. “Need help cleaning up?”

“No, love, thank you though,” you murmur. “Should I grab your mask while I’m up?”

“It’s on the dresser.”

“Got it.”

You sneak one last kiss before shuffling out of bed.

--

Price’s arms are crossed tight when Simon files into his office with the rest of the 141. His expression could be carved of stone, jaw tight. There’s no evidence of it, but Simon can tell he’s been pacing. Has the grim look of a mission with shit odds and no backup, but they’ll have to make it work anyway.

“I talked to her captain,” he begins without preamble.

Simon stills, doesn’t acknowledge the guilty glance Johnny shoots him. Gaz audibly swallows and tucks his hands into his pockets.

“He’s agreed not to contact Laswell for an exchange.”

Something in Simon’s chest loosens. If your captain contacts Laswell to get a new team assigned to the mission, it means you’re gone again. Beyond their reach. He could have made peace if he never saw you again. But to have you here, within arm’s reach – even if you can barely look at any of them right now… well, you always saw reason once you got the worst of your feelings out.

Simon knows he’s banking on your forgiving nature, but the 141 was your first team. The fact that you’re still so angry with them means they still mean something to you, even after all this time.

“This needs to be put to rest,” Price continues. “I know we’ve all got bad feelings about what happened, but it can’t keep interfering with the job.”

Johnny and Gaz duck their heads, ashamed. Simon’s own chest twists. In retrospect, throwing his fight with you was stupid and desperate. He had been hoping that a few good swings would soften you up to a real conversation – but he shouldn’t have discounted your pride. Especially when it comes to him.

“He’s agreed to talk to her, see if she’s willing to hash things out with any of us – but under the caveat that we keep it professional.”

He rocks back on his heels, pins them each with a hard look. The kind that promises retribution.

“Whatever you’ve got to say, save it for after hours and hope she doesn’t swing on you. Dismissed.”

Even Johnny is quiet as the three exit Price’s office, a somber frown on his face. Simon doesn’t wait to ask him what he’s thinking; he already knows. Johnny may have put up a haughty front earlier, but eventually his true feelings will surface. The hurt and guilt, the confusion and fear. He and Gaz loved you in a way Simon couldn’t manage. Even if you’re still pissed, Johnny’s such an earnest sort that you’ll soften to him eventually.

Same with Gaz. Forgiveness is a light at the end of that particular tunnel.

It’s a coin toss for Price, your poker face is especially blank when it comes to him.

But for Simon…

Simon’s made peace for a long time that there’s little redemption for him. On Earth or anywhere else. With you… at the very least you deserve an explanation, even if it doesn’t absolve him of anything. You should know that his intentions were never to have you removed, by your own volition or otherwise.

Maybe he wasn’t too far off with the initial idea – let you get the anger out. He’s the one that deserves it, not Johnny or Gaz or even Price, really. Went about it the wrong way, maybe, but not a bad idea all around.

So, he doesn’t make the turn to the 141 barracks. He pivots instead for the SpecGru hall.

It’s quiet, all the doors closed, with no indication of who is staying in which rooms. But Simon doesn’t need it. He knows that yours is the third door down on the right, across from Russ.

He pauses outside, stares at the cheap woodgrain as he loads words like bullets.

Raises his hand to knock, knuckles white beneath his gloves—

“Daddy!”

He freezes. Denial flares hot and bright for a moment, a desperate hope that he didn’t actually hear that. But then it comes again, that desperate, needy pitch he remembers on his weakest, loneliest nights—

“D-daddy!” your voice slithers out from beneath another door, wraps around Simon’s throat and strangles him. A hitched moan follows, one that he knows from experience means you’re out of your mind on pleasure.

And it’s like his mind is working against him, because he picks up the little, damning noises he didn’t notice before. The obscene slap of skin on skin, the deeper, quieter cadence of a man’s voice. It only takes a moment to recognize it as your captain’s, the rasp of it unmistakable, even if individual words are inaudible.

Simon feels his stomach curdle and sink, chest burning with something he can’t identify. Anger? Jealousy? Shame? He can’t figure it out – not right now, right here. With the sound of your impending climax making you louder and louder, clawing memories from his brain. A life he should have had with you, a relationship he never had the strength to acknowledge.

He turns on his heel and storms away, almost shoulder-checking Nova on his way.

--

Nova greets you rosy and bright at breakfast later that morning, a coffee for you already in hand. It’s such a sweet gesture that you can’t help yourself. You curl an arm around her waist and kiss her, licking the taste of too-sweet tea from her lips. Your precious girl.

“Morning, pretty thing,” you hum.

There’s a blush blooming high in her cheeks as she pecks your nose. “Mornin,’ babes. Made it right?”

You accept the mug from her, take a quick sip. Not too hot, just the right amount of cream and sugar – you even catch a hint of cinnamon, her calling card for your drinks.

“Perfect,” you reply, kissing her forehead, “thank you, love.”

She hums, sends you off to Keegan and your captain with a little pat on the ass. You sit at the table with a warm greeting, leaning into Keegan when he curls an arm around your shoulders. In the kitchenette, Nova and Nikto are exchanging their own good mornings, a sly grin on her face as she teases him.

“Here, baby,” your captain calls, sliding a plate of pastries your way. “You haven’t eaten since dinner.”

You tuck into a muffin while he and Keegan continue chatting – sounds like they’re discussing plans for the day. Training schedules and dealing with the 141. It’s too early for you to be bothered by talk of your former teen, so you just listen quietly, enjoying your breakfast. Nova takes a seat beside you, snuggling in extra close with her thigh against yours.

“How was your sleepover with the cap last night?” you ask.

“Cozy. We watched one of Keegan’s true crime docs,” she replies happily. “Missed you and Nik, though.”

You smile, knock your knee lightly into hers. “How about you and I start that new season of Doctor Who tonight? I’ll do your hair while we’re at it.”

She lights up. “Yeah? It’s a date.”

She flicks a glance over your shoulder, you turn and catch Keegan watching you both, eyes half-lidded. Fond, warm. With the mask, he can be inscrutable to others, but you know how to read the light in his eyes. Never knew you could understand someone so well when they want you to know them.

You only realize that Ghost was there in the doorway when you notice the dark flicker of him walking away.

#cod #my writing #fanfiction #reader fic #specgru reader #former 141 reader #cod nikto #nikto x reader #nova cod #captain daddy

[heartfullofleeches]

"A tour of my room :)"

-

"Is it on? The red light is flashing so..... Hi! It's so nice to meet you whoever you are... My name is Y/n and..... This is my room! Red gave me permission to record this video after they told me what a camera is. My head still hurts a little from all the crying I had to do to convince them to let me keep this- but I'm okay! What should I show you first?....hm...."

You take a quick look of your surroundings - the hollow ping of metal hitting the poles of your bed catching your ear, steering your gaze towards your weighted wrists.

"My bracelets! Red gave them to me my first night home. The leash is to make sure I don't wander off. I used to do that a lot actually. It's long enough I can comfortably walk around the kitchen, the bathroom, and Red's room. Those are pretty much all the places I need to go. If I pull my bed away from the wall, I can almost touch the front-"

Knock- knock- knock-

Only three... Not them....

.....

"Moving on! As you can see under me, this is my bed. I don't use it much since Red likes when I sleep with them. If you look really close riiight there - you can see Red carved our names into the headboard. They've carved our named into a lot of things we own. I think it's their favorite hobby."

You point upwards at your caretaker's beautiful craftsmanship. Heavy pounds channels through the walls - the frame of your bed imitating the knocks at the front door as it taps your bedroom wall in an that dreaded sound-

Knock, knock, knock-

"Over here is my dresser, where I keep most of my things."

Sliding off the edge of the bed, you recenter your new camera towards your dresser. You knew Red cleaned while you were asleep so there wasn't much on top of the furniture besides a stuffed fox they gifted you your first night home, and a spool of wool rendered useless due to sharp tears in the fabric. There were some picture frames as well, but those were more for Red than anything. The less you had to see your face the better

"I really wanted to try knitting like Red does, but my claws always tear the wool. Next to that is Mr. Rabbit. Red said they got him when they were little and it helped them feel less scared - so they gave it to me to make me free better. I don't want to hurt him so he sleeps here. Above my dresser is the list of rules Red has for me. It's really short - because they said I'm a good person. Red is still teaching me how to read, but i still remember what they told me-"

You pick up the camera, angling it up at the tapestry as you speak

"No eating on the couch-"

"Clean your teeth after every meal."

"Ignore any voices that are not Red's."

"The only time you're allowed to enter the basement is if your teeth start to feel itchy."

"And lastly.... Do not open the front door unless you hear the special knock we created together."

The last one is easy to follow.

"Help! Please, somebody- help! My boyfriend is hurt, I can't stop the bleeding. We were attacked some maniac in this... fucked up mask. Please - open the fucking door!"

You walk to the opposite side of the room, facing away from the window.

"Red.... Red doesn't let me do a lot of things. They were so mad at me when they found me cleaning the storage closet, but their mood changed so fast when they saw I found this... They said it's a music player. I like when they play music from their phone. They said when I'm too scared to watch t.v in the living room to drown out the noises I can just play one of these these...re....reco...."

Knock.

"Go away!"

Go away, go away- Why can't they just leave you alone. Why can't they understand it's better this way? Whatever Red will do.... It's better than..... Red. Where's Red? Why aren't they home yet? You're scared. Scared of what you'll do. Where is Red? Red - Red, please come home. I'm so hungry.

Dinner... Dinner is right outside, but you're a good person - just like they said. You'll wait for Red. They'll probably be home at any second - cries that loud could be heard for miles in a place like this. You just have to wait.

"I.....I guess I just put the record in here, then. Red is gonna be so proud of me for doing this by myself. Thank you for everything you do for me, Red..... I hope you all liked my tour!"

#yandere #yandere x you #yandere headcanons #yandere x reader #yandere imagines #yandere oc #yandere insert #yandere blurb #yandere x willing reader #tw yandere #monster reader #yandere scenarios

[sxnktaalxna]

Threads - Chapter 3

Azriel x Acheron Sister

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2

As a child, (Y/N) had always been gifted with the needle. As young as she was, her nimble fingers could thread fabrics and string as though it were dancing across a silky stage. She supposed it was a blessing as time went on, and coin grew low. Coats with holes and thinning linings were given second lives. Curtains and old table cloths were stitched together forming misshapen blankets, too itchy socks and new pants that Nesta complained were unladylike to wear (but she wore anyway - how could she deny her youngest sister's efforts?). Those pants still stayed hidden in depths of Nesta's dresses.

Now this needle, growing blunt and losing its shine, found a home in her sister's skin. Dancing and weaving through a tapestry of an ocean of scars. (Y/N) always kept her spool of string in the back of the closet for emergencies - Elain's ripped sleeve, Nesta's too long hem, her father's fraying shirt, and Feyre's broken skin.

Feyre kept a straight face during those nights when stitches was needed, but (Y/N) only needed to peek from the corner of her eye to see the smallest wince each prick gave her. She knew Feyre had been through worse, but she did her best help her older sister as best as she could. It was the least she could do. So gentle notes of childhood lullabies began to spill from her lips. Nights filled with bloody threads and folk songs began to fill the house that once was drained of love and light.

(Y/N) would often ask what happened when Feyre would come home with a new cut or bruise. And each time, Feyre would dismiss it with a wave of her hand. Her younger sister was still a child, freshly 18 and still curious of the world. And yet, she had been robbed of the childhood and youth that Nesta, Elain and to some extent Feyre had. The night of her mother's death, when Feyre had curled herself into the dark corner of her bedroom, tears on her cheeks and a promise held to her heart, her baby sister crawled in next to her. As silent as a mouse, she said nothing as she cradled her older sister in that dark corner. (Y/N) had always been that way - too old for her age. She supposed that's what happens when the world leaves you to die. That's why Feyre kept her pains to herself - to spare her younger sister, give her a small relief that she never had. Protect her as best she could, while she still had her innocence.

But standing there, watching her beloved sisters fight for their lives, she felt lost. Helpless. Her heart wrenched at them, nightgowns dirtied and torn. No matter how much she fought, she remained defenceless as her sisters cries and shrieks echoed the battle.

(Y/N) could barely understand what was happening. Awoken and attacked in the night, in the safety of their home. Dragged and torn through the dirt as they fought their captors. Continuing to fight against the inhuman strength that held them hostage. And now, watching her fate bubble and boil in a cauldron. She could only cry as she watched Feyre fight so far from them. Could only watch as Cassian's wings were shredded apart and Azriel laid in a bed of crimson. Could only watch as Elain and Nesta fought against their fate, only to come out changed. Could only watch as it was her turn.

She could feel the ache in her bones as she fought against the guards dragging her towards the bubble surface of the cauldron. Her heart pounded like thunder in her ears. She dug her bare ankles into the floor, trying to stall as best as she could. She could only do so much before she was pushed in.

This must be what death felt like. To feel it flood ur senses, surround you and drag you under its cruel fingers into a dark abyss. To feel it flood your throat and tear the air out of your lungs in a fiery rage. The burn ran through each nerve of her body - she felt in behind her eyes, in her fingertips, within the bones of her frame.

The light blinded her as she tumbled out of the cauldron. What felt like hours was only a few seconds. The cold air sent icy pricks that stung her skin, leaving goosebumps. But none of that compared to what she felt under her grip. Her fingers clawed the wet soil, feeling as though a line had threaded itself between her fingers and to the very core of the earth. It anchored her so far down she thought she felt the quake of the world beneath her touch.

And she looked - she didn't just look, she saw. Saw gentle lines of threads dancing across each living being. They were so fragile and thin they were almost imperceptible- but they were there and they shone and glistened like glitter. A painting of golden webs danced across the wind - she imagined this must be the song of the wind Azriel had spoken of. And she felt a tug from one of the fragile threads in front of her - one that shone brighter and held stronger than the others. One that led to the man laying on his crimson deathbed.

-☆-

Even after months, the world had been too much. The colours had been much brighter, as if the Fae world was ripped from Feyre's paintings. The lullabies that floated in the wind carried by songbirds rang in her ears no matter where she was. Even when she locked out the doors, closed the windows, kept the curtains down. The world she had always dreamed of seeing, and she had been forced to see it everywhere. She couldn't escape it.

And those golden threads that seemed to weave the world to her fingertips... She could feel the urge to tug at those threads, to pull back against the own pulling of the Mother. And yet each time she reached out and held own, her fingers never seemed to hold steady.

She hadn't seen her sister's in a while. Nesta was often gone, and the only clues of her existence lingered in the tussled room next to hers. Elain had been just as bad, possibly worse. Locked in her room, Elain spent most of her days staring out the window, her lips remaining sealed from the world.

Feyre had tried. For (Y/N) especially, she had tried to coax them outside and to experience Velaris properly. There were good days, like when Elain and (Y/N) were sat by the window, hands held tightly - but most days were spent with the Acheron sisters out of sight, locked away and silent. During those days, Feyre would sometimes wish she were back in their cabin in the woods. Nesta and Elain staying inside, hogging the blankets. Their father carving creatures from woods. (Y/N) as fresh as the first winter snow, axe in hand and firewood in a circle around her. Huddled around a small fire in the cold nights, hungry but free.

And now they had been damned into an existence unwanted, cursed - and what good was a cursebreaker if her sisters remained crushed under this living burden?

She could hear shuffling behind the door, quiet yet frantic. Moments later, the door gave way to her baby sister. Nesta had been devastatingly beautiful, her features sharpened like a blade on grindstone. The moment she had come out the cauldron, power had emanated from her pores like waves of heat from an everlasting flame. Elain had come out like the personification of spring, bright and rosy and glowing, yet blank and shivering like a baby deer. (Y/N) came out...different.

Nesta had come out with power, but (Y/N) came out with purpose. Feyre remembered watching (Y/N)'s eyes dart around the air, as if staring at flying bugs that no other eye could see. For days, weeks, (Y/N) stared out into nothing, eyes darting and following the air. One night during their early days as Fae, Feyre caught her sister reaching out towards the stars, fingers reaching to hold onto something. That night had ended with (Y/N) in tears, weakly clawing at the air. No longer did her sister yearn for the unknown, no longer did she smile at the curious or giggle at the strange.

'Hello little butterfly,' Feyre grinned. Often (Y/N) would not answer, staying silent behind the door. Today was a lucky day it seemed.

'Hello,' (Y/N) nodded, her fingers tightly around the door edge. They were slender, thin, no longer covered in small red dots. Feyre's smile dropped slightly, but she quickly recovered.

'May I come in?'

(Y/N) sidestepped away from the door and back to the chair in the corner of the room. Today must be a very good day then. Feyre stepped in, closing the door and pushing away the last bit of artificial light from the room. (Y/N)'s room had been in perpetual darkness since her change. The only source of light was the small set of candles on her table gifted to her by Rhysand - 'So you don't prick your finger when you sew,' he'd said. Her sewing kit laid untouched on her shelf.

'Please don't ask me if I'm ok,' (Y/N) sighed once Feyre sat down on her bed. 'You know I'm not.'

'You won't get used to your new senses if you keep yourself locked away. Maybe if we opened a window-'

'It's not that, and you know it,' (Y/N) snapped. Her fingers gripped the wooden handles of her chair, nails digging in. 'I know you were there.'

'We were all there-'

'Not my changing.' (Y/N)'s eyes snapped up to Feyre's. Feyre almost flinched at the severity behind them. 'That night. You were there. I felt you - your thread.'

'My thread?'

'I felt it tugging that night. It only feels like that when someone is close by,' (Y/N) frowned. It looked like more words wanted to spill, but she kept her mouth shut.

'I've...' Feyre trailed off, confused. 'I've never heard of threads. Are you sure-'

'I'm not going insane,' (Y/N) cried, pushing her palms into her eyes. Feyre felt her heart shatter.

Reaching out, she took her sister's trembling hands, holding them steady in hers. 'You are not insane. There is nothing wrong with you.'

Feyre's hands reached up, cupping (Y/N)'s cheeks. 'You are just as you've always been. My dear little sister. My little butterfly.'

(Y/N) inhaled, closing her eyes. She felt her sister's fingers glide across her cheeks, tucking her hair behind her ears. For once, she could feel the golden strings. They gently grazed her cheeks, as warm and as soft as she could ever imagine. She could feel them connected to her being, connected to the love of her sister. They danced around her heart, tugging at her heart.

'I'm hoping to start a sewing workshop sometime in my art studio,' Feyre said, her hands holding (Y/N)'s hands in her lap. 'And I was hoping, you'd help me run it.'

(Y/N)'s breath hitched at the thought of leaving the house so soon, but Feyre gently squeezed her hands. Those threads made their presence known once more. (Y/N) could feel them tracing the outlines of their conjoined hands, a small tickle that ran along her skin. She wondered if Feyre could feel it too.

'Only when your ready,' Feyre said, 'We'll wait as long as you need.'

(Y/N) nodded, unsure of what to say. Or think. She felt a different tug at her heart - a stronger one. One that was familiar and warm in a way that brought her comfort. A small puff of air blew through her room, causing a small flicker of candles.

'I know,' Feyre said, seeing (Y/N)'s lips starting to slowly upturn. 'You have guests. No wonder you're in a good mood.'

'I'm not sure what you mean,' (Y/N) huffed, brushing her skirt down nervously.

Small shadows flowed from the underside of her door, immediately finding a place around her. They wrapped around her arms, like a gentle welcoming embrace, as if to say 'I missed you.'

Feyre stood up, chuckling at their puppy-like behaviour. 'I'll leave you two alone.'

Opening the door, she laughed and left down the hall. She stood up as the man she was excited to see walked in. And she too, almost giggled at his sight. His usual dark armour had been foregone, only in his undershirt he normally wore underneath his armour. His daggers had also been left behind. But what amused her was the abnormally bright bouquet of various flowers in his hands, slightly obscuring his face.

He coughed at her amused gaze, bowing his head slightly, 'Cerridwen and Nuala said you loved flowers, and I was passing by and figured I'd pick some up.'

'Thank you,' She said, gently picking the flowers out of his grips. Her fingers grazed his, a bright tingle running up her arm. The thread began pulsing, beating like a drum in the back of her mind. It had become a regular visitor alongside Azriel. At first it hurt, feeling like angry waves roaring at sea. But now, they felt like cooling waves meeting the shore. She had to crane her neck around the bouquet to see him, 'I'm not sure where I'll put these, but I'm sure I'll find a place.'

Gently she placed them on her bed. Azriel would never arrive back from a mission without a gift for (Y/N). Her shelves began to overflow with trinkets from all over. From flowers to small carvings, they lined her barren shelves, brining life to the otherwise empty room. Her personal favourite sat on her bedside - a music box. The very first gift actually, now that she recalled. She kept it close to her bed, and during nights where she found it particularly hard to fall asleep, the gentle tones of an unknown lullaby would guide her to her rest.

'Have you had dinner?'

'I'm not that hungry,' (Y/N) shrugged. 'Maybe later.'

Azriel frowned, but continued on. 'The florist told me the flowers would last longer in sunlight. There's a spot by the window sill you could put them.'

(Y/N) stilled for a moment, fiddling with the stem of one of the roses on her bed. She could tell what he was trying to do. He'd always tried, always with a different excuse. She felt disappointed in herself. Each time he came, she felt herself reach for the curtains, only to be too scared to go any further.

The shadow she'd made friends with curled down her fingers, pulling a tug at her lips. 'You must not be treating your shadows well if they prefer my company.'

'They have a weakness for beautiful women is all.'

(Y/N)'s nose wrinkled at his expression, 'No wonder they hate you then.'

Azriel laughed, 'Am I not beautiful at least?'

(Y/N) could feel her ears turn red at his question, her heart skipping a beat. 'And I thought Rhysand was the one with an ego.'

'I'll bring you dinner soon,' Azriel said. 'And I won't take no for an answers. My shadows will make sure you eat.'

'One day I'm going to steal your shadows from you,' (Y/N) said, toying with the shadow around her arm.

Azriel smiled. As the Spymaster of the court, he knew people better than most. He knew how to get into their heads, how to unlock secrets and force those to do his bidding. He also knew that being a spymaster took patience and time. And he would spare all his time for (Y/N).

'Your sleeve,' (Y/N)'s eyes caught the rip in his shirt. The seam had broken open long ago, and had began unravelling over time. It had reach his forearm now, exposing his wrist. (Y/N) reached over, turning his arm over to look at the seam. 'It's going to get worse if you don't get it fixed.'

'I don't suppose you know someone who could help, do you?'

'Haha,' (Y/N) sneered sarcastically, her fingers running along the sleeve. She went silent for a moment, her eyes blank. Azriel waited. He could see her thoughts churning in her mind, and gave her time to figure out which one to articulate it. The one she chose caught him off guard. 'Leave it with me.'

-☆-

It was past midnight now. Feyre had crawled out of bed, creeping towards the kitchen for a late night snack. It would've taken her a few minutes if she hadn't noticed something strange.

A small light stretched out from a certain door down the hall. Shadows flickered across the light. Someone was still up. The closer she got to the door, she began to hear the sound of a music box. The tune it played was a familiar one - an old illyrian lullaby Rhysand and Cassian had belted one drunken night.

As quietly as she could, she cracked the door gently open. She thanked Mother the door didn't creak as she peered inside. (Y/N)'s back was to her, humming along to the lullaby. Rhysand's candle set was lit, illumianting the room once more. Her hands gracefully moved through the air, in movements that Feyre had long since memorised on nights like this. And in her lap sat a familiar black shirt she had seen many times before.

-☆-

'You finally got your shirt fixed then,' Rhysand said, seeing the fixed sleeve.

'It was minor.' Azriel replied, fixing his armour properly.

Rhysand chuckled, 'I like the flowers.'

The armour covered most Azriel's upper body. But at certain angles, a small gift would make itself known. Along the seam of his sleeve ran a small green vine that twisted and brought together the two halves. At the very end of the stitch lay a small bouquet of embroidered flowers.

-☆-

Hello! Thank you so much for waiting! I might honestly come back and add more to the ending of this chapter but I don't really have the time or any ideas right now. But I hope you enjoy nonetheless!

Also thank you so much for all the support on this series. I wasn't expecting so many people to be invested and it honestly makes me a little nervous lolol. Anyways, I'm a bit busy lately with my uni enrolment and apartment hunting, but a new chapter will be up as soon as I can write. Thank you again everyone!

Taglist:

@wallacewillow0773638 @impossibelle @utterlyotterlyx @weasleyreidstyles @justdreamstars @starswholistenanddreamsanswered @fussel9913 @willowpains @eatsleepreadance1 @blueeclipsepaperstudent @pee-stachio @zara-aliza08 @woodland-mist @cherryinsalemverse @minnieoo @why4anne @brujitafantomatico @judig92 @robinbaum143 @esposadomd @sleepylunarwolf @darling006 @jesssicapaniagua @fxckmiup @nickishadow139 @hanitastic @scatteredstardustt @thisblogisaboutabook @bookaddictedgirlie @kindasleepywriter @hnyclover @sstrohma @dianxiaxiexie @azzydaddy @namelesssav @microwaveallthedemons @twsssmlmaa

#acotar x reader #acotar #a court of thorns and roses #azriel x reader #acheron

[muneca-lemon-steppa]

Mooooo ! I love you so much bby 💕 my I request one with Alfie with the touch starved prompts “you never have to earn my affection-not now, not ever” and “I’m never more at peace than when I’m in yours arms”? Thank you lovely❤️❤️

My baby girl!!!!!!! Ugh thank you so much for sending this in. Did my heart ache writing this? Yes. Did my stomach hurt? Also yes. Am I sorry for it? NO. WE DO NOT APOLOGIZE FOR EMO HOURS IN THIS HOUSE. Hehehe Anyway I love ya so much I hope you enjoyyyyyy.

100 Follower Celebration: Your Love is Enough

Alfie Solomons x Fem!Reader

There were many perks that came with being Alfie's woman. While there was certainly a good deal of danger lurking around, there was an undeniable air of safety you had due to all the eyes watching. You got access to all the hot goings on around the city. You lived comfortably. And above all, you got to love Alfie Solomons fully and purely and unabashed. There was only one downside really... the talk.

It was no secret that you were significantly younger than Alfie. It was something you and Alfie never shied away from and didn't feel a need to. Regardless of any age difference, you and Alfie understood each other on a cosmic level, a way no one else could. You loved him with your whole heart and soul and Alfie would burn down the world if you asked him to. You were one. And anyone who truly knew you and Alfie knew that this was true love. That this was the type of love and devotion that epics were written about and empires crumbled over. But there were always going to be people who didn't know. Always going to be people who didn't understand.

You were perusing fabric patterns in the shop down the street one early afternoon, looking for the final pattern to add to a quilt you were making for Ollie's soon to be born first child. You delicately touched the cotton blends along an aisle, imagining how it would look along the squares you had already picked, taking mental note as to what was available.

"I just cannot imagine what he sees in her. I mean... she is a child isn't she?"

Your ears perked up to the tone. It was Mrs. Vorsed from down the corner, the one you waved to every morning without even a smile in return. Another voice responded, "You know how men are. They just want a little toy to play house with until they find a wife."

Who on earth could they be talking about?

"Mr. Solomons needs a real woman in his home. My Portia knows what it means to be a lady of the house, and knows her place. I mean that girl he is shacked up with... I can hear her shouts and laughter from down the street! What does she know about keeping a home, much less keeping a man?"

A snicker erupts, "Well I'm sure she won't last long. He'll tire of her eventually when he realizes what he truly needs. Then Portia can swoop right in!"

The cackles fade away with the sharp chops of heavy footed steps. Despite your efforts, the knot in your throat never went down. You lungs refused to take in breath as the words spun in your mind. How could they say those things so confidently? They didn't even know you. They never even stepped foot into the house, how could they know how you keep it? Alfie never said more than a good morning to Mrs. Vorsed. How could they know anything about you or Alfie? Yet their words kept spinning and spooling around in your mind. What if... what if they were right?? What if people saw something that you couldn't see? What if you had deluded yourself into thinking that Alfie was truly happy and in love with you? What if he was unhappy but didn't want to tell you out of duty. It all became too much in your chest, and you left the store without your fabric, but the weight of the world on your chest.

That evening Alfie could not wait to get home to you. Every evening Alfie nearly buzzed at the prospect of coming home to see your face again, and wrap himself around you, getting as close as possible. You made his day better. You made his life brighter and joyful and meaningful. It made all the business and badness worth it. Stepping through the threshold with a press to the mezuzah, Alfie calls out, "Sweet girl! I'm home! You in the kitchen darling?"

He hears you call back and smiles wide, stomach growling hungry for supper and you. Taking off his coat and hat he ambles into the kitchen, watching you stir something magical in the massive soup pot. "My dove ,my angel, my joy, what are you doing? Making food for the Royal Navy are we?"

You turn to him, and he can clearly see that something is wrong. Your lips are quivering and poorly attempting to portray a smile, and your eyes are glassy and red rimmed. He feels a stab in his chest, "Now wait a minute treacle... what's got you crying?"

You wiped your cheek and turned away, "I'm not crying."

With a scoff he grabs your chin gently, turning you to face him, "I thought we didn't lie to each other my sweet. Especially since you're the worst liar since the Garden of Eden. Why are you crying? Come on now confess."

You shrugged as Alfie's hands moved up and down your arms, "It's nothing. Stupid really I shouldn't be crying."

"Nah nah. It ain't stupid if it's got my sweet girl crying like that. Out with it."

The tears kept falling, though you tried to keep an even tone, "I just... I heard some women talking. Mrs. Vorsed and another lady."

Alfie rolled his eyes, "Always a bad sign. C'mon what else."

You sniffled, "And... well... they said that... I wasn't good enough for you. That I didn't know how to be a good woman to you. And that you would be better off with someone else. That you would soon grow tired of me. That I'm not deserving of you, and Portia Vorsed would be a better match for you."

The tears started coming harder, and you couldn't help the shaking of your body. Alfie's stomach dropped, and rage replaced it. Alfie shook your shoulders a bit in his passion, "What the fuck is wrong with them? Treacle, Mrs. Vorsed is the worst gossip in Camden, and doesn't know anything about anything. She hasn't got anything better to do but talk absolute shit. Portia, right? She is the silliest woman in town, she can't even do basic arithmetic because she's too busy being an idiot. I mean fuck me treacle I can barely say good morning to Mrs. Vorsed without getting proper fucking agitated!"

Alfie kissed your forehead and brought you to his chest, "YOU are the one for me. I don't give a shit what Mrs. Vorsed or what any other decrepit woman or idiot man thinks. You are my life. You are my stars and my moon and my sun alright? You don't have to be 'good enough' for me. Fuck you just are. You never have to earn my love. You've always had it. Even before I knew you my old and brittle heart was yours. You got that?"

You nodded, the tears pooling in his shirt. Alfie pulled you away from him to look into your eyes. "And treacle I don't even think Mrs. Vorsed can see more than a meter in front of her so she probably has no clue who she is talking about."

You laughed despite the tears and Alfie grinned. All he wanted to do every day was to make you smile. He was convinced that was what he was put on this earth to do. You put your hand to his face, feeling him lean into the warmth of your palm. "I just want to love you and care for you like you do me. I just worry that I don't do enough sometimes."

He grabbed your hand, kissing your fingertips, "Ah my sweet. I'm never more at peace than when I'm in your arms. I'm never more at home than when you're next to me. The whole business could go to shit and I'd still be the richest man in the world because I have the greatest treasure in you. And I mean that my love. You believe your old man right?"

You nod. The lump in your throat finally dissapated and the weight melted away. There was truly no love like Alfie's and yours. People could talk all they want. People could make any assumptions they wanted. That didn't change what was true. And what was true was that you and Alfie belonged to each other and would for all of eternity.

#alfie solomons #alfie solomons x reader #alfie solomons x you #alfie solomons fanfic #alfie solomons x y/n #peaky blinder fanfic #100 follower celebration

[ariadne-mouse]

silly drawing prompt, if you like: everything caleb's cats have pushed behind the fridge

Caleb's cats have stashed away:

a spool of platinum cord

several pearls

a shard of obsidian

a paper clip

a desiccated green bean

a downy owl feather

an almond

a talisman of the Traveler

a leaf

a quill pen

a lucky rock

a ruby worth 150 GP

three of Essek's earrings

#thank you this was fun! #ariadne draws CR #shadowgast #asks

[artifacts-archive]

Pair of Ear Spools

Mixtec-Aztec, Postclassic, 900-1520 CE

Ear piercing was among the most common of body modifications in ancient Mesoamerica, attested to by depictions in art and the great variety of ear ornaments. Materials ranged from paper and reeds to gold and jade. Shapes and sizes varied also, but most incorporated a cylindrical shaft, which might serve as the armature for more elaborate ear adornments or might itself be the adornment, sometimes called an “ear spool” after its shape (an alternate term, “ear plug,” invites confusion with the modern meaning of this expression). Ear spool cylinders were generally hollow and flanged at both ends.

#artifact #Mixtec-Aztec #Mexico #pre Columbian #ear spools #jewelry

[heartscrypt]

tfw you sign your soul over to an eldritch fear deity in order to regain some semblance of control over your own life (tma au)

nobody understands how fucking crazy i am about this au. its tormenting me. also epel is here as well he's corruption he has a lot of worms in him sorry in advance

closeups + design notes + au jamil fun facts under the cut!

(tw some body horror stuff? eye stuff)

design notes

his hair jewelry has been replaced with spider silk cocoons / string. also very obviously spider themed hair gem thing

spider eyes! both in the way of he has 8 human eyes and actual spider eyes on his neck

web tattoos. they spin outwards and grow in a kind of mesmerizing hypnotic pattern when he uses his powers

his braids now form a spiderweb pattern. hes also prematurely greying a little LOLL

his belt chains form a spiderweb pattern as well

he has piercings! an erl piercing across his nose bridge and four piercings on each ear

his pants are based off the spider-tailed horned viper-- a snake whose tail has evolved to look like a spider so the birds it feeds on will mistake its tail for prey

au jamil notes

his backstory pretty much remains the same honestly

except when he's around 11, instead of getting poisoned and falling into a coma, he gets trapped in a buried-aligned artifact that he touched while cleaning one of the asim treasure rooms

nobody could find him for weeks and kalim was really tearing up the whole estate about it because he insisted that jamil would never run off or disappear without a reason

jamil escapes the buried by taking the assistance of the web (he does it in the way of "i don't know what's going on but this thing is reaching out to help me and i don't want to die so fuck it" but he's still accepting the web into his life regardless)

after two weeks they find him covered in cobwebs and dust in the treasure room and he gets scolded for making everyone worry

he doesn't even bother trying to explain to people what happened to him because he knows it's too unbelievable for them. he spins a lie and he's surprised by how natural it is to just Lie to people

jamil's powers as an avatar of the web manifest visually as him "pulling strings" out of people's eyes. like unwinding their irises like they're spools of thread. if you've seen the prev post on web!jamil you know what it looks like

if he leaves the iris-strings half unwound they become very suggestible, very easily manipulated

however if he yanks out the iris-strings fully, he can turn the other person into a complete blank slate. no thoughts head empty. basically an empty cocoon of a person. he tends not to do this because 1) it's very conspicuous and 2) it renders the victim completely useless to the web

he has to concentrate very hard to do this and he can usually pull on only one person's iris-strings at a time

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst tma au #jamil viper #epel felmier #tw trypophobia #tw eye horror #heartscribbles #i hope you guys know how crazy i am about this #also i might expand on corruption!epel in another post #i just thought itd be fun. to fill this apple. WITH WORMS! #jamils trying really hard not to think about how spiders are bugs #hes latching onto the fact that spiders eat most bugs to avoid thinking too hard about his own spider theming

[sprout-fics]

I feel like König is determined to make his partner squirt. Like straight up craves it. Wants to get EVERYTHING he can out of them and won’t stop!!!

König is a pleasure dom. You can;t convince me otherwise. Sorry not sorry

When you had confessed it to him, you had gotten a glimpse of his eyes. The shadows of the hood had obscured the surprise there- shocked, curious, dark. 

“I’ve never squirted before.”

König was a soldier, first and foremost. He followed orders with little question, dedicated himself to duty, unflinching in his mission. Yet when you had entered his life that focus had shifted, twisting on its axis so it included you. 

Your courtship had been a gentle, entreating thing. His words were always quiet but direct, a soft confession spoken in the shadows of a safehouse, in the shade of a ruined building. He was endlessly tender with you, as if afraid that any sudden movements would startle you from him like a deer in the glade, seeing nothing but your fleeing figure vanishing into the distance. It had taken time to convince him otherwise, and now König revered you, devoted himself to you less as something unattainable and more as something to win, to conquer.

So, when you confessed this to him, he had dedicated himself like any soldier would. He had consulted, researched, obtained supplies, logistics, and strategy until he was certain. 

He waited until you were both on deployment, quiet and reserved until he’d taken you back to the shabby, sparsely furnished pace he called his home. Crowding you into the entryway, fingers fastening themselves on your pants, his words seizing at the core of you. 

“Tonight.” he told you, and his words left no question. An order, an irrefutable statement with little room for error. 

That had been hours ago. 

He’s split you on his cock, taking his time to make sure you can accommodate his absurd girth and length. Yet he doesn’t thrust, doesn’t budge despite the seeping, scorching clutch of you around him. It’s enough that he’s inside you, at least for now. It’s enough because he’s bent over you, chest rising and falling rapidly as one hand braces above your head and the other rubs frantically at your clit. He’s gasping encouragements into your ears, desperate queries as to what it takes to make you fulfill that prophecy you spoke of. 

“Like this?” He asks, and you’re gasping, eyes glazed over and finding his but unseeing as you search for that thing buried deep inside you, the one he seeks with such undeniable fervor. 

“Y-yes.” You tell him, even though you aren’t completely sure, blissed out on the absurd stretch of him inside you. Your legs are trembling, calves pressed up on either side of his head. He never took the hood off, too keen and desperate to ensure your own release, to speak his promise into existence. “Harder.”

It’s not enough. You can feel the glimpses of it in the distance, but it’s a small wave compared to the tsunami he’s seeking. The force of it isn’t enough to drag you out to sea, to make sure you flood the length of him, drowning you both. 

He can tell. He’s ever attuned to your body, strung as finely as the weapons in his hands. 

“It’s okay, Leibling.” He murmurs, and you catch his eyes once more, glinting in the dimness of his bedroom. The sheets spool and tangle under both your forms, clenched just tightly as all the nerve endings in your body, singing for release. 

He stretched past you, his mammoth reach grazing against the bedside table before he retrieves an object that seems absurdly small in his hands.

“This will help.” He tells you, and you catch a single moment of auditory buzz before the vibrator pulses against your clit and you arch into him with a cracked broken cry. 

“Shhh.” He hushes, and there’s a hand petting your hair even as you pulse and thrash under him. “I’ve got you, Leibling. Almost there.”

The inertia of it threatens your senses. It’s almost too much and yet still not enough. You need more, need him. 

“König.” You gasp, and the world is faded around you to obscurity. There’s no war here, no rapid pop of gunfire, or flashbangs or slickened slice of bloody flesh. Only him, only you, only your building, unfurling release that builds at the core of you where he’s buried deep inside. “N-need you to move. Please-!”

Your plea is broken off as he resumes his thrusts in gentle, rolling motions that pierce at the heart of you, grinding against the brightness that you so desperately want to unleash. 

“Harder.”

He fulfills your request with little protest, hips drawing backward and setting a steady, unflinching pace that drags at your walls, batters at the helm of you even as he presses the vibrator down. 

“Maus, Maus.” He whispers, and you open your eyes, fixate on his gaze. There’s something you’ve hardly seen there before- an intent, an obsession that feels almost unhinged, with your bare form squirming and arching and gasping under him, desperate for the thing he’s yet to give you. 

“Schön.” He mutters, only to himself, and his eyes are hardly seeing as they gaze down at your face, slack, eyes barely seeing as he draws you ever closer to your climax. 

He shifts then, forces his cock at just the right angle and you sing to him then, voice crying a high note forced from your throat as he bludgeons at just the right angle. He finds it again, then again, his aim ever true, the strength of him unflinching.

“There.” He tells you, and it’s enough, just enough to send you spiraling over the edge and into completion. Your voice is a scream you don’t hear as you arch impossibly high, driving him deeper just as something warm and liquid spills from you, coating you both in molten desire. 

He’s still murmuring down at you as you come down, hand tangled with yours, trying to draw you back to him.

“Good.” He tells you, incapable of saying little else. “Good, Maus. Let me take care of you. It will be good, I promise. I promise.”

You can’t deny him. You’ve never been able to. You never will. 

#König #könig x reader #könig x y/n #konig x reader #könig imagine #18+ #minors dni #smut #this was unhinged sorry #In my defense im desperately drunk #thursday night thots #drabbles

[tigertales9]

Hard Reset XIII

Pairing: Joe Burrow x Reader

Warnings: 18+ / Smut / Fluff

Description: This is the conclusion to the LSU Valentine's Day flashback fic. First part is here -- Hard Reset XII

Time/Place: Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019 (Valentine's Day) / Baton Rouge, Louisiana

A/N: This is the thirteenth fic in the Hard Reset series.

I've tweaked this thing to pieces, and I'm still not super happy with it. It is what it is, as Joe would say. 😋

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

Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019 (Valentine's Day) - Baton Rouge, Louisiana

5:00 pm

You pull into a parking space just outside Joe's apartment, grabbing two reusable grocery bags and a small duffle bag from your trunk before opening your passenger door; you lean in and unclasp the seatbelt that's holding your vase of roses upright, briefly wondering if you should make two trips as you nudge the car door closed with your foot. "Nah," you mumble, quickly making your way up the sidewalk and a flight of stairs before coming to a stop in front of Joe's door.

You set the vase down on the ground and dig your keys out of your pocket, unlocking the door and grabbing the vase before making your way into the cool, air-conditioned apartment. "He's got the damn a/c cranked," you grumble, depositing the grocery bags and roses on the kitchen island before walking down the hallway to the bedroom.

You set your duffle bag on the bed and unzip it, pulling out a wrap dress (a slinky, blush-pink short-sleeve mini dress) and a pair of nude, peep-toe stiletto heels. You quickly hang the dress in Joe's closet before heading back to the kitchen to pop the groceries in the fridge, stopping to turn the a/c off on the way.

Several minutes later, you step back and assess the simple tablescape you put together with a few items from the craft store -- two pink placemats printed with conversation hearts along with several clear candle holders with bows tied on them that you cut from a large spool of pink satin ribbon.

"Cute," you grin, grabbing the lavish bouquet of pink roses Joe sent you and setting it on the table before adding the simple place settings -- white plates plus silverware wrapped in "fancy" white disposable napkins tied with more pink bows. "Even cuter."

You tilt your head as you look at the table, chewing on your bottom lip while thinking out loud. "Love it, but it needs something else," you mutter, grabbing the spool of pink ribbon and unwinding the rest, grinning when you end up with about four feet of it; you wind it down the center of the table, weaving in between the candle holders and around the vase until you're satisfied with the result. "What else?" you mutter, giggling when a thought hits you.

You hurry to the hall closet and pull out the Scrabble box, rooting around to grab the letters you need to spell a few phrases to mimic the conversation heart placemats. "Thank goodness for pinterest," you mutter, giving a nod to where you got the idea.

You're just finishing the tablescape when you hear the front door open; you walk toward the entryway, smiling when Joe rounds the corner, your heart skipping a beat when his face lights up when he sees you.

"Hey babe," he greets you, wrapping you in a hug as he leans down to press his lips against your ear. "Can you believe it's 70 degrees in mid-fucking-February?" he grumbles, pulling back to look at you when you cackle.

"I knew you were gonna bitch about it," you grin.

"I'm not bitching," he argues. "Just stating a fact."

"Mmm-hmm," you hum, yelping when he playfully swats your ass. "Come here, grumpy cat," you order, walking back toward the dining table while beckoning him to follow. "Look at these gorgeous roses some hot stud sent me," you tease, waving a hand at the roses and laughing at his cocky smirk.

"Hot stud, huh?" He holds eye contact with you while leaning down to sniff the fragrant flowers.

"The hottest," you wink. "Do you like the tablescape?"

He finally breaks eye contact and takes in the table. "I love it," he states. "It's pretty cool that everything matches the roses."

"Yep, pink, pink and more pink," you giggle. "And I bought all of that before you sent me the roses, so we were on the same wavelength, as usual."

"Of course we were," he murmurs, capturing your gaze for a few heartbeats before returning his attention to the table. "The Scrabble tiles are a nice touch," he grins, reading them out loud as he walks around the table. "Be mine … love you … hot stuff … yes sir … zaddy." He flicks his gaze back up to yours. "Nice Z word," he purrs.

"Thanks," you grin. "Do I get triple word score on that one?"

"Oh, you're def gonna get triple something later."

"Can't wait," you sigh, rolling your eyes playfully when he spots the cupcakes sitting pretty on the kitchen island and instantly heads that way.

"Damn," he breathes, "these look delicious." He leans down and takes a hearty sniff as you walk up behind him. "Smell delicious, too," he continues, hitting you with puppy-dog eyes. "Can I have one before dinner?"

"Has anyone ever told you no?" you ask.

"Yep," he nods. "This gorgeous goddess told me no several times. She even used a jigsaw puzzle as an excuse to curve me."

"And how did that turn out?" you ask, picking up one of the plump cupcakes and peeling off the wrapper before handing it to him.

"Amazing," he grins, taking a huge bite of the confection, eyes rolling back in his head as he chews and swallows. "Ridiculously good," he mutters before taking another big bite.

"Ridiculously good, huh?" you tease. "You talking about the cupcake or the relationship?"

"Both," he mumbles around a mouthful, leaning down to press a chocolate + raspberry flavored kiss on your lips.

"Spoiled ass," you grumble playfully, spinning around and walking toward the bedroom, grinning when you hear him following close behind. "I'm wearing this tonight," you continue, pulling the short, slinky dress out of his closet.

"Damn," he mutters. "You're gonna look hot as hell in that. I mean … you always look hot as hell, but …"

"Babe?" you interrupt.

"Yeah?"

"Focus."

"Yes, ma'am."

You grin at him as you pull a pair of slinky black shorts and a pale pink tee out of his dresser. "Wear this," you order, laying the clothes out on his bed.

"Yes, ma'am," he repeats, slowly licking the frosting off of his fingers as you watch. "I'm gonna get a quick shower," he continues.

"I'm gonna change then start dinner," you state, your pulse picking up at the sight of his tongue sliding against his long fingers.

~ ~ ~

A little while later, you pull the oven door open and pop the garlic bread in before giving the boiling pasta a quick check, noting that it still needs a few minutes before going into the sauce; a blur of movement catches your peripheral vision, and you turn your head toward it, your eyes going wide when you see Joe leaning against the wall a few feet away, his gaze slowly sliding down to your bare feet before reversing course.

"You look amazing," he murmurs, pushing away from the wall and walking toward you.

"Thanks, you too," you mutter, stepping into your high heels as he closes the distance between you.

"You don't need those," he states, dropping to his knees to pull your shoes off, his big hands gripping your ankles as he eases the heels off.

"Okay," you breathe. "I was just trying to be sexy for you."

"You don't need to try to be sexy," he states, standing back up to his full height and looking down into your upturned face. "You are sexy."

"Okay," you repeat, licking your lips before giving him a grin. "We've got a few minutes before dinner is ready, so I want to give you something." You hurry to the hall closet and grab the jigsaw puzzle that you hid there earlier, smiling when you return to the kitchen and hand it to him.

"Nice," he grins. "Pillars of Creation. Is it a shot from Hubble?"

"Yeah, with a super hot heat signature."

"Super hot," he agrees. "You gonna help me put it together?"

"Of course," you answer, watching as he sets the puzzle box aside before returning his attention to you.

He gives you a quick kiss before pulling back. "Thank you," he murmurs.

"You're welcome," you whisper, grimacing as a thought hits you.

"What is it?" he asks.

"I just … I wonder …" you trail off.

"Wonder what?" he asks.

"What if we hadn't seen each other at the outdoor food court? It's crazy that we came so close to not ever getting together after I gave you the jigsaw brush off."

He gives you a knowing smile. "I would've come back into the bookstore eventually. I'm a stubborn asshole. No way was I gonna give up on you that easy."

"I'm glad you're a stubborn asshole."

"And I'm glad you decided to give me a chance," he grins.

"Me too," you return his grin. "Even though it means I've been to more LSU football games in the last few months than I'd been to in my entire life."

"And not one drunk asshole harassed you, right?"

"Well, yeah. Prob because you very publicly threatened to "deal with" anyone who bothered me."

"Anyone who messes with my woman messes with me."

"That sounded super caveman, but I ain't even mad."

"Because you know I didn't mean it in a bad way; I'm just as much yours as you are mine."

"You're getting laid tonight, babe," you grin. "No need to work for it." The timer on the oven goes off before he can respond, and you quickly drain the pasta before adding it to the sauce, giving it a thorough stir before pulling the garlic bread out of the oven.

~ ~ ~

Ten minutes later, most of the overhead lights are cut off, and y'all are eating dinner by candlelight, Joe making num-num noises as he tucks into the spicy pasta.

"This is so good," he groans, winding a generous portion of linguine around his fork before popping it in his mouth, grabbing his glass of blush wine and holding it up as he chews and swallows. "Happy V Day," he murmurs, smiling as you clink your glass against his.

"Happy V Day," you echo, taking a hearty gulp of your wine and giggling as he continues to tell you a story of something silly that happened earlier at the gym.

Y'all continue to trade small talk as you eat, his gaze devouring you in a way that sets off a steady throb between your thighs. You open your mouth a few times to let him feed you a succulent bite, the sexual tension between you so strong that the simple act of eating dinner together feels like foreplay.

"Sooo, I've got something else to give you," he eventually says, polishing off his pasta and draining the last of his wine before leveling a no-nonsense look at you.

"I know," you purr. "I've been waiting all day for it."

His deep laugh sends a sizzle of heat down your spine; he gives you a wink as he stands up. "I wasn't talking about that, horndog. I've got something else to give you first."

"Okay," you pout," grinning against his lips when he leans down and gives you a lingering kiss. "Patience, beautiful," he teases. "I promise to make it worth the wait."

"You always do," you admit, watching as he walks to the bedroom and quickly comes back out holding a slim black case; he pops it open, grinning as you gasp at the sight of the dainty, white-gold bracelet with two intertwined pavé diamond hearts.

"Oh my gosh, it's gorgeous," you whisper, shaking your head as you continue, "but it's too much."

"It's not enough, in my opinion," he states, lifting the bracelet from its velvet nest. "These are real diamonds, but they're small, and it's not like it's Cartier or something. One of these days, I'm gonna get you something truly outrageous."

You lift an arm up so he can fasten the bracelet on your wrist. "I don't need outrageous, and I don't need Cartier," you mutter, watching closely as his long, agile fingers easily work the delicate clasp. "It's really beautiful and sparkly," you sigh. "I love it, and I love you."

"I love you, too," he murmurs, leaning down to capture your lips in a lingering kiss for several heartbeats before pulling back and locking eyes with you. "I want you to think about me when you wear it."

"I already think about you all the time," you admit. "I don't need a reminder."

"You're getting laid tonight, babe," he echoes your earlier words while giving you a naughty wink. "No need to work for it."

You giggle as he stacks your dinner dishes and heads to the kitchen, quickly rinsing them off and popping them in the dishwasher before returning to the table with the bottle of wine; he pours the rest of it into your glass and gently pulls your chair -- with you still sitting in it -- out from under the table before dropping to his knees at your feet.

You take a sip of the wine, your pulse reacting as he spreads your legs, his sensual lips teasing your inner thighs as he pushes the hem of your dress up, nibbling and sucking, moving back and forth as you sink a hand into his hair. He makes eye contact with you as he unties your wrap dress and spreads it open, baring your body to his hot gaze.

"So gorgeous," he murmurs, licking his lips as he flicks his eyes from your bare breasts down to your naughty panties. "Fuck," he groans, running a thumb up the length of the center seam a few times before replacing his thumb with his mouth, sliding his tongue up the seam, over and over, pushing the thin, see-through pink fabric into your slit.

"Yeah," you breathe, draining the rest of your wine before setting the glass on the table and sinking both hands in his hair; you roll your hips into him as he continues to tease you, grinding against him for several heartbeats before he pulls back and locks eyes with you.

"We need to slow this down," he states," hopping up and walking behind you. "Lean forward and put your hands behind your back," he orders, waiting for you to do his bidding before snatching the long, pink ribbon off the table and using it to bind your hands behind your back. "Good girl," he murmurs, watching closely as you lean back in your chair, wiggling a bit to get comfy as he strips his shirt off before dropping to his knees between your spread thighs. "I wanna take my time," he explains, "and I can't do that if you're pulling my hair and grinding against me."

"I thought you liked that," you pout.

"I love it, but it gets both of us off super fast, and I wanna take my time tonight, okay?"

"Okay," you whisper, gasping as he hooks a finger in the crotch of your panties and pulls it to the side, burying his tongue inside you.

Over the next several minutes, he gives a master class in edging, bringing you to the brink over and over as you whimper and moan, your pulse pounding and every inch of your body begging for release.

"I'm so close!" you whine for what seems like the 20th time, groaning in frustration when he pulls off of your clit and makes eye contact with you, his lips and chin glistening wet with your arousal.

"I know," he soothes, rising up on his knees as you pant for breath; he leans forward and presses his slick lips against yours, nipping and sucking your plump bottom lip before sliding his tongue inside when you open up for him. You moan into his mouth as he deepens the kiss, relishing the taste of your arousal on his hot, velvety tongue as it tangles with yours.

He continues the sensual kiss while sliding his hands up your thighs and over your hips and waist, barely ghosting his fingertips over your skin, leaving chill bumps everywhere he touches. Your already-hard nipples harden even more in anticipation as his big hands approach your breasts, making you squirm as his fingers inch oh-so-close but stop just before reaching the sensitive peaks.

"Please," you beg against his lips, your breath catching in your throat when he brushes his fingertips over the aching nubs, teasing you with gentle, barely-there caresses before pinching with the perfect amount of pressure to make you whimper. He smiles against your lips as he repeats the action, and you're more than a little lightheaded at the feel of his tongue in your mouth and his talented fingers teasing your sensitive nipples. All you can think about is wanting more.

He reads your body language and lowers his head, replacing his fingers with his mouth and moving back and forth between your breasts as you watch him pleasure you; he licks and sucks your nipples so good you can feel it between your thighs.

"I'm so turned on it actually hurts," you whine, chewing on your bottom lip as he captures your gaze.

"You want me to finish you?" he asks, the carnal promise in his deep voice causing your core to contract.

"Yes, sir," you plead. "It won't take much," you continue, your pulse pounding as he reaches a hand behind your back and unties the ribbon holding your wrists, making a sound low in his throat when you immediately bury both hands in his hair.

You briefly admire the glittery sparkle of your new bracelet as the candlelight hits it, all coherent thought leaving your brain a few heartbeats later when he tugs the soaking wet crotch of your panties to the side and slides two fingers into your slick heat.

"Don't stop!" you urge, grinding against him as he crooks his fingers inside you, bulls-eyeing your sweet spot while he latches his lips onto your clit, his cheeks hollowing out as he gives the aching bud a thorough suck.

The tension that's been building inside you for what seems like ages finally erupts, the powerful climax washing over you in waves, literally taking your breath away for several seconds before you manage to draw in a ragged gasp of air. "Fuck," you whisper, a little dizzy at the feel of your core clenching and rippling around his long fingers as he continues to stroke you through the orgasm.

After waiting a few minutes for you to catch your breath, he slides his fingers out of you and immediately slides them in his mouth, licking and sucking them the same way he did the cupcake frosting earlier.

"Taste good?" you ask, your breathless voice bringing a naughty smile to his face.

"Better than good," he answers. "It's my fav flavor."

"I need you inside me," you whisper, watching as he grabs the pink ribbon and wraps it around your neck before quickly picking you up; he heads for the bedroom as you wrap your legs around his waist and bury your face in his fragrant neck.

A few heartbeats later, you're on your back on the king-sized bed with him on top of you, both of you now fully naked. He leans his weight onto his left forearm and hovers over you, his chest barely touching your nipples as he reaches down and grasps his erection, teasing the lips of your sex with his plump tip while staring into your eyes.

"I need you inside me," you repeat, squirming underneath him as he drags his tip up and down your slit several times to gather moisture before pushing inside. You wrap your legs around him and arch up, wanting all of him at once, craving the feel of his thick shaft filling you up.

"I'm not gonna last long," he grits out once he's fully seated, a hiss escaping his lips when your core clenches him, your body reacting to the hot, hard intrusion. "Fuck me, please," you beg, your eyes fluttering closed as he starts to move.

Almost immediately you feel the tension building again as your body continues to react to the feel of him inside you, to the delicious thrust and drag of his thick cock stretching you to your limit. "I'm gonna cum again," you mutter, opening your eyes and giving him a slightly desperate look as he picks up his pace. "I got you," he promises as he leans down and latches his lips onto your neck, sucking the sensitive skin as he pounds into you, gracing you with a low-throated groan when you rake your nails up the long, muscular expanse of his back.

"Don't stop," you plead, lightheaded with desire as your entire body strains toward another release. "I got you, baby," he repeats, reaching down between your sweat-slick bodies to press his thumb against your clit, adding the perfect amount of pressure to set you off.

You let out a yell, and Joe gives a groan of pure male satisfaction when your second climax hits, filthy praise spilling from his pretty lips as the waves of pleasure roll through you; your slick heat clenches his shaft over and over while you pull his hair and whimper his name, your entire body trembling as fireworks burst behind your closed eyelids.

Once you somewhat catch your breath, you flutter your eyes open, a blush rising in your cheeks when you realize he's gone completely still and is watching you closely. "I love to make you lose control," he purrs, his husky voice caressing you like a physical touch; it only takes you a second to realize he's still hard inside you, tension radiating from his big body at the effort to hold still while the aftershocks of your climax continue to fire, giving his thick cock intimate squeezes as his hot gaze stays locked on yours.

"Your turn," you whisper, digging your heels into his back and arching up to take him deeper, the primal noise he makes as he starts to thrust -- part groan/part growl -- encouraging you to be more vocal, begging him to fuck you harder and deeper as he chases his pleasure. You eventually slide the pink ribbon out from under your neck and wrap it behind his neck, using it to pull him down for a kiss, swallowing his groans as he buries himself inside you and comes apart.

He eventually pulls out of you, both of you gasping at the friction before he plops down beside you on his back, a satisfied smile on his face as he turns his head and gives you a wink. "That was intense," he murmurs.

"For real," you agree, returning his smile as your entire body continues to hum with pleasure.

"I'm almost too wrung out to eat another cupcake," he grumbles playfully.

"Give it a few minutes, and you'll be good to go," you giggle, heaving a happy sigh as he reaches over and grabs your hand, lacing his long fingers with your shorter ones and giving a gentle squeeze. You study his face for several heartbeats before breaking the silence. "What are you thinking?"

"Just about how lucky we are that we found each other," he answers. "Feels like fate."

You try to blink back tears as he rolls up onto a forearm and looks down at you. "I didn't mean to make you cry," he whispers, leaning down to kiss a tear as it slides down your cheek.

"They're happy tears," you sniff, poking your bottom lip out in an exaggerated pout before continuing. "But a cupcake would def make me feel better."

His deep laugh brings a smile to your face; he leans down and drops a kiss on your lips before sliding out of bed. "You want me to open the other bottle of wine?" he asks.

"I think I'll just have water."

"Me too," he agrees, quickly walking into the bathroom before coming back out with a damp washcloth; he gently cleans you up before tossing the cloth back in the bathroom and giving you a big grin. "Water and cupcakes coming right up," he states, his long strides quickly taking him out the bedroom door.

You push up into a sitting position and try to tame your hair a bit, smiling as you catch sight of your new bracelet. "So pretty," you sigh, rocking your wrist back and forth to let the diamonds catch the light from the bedside lamp. You roll your shoulders a few times and stretch your arms overhead, your eyes coming to rest on the pink ribbon laying on the bed beside you. "Oh," you mutter, your eyes going wide as a naughty thought hits you. "Ohhhh," you whisper, quickly snatching the ribbon and winding it around the bottom slat of the headboard, looping it into a tight, center knot that leaves two long strands free.

You grab a pillow and hide your handiwork just as Joe breezes back in carrying two bottles of water and a plate with three cupcakes. He sets everything on the bedside table before peeling one of the cupcakes and handing it to you.

"Thanks," you grin, taking a bite as he peels his own cupcake and plops down beside you.

"These are so good," he mumbles around a huge bite, holding a hand in front of his mouth so you won't see his partially-chewed food.

"Thanks," you repeat, both of you falling into a comfortable silence as you each polish off your cupcake.

He eventually licks his fingertips before grabbing a bottle of water and handing it to you. "Oops," he grimaces. "Was it gross to lick my fingers and then touch your water bottle?"

You take a swig of water before smiling at him. "I'm literally covered in our combined body fluids. Def not worried about a bit of spit on my water bottle."

He laughs along with you before taking several gulps of water, his prominent Adam's apple drawing your gaze as it bobs in his throat. So fucking sexy, you think to yourself, admiring the view for a few more seconds before raising your eyes back up to his face; his hot look causes a shiver of desire to run through you.

"Are you cold?" he asks.

"No," you admit, scooting over and patting the bed. "Why don't you lay down and let me massage you a bit."

"Face down or face up?" he asks.

"Face up," you answer, trying to suppress a naughty grin as he does your bidding, stretching out and resting his head on the pillow that's concealing the ribbon.

You straddle his waist and dig your fingers into his shoulders, giving him an innocent smile when he flicks his gaze down to your bare crotch nestled against him.

"You know where this is headed, right?" he asks, voice husky with arousal.

"Yes, but I wanna take my time," you state, repeating his earlier words as you grab his wrists and slowly press his arms over his head. "Relax," you soothe, quickly pulling the satin ribbon strands out from under the pillow and wrapping them around his wrists, tying a knot before he even figures out what you're doing.

He pulls against the restraint, one eyebrow climbing toward his hairline. "Payback, huh?"

"Maybe a little," you concede, leaning over and grabbing the remaining cupcake off the bedside table. You swipe a finger through the fluffy frosting, smearing it on his Adam's apple before leaning down to lick it off. "Oh fuck," he groans, instinctively knowing where you're headed with this. "Oh fuck, indeed," you giggle, dotting a dollop of frosting on each of his nipples before licking them clean, grinning as he squirms underneath you. "I think I'll do that again," you purr, adding more of the sweet pink fluff to his hard nubs, making obscene noises as you slowly lick and suck it off.

"I'm hard," he announces.

"I know," you grin, giving him a filthy wink. "But I wanna take my time."

"You're going to hell for this," he chuckles.

"Save you a seat," you tease, sliding farther down until you're sitting on his thick thighs, strategically ignoring his impressive erection as you paint a few stripes of frosting on his abs; you lean down and make a show out of licking the frosting as he watches you with hooded eyes.

"I need to be balls deep in you right now," he rasps.

"Still taking my time," you whisper, swiping some frosting around his belly button before rimming it with your tongue.

"Untie me so I can fuck you," he orders, groaning when you slide a finger through the precum pooling under the tip of his cock, bringing your finger to your mouth and sucking on it while giving him a loaded look. "You better stop playin'," he warns, bucking his hips up when you lower your head and lightly suck his tip into your mouth, swirling your tongue around a few times before pulling off.

"Just relax," you soothe, scooting farther down, smiling when he spreads his thighs for you; you crawl between his thick thighs and run your fingers through the last of the frosting before smearing it on his balls, a flood of liquid heat rushing into your core at the noises he makes as you slowly lick it off.

"Untie me or I'm gonna break something," he grits out, the headboard giving an ominous creak as he pulls against it.

"Don't hurt yourself," you warn.

"I'm not gonna hurt myself, but I'm gonna wreck this fucking headboard if you don't untie me."

"Okay, Mr. Impatient," you chuckle, tossing the cupcake on the bedside table as you crawl out from between his thighs and quickly scoot up to untie him. "You made this knot way tighter by pulling against it," you mutter, finally working a finger inside the knot and giving a sigh of relief when it gives way.

Your sigh is quickly followed by a squeal as he flips you onto your stomach, pulling you up onto your knees and sinking his cock inside you in one smooth motion. You press your forehead against the mattress and arch your back, digging your fingers into the sheets for leverage as you fuck back against him, a steady stream of whimpers spilling from your lips as he rides you hard.

Several minutes later, you feel the tension building inside you again; you draw in a breath to tell him you're close, but he's already reaching down to play with your clit. You grind your face against the mattress as the pressure continues to build, his fingers and cock pushing you toward the edge, his husky voice coaxing you to let go and cum for him. You take in a gulp of air and moan his name as your climax hits, a thrill shooting through you when he moans your name before following you over the edge.

~ ~ ~

You flutter your eyes open, briefly wondering what woke you up as you turn your head to check the clock on the bedside table -- 4:33 am.

You push up into a sitting position and grab your water bottle, chugging about half of it before setting it back down, your gaze drawn to the tall, gorgeous man in bed beside you as he stirs in his sleep.

I'm living a dream, you think to yourself as you give a quick glance at your new bracelet before stretching back out beside your man, your heart overflowing with love as he instinctively reaches for you even though he's sound asleep. You snuggle against him, your back to his chest, a smile of pure contentment gracing your lips as you drift off to sleep wrapped in his arms.

#joe burrow #joe burrow fan fic #joe burrow fanfic #joe burrow x reader #joe burrow imagine

[yeyinde]

Hiii I LOVED your fic with soap I’ve read it like 5 times since I found it yesterday, your writing is absolutely STUNNING and the characterization for Soap was spot on. If you have any free time I would love a Ghost fic like Soap’s— domestic, fluff, SMUT, and a little angst. I feel like Ghost would be a tender, giving lover if given the chance to be truly comfortable with someone. Anyway, if not, I just wanted to say your writing is some of the best I’ve ever read and it inspired me to pick up my own pen and start writing again :)

hi! @madiganjay and thank you so much!! 🖤😭 that's so sweet and i'm sooo sorry this took so long! i have no excuses just Ghost + Domestic Fluff had me oscillating between several different ways this could go. to me, the idea of domesticity with Ghost is permanence and presence. something tangible that confirms his existence, that ties him to you.

i tried my best at domestic Ghost, so i don't know if this is quite what you had in mind, but i hope you enjoy it!! this is nearly 8k of Ghost Doing His Best™️

⇾ warnings: gendered reader, female!reader, gendered anatomy; unfettered filth (as per usual); slightly possessive!Ghost, jealous!Ghost; unsafe sex

"Brought curry." It's not much of a greeting—no hello, how are you? How was your day?—just: "didn't have lamb, so I got chicken." 

On the television in front of him, a game between Everton and Manchester United plays. Streaks of red and blue dart across the sprawling field of green. Takeout is spread out on your coffee table—curry for him, butter chicken for you; he got you salted Lassi, too. The white drink sits on the table beside the styrofoam containers, dripping condensation down the clear plastic cup. The colours catch in the clear polymer. Neon smears in milky white. 

Its—

Salt pools between your teeth; your lips sting. "You—," your voice breaks over the word; a tendril of embarrassment curls inside of your guts, admixing the alcohol you'd just finished drinking with Gaz. You flush, clear your throat. "I wasn't expecting you."

It's a stupid thing to say, in retrospect. You never expect him, and you suppose that's the point. Ghost—Simon Riley—comes and goes like an undomesticated alley cat wandering around until he lets himself inside your flat for however long he plans on staying. 

There is no routine in this. No set schedule; nothing was ever painted in concrete, just shades of sporadic abstracts. He comes, he goes. Ephemeral visits only a handful of times a year. 

It's the fourth—year, that is. 

The weight of it sat in your stomach for weeks. Knots spool together until a clump forms in the pit. Heavy and noxious; it leaked poison into your bloodstream that carried the illness of want in a particularly nasty shade of green. 

Four years since Price had dragged you—an office worker on loan from HQ—to a sparse room in a country you'd never been to before, and you set your eyes on the interrogator known, then, only as Ghost. 

(Terrorism never sleeps, Price always says. 

Whenever he's around, neither do you.)

The walls were painted in rust. The stench of wet pennies and sweat filled the air. None of that mattered, though, when you looked up, and caught liquid sin gazing at you from wide, red-rimmed eyes. 

(Maybe, he doesn't sleep, either.)

You fed him information through an earpiece as you scoured and decoded the rudimentary messages in the text the enemy sent to each other, and tried to remain professional when his voice growled his affirmative in shades of smoke and violence in your ear. 

Hours later, exhausted and craving something to keep you from wishing the world was constructed by the hand of solipsism, you leaned against the window, desperately trying to pretend you were the same person you were yesterday. 

Lidded eyes swept across the vast expanse in front of you—barren lands, badlands: wartorn and deadly, and littered with carrion. You tried to stop your hands from shaking by curling them into fists, but all it did was puncture your palm, and fill your nails with sticky blood. 

It didn't work— nothing did.

You sunk your teeth into your knuckles to stop the quiver in your joints. 

War is much different in person than it is on a blue screen. Numbers—friends, foes, coordinates, codes—are much easier to stomach when they're all in binary. A marker on your desktop goes down, disappears from the black map in front of you, and you pick up your earpiece, calling it into evac, and click on another to follow, to relay commands in code.

One life is gone, enemy or friend, and you sip your expensive coffee (£5.6 but the logo is cute, and beans are robust) while staring at the pictures dotting the navy blue fabric of the pre-owned cubicle. Docile. Mundane. You glance at the clock, and wait for the hour to pass until you can leave, and spend the rest of the evening watching shows. 

You think once, perhaps thrice, about the men in green who will never get the chance to come home again, but it's smothered when your coworker leans over the metal divider, asking if you want anything from Greggs. 

A game of chess with real people. 

(You slept rather soundly before this. Now, binary numbers make you tremble.)

The worn wood behind you creaks. 

Price, you think, forcing a smile that doesn't fit. Neither do the fatigues. The stench of rot in your nose. The gun they shoved into your hands. 

"I'd kill for a coffee, sir."

When you turn, you're met with the endless yawning of night condensed in circles framed by pale flaxen. A storm in the middle of a wheat field. Stalks of yellow smatter across midnight blue. 

Ghost. 

There is a moment of nothing where he simply tips his chin, baleen lines bunching together, and stares at you. It's unnerving. Eerie. He feels entirely out of place in this world, and yet—

You can't imagine him anywhere else. 

His stare is heavy. He blinks his eyes shut. You breathe again. They slide open. The air is siphoned from your lungs. 

A chasm sits in his gaze. You find the heft isn't entirely unpleasant.

Then, he shifts. Shadows flexing in the limited light. A car driving down the street, headlight burning the tenebrose until it dances, scattering across your room. He moves like liquid in the dark. 

"Coffee won't help," is all he says. Impassive. Pragmatic. But his eyes—

Your throat is acrid. Sand gathers in wet clumps against your larynx. You swallow, and taste Yorkshire Gold. Pennies. 

"Any suggestions about what might, then?"

It takes him two steps to get to the window to your four. His size is—

Immeasurable. 

He's a man, you think, and yet—

It's not so much the sheer bulk of him, the height, but rather the way he carries himself. There is a presence about him that makes him feel bigger, more dangerous. He knows his heft and uses it to his advantage. He takes up space until you feel smothered by his proximity, but—

You don't think anyone else has ever felt more distant. 

A moor. Wide, endlessly deep, but uncrossable. Untraversable. Mouldering signs are pitched in the recesses of his eyes when they slide to you, liquid black pooling in the corner, and they all say: stay away. 

(Written in red. In blood.)

"A few," he offers. His gaze drifts back to the grime-streaked window. "Nothing legal."

"Oh," you mutter, blinking. You can't tell if it's a joke or not. 

"Get some tea. It'll calm your nerves."

"I'm not—," you start but his eyes drop to your hands, clenched by your sides, and shaking. Beads of crimson gather in the cup, pooling in your lifeline. Guilty, then. 

He leaves you by the window, and you watch his broad back retreat through the arched doorway. A layer of sand fluttered under his boots. No prints. 

(Is he even real? Or did the endless dunes of decay conjure him up in grains of sand, and rot?)

You find the stash of tea (Price muttering something behind you about Gaz drinking all the bloody English Breakfast), and in the loose, dried leaves of brown, black, and fawn, you find yourself thinking of him. 

Four years later: he's still on your mind. 

"I was out with—"

"Garrick." 

"Gaz," you say instinctively. Only Laswell gets away with calling him Kyle. Everything else just sounds wrong. "We went to some club in Essex. I would have come home sooner if I'd known—"

You stop. Teeth sinking into your tongue. Stupid. Stupid. You think of the man in the club with hands that were cold as ice. The irritation you felt toward Gaz when he pulled you away, and shoved you into a taxi. His knuckles knocked on the hood. Don't drive away until you see their door shut, yeah? He slips folded bills into the man's hand through the crack in the window. Message me when you get home. 

You sent the text when your key cut through the hole. Home. Thanks. 

His reply was instant: worry about you sometimes. Get some sleep. 

"Um…thank you for the food. I'm actually starving," you huff, words tumbling out in an effort to stem your accidental faux pas. "We didn't eat before we headed out. I only had a few drinks, but—"

More than a few. Your feet wobble. 

"—Thanks." You wince, adding: "again. It's—it's good to see you—"

Stupid. Stupid. 

He says nothing, but his stare hasn't wavered since you opened the door. An indecipherable Rorschach. Unknowable. Unreachable. 

Four years, and you still have no idea what this is. 

Three months in the desert drinking tea with a behemoth who had an absurd sense of humour, and then—

Home. Goodbye. Price waving you off: a two-finger salute diving off his forehead. Ghost stood on the tarmac of some private, military-owned base. A sleek, black Jeep a few paces away to take you wherever you wanted to go. 

Home, you supposed. You look around and it feels wrong. Stuck in limbo, purgatory. A strange microcosm where the people are the same—the man in the Jeep has a thick Northern accent; his words are rounded, and robust—but the place is different.

Know anything to calm the nerves now that we're home, sir? 

His head tips. A few. None of them are good for you. 

The tea was pretty good advice. 

He'd said nothing. Nothing, nothing—

The man poked his head out the window. "Coming?" 

You offered a shaky smile. See you around, Simon—

You'd slapped your palm against your mouth, eyes darting around the barren void in the middle of needn't know and somewhere in England, and he—

He shuddered. Eyes a polynya. A rumble broke the silence. Low, and—

You turned, hand curling over the handle of the car. You'd gotten it open an inch before his hand slammed on the frame beside the window, the door snapping shut. The force of it rocked the Jeep. 

They're riding with me.

And—

Now: he sits in your home with takeout from the Indian place you like, one you mentioned in passing a year ago. The place with the best raita and spicy chicken biryani. 

The one with a shell-shocked teenager manning the front with a single cook in the back. The register is barely used. They yell your order through a small window to the kitchen, and the cook brings it out himself when he's finished. It always feels a little bit illegal when he hands you the bag, but you're almost certain this man is secretly a Micheline star chef when he isn't condensing samsara into his tandoori. 

Silent, a little tipsy, you toe your shoes off, trying not to make any more of a fool of yourself tonight. You stumble a little, head thick with those stupid sex on the beaches Gaz bought for you, and slowly make your way to the couch.

He hasn't looked away. Not once. 

It's stifling. His presence nearly smothers you. 

It usually isn't this— strange.

The handful of times he'd come around, it was always the same routine, the same dance. He'd be there, bathed in black and searching the alcoves of your flat, and then—on you. Your back against the wall, the hello snuffed out by the bulk of his body pressing into yours, his hands on your thighs, fingers tugging at the hem of your clothing. You'd tumble somewhere: the wall or the floor or the couch more often than not. 

(It took him a year to fuck you on your bed.)

The next morning, he'd be gone. Rising before the sun—if he even slept at all—and off somewhere until late at night. He'd stay a few nights, but those were rare. Usually, it was once. 

One night of brutal fucking where he had on you nearly every surface in your flat, taking, and taking until the sky broke crimson, and your eyes misted over from fatigue. He'd drop you in your bed, and when you woke up, sore and dazed and aching all over—

The bed is cold. Empty. 

His presence is erased. The only thing that confirms it wasn't a dream is the burn between your legs, the quiver in your knees, and the bruises along your hips and thighs in the perfect impression of his large hands. 

I wasn't expecting you, you'd once said. 

His eyes are glued to you. Liquid midnight framed in white. Want me to leave, pet?

They dance with humour, hidden in the shadows of his intense stare, when you trip over yourself in your haste to say no. No, no, please—stay. 

Sometimes, you like to pretend those obsidian edges softened a little at the ache in your voice. The palpable urgency bleeds through. That they regard you with a touch more warmth than before. 

"Alright," he says, and nothing more. Alright. 

It's enough. More than enough, really. It's a miracle a man like Simon would even offer that much considering his life, and who he is. It's more than you'd ever ask for. 

And yet—

(In the darkness of your room, you crumble.)

—you want more. 

More. More—

The butter chicken is warm, and slightly cooled. You glance at him from the corner of your eye. How long had he waited for you? Why did he wait for you? 

You bite the soft, buttered naan to keep yourself from asking those silly questions. 

This whole thing—if it even is a thing—is purely physical. Release. Something to stem the surreal feeling of being back on land where guns aren't being aimed at your head, and artillery fire doesn't clog the atmosphere. The stench of death is replaced by the cold, wet streets of London. The screams of the dying are just honking cars from impatient drivers; the chatter of civilians. 

It's something to quench the inescapable sense of ennui when you leave the building after playing with the lives of the men on the field, and hear mothers chatting in the train about the mundanity of life. 

Anything to calm the nerves. Nothing more. Nothing less. 

And yet: he's sitting on your couch with his mask rolled up to his nose, eating chicken curry while passively watching football on your small television. Your hands brush when you both reach for more naan or roti. Gaze meeting over the Biryani. 

It's different. New. This hasn't ever happened before in the four years since the conception of whatever this is. It's—

Jarring. Bewildering. 

You expect, at some point, for him to stand up, and leave. That intimacy of eating dinner together while he murmurs low about what certain calls, or plays mean to you will break something inside of him, and scare him away. It's soft. Domestic. 

Ghost is untouchable. Unseen. 

But your eyes find the orange sauce smeared on the corner of his mouth. The ashen stubble on his chin, and jaw. The flash of teeth when he brings the dripping piece of curry to his mouth. His jaw working as he chews. The swallow. A flash of red when he tries, and fails, to catch every bit of curry from his lips. 

It's bliss, you find. These small moments when he feels so distinctly human clot in your chest, and you worry that one day the mass will grow to be so big, you will crumble under the weight of it all. 

(Maybe, it's the sex on the beach, the too-sweet rumchata, but the thought makes your stomach burn with anticipation. You want this man to ruin you with the mundane.)

"Finished your dinner?" He asks, eyes sliding to you. 

The meagre food sits like a lump of coal. Your appetite dissolves as your slurried mind struggles to both remain as composed as possible so as not to spook him, and keep all the ugly things you want to say behind the seal of your lips. 

It should just be sex. Fucking. No strings attached. Nothing—

You wonder if it's your life, drenched in a proxy of ordinary, that lures him in. You're not a civilian, but compared to him, you're only a short step above. Is it just—happenstance? Does he come to you because there are no other options for a man who died years ago? 

Are you—

Convenient. 

Something to pass the time. Something that makes him feel human again. 

An evanescent dalliance within the boundaries of having no past, and no future. He isn't jeopardising himself by sneaking into your flat at night to satiate the hunger inside; the need to feel something other than the weight of a gun in his hands, and smell the blood, the smoke, the napalm in the air. 

You work in the same circle. 

He, when he's allowed to exist, on the field; and you, sitting behind a computer screen while you oversee the deaths of others in a sequence of numbers. 

Your hands are too delicate to carry the weight of a gun, to aim and pull the trigger, but he can still feel the same sin when your fingers touch his flesh. 

Not drenched in blood, but stained. 

You're not innocent; he isn't sullying a civilian with his rough hands that reek of gunpowder. 

You exist in that murky limbo he can fall in. Safety lingers in the cartilage of your joints; familiar, and attainable: you know the rules and what he does. You will never look him in the eye and ask why. 

But—you're still dangerous. Covetous. 

More, you think. You want more. 

"I—," you taste malt on your tongue. You didn't drink any, but the taste reminds you of—

Hands on your waist. Warm breath in your ear. Come home with me.

Gaz, suddenly there, eyes blazing. Step off, mate. 

Everton scores: blurs of blue dart across the green, but none of it sticks in the gummy lining of your head. It feels like you're somewhere else. Your body is sitting on the couch; you feel the soft, worn cushion below. The food is heavy on your belly. Eyes grainy from the alcohol you'd drank. 

But you're not here.  

You're adrift in grey matter. Head tilted toward the pink, undulating dome above. Afloat in stagnant molasses. 

"I kissed someone tonight," you murmur. On the screen, a man throws his hands up, words at the bottom blur together. 

The couch creaks when he moves. You can feel his stare on your temple, on you, but you don't meet it. Coward. 

The geyser in the brackish pond rumbles. It tastes of sabotage. 

"I probably would have gone home with them, too, if it wasn't for Gaz."

The roar of the television is the only sound you hear, but it feels distant. Warbled. There is a pounding in your head that starts at the base of your skull. The beat almost sounds like a warning. 

Your hands tighten around the wet plastic cup of the cool salted Lassi. The crinkle it makes drowns out the noise of the cushion shifting under his weight. 

"I guess it's a good thing I came home when I did—"

"Yeah, it is." 

You can't place his tone. Arctic ice. Polar. A Chinook, perhaps. It bites into you, churning the chicken and alcohol in your stomach. 

At least, in the end there would be no questions. No late nights gazing up at the ceiling, or leaning over the sink, peering at yourself in the mirror to make sense of why he picked you. It would just be—

An empty bed. Dinner for one. A single toothbrush in the holder. 

(I bought you a toothbrush. You can leave it in the—

No need. I got my own.)

You huff. "Says you—"

"I'd have ripped him limb from limb for touchin' you." 

His eyes are darker than you'd ever seen them. Black holes. Pooled ink. 

For all your aplomb, your demure under the ire in those alcoves. The ones that leak—impossible—the same covetous spool in your chest. 

"Simon—"

"Where'd he touch you?" 

It's a command.

He reaches out; his palm is blistering when it rests on your bare thigh. 

"Here?"

"Why—?" You shiver. "Why would you tear him—"

Sometimes, you forget how massive he is, but he seems quite eager to remind you when his hand falls on the cushion behind your head, closing that meagre distance between the two of you with his body. He's a shadow looming over you. A gaping chasm that yawns before you. Dangerous and dark. The warning signs are written in blood.

Stay away, they say, but he pushes himself closer to you. 

"I don't share."

"What—what is there to share?" 

His eyes flutter. Hard, unyielding obsidian. In the gaps, sit a near cosmic distance. An unreachable planet on the fringes of the solar system. 

Ashen brows draw together. A cornered animal will lash out, and—

"Thought it was obvious."

You swallow and taste the sea. "It isn't." 

An impasse, then, when he freezes. When his hand burrowing between your thighs halts on your flesh. An uncrossable no man's land. A valley where those who venture seldom return. 

The chossy below your feet wobbles. 

He says nothing. You don't expect him to, but you can't say it hurts any less. 

You knew what you were getting into. What this was. 

Still: 

"Maybe we should stop this."

"That what you want?"

"It's pretty obvious it isn't, and that's the problem. I'm not going to ask for more than you'll give, but—;" a deep breath, a shudder. His thumb brushes your skin, a soft roll of his rough finger, and your heart thrums. Sings. The catch in your voice is thick, palpable. "How can you expect me not to want more?"

"What do you want? Want me to show my face? That it?" His hand raises to the edge of the mask, and something sours inside of you. "If you want to see so—"

Your hand on his wrist stops him from tugging it down. "I don't." Firm, decisive. "I don't want that, Simon. I just want you. And if—;" your eyes flicker to the containers, the half-eaten food on the coffee table. A dinner usually for one. "If you keep doing this—dinner, and—and—"

"I thought you liked butter chicken."

Your chest expands with your exasperated huff. Humour, at a time like this. And yet— "I do. I just meant—"

"I know, pet. I know."

"If you keep this up, I'll want more." You turn to him, hand dropping from his wrist. "I'm greedy. How can I not be when you tell me stupid jokes and bring me curry?"

"I knew you'd like them." 

"Simon—"

Avoidance, then. 

His hand inches down, sliding up your thigh. The loose shorts you'd worn fall to the side, and he slips through until his fingers meet the gusset of your panties.

"You're wet," he husks, leaning down. His forehead pressed to your temple. He smells of turmeric and ash. "That all for me, pet?"

Your thighs spread, giving him more room. His fingers brush along the seam of your clothed cunt. Your chin dips. Charcoal. Midnight black. His lashes are long. The missing coal around his eyes makes them look darker. 

"Always." 

His knuckle presses against your clit, chest brushing over your shoulder. "Better be." 

Lashes flutter when you mewl, arching your back to get more of his touch. Needy, eager. You gasp when his finger crooks inside of your panties, bare skin on your cunt. You’re feverish; burning up from his touch alone. An ache knots in your belly; a spooling coil winding when his knuckle grazes your flesh. His breath is heavy in your ear. 

"C'mon," he murmurs, the tip of his finger drags down the length of your slit. "Haven't had this pussy in months, pet. Need to feel you."

His words made something inside of you snap. 

It's frantic: desperation claws at your chest carrying the urge to sink your teeth in his skin until it punctures with your mark, one that brands his body. The thought alone makes your belly quiver. An ache. A need. An itch. He's there, always: his hands are firm on your waist when you slide into his lap, hips pressing against your core as your fingers tug the buttons of his trousers off. 

Your thighs burn from the stretch of his bulk. The sheer absurdity of how massive he is, and how comparatively small you feel with your knees split apart, is never more apparent than now, when you're barely able to touch the cushion below. 

"Need you," you pant against the skin above the mask. Stubble crests over his cheek, and chaps your lips. "Need you so bad, Simon—"

"Fuck, pet," he breathes, ragged and harsh. His hands are brands on your flesh, pulling you closer, and closer, and yet—at the same time—keeping you at bay. "Would you have been this desperate for him?"

No. Not at all. You haven't been driven to the brink for a man since Simon. No one has ever burrowed deep under your skin until you were itching at the dermis so hard, it broke. It ripped. And the bloodied tatters that remained still weren't enough to quench the burn.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" 

His snarl is muffled behind the mask, but you feel the bite of it when his hands clench around your hips, jerking you forward until your cunt is nestled on his hard bulge. 

"Gonna fuck you, now." 

The words are ground down to the marrow; stripped and pulverised into dust when they slip through. Broken bones, fragmented ash—he blows the smoke of them into your face until you're reeling from the way they shred your throat and lungs when you breathe them in. 

There is no finesse in the way you tug your panties off, letting them dangle around your ankle. Or the way he shoves his boxers down enough to free his cock. 

It's quick. Dirty. 

Simon has been rough in the past—often leaving you feeling like the victor of a well-fought war—but that always came after what felt like hours of foreplay. His face buried in your cunt. His fingers slowly stretching you for his cock. 

This—

This feels desperate. It feels unhinged and raw. All his meticulous self-control catches fire in front of you until your skin blisters with the heat of it.

His fingers slip under the mask for a moment, and when he carefully pulls them free, they're covered in spittle. 

No lube, no prep—

His thick fingers are on your cunt, slick and wet from his saliva, and they sink inside of you. One right to the last knuckle. Another joins. The stretch makes your toes curl. Makes you drop your head to his shoulder as he works in the third. The lewd sounds of your pussy being hurriedly fucked open by his fingers, palm digging into your clit, makes you burn. 

It's not enough, but you look down and feel desire bloom at the sight of him—his cock is leaking prespend all over your mound, jerking against your belly with each quick thrust of his fingers within you. He pulls his hand away, and smears the wetness across his cock before gripping the base. 

Your eyes are fixed on the pearlescent beads on the fat head, gathering in a thick, milky pool before rolling down the side. It gathers at the clinch of hi thumb and forefinger. Your mouth waters at the sight. 

"Lemme suck your cock after," you slur; it comes out as barely more than a whimper. "Need to taste you—"

His cock jerks in his hold, spitting more prespend down the length of him. 

"Fuckin' hell, pretty thing," he rasps, dragging your hips closer until your cunt is pressed taut against him. The drag of his flared head between your folds makes you keen low in your throat. "You won't even get a chance, pet. If you think I'm pulling out of this tight pussy at all tonight, you're wrong."

It's not a warning, but it's all he gives before his hand grips himself tight, the other clasped around your waist. His urgency bleeds through when his hips lift off the bed. 

It's always an arduous undertaking whenever he sits you in his lap, and slowly feeds the entirety of his thick cock into your quivering body. Sometimes, nearly driven delirious from the intense pleasure-pain that pools in your core, you whisper into his ear that he's going to ruin you, break you down the centre. 

You'll snap me in half, you whimper. 

His response is to force more of himself into your body until you gag on the words in your throat, choke on your spit. 

"I want to," he hisses; water doused on flaming coal. The grit of his voice is saturated in sin, and the sound makes your eyes roll. "Wanna break you open until nothin' fits inside this pretty cunt but me."

"You'd ruin me for everyone else, Simon? That's not fair—" 

Your words make him groan, make him grasp your hips, fingers digging into the swell of your ass. He pulls you down onto him until he's swallowed whole. The air is punched from your lungs. You feel the throb of him in your esophagus. Broken, then, by this man. This untouchable, unattainable being. 

"Fuck—," little hiccups spill from your throat. Your head is a slurry of want want want want and too much too full too big. You can't take him. You needed more foreplay. To be stretched around three fingers until you could fit him soundly. 

This—

This feels a little bit like a punishment. 

"Fuckin' hell," he rasps into your neck. "Wouldn't know what to do with this little cunt if he had it." 

"And you do?"

His answer is to plant his feet on the ground and drive the length of him into you. A battering ram to your core. There is a white-hot pleasure burning through your core. It leaks into your marrow until you're heavy with the weight of it. 

He helps you along. Hands gripped tight to your hips, he lifts you up off of his cock, and lowers you down with a fervour that leaves you quaking. 

It's not so much as riding him, but being battered by a hurricane. All you can do is cling to him—arms wrapped tight around his neck, thighs shaking as you struggle to keep up with his brutal pace. Your forehead falls, rests against his shoulder, and you moan brokenly into the seam between your bodies.

It feels a little bit like possession. The flavour of a claim, ownership lingers in the air; it's heavy on your tongue, in your chest. But he's not the type of man to do that, is he? Distance. Separation.

Something like that is far too intimate for a man who shouldn't exist. 

Even so—

Each blunt grind of his cock inside of you has milky pleasure blooming inside of you. His hard grip is tight enough to bruise, and when he digs his fingers into your flesh, you wonder if it's intentional. If he wants you stained and broken by the time he's finished. 

No condom, either. It's rare that you go without one, despite being on birth control. He'd only ever lost it enough to forgo the contraceptive when he was injured, when his hand would press to his side each time he moved. The mask covered it up, but you saw the red in his eyes when he shifted. 

You took advantage of his weakened state—lemme take care of you, Simon—and finally (finally) got a taste of his cock. His hips rutted into your mouth, and the noises that spilled out of him were obscene. You swallowed every drop while he heaved on the couch, forearm thrown across his forehead, eyes wide and red and looking at you in a way that made your toes curl. It was—

Magma. Melted rock. Soft, molten, and—

He passed out after. You cleaned up while he slept. It was the first time you'd ever seen him slumber, but despite the itch to look, to see, you kept your distance. A throw was tossed on him gently, a bottle of water left on the coffee table. You grabbed a book from the shelf, curled up on the chaise near the window, and watched the lour gloom of London under a deluge. 

(London, you find, is always prettier when it storms.)

He woke up hours later to the smell of lamb soup. 

His voice was a husk: a charred log. He pulled you down on the couch with him, back pressed to his front, and he'd taken you then. His arm draped over your collarbones, forearm tucked under your chin; his other hand gripped your thigh, keeping you open for him as he rutted inside of you. Delirious, perhaps, from the pain. From the uncomfortable, dangerous, vulnerability he showed you. It didn't feel distant when he pulled you into him, eyes murky bogs in the middle of a barren forest. It felt—

Stripped. Raw and naked and somehow virginal despite the heavy pants of pleasure in your ear, muffled by the mask that had not moved at all since his head dropped on the armrest behind, and he woke up to a porcelain bowl of cawl on the table. 

The bare grind of his cock inside of you should negate the purity in the act but somehow, somehow, it feels more innocent than anything else you'd experienced before. 

He came inside of you, a wrecked groan reverberating in your ear as he squeezed you tight to his body, and made you take every drop. 

No words were exchanged. You ate cawl on the couch and tried to pretend you didn't see the hungry look in his eyes when you caught his gaze on the pearlescent smear staining your thighs. 

(Each time after that, he wore a condom.)

Until now.

You can feel him pulsing in your throat. It feels more intimate—hurried and rushed as it: your thighs spread over his, his cock buried deep inside you, chest pressed against yours. There is nowhere for you to turn, to hide, except to burrow your face in the crook of his neck, breathing in the ozone scent of him. Gunpowder. Pyrolysis. Sulphur. Smoke. It sits heavy in your lungs. 

"F—fuck, Simon," you mewl, fingers clawing at the fabric of his sweater. You need something to hold on to, to keep you grounded amid the battering of his hips. 

"Yeah, pet," he breathes, his hands gripping you tighter as he ruts into you. His cock grinds against something inside of you that has you seeing white. "You like that don't you? Like my cock inside of you. You're desperate for it, aren't you?"

There is no room for words in your esophagus when you can feel the blunt press of his head bludgeoning into your sternum. All you can do is work yourself against the brutal onslaught of him driving his hips, his cock, into you from below. There is no stability for you to find purchase, and give back just as much as you take, but Simon doesn't seem to want that. Not right now. 

He fucks into you, barely able to pull the full length of him out of your drenched pussy, and seems find pleasure in grinding against your core in deep, short strokes that leave you chasing Ursa Major in the Magellanic cloud that spools in your head. 

Each thrust leaves you trembling, legs quaking as he knocks against a place inside that makes your back arch; making liquid euphoria brim in your veins.

Fucking Simon with an abundance of prep rides that perfect equilibrium of pleasure and pain. This—

This feels like it might wreck you. Your cunt is stretched wide around the base of him, pulled taut as he digs his heels into your worn, stained carpet and drives himself into you like he's trying to split you in half, and take refuge in your womb. 

The sounds that spill out, filling the room, make you feel like you're floating. From the seal of your sopping pussy and the lewd squelch of him sliding against your walls; the deep, ruined moans that drip from your mouth; the deep, hoarse groans he makes that has your belly quivering—it has your fingers digging into his shoulders, clenched around tense muscles. 

"Fuckin' hell—," his head tips back when your knee slips, bringing your pelvis closer to his groin. "This cunt was made for me, wasn't it? All mine—"

Stubble grazes your nose when you press your lips to the silver of skin exposed on his jugular. Teeth catch on the coarse hair, skin drawn between them. Capillaries burst under your tongue, flooding his flesh a bright red, then a deep purple. The perfect impression of your teeth—

"Fuck—!" He snarls, hands pulling you closer to him as he jerks within you. 

Simon knocks the thoughts from your head when he spears his cock inside of you. It's rough, raw. The pain that blooms in your core when he chevies into the seal of your womb as you see a supernova behind your eyelids. The explosion of energy. Each synapse inside of your head buzzes with the force of it. 

"C'mon, pretty thing," he husks; the roar of the ocean upwelling on the land. You taste salt on your tongue when you pant, moaning his name into his sweat-slicked neck. He tastes of iodine. "I want you to cum on my cock, pet. I need to feel your cunt squeeze me tight—"

It pulls on the thread keeping the deluge from spilling over. The seams split; the levee cracks. It wells inside of your core, each plunge pushing you further and further to the edge of that roaring precipice. Standing on the ledge of a cliff, eyes pointed down at the black water that slams against the granite, frothing and angry. It sprays mist from the vitriolic sea. Arsenic white. It crests over you. His grunt in your ear. His hands tighten until you feel bruises bloom under the tips of his fingers. The chossy cracks. The rocks tumble. Your feet slip—

It's familiar, this. Everything about him makes you feel like you're falling, and this—this—is no different. A leap. A drop. Your feet hit the water first. 

It happens all at once; crashing over you like a rogue wave. Swallowed whole. Sucked under. 

Knees scrape the murky sediment below. You babble in his neck about how good his cock feels inside of you; hiccuping stupidly at the absurd stretch of him, how big he is, and—shyly, tentatively—how much you missed this, missing feeling him inside of you, tasting him on your tongue. 

It punches a snarl from his throat; ripped and raw on the barbed wire lining his jugular. It drips blood when he bites into it, fingers cutting into your skin to stem the ache in his voice from leaking out.

(Things are only real when whispered out loud.)

He pulses inside of you, head tilts back as he groans with his release. 

These soft moments nearly ruin you: when his hands clench around your waist, paroxysms of pleasure hard enough to bruise; his chest expanding with his deep breaths, brushing yours with each inhale; the heat spuming inside of you. The noises he makes. The way his brow pinches together when he cums. 

Your eyes fall on the column of his neck, tracing a bead of sweat slipping down from the humid mask, over the bluish mark you left on his skin, to where it pools in the indent of his collarbone. His throat bobs. You watch it all. 

He's never more real than in these moments, you find. 

You think of object permanence, and sink your teeth into the raw ring around his neck. 

Simon shudders under you. "Fuckin' hell, pet—;" is a gravel-rucked rasp from his chest. He swallows again. "You tryin' to go for the jugular next?"

He doesn't wait for an answer. His arms tighten around you, locking you to his chest. You throb around the softening length of him, pulsing like a heartbeat. Brassbound bliss is thick around your neck; heavy iron pulling you down. 

The cosmos spits you out, and gravity drags you home until you're centred; surrounded by the scent of sweat, sex, and the cloying tang of Simon—warm milk, wet nickles, and clove. Your nose brushes the hem of his mask, and you catch the frenetic headiness of Ghost. Warzone. Gunpowder. Ichor. Your tongue flicks out, catches the sulphur on his skin. 

You feel his feet shift, his thigh flex. 

Hold on tight, pet. It's the only warning you get before his hands curl under your knees, locking you to his chest, and he stands. 

The power in his muscles is dizzying, intoxicating. He hefts you into his arms with an ease that makes your head swim. All the liquid inside shifts as he moves. A vertiginous wave washes over you. 

You feel so small in his arms. So fragile, breakable. He holds you tight to his chest, hands ironclad on your thighs, and huffs when you giggle in his ear about how strong he is. How big and tough, and powerful Ghost is. 

"Ghost ain't the one still buried deep inside of you, pet." He mutters into your temple, words slurred, hushed. They're almost drowned out by the cheers spilling from the speakers, and you wonder if he even meant for you to hear them. 

You duck your head, nuzzling your nose into his throat. "M'tired. Take me to bed, Simon."

"Gladly."

It's a short walk from your living room to your bedroom, and he knocks the door open with the flat of his foot. He takes a moment before stepping through the threshold, eyes darting around your bedroom briefly. Hyper-vigilant. Always. This never changes even if he's in your flat or walking into the communal kitchen a whole sea away. 

It takes him two steps to reach your bed. He doesn't bother with the lights. 

He lays you on the cold bed, hovering over you with eyes like Orion. You think you find Betelgeuse in the far reaches of those unfathomable depths. 

"You're pretty," you slur, stupidly, dizzily. You're not drunk—not really —but you're intoxicated by this, by him. His scent in your nose, his taste on your tongue, his weight pushing you down into the soft sheets—his cock inside of you still, twitching when you speak. It makes you giggle—robust and bubbly—and babble about the stars in his eyes, and heaven in his touch. "Your eyes are so—"

He huffs, those pretty eyes rolling at you. "Haven't even seen me without the mask, pet—"

"Don't care." 

"No? What if I was ugly?"

"Doesn't matter." 

"Scarred up?" 

You shrug. 

Another huff, deeper this time. His head drops, forehead pressing against your temple. You can feel the vibration through your bones when he rests his chest on yours, and murmurs your name low. Ashes and embers. Smoke is thick in your nose. 

"You're clingy when you're drunk."

"Says the one who hasn't let go of me since I sat on your cock—"

His hips grind against yours, and the cheeky tone dies off in a whimper. 

"That's what I thought."

"No fair," you pant, arching your back under him. Your legs tighten around his waist. "You can't just abuse me with your dick to shut me up. You know it's my weakness."

"If it works…"

"You're a terrible man."

"Never said I wasn't, and anyone who says otherwise is lying."

Your hands slide up his shoulders, and you feel something sour twist inside of you when he tenses as you glide over his bare skin. Your nails graze his scalp, fingers threading through his moussed locks. He shudders at your touch. 

"Guess I'm a liar, then," you fit your cheek against his, murmuring in his ear. Quiet, low. The ghost of a whisper. 

His voice is tight when he speaks. Airy, light. It's as soft as you'd ever heard him. "Guess so, pet."

His arms tighten around you, holding you just a little bit closer. It's almost cruel how he holds you close to his chest like this. Like you're something to be protected, to be shielded. 

(Humans are greedy things by nature. 

How can he expect you not to want when he gives you moments like these to cling to?)

He doesn't stay long. Two nights watching football on your couch, drinking tea, and feigning obliviousness to the crack in the foundation that lingers between you. The intimacy is startlingly easy to fall into; he sleeps (really sleeps; his eyes closed, soft snores spilling out from behind the mask), relaxes around you in a way that makes you distinctly aware, now, of how tense he was before. 

(And yet—he still came.)

There is no confession to be had over cawl or the roast dinner you make before he leaves, leftovers tucked inside his backpack when he isn't looking, left there for whatever endeavour he was going on next. You can't imagine they have many homemade meals. 

You don't even really know what he wants from this, what he expects, except that it's happening. He's here, and that—

That's enough. 

You're greedy, always will be, but there's a dissonance inside of your chest, balmed by the tinge of green in those obsidian depths when you spoke of going home with another man. The acrid taste of his ire feels more poignant than any words could offer. 

A man of action. 

(And action comes often in his life.)

He calls you—for the first time in four years, somewhere overseas—and the sound of his voice in your ear has you grinning stupidly in the solitude of your bedroom. 

"Did I wake you?"

"Wasn't sleeping." 

It's quiet. Through the static, you can almost make out the chitter of insects native to whichever place they called him to. You think about filling in the gap, but there is a breath. A shift. Then: "me, too. Wondered what you were up to." 

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"Pet—"

"Thinking of you." 

Silence again. His breath is white noise on the line. "I'll be—;" he pauses, inhaling once more: "—back soon. No promises."

"No, never," you smile. "Bring me a souvenir."

"All I have are heads, pet."

"How romantic."

"Never been much of one."

"I guess I could redecorate. Macabre-chic. " 

He huffs. You wonder if it's a chuckle. "Would start to smell, wouldn't it?"

"Not much worse than you after a mission, surely."

"You—"

"Kinda miss it, though." 

He says nothing. You catch the grainy inhale. The forceful exhale. 

"Not much to miss."

"There's lots."

"There ain't." 

"If you say so. Still do, though." You let it sit for a moment; a tender glimmer of raw vulnerability—the flavour he runs from. It brims. Your mother taught you that it was best to let things simmer. "It's been raining like crazy in London. Kinda reminds me of Wales."

"What do you call a sheep tied to a fence in Wales?"

"Do I want to know?"

"A leisure centre."

You nip your chuckle at the root, feigning exasperation instead. "You can do better than that."

"What do you call a soldier that survived mustard gas and pepper spray?"

"What?"

"A seasoned veteran."

Your huff trails off into silence. It's palpable, thick, but it isn't uncomfortable. It reminds you of the softness of night when you're supposed to be quiet. When you tiptoe around with a gingerness to avoid a raucous. Anything over a certain decibel is off-limits. It's not a rule. It isn't written down. But you follow it, anyway. 

In that gloam when the sun sets over the horizon, and night settles like a blanket, you whisper:

Make sure those heads come home safe.

The sheets rustle. Something in the distance shatters.

He sucks in a breath. "I should go, pet."

It's as much of a promise as he'll ever make. 

In the sticky gossamer of sleep, you feel something brush over your temple. A soft smear of warmth; transient and fleeting. The fluttering wings of a magpie. 

It leaves before you can sink into its weight.

When you wake the next morning, the room smells of rust and gunpowder. 

(No heads, but you find a whittled sheep on the pillow beside you.)

You open the cupboard above the vanity, reach for your toothbrush, and—

Oh. 

A slow, soft smile crests over your lips, cheeks flushing under the jaundiced light. 

Inside the solitary holder, another brush has taken residence beside yours. You stare at the two brushes in the rusting cup, heart thudding in your chest. 

#simon riley x you #simon riley fanfic #simon riley #simon ghost riley x you #simon riley x reader #simon ghost riley x reader #simon ghost riley #this is about as domestic as i can make ghost #simon riley cod #cod mw2 #call of duty modern warfare #call of duty

[florrysgf]

LOOK AT ME! alex karev x fem!reader

SUMMARY: in which you struggle after the loss of a patient, and alex is there to calm you down

WARNINGS: panic attack, grief, mentions of death

WORD COUNT: 0.8k +

The moment you heard the machine flatline, you swore you felt your heart in your throat. You also felt the sweat dripping down your brow as you immediately shook your head, locking your hands and starting compressions on the patients chest. You couldn’t lose her, you just couldn’t. She had four kids, for God’s sake. No matter how many times you pressed against her chest, she just wasn’t coming back.

“No,” You whispered, warm tears threatening to spool from your eyelids. “C’mon,” you breathed.

Dr. Bailey came up behind you, a similar look of grief in her eyes as she gently grasped your shoulder, attempting to pull you away. “Dr. L/N,”

“C’mon!” You yelled out with a shaky, broken voice.

“Dr. L/N,” Miranda tried again, a little more forcefully this time, but you just didn’t stop. The rest of the surgeons in the OR stayed silent, sharing looks, none of them wanting to interfere with your clear distress. “Dr. L/N, she’s gone.”

You let out a pained sob and your body suddenly went limp. Dr. Bailey stepped in front of you, pulling your hands away from the patient as you were positioned next to Dr. Shepherd. He rested a hand on your shoulder whilst you fixated your eyes on Miranda, inhaling as she looked up at the clock.

“Time of death: 21:04.”

Dr. Bailey’s words rattled through you so fast, that you felt yourself struggling to breath. “No, no, no,” The heat began to spread through your body, it felt like the walls were closing in, like you you were going to explode. You had to get out of there.

Ripping off your scrub cap, you burst through the OR doors, running out into the hall and collapsing against the wall. “No,” you whispered once more, clutching your chest with both of your hands, trying your best to steady your breathing. All you could hear was the screeching sound of the machine filling your ears, and the hospital corridor around you was now a blur.

“Oh my god, Y/N.” You ever so slightly managed to hear the familiar voice of your boyfriend calling out your name, as he knelt down beside you, concern spread all across his face.

“Y/N, babe,” Alex watched as you sat slumped against the wall, your hands pressed to your chest and you heaved. He extended out his arms, one tightly gripping your shoulder, and the other cupping your cheek at an attempt to reassure you. “Y/N.” He repeated, keeping his tone soft not to stress you further. “Y/N, I need you to look at me, please. Can you do that?”

When your struggles for breath got faster, Alex quickly started to panic, “Y/N, look at me!” He sternly said, shaking you slightly and pulling you harshly back into reality. He watched as your eyelids flickered open, as your rapid breaths calmed down when you looked at him. There you were. You never told him what happened - you couldn’t. Nor did you need to, the look in your eyes told him all he needed to know.

You studied his face. Alex seemed sad. For the patient and her family, but more so for you. He knew that you were blaming yourself, but it wasn’t your fault. And he needed you to know that. He pulled you in for a hug, allowing you to sob into his shoulder the second he wrapped his arms around you. You felt his hands rub soft circles on your back, whilst he pressed gentle kisses to your temple. “Shh, it’s okay. I’m here. Need you to calm down for me.”

“It’s all my fault.” You croaked out between sobs as you heavy breaths finally slowed down.

“Hey,” Alex scolded, pulling away from the embrace. He cupped your cheeks with both his hands, pulling your chin up to ensure you were looking at him. “Don’t say that, don’t you ever say that.” His tone was stern yet sincere, “There was nothing else you could’ve done. She was sick, she’d been sick for a long time. It was not your fault, Y/N. Okay?”

“Okay,” you whispered under your breath, but loud enough that he could still hear you, “Okay.”

Alex continued to hold you as you calmed down, it felt as though the the whole world was crumbling away from underneath you both. As the two of you sat there against the wall, thoughts began to swirl around your head again, thoughts of what was going to happen next. “Oh god,” you whimpered, sitting up slightly as your eyes filled once more, “I have to tell her husband.”

Alex tightened his grip on you. He’s just calmed you down, if you got stressed out again you’d only hurt yourself. “No.” He was quick to shake his head, “No, you don’t. Bailey can do it. You need to stay here with me and calm down or you’ll make yourself sick.”

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