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discoscoob · 3 years

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New Earth | Loki x Female Reader

Loki (Marvel) x Doctor Who

Loki is officially a member of the TARDIS family and for his first trip the Doctor sets the TARDIS controls to random and she lands on a planet called New Earth and you know what they say ‘New Earth, new you!’

Part One | Part Three | Chapter Index

Words: 7.0k

Warnings: Dub con kissing: reader isn’t control of her own body and Loki isn’t aware

Read on AO3

You quickly learned that the TARDIS was infinitely bigger than you had originally thought. It turned out that the control room was just the tip of the iceberg. It had a swimming pool, a library, an art gallery filled with art the Doctor had collected from across the universe and more wardrobe space than you could ever dream of, full of clothes which the Doctor had granted you unlimited access to, you would definitely be taking advantage of that. It also had the usual like living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms. The Doctor, had confessed that the TARDIS was such a size that there were rooms that even he still had yet to find, despite the fact he had been piloting this ship for over half a millennium.

You recalled how just before all this begun, you had planned to be curled up in bed within the hour, almost 24 hours had passed since then and you had yet to sleep a wink, you also hadn’t eaten. Once all the adrenaline had finally worn off, you felt as though you could have fallen into a coma. You were grateful for the fact that the first thing the Doctor did when he returned to the TARDIS was show you all to the bedrooms, it was on the way that he had filled you with information about the TARDIS and it’s many rooms.

Once you reached the quarters where which the bedrooms were, the Doctor stopped and reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and silently handed you, Donna and Loki each a plain plastic bottle filled with goodness knows what and all three of you stared at him speechless waiting for an explanation.

“Aren’t you hungry?” The Doctor asked upon realising you were all staring at him cluelessly. “This will sustain you until you wake up, then you can have a proper breakfast.”

“What is it?” You asked, closely inspecting the plastic bottle.

“Blimey! How big are your pockets?” Donna commented, trying to work out how he managed to fit three bottles into his suit jacket.

“They’re bigger on the inside,” the Doctor shrugged as if it were obvious.

“Of course they are.” Donna muttered to herself in a ‘duh’ tone.

“And it’s like a protein shake. Try it, it’s nice!” The Doctor answered you.

You felt your stomach growl as it demanded nutrients and you were too tired to seek out something else to fill it with so you shrugged and twisted the cap off the bottle and took a quick sip to test how it tasted. You were pleasantly surprised to find it tasted just like a vanilla milkshake and hummed happily as you drank down some more.

After that, the Doctor bid the three of you goodnight and left you to pick your own bedrooms, he assured you they were all practically identical and included en suites so there was no concerns over you squabbling for the biggest room, even if the rooms were different sizes you highly doubted that you had the energy to fight over them, you had already picked the bedroom behind the door closest to you after bidding Donna and Loki goodnight.

Once your vanilla protein shake was all finished and you had changed into some comfortable nightwear which you had found in the wardrobe, you were ready to crawl into the bed for a well-deserved night sleep. Was it even night? You weren’t sure but you couldn’t find the energy to care as you pulled back the thick white duvet of the double bed but before you could climb in and let your tired body rest there was a knock at your door.

You sighed wondering who it was and left your bedside to go and answer it.

“Loki?” You couldn’t disguise the surprise in your tone, he was the last person you expected to see when you opened the door. You took in his appearance and noticed there was no longer any traces of ash or blood on his face, his hair was combed back and still damp meaning he had not long been out the shower, the smell of the products he used filled the air around him and you found yourself breathing deeper to take in the fresh woodsy scents along with hints of vanilla. His sweat and dirt covered clothes had been removed and replaced with a loose dark grey hoodie over a white t shirt and dark jeans, seeing the God in such a casual outfit was almost as startling as seeing him stood outside your door. Your eyes fell to his hands which were clasping the bottle of protein shake the Doctor had gave you all earlier.

“I hope I’m not disturbing you.” Loki spoke, his voice soft, you could hardly believe he was the same man who had trapped you against a wall only seconds after meeting you barely 24 hours earlier.

“No, not at all. I hadn’t got to bed yet.” You assured him and he nodded.

“I just wanted to bring you this,” Loki slightly raised up the bottle in his hand, “you probably need it more than I do, I don’t require nourishments as regularly as mortals do.” He explained.

When you hesitated to accept the drink, due to how stunned you were by the fact he was even concerning himself with thinking about your nutritional needs he continued.

“I haven’t touched it,” he reassured you, allowing you to inspect the bottle by holding it closer to you. “The cap isn’t even broken.”

You couldn’t help the way your heart swelled, endeared by the way he fretted over the idea that you may have worried about him tampering with the drink, when actually that hadn’t even crossed your mind you were just shocked by his kind gesture. You had to pull yourself back into the moment to save him from fretting any further and took the bottle from his hand, your fingers slightly brushed against his as you did allowing you to discover how soft his skin was.

“Thank you, that’s very thoughtful of you.” You smiled sincerely at him and he once again diverted his eyes and clasped his now empty hands behind his back.

“I’ll let you rest now. Goodnight,” he spoke your name and your sleep deprived mind decided that you liked the way it sounded when uttered in his gentle tone. He had already begun walking away when you replied your own goodnight and you noticed he was heading away from the bedrooms, as you softly shut your door you wondered where he was going.

***

Loki had decided that there was no point in attempting to sleep when he wasn’t tired so instead he chose to head to the control room in search of the Doctor. If he was going to be staying under his roof for a while he thought it would be best to learn a bit about him, since they hadn’t really had the opportunity while in Pompeii.

Just as he suspected, he found the Doctor in the control room, his pinstripe suit jacket had been removed, along with his tie and they hung neatly over the railing which surrounded the circular control panel which the Doctor was leant over with his back to Loki. It appeared that the Doctor was unaware of Loki’s presence behind him as he made no effort to acknowledge him.

“Doesn’t this thing come with an auto pilot?” Loki casually initiated conversation as he sneaked up beside the Doctor, who looked over his shoulder at Loki when he heard his voice and straightened his back, letting out a soft chuckle.

“Yeah, it does,” he answered as he distractedly scratched at some stubble along his jawline, while Loki continued to scroll around the console, looking at all the controls, he let his fingers dance over them but he never touched any. “But I like to stay up here and monitor it as much as I can, make sure everything’s in order, look out for any distress calls. That sort of thing.”

Loki nodded to demonstrate that he was listening until he stopped three quarters of the way around the console from where the Doctor stood and finally looked back up at him to find the Doctor was already watching him closely.

“You know you don’t have to treat me like the humans.” Loki stated, as he shoved his hands into his jean pockets, the Doctor mirrored him as he put his hands in his own. “I’m much more like you than them.”

“Force of habit, I guess.” The Doctor shrugged apologetically. “I’ve been travelling with humans for almost...” he squinted his eyes as he worked out the numbers in his head, “50 years now. This is my first time travelling with a God.”

“I’m honoured to be your first.” Loki smiled proudly before he continued to silently wander around the control room while the Doctor returned to monitoring the console, every so often he glanced back up at Loki just to check he wasn’t up to no good, each time Loki would look right back at him and offer him an innocent smile.

“Forgive me if this sounds imprudent, but how old are you?” Loki asked, if he wanted to get to know the Doctor better he needed to start somewhere and this seem like a good place to start.

“I’m 904... I think? I don’t really keep count anymore.” The Doctor explained, as he leaned against the railing and crossed his legs and arms.

“And how does someone who travels through all of time and space, getting themselves into situations like Pompeii and answers distress call, after distress call, make it to 904 years old? Are you immortal or just tremendously lucky?”

“Ha, I’m neither of those things.” The Doctor chuckled ruefully to himself as he pushed himself off the railing to stroll around the console as he explained. “Instead of dying my body regenerates itself. All my cells burn up and I grow new ones. I’m still me but I become a complete different person. New face, new body, new personality. The only thing from my previous form which I do get to keep are my memories.”

“Therefore that would make you a...?” He put his hand out with his palm facing up, offering the Doctor to finish the sentence.

“Time lord.”

The Doctor hadn’t noticed the way Loki’s eyes slightly widened and how the curve of his lip fell into a straight line. A few moments passed and Loki had yet to respond, the Doctor looked up to check that he was even still in the room and found Loki staring at him with a pale, unmoving face. “Loki, are you alright?”

Loki remained still and silent and the Doctor straightened his back and drew his eyebrows together as he took a single step forward. “Loki?” This time his tone was cautious, it wasn’t too gentle but it wasn’t too abrupt, it danced on a line between the two.

Noticing the Doctor come closer encouraged Loki to finally move, he took a step back and tilted his head forward to glare at the Doctor from under his brows, silently warning him to not step any closer.

The Doctor understood and increased the distance between them by taking a few steps backwards and raised his arms, with his palms facing towards Loki, to demonstrate that he meant him no harm.

“I’m not going to hurt you. Just tell me what’s wrong and I can fix it.” The Doctor tried, his voice was assertive yet calm.

“Time Lords maintained timelines within the universe and were in charge of the laws of time.” Loki recited, as he carefully watched the Doctor.

“Yeah...” The Doctor slowly confirmed, though his pitch rose at the end of the word making it sound more like a question as his face grew with intriguing while he wondered where Loki was going with this and why he seemed so alarmed by it.

“But they all died.” Loki continued, it was a statement not a question and the Doctor had to quickly disguise the pain that threatened to show on his face.

“Yeah,” the Doctors voice slightly wavered and he cleared his throat. “I’m the only one left.”

“With the Lords of Time gone there was no one left to continue their work.” The Doctor remained silent and listened, as he wondered where Loki got all this knowledge from. “Until the TVA was founded. They honour and continue the work of the Time Lords. My question is, where does that leave you, Doctor?”

Now it was the Doctors turn to fall speechless, he had followed everything Loki said up until he mentioned the TVA. There was an organisation who honoured Time Lords and continued their work, maintaining timelines and enforcing the laws of time? The Doctor wondered how he never knew about this, he believed he was the only person in the universe continuing the work of the Time Lords.

“The TVA?” The Doctor faintly questioned, his brows tense as he glanced at the ground.

“The Time Variant Authority.” Loki clarified, closely reading the Doctors reaction to try and find any hint of dishonesty.

“Is that who you’re running from?” The Doctor asked Loki, but he remained silent, uncertain of how much he could trust the Time Lord.

“I’m not with them. I had no idea they even existed.” The Doctor told him honestly, looking him right in the eye with his palm resting between his two hearts. “Whatever trouble you’re in, I might be able to help. If the TVA honour my species–“

“No.” Loki quickly rejected the Doctors offer before he could even form a proper plan.

“They might listen to me–“ The Doctor tried to persist.

“No!” Loki repeated louder, “I got away from them, haven’t I? I am already free. It would be foolish to go back and try to reason with them.”

“A life on the run is hardly freedom.” The Doctor argued.

Loki disagreed. Even before the TVA, Loki had never truly known what freedom felt like. Growing up a Prince on Asgard his entire life had been planned out for him, all he had to do was perform the script that had already been written but Loki had no interest in the character which he had been given. All the rules and regulations he had to follow without question made him hungry to take control and live by his own rules but in doing so he fell under the control of Thanos and as a result he was forever confined to one role, one character: the villain.

In an effort to escape he merely moved from one cage to another. Then he was captured by the TVA and his figurative restraints turned literal but it felt no different, confirming that he had been right all along about feeling ensnared in the life which had been chosen for him.

What the Doctor failed to realise was that, the very first time Loki believed he felt what others described as freedom was when you had put your hand on his shoulder and reassured him he was safe and he realised that you truly had no idea who he was. You held no preconceived notions about him, there was no one you expected him to be.

For once Loki had the opportunity to discover who he truly was without the influence of other people’s ideas of him, which he had accepted would never change no matter how much he tried so he gave up trying and became what people saw him as but, you, you saw him as a stranger.

The prospect of meeting someone who didn’t already know who he was was rare in Loki’s life, it seemed everyone had their own images of who he was, which made it hard for him decipher which parts actually belonged to him and which parts others had attached to him from their own imaginations.

Then you offered him the opportunity to stay and Loki felt as though he had finally managed to tear up the script which had been written for him and take the pen in his own hand and for the very first time in his life he had the power to decide who he wanted to be and if that’s what freedom felt like then Loki decided that he was going to cherish it for as long as possible.

***

The sound of bird song and the feeling of sun light warming your face gently pulled you from your sleep. You squinted your eyes as they adjusted to the sunlight and once you could take in your surroundings you paused, forgetting where you were for a moment until the events of yesterday started playing back in your mind.

You were in your bedroom on the TARDIS, however you were certain that window hadn’t been there last night. You rose from the bed and walked towards it, the view showed you a clear blue sky and a vast meadow surrounded by healthy green trees while flocks of birds passed by above. It was a beautiful sight to wake up to, however that didn’t lessen your confusion over it.

Now freshly showered and changed into some new clothes which you found provided in the wardrobe, you were walking through the corridors of the TARDIS, letting your nose lead the way as it followed the scent of a hearty breakfast being cooked nearby. The two protein shakes had sustained you over night but now you were ready for that proper breakfast the Doctor had promised and from the smells that travelled down the corridors and lured you to the kitchen, it seemed like it wasn’t going to disappoint.

Once you turned through the archway which lead to the spacious kitchen which also included a dining area, you were greeted by the sight of Loki and the Doctor quietly bickering, they hadn’t yet noticed your presence so you quietly watched them as you leant against the archway.

“You burnt the toast again.” The Doctor sighed, taking the toast and throwing it into the bin which you noticed already had a pile of burnt toast slices in it.

“I didn’t burn the toast, the toaster burnt the toast.” Loki argued. “I don’t know why you dragged me in here to help you cook for the humans anyway.”

“Did you have anything better to do?” The Doctor asked as he popped some more bread slices into the toaster.

“No.” Loki admitted honestly.

“Then you can pour the fresh orange juice into the serving jug. Everything’s almost ready, they’ll be here soon.” The Doctor instructed Loki, who sighed but still turned to go to the fridge but he paused halfway when he finally noticed you standing under the archway and he said your name with surprise.

“Good morning, Loki.” You greeted him kindly as you moved into the kitchen.

“Oh,” the Doctor said your name after he heard you greet Loki. “Take a seat, it’s almost done.”

You sat yourself down on one of the chairs at the large oak wood dining table and observed Loki and the Doctor in the kitchen.

You noticed Loki had changed out of the casual clothes he was wearing last night when he knocked on your door to offer you his protein shake. He was now smartly dressed in a dark fitted suit, with an olive green waist coat paired with a crocodile green tie which was secured to his white dress shirt with a gold clip. It was the finest you had seen him dress, he looked out of place as he stood in the kitchen pouring juice into a jug.

The Doctor was dressed in pretty much the same outfit he wore yesterday, you wondered to yourself if it was the exact same suit or if he just owned multiple pairs.

“Doctor.” You spoke the Time Lords name to get his attention.

“Yeah?” He glanced up at you from where he was buttering some toast.

“This morning I woke up to a window in my room that wasn’t there last night.” You told him, hoping he could offer you some insight.

“It’s an artificial window,” he explained, “I turn on the feature when I’m travelling with humans, since the TARDIS has no windows some can find it quite claustrophobic but I can turn off the feature if you don’t like it.”

“No, no. I like it,” you quickly told him. “It’s nice, thank you.”

The Doctor gave you a small smile to acknowledge your thanks.

“No one talk to me. I need coffee.” The unmistakable sound of your auntie drew all three pairs of eyes in the room to Donna as she shuffled into the kitchen, she was dressed in a fluffy white dressing gown and slippers and her red hair was pulled up into a messy bun.

“Coffee pot is there, help yourself.” The Doctor pointed to the counter where there stood a pot of black coffee.

“Thanks.” Donna mumbled through a yawn.

Your attention was drawn to Loki when he placed two full plates, filled with a variety of breakfast foods down onto the table.

“You look nice today.” You told him and heat rose to your cheeks when Loki’s eyes met yours and his lips curled up at the edges.

“I’m glad we agree.” Loki stood straight and tugged on his blazer where it hugged him snuggly around his waist. “It took me forever to find something decent in the Doctors closets.”

The Doctor fetched over the rest of the plates and took a seat on the opposite side of the table to you, Donna sat beside him cradling her mug of coffee and Loki moved around the table to take a seat beside you, the same foresty and vanilla scent filled the air around him.

“I could get used to this.” Donna commented as she started scooping food from the buffet in the centre of the table onto her empty plate.

“Don’t, I just haven’t eaten in a while, thought it was about time.” The Doctor warned her around a mouth full of bacon.

“What’s the plan for today, Doctor?” You asked as you picked up a hash brown.

“I was thinking I could set the controls to random and see where it takes us.” The Doctor offered. “A mystery tour! We could end up on any planet, anywhere, anywhen, in the whole, wide universe.”

“You mean, we could end up on an alien planet?!” Donna gasped, and it was hard to tell whether she was excited or terrified.

“Time and space travel, consequently, yeah, I think our chances of landing on an alien planet are relatively high.” Loki sarcastically replied, while he picked at a croissant.

“Can we leave him behind?” Donna directly asked the Doctor.

“Hey, play nice you two.” The Doctor ordered them like a fed up father.

***

“Earth?” Donna whined. “All that just to end up back on earth? And it’s pissing it down.”

You had all eagerly piled out the TARDIS to see what awaited you on the other side of the double doors, the last thing any of you expected was to end up in a rundown alleyway on earth during a rainstorm.

“No, no.” The Doctor smiled, the only one out of all four of you who still looked enthusiastic while you, Loki and Donna all glared at him while the rain poured down on you. “This is New Earth!”

“I don’t care if it’s brand, spanking New Earth, it’s cold and it’s wet and we’re surrounded by rubbish!” Donna complained, as she wrapped her arms around her torso to protect herself from the elements.

“I think I just saw a rat.” Loki added.

Donna let out a ear piercing screech as she leaped into the air in fright.

“Come on! Where’s your sense of adventure?” The Doctor tried to hype you all up.

“Doctor, a cold and wet, rat infested alleyway isn’t exactly what I would call my idea of an adventure.” You told him, and his smile dropped when he looked at all three of you and saw your miserable faces.

“Fine,” he begrudgingly caved in with a sigh. “Get back in the TARDIS, I’ll take us somewhere else.”

You all simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief and began following the Doctor back into his ship one after another, with you following behind last but before you could step foot through the doors you felt an arm grab you around your waist and pull you backwards. You felt a sudden falling sensation, as if the arm had dragged you straight off a cliff edge. From what you could see it looked as though you were falling through a kaleidoscope. All this barely lasted two seconds, as all of a sudden you once again felt the solid ground beneath your feet. Your heart was hammering in your chest like a woodpeckers beak against a tree, as you patted down your body just to make sure everything arrived with you since you were pretty certain you had just teleported.

With wide eyes you looked around the dimly lit basement which had paint chipping off its walls and was filled with an unsettling scent of chemicals. In the background you could hear the sound of a party coming through speakers, you discovered it was coming from a projection on one of the walls. The footage showed a beautiful blonde woman dressed in a stunning silver dress which was accessorised with expensive jewellery, all attention was on her as she elegantly glided around the room while handsome men dressed in tuxedos fawned over her.

“Mistress! I brought you a pure-blood human.” You heard a timid voice, you immediately looked towards the direction it came from to find a small man with patterns on his pale face, hunched over like an elderly person and dressed in white scrubs.

“Don’t be frightened, my child.” You jumped, startled by a second voice, this one feminine and aristocratic, it sounded almost identical to the one that belonged to the elegant woman in the projected footage. For a moment you didn’t realise where it came from but then you noticed the sheet of skin with a face attached to it. The skin was tethered to a metal frame like a trampoline and you gasped in horror at the sight.

“Well done, Chip. You have delivered me a truly fine specimen.” The talking piece of skin praised the cowering man, who you assumed was her servant.

“Come closer, my child. Let me get a proper look at you.” She tried to tempt you towards her but you weren’t an idiot.

“I think I’ll just stay right here, thanks.” You refused, going as far to take a few steps backwards.

“Suit yourself.” The skin smiled to herself before her eyes shifted from you to the projection. “I remember that night, that was the last time anyone told me I was beautiful.”

You watched the footage as a man kissed the back of her hand and you heard him call her Cassandra.

“After that, it all became such hard work.” Cassandra continued. “But I’ve not been idle. Tucked away down here I finally developed a solution to all my problems.”

“And what’s that?” You were afraid to ask.

“Chip, activate the psychograft!” Cassandra ordered her humble servant.

Instantly your arms were immobile as an electric force bound them to a barrier which you hadn’t realised you had stepped into, no matter how hard you tried to pull free, your arms wouldn’t budge.

“Cassandra, what are you doing?” You gasped mid-sentence as a circle of light surrounded you.

“Moving on! New life, new body, new me!” Cassandra cheered and a gold essence evaporated from her skin and travelled through the air towards you.

Your chest tightened as you realised what was about to happen as the sparkling gold cloud reached you, it sank into your chest through your skin and flesh, once it was all inside you the force restraining you vanished and your limp body collapsed to the floor. Your head smacked against a loose pipe as gravity pulled you into it’s hard embrace.

***

You had been right behind Loki when you were taken, which mean he had heard you yelp in shock when you felt the arm wrapped around your waist which made him turn to see what prompted such a reaction, only to watch you vanish into thin air right before his eyes.

He called your name, in the tone of a question, into the now empty alleyway which was useless since you were already gone but it caught the attention of Donna.

“What’s wrong?” She turned to Loki after hearing the confusion in his tone when he spoke your name.

That’s when the Doctor looked up from the ships console, his own brows furrowed with concern as he looked between Donna and Loki.

The Doctor realised you were the only one who wasn’t present and asked where you were, though his question was more of a statement to bring attention to your lack of presence.

“Someone grabbed her and then they vanished.” Loki explained.

“What... what do you mean ‘vanished?’” Donna looked at Loki in disbelief, not trusting the mischievous God, she rushed back towards the doors and stepped back out into the rain shouting your name into the alleyway, her voice reverberated off of the walls.

“It must have been a short range teleport, like a vortex manipulator.” The Doctor concluded. “Nasty and cheap.” He added in a barely coherent mumble.

He was already rushing around the console tempering with all sorts of switches in a seemingly random order. “If I can hone in on its signal, maybe I can follow its last route.”

“Got it!” He announced only a few moments later.

“Donna!” The Doctor yelled towards the double doors of the TARDIS.

“What is it, do you know where they went?” Donna came running back into the TARDIS, freshly wet from the rain.

“I found the signal which was left behind by the teleportation device they used, I set the TARDIS controls to follow its last route. Hold on.” With that the Doctor pulled down the leaver and everyone knew to hold on tight during this part as tremors shook the whole TARDIS.

Loki and the Doctor held onto opposite sides of the console while Donna clung to the railing beside the doors. It didn’t take long for the tremors to subside as a wheezing sound filled the control room signalling that the TARDIS was landing. Once the ship fell silent Donna rushed out the doors without hesitation, ignoring the Doctor as he called her name and ran after her.

Donna cried your name as soon as she saw you collapsed on the floor, then she noticed the creature with patterns on his face crouched over you.

“Get away!” Donna yelled at Chip as she rushed to your side, she fell to her knees beside you and harshly pushed the creature away and he fell on his back before he quickly scurried away to cower in a corner as the Doctor came running out the TARDIS, followed by Loki.

Donna made room for the Doctor as he knelt beside her and scanned his sonic screwdriver over your body, while Donna stroked your hair, her eyes began filling with tears.

“She’s okay.” The Doctor reassured Donna as he studied his screwdriver, Donna let out a sob of relief and wrapped your limp hand between both of hers and held it against her heart.

“Loki, take her back into the TARDIS. I’m going to take a look around here.” The Doctor instructed, while he glanced around the dull basement.

The Doctor moved, allowing Loki to take his place, Donna moved slightly to give him enough room to scoop you into your arms.

“Be careful.” Donna told him, Loki’s brows pulled together, ready to snap at the woman, he was already helping, when he didn’t have to, she didn’t have to make him sound incompetent while he did so but as he turned to Donna ready to unleash his pent up frustration, he saw her eyes weren’t focused critically on him but they were filled with concern over you as they were trained on you unconscious form and Loki realised that she wasn’t nagging him, she was only worried about you. The tension left his brows and his eyes softened as he gave Donna a small nod and secured his hold on you.

Donna held the TARDIS door open and Loki carried you through, once they were both in the control room Loki continued walking towards the corridors which lead deeper into the ship.

“Where are you going?” Donna fret, expecting him to have put you down on the floor of the control room.

“I’m taking her to her room, her bed will be more comfortable than the floor.” Loki explained without stopping, he recalled how uncomfortable it was when he awoke on the floor of the control room, despite the fact you tried to offer him some comfort by resting his head in your lap.

It had sent an unfamiliar feeling through his chest that you had concerned yourself over his comfort. He could count the amount of people on one hand who would ever willingly rest his head in their lap and those people were Thor and his mother, everyone else either simply wouldn’t care or would be far too afraid of him to ever allow themselves to get that close.

Since you had concerned yourself with his comfort and he was aware of how uncomfortable the TARDIS floor was, he thought it was only fair that he, too, saw to it that you were comfortable.

He was never one for concerning himself over other people’s needs, likely due to the fact he always felt as though no one ever cared about his but as soon as he felt cared about by you, he found himself considering your needs, whether it was intentional or not.

When the Doctor had handed the three of you protein shakes he knew immediately that he had no use for it, so he took it back to his room and dumped it on the bed as he went to shower with the intention of leaving it untouched. As he showered, no matter how much he tried to think about anything else, he kept thinking about the way he heard your stomach growl when you were stood next to him in the corridor and how he had something which could diminish your hunger, that he had no use for, so the logical thing to do was to give it to you, since you clearly needed it.

Just because it was the logical thing to do didn’t mean Loki was going to do it, at least that’s what he told himself, but as he started to get dressed in some comfortable clothes he found in the wardrobe, his eyes kept glancing over at the discarded bottle on the bed.

In the end he concluded that since he was planning to talk to the Doctor, meaning he would inevitably pass by your room on the way, he would knock on your door and leave the bottle on the floor for you to find while he quickly made himself scarce.

Of course things didn’t go to plan and he found himself still stood at your door once you opened it.

Once he made it to your bedroom he gently placed you on your bed, over the top of your duvet, making sure your pillow was under your head and then stepped away to let Donna sit beside you.

Loki paused halfway between the bed and the door, wondering if he should stay or go, he nervously fidgeted with his fingers. You had stayed with him when he was unconscious but you already had Donna, she was your auntie, you didn’t need him he decided so he turned on his heel and stepped towards the door.

“You don’t have to go.” Donna offered, when she heard his footsteps, he looked at her from over his shoulder.

Loki considered this for a moment before he finally walked over to an armchair in your room and sat on it with his legs spread and his elbows resting on his knees.

“Moisturise me.” Donna and Loki sat up when they heard you mumble and you began to come around.

“Moisturise? Moister... oh water? You want water?” Donna tried to work out what you meant.

“Moisturise me.” You repeated, still half unconscious.

“I’ll get you some water, don’t worry. I’ll be right back.” Donna promised you as she stood up and rushed out the room, leaving you alone with Loki.

When your eyes finally pushed themselves open, they only saw a plain white ceiling which was far too clean to belong to the basement, which is the last place you remember being, so you came to the conclusion that someone had moved you. You wanted to sit up but when you tried to command your body to move, it wouldn’t, you begun to panic wondering if you had become paralysed but then you sat up without even trying, it was like an invisible force moved your body for you. Immediately you felt a pressure build in your skill, like your brain was being compressed.

You heard Loki’s voice say your name and the invisible force allowed you to see him as he stood from the armchair. You were in your bedroom, on the TARDIS, relief filled you as you looked at Loki’s familiar face and you wanted to smile and run over to him and tell him what happened but instead your body remained sat on the bed.

“Yes... that’s who I am.” Cassandra replied to him, using your voice but you could hear yourself, you didn’t sound right you spoke with a upper-class accent that didn’t belong to you.

“And you’re a tall, handsome stranger.” Cassandra dragged your eyes down Loki’s body with no concern about being subtle and if you were in control of your own body your cheeks would’ve been burning hot by now.

“I’m not a stranger, you know who I am.” Loki responded with a confused tilt of his head.

“Tell me again.” Cassandra prompted him, she made your voice low and breathy as she pressed your palms against your mattress and leaned your body towards the man who stood at the edge of your bed while she innocently looked up at him from under your lashes.

“Loki of Asgard, God of Mischief.” Loki couldn’t resist answering, his own voice growing deeper as he believed his title appealed to you and that’s why you wanted to hear him say it.

“A God?” Cassandra gasped as she made you move onto all fours and slowly begin crawling to the edge of the bed until you were knelt right before the God.

“That’s right.” Loki answered breathily, his eyes never leaving you as Cassandra moved your hands to grasp Loki by the lapels of his jacket and pulled him closer, he moved without protest.

“Does that make you immortal?” Cassandra whispered, your lips almost brushing his from how close your faces were and she continued to peer at him from under your lashes while he looked down at you with hooded eyes which kept glancing towards your lips, Cassandra lifted them into a smirk.

“It does.” Loki answered, his voice so deep it was practically a growl and Cassandra made you moan as she suddenly forced you to tighten your fists around Loki’s lapels and pull him down until his lips smacked with yours. Cassandra moved your arms from Loki’s lapels to around his shoulders and made your fingers dig into his long, dark hair grasping a strong hold so his head wouldn’t move away from yours.

You heard Loki let out a deep moan and his hands grasped your hips and pulled them flush with his own. As Cassandra made you continue kissing him you felt the unbearable pressure in your head begin to disappear.

You hadn’t noticed that the door to your bedroom had opened until you heard the sound of a glass smash.

“What the hell?!” Donna cried, immediately Loki let go of your hips and without his strong hold supporting you, you felt your whole body go weak as you collapsed back onto the bed but you noticed as you fell back you moved your own arm to brace your fall. Experimentally you waved your other arm around in front of your face to confirm you were once again in control of your own movements.

Then reality hit you as you realised what Donna had just walked in on but before you could even begin to try and explain you heard loud footsteps echoing through the corridor as they ran towards your bedroom.

“Donna!” You could hear the Doctor shouting, before you saw him run through the open door of your bedroom.

“Cassandra, get out–“ The Doctor yelled towards you his face full of fury but his foot slipped on the water from the glass Donna had dropped and he went flying to the floor.

“Doctor?!” Donna gasped and rushed to help him up as he groaned in pain from the impact.

“Donna, that’s not your niece!” The Doctor warned Donna.

“What do you mean? Of course, she is.” Donna argued with the Doctor, who was finally back on both feet.

“She’s been possessed by Cassandra.” The Doctor explained, looking Donna straight in the eye as he held his hands on both her shoulders to convey how serious he was. “She’s the last surviving human and she refuses to die, she’s trying to use your nieces body as a vessel.”

“I’m me again!” You tried to explain.

“Get out of her now, Cassandra!” The Doctor ordered.

“She already has,” you attempted to explain again. “She left me after she made me kiss Loki.”

All eyes in the room fell on the God who was checking himself out in the floor length mirror beside your wardrobe. When he realised the room had fell silent and felt everyone’s attention on him, he turned and looked at you all with a smirk and then his eyes landed on the Doctor.

“Hello, Doctor.” Cassandra greeted the Time Lord flirtatiously, through Loki. “Long time no see, and it looks like we both got new faces.”

#loki (marvel)#loki #doctor who #loki x reader #loki x female reader #loki x you #loki imagine #the doctor #Tenth Doctor #tom hiddleston #Donna Noble

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cal-kestis · 3 years

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You Will Never Be Alone Again | Din Djarin x Fem!Reader

(Epilogue of The Aftermath of Losing Everything)

moodboard/sketch/gifs made by me, please don’t repost :)

Summary: Each morning, he’s there, holding you with his smiling lips pressed against your neck and his heart beating against your chest. (Set after S2) Rating: M Word Count: 3018 Warnings/Tags: Soft!Din, FLUFF, no use of ‘Y/N’, suggestive content

[PART I] // [PART II] // [PART III] // [Read on AO3] // [Series Masterlist]

xi.

It’s strange not waking up by yourself, strange to feel blanketed in a kind of warmth and comfort, not even the early morning suns could radiate.

Sometimes, you think this must be some wild fantasy, a sweet sublime dream that could evaporate into smoke if you dare open your eyes.

But each morning, he’s there, holding you with his smiling lips pressed against your neck and his heart beating against your chest. It’s no secret you love him, it’s written all across your face even with a peripheral glance. Falling for him happened fast and a long, long time ago. Yet in these quiet moments when you’re in the place between wakefulness and sleep, you think you’re still cascading over the crest — falling for the tiniest pieces of him that others would need a magnifying glass to see.

Like those delicate wrinkles that frame the corners of his brown eyes when he looks at you, the way they deepen as he smiles. It’s hard to describe how beautiful those lines are… what they mean. Wrinkles don’t develop overnight. No, he’s smiled enough times for those creases to permanently etch themselves into his skin. It makes your heart soar knowing that, despite all he’s been through, he’d allowed himself those sparse moments of happiness. You’ve hopelessly fallen in love with the lines beside his eyes, evidence that a bright side can exist even in the darkest of hours.

And still, perhaps something you love even more is the way he kisses you until you forget every night you’d ever lay awake feeling alone in the universe.

It’s all so strange in the best, most beautiful way.

Din has given you so much and you only hope he can see your heart, the words carved on it — poems about him, his eyes, the charming lines that tug at the corners. You hope he can see how you’ve kept every word he’s every whispered against your skin, how you’ve inscribed them onto your beating soul: secrets and promises only the two of you will ever get to know, your own name scribbled by his lips a thousand times. You’ll treasure the invisible markings forever. Your heart’s covered in him and you just hope he can see.

With Din, life seems more meaningful, peaceful, beautiful… full. And though frightening shadows still lurk, you know you don’t have to face them alone.

Of course, there are times you worry, moments when he still seems trapped in his head, sinking into deep waters with that silver ball clutched in his hand. But he has you now, his liferaft, one with patched up holes and dents that will always come to pull him back up to the surface.

On those nights when he gets lost in the treacherous tsunami of his mind, you try to give back to him everything he’s so generously offered you. And even as you draw rasped sighs and choked cries and broken moans from his lips, your fingers painting patterns across his body… you know what heals him most are the moments after: the way your breath slows down to match his, how your lips press so gently over his eyelids until they close and project dreams of you as he sleeps.

Meant for me, he’d once said. Or maybe, meant for you.

—

xii.

In the sacred moments you and Din have to yourselves — no quarry to chase, no demons to face — you find yourselves on beautiful secluded planets like this one, surrounded by towering trees and lush rolling hills and long blades of grass and calm creek cadences. Somehow, each new system is more stunning than the last, and every time he opens the ramp to his ship, he intently watches your wonderstruck reaction as your eyes take in a fantastical new planet and gorgeous environment.

Visiting new planets off-duty comes with its own routine. He walks with you as you explore with wide eyes, sits beside you when you find a colorful plant to draw, lifts his helmet ever so slightly when the desire to kiss you — your cheek, your temple, your shoulder — becomes too overwhelming. And when night falls, you both retire to his ship, where he can freely remove every piece of armor and kiss every inch of your skin until it’s all you can dream of.

Since the confrontation at the Imperial base, Din’s also taken it upon himself to train you. Not in the ways of the Jedi, of course. That, you’re learning to study on your own. Din trains you like a Mandalorian — a zealous approach to weapons and warriorship. He’s a patient and compassionate teacher, and it only ties your heart to his in a tighter knot. With his gentle guidance, handling a blaster is hardly an obstacle and it only takes a month or two before you become well-acquainted with the darksaber he’d hidden in his storage cabinet for so long.

When he’d finally told you the story of the ancient weapon of legend, gravity had seemed to press harder against his back, making his shoulders slope and his head hang even lower. Because, on the day he’d parted with his son, he’d not only removed the mask of his Creed, he’d also acquired the crown of a cursed planet. And he still doesn’t know which one weighs heavier atop his head.

After that, you’d dedicated yourself to training with renewed vigor — wanting to be prepared if ever the target on his back brought upon old Imperial enemies or new ones who sought to usurp him from the throne he never wanted.

Today, much like the other times you’d trained with him, it’s mostly just chopping at trees and bushes. You can’t deny how much stronger you feel just holding the Mandalorian weapon and knowing you can defend yourself even without the Force.

There’s a part of you, however, that feels like Din’s holding back. Whenever you’d asked when you’d be ready to spar with him, eager to test your newfound skills against something that can actually fight back, he’d simply readjusted your stance with gentle hands and asked you to show him the different sword strokes he’d taught you.

“Very good,” Din praises as you step forward and swing the darksaber through the air, slicing clean through a thin branch.

“Well, that tree had it coming,” you scoff, crossing your arms with over-exaggerated toughness. “I’ve had enough of your bark, tree. It’s about time you leaf.”

“Puns. You’re upset,” he says, not a question.

“I’m not upset,” you lie, trying to put on your best sabacc face. But his helmet tilts in a way that’s far too knowing for a darkened, T-shaped visor, and you sigh in defeat under his scrutinizing stare. “Fine. I just… I just think I’m ready to up the ante here. And I feel like you’re holding back.”

He stares at you for a moment, studiously looking you up and down.

“Your posture is too slouched,” he explains, changing the subject again. “Go back to ready position.”

“Don’t do that,” you heave out another exasperated sigh.

“Ner kar’ta...”

“No, don’t ‘ner kar’ta’ me. Just because you’ve got this shiny sword,” you argue, the glowing saber humming in your hand as you brandish it back and forth, “and you’re technically a king or whatever—”

“Mand’alor,” he interrupts. “And I’m not.”

“—doesn’t mean everything you say is law. I want you to fight me. I’m ready,” your voice softens, stepping closer to him as your pleading hands wrap around the back of his neck. “I want to really learn from you.”

“We’re not doing this,” he answers, despite willingly staying trapped in the cage of your arms.

But you don’t back down. Instead, you lean forward, lips barely a hair's breadth from his helmet before you boldly kiss the spot where his mouth would be, lingering and watching how the tinted panel fogs up. The print of your mouth marks the dark visor and it makes you grin.

“Fight me, Mando,” you whisper, all sultry bravado laced with a tease that prickles the skin beneath Din’s armor.

“Ready position,” he rasps like he’s annoyed at himself.

A metallic, musical sound rings in the empty forest as he unsheathes the beskar spear behind his back. And like a giddy child, you bounce on your feet and step backward, swinging the darksaber in your hands before taking your stance.

Din stands sturdy just a few feet away, spear gripped tightly in his gloves. He slowly lowers himself, knees bent just slightly, an air of strength and confidence surrounding him. Then, hardly perceptible, he nods.

You dig your heels into the soil, your boots squashing the grass below your feet. With your legs spread wide, you draw the darksaber up to the side of your head, the blinding glow casting a white halo on your cheek. Narrowing your eyes and taking a deep breath, you charge forward at lightning speed, zeroing in on the shiny armor in front of you.

At the last second, Din dodges your attack, stepping to the side and watching as you rush past him. You somehow manage not to trip over your own feet and hastily twirl around to face him again. But Din’s already got the point of his spear aimed at the side of your throat.

“You’re relying too much on your speed,” he explains, spear hovering just below your ear. “Size up your opponent first. Figuring out their weakness is more valuable than using up all your strength. Go again.”

You huff at him but get back into ready position, breathing deep in through your nose and out through your mouth. This time, you take a moment to assess him for weak spots. There aren’t many of course, not visible at least. But you decide the side of his stomach is your best bet.

The moment he nods his head, you take a leap forward and twist your wrist, swinging the blade toward his waist. His spear spins swiftly to block the strike, your weapons meeting in a clash of sparks and high-pitched whistles. You summon all your strength to push the saber against his spear, watching as the silver metal turns orange under the intense laser’s heat. And just when you feel like you’re gaining the high ground as Din’s body bends under your advance, he sweeps his boot beneath you and you fall backward, losing grip of the darksaber.

“That was better,” he says with approval, scanning your body as you lay on the ground and groan loudly. “You okay?” He gently wonders, coming closer and extending a gloved hand toward you.

With shaking fingers, you reach for him. And the moment you feel his grip tighten around your hand, an idea sparks. Without another thought, you yank him forward onto the ground beside you. He lets out a surprised grunt when he hits the dirt and you take full advantage of his shock, straddling his hips and trapping his arms beneath your legs. You extend your hand out to the side and, within seconds, the darksaber comes flying back into your fist. With a bright flash, you ignite the laser blade near his throat.

“That’s cheating,” he says, but you can hear the proud smile in his voice.

“I simply assessed my opponent’s weakness,” you grin, retracting the saber into its hilt and leaning down until you’re nose-to-nose with his helmet. “Just so happens, his weakness is me.”

“Good girl,” he says, and you can’t fight the way his praise sends a fluttering warmth to your belly.

You kiss his helmet again with an exaggerated smacking sound before getting off of him and saying, “Let’s go again.”

Din spars with you for nearly two hours, offering gentle advice each time he bests you (which is most of the time) and showering you with praises whenever you find a way to get the upper hand. It fills you with unmatchable strength and confidence.

“That’s enough for today, verd’ika,” he says, slightly breathless as he brushes dirt off your clothes. “It’s getting dark. Let’s head inside.”

You smile at him, filled with an intense urge to kiss him. So, you reach for his helmet, slowly, just in case. His head turns left and right, checking if the coast is clear, before nodding. You lift the beskar slightly, just enough to reveal his mouth and his neatly-trimmed mustache, and press a gentle kiss to his lips.

“Thank you, Din,” you whisper as you set his helmet back in its place. You can almost see the bemused look on his face as he stares at you.

And as you walk back to the ship, a re-energized bounce in your step, you decide to tease him one last time, turn around, and smirk. “Meet you in the fresher.”

—

xiii.

Din’s hair hangs in waves over his forehead as he gazes down at you, leaning on his left forearm to stay suspended over your body.

He smells delicious, like his herb-scented soap and the delicious meal he’d cooked for you tonight. His skin is glazed in a radiant sheen and his eyes somehow glow in the dim lighting of your shared quarters.

You’ve learned to appreciate rare nights like this, when there are no jobs to keep him away from you for days at a time. When your eyes get to unabashedly roam over the golden expanse of his skin, without heavy armor or layers of cloth in your way. When you get to listen to his voice for hours on end as his hand traces lines and circles into your skin.

“What are you thinking about?” You ask him, noticing how his entranced stare focuses on your lips when you speak.

He strokes a calloused finger over your cheekbone, then under the curve of your lips, until his thumb finds a resting place over your chin and gently swipes back and forth.

“You,” he answers honestly, leaning down to kiss you, tasting your smile on his tongue. He lingers there for a long moment, hanging from your lips like a man on the edge of falling though he’s already fallen countless times before.

“That’s all?” You whisper, feeling his hot breath brush against your mouth.

He rests his forehead against yours, his nose rubbing along the side of your own.

“And how much the kid would have loved this planet,” he continues wistfully. “Running through the grass and catching frogs or whatever he could eat.”

Your soft laugh is bittersweet as he reminisces over his son, the corners of his eyes wrinkling mere centimeters from your face.

“Thinking about how he would have liked watching us train together. He’d probably cheer for you to win,” Din chuckles when you scrunch your nose and shake your head doubtfully. Then, his face softens and his eyes glisten. “Grogu would have loved you.”

An errant tear falls from Din’s lashes and drops onto your cheek, and there's little you can do to keep your own from getting mixed in — a tiny melancholy river forming atop your skin. Your hands cup either side of his face, and you lean forward to kiss the spot where the tear had left a small trail right below his eye.

“In some ways, it’s like I know him now,” you murmur against Din’s cheekbone. “Because I know you. I can feel it — the pieces of you that will be part of him forever. I would love him too. I already do.”

He whispers your name again and again, and each time, it’s like he’s making a wish on a star.

“Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum,” you whisper, kissing his lips sweetly.

When you draw backward against your pillow, he latches onto your mouth once more and kisses you until you’re breathless.

“There aren’t words, ner kar’ta, ” he says quietly, fingers brushing gently over your hair. “Nothing can explain what you mean to me.”

When Din makes love, you can feel nothing else but him — his body, his soul, his heart. Every touch and movement is energized by a deep intention to let you know what he sometimes struggles expressing in words. But you’ve become fluent in him, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt how each kiss translates to: I love you.

Each thrust of his hips means: I want you.

Each ragged moan reveals: I need you.

Each soft caress says: I’d do anything for you.

And each time his forehead meets yours, he declares: I have found my family.

As you both try to catch your breath, he flops back down onto the bed beside you. He hums happily when he feels you hold tight to him, squeezing his middle with your arms and placing a kiss over his heart.

“Good night, Din,” you mumble, yawning as you nuzzle your face against his chest and bury yourself deep beneath the covers.

“Sweet dreams,” he says, pressing his lips into your hair.

You tilt your chin up just slightly, wanting the last image you see before you drift off to be his beautiful face. But his stare is far away, lost in thought once again. You follow his line of sight, beginning at his shining eyes and landing on the collection of drawings hung beside his door. And the pictures that reflect in his glossy irises are the finished portrait of him beside the sketch of you and Grogu displayed proudly in the center.

Someday, you swear to yourself, those images will be more than just pencil scratches on parchment. Someday, your small chosen family will be whole.

When you close your eyes — your head resting over the warm skin of his chest, his heart marching steadily under your cheek — you dream of the day Din and his son finally reunite, with you standing by his side. And even if that’s still a far-off fantasy, you can rest easily knowing two things for sure:

Tomorrow, you’ll wake up wrapped in Din’s arms. And, for as long as you live, neither of you will ever be alone again.

End Note: Thank you to anyone who's read this story. It's been a labor of love for me and I'm especially grateful to readers who left encouraging feedback. As for me, I'll be around. I'm working on another Javi x Reader story (inspired by yet another TS song — off evermore this time). If you haven't read my other one, please check it out! It's called "If I Could Never Give You Peace." Talk soon! Mando’a Glossary: Ner kar’ta = My heart (kar’ta = heart [kah-ROH-ta]; ner = my [nair]) Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum. = I know you forever [nee kar-TILE garh dah-RAH-soom] ⎿ “It's the same word as 'to know,' 'to hold in the heart,' kar'taylir. But you add darasuum, ‘forever,’ and it becomes something rather different.” — Republic Commando: Triple Zero Verd' ika = Little Warrior (affectionately) [vair-DEE-kah]

Please reblog & comment to show your support! I’d love to hear your thoughts!!

Taglist: @sarahjkl82-blog @pedro-pastel @mavendeb @tailormotelkamzoil @unexistant @karkii @hwjdykqueillmjwkqu @httpwale @chiara-cannot-sleep @niiight-dreamerrrr

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sarahjtv · 3 years

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BNHA Chapter 310 Spoiler Thoughts: “The First and Second Holders”

Some fan translations are out and it’s time to flex some thoughts out again! I couldn’t do them last night because I didn’t have all the scan images with me and I didn’t want to jump the gun with only text descriptions. Anyway, this was mainly an exposition chapter that properly introduces us to the second and third OFA Holders, especially the 2nd and what his relationship to the 1st is. This might not be as long as others “Spoiler Thoughts” I’ve written, but let’s see:

First off, we have a colored cover page by Horikoshi-sensei himself! It’s a solo page featuring Vigilante Deku and he looks badass! Deku looks ready to kick ass and take names. And, his Mid-Gauntlet is colored red like a lot of us thought and it adds to the theory that Melissa Shield did create it like she did with Deku’s Full-Gauntlet back in Two Heroes.

The chapter starts in a dark and rainy night. A large woman (she’s like maybe 10ft tall; she’s taller than All Might who I think is 7ft) with a mutant-type quirk who’s getting attacked by some civilians because they think she’s a villain. Deku jumps in to stop the attacks and the woman explains that she was just trying to go to one of the evacuation centers at a hero school. Deku is kind enough to give her her umbrella back and reassure her that things will be ok.

I gotta say that this whole situation is scarily close to real life right now. I don’t like getting too political, but we live in a scary world where discrimination is, unfortunately, alive and well... If you are a POC, you can be attacked from anywhere with the only reason being that “you’re a danger because of the skin you were born with”. It’s horrific, it’s disgusting, and it’s been around for a long time. Even in the BNHA universe, there used to be cults solely dedicated to discriminating against mutant-type people (we learned this back in the My Villain Academia Arc). So, like in the real world, this problem has risen again. Thankfully, there are people like Deku and All Might who are more than willing to help someone in need regardless of who they are. BNHA hits too close to home sometimes.

Anyway, going back to the BNHA story. Before All Might leaves to help the woman in his Batmobile, he hands Deku some Pork Katsu in a cute bento box wrapped in a bunny cloth! Deku is visibly happy and thanks All Might for the meal. This is so cute! I’m so glad to see that All Might is making sure that Deku is being properly taken care of. Boy needs to eat if he’s going to save the world. I’m also glad that Deku can still show signs of happiness despite, well, everything. I swear, if All Might doesn’t legally adopt Deku as his son by the time this series is over, I’m going to jump into this manga and force him to sign those documents myself.

The next panel shows Deku standing on what looks like Tokyo’s famous Sky Tree (or Sky Egg if we’re going off what Vigilantes showed us). He’s back to talking to the OFA Holders like they’re angels on his shoulders. Banjo talks about how it’s like the world’s reverted back in time when things were worse and Deku responds that if he doesn’t use all of OFA’s power, he’ll never be able to defeat Shigaraki and AFO. I know we’re in the final act, so Deku’s gotta get to 100% fast if he wants to win this war. Last we checked, he was at 45%, but he might be at a higher percentage now since he’s unlocked En’s Smokescreen. Also, Deku’s looking more and more like Batman each chapter and I gotta say that it really suits him.

Back to the Vestige Dream back when Deku was still in a coma after the war. The 1st Holder begs the 2nd and 3rd to corporate with him so that they can provide their power to Deku. The 1st calls the 2nd and 3rd “My Heroes” which causes some awkward silence lol. Neither one is responding, so Banjo breaks the silence by suggesting that Deku learn everyone’s Quirks so that he’ll get used to them once he starts using them. We learn why the 2nd and 3rd are the 1st’s heroes soon, but it’s actually a good idea for Deku to learn about all these different Quirks while he’s sleeping so that he’ll get a good idea on how to execute them when he wakes up. It’s kind of a way of training for Deku just without actually using the Quirks themselves.

The 3rd Holder (the one with the spiky ponytail and headband) starts to talk. He says that the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd came from the “Harshest era of history”. It was a time where AFO ruled all and peaked in power and control. He was going to take over the whole world if the first 3 Holders didn’t step in to stop him. My guess is that after AFO was defeated for the first time, society started to calm down and become more or less the world we knew before the War Arc. So, things weren’t as bad during the 4th Holder’s era and so forth. This would explain why Shinomori was able to hide in the forest for so long without being detected.

And now the big part of the chapter: the 2nd Holder. Who does in fact look A LOT like Bakugo. Big difference is that he has a massive scar across his face. I am aware of the whole “time travel” theory that people have going on with Bakugo and this dude, but I’m not on that train. Instead, I think that the 2nd Holder is one of Bakugo’s ancestors. Like, a really, really-great-grandfather. Horikoshi doesn’t just design his characters for no reason. The fact that the 2nd user looks so much like Bakugo, has a costume similar to Bakugo’s, and that future panels in this chapter straight up parallel that iconic scene with young Bakugo and Deku in the river only add fuel to this fire. Unless Horikoshi says otherwise, this is the theory I’m sticking to: this “Ancestor” theory.

And we know of the 1st user’s real name now too, which is Yoichi! If Horikoshi is keeping up with the “numbers in names” theme, then I’m positive that Yochi has the kanji for “One” somewhere in it. And, if we’re going to believe AFO at all, then that means that the 1st user’s full name is Yoichi Shigaraki. We don’t know AFO’s full name yet. But, again, AFO could be lying with his last name, so I’m taking this one with a grain of salt.

Back to the 2nd Holder, he tells Yoichi that a lot of lives were sacrificed in order to stop AFO back then. He believes that there is only victory or defeat in battle; that there’s no hope of saving their archenemy. He has doubt about putting his faith in Deku because of this. Given how the 3rd Holder still has his back turned too, I’m lead to believe that he also thinks Deku is crazy for wanting to save Shigaraki. I don’t exactly blame them. Really, none of us know if Deku will be successful in saving Shigaraki. He might have to kill him in the end. I think they should offer Deku help, but I don’t blame them for being at least a little skeptical.

But, Yoichi reminds the 2nd and 3rd users that they saved Yoichi back when AFO locked him up to die. They found Yoichi with the intention to kill him it seems, but the 2nd Holder showed sympathy for Yoichi and lent him a helping hand despite Yoichi being AFO’s little brother. This is the parallel panel I was talking about. Yoichi is kneeling down on the floor and the 2nd user is standing up extending his hand to help Yoichi. I don’t even need to look back in the manga to know what inspired this. Hell, I don’t even need to tell you! We all know what Horikoshi was doing when he drew and wrote this.

Yoichi convinces him that he should believe in Deku as Yoichi does think Deku will save the day. If the 2nd user didn’t extend his hand to help Yoichi, OFA wouldn’t have begun. I think that the trust between these two is ultimately the reason why the 2nd user finally agreed to help Deku; the same with the 3rd user too. And, kind of a tangent, but I really like how Horikoshi draws Yoichi and the 2nd user’s hands as they’re reaching for each other. Horikoshi has always been really good with drawing hands like they’re facial expressions (something my ass could never do 😭) and this one shows kindness and empathy. It’s almost like what would’ve happened if Bakugo accepted Deku’s hand for help when they were young instead of letting his pride and ego get in the way. Oh, the parallels!

Finally, the 2nd user speaks in present day telling Deku that they’re going full speed ahead now. My guess is that Deku’s going to have to improve on OFA and the rest of his Quirks quickly in order to find and beat the LoV. We are in the Final Act after all. The chapter ends at a good place if we want to switch to the UA kids, which is honestly what I’m hoping for. Again, I love Deku and his Vigilante adventures, but I miss the rest of the kids. The new BNHA Exhibition in Japan apparently has a giant drawing of the main class, All Might, Aizawa, and Shinso in his new hero costume! Which tells me that 1. Shinso probably took Deku’s place in the class for the time being, and 2. We’re definitely going to see the other kids again. I’m hoping soon. But, I wouldn’t be surprised if Horikoshi decided to continue focusing on Deku’s Vigilanteism and have him practice with he 2nd and 3rd Holder’s Quirks now that they’re working with him. We’ll just have to see.

So, that’s it! Solid chapter overall. I’m glad we finally got to see the 3rd and 2nd Holder’s faces. I think the “Kirishima is the 3rd Holder” theroy has been debunked at this point, but I’m still on the “2nd Holder is Bakugo’s ancestor” train. The similarities and parallels are too strong for me to deny it. Horikoshi-sensei, please confirm or deny soon 🙏. We are getting break next week for Golden Week BTW! All of Shonen Jump is actually, so no One Piece or JJK either (I’m not sure about Jump+, so we might still be getting some Spy X Family for example). So, basically all our favorite mangakas are getting a well-deserved break as they should! I hope they enjoy their vacation! Waiting’s going to suck tho, I’m ngl about that... Oh well, I’m willing to take the sacrifice if it means having healthy mangka. Thankfully, we still have the anime and the new exhibition to tide us over until then.

Edit: OR NOT SINCE THE EXHIBITION IS TEMPORARILY CLOSED BECAUSE OF A CERTAIN PANDEMIC GOING NUTS IN JAPAN AFTER ONLY BEING OPEN FOR 2 DAYS 😭

Edit: I went back to re-read the chapter and I completely missed the date for the next chapter (chapter 311) which is set to release on May 9th! So, we’re actually getting a 2 week break instead. Damn... Sucks for us, but it’s good for mangaka to get breaks when they can especially considering their absolutely insane schedule.

Me reading this chapter:

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jaehyunspeachparty · 3 years

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daddy jaehyun

iv.xliii.

After the Halloween party, Johnny came to you. He didn't know where to sleep anyway and the children were happy that they could have a little overnight party with Jasper and Jaina. Jasper didn't seem to have noticed much of this, but Jaina looked sad. She was almost as old as Sunoh and therefore quite receptive. You really felt sorry for her and you hope that at least she has a good time here. "I made a mistake. One! And my whole life punishes me for it." Johnny was clearly drunk. He sat at the table and stared at the wooden panel. "Everything is gone. Everything is destroyed..." He started to cry and you only look at Jaehyun because you didn't know what to say. But your husband felt the same way. "Is it Soobin's child?" He asked and Johnny nodded. "Yes, she was pregnant. She gave birth to a girl. Misook is her name. She is so beautiful, but ... she is not my and Johanna's daughter ..." "But you still have to treat her like any of your children and love her just as much. She isn’t responsible for your fault." You didn't mean to be too hard on Johnny, but you couldn't let him forget that he also had another child now. "How long have you known?" Jaehyun then asked. Johnny was quiet for a moment, at first didn't know what to say, but then he answered anyway. "Too long. Several months. I just couldn't tell Johanna, she had just started to forgive me. But then I got the news of Misook's birth and I had to be there. I had no choice, I had to tell Johanna.” "Of course you had to!" You were a little angry and your tone became sharper. "Y/N, don't you want to go up? I'll take care of him." Jaehyun looked at you seriously and you can already guess what he's thinking. You were way too emotional about it. Johanna was one of your closest friends here and you were so mad at Johnny that he did this to her and the children. "Okay ..." you say quietly and go up the stairs. You actually wanted to have some peace and quiet and maybe watch a few Netflix series, but you hear a sob. You look down the corridor in surprise and suddenly see Jaina in front of you. The little girl rubbed her eyes and cried. "Hey, my little one. What's wrong?" You bend down to her and stroke her hair. Her eyes and cheeks were all red and she looked so tired. "I want to see Mummy." She kept sobbing and you knew she cried so much because she knew her parents were breaking up. "Your Mummy is very tired, she sleeps somewhere else. But do you like to be with your Daddy?" You ask her and the little girl nodded. "Well, let's go then." You pick up Jaina and you feel so sorry for her. She surely felt a lot of pain and she surely felt alone too. The little girl was clinging tight to you and still crying softly into your shoulder. It all broke your heart. When you got into the kitchen, you can see how Johnny was drunk at the table, but was still awake. Jaehyun looked at you desperately, but was then surprised why you were here with Jaina. "Johnny! Your daughter needs you!" You got a little noisy for being so mad at him and with tired eyes Johnny looked up. Jaina started crying louder and louder. "DADDYYYYYY!" You put Jaina on Johnny's lap and he immediately hugged his daughter. And he started crying too. "I'm sorry, my mouse. I'm so sorry!" And suddenly Jaina became calm, as if she knew that her father needs help now. "Mia is sleeping at Xiao Jun. You can stay here now," Jaehyun said and Johnny nodded. "Thank you...."

You didn't sleep well that night, this time not because of the kids but because you had a bad dream. The dream seemed so real. It was about Jaehyun having an affair with his co-actress and decides to leave you and the children. You wake up bathed in sweat, find it hard to breathe and you reach for Jaehyun. He was lying peacefully next to you, sound asleep. In that moment you were glad that everything was normal. But you couldn't go back to sleep. The dream had just triggered too much in you. "Jaehyun?" You shake his shoulder a little. You knew waking him up was mean, but somehow you wanted to lie in his arms and hear "I love you" from him. "Mhmm, are the children okay?" He asked, still sleepy, without opening his eyes. "Yeah ... but I had a nightmare." You sigh and lie down on his chest. Still eyes closed, he took his hand and stroked your hair. "You're already big, you know it's not real." He smiled softly, but that didn't calm you down. "You cheated on me in the dream and left us." You sigh and Jaehyun finally opened his eyes. "Y/N ... that was just a dream." He stroked your cheek, which were still very hot. "I know, but I'm so concerned with Johnny and Johanna. I mean, she came to Korea because of him, has children there and she can't go home that easily." You start to sob and you didn't know why you were so sensitive about it. But the separation of the two made something with you too. "Didn't you mean that Korea is your home now?" Jaehyun asked, wiping away your tears. You just nod, but the pain was still there. "We're not break up." Jaehyun smiled gently, but that doesn't calm you down. "Jaehyun, we broke up once before, shortly before I became pregnant with Miga. And we were already close to it. We don't know what's coming in the future." You sigh and look at him seriously. As much as you wish to be with him until the end of the day, you knew you had to be realistic. "Don't worry. No matter what, we can do it because we have four wonderful children together and we both know that we always want the best for them." The words Jaehyun uttered were very honest and you had to agree with him. You want to give everything to your children, you would even put your own needs completely back, just so that your children have it better. "Come here." Jaehyun pulled you so that your head was on his shoulder and he kissed you gently. "I love you." And you didn't want to hear more.

In the morning Jaehyun showed a lot of skinship. At every opportunity he touched your hand, your hip and kissed you gently. You need that more urgently than ever on this day and he gave you all his love. "There's a house for sale on your street right now. I'll have a look at it today," said Johnny suddenly, who was feeding Jasper. "Here?" Jaehyun asked in surprise. "Is that a problem? I mean, I want to be there for Misook too. You were right, she's my daughter too." "No, it's not a problem. I'm just surprised." Jaehyun sat down with him at the table and looked at his friend. "The house has four bedrooms. Each child could have their own room. The rooms are not that big, but everyone would have privacy if they were bigger." "That's a good idea," Jaehyun said with a smile. "Can I maybe stay with you for a few more days? Or should I look for a hotel?", Johnny asked carefully. Jaehyun looked at you questioningly, knowing that you had a problem with him. "I'll talk to Mia what her plan is. Then we'll see." After all, the room still belongs to your sister, but since Mia lives her own life and neither goes to university nor is there any more, it probably wouldn't be a problem. "Thanks ..." Johnny then said quietly. But before you could respond to that, you'll see Johanna's name lit up. You quickly pick up your phone and go to another room. "Johanna? Are you okay?" You were worried about her, after all, she was there alone now. "Johnny is with you, isn't he?" She asks carefully. "Yes? Didn't he tell you that?" "Yes, but I didn't know if he was going to a hotel with the children." "Look, Johanna. I can't stand Johnny being here, but I think it's good for Jaina and Jasper that they are with Miga, Sunoh and the twins and get a bit distracted." "Yeah ... I think so too ... thank you ..." Her voice was suddenly so shaky and you knew that she was slowly starting to cry. "Johanna, how are you? Where are you?" "It's just a lot. I miss my babies." And now she started to sob. "Do you want me to bring Jasper and Jaina to you?" You understand, of course, that she wants her children now. "No, they shouldn't see me like that. Y/N, I'm a wreck ..." You keep hearing her crying and you could no longer hear it. "Are you at home? I'll come to you right away." You knew she needed a friend now. "Yes ... and thank you ..." And it took less than 5 minutes and you were out of the house.

daddy jaehyun masterlist

#jaehyun #daddy jaehyun #jung jaehyun #jaehyun scenario #jaehyun imagines #jaehyun fluff #johnny #daddy johnny #johnny suh #johnny seo #nct #nct 127 #nct u #nct 2020 #nct fluff #nct 127 fluff

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frustratedpoetwrites · 3 years

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter Characters: James Potter, Lily Evans Potter Additional Tags: Morning After, Goodbyes, Sharing a Shower, reluctant goodbyes Series: Part 2 of The Marauders Pub Soho Summary:

The morning after a night of passion Lily has to leave a soundly sleeping James, but she doesn't want to.

Lily lay staring at the skylight, and watched the patch of sky turn from black to indigo. She just gazed without moving, hardly even blinking as it gradually grew lighter and lighter. She had not been able to find any rest for more than a few brief snatches, as tired as she was. Her whole body zinged with electricity, her brain abuzz with everything that had happened last night and had continued to happen throughout the night. She glanced over towards the body sleeping soundly beside her, the sheets pooled around his waist showing his toned back. He had acquired some new tattoos in the six years since she had last seen him. When she’d remarked on the delicately detailed Lily that was now inked on his right side sweeping across his ribs, he had quipped back that it marked the spot where she had stuck her knife in him when she’d left him to pursue her career. That remark had stung more than she wanted to admit, even though she did deserve it.

She had told him last night she never wanted to leave his side again, and she had meant it. Especially at that moment, standing in the bar he basically built, surrounded by the memories of their childhood. Engulfed by the overwhelming scent of James himself. At that moment it had been so easy to say yes to all of his questions, say yes to coming here to his place instead of going back to her hotel as she had planned. She wished she could stay in this moment, with the old day finished and the new not yet begun. In this bed with this man forever. But all too soon she would have to leave. She needed to get on a plane in a few hours. If she didn’t, then any dream she had to live in London permanently would be gone.

She glanced around James's attic room trying to see if he even had a clock. She was amazed that he still lived like this. There was a rail for his clothes and a bed so low it was almost like the mattress was on the floor. That was it. She hoped he didn’t live like this all the time, but she suspected his life and energy was spent at the bar.

It had looked so beautiful, the large dark polished oak panels and the brass rail, the small stage with the piano sitting proudly. And all the pictures on the walls of their schooldays. It had always been his dream to run a bar, and the four Marauders had made it a successful reality, but she knew who had been driving it from day one, and she was incredibly proud of him for that.

She reached for her clutch bag and fumbled in it for her phone. It did not light up when she tapped the screen. Her battery must have died.

Fuck.

She glanced over at James, still sleeping soundly, and contemplated waking him, but she knew he was exhausted. She had wiped him out, she thought to herself, suppressing a giggle, it had been a wonderful night. He had not forgotten any of the things he used to do to make her whole body hum, and he had learned a few new things too she had discovered. His strength and stamina had greatly increased. Not that she had expected him to hold himself chaste for her, but she still had a pang of jealousy at the thought that other women had touched him, had been with her James. Had they asked about his tattoo? She always thought of him as hers, even though she hadn’t exactly expected to ever come back to him that day she had left. Any time before now when she had considered it she talked herself out of it because she was convinced he would be with someone else.

She rolled over onto her back again, and looked up at the skylight.

What time was it?

She’d hoped she wouldn't have to do this but she slid off the edge of the bed and took James’s phone out of the pocket of his jeans and opened it, shaking her head at the stubborn distrust for technology that meant he still used an old flip phone. Although at the moment Lily was grateful because she didn’t have to worry about unlocking it.

She tapped in the digits for her assistant's number as she crept into his ensuite, slipping on the dressing gown that was on a hook behind the door.

The phone rang just once before she heard an unsure “Hello?”

“Hey, Jess it’s me…”

“Lily!” came the scream, causing her to jump and nearly drop the phone. “Where the fucking hell have you been? I’ve been calling you all night. Your meeting has been moved up, you need to get to the airport right now!”

“What? Oh, fuck!” Lily took a breath and closed her eyes as her assistant kept rambling over the phone, talking so fast Lily could hardly understand them. “Jess, Jess, Jessie!” She tried to speak urgently and sharply without making too much noise. “I need you to bring me my bag and my suit, the green one. Put an extra pair of underwear in my bag.”

“I’m sorry, Lily, but your overnight bag won’t be enough, I've had to pack your suitcase, you’ll be staying for a week. They’ve sent a whole itinerary, but when we left Hong Kong I didn’t think to pack any of your formal wear. I’ve arranged for the concierge to book a fitting for after your first meeting, once you’ve checked in. Where are you anyway? I need to let Terrence know where we need to come and get you.”

Lily went to answer then realised she had no actual idea of the address. It wasn’t far from the bar, she didn’t think. But she had been interested in other things besides looking out the car window to notice what neighbourhood they were in. Lily looked up as the door to the bathroom swung open gently, revealing a conscious James leaning against the frame wearing only his battered looking jeans, his tousled hair framing his tired-looking face and his glasses perching on the end of his nose, as if they were mere moments from falling off.

She let the phone fall from her ear slightly as he continued to stare at her, a wry smile reaching only the edge of his lips.

“Something tells me you aren’t staying for breakfast.” His tone was light but she heard the resignation behind it. As she looked over at her childhood sweetheart, an idea struck her.

“Jess? You still there? Pick me up outside the Marauders’ Pub in Soho. Yeah? And Jess? I'm gonna need another plane ticket.”

“Well, okay boss but they are sending you a priv…..” Lily did not hear the last of her assistant’s words as she closed the flip phone and tossed it back to him.

“I can't believe you still use that antique.” He caught it deftly in his left hand and dropped it into his back pocket.

“I can’t believe I’m letting you dick around with my life again,” he replied, barely even trying to mask the disappointment.

“As much as I'd love to have this argument again, I really need you to pack yourself a bag. Do you have a good suit that fits you?”

He shook his head and blinked at her as she brushed past him to his rail of clothes and started looking through them. He still had some nice attire here, a lot of it she remembered from their life before.

“Lily, wait,” he called after her but she took no notice. She had no time. Already, in her head, she was mapping out what she needed to do. A whole week with these people. The one day originally planned would have been torture, but this... If she had back up maybe she could make it work. “Stop.” He placed a hand on hers as it rested on the next coathanger. She looked up into his gorgeous eyes as they shone with all the colours as his emotions played out across his face. He was always so expressive. “What are you doing?”

“I want you to come with me.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not? You’re your own boss, you could take the time off. It’s not like you’re the only one in charge. What about Sirius? Or Remus? Or even Pete?” She paused, “Is Pete doing okay? I thought he wanted to go in a, erm, different direction but I saw his name up there with the rest of you?”

He sighed and rubbed his eyes under his glasses. “Pete is a silent partner, he helps out when he can but his wife made him join their family business, he helps by keeping them away.” His hand dropped to his side. “Lily I can’t afford to just drop everything, everybody else has other responsibilities, I’m the only one left to run it and I won't let it fail. My staff depends on me.”

“James, this is me telling you I don’t want to leave you again. I don’t want to go on this trip without you by my side, I could use someone in my corner. I could also use a devilishly handsome, charming, charismatic–” he raised an eyebrow at her seductive tone but didn’t stop her putting her hands on his chest, tracing the antlers that spread across them.

“My tattoos aren’t very corporate,” he murmured, his voice sounding deep and throaty. she shrugged in reply,

“You’d be surprised what people hide under their suits these days.” She told him with a twinkle, sobering when his lips thinned. “Please James. I need you.” She hadn’t realised how true those words were until she had spoken them to the universe.

“I’m sorry Lily, but my staff need me more. They rely on me.”

“So you’ve never taken a day off? Never had to call in sick?” Before he could answer her questions an idea struck her. “What if I pay your staff for the week? How much would that be?” He stood for a moment apparently stunned then started laughing and stepped away from her, sitting down on the edge of the bed. She tried not to look upset at his reaction to her suggestion. She stood watching him and waited for his mirth to subside.

“Oh, you are actually serious? You want to pay me so I will spend time with you?” He shook his head as his mirth still rippled through him. “This isn’t Pretty Woman and I’m not some, some...rentboy you picked up off the street.”

Now he sounded angry. James’ phone started buzzing in his back pocket. She had not thought that offering to pay his staff would equate to her hiring him as an escort service. Her brain hadn’t gone that way at all. She let him answer his call, as she rushed back to the bathroom for a much needed shower and tried to clear her head.

James may have skimped on bedroom furniture but he hadn’t skimped on his wet room. The shower was a walk-in style and big enough for four people, the naturally textured tiles on her feet were warm as she walked in, the large slabs of highly polished sand-coloured stone on the walls were so neatly fitted she couldn’t even see the joins.

Turning on the shower filled the room with hot steam and the reassuring splats of water droplets peppering the tiles. Stepping into it, she gasped at the pressure. It was like standing in a tropical rainstorm. She just stood there unmoving, letting the water rush over her enjoying the sensation as it beat down on her head.

“That was your PA on the phone. I gave them this address so you can leave from here.” James said as he stepped into the bathroom like they did this kind of thing all the time. “Thought you might want to have some fresh clothes to wear.”

“You really won’t come?” She asked, trying one last time. She forced herself to keep her eyes forward when she realised he was joining her by the sound of his jeans hitting the tiled floor.

Despite their recent intimacy, or perhaps because of it, being this close to his naked body turned her core white-hot. She tried very hard not to react as she felt his naked skin brush up against hers. His arm reached past and grabbed an unlabelled metal bottle from the small alcove. Then his fingers were in her hair and her nostrils were filled with the scent of an English summer garden.

“Is it okay that I join you in here? Thought it would save some time.”

“Yes, okay, it’s absolutely fine,” she tried to keep her voice as neutral as his but even she could hear the breathiness.

“I told your assistant I can’t, it’s not my scene at all,” he told her conversationally, as if he wasn’t standing butt naked behind her in the shower. He was trying to calm her down, trying to talk about what needed to be talked about. The fact they were taking a shower together didn’t seem to phase him at all. Determinedly, she tried to follow his lead.

“This is not me running away from you. I need you to understand that.” She hummed in pleasure as his fingers massaged deeper into her hair. “I’m sorry if I offended you, offering to pay.”

“I’m still not sure if I find it more funny or offensive,” he began. “I can’t say I’m not tempted to run away with you, but you know as well as I do how much of a distraction I would be. You need to be at your best. I will be fine, I’ll just have to trust you’ll come back. That you're not making me the poor jilted lover once more.” He told her. She wanted to tell him he didn’t need to worry, wanted to say all the things that she had agonised about saying as she lay awake beside him in his bed, but no words could adequately explain how she was feeling. So she turned and reached for him, pushing her fingers up across his stubble studded cheeks into his hair and kissing him soundly. Breaking the kiss he tilted her head back as his lips dragged kisses across her throat. She didn’t need to ask where his mind was right now, she could feel his arousal pressing against her stomach. All too soon her brain caught up with her and soundly put on the brakes. “Not that I don’t enjoy where this is going, but we need to stop.” She took a few quick breaths as his hands continued to soap her breasts. “I don’t have the time and I’m a little tender.”

“You were the one who started things, Evans. I was just helping you wash,” he said innocently, amusement dancing in his eyes. But he did take his hands off her body and even though she had asked him to, she mourned the loss of contact. “In all honesty, I don’t think I have it in me right now to perform at my best anyway.”

“Let’s just put this on pause for now then shall we?” She told him, giving him a gentle kiss, hoping he understood how much he continued to mean to her. Lily dipped her head to rinse the bubbles out of her hair. It felt like silk as she combed her fingers through it.

“What is that shampoo? It’s amazing!”

“It’s a prototype. Remus’ company makes it, the only thing that’s come close to making my hair behave. He’s made it his personal mission to tame it. He gives me a new formula just about every week.” He pointed to the small bathroom cabinet above the sink. “The conditioner’s in there, it's one you have to leave in. I put towels on the hook.” She stepped aside once she was rinsed, letting him have the full force of the shower.

“Does he always make it smell like flowers?”

“Yup.” She expected him to elaborate but when he didn’t she just let it go and stepped out of the shower. She found the small spray bottle in the cabinet simply labelled conditioner and scrunched some into her hair as she watched James wash his. The bubbles slid down his frame in ways that made her wish she could just step back in there with him.

Lily wished she could continue to stare at him but her logical brain was kicking in to tell her all that she still had to do. Moving back to the bedroom, she twisted her hair up out of the way while she looked for anywhere he would store things. There wasn’t even a cupboard in the bedroom so she padded her way through to the living space. She barely remembered it from the night before, and she was stunned at how minimally he lived.

It was a beautiful apartment, the exposed red brick looked amazing with the warm honey-coloured wooden floor. The living space was a good size for London, the kitchen looked brand new with a wooden worktop that matched the floor and clean white cupboards. She spotted the coffee machine, and hunted in the cupboards to see if he had any beans, suppressing her irritation when every one was empty.

The more she looked around his place, the less it felt like he lived here at all. There was a giant modular brown leather sofa taking up the majority of space in the living area, a coffee table that looked like it was made out of granite, and a giant tv on the wall.

“What is this place to you James Potter?” She mused as she looked around. She was tempted to start rummaging in drawers (if there were any) but it felt like possibly a step too far for now.

The intercom buzzed impatiently making her jump guiltily and nearly drop her towel. As she stared at the white box on the wall and wondered how to operate it James came striding out of the bedroom holding a hand towel around his waist, hair still dripping. He lifted the receiver then buzzed to let the person come up. “It’s your assistant.” He explained before vanishing back to the bedroom.

Lily stood looking through the peephole until she saw her assistant's blonde head appear from the stairs.

She opened the door and ushered them in quickly. Taking the bag from them awkwardly with one hand.

Jessie looked around and hummed appreciatively. “This is nice, you could do a lot with this place. When are they moving in?”

“I don’t know,” Lily replied quietly. “I’m going to go change. Can you play nice with James, please? It would be great if you two get on.”

“Well I’ll behave if he will,” Jessie swept an invisible strand of hair out their face before relenting to Lily’s reproachful look. “Alright, alright. When we spoke on the phone they were pleasant so I can be too.”

“Great, I’ll be super quick,” as she made her way back into the bedroom James stepped out wearing that same pair of jeans he seemed incredibly fond of and one of his many black Marauders Pub t-shirts. He put out a hand to stop her as she tried to slip past him.

“I’m going to get out of your hair,” he said quietly. She could tell by the tone he didn’t want to be here when she left, didn’t want to be the one left waving by the door. She understood that in an instant, saw it in his sad eyes, and the hesitant touch he placed on her arm.

“Okay.” With a glance at her assistant she walked him back into the bedroom. “This was not how I wanted this to go,” she said, keeping her voice down once she knew they were alone.

“Saying goodbye brings back bad memories,” he told her shuffling his feet and running a hand through his hair. “I want to believe you're coming back this time.”

“Of course I’m coming back. I’ll call you, every day. But could you do something for me?” She asked, reaching to snake her arms around his neck.

“Can you get yourself a new phone so we can video chat?”

“Yes, Evans I think I can manage that,” he told her, leaning down to kiss her goodbye for the last time.

#jily #james potter #lily evans #barman james #business boss lily #tj writes #jily fanfiction #jily fic #slightly mature #there is a shower scene #but no smut

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ricinbach · 3 years

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mercy. | chapter 3 - reverie

waking up was never this different.

Sounds of water trailing down the pool waterfall echoed as drinks poured and barbecue was served.

Everything felt so good, so normal, almost mundane. It had been a cheerful, sunny day of summer, warmth seeping into your bones, making your skin shine as you lounged by the pool. Droplets of cool water splashed on your face, a crisp interlude to your reverie. Fingertips loosely wrapped around the ice cold drink, taking occasional sips from it. Kids laughed and cheered as they played, splashing you with water in the meantime. You did not mind. You had always been fond of them.

“Think she’ll walk again?”

“Hell, I’d be surprised if she lived.”

Children lured you to play with them in the pool. You could not be anywhere near bothered from your comfortable spot with the mango-flavored drink in your hand, cooling you. Their squeaky voices had been so excited that you gave it a second thought. Playing in the pool sounded like a lot of fun, certainly more fun you had in a while at your stressful job. You wanted to go back, at least for a little while, to the peaceful times when you were a little girl, how you would jump from floaties and giggle and spread happiness. Oh, how you loved summer, spent at the shore, without a single care in the world, enjoying everything the beautiful weather offered you.

"I'm jumping in!"

Drops of water from the cool rag placed on your forehead woke you up, in more ways than one. The dried blood and bruises on your face appreciated the feeling, sending a relaxing tingle over your skin. Your could feel, feel your fingertips, the humid air engulfing them against their dried texture. Consciously breathing, your lungs getting filled up with air once more. Your eyes took their sweet time in fluttering open, a blurred vision welcoming you into reality.

It would have been the epitome of a peaceful resurrection if it was not for the two strangers staring you dead in the eye from above.

It was ironic, really. A gruff, dark-haired guy and a much smaller, green-eyed, young little girl staring you down like you were the odd bunch in this scenario. You dealt with much worse, held captive by far more terrible, dark souls.

Were you at the mercy of this odd little survival gig now?

“Where -” your lips moved, with the pathetic excuse of a voice you have left. Your vocal cords didn’t want to co-operate either, apparently, as you spoke in a low, raspy tone. All of the limbs in your frail, undernourished body screamed at you not to move, as you laid on an old, dirtied mattress. “…where am I?” you managed to ask. Your lungs fought for air in a desperate inhale as you gasped uncontrollably, taking in the stuffiness mixed in with the linger of mold in the room. As your vision cleared out gradually, you find yourself trying to look around where you were holed up in.

Just how long had you been out?

Sweat was forming on your battered skin and the room felt stuffy, so your instincts told you it was late summer still. Another question to add to the growing list to ask these...hunters? Fireflies?

No, you would have recognized them if they were. There were not many left flying around.

Your conscience was beginning to come back into you, slowly but steadily with every single heartbeat and breath taken, like waves in a lazy ocean. You almost didn't want to be conscious - wanted to be left alone, just sleeping in a safe place, without a care in the world.

Yet, it looked like this cruel, relentless leftover of the universe had more in store for you.

It took a couple of moments of steadying your breathing - then it hit you. Pain, lots of it, invading your mid-thigh like a swarm of ants all over your skin. It was the kind of pain that almost-healed, sore wounds created, nevertheless, you hadn't been able to feel any sort of sense during the time you were asleep - God knows how long - and it was making itself known alright. You let out a hiss, your eyebrows furrowing as your gaze directed itself to your bandaged wound.

The lower half of your pants were missing, cut-off right below the bandages... how the hell? Last you remembered, you had a bullet in your thigh, almost dying of blood loss in a tenement high-rise on your way out of the state, and your pants covered your lower leg.

Why, on the damned scorched earth, would anyone help out someone like you?

"You're in safety," the gruff man spoke, a vague answer to your question, his voice sounding low and threatening beneath that peppered beard. "for now."

The two little words he added at the end with such a tone that you just knew he would shoot you on the spot if you tried to do anything stupid by his books. You could not do anything but nod, and gulp. Even that hurt.

Your worried expression seemed to go unnoticed as an exasperated voice intruded your thoughts. "Yeah, Joel, this is a terrible idea," the girl who was looking down on you earlier with bright, green eyes scoffed, shaking her head, her hand flying out to gesture at you. "The hell were you thinkin'? She cannot even walk - what are we gonna do with her?"

Just what was this little girl talking about? You could not help but look in between the two survivors, the man supposedly named Joel shooting the girl a side glance, his flannel-covered arms folded in front of him as he kept his gaze on you. He looked strong, very strong - the type of hardened survivor that could snap your dainty little neck in half if he wanted to. There had been just something about him, something that you could not quite place a finger on. It took you another look in his green eyes combined with the familiar crimson patterns of the flannel that stretched on his chest to finally come to your senses. Was this...

"Wait," you called out, trying to lean yourself on your forearms with a hiss. "You're the guy who saved me from the hunters," you continued, as if trying to make yourself believe rather than ask the guy, couple strands of hair falling onto your damp face as you propped yourself up. The scoffs and the little murmurs of you gotta be kidding me coming from the teen, ringing in your ears.

"Thank you. Not a whole lot showin' mercy these days."

"Damn right, y'hear that Joel? We've heard that before," the kid started talking again, this time in a little mocking tone as she crossed her arms and walked over to your figure, her eyebrows furrowed and her fiery green gaze focused on the gruff man.

If anything, this had to be a rather unusual dynamic between a father and a daughter you had ever seen - made you think that he had taught her well, not to trust strangers and all. Oh, she surely had to be his daughter, judging by your first impressions of her - fiery, headstrong. But what the hell was your fault? The man had helped you himself, carried you to safety and she sure as hell wasn't there when those damned hunters ambushed you in that high-rise right when you was about to escape Pittsburgh.

What were they going to do with you? You were surprised when the man had left you some supplies back in the city, you supposed he had cleared out the damned infected scraping at your door but compared to the level of surprise that you had looking at the little girl and her father, arguing about what they were to do about you - the former had been nothing. Even in your weakened state, it did not make sense in the survival mindset that you all had grown so accustomed to over the past twenty years, to take in a damsel in distress simply because you wanted to play the hero for a while.

It was a hard-learned truth that there had been no heroes left in this empty shell of the world - it was the survival of the most cruel, most resourceful and the most violent.

Hell, if you had been in his position when he found you, you would be quick to put a bullet into your head - without glancing at the dead look in your eyes.

You had done it many times before. You were damn sure he had as well, else he would not be surviving this far into the outbreak. Why was this one time different?

The man in front of you, standing all tall and broad, had a contrasting troubled expression in that rogue face of his. Just one look at him could tell you he had seen the worst of the outbreak, killed and tortured. That strength he seemingly possessed and that recluse surrounding his aura did not come from simple blind luck. His eyes assessed you, every single movement you made - almost as if he was judging whether to spare you or kill you right there on that ugly mattress based on what your next moves entailed.

It was not like you could even raise your hand to throw a punch - the strange pair knew you could not harm them even if you so wanted to. You had been down the road of recovery before, getting shot many times in the course of a pandemic, a couple days of rest would get you back on your feet. Before, you had always been alone or with people you somewhat trusted. Not with complete strangers who acted out of their sheer leftover notion of mercy to save you.

You were vulnerable, in such a state that you depended on them, on someone if you wanted to continue the little survival gig you had been on for two decades. Over at the corner of the room, you could spot your familiar backpack with your supplies staying intact in it, your trusted guns resting on the floor beside. Unarmed and weak, you slowly rose yourself up to sit on the edge of the bed, dragging your injured thigh along as your feet touched the ground, your jaw clenched all the while to avoid screaming out of pain. It was not the time to show weakness, to emit even the slightest grunt of misery - even a small sound, a little indication of you not being able to tolerate pain would decide whether they left you abandoned there or not if you were deemed useless in their eyes.

"Look," your voice would echo across the wooden panels of the room, making the little girl in front of you move her hand to the pistol tucked into the waistband of her jeans. Your hand rose up in defense, indicating that you meant no harm, your tired orbs moving back and forth between the pair as the stuffy air in the room felt even more stale with the added tension of the unknown.

"I don't know who you both are but I know you saved me from that mess," you would speak slowly, your tone softening ever so slightly as your gaze rested on the man. "If it wasn't for you, hell, I'd be long dead from blood loss. I'd like to repay you in some way."

To your surprise, the little girl's expression grew even more grim as her eyebrows furrowed in doubt and distrust, however, her hand left the revolver she had been holding onto earlier only for them to be placed on her hips as her green orbs bore daggers into you. If only you could look in the mirror then, you would see the helpless expression your delicate features harbored, an unusual feat by itself.

With the girl's watchful eyes over him, the gruff man crouched in front of you, couple feet away to match your gaze due to his towering height. Your eyes immediately focused into his amber green ones, with glints of doubt and fear in them, as well as determination. One of his large hands would stroke his peppered beard slightly, lost in thought yet his gaze never faltering from your orbs, his elbows resting on his bent knees.

"Think you can handle a gun once you're walkin'?" he asked, though he already had an inkling of an idea that you had been a decent marksman based on the body he had found on the first floor of the high-rise with a bullet lodged in his skull.

To which, you could only nod with a strong look in your eyes, making it clear you were not playing around.

Much to the little girl's dismay, Joel would nod pensively before getting up and breaking your gaze.

"We leave in a couple of days, and you're comin' along. If you want to pay what you owe me, you're gonna have to protect us. "

#mercy #val writes #fanfiction #chapter 3 #the last of us #tlou joel #joel miller #joel miller x reader #joel miller x you #joel is such a daddy

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thanksjro · 4 years

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Robots in Disguise (2012), #1-22- A Recap, For Reference Purposes

Before we begin with “Dark Cybertron”, a lightning round style recap on the 22 issues that took place in the sister series to MTMTE, Robots in Disguise; just so we know what’s up with all the folks who didn’t hitch a ride on the Lost Light.

Here’s the Story So Far, since it’s been a minute.

Now for the nitty gritty.

Cybertron is a literal hellscape, as established in The Death of Optimus Prime, the very flora of the planet trying to murder anything that comes within a few miles of the surface. This has caused a massive economic slump in the tourist trap towns, who surely will not survive without the summertime revenue. Truly, life is cruel and not worth living.

Bumblebee narrates, as we show off all the weirdoes who live on Cybertron now. Bumblebee tries to greet a new batch of arrivals, as Metalhawk actively attempts to make him look like Satan incarnate, because all the NAILs have gone full ACAB at this point.

A robot who looks like he’s wearing a beanie commits vandalism and is then subjected to violence via Decepti-cop.

This is more or less the flavor for RID as a whole. You have been warned.

Prowl breaks someone’s hand just because he can. Blurr is made to arrest someone for disturbing the peace, even though he’s, like, basically the only guy on the Autobots who isn’t a cop. Bumblebee doesn’t believe in democracy.

Ratbat is the leader of the Decepticons, even though Soundwave is right friggin’ there. We establish that the military state is in full swing. Prowl commits a microaggression against a Senator. Ratbat gets pissy about his guys going out to beat people up, not because it violates his moral sensibilities, but because it benefits the Autobots.

Probably that you’re killing people by remote control, in as horrified a tone as he could manage, because that’s FUCKING EVIL. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

Prowl says to cancel the memorial for the Lost Light, because he thinks the Decepticons are up to something. Which they are.

Everyone hates the Autobots. Like, everyone.

Ironhide runs away from a murderous hedge and smashes into a wall. Prowl has a talk with a mysterious individual about his feelings during a romantic sunset.

Metalhawk releases hat guy from prison. He and Bumblebee have a little chat, during which he tries to gaslight the little guy. Bumblebee explodes Horri-Bull’s head in front of at least 30 people.

Except he actually didn’t, because the chips don’t actually work. T’was a ruse! Starscream enters the narrative. Ratbat used to be an actual person and not just a bat. Sideswipe wants to shoot someone. Bumblebee tasers a man unprovoked; guess he’s picked up a little paranoia from that time he got shot.

Starscream calls Prowl ugly, then spills the beans on Ratbat’s plan to kill Bumblebee at the memorial, solely because he thinks Ratbat is an idiot. Needlenose and Skywarp beat up a NAIL to work through their emotions.

Bumblebee shows a snuff film to hundreds of people at the memorial. Skywarp tries to frame a NAIL for murder, but Prowl says nuts to that idea, through the power of dramatic irony.

Long Haul tells a fib. Bumblebee and Metalhawk agree to work together. Ratbat gets turned into chunky salsa by Arcee, who will use the excuse of self-defense if questioned. Starscream pulls some fucking bullshit and third-wheels the agreement between Bumblebee and Metalhawk.

Ratbat’s death is played off as a suicide. Blurr is still a cop. Starscream is helpful. There’s a guy who looks like a frog, and I don’t care for what his eyes are doing.

Frog guy explodes, because nature is a cruel mistress.

Wheeljack has a hell of a time trying to answer the phone in the middle of an economic debate. Prowl is paranoid. Starscream handles the housing crisis. Wheeljack visits the hospital and causes a scene. Another explosion happens, killing dozens, including this guy:

You will be missed, Tiddytron.

Wheeljack realizes that the moon is trying to kill everyone, so he shoots missiles at the problem. The Aerialbots fuck off into the wilderness.

The Decepticons get some perks now that Starscream’s a government employee. Starscream destroys the military state through the power of talking over people. Prowl and his cronies investigate a murder at the trash factory.

Bombshell is arrested for thought crime, and spills the beans on the I/D chips not working. Prowl has Dirge on a chain for some reason, and it ends up causing nothing but trouble. Blurr runs every red light in the city to make a citizen’s arrest, and gets his ass kicked by a bunch of construction workers. Prowl has a complex about Spike Witwicky.

Prowl fixes the I/D chip issue and things go poorly for the construction workers. Blurr gets upset about having his ass kicked by construction workers. Prowl is very paranoid, even as he has a borderline pinup panel devoted to his weird robot bellybutton and positively ridiculous cinched waist. I begin to worry about how much I’m learning about Andrew Griffith’s tastes.

The poetry shark shows up.

Arcee reveals a little bit about herself, and I shed a tear as I shake my fist in the general direction of England, cursing Simon Furman’s name.

Metalhawk brings Sky-Byte to a literal trashcan fire to meet his buddies, and they all rag on the Autobots for a while.

Ironhide goes joyriding and finds Sky-Byte Oh Yorick-ing a Sweep’s head. Turns out they have a history. Blurr reveals his dream to own a bar. Metalhawk brings up the fact that setting up a group of folks to have their heads explode if they step out of line is some dystopian bullshit.

Sky-Byte meets up with his old buddy Swindle, and gets the skinny on the bullshit that’s being pulled on this brand-new Cybertron. Everything goes to shit very quickly. Streetwise gets set on fire. Prowl needs to stop. Ironhide commits violence against the general populace, then advocates for the removal of the I/D chips.

Blurr opens a bar, and it’s dinosaur-friendly. Prowl commits property damage on a table, because he’s tablephobic. Ironhide reveals the future.

Shockwave sends an entire race of Big Birds to their frozen demise. Orion Friggin’ Pax comes back into the narrative, in the middle of his giant fuck-off-from-responsibility space adventure. Wheelie and Garnak are here, which is cool, I guess. Jhiaxus yells a bunch, and Orion decides to go to Big Bird planet.

It’s farkin’ cold in here.

Orion and Hardhead talk about Rodimus’ tumultuous relationship with death. Shockwave is the only person in the universe who understands quantum mechanics. Monstructor wakes up from his cryo-sleep. Wheelie and Garnak are grievously wounded, and the patch job seems less than medically sound, since we’ve just put a screw into Garnak’s orbital socket to hold his eye-patch in place. Orion walks into a trap, knowingly and willingly.

Wheeljack does some espionage, even though Mirage is right friggin’ there. Turmoil swings by Cybertron to say hello- the Decepticon, not the emotional state. Drift is outed as a war criminal- well, more so than originally thought. Turmoil has a time machine.

Sky-Byte and Jazz team up for slam poetry night. Blurr tells Metalhawk a story. Wheeljack’s espionage adventure goes poorly. Turmoil gets trapped in a hamster ball. Wheeljack and Metalhawk get trapped in a hamster ball.

The Dinobots and Ironhide go on a camping trip. Starscream craves democracy. Skylynx is a glorified taxi. Slag hasn’t changed his name yet, despite half of the people working for IDW being from the UK. Swoop breaks down IDW Phase Two to its bare essentials.

Prowl sits on someone’s desk, because he doesn’t respect tables. Slag’s face is on fire all the time, and it’s sort of distracting. Swindle bothers Shockwave. Ironhide is attacked by the Dinobots.

Bumblebee sits outside and has some Night Thoughts. Cybertron wants everyone to stick together, and God help you if you don’t. Bumblebee is beginning to develop a complex. Blurr is upset with himself. Ravage and the Reflectors go on an adventure. The time machine isn’t actually a time machine. The time machine disappears.

Ironhide finds the Aerialbots, who have been combinered by the horrors of new Cybertron. Everyone yells at Bumblebee.

We get a taste of Old World Cybertronian propaganda, where everyone talks in the third person, as is tradition. Starscream gets curvier every issue. Again, I begin to worry about how much I’m learning about Andrew Griffith’s tastes.

Blurr causes an explosion in the wilderness looking for Ironhide, much to Starscream’s delight. There is a Titan under the ground, and its very existence is making reality shit the bed. Tailgate’s lies in MTMTE are so extensive, red herrings have leaked into the sister series.

Nova Prime commissioned Monstructor, and Omega Supreme hated it so much he punched it in the face.

Starscream invites a bunch of friends over to see the Titan. Brainstorm is used as a scale for end-of-the-world scenarios. Starscream is revealed to be chosen by the gods.

The Reflectors visit a planet and shit gets weird very quickly. Wheelie is about to have a goddamned stress-induced aneurysm, not that Orion particularly cares. Time nonsense is established. Wheelie-speak becomes plot-relevant. Livio Ramondelli subjects me to his nightmares’ nightmares.

Starscream gets interviewed on national television. Starscream owns a hat that makes him look like a Gundam. Omega Supreme explodes. Metalhawk flip-flops between who he’s defending like a fish on the dock. Starscream yells at Shockwave for being an instigator. Prowl and Starscream make a deal.

Arcee stabs a cat in the throat. IDW settles the debate- at least for their own continuity- and says RIRFIB. Prowl takes a fireball to the face to convince people he’s on the up-and-up. Arcee is smarter than Starscream. This asshole shows back up.

Bumblebee really, really wants to kill Megatron, but politics demand he be taken in as a POW. The fellas construct a conspiracy theory. Starscream tries to lead his peers, but it goes poorly. Not a single medical professional of Cybertronian descent actually keeps track of their patients. Maccadam’s gets several light fixtures ruined by Arcee. Wheeljack gets called a tool. Prowl shows up in his hot new body, decked out with enough weaponry to annihilate a small country and a gun that’s as big as he is.

Starscream gives Megatron a piece of his mind. The Decepticons are rioting in the streets. Prowl shows Wheeljack his toys. Arcee plays her trump card. Bumblebee tries his hand at negotiation.

Bumblebee learns a valuable lesson about leadership. Politics are hell. Megatron is released from prison. Democracy finally gets its day. Megatron enters the Black Room with his whole ass hanging out. Pretty much every Decepticon you thought was dead isn’t actually dead.

Metalhawk gets a taste of how 24/7 news has ruined everything. Prowl is revealed to be the mastermind behind all the bullshit that’s been going on the last few months, and he’s been working with Megatron. Swindle gets run over by a train. Wheeljack’s head is turned into a memory by Prowl. The crazy-making signal out in the wilderness was made by Megatron. Megatron walks in in his hot new bod, carrying his old one like his new bride. And what a pretty bride it is.

We get a literal talking heads sequence explaining just how exactly Megatron survived the events of “Chaos” and why Combiners are the bees’ knees. Prowl isn’t Prowl, but actually being controlled by Bombshell.

Dang, wonder who could have caused that, CHROMEDOME.

Prowl is released from his mind-control, and immediately plays the blame game with Bumblebee. The Constructicons and Prowl have a thing going, and show it off, much to Bumblebee’s horror.

Circuit gets given Fixit’s dialogue for some reason, and I can’t tell if this was an issue on the art side or the script side. Devastator wrecks shop. Megatron laughs at Starscream for being a loser, then crushes Bumblebee’s head like a grape. Ironhide finally shows up to the party, and he brought a veggie platter.

Jazz tries to warn the medical staff about the Combiner coming their way, but no one ever listens to Jazz. Prowl has a crisis of self. Jazz breaks up the two-man act. Megatron let Bumblebee keep his cane, proving that even heartless monsters can respect the Disabilities Act.

Ironhide and the Dinobots save the day. Superion and Devestator get into a fistfight. Prowl reaffirms his complex over Spike Witwicky. Bumblebee says some halfway transphobic shit, and I shed a tear as I shake my fist in the general direction of England, cursing Simon Furman’s name. Arcee switches sides again and stabs Bombshell in the face. Prowl takes a nap. The tides turn.

Ironhide resists Frenzy’s sonic attack through the sheer power of gumption. Skywarp says fuck this and gets out of dodge. Devastator becomes a real boy.

Bumblebee WILL kill Megatron. Arcee makes it weird. Ironhide helps Prowl figure out his life. Bumblebee never learns. Metalhawk saves his BFF, and gets his arm shot off for his troubles. Starscream uses Metalhawk’s fuck-you-level long arm to kill a man.

Swindle carries a dude twice his size to safety with one of his arms off. Needlenose gets his just desserts. Devastator rips off his head to escape his crippling self-doubt. The Constructicons are having a hell of a day.

You said it, Hook.

Wheeljack saves the day from beyond the grave, that clever man. Metalhawk is killed by politics. Hat Guy tries to fight Bumblebee, and gets mad that he doesn’t remember his name. They’ve spoken to each other maybe once.

Metalhawk is made into a playing chip by Starscream, and also a speech writer from beyond the pale. Starscream tells everyone to get naked or fuck off, then takes off his top. All the Autobots and Decepticons who don’t want to get naked fuck off into the wilderness.

The Dark Cybertron “Prelude" issues kick in.

Shockwave and Dreadwing fly through the photorealistic sky to get to where the Titan is.

Listen here you little shit-

Shockwave shoots Dreadwing to test a theory, because ethics are for nerds.

Back when Shockwave was a hot guy with feelings, Jhiaxus was dealing with the Monstructor thing, then fucked off into space. Shockwave took the opportunity to be better than his teacher in every way, as is tradition. Proteus threw a whole-ass person across the room, because classism. Shockwave revealed himself to be a budding ecoterrorist. Shockwave joined a terrorist organization to further his own goals. Orion Pax tried to appeal to Shockwave’s softer side. Megatron killed the Senate. Shockwave replaced his shitty claws with a gun. Shockwave shot Dai Atlas in the legs and can’t explain why.

Dreadwing comes back to life, thanks to the power of Shockwave’s 14th ore.

Bumblebee has the Big Sad about Starscream being King of Iacon. Arcee doesn’t know what emotional turmoil feels like. Metalhawk’s lifeless body lays in the sun for several hours. Prowl is propositioned by the Constructicons. Arcee tells Prowl’s darkest secret, and it kills Bumblebee. Swoop is having a great time.

Arcee knows about Bumblebee being Hasbro’s golden boy. Prowl uses his manners, but only when no one can hear him. Arcee and the Constructicons get into a fight, with more flaming swords getting involved than you might expect. Slag offers to buy Arcee a drink.

Bumblebee gets a hot new body. Arcee gives herself a stick-and-poke tattoo. In a few hours, the sun will rise.

Pal, you are way ahead of schedule.

Shockwave makes a dramatic entrance.

Waspinator tells a story about the time he killed a servant of God and met death. Orion and pals visit Gorlam Prime. The Dead Universe comes into the narrative again. Wheelie has his arm blown off to keep from getting disintegrated, but he shrugs it off, because life is always awful for Wheelie.

Waspinator gets chased through the desert by Monstructor. Orion Pax acts like a dumbass. A Titan is revealed. Monstructor rides on the time-travel ship like it’s a horsey. Waspinator controls a Titan and makes it teleport. Orion plays fourth-dimensional chess, and reveals that his personal ship is named after his best friend.

Starscream talks to a corpse. Blurr tells Starscream to fuck off. A very good boy enters the narrative. The paparazzi ruin Starscream’s attempt to get underlings to do what he wants. A literal rat enters the narrative.

Starscream talks to Megatron, and I genuinely don’t have the words to explain what exactly is going on with that guy. Starscream takes a gander into the very good boy’s toolbox. The very good boy lays it on thick. Starscream destroys a man’s reputation.

Starscream breaks into Rattrap’s apartment. Rattrap becomes a government employee. Starscream talks to Wheeljack, who isn’t dead.

Soundwave has a flashback to when the Decepticons surrendered after the Chaos event, confirming that Ratbat was universally hated. Soundwave has robo-synesthesia. Shockwave is the perfect Cybertronian- Soudwave hates him for it.

Shockwave calls his teacher. Ravage judges Soundwave. The Decepticons reminisce on the time they resorted to cannibalism. Soundwave thinks mourning is for dumb babies and tells everyone to shut up because he’s big man on campus now.

Nobody deserves it more than you, babe.

The infighting begins, because no Decepticon has the ability to be halfway decent to each other, and they won’t learn that skill for a good while. Needlenose throws Blitzwing across a field and admits to having feelings. Soundwave is abandoned by the Decepticon forces.

Soundwave talks to himself in the Crystal City, then gets his ass kicked by Dreadwing.

In the past, Shockwave calls Bombshell a loser and outdoes him.

Soundwave kills Dreadwing. Shockwave hides in the shadows like a weirdo. Soundwave is done trusting Shockwave. Soundwave grabs Shockwave by the boob and yells at him. Soundwave is a hopeful guy.

In the past, Soundwave stole Ratbat’s brain and put it in a cassette, proving that space-Communism only works on paper.

Soundwave punches Shockwave in the head. Shockwave assumes Soundwave is alone, despite knowing he can contain many small men inside him.

Shockwave explodes a cat. Soundwave fires missiles at Shockwave and hits him in the tit. Shockwave would fuck Microsoft Excel if he could. Frenzy is just happy to be here- no, I didn’t mix them up, the colorist did.

Ravage is a grown-ass man. Soundwave’s synesthesia used to be a lot worse. Shockwave sends Soundwave and pals home. The Titan and Waspinator show up.

Soundwave has a face. Ravage and all the other cassettes are emotional support animals, who are also fully sapient.

Shockwave’s gonna fuck everything up.

And THAT, dear children, is the entirety of Robots in Disguise, up to issue #22. We’re all caught up and ready.

#transformers #rid #exrid #recap #maccadam #Hannzreads #text post #long post

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bedlamsbard · 4 years

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Part 6 of the other side AU concept! This should be seven parts total, but part 7 is likely to be delayed again due to a deadline and some health problems.

Previous: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

About 5.9K below the break.

***

“I’ve changed my mind,” Hera said, her voice so small that she could hardly hear herself. “I don’t want to do this. We should fly off and be pirates instead.”

Her hands were shaking so badly on the control yoke that the Ghost was in danger of beginning to wobble. After a moment’s hesitation, she glanced at Kanan to make sure that he had his hands on the co-pilot’s controls, then took her hands off the yoke and fisted them in her lap. She knew Kanan. He would be able to fly straight even with the galaxy crumbling around him, which at the moment Hera felt it was. She could usually fly no matter what; apparently this was the exception to that rule.

The steadily growing shapes that hung in space before them weren’t the Free Ryloth fleet. It was the Syndulla family yacht, the Syndulla’s Gamble, and her aunt Sinthya’s ship the Sandfly, the latter standing a little off the from the Gamble so as to have a better firing solution on the approaching Ghost. She wondered if that had been her father’s idea or her aunt (actually her mother’s cousin) Sinthya’s.

The comm unit on the dashboard crackled expectantly. Hera stared at it, half-expecting it to spit at her.

“I don’t think they’ll want to listen to me,” Kanan said apologetically. He spoke Twi’leki fluently, but had the strongest Coruscant accent in it that Hera had ever heard.

Hera supposed that she could get up and go and fetch the other Hera out of her cabin, but that wasn’t exactly a solution. Wincing, she reached for the comm. “This is Ghost.”

She didn’t recognize the voice that responded, though she suspected it was a cousin of some sort. “This is Syndulla’s Gamble, Ghost. We’re prepared for you to dock at our port airlock. Is that acceptable for your vessel?”

Hera swallowed. “Yes, that’s acceptable. We’ll dock shortly.”

“Acknowledged.”

She ran through a mental registry of which relative that could possibly have been and came up short, mostly through her own faulty memory of her extended family. There were a lot of people who had been lost at the colony, too, and while she was vaguely aware that a few had made it back to the fleet she had absolutely no idea who they were. Besides her mother, of course. Agent Beneke had made sure that she had known that, even though he had kept everything else about Free Ryloth from her.

The Syndulla’s Gamble was twice again the size of the Ghost, a healthily-sized yacht that Hera’s great-grandfather had purchased new from a Corellian shipmaker. It grew steadily in the Ghost’s viewport as they approached; she stared at its half-familiar lines, her gaze marking out the places on the hull where armor plating had been put on or where carbon scoring marked laserfire sustained sometime in the recent past, not to mention the additional quadlasers that hadn’t been there seven years ago, the last time she had seen the Gamble. The changes gave her an odd feeling that she couldn’t quite identify. The ship was still elegant despite the extra weaponry, but…different.

“Do you want to take her in?” Kanan asked her quietly. “I can if you don’t want to.”

“I’ll do it,” Hera said shakily. She put her hands on the control yoke again, maneuvering the Ghost until the two ships’ airlocks matched. They were both Corellian, if not from the same manufacturer, so their airlocks were compatible; Hera didn’t have to worry about running a pressure tunnel between the two ships. She kept her gaze on the control panel until it signaled that the airlocks were locked together and that pressure and atmosphere between the two ships was stable.

“Better stay up here in case – just in case,” she told Chopper. She tried to get up without taking her safety straps off and was immediately jerked back down; Kanan quirked a worried eyebrow at her and Hera grimaced back, undoing the buckle. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Are you all right?”

“What convinced you?” Hera grumbled. She checked the set of her blaster in its holster just for the sake of having something to do with her hands, even though the chances of having to use it were low. Possible, depending on how this ended up going, but low.

Kanan put a hand on her wrist to stop her before they left the cockpit. Hera paused, looking up at him, and he dropped his head to kiss her briefly. “It will be all right,” he told her gently.

She put her arms around him and leaned her forehead against his shoulder, suddenly so tired it was hard to think. “I don’t want to do this,” she whispered to him. “I want my mother, but I don’t want to do this.”

And she wanted the other Hera to see her mother too, even if she didn’t know how to explain that to Kanan, or have any idea how she was going to explain it to Alecto Syndulla, for that matter. If her mother even wanted her. Despite the conversation she had had via comm call, she still couldn’t bring herself to believe it, not after six years.

“I know,” Kanan said. “But we’re here.”

Hera nodded glumly. She let herself stay where she was for a few more moments, then pulled away from Kanan and wiped the back of her hand over her eyes. She wasn’t crying, but she could feel the beginnings of tears threatening to start.

Kanan pressed a kiss to her forehead. They left the cockpit together, heading towards the airlock and leaving Chopper to grumble behind them; he didn’t like being left behind. Hera braced herself as they approached the hatch; she was breathing shallowly, and she was holding onto Kanan’s hand so firmly it had to hurt him. He didn’t complain, just glanced at her to make sure she was all right.

Hera gave him a shaky smile before reaching for the hatch control. She had to fight the urge to shut her eyes as it slid open.

Her parents were on the other side.

Hera had had only the vaguest idea of what she was going to say when she saw them, but all of it went out of her head. She started to cry in near-silent gasping sobs.

Her mother was there before Kanan could do more than shift in reaction. She took Hera in her arms and pulled her close, murmuring, “It’s all right, baby, it’s all right, I’m here, you’re here, it’s all right. We’ll be all right now.”

“Hera. Hera, baby, wake up.”

Hera woke with a start, wincing at the crook in her neck even before she had fully regained consciousness. She had fallen asleep at the table in her temporary cabin, reading through ISB files on a borrowed datapad. It was hard to tell how many of them would still be relevant to her present day and a few of them referred to programs that she was almost certain didn’t exist in her own time, but no information was ever wasted.

“I’m awake,” she said, almost slurring the words. She spoke in Twi’leki, responding in the same language she had been spoken to in. “I’m –” She finally succeeded in raising her head from her folded arms and saw the woman leaning over her. “Mama?”

Alecto Syndulla smiled at her.

Hera scrambled to her feet and flung her arms around her mother’s neck. “Mama!”

Alecto took a staggered step back, but put her arms around Hera and hugged her back, then cupped her hands around Hera’s face and said, “Look at you!”

Hera beamed at her, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. Her brain caught up with the rest of her belatedly and she said, “You – you know I’m not her –”

“I know,” Alecto said calmly. “She explained. But I know my daughter.”

Hera hugged her again, overcome. “Mama, I – Mama –”

Kanan made a faintly interrogative inquiry from the bunk, sounding like he was still mostly asleep. Hera glanced up at him, feeling a wave of tenderness overwhelm her because he was here, he was here, and her mother was here, and she hadn’t thought she would have either ever again.

“Go back to sleep, love,” she told him. “It’s all right. I’ll introduce you later.”

Alecto drew her out of the cabin into the hallway, hugged her again, then held her at arm’s length as she looked Hera up and down. Hera held still, beaming at her, then fumbled her holoprojector out of her pocket.

“Mama – Mama, can I show you – this is my son, this is Jacen –”

Alecto wore the same poleaxed expression that Bail Organa had when he had seen Leia and her son, Hera was bemused to note. She could practically see the words but why does he have hair? floating behind her mother’s eyes, before Alecto flicked a quick glance at the cabin door and the sleeping human inside, and her expression softened. She put an arm around Hera’s shoulders and smiled.

“He looks like a good boy,” she said. “How old is he?”

“He’s five. He’ll be six in a few months. He’s on Ryloth with Daddy –” She stopped abruptly, her exhausted brain catching up with what she knew about the differences between her own universe and this one. “Daddy – Father – he didn’t leave Ryloth.”

For a moment her mother didn’t say anything, her gaze fixed on the hologram. Hera let herself just look at her mother – a tall, handsome Twi’lek woman about her own height, her green skin a few shades darker than Hera’s own. There was a scar tracing its way from the edge of her cap to her jaw that Hera’s mother hadn’t had, and the laugh lines at the corners of her eyes were deeper than they had been.

“Mama,” she said, small-voiced. “You –” No, not her. Hera squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again and forced herself to say, “My mother died when I was thirteen, in the riots in Lessu. Father said an Imperial sniper shot her, when Moff Mors sent in stormtroopers to deal with the protests. I remember when Daddy and Uncle Themarsa brought her back to the townhouse, after – after.”

Alecto looked at her, her gaze sad, then reached up to pull down the shoulder of her shirt, revealing the puckered scar tissue from an old blaster wound.

Hera had helped her aunt Clotho wash her mother’s body afterwards, preparing her to lie in state as befit a curiate patrician, though they had never been able to hold the usual public ceremony since the Empire had locked down Lessu. The laser blast that had killed her mother had been only a few inches down and to the left of Alecto’s scar.

“Father sent me back to the villa with the cousins,” Hera went on. “He got very distant after that – he wasn’t at the villa often. That’s when he was forming Free Ryloth – I found that out later, when I was sixteen. We had a huge fight about it.”

Her mother looked up at her, her eyes hurt. “After I was hurt, Cham sent everyone away to the colony,” she said. “The Empire wiped it out a year later.”

Hera stared at her. “Is that it?” she said. “Is that – is that the difference? You – my mother – dying? Is that all it is? And – and this happened, just because – is that it?”

Alecto reached out and pulled her into an embrace. “Our lives are our own, baby,” she said gently. “We can’t make sense of the past any more than we can change it.”

But we can, Hera thought; Kanan was still asleep in the other room. Though she supposed that that wasn’t quite changing the past, just taking something out of it; her own life wouldn’t be changed at all when she returned to her timeline. Unless they had all miscalculated, and reaching back to take Kanan out of that moment had had a ripple effect forwards, one that she hadn’t realized yet because she wasn’t there –

She shuddered.

Her mother mistook it and hugged her again. “It’s all right, baby,” she said. She cupped a hand around Hera’s face and smiled at her. “I’m glad I got to meet you. Tell me about yourself – about your life, and your boy. How old are you?”

“I’m thirty-three,” Hera said. She faltered for a moment, because she wasn’t more than ten years younger than her mother had been when she had died, but went on, “I’m thirty-three, and I’m a general in the Rebel Alliance – it might be the New Republic Navy now, if the council has already ratified the constitution.”

She smiled at her mother’s soft exclamation, and gave a brief overview of her life since the age of thirteen. She glossed over Kanan’s death, since that was a little more explanation than she wanted to give at the moment, though when she mentioned him her mother said tentatively, “He’s your son’s father?”

“Yes,” Hera said.

“He seems like a nice young man,” her mother said, which puzzled Hera for a moment until she realized that Alecto probably meant the other Kanan.

“Well, I think so,” Hera said.

Her mother put an arm around her shoulders and said, “Let’s go see your father.”

“He’s not –” Her mother was dead in her own timeline, but Cham Syndulla was very much alive, and Hera had talked to him as recently as three days ago. It was all too easy for Hera to take this Alecto Syndulla as her own mother; her mother had died when she was thirteen and Alecto hadn’t seen her daughter since Hera – the other Hera – was fourteen. Hera knew her father.

She took a breath, uncomfortable under her mother’s – under Alecto’s – curious expression, and said, “He isn’t my father, not really.”

A tiny line knit between Alecto’s brows, but all she said was, “Let’s go see him.”

Hera followed her down the corridor into the common room, where she found the other Hera and Kanan along with Cham Syndulla and, to Hera’s surprise, her aunt Clotho and cousin Doriah. All looked a little startled to see her, their gazes flicking back and forth between her and the younger Hera. The other woman looked desperately uncomfortable, and a little relieved to see Hera.

Cham looked exactly the same as her father had when Hera had spoken to him; past a certain point male Twi’leks didn’t show their age much, and Hera would have had to put both men side by side to make out the differences. He got up and came over to her as Hera stared at him, saying, “Daughter –”

Hera opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again, and finally managed to say, “Hello, Father.”

For a moment, Cham hesitated, then he put his hands on her shoulders. “Hera,” he said.

She looked past him just in time to see the brief flash of hurt cross the other Hera’s face.

“I’m Hera,” she said quickly. “But I’m a different Hera, from somewhere – somewhen else. I’m thirty-three years old, I’m a general in the Rebel Alliance, and I have a five-year-old son.”

Cham’s jaw dropped. His gaze went to Kanan, sitting beside the other Hera, and Hera had to stifle sudden laughter.

“Yes,” she said, “but mine, I mean, the Kanan from my universe.”

Cham’s expression did something complicated that might have made more sense if Hera could see his lekku, which she couldn’t from this angle; Doriah’s face went outraged but his mother laid a hand on his arm before he could say anything.

“Come and sit down,” Cham said finally.

Hera looked at the expression on the other Hera’s face and hesitated. “I should stay with Kanan –” she said.

The girl shook her head slightly, her expression a little desperate. Hera bit her lip, then sat down at her mother’s urging. She gave them all another brief precis of her life to date, taking out her holoprojector again to show Cham, Aunt Clotho, and Doriah Jacen. Doriah just looked upset, which puzzled Hera, but she didn’t want to ask why in front of anyone else.

Seeing Doriah was something of a shock. She and her cousin had quarreled before she had left Ryloth fifteen years ago; he had been killed while she had been offworld, so they had never gotten a chance to reconcile. They had been close as children – Hera was only six months older – but had spent the latter part of their teens fighting until Hera had finally left Ryloth. Never being able to make up with him was one of the great regrets of Hera’s life.

She happened to be looking at Kanan at the exact moment when he grimaced suddenly, squeezing his eyes shut as his hands went white-knuckled on his knees. The other Hera shot him an anxious look as he got to his feet, muttering an excuse before he went out into the galley. Hera heard the hatch beyond that slide open and then closed again as he went into the back of the ship.

Kanan staggered into the engine room, which was about as far as he could get from the rest of the ship without flushing himself out the airlock, and dropped to the floor beside the hyperdrive. He pressed the heels of his hands into his forehead, wincing, and tried to concentrate on the ache that caused instead of anything else.

No, he mouthed. No, no, no –

The airlock was sounding better and better with every passing moment.

Distantly, as if from a long ways away, he heard the engine room hatch slide open. Kanan winced, trying to get himself together enough to tell whoever it was – probably Hera, maybe Chopper – to go away, but couldn’t get the words to come.

Warm hands touched his wrists. Kanan flinched, but didn’t pull away; the Hunter had trained that out of him early on.

“It’s me,” the other Kanan said, the words accompanied by a light touch of the Force that seared Kanan’s abused mind like acid. This time he did flinch away, and felt his counterpart pull back – in the Force, at least; he didn’t release his light grip on Kanan’s wrists.

Kanan opened his mouth to tell him that he should probably go away and couldn’t remember how to speak.

“Hey,” the other man said, his voice very gentle. “Hey, come on, look at me.”

He couldn’t do that. Kanan had to tell him that he couldn’t do that, because he knew that if he opened his eyes, it wouldn’t just be him looking out.

“Listen to me,” the other Kanan said, “I will not let him touch you. You have my word as a Jedi Knight. I just need you to look at me.”

He knew.

He knew, and the rush of shame that went through Kanan made him dizzy. He could feel the pressure against his mind increase; it was so overwhelming that he almost lost his sense of awareness of the blazing presence beside him.

“I will not let him hurt you or anyone else on this ship,” the other Kanan said forcefully. “I can stop you if I have to. You can tell that for yourself if you reach out.”

He shook his head, willing the other man to understand. If he opened himself up enough to do that, it would give the Hunter space to slip in, and it wouldn’t be him the other Kanan had to deal with it, it would be the Hunter. He couldn’t let the Hunter know.

“Kid, listen to me,” the other Kanan said. “I can help you. Just listen to me. Listen to the sound of my voice. Do you hear me?”

After a long moment, Kanan managed to nod, just slightly. He wasn’t certain that the other Kanan could actually see the gesture, but he said, “Good. I’m going to reach out again. If it hurts you, I’ll stop. Do you understand?”

He jerked his chin in something that might have been construed as a nod. He still flinched when he felt the gentle touch of the other man’s mind against his, but didn’t kick him out this time. The Hunter’s awareness of the intruder flared, then retreated in confusion.

“It’s all right,” the other Kanan murmured, the words seemingly to be half spoken and half in his mind. “He can’t tell us apart.”

Kanan whimpered softly in the back of his throat, like the hound he had been named for. The words came slowly – still to his mind, not to his lips. You’re a Jedi. I’m not. He’ll know –

“Not from this distance, and not without knowing that I’m here at all,” the other Kanan said. “Breathe with me.”

Long months of obedience drilled into him, sometimes bloodily, meant Kanan fell easily into the pattern. It was easier with the other Kanan than it had been with the Hunter, as easy as it had been with Depa Billaba. With the Hunter it hadn’t been difficult – it had been easier than Kanan had liked – but his emotions had gotten into the way, fear and pain making him shy away until the Hunter had trained that out of him.

It felt like a long time before the Hunter’s presence receded from his mind. It wasn’t gone entirely – it never would but, not until the Hunter was dead and maybe not even dead; sometimes Kanan thought he could still feel Depa Billaba watching him – but the unrelenting pressure had faded enough that Kanan could think again. He took his hands away from his face, wincing when he realized he had been pressing them against his forehead so hard that his wrists ached, and saw the other Kanan crouched in front of him. The older man’s face was serious, his brows narrowed in concern. He was barefoot, his hair tousled as if he had just gotten out of bed.

Kanan looked at him and then away. He slumped back against the hyperdrive, all the strength gone out of him, because he knew.

“It isn’t your fault,” the other man said. His voice was a little lighter than Kanan had expected, familiar but not exactly identical to his own. Age, maybe, or what the Crucible had done to him.

Kanan put a hand over his face. It took him a moment to find the words, searching tiredly for them in what remained of his mind. “You didn’t.”

They were still attuned to each other, so he felt the faint buzz of the other man’s brief startlement. “It never came up,” he said.

“She said –” Kanan hesitated over the words again, then just let them spill out, knowing that the Jedi would be able to take any stumbling block from his mind. “She said he had you.”

He felt rather than saw the other Kanan’s sudden understanding, his face still turned away. “He didn’t have me for that long,” he said, his voice gentle. “We never got that far. Hera and the rest of my team broke me out first.”

Lucky, Kanan thought without saying as much, though he felt the other Kanan flinch slightly as he sensed it. He still woke up screaming two nights out of every five, and only slept through one of the other three, even with Hera in bed beside him. He had mostly stopped waking her up on the nights that didn’t involve screaming.

“She said you killed him,” he said instead.

“I defeated him,” the other Kanan said carefully. “He killed himself.”

Kanan rubbed his hands over his face, trying to get his head around that and failing. What he wanted to say was why did he hurt me and not you?, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask that question. Instead he just said wearily, “How did you know?”

His counterpart hesitated. Kanan felt suddenly sick, but couldn’t make himself look away from the other man as he said, “I felt him calling you. It woke me up.”

Kanan folded his hands over the back of his skull and bent his head down over his knees, breathing hard.

The other Kanan leaned forward and put a hand on his knee. He said softly, “Yes, I can feel that bond – there’s a resonance between us, do you feel it? An echo.”

Kanan wet his lips. He didn’t bother looking up, but he was too well-trained to avoid a response to a direct question. Touching the Force made him flinch a little – he was over-sensitive to it at the moment, between what he had done to bring the other Kanan here and fighting the Hunter’s attempt to drag him back to Mustafar – but he didn’t let himself stop this time. He felt the echo between himself and the other man without having to search for it, the Force rippling between them.

“Yes,” he said; he could sense the tie between himself and the Hunter reflecting back on the other Kanan. He had a tie of his own too, similar but not identical to Kanan’s, and much weaker. He hadn’t been the Hunter’s Hound, but there had been something there, the seed of something more that had never come to fruition.

“Did he tell you?” he had to ask.

“Tell me what?”

“When I was – when we were, I guess, you and I both – at the Temple – you know he was a Guard?”

“Yes,” the other man said. “I know he was a Temple Guard, back when he was a Jedi Knight.”

“He wanted – me,” Kanan said jerkily, “– as a padawan, I mean, back when – but if he left the Guard, he would be deployed, and he didn’t want that, and he didn’t want to take a padawan into the war. Especially because I was so young. So he thought no one else would either. He didn’t tell anyone, though, so when Master Billaba – he thought she had stolen his padawan.” He put his forehead down against his knees, breathing hard.

The Hunter had never told him this directly. He had told another Inquisitor, one of the other former Jedi, on one of the few occasions when Kanan had been injured badly enough fighting with other trainees to end up in the Crucible’s medbay. Both of them had thought he was asleep.

“He thought the Force had given me back to him,” Kanan said, the words a little muffled. “And maybe he was right, because he had me.”

He felt the other Kanan’s flinch and couldn’t tell if his murmured words were out loud or only in his mind. That explains the connection I felt…

The next thing he said was definitely out loud. “The Force is possibility, not ultimate truth. Just because something could have happened doesn’t mean it’s fated to. You and I are proof of that.”

Kanan looked up at him. The other man’s face was calm, without the slightly fanatic cast to it that he remembered from a few Knights back at the Temple. Only the scar that cut across his eyes was unfamiliar; except for the difference in scars, Kanan could have been looking into a mirror.

He looked down again. “But he found you anyway.”

“It’s a smaller galaxy than you’d think,” the other man said gently.

Kanan lifted a shoulder in a shrug. The two of them sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes as he got himself back under control, a little comforted by the presence of the other Jedi here – the Force could always tell, and there was something solidly reassuring about him that Kanan hadn’t thought he would ever feel again.

“Thanks,” he made himself say eventually. “I just – thanks.”

The other man nodded matter-of-factly. “What did he want?”

Kanan bit his lip. “He likes to pull my leash,” he said eventually, thinking. “I think it was just that – I don’t think he’s realized we’re gone yet. I mean, he might now,” he had to add. He rubbed both hands back over his short-cropped hair, one thumb brushing his notched ear – the Hunter had taken a slice out of it when he had shaved Kanan’s head, his first day at the Crucible.

He glanced up at the other man and said haltingly, “He saw me a week ago – I was back at Mustafar to check in. He was never happy about me going back to Hera, but it was out of his hands.”

The other man was quiet, waiting with patient calm like a master waiting for his padawan to figure out a problem. Exactly like, in fact, so much so that Kanan shivered and looked at him from under his lashes, distracted from his own misery. He remembered abruptly what Hera had said when she had first arrived.

“You have an apprentice,” he said. “A padawan.”

The other Kanan raised his head. For a moment grief flashed across both his face and the Force, fresh enough to make Kanan wince. He knew without having to ask that Hera had brought news that the other man hadn’t wanted to hear, bad news.

All he said was, “Yes. His name is Ezra.”

Kanan couldn’t imagine trusting himself enough to train an apprentice. He wasn’t aware of saying as much out loud, but the other Kanan said quietly, “Yeah, I felt that way too for a long time. But the Force wants what it wants, and it will always have its way.” He lifted a shoulder in a shrug.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Kanan said quietly.

The other man raised his head and considered him, the Force heavy behind those disconcerting white eyes.

I hope I don’t – Kanan thought, then choked it back. You never did know, and wondering on it was as good as asking the Force for it.

“I think you’d do all right,” the other man said. He smiled at Kanan. “You’ll know when the time comes.”

Hera sat with her family – with the other Hera Syndulla’s family – which was the most disconcerting thing she had ever done, and she included getting Kanan back in that. She knew her family, and knew that her mother had been dead twenty years and her cousin eleven. She had spoken to her father and her aunt recently enough that she was aware of a kind of double-vision, remembering Clotho and Cham as she had last seen them only a few days before. It was obvious that they were all responding a little better to her than to the other Hera, probably because she was what they had always hoped for and the other woman was so visibly uncomfortable.

Hera finally got up. “I should get some rest,” she said, making her goodbyes to the clearly reluctant Alecto and to Cham, who looked just as disconcerted as she felt.

She hadn’t gone more than three paces down the corridor before the door slid open and shut again behind her. Hera turned to see the other Hera there, the girl’s face pale.

“You don’t have to leave,” she said.

“Hera, they’re your family. Not mine. Mine are back waiting for me on Ryloth.” Or dead, but she didn’t want to say those words out loud. Instead, she just said, “You should be with your family. They love you.”

The girl’s gaze flashed sideways, so quickly that Hera might have missed it if she hadn’t been watching for it. She was quiet for what felt like a long time before she said, “I didn’t want to contact them. Not yet. I mean, I – I wanted my mother, and when you said – I wanted my mother. But I didn’t want to come here. I don’t…they want someone I’m not, not anymore.” She took a shaky breath.

“They’re your family,” Hera said again. The words came out more hesitantly than she had intended; she knew all about not wanting to face her own family, but her situation had been completely different than the other woman’s.

The other Hera lifted a shoulder in a helpless shrug. “I know that. I do. But I just…I haven’t told you everything, you know?”

Hera nodded cautiously.

“You said your mother was dead,” the girl said slowly. “I…I wanted you to see her.” She gave Hera a slightly frantic look. “I thought…as long as you were here, you deserved that.”

“Oh,” Hera said softly. “I – thank you. I didn’t realize that.” She put her hands on the other woman’s shoulders. They were the same height, though Hera actually had a slightly higher heel on her boots than the other woman. “I know it’s hard,” she said, “but you should go be with your family. I don’t –” She hesitated, trying to think of a good way to say what she meant. “I don’t want them to get so focused on me that they forget about you.”

The girl glanced down, which Hera took to mean she had noticed that too. “They’re not going to stay much longer,” she said eventually. “I mean – they’ll probably be here for another rotation or so, but we aren’t going to keep the ships linked all the time. And I’m not going back to the fleet with them, not…not yet. Maybe later, but not yet. I just – and Kanan can’t.”

When Hera frowned, she clarified, “He’s afraid that the Inquisition will come after him, and he doesn’t want civilians in the crossfire. And – I’ve seen what the Inquisition does. I don’t want them near my family either.”

Hera nodded slowly. “I understand.” She hugged the other woman quickly. “Go be with them. I do want to rest.”

The girl gave her a shaky smile. “All right.”

Hera watched her go back into the common room, then rubbed a hand over her face and went back into her borrowed cabin – she almost went into her own cabin first, then had to backtrack to the other door. She had expected to find Kanan still asleep in the bunk and froze when she realized he wasn’t there.

She stood there, staring at the empty bunk and feeling her heart beat rapidly in panic. He was here, she thought frantically. He was really here, I didn’t imagine him, I couldn’t have imagined him –

She didn’t know how long she stood there, starting to hyperventilate and too terrified to move, when the door slid open behind her. Hera spun to find Kanan standing there. He was in shirtsleeves and bare feet, his expression exhausted.

“Hey.”

She flung herself into his arms without pausing to make sure he was ready for her. He took one staggered step backwards, then put his arms around her. “I’m all right,” he told her softly. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Hera held him close, breathing hard. “I wasn’t scared,” she started to say, then shook her head. “Fine, I was. Where were you?”

He turned his head a little, making sure that the door had closed behind him, and then said, “The Grand Inquisitor took a swipe at the kid, and I caught the edge of it.”

Hera looked up at him in alarm. “Are you all right? Is he?”

“I’m all right. He –” Kanan hesitated, then went on, “He will be, I think, but I wasn’t expecting that. It woke me up.” His shoulders slumped, and he rubbed a hand over his face. “That was tiring.”

“Well, you can go back to sleep,” Hera offered.

“I’m still a little wired,” he said, then winked solemnly at her. “Want to make out until I fall over again?”

Hera flushed and punched him gently in the chest, then leaned up and pressed her lips to his. “Yes,” she said against his mouth, putting her arms around his neck. “I’d like that.”

#cut scenes and concept writing #other side au tag #as always comments are appreciated #especially since I have to go to the doctor and I need something to look forward to

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gingyboo · 3 years

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Mirror Mirror

A/N: Again many thanks to @booglebug

Description- Soulmates existed. People knew that much. Soulmates were rare, a handful in each generation, an unexplainable phenomenon that formed a bond closer than blood and more sacred than marriage.

Bucky finds his soulmate when he needs her most. Little does he know how much she needs him too.

(Soulmate au that slots pretty much in to the MCU but with soulmates. Set after TFATWS.)

Pairing- Bucky Barnes x OFC

Warnings- Mentions of violence and guns, but its mostly fluff, drama and angst.

This is a multi chaptered fic.

Please like, comment, reblog!

prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3Chapter4Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8

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Chapter 9

Shuri led Nancy back to her lab, Nancy looked around in awe at the screens and monitors. She saw one with Bucky’s face on it, lines of data forming around the edge.

“I’m monitoring Bucky, trying to see what caused last nights relapse, but it got me thinking.” She explained leading Nancy to a chair beside her desk. “Soulmates have been around as long as anyone can remember, but no real research has been done, they tend to be quite secretive.” She said inspecting Nancy’s neck with warm fingers. “If your willing I have some theories I’d like to test.”

“What were you thinking?” Nancy asked,

“There’s some form of bio-chemical link between you and Bucky, symbiosis of sorts, I’ve seen your medical records, I know what happened to you following the blip. From what I’ve found those soulmates who were separated, well most of them didn’t make it, and their soulmates never returned.”

“And you want to test how far this link goes?” Nancy said, realising the plan.

“Exactly that.” She grinned opening a small metal box beside her. Inside was a small, round metallic device, it looked similar to the beads around her wrist only flatter. “May I?” She indicated to the back of Nancy’s neck. Nancy swept her loose hair round to her front as Shuri pressed the disk to the nape of her neck. It felt cool and weightless. “There, that’ll measure your brain activity, your vitals and the like. I’ll compare the two of you, see if there’s any consistencies.”

“That’s so cool.” Nancy remarked seeing her own picture appear on the screen next to Bucky’s, her own data starting to appear.

“It you think that’s cool, you haven’t seen anything yet.” She stood up gesturing Nancy to follow. “I was thinking about why you should have survived when the other separated soulmates died. I thought what the difference could be. The serum that runs in Bucky’s veins, it’s never run in yours, but you’re bound to him and you were born decades after he was experimented on. If I’m right about this link then I think you might have some of his capabilities.” Nancy stared at her bewildered.

“I have never had any form super strength.” She protested.

“Maybe not, but recovering, like you did, that was impressive.” Shuri insisted. She led Nancy to the training room.

“What do you need me to do?” Nancy sprung lightly from foot to foot, she’d missed her gym back in London.

“Just a few basic exercises at first, we’ll go from there.”

Shuri started her running on a treadmill built into a panel on the floor. Her heart rate was monitored as well as the impact her feet were having on the ground. She then moved her to some loose weights, measuring the nerve activity in her muscles. She led her over to some targets on the wall, passing her some throwing knives. Her aim wasn’t poor but far from perfect, Shuri kept tapping away on her screen in the corner. By the end of the session Nancy’s bones ached and her head was dizzy with exhaustion. When they returned to the lab Shuri indicated to a bed in the corner.

“Do you think you could rest in here, I’d love to take readings from your sleep state.” Nancy simply nodded, the poor sleep the previous night twinned with the exertions in the training room allowed sleep to come easily.

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“Buck we need you on your A game today,” Sam said coming to sit beside Bucky as Torres flew the jet over Europe. “We’re doing this for her.”

“I know.” Bucky said scratching his head, “I just thought this was over.”

“I know you did. This was just a relapse. Shuri will figure out what’s going on up there,” he indicated to Bucky’s temple, “And we’ll fix it.” Bucky shook his head.

“It’s not that simple he could’ve killed her Sam. I could have killed her” He almost shouted.

“No you couldn’t, don’t you see?” Sam persisted, “She stopped you, she brought you back. No Russian words, no powers, no helicopter to the head. Just her. Now I only know one other person who could do that.”

“Steve.” Bucky sighed.

“Exactly.”

“But I hurt her, how could she ever forgive me. Who wants to be with someone capable of that?”

“She’s your soulmate, you’re not capable of hurting her and she’s not capable of hating you.” Although Sam’s words were encouraging, Bucky still felt the guilt pulsing through his veins. Every time he closed his eyes her face appeared behind his lids, contorted in pain, pleading with him. He tried to focus on mission at hand, finding the dark-haired man, getting to the bottom of his pursuit of Nancy. He just had to focus. He dove into his pocket pulling out the compact mirror Nancy had given him the night before. Before it had all gone so wrong. He opened it seeing only himself staring back. He imagined her there smiling back at him. He snapped it shut again pulling out his phone to send her a text.

‘I miss you.’ He started, staring at his phone not knowing what else to say. He sent the text closing his phone and heading into the cockpit to see the sky opening up in front of them.

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“Miss Cartwright,” Shuri gently shook her awake. “There’s something I’d like you to see.” Nancy stretched out on the bed.

“Please, it’s Nancy, Just Nancy.” She protested, dragging her aching limbs out of the bed.

“Alright Nancy, look at this.” She enlarged a stream of data on the screen. “This shows your brain activity whilst sleeping, your subconscious.”

“Okay.” Nancy said following the rise and fall of the red line.

“Okay, so this is Bucky’s subconscious.” She dragged his data across to overlap Nancy’s. “Do you see the spikes here?” Nancy nodded, “it echoes the spikes in yours.”

“No, that’s not possible.” Nancy starred at the overlapping lines in amazement.

“You see the Winter Solider, he is part of Bucky’s subconscious,” Shuri explained.

“So you mean…” realisation dawned in her eyes.

“I think it’s possible something in your subconscious woke him up. And in waking him he reverted to what he knows.” Shuri continued.

“Killing.” Nancy sobbed.

“But you also managed to stop him. The winter solider stood down for you.”

“He did.” Nancy sniffed, she’d stopped him, she’d brought Bucky back.

“He did, and I think I might be able to figure out what it was that woke him to begin with, but I’ll need to do some more tests with you first. Are you up for it?” Shuri asked, excitement ablaze in her eyes.

“Could it help him, stop it from happening again, he’ll be tearing himself apart over this.”

“I think it might.”

“Then yes, whatever it takes.” Nancy said with all the conviction she possessed. “But I wonder if you could do me a favour?”

“Of course,” the Princess agreed.

“I’d like to look into the circumstances of my brother’s death, would you help me?”

“Sure.” She said smiling sympathetically. Nancy always hated other people’s pity, but she had gotten used to it. She closed her eyes.

“We can’t tell anyone what we’re doing though, please, not my father, not even Bucky, not till I know what I could be looking at.” Nancy bit her lip nervously, she hoped she was right in trusting Shuri, she knew she couldn’t find what she needed alone.

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Christopher Cartwright had been at the top of his game, fresh out of Eton, good grades, a loving family, when he’d decided to enrol at Sandhurst. He felt with everything going on in the world he had a duty to his country to serve. So, serve he did, throwing himself into military training with enthusiasm. He’d never seen his mother look as proud as the day he passed out, an officer of the Royal Navy. That night he’d partied like it was the last night on earth. After that he was fully committed, swearing his life to the military, dumping his then boyfriend, throwing away any previous ideas of joining politics like his father, rejecting his sisters calls. He was a solider now, his duty had to come first. Two tours and 5 medals later he was recruited by a specialist training facility. It was on one of these training missions that tragedy struck, and he perished at sea along with his whole unit. All further information was classified, an empty casket had been buried, no body could be recovered.

Nancy had been 18 at the time. It had destroyed her parent’s marriage, caused her father to flee the country, her mother to move county and Nancy to be left alone. Nancy remembered the funeral well, the black coffin draped in the union flag, Kit’s military portrait standing at the front, the rose arrangements reading ‘Brother’ and ’Son’. People she hadn’t known had stood up sharing stories she’d never heard. They’d shaken her father’s hand and patted her on the shoulder. The whole day had seemed surreal, like it was for someone else’s brother.

The months following were filled with crippling grief. Then university provided a helpful distraction and Nancy managed to throw herself into her degree. In all that time she’d never really dealt with what his death meant for her, her heart never could accept that her big brother, who had always been there, was gone. He was the one who’d chase her around the garden with a water pistol and the hottest day of the year. He had snuck into her room during the thunderstorms to hold her hand because he knew how much they’d scared her. They’d grown together and played together. He’d pulled funny faces behind their mother’s back when she was being told off. She’d snuck into their father’s study to steal back Kit’s Gameboy when it was confiscated for pulling faces behind their mother’s back. She remembered terrorising Acedown Court’s garden with screams and cheers playing pirates with the neighbour’s children. Falling asleep in the back of the car on the way back from holiday after eating too many travel sweets. They had been a double act. Until he’d joined the Navy.

Then a few weeks ago the first glimpse of hope, a hope she didn’t dare speak out loud, not even to Bucky. The man in with dark hair, he could be lying, he most likely was, but there was a chance. Kit might just be alive. She’d be damned if she didn’t find him.

#bucky barnes #winter solider #sam wilson #captain america #mcu #mcu fic #soulmate

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capricornus-rex · 4 years

Text

The Haunt of Redemption (1)

Sequel to: A Path I Can’t Follow

Chapter 1: The Little Heartache That Went With It | Cal Kestis x Reader

Summary: It has been months since your last encounter with Cal, at that time he was a fledgling Inquisitor. In an ironic twist of fate, you cross paths and blades with him once again, and he’s keen on turning you into an Inquisitor as well—unless you bring him back to the light first.

Tags: Dark Side! Cal Kestis, Inquisitor! Cal Kestis, Redemption Arc! Cal Kestis

Also posted in AO3

Next: Chapter 2 | Masterlist

1 of ?

CAL’S DESCENT, THE SAME DAY

Barely escaping the TIE fighters that deployed from the command ship that’s standing by the orbit of Koboth, the Mantis had masked its trail as it jumped into hyperspace.

Greez had punched the coordinates back to Bogano.

Aside from becoming an easy target, for one thing, it has become your home—especially for you and Cal. You only had the chance to collect all of the consumables stored in the abode and workshop before leaving the planet for an indefinite time. Your nap was short-lived, you were restless even if Cere had told you to ease up in your room, so you quickly rejoined them in the cockpit.

“Sit tight, we’re landing,” said the captain, suddenly there was a firm tone in his voice but your ignored it.

“Bogano?” a puzzled look painted all over your face. “Won’t the Inquisitors find us here?”

“I figured we make a pit stop first to gather some supplies,” Cere replied.

“I take it we won’t be back here for a while, huh?”

Cere’s eyes did the talking. You didn’t need her to say the word. For you, she was somewhat easy to read.

The Mantis bounced on its landing gears’ suspensions, you bring your arm close to BD-1 for him to crawl on and then perch on you before springing out of the co-pilot seat and then stride to the door. Cere stood up from her seat and caught up.

“Listen to me, [y/n]. Gather what you can and then head straight back to the ship, do you understand?”

“Way ahead of you,”

“She means it, kid, I’m serious too!” Greez cuts in from the cockpit. “The ship is still blowing off steam from that jump into hyperspace and I don’t wanna stress the compressor and be caught like a sitting duck—by the Empire no less!”

You exit the ship and sprinted towards the small mesa. Along the way, you made a mental list of what supplies to get and where you’ve kept them.

“Supplies, food, tools. Abode, kitchen, workshop,” you repeated these words as you ran across the plains.

With your speed and momentum, you were able to make the jump to the high ground, when you pulled yourself up you were already at the mesa where the abode is. You were almost too afraid to enter.

Deep breaths. You put one foot in front of the other and the abode was in sight. You slid down the rope and the thick metal grate made a clanging sound at the impact of your boots.

You snatched a bag and ran to the kitchen, ransacking your own pantry and cupboards for food rations that you have stored, thinking that Greez will have better use for them. Supplies and consumables found in the workbench area were stuffed in a separate backpack.

“Where is it? Oh!” you mutter to yourself. “The room!

At first, you were greatly hesitant in setting foot into your bedroom. Your hands pawed the air, searching for the power switch in the dark. One big, deep breath.

Click.

Lights hummed as they flickered into life—the room lights, the light from the control panels and the screens, all of it. The clutter on the personal workbench remained undisturbed, exactly the way you left it before you left for Magyon. You couldn’t help but look around, every inch and corner of the house has something to do with him.

You rummaged the cabinets and chests for supplies and tools that will be useful in the long run. You walked and went to every part of the room, searching for things in your personal hiding spots—both yours and Cal’s—that may have something of use.

Gathering stuff while having so many things running in your mind right now worked you up. You sat on the end of the bed to take a breather. You fiddled your fingers while catching your breath and calming yourself down.

“Boo…?”

“Oh, BD…” you sighed sadly. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”

The little droid trilled a long and low tone, but quickly jerked his head up as if coming up with an idea. He positioned himself straight and upfront, back turned to you, and a click came from him.

Blue light fizzled into existence, a distorted voice garbled along with it as the resolution cleared out on its own. You assumed BD-1 was playing another saved recording of Cordova. Your heart skipped a beat when the droid projected something else.

“Are you getting this, BD? Yeah…? Okay. So… How do I start?”

“Cal?” you shifted in your seat.

“Wow… Heh. This is harder than I thought.”

The projection paced around, shoulders shifting until they were comfortable, trying to stand properly still as he spoke.

“Hey, [y/n]. I guess BD-1 finally showed you this recording. You never knew about it because it was something I kept from you and I have my reason—most of the time, I just wished it was part of a pleasant surprise.” The tone of Cal’s voice went from casually sweet to somber. “I’ve made this recording long ago; although, by the time BD will have shown this to you, I don’t have any idea how long time has passed since then.”

You stood up from the bed, your height level with the hologram projection of Cal.

“I guess this is the part that I say my reason for storing this recording, huh? Of course, you’d want to know now. I don’t blame you though—you’ve got every right to know.”

Cal’s posture started to feel more natural and laidback, doing his habitual stance whenever he’s relaxed. You take one step close to the hologram. Your eyes have begun to sting as you tried to resist tearing up.

“This… has always been in my mind lately. I couldn’t help but think of how much I love you, how much I want to protect you and keep you safe. Then at night, I always wonder if there will come a time where…” Cal trailed off and shakily sucked in air, even in his hologram form you could see the distraught in his eyes.

“Where there’ll be a time when something happens to me and I won’t be there for you, to have your back like I always promised, even if it means keeping you safe in return… If that ever happens, I’m so sorry, my love. My love…”

You take another step closer until the space between you was a few, mere inches. Tears finally fell down your cheeks, you could no longer repress them. Your heart ached as he spilled out the words with the distraught in his eyes.

“I’m asking you to not think of this message as a goodbye. No, this is not farewell. The universe and the Force will have to do better to get rid of me from you…” Cal chuckled in his projection, finally seeing that sweet and familiar smile of his.

You bring your hands up to his cheeks. It was wishful thinking, but your eyes kept on staring at Cal’s eyes, hoping that he would gaze back at you tenderly and fondly. But to no avail, your slight desperation had blinded you from the fact that the boy before you is only a hologram projection. Your eyes stung as they grew puffy from crying and the tears have blurred your vision.

“I think it’s much more comforting for both of us to look at this as a reminder. Before you sleep at night, I hope this message reminds me of you; please, darling, think of me, think of how much I love you and always will. Because I’ll do the same for you—not a day will pass by without having the thought of you burned in my mind and in my heart. My love, my baby, my sweet sonnet, I love you so much. Someday, hopefully soon, we’ll be together again. We always find our way to each other, don’t we?”

Cal’s lips curled upwards in the projection, flashing his casual yet sweetest smile, along with the fond gaze that you’ve been wanting to see. His last words made your heart bleed. The knuckles on the back of your hand caressed nothing but thin air, the blue hologram fizzled as your fingertips passed through. The dried-up tears have stained your cheeks while more fell from your eyes. Your knees were still weak and you melted to the floor.

“Oh, BD…” you sobbed. “Come here.”

You beckoned him with open arms. He switched off the projection and leapt into your embrace.

“Since when have you been keeping secrets from me, little guy?” you managed a playful tone.

BD-1 whistled and chirped. You chuckled while cuddling him. Eventually regaining your bearings by taking another breather from all the sobbing.

“Don’t worry, BD, we’ll bring him home soon. You’ll see,”

The little droid trilled a string of notes agreeably, sensing your resolve and the strength of your willful spirit returning to you. You wiped your eyes and take one last look in the abode before shutting all of the power down—leaving it the way it was before you and Cal set foot into this place.

You hurriedly went back to packing and then ran to the workshop through a shortcut. Going back out in the mesa, you carefully dropped to the ledge where the ziplines are. The blast door startled the Boglings lounging about outside and scurried back to their burrows as you wall-ran across the gap until you got to the workshop’s door. You picked up whatever leftover parts that you might need for your lightsaber or any gadget that might come in handy.

“Cere, I’m done. I’m heading back there now,”

“Alright, we’ll be waiting,”

You slung both bags on your body—a sling bag filled with food rations and ingredients, and then a backpack filled with parts and supplies—and effortlessly traversed the plains until you met with Cere waiting for you outside the Mantis.

“Ready?”

“Yep,”

“Take one last look, [y/n], we won’t be here for a while.”

You and Cere glance over your shoulders and watched the afternoon sun shine behind the spire of the Bogano vault. Your eyes panned across the expanse of the planet. You’ll definitely miss everything about this planet, especially the things more than the eye can see—waking up to the sound of pots clattering in the abode’s kitchen, watching the sunrise while sitting at the edge of the mesa, the whistling of the wind in the canyon at the Great Divide.

“We’ll come back. I’m sure of it,” you said so certainly and confidently to Cere.

Not knowing how to react to that, Cere just simply watched you enter the ship and then take one last look of Cordova’s secret planet sanctuary before getting into the ship herself.

Greez was already prepping the ship for takeoff, typing the coordinates of their next destination in a pattern of button presses on the keypad. After stashing the bags in their rightful places, you joined the crew in the cockpit and saw the coordinates copied onto your screen in the co-pilot’s seat.

This planet is new to you but apparently Greez knows about it. Anything goes, you thought. And then the Lateron captain cranked the lever and left Bogano.

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babedur · 4 years

Text

Well, between "ADA gets a human body for some reason," "Maisie's mom time travels to the future somehow," and "Alex Hawthorne just shows up one day on the Unreliable," the last one won the fight for my brain today.

We’ll see who wins tomorrow.

Alex only hit the button because it was his only option, and braced himself. The scientists outside were yelling- at him, at each other, at the guards. The guards were yelling at him, too, and the scientists, and probably at each other, too, just to cap it off, except it was getting harder to hear over the whir of the machine he’d trapped himself inside.

If he lived, this was the last scientist job he was taking. No more scientists and corporate espionage. Smuggling and scavenging exclusively. Though he was certain to break this promise to himself, because, first of all, espionage tended to pay, and second of all, it was actually getting kind of difficult to hear himself, and everything was starting to tingle, and the tingling turned into needling, then piercing, and-

and he was in the dark, someplace a little cold and smelling a little bit like socks and the leftovers of a meal that involved hot saltuna, with a fine undercurrent of recycled ship air.

Alex patted himself down. All his fingers seemed to be in order and he could only assume the same for his toes. It was an odd feeling, going from extreme pain to extreme… neutralness, in an instant. He had the feeling it would be coming back at any moment to hit him like a ton of bricks. Or maybe a ton of bullets. Where the hell was he?

The lights flicked on. He had a moment of relief- the Unreliable’s galley, what were the odds- before ADA’s voice rang through the entire ship: “ALERT! INTRUDER in the GALLEY. I repeat, INTRUDER in the-“

“ADA,” Alex hissed. “It’s me! Not sure how, if I’m being honest, but-“

One of the closed doors in the unused crews quarters slid open. A guy with sleep-tousled curly hair, one sock, and a blade slid out into the hallway.

“What the fuck,” Alex said, lifting his pistol. “ADA, who the hell did you let onto my ship?”

“Hey!” the guy- the kid, really- barked. “How did you get onto our ship!”

“‘Our?’” Alex repeated. “This is the Unreliable. My ship, thank you.”

“I don’t understand,” ADA said, sounding lost. “I don’t- I don’t understand.”

Another door slid open. A short-haired woman aimed a bolter pistol right at his chest. “ADA,” she said, sounding half-asleep for all that her pistol hand didn’t waver as he switched his aim to her. “You falling asleep at the wheel? How the hell did we get two days away from Scylla and no one noticed we had a stowaway?”

“I don’t think that’s what happened,” ADA said.

“Damn right,” Alex muttered, and a third and fourth door opened- just how many people were here? Last time the Unreliable had had more than one person, it had just been him and Lucky, and even that had been too many people. ADA had complained for weeks about the intrusion. As it was, he was now being held at gunpoint in his own galley by four different strangers in various stages of asleep and unclothed, and most of them looked like they meant business.

“Drop the gun,” the woman with pink hair who apparently slept with a fucking axe said. She tried to circle around behind him.

“Since you asked so nicely, I’ll consider it,” Alex said, backing up to keep her in his sights. It wouldn’t last forever.

The redhead cocked her bolter and lowered her aim to his legs. “Don’t worry,” she said cheerfully, “I’m pretty sure I can patch up most of what we’ll do to you if that gun doesn’t hit the gun right now.”

Alex compromised. He put the gun on the table. The woman with pink hair immediately circled the table completely and started frisking him, finding his backup pistol and belt knife, then his boot knife. “Buy me dinner, first.”

“Is the captain awake?” A young woman with a big hammer asked.

ADA hesitated for a full two seconds. That was a long damn time, for an astrogator with ADA’s processing power. “Maisie is coming. Please standby.”

Okay. Okay. Current theory: ADA had been hacked while he was gone.

“ADA,” Alex said quietly, even as the redhead raised her gun in warning. “Do you recognize me?”

“Of course I do,” ADA said, her voice completely flat. “You’re Alex Hawthorne. But I don’t- I don’t understand. You’re dead.”

“Obviously not,” the woman with pink hair said. “You sure it’s him, ADA? You haven’t been hacked, somehow?”

“That’s my line,” Alex snapped. “Why else would ADA let anyone else onto my ship?”

Two more people- that made six, now- approached. He knew, with a sinking feeling of dread and violation, that they’d come from the captain’s quarters. The man was older, built like a tossballer and idly carrying a deadly-looking shotgun somewhat at odds with his pyjamas and slippers. The woman was older, too, with an eyepatch covering what looked like some real damage on her left eye, and acid scarring on her right cheek. Her remaining eye looked him over.

“Alright,” she said. “I’ve got a lot of questions.”

“You?” Alex snapped, kicking away the woman who was currently relieving him of his gunbelt. She just unceremoniously shoved him into one of the couches while the rest of the intruders formed a semi-circle. “You have questions? I’ve got a fucking question, lady, who died and made you captain of my ship?”

“You did, I think,” she said mildly. “Quick question, what day do you think it is?”

“Thursday, probably.”

Her mouth pulled in what could have been either amusement or exasperation. “What month and year.”

“March 3rd,” Alex said.

“And the year? 2355?”

“Of course. What other year would it be?”

“The current day,” the woman said, “is February 8th, 2356. I’ve been captain of the Unreliable for almost a year, in May, since her previous captain, Alex Hawthorne, died in the Emerald Vale by standing too close to an escape pod’s landing beacon.”

Alex blinked. And snorted. “Nice one,” he said.

“No,” ADA said. “She isn’t lying to you. That… happened.”

“It’s not possible. I was just…” he frowned. “Hey, ADA, did I get paid for the Cedar Springs job?”

“No,” ADA said. “As I recall, shortly after landing you decided that it was too risky and that your contact was, I quote, ‘a flaky son of a rungleech who didn’t have enough bits to make me piss on a sleeping UDL recruit, let alone storm an entire compound of them.’” (The young fellow barked a laugh.)

“That sounds like me,” Alex admitted. “But that isn’t what happened. I took the job. Got trapped inside. There was some big…” he gestured, outlining the platform inside the huge science-y cage thing. He received blank stares in return. “…science thing, and I pushed the button, figuring it would distract them.”

“And then…?” the captain- ugh, no, the woman- prodded.

“And then I was here, being threatened and robbed on my own ship.”

“Not quite time travel,” the woman mused, leaning comfortably on the back of one of the chairs. “Alternate universes?”

“That’s fairly far-fetched,” the older man said. “But if any company would try to research and monetize it, it would be UDL. Or, some clever hacker has convinced ADA that he matches the description of her deceased captain, and given her a fake memory or two to match.”

“Fuck you,” Alex snapped. “I put so much work into this ship I may as well have built her from scratch. You see that panel?” he pointed. Only the young woman and the guy actually looked, but that was beside the point. “I spent four hours behind it, wiring the cameras so ADA could see the table.”

“I could tell you had some trouble,” the young woman piped up. “Everything back there was covered in shrink wrap, like you’d had to strip back so far on the wire you needed to add more. A lot more.” Under his stare, she flushed. “I mean, uh, you got the job done, obviously, it’s just…”

“Great,” Alex muttered. “You stole my ship, suborned my astrogator, and now you’re insulting my engineering.”

“Let’s say we believe you’re Alex Hawthorne,” their leader said. “What happens now?”

“You put down your guns and kindly escort yourselves to the airlock?” Alex said hopefully.

The other captain shook her head. Behind her, her crew bristled.

“Worth a shot. Well, you’re the ones with the guns, you got any ideas on what to do with me?”

“You mentioned the airlock,” the redhead said thoughtfully.

“Absolutely not,” ADA said, calm voice at odds with the sudden increase in volume from her speakers throughout the ship.

“Message received,” the redhead said. “No spacing the ex-captain.”

“Ex-captain,” Alex repeated with disgust. “Current captain, thanks.”

“Do you have your ID cart?” the older man asked, which was the important question.

“Not on me,” Alex lied, and the other captain looked to the table. There it was, sitting on top of the things the pink-haired woman had filched from him, the ID cart designating him as the captain of the Unreliable. “Oh, that’s a fake.”

“I’ll just be taking that anyway,” she said, and there went one of his options for regaining control of ADA, right into her jacket pocket. The others would take more finesse and time, both of which were fragile things where you were a prisoner. “We’re currently on a job, but once we’re done with that, it seems we’re going to Cedar Springs. Any objections?”

“Who’s going to pay us for that?” the pink-haired woman asked.

“I’m sure we can find something Gladys will be interested in,” their leader said. “Or Phineas.” And that was something, that she was on first-name basis with Dr. Welles. “We’ll be solidly in the black once we collect on this one, anyhow.”

“What, after all this you’re just going to do me a good turn?” Alex said, as the crew read something in their leader’s body language which made them start to relax a little.

“Well, that’s part of it,” she said. “I know what it’s like, to wake up in a place you don’t really belong. On top of that, I’ve never met a horrific science facility that didn’t end up profiting me somehow. And, most importantly-“ she patted the pocket with his ID cart in it. “-in some other world, there’s a ship that needs a captain. I aim to return him to her.”

#the outer worlds #the outer worlds fic #towfic #my fic #snippet

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pidayforpi · 4 years

Text

122,640 Days

How many days were there in 336 years?

A quick tap on the calculator, and our hero found out.

122,640 days. Neglecting leap years.

122,640 days. Would anything still remain after 122,640 days?

Daffy Duck stood inside his space ship, looking at the planet he called “home”. Were the stars too bright, or was his heart feeling sour?

Planet Earth in front of him seemed a bit cloudy through the wide windows. The reinforced glass was sparkly clean. Eager Young Space Cadet was always so diligent.

But what was cloudy was something the young pig would never imagine being cloudy.

Duck Dodgers, the national - no, universal - hero, always wore a boastful smile or a disappointed frown.

But the black-feathered duck in front of the panel of buttons was wearing an unreadable expression.

———————————————————————————————

“The breeze gently passes through the air, blowing towards the heart that should have been broken.

Enveloping those crossed, held hands in the everyday dusk, slowly disappearing.”

Somewhere on the blue-green planet, Daffy Duck could see a two-storey house. In that house, he could see a grey rabbit sitting on the sofa, caressing a brown “dog” on his lap. A brown mouse wearing a sombrero pushed opened the front door much taller than him, tired from a day’s work. The rabbit would greet him, and vice versa, before the mouse went inside his mouse hole.

Daffy knew there was a fourth occupant in the house: A black duck fast asleep in a messy bedroom. After all, the tenant always went to sleep strictly at 10:00 pm, only to wake up at 10:00 am the next day. The tenant was a heavy sleeper. No matter how noisy his housemates downstairs were, he would never wake up. No matter how noisy he snored, and how hard his housemates slapped him to wake him just to tell him to shut up, he would never wake up. 10:00 pm, and he’s a dead man for the next 12 hours. Even on New Year’s Eve, he would not give an exception. In fact, he would even sleep earlier at 8:30 pm, because he strongly believed that New Year was “a holiday invented by the media”, whatever that meant.

But if he was now given the chance to relive any New Year’s Eve, Daffy believed the black duck would be willing to stay up all night.

“Strange, isn’t it? Our smile never looked the same.

But now, it seems like I am looking at my own reflection.”

Daffy knew the duck was a moocher. He never worked to pay his rents, or anything for the house. Even the “dog” would win prize money from dog shows, and the mouse would use his hard-earned money to repay the house-owner: The rabbit. Not to mention the duck being a big spender, an irresponsible customer, often buying useless items at high prices. Heck, he even once used the rabbit’s money to buy and decorate his parade float, and a dozen of lobsters to fill the swimming pool for a barbecue. He even once stole the rabbit’s inventions, bought the house with the money earned, only to have the house destroyed when his (version of the rabbit’s) invention malfunctioned. Yet, the rabbit never kicked him out. Never sold the parade float, never got rid of all the lobsters. Instead, he built a time machine to save the house. Not only because it was his house in the first place, but it was also the abode of his best friend: The duck.

But if he was now given the chance to live in that house again, Daffy believed the black duck would take any job to repay the rabbit for his generosity.

“I won’t be sad. Because it’s nothing.

Hidden under those nonchalant greetings is my “thank you”.”

Daffy knew the duck was a terrible friend. He never kept his promises. He just took his friends for granted. Whenever he wanted something, he would ask his friends to pay for him. He wouldn’t even pay for a soda on the Grand Canyon himself. He stole the rabbit’s gloves when he needed to fix his parade float. He took his polite, innocent pig friend’s wallet to buy a ship, lying to his empathetic swine buddy that he needed a kidney transplant. The duck even forced him to be his butler to impress his girlfriend on a date, in the pig’s house no less! Not to mention the verbal and physical abuse the duck had inflicted on him during the dinner. He messed up his rooster friend’s film project for fun, his only excuse being that he wasn’t a professional actor. He was a terrible host at his own diner party, and a pathetic MC for a mystery game. Yet, they all attended his birthday party. Friendship and love were the only reasons they needed to forgive their duck-billed looney friend, not to mention him being fun to be with. The duck’s stupid grin and funny lisp were all they need to feel the power of friendship. Love really did defy common sense.

But if he was now given the chance to be at that birthday party again, Daffy believed the black duck would burst into tears of joy right then and there. Words couldn’t describe how grateful the duck was to his friends.

“Farewell. Bye bye. Please do take care.

Because this is a request I proposed first, please firmly catch it.”

He missed those days lounging around Pizzarriba with the rabbit and the pig, engaging in small talks when the mouse delivered two fresh, hot pizzas to their table with a wide smile.

He missed those days filling himself up with helium at the fun fair, just to win the title of “Mr Weiner” in front of his friends.

He missed those days playing bowling with the pig, a Martian and a puma, and helping them make overly long nicknames to insert into the leaderboard.

He missed those days at the Copy Place, where he made his first impression to his girlfriend as a weirdo ordering business cards stating himself as a wizard.

He missed those days being an outlaw chained to his rabbit friend, disguising themselves as yellow versions of themselves and somehow getting away with it.

He missed those days streaking (yes, streaking) with his pig friend in a remote village in Mexico, only to be put behind bars by the local sheriff.

He missed those days disguising as a university professor, and actually changing his name to “Professor”.

He missed those days sharing his house with his rude red-haired neighbour, and trying to scare him away with the rabbit when his misbehaviour were just too much.

He missed those days destroying an antique store owned by a pair of gophers in his fight with the rooster (and the fight between the rabbit and the red-haired neighbour). The shame when he cried for his mother in front of his friends!

He missed those days teaching his witch neighbour’s son how to defend himself against bullies. Even now, he didn’t think he had the power to push the red monster a mere centimetre away.

He missed those days ruining a whole dog show, nearly getting his rabbit friend arrested and his “dog” killed.

He missed those days training with the mouse, only to have the pig carry him throughout the marathon. The pig really was the local hero, as the papers said.

Yes, Daffy Duck really did miss those days. Those days, 122,640 days ago.

“Not long ago, we never talked about the future.

Although I am getting gentler, as wishes that cannot be granted accumulate.”

When he awoke from his 3.5 century slumber, just a glance around, and Daffy knew those days weren’t coming back.

He would rather be frozen forever, oblivious to the cruel reality.

In 122,640 days, everything changed.

No one remained, at least not as themselves.

Bugs Bunny, Speedy Gonzales, Tina Russo, Foghorn Leghorn, Pete Puma and Gossamer were nowhere to be found.

Porky Pig, “Poochie” the Tasmanian Devil, Marvin, Yosemite Sam, Mac and Tosh were there, technically. But they weren’t who they had been 122,640 days ago.

Especially good old Porky, the second best friend Daffy never admitted that he had. Without Bugs, Porky was the only one Daffy could count on.

But when the “Eager Young Space Cadet” looked at him with a confused, ignorant smile, Daffy knew that was not Porky. Not anymore.

The smile was the same, but not the owner of the smile.

Daffy was still surprised how he didn’t collapse and cry at that very moment.

“But now, for only a bit, please let me throw a little tantrum.”

And it didn’t help that Marvin, his high-school exchange classmate and friend, pointed his gun at him when they first met. Daffy really hoped Marvin had pulled the trigger at that time.

Poochie transformed into a real killing machine, Mac and Tosh reduced to vegetable-stealing mutants, while Yosemite Sam evolved from the local neighbourhood jerk to a galactic evil mastermind.

“I won’t be sad. It’s time for you to go.

Contradicting my cold salutations, I turned around.”

Yes. Porky would no longer jump at him for wasting his money for a ship. Marvin would no longer deliver pizzas with him via a tank. Sam would no longer be stupid enough to cut his own electricity supply, and ask for refuge at Daffy’s house.

He couldn’t tell Bugs how sorry and thankful he was for being his bestie. Couldn’t tell Speedy how delicious his frozen pizzas and 62 hot dogs were. Couldn’t tell Tina how good the name “Zachary” was. Couldn’t tell Gossamer how beautiful his voice was.

“Farewell. Bye bye. Please do take care.

If you write me a postcard or two every year, I will surely catch it tightly.”

Those meaningless, joyful, carefree days were never coming back.

———————————————————————————————

“Someday, we are going to meet again.

(It’s alright if you keep it. Whether it is the CD, or the harmonica...)”

If the buttons weren’t waterproof, the space ship would have crashed already.

Tears flowed out of Daffy’s eyes, dripping onto the metallic panel. He fell onto the cold, lifeless ground, wiping away tear after tear. The planet in front of him was no longer visible, leaving only a smear of blue and green.

“I won’t be sad. Please don’t be sad as well.

Don’t let me see that devastated expression, and cheer up.”

He told himself to keep quiet, to hold himself together. He was now Duck Dodgers, of the 24.5th century! Lest Space Cadet noticed his dear captain crying uncontrollably. But Daffy didn’t care. Right now, he was Daffy Duck, not some fictional hero in the future. Right now, he was back in the 21st century. He could cry all he wanted. He could be the pathetic loser he used to be.

No need for fame.

No need for power.

No need for disintegrating pistols or ultimatum dispatchers.

All he wanted were those 122,640 days back. Those scenes reflected on the photo frame on the control panel.

“Farewell. Bye bye. Please do take care.

I hope that when we congratulate each other, we can meet again.”

The photo frame he received on his birthday, made from pictures of himself. Many have dismissed it as a spoof of narcissism. But little did they know that photo frame meant the world to Daffy.

“I won’t be sad. Because it’s nothing.

Hidden under those nonchalant greetings is my “thank you”.”

Daffy took the old photo frame, and embraced it tightly. He couldn’t look at the pictures clearly anyway. But he could see his friends planning his birthday party at Pizzarriba, making his birthday presents, and decorating both the house and the restaurant...

“Farewell. Bye bye. Please do take care.

Because this is a request I proposed first, please firmly catch it.”

A pair of trembling arms hugged Daffy from behind. The creator of the photo frame. Eager Young Space Cadet must be so confused seeing his captain crying his eyes out with his self-portrait so late at night. He didn’t even know who made the photo frame, let alone what was making his brave captain so, so sad.

“Farewell. Bye bye. Please do take care.

If you write me a postcard or two every year, I will surely catch it tightly.”

Daffy didn’t have to look to see Porky’s puzzled expression. And yes, that was Porky. Not some random “Space Cadet”. That was his second best friend, the one who made him that old, dusty, rusty photo frame. He might not remember it, but Daffy would never forget.

“Farewell. Bye bye. Please do take care.

Because this is a request I proposed first, please firmly catch it.”

———————————————————————————————

Somewhere in the reflection of his overflowing tears, Daffy could see a pizza parlour in a busy city. The bell jingled when he opened the front door, people’s laughter filled his ears. Mouthwatering aroma of pizzas filled his nostrils as soon as he stepped into the restaurant. He didn’t request for a table - He was always the late one.

He sat down besides a grey rabbit and a pink pig at their usual seats, right before a brown mouse with a sombrero dashed towards them with a pencil, a notebook and a bright, friendly smile. Daffy didn’t need the menu. He always ordered the same dish. Every year. Every day.

“Two cheese pepperoni pizzas. The usual.”

(16-4-2020 ~ 20-4-2020)

——————————————————————————————

-(I originally wanted to post this story along with another Ducktales long story, but since it’s a long story, I still haven’t finished it, so...)

-(This is also the first fan-fic I have finished in my life.)

-This story is the result of my new found interest in The Looney Tunes Show and Duck Dodgers in April 2020. The background is a possible AU (?) in which (1) Duck Dodgers is Daffy Duck (is this canon?), and (2) is the Daffy Duck from the Looney Tunes Show, making The Looney Tunes Show a prequel and Duck Dodgers a sequel.

-The number of year “336” is the difference between year 2350 and 2014. Since the Duck Dodgers show doesn’t mention which year it is set specifically in, or how many years is Duck Dodgers frozen for, I am improvising here. Year 2350 is exactly 24.5th Century, while year 2014 is the end of The Looney Tunes Show (2011-2014). I picked 2014 (instead of 2011) because I presume the events in the show happen between 2011-2014, such that after the end of the show, Daffy Duck is frozen until year 2350.

-The song lyrics (in Italic and Bold) are from “Sayonara Byebye” (さよならbyebye) performed by Mawatari Matsuko (馬渡松子). It is best known (and is actually composed) for the anime version of Yu ☆ Yu ☆ Hakusho (幽☆遊☆白書) by the (in)famous Togashi Yoshihiro (冨樫義博) as the second ending theme. The translations are by me. The song is about parting ways, and is actually an inspiration for this story, as well as one of my personal favourite anime theme songs.

(It is a bit off to be in an action anime, especially when it’s played during an intense battle tournament arc (you know which one I mean if you watched the anime before), but the song is great nonetheless. In fact, the song fits the ending of the series. I would say it may be planned?)

-Most (if not all) of the flashback scenes (or references) in the story appear in various episodes of The Looney Tunes Show. The photo frame is the one given to Daffy by Porky as a birthday present in the episode “Muh-Muh-Muh-Murder” (S01E25), for instance.

-By chance, I wrote this story across Daffy’s birthday (screen debut), which is on April 17.

-And I also wrote this during my public exam preparation period. Yes I am pathetic.

-Also the Japanese dub is good in both DD and TLTS. (・∀・)

Duck Dodgers, The Looney Tunes Show and any character involved belong to Warner Bros.

“さよならbyebye” is written by リーシャウロン, composed and performed by 馬渡松子.

“幽☆遊☆白書” is created by the wonderful 冨樫義博-sensei.

#the looney tunes show #duck dodgers #looney tunes #daffy duck #story #storyteller #short story #song story

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facialteeth · 4 years

Text

A Bit of Space (6/6)

The end.

You can read this chapter on ao3 here or listen to a podfic version here. Special thanks to @accal1a for creating the podfic and @the-prophet-lemonade for beta reading this chapter.

Chapter Six:

It turned out swimming was a wonderful idea because by the time they made it back to the ship, hours had gone by and Alec declared that it was time to test the solar panels.

It was a big moment, one that could change everything but Magnus found himself hesitating. If the solar panels were working and generating enough power, they might be able to contact someone on the radio tonight. If that failed, they could listen to music. And if they didn’t have enough power for even that, at least they could use the lights inside the ship. Magnus would be thrilled by anything, at this point.

But coming back from swimming, the feeling of Alec’s lips still lingering on his own, it felt like whiplash to see Alec revert to his role as Captain Lightwood as he began talking rapidly about solar panels, electricity and hope. If the solar panels didn’t work, nothing would change and yet, if they did, everything could.

Magnus felt tired. Swimming had drained him and instead of feeling excitement at the possibility of radio communication, Magnus felt numb. He would be disappointed if this didn’t work but he hadn’t gotten his hopes up and if he was stranded here forever with Alec- well, that didn’t seem so bad.

On Earth, maybe Alec wouldn’t like him anymore. Maybe everything would be different there and whatever made them click here would be gone. Maybe they’d been through too much together to ever make a life somewhere normal. There was a part of Magnus that wondered if they only made sense here, halfway across the universe and stranded on some unknown planet. Here, they were each other’s only option.

On Earth, Alec might not want Magnus anymore. He told Magnus he was in the closet and he might be too embarrassed to leave it or perhaps he’d ask Magnus to move out of the loft he loved so much. They might bicker, fight and disagree on everything. They might have nothing in common when the threat of survival wasn’t looming over their heads.

What if Alec didn’t like cats? What if he didn’t get along with Ragnor and Catarina? What if he didn’t understand Raphael’s dry charm? What if Alec didn’t want kids? What if he did? Magnus wasn’t even sure if he wanted kids or not.

Things were so simple here. He and Alec, they fit together because they had nothing left. Every part of their old selves was scattered and smashed apart by the crash but now, they might have to assemble all the little pieces back together. It left Magnus with one, burning question: if they were rescued, would they even like each other anymore?

When Alec flicked the switch on the main console and their ship lit up instantly, Magnus was excited. When the automatic door began whirring for the first time in months and they didn’t have to pull the crank to open it, Magnus was ecstatic. When he charged up his camera and took a wonderful series of photos of Alec and Apollo, Magnus was thrilled. How could he not be?

When Alec turned on the radio and his face lit up as he told Magnus that they had a signal, Magnus was happy. He was happy that they might wake up tomorrow to news that they were being rescued, that someone was on their way. Of course, he wanted to go home but when he laid in bed that night, his head pillowed on Alec’s chest, gazing at Alec’s arm and leg that dangled off the edge of the couch, Magnus wondered, if none of this had ever happened to them, would Alec have even looked at him twice?

They waited beside the console the next morning, eating inside rather than outside like they normally did. Magnus knew it might take a while to hear back, even if their radio was working, but Alec didn’t want to risk leaving it unattended. It would be just their luck they’d leave for a few minutes and the radio would go off.

Instead, they sat together, eating in silence. Apollo had disappeared for the day and Alec seemed like he was in just as much of a reflective mood as Magnus was.

Magnus wondered what Alec was thinking about. The silence hung unbroken above their heads, minutes piling up, before Alec finally spoke. “What are you going to do?” he asked softly. “If we can go back home, I mean.”

Magnus frowned. He’d thought about it a little, but mostly in terms of Alec. He wondered if Alec would want to come stay with him in New York for a while, after being reunited with his family, or if he would quickly grow sick of Magnus’ company. He wondered if Alec would be polite enough to say no to his face, or if they would part ways at the landing site and not see each other again, resigned to weeks of missed calls and email promises that would eventually lead to nothing.

“Well, I certainly will not be going into space again any time soon,” Magnus muttered, choosing that instead of voicing any of his fears out loud.

Alec smiled, laughing softly. “Yeah, me neither.”

They lapsed into silence again. It felt stiff and awkward, a thick sort of silence that weighed down on Magnus’ shoulders, no matter how many times it looked like Alec was about to say something, or how many times Magnus tried and failed to start a conversation.

Magnus wondered what that was about, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask.

Nothing came from the radio the next day.

Magnus was disappointed, but not as disappointed as he thought he’d be. There was part of him that felt a little relieved, but as soon as he acknowledged that feeling in his head, he was swamped by a wave of guilt. It was selfish. Magnus was sure Alec wanted to go home. He knew Alec missed his family and Magnus did too. Magnus missed his friends dearly. He knew Ragnor would be in a foul mood, thinking he’d died and he owed it to Catarina to go save her from it. He wanted to go home.

But he also wasn’t too upset to learn they didn't have the choice to go home, the same way they didn't have it last week. They didn’t have to talk about how things would change. They didn’t have to jump into the uncertainty of the future. All they had to do was stay here because that was the only option available to them.

Magnus wasn’t sure if Alec was disappointed when nothing came from the radio. If he was, he didn’t show it and he definitely didn’t want to talk about it.

Magnus was sprawled alone on the couch, drifting in and out of sleep, aware of the cold absence of a body next to him. He rolled over onto his stomach, pressing his face into the hard excuse for a pillow. It was just then that he became aware of someone speaking, someone who was distinctly not Alec. He was grateful that Alec was missing from his side because he jolted up so suddenly that he only narrowly avoided falling off the couch, catching himself with an outstretched hand.

Alec was already awake. He sat on the sofa across from Magnus, looking as pale as a ghost as he stared over at the radio console. The radio console that was crackling with the sound of someone calling their names, over and over again.

Magnus couldn’t even comprehend what he was hearing. He was glad it seemed like Alec was listening, because he definitely was not. His thoughts were scrambled. All he could think was that someone had heard them.

Someone had heard them and they were responding.

“-please respond with your status.” The message restarted after a few moments of silence. “Crew 108, we have received your-”

Alec jumped to his feet. He rushed over to the radio and hit the button to respond before Magnus could even move.

“This is Crew 108,” Alec barked into the receiver. “Our condition is stable. We have enough food for approximately fifty days. We found a water source. This is Alexander Lightwood speaking, and next to me is Magnus Bane. We are the only survivors of the crash.”

Alec let the button go. The message they had received began replaying again, but neither Alec nor Magnus moved to turn it off. They just listened in shock, letting the words repeat over and over again.

“They heard us,” Alec whispered finally.

Magnus put his hand on Alec’s arm and squeezed it. “They’re going to come get us,” he heard himself say. Half of him was still somewhere deep in his own head, trying to figure out what exactly that meant.

“It’s going to take a while. They never do anything quick.” Alec responded.

Fifty days. They had fifty days left of food, fifty days for mission control to launch a rescue mission. Fifty days left here with Alec.

“My sister is going to kill me,” Alec said as he laughed soft and relieved.

Ragnor, Magnus thought with a jolt. He was going to see Ragnor again. He was going to see Catarina again. He was going to see Raphael. He was going to see his home again. He was going to see New York again. Part of Magnus still didn’t think it could possibly be true.

“They better still have my cat,” he said finally. Magnus was going to kill Ragnor if he’d gotten rid of his cat.

The response came quicker than Magnus had expected.

Mission control was putting together a rescue mission to come get them as soon as possible. They hadn’t announced when they’d be launching yet but the goal was to get them before their food ran out, which was good for them both. Magnus cringed as he imagined trying to eat the sticky translucent leaves outside.

After that mission control had a million questions about the planet they were on and how exactly they had survived. Magnus told them about Apollo and was thrilled by the excitement he received from the other end of the line. It was exceptionally fulfilling, considering that Alec’s first reaction to discovering they weren’t alone on the surface of the planet was trying to kick Apollo out.

Knowing they’d be rescued and his data would be useful, Magnus set out to document as much as he could before they were picked up. He took photos of everything, from the plants outside to where they’d been sleeping, to Apollo and even a couple selfies, with Alec rolling his eyes in the background.

Magnus looked through his notes, knowing now that people would actually be seeing them. He ripped out the page where he’d written to Ragnor. All of this would be heavily documented the second they were picked up. Magnus wouldn’t doubt if it was scrutinized in classrooms and research facilities across the globe. The last thing he needed was for Ragnor and the rest of the world to know exactly how teary eyed he’d gotten at the thought of never seeing him again. Ragnor would never let it go.

Ragnor would also never let it go if he saw exactly how emotional Magnus had gotten when they’d been forwarded messages from their families but thankfully, Ragnor was completely unaware of that one. If Ragnor asked later, Magnus would insist he was completely unshaken by Ragnor’s snarky message about how Magnus owed him money for the funeral he’d arranged. Magnus was pretty sure his funeral was paid for by the government but he’d hash that out with Ragnor when he actually saw him.

They also learned that there had been a monument built for their ship and all the crew that had been lost with it. Ragnor explained that it would have been a pain to scrape Alec and Magnus’ names off it, so apparently the plaque was being amended to show they hadn’t actually died.

Magnus asked Alec if he wanted to see the monument with him, when they returned to Earth. Instantly, Alec said no. He thought it would be weird to see a bronze version of himself, but both he and Magnus knew they would probably be forced to visit it in the endless press conferences they’d have to attend. Magnus could hear the book offers now.

Though Magnus’ question had been a joking one, they hadn’t really talked about what going home meant for either of them or what it meant for them together. Magnus thought that perhaps, they’d both been pointedly ignoring the conversation they very clearly needed to have.

“So-” Magnus started without prompting. “You’re not out,” He finished. He’d wanted to be a bit more tactful with how he brought it up but Alec didn’t seem offended by Magnus’ abrupt question.

Instead, he took a deep breath. “No but I think-” Alec hesitated for a moment and that alone made Magnus nervous. “I think I want to be.” He said at last. “Everyone thought I was dead. If there was any better time to do it and have my parents' sympathy, it would be now.”

Magnus nodded. That made sense. If he had any grand secret to reveal, it would be a good time to do it but that wasn’t exactly the question Magnus had wanted to ask or have an answer to. “And what does that mean for us?” He asked, only meeting Alec’s eyes when he forced himself to. He didn’t want to look like a coward or like he was as nervous as he really was.

“Well,” Alec began, a soft flush coming over his cheeks. “I think it would be nice to, uh, continue this, if that’s… if that’s what you want to do as well.”

It took a moment for Alec’s words to sink in but Magnus found himself smiling as they did. “I would like that,” he said. “We’ve gotten rather close-” Alec laughed softly. Close seemed like a great simplification for what they’d gone through together. “-but there's still a lot I’d like to learn about you.” Magnus admitted, his words coming in a little bit of a rush now. “Like which side of the bed you sleep on. If you leave dishes in the sink or if you clean them right away. What your favorite restaurant is. If you can cook.”

A slow smile stretched across Alec’s face as Magnus spoke. “It almost sounds like you want to know what I’d be like to live with,” he said.

Magnus blinked. That wasn’t what he’d been trying to imply, but that was exactly what he’d described. “Well,” Magnus tried to force down any embarrassment he felt bubbling up. “-after everything settles down, maybe we can test it out and go on a vacation somewhere. I’m planning on using all of my time off after this.”

Alec looked up at him. He searched Magnus’ face, like he was trying to see if Magnus was serious. It was the same exact thing he’d done when he’d kissed Magnus so many nights ago, like some part of him was still expecting Magnus to change his mind about him. At last, he nodded. “I’d like that a lot. It’d be nice to pick our destination this time.” Alec looked away for a moment, almost as if he was imagining it, and then he admitted softly, “I was worried once we got home you wouldn’t want anything to do with me.”

Magnus’ own doubts flashed through his head. He’d been so worried that Alec would abandon him the moment they stepped foot on Earth again, or maybe pull him aside on the ship ride home and explain to him quietly and surely that they weren’t going to work, not beyond the surface of their new planet. Now, that all seemed so silly.

Magnus found himself suppressing a smile, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t bite it back. “Of course not,” he said. “I’ll have as much to do with you as you’ll let me. I plan to make you sick of me by the end of this.”

Magnus was teasing but Alec’s response was entirely serious. He didn’t laugh and when he spoke, there was nothing joking in his tone. “I don’t think I could ever get sick of you.”

Magnus leaned into Alec’s side, letting his head fall onto Alec’s shoulder as they lapsed into silence. He felt a gentle wave of relief wash through him as their conversation sunk in. For the first time in months - for the first time since the crash - he could see the future before him. His and Alec’s future. He couldn’t wait to take Alec out to eat. He couldn’t wait to eat something real. He couldn't wait to take a shower, preferably with Alec by his side.

“Do you think Apollo will miss us?” Magnus asked after a moment.

“Yes,” Alec replied, much to Magnus’ surprise. “But I think he’s growing up too and he’ll move on quickly. He latched onto you when he was a baby, but he’s getting bigger. He’s gone more independant. He’s even changing color.”

It was true. Apollo was turning blue now, much like the fully-grown creature they’d seen out on the water, the first day they ventured to the lake. Small talons were starting to sprout. Apollo came back to the ship less and less and, some nights, stayed out until the morning. The first night Apollo didn’t return had been the night after they regained power, and Magnus wondered if Apollo didn’t like the hum of electricity and the bright lights of the ship’s console, but maybe that was just an excuse Magnus used to make himself feel better.

The truth was probably a lot more simple: Apollo was moving on, just like Alec and Magnus would soon. Magnus had planned to say goodbye to Apollo before they left - he wanted to cuddle his companion to his chest and pet his head and hope that Apollo understood just a little how much Magnus had grown to care for him - but Apollo hadn’t returned to the ship in days now, and a part of Magnus knew he wasn’t coming back.

It was almost like Apollo knew they were about to leave, but Magnus still wished he’d been able to say goodbye.

The ship that came to get them was smaller than their own, but after spending so long cramped together in a single room, it seemed huge. Still, Alec and Magnus spent their first night onboard not unlike they had most nights in the weeks before. They laid curled together in their room, murmuring to each other and exchanging soft, quiet touches as they talked about what would happen now.

Though, some things had changed. For the first time in months, they had an actual bed they could share. It was small and technically, only made for one person, but it was still far bigger than anything they had shared before. They had pillows and blankets now and they even had a window that looked out into the void of space, along with a TV on the wall and anything they could possibly want to access on the ship's extensive database.

Compared to before, they were living in luxury. Even the food - condensed and vacuum sealed as it was - tasted like heaven after so long of eating flavourless protein bars.

Alec had tentatively informed everyone that he and Magnus were together now. He had clearly expected some reprimand from mission control but it never came. Magnus supposed it wouldn’t look good on them, especially after they had abandoned Alec and Magnus on an alien planet and left them to die. Besides, Magnus wasn’t sure if they were technically employed anymore, or if the rules even applied to them now that they were rescuees.

Magnus wondered if he’d have to reopen his bank accounts on Earth, since he and Alec had been declared dead. He wondered what Ragnor had decided to do with the loft, if he’d sold all of Magnus’ worldly possessions the moment Magnus was declared killed in action. They had talked, of course. Magnus had called Ragnor the moment he could, but he hadn’t asked about his money or his stuff. He’d even forgotten to ask about his cat. The sound of Ragnor’s voice on the other end of the satellite link had left Magnus watery eyed and anything else he wanted to say was easily forgotten. It didn’t matter. There would be time to talk about the little things later and Magnus would have the chance to be furious at whatever Ragnor had decided to do in his absence.

Alec had talked to his family too. Magnus had given him some space - even though space was something they now had plenty of - and left him alone to dial his two brothers and his sister. Magnus wanted to give him room to breathe, but there was also a part of him that was curious about what Alec was saying.

Magnus had already told Ragnor about Alec and secretly, Magnus wanted to know what Alec would say about him in return, but he didn’t want to eavesdrop. Instead, he decided to explore the ship, wandering the maze of empty gray hallways and stopping to gaze through the porthole windows out into the darkness beyond. He hadn’t taken the time to look before. When he and Alec had first been brought aboard, their first thoughts had been food and sleep. Their second thoughts had been each other and their families.

Magnus hadn’t even considered checking out the ship. As he walked around, the thought brought a small, knowing smile to his face. One would think that after so long together, he and Alec would want more moments like this, away from each other, but alone for the first time in a long time, Magnus felt the urge to wait and ask Alec to come with him. It was odd, seeing other people who weren’t Alec and it was odd walking around without Alec right there at his side, ready to jump in front of him should he get attacked by a vicious blue-skinned alien.

Eventually, Magnus found himself sitting alone in an empty corridor. There were no benches, so Magnus sank to the ground. If anyone found him, he’d have a hard time explaining why he was on the floor, but Magnus couldn’t find it within himself to care.

Maybe, he just needed a moment to sit on the ground and reflect; a moment away from the warm press of Alec’s shoulder against his, or from the dizzying array of stars beyond the window and from all that they had left behind on that strange planet. He had a lot to reflect on, now that he thought about it. They were famous on Earth, or so Magnus had heard. Everyone back home knew they were alive by now, that they had survived on an Earth-like planet for months without proper food, water, or radio contact.

Ragnor had explained that they had been on the news almost everyday this week, which Magnus found a little incomprehensible. His entire life story was broadcast on the TV: his early life, his journey into the space academy, his previous missions, all the same segments repeating over and over again, and now, his experience with Alec too - what once had been something shared between just the two of them, stranded on a lone planet halfway across the galaxy with no-one but each other for company, was now common knowledge among everyone back on Earth. Magnus wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but either way, he imagined his life was going to be very different when he got back home, in more ways than one. He thought of TV interviews and press conferences and then of his neglected social media, which had been extremely popular once upon a time. He hadn’t had time to post anything new since their rescue.

Magnus sighed, leaning back against the wall. He wanted to post a photograph of him and Alec perhaps with Apollo, but mission control would want to approve everything first; the first photographic evidence of their new planet would have to be carefully chosen, and not a photo of Magnus gazing longingly at his ex-captain while they were waist-deep in lake water. The longer he thought about it, the more Magnus realized that he was fine waiting. He didn’t need to rush to reconnect with the world so suddenly.

Ragnor was far more than enough for now. He would talk to Catarina and his cat soon. Maybe, he’d try calling Raphael but Raphael was always a bit of a hard person to handle over the phone. Either way, he had Alec and his family. He didn’t need much else.

Magnus glanced up at the sound of someone else coming down the hallway. He moved to stand, planning in his head to make a show of having dropped something so that he wouldn’t be caught alone on the ground, staring at a wall, but when the figure came closer, Magnus realized it was Alec.

Alec paused when he saw him, a frown appearing on his face. “Why are you on the floor?” He asked softly, clearly as concerned as Magnus had expected someone to be. With anyone else, he’d be embarrassed but with Alec, Magnus found it hard to care.

Magnus shrugged his shoulders.

Alec pressed his lips into a thin line, thinking about it for a moment, before he moved to sink down against the wall next to Magnus. “Okay,” he said slowly, looking to Magnus as he settled beside him. It reminded Magnus suddenly of them both outside their ship, in the sun on the ground together. “What are we doing?” Alec asked after a beat of silence.

Magnus laughed softly. “Just sitting,” he murmured as he took Alec’s hand in his own. He would think about what he’d share with the world later but for now, he was happy here, in this empty corridor, away from Earth and away from the chaos it would bring. He had Alec next to him, willing to sit with him on the ground if he wanted.

He didn’t need much else.

Read on ao3 - Masterpost.

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royallyprincesslilly · 5 years

Text

Title: Love, Maybe? {6}

Chris Evans X Reader Vixen Giovanni

Series Warning: Plot, Cursing,Slow Burn, Angst (Tiny Bit)

Word Count: 2.8K

Summary: After a night of drunkenness you wake up next to warm, hot as hell body, a migraine and no memory of the night before. When you come to realize that the hot body belongs to none other than Hollywood’s golden boy Chris Evans you freak out. As events unfold you become even more panicked to find out you got married in your drunken haze. What else is there to do but get it annulled, right? Before walking away, you share one more night of molten kisses and passion. 3 years later you are still living with the repercussions of your brash decisions, but the surprised don’t stop there the past has a way of coming back and have you questioning is this fate that you’ve been running from, hell could it have been love, maybe?

Note: Italic texts is an inner Vixen thought

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

Chapter 6: Opportunity Comes Knocking

-Vixen-

“This could be such an amazing opportunity Vix,” Nexus said.

You sat in your living room in a pair of comfy shorts, a tank, and a mega cup of filled with your Caramel Latte. Nexus was sitting beside you enthusiastically showing you the folder filled with the information on what she deemed as “the next step.” You looked to your left at Ella babbling on her playmat playing with various toys strewn across the mat. You smiled to yourself. It had been a brutal learning curve, but you were finally in a place where you were comfortable and happy with your life. You’d finally gotten to a place where you didn’t feel guilty or lonely—most nights.

“Hello, earth to Vixen.”

“Eh-woah, er’ ta ‘ixen,” Ella echoed. You smiled widely. Nexus put the folder down and scurried to Ella and threw herself in front of her and began playing with her.

“Who’s auntie’s favorite? Is it you? Is it Ella?”

Ella nodded enthusiastically and clapped her hands together. She truly did brighten every day. You sighed and took up the folder and perused it slowly. One of the many brochures said “it was an opportunity of a lifetime, sit on a panel of other chefs talk about cooking and everything related, plug your restaurant and rub elbows with the who’s who in the culinary world.” That did sound tempting. You knew it would be an incredible opportunity. Who knew who you’d meet and the connections they had that could be beneficial to you, and that was just the beginning. You chewed your bottom lip as you continued to read through the content.

When your eyes finally got to the location of this opportunity, your eyes bugged. Los Angeles, California. You groaned, closed your eyes, and pinched the bridge of your nose. Of course, it was LA. Why would it be anywhere else? The universe would never allow it to be anywhere like New York, or Miami or even Vegas. At the thought of Vegas, your mind flashed through all the memories of your drunken night.

After a few weeks when you returned home, your memory came back, and boy was it crippling. You remembered meeting him, remembered drinking together, laughing, talking, and playing poker with him. He was good, and that is how the two of you began giving each other wagers. First, it started small; whoever lost the hand the loser had to buy the next two rounds. Then they increased, whoever lost the next hand had to tell a secret. Then whoever lost the next hand had to divulge a fear, then a desire and before you knew it, the wager was huge. Someone from the crowd blurted out, “marry her.” You lost that hand but not without putting up a good fight.

That was only the beginning, from poker you went to the slot machines then more drinking and then you went to a strip club where you gave him a private lapdance that ended in the hottest kiss you’d ever had and him on one knee asking you to marry him. You didn’t think he was serious, but that didn’t stop you from saying yes. Next thing you knew you’d both gone to a jewelry store and picked out each other’s rings and within the hour you were Mr. and Mrs. and off to the hottest, most intense, passion-filled night of sex you’d ever had. Chris Evans was a freak with a capital F.

Your memory came back with a vengeance, and while you were confused you also understood, he was charismatic, funny, mysterious and yes hot but you sensed something else underneath the whole Hollywood thing, you’d sensed a person. When he talked about his family, friends, his fears and dreams, you saw the real person. He even told you that having a family that would never leave and he could build with and grow with and give a good life to would be his ultimate life’s purpose, but he had too much to accomplish first. You and he were the same, just different bodies and different genders.

Your eyes landed on Ella still playing with Nexus. Your scanned over her tiny features and bright eyes. She was now your life’s purpose. She was the most important thing to you, and you’d do anything to make her happy and protect her. You sighed again and looked back to the folder. If this opportunity was anywhere but LA you’d be jumping all over it, but the fact that it was in LA made you apprehensive. He lived in LA. You knew exactly where he lived. You’d tried hard to forget but never did. You never forgot anything after you finally remembered. It was all a movie on loop every night before you drifted off to sleep. Some nights it was a romantic comedy, but most nights it was a nightmare.

“What’s got you so zoned out?”

You looked up to Nexus and shook your head.

“Nothing. You’re right; this is an amazing opportunity.”

“So you’ll do it? I already filled out the paperwork just waiting to send it off,” Nexus informed.

You shook your head.

“I don’t know Nex; it’s LA. I can’t just up and go. What about the restaurant?”

“Uh, hello, you have me. I can more than handle it while you’re gone.”

“And what about Ella? I can’t just leave her.”

“You’ve never been anywhere without her except work, or school and back for three years Vix. You can go for a few days. Mom, dad, and I can take care of her. Plus, this is ultimately for her. Imagine if you go out there and rub elbows and get some sort of connect in the industry. That would be amazing.”

She was right. She knew all the buttons to push. It wasn’t fair. You looked at Ella again. It had been you and her against the world since you found out you were pregnant. You’d never thought to end the pregnancy, never thought to put her up for adoption even though you were eyeballs deep in debt, working all the time and using whatever else energy you found to stay at the top of your culinary program. You refused to quit. You couldn’t imagine life without her at this point. You rubbed your forehead and groaned.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Vix, the paperwork needs to be in tomorrow. There is no telling if this will come back around ever.”

You dropped your head back and stared at the ceiling. Fear was a powerful opportunity blocker.

“Is there another reason besides Ella you’re struggling with this?”

“Of course, there is, if I go to LA I could see him and then it would only be a matter of time before my life unravels.”

You took a deep breath and shook your head. You’d lied a lot in the last three years. You lied about what happened in Vegas; you lied about what happened when you disappeared from your friends for that night and the next day. You lied about your impromptu stop in LA; you lied about why you didn’t want to date. Lied about who Ella’s father was. Lied about why he wasn’t involved. Till this day your family knew nothing. You were tired of lying, but the alternative was more stressful. Plus the NDA was put in place for this reason, right?

“No, there’s nothing else.”

Nexus studied you with her hawk eyes. That girl could sift through a lie quicker and better than any detective. She didn’t look like she believed you, matter of fact from day one she looked as if she didn’t believe any of your bullshit. Now she looked like she was getting sick and tired of it. You got up and took Ella with you to the kitchen and began preparing her snack. Not too long after you felt Nexus’ hot glare on your back, you avoided her eyes. As Ella got older and older, the lies became harder and harder. She was beginning to look more and more like him, and you knew it was only a matter of time before the lies would have to stop.

“Vixen Star Giovanni.”

You groaned. The mention of your full name brought you back to childhood when your parents used it to signify you were in deep shit.

“Yes, Nexus Sun Giovanni?”

Both of you stared each other down, but after a few seconds, both of you laughed out loud. Soon Ella joined in. It always worked; the sound of both of your names out loud was just too much. You and Nexus joked all through your childhood that either your parents were high as hell when they came up with the names or they were some deep-rooted hippies. You handed Ella her cut up banana and graham crackers.

“’Ah koo.”

You kissed the top of her sandy blondish hair and placed her in her highchair beside the kitchen island.

“There is no hidden reason Nex, I just don’t want to leave my daughter.”

“You act like we’re strangers.”

“I know you’re not. Don’t take it that way.”

Nexus sighed and shook her head.

“I get it, but I think you should jump at this,” she finished.

You nodded.

“Got it.”

The three of you enjoyed the rest of the afternoon together watching cartoons, snacking, and playing with toys. It was your preferred way to spend a day. You didn’t remember the last time you stepped foot in a club or had a date. Adult life was overrated now; if it wasn’t work, then you took no parts in it; Ella was your favorite person, and you didn’t have the energy to pretend otherwise.

Nexus left a little after four when you put Ella down for her nap. You took the opportunity to clean up and get started on dinner. You knew Ella would be up in about two hours, and then it would be dinner, a little play, bath, and bed. While you cooked, you played your music on low and got lost in the joy you felt every time you cooked. You loved putting ingredients together to create something delicious or complex with contrasting flavors and aromas. It was your passion, and you were lucky to have been able to make a career out of it; not everyone was so fortunate.

After you’d finished making dinner, you sat down on the veranda with a glass of wine and your thoughts. As you sipped the wine, you looked to the box sitting on the small glass table and contemplated opening it. You knew what was inside. After several more sips and even deeper thought you did the inevitable and opened the box to reveal your diamond encrusted ring. You took it out and stared at it and allowed yourself to drift off. You knew it was pathetic to keep revisiting something that held no significance, but you couldn’t help it.

Since you realized you were pregnant, the first thing that came to mind was your mother’s stupid notion of fate. It was a concept you’d run from your entire life. You hated the idea of fate. The idea that you held no control of your own life, that some unseen force pulled the strings and you unavoidably followed the path set out for you. You believed in freedom of choice and good and bad decision-making being the culprit behind your life’s outcomes. Your pregnancy was like a slap in the face from fate, and it came with a painful sting.

Interestingly enough the day after you’d found out you were pregnant was the day you got the final paperwork for the divorce. Three and a half months from the day. You had a great big laugh at fate and chucked your middle fingers to it.

You sighed out; it was still a beautiful ring. He had good taste, even drunk. You groaned and finished the glass.

“God Vix, the man didn’t want you. How in the hell are you still hung up on this?”

You refilled your glass and drank some more. You hadn’t dared put it back on since LA. You took out your phone and went into your “Keepsafe” app and found the video. Your finger hovered over the play button, you chewed your bottom lip and thought if this was the smartest decision. Again, you sighed and pressed play. The video came to life, and instantly, you saw Chris at the alter waiting with the minister. He stood there with a grin from ear to ear in his cheesy costumed outfit. You pinched your lips together and held in the laugh. “Kiss the Girl” came on and you snorted. It was one of his favorite songs; he loved Disney songs.

Then you came into view in your equally cheesy costume and a grin to match his. If strangers watched this, they’d think you two were head over heels instead of shit-faced drunk. You slowly walked down the aisle to him as he swayed to the music. Then you heard him loudly imitate one of the animals in the background from the soundtrack. You busted out laughing and quickly covered your mouth in an effort to stop yourself. He smiled again more widely. Once you reached him, he leaned in to kiss you, but the minister placed the bible between your lips so they didn’t touch and shook his finger at you.

The ceremony began you held hands with your fingers interwoven like waffles. It was the way you preferred to hold hands, seemingly it was also his. The two of you never stopped smiling and staring at each other like teenagers. The introduction was quick and just a verse from Corinthians about love. You doubt any of it registered then; it did now though. Once the introduction was over, the vows were the generic plain ones. Chris went first and repeated after the minister delivering the lines with expertise.

Watching again, you were amazed he looked like he meant them. You scoffed and shook your head, dismissing the idea. Of course, he didn’t mean it; the ink was barely dry before a divorce was in the works. After he said his vows, he leaned in, trying to kiss you but was blocked again by the bible placed between you. You repeated the same vows and attempted to kiss him, but still, you were blocked. The minister finished his sermon and pronounced you husband and wife. Before he could get the words out, your lips crashed together. The kiss wasn’t a quick one, it lasted quite a while and wasn’t a demure kiss either.

Chris held your thigh up to his waist and pressed his body into yours. Your moans could be heard clearly as the two witnesses watched on awkwardly. Chris’ hands snaked around to your backside and squeezed. The two of you looked intimately comfortable with one another. When your lips separated the heat between the two of you could be felt even now. You cleared your throat, feeling yourself getting drawn into the past. The two of you walked back down the aisle with hands joined to the sounds of “Let’s Get it On” and laughing up a storm. Once the two of you got to the camera you kissed again and showed off your rings with broad smiles then the video stopped. You sighed, leaned back and finished the glass of wine with one gulp.

“That was a mistake, Vix.”

The rest of the night went by as routinely as always. Ella made a complete mess of herself and the floor, and you happily laughed and babbles with her. After dinner, you sat on the floor and played together with her dolls and watched her favorite movie. Once it finished, she scurried to the bathroom with you hot on her heels. You decided to join her in the bath and sang songs and played with the bubbles. Before the water chilled, you carried her out and prepped her for bed, read her two stories, and sang one song. By the time the song finished, she was fast asleep. You sat there and just watched her. As she slept, you heard soft snores that ended with innocent moans, and you couldn’t imagine a better way to end your day. After nearly an hour of watching her, you kissed her cheek and walked to your bedroom. You dropped the robe and lied in your soft sheets where you proceeded to think some more about the decision you were faced with. You bit your bottom lip and reached over for your phone. Nex was right, it was an amazing opportunity, and you couldn’t pass it up. You shot her a text knowing she was awake.

MSG: Send in the paperwork Nex. You’re right.

After a minute, your phone vibrated with a response.

MSG Nexus: I know I’m right. I’m glad you decided to listen to me for once.

You rolled your eyes, tossed your phone to the side, and drifted off to sleep.

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#love maybe fic #Chris Evans #chris evans fanfiction #chris evans x reader #chris evans x you #chris evans x ofc #chris evans smut #angst fanfic #slow burn fanfic

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