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#heard her poisoned line and I want to kill my self
iwontmiss · 4 months
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Yukari Takeba
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ellilyre · 2 months
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I finished ToA not long ago and I wanted to write down some thoughts/scenes that stick with me
(in chronological (ish) order, watch out for spoilers)
Theres an italian girl at camp ! It means Nico gets to practice and speak italian ! (which probably haven't happened in about 70 years)
Will introducing Nico as "my boyfriend". I already knew they would be canon, but reading that line felt weird /pos
Apollo sees Solangelo and think of himself and Hyacinth
That night when Kayla and Austin disappeared and Apollo left to look for them, it probably was the first night Will ever spent alone in his cabin
Apollo's insane body dysmorphia. He's a god, he can always take the physical form he is the most comfortable and confident in... Until now. He is stuck in a body that isn't his, he feels ashamed, when he sees certain traits in others he find them charming or pretty, but when it's on him then it's disgusting. He complain that everything is this body's fault (ex. he wouldn't have been touched by the Eurynomos if it wasn't for his chub.)(I could go on for hours)
Lityerses ! I love that guy. Idk why i love him that much. He is my best guy.
Apollo's reaction to Commodus' name. His flashback of him. So painful he was physically sick.
Apollo talking Helios out of killing them, because he just want to be free, not to hurt them.
APOLLO ATTEMPT TO KHS TO STOP THEM ?? IM A SUCKER FOR SOME GOOD PAINFUL SELF SACRIFICE.
Jason. I'm not talking about Jason. I can't speak about Jason.
Frank and Apollo ! They are so fond of each other !!!
Apollo heard all of Frank's prayers when he was unclaimed and wished he could've adopted him.
And Frank respecting Apollo as a god although he is *vaguely gesture at Apollo/Lester*
Reyna saying aloud that she doesn't want nor needs romance. It's so rare to see aromantic representation and Rick did it so well.
Literally Apollo singing his way out of situations.
FRANK'S SELF SACRIFICE!!! (He already had one of my favorite character development before that)
APOLLO KILLING COMMODUS ??? why do never talk about that it's one of the best deaths I've ever seen that was BADASS AND FULL OF EMOTIONS.
Apollo slowly dying out of poison and the Dodona Arrow doing everything it can to keep him conscious.
I hope Dakota didn't get killed off just to give Lavinia the role of Centurion. I love my boy Dakota, and his death felt kind of meaningless, except for her rank up :/ also i feel like it doesn't suit Lavinia. Some ppl are strong and good and trustable but just not made to order others. (ill prop make a full post about that)
Dionysos confirmed to be an annoying little brother!
Nico. How does Rick manage to always give him more issues. Leave the kid alone.
When Will glows, Apollo is genuinely impressed and tells him how proud he is.
Nico destroying Nero's door with his giant zombie bull. That was cool.
When Apollo gets stabbed in Nero's tower and think it's the end, he prays "Zeus, Artemis, Leto, anyone"
And in general the few parts he talks about Leto, he's such a momma's boy and I love it.
When Apollo left for Delphi... I was fully expecting Meg to go with him. I was so worried that he went alone while already feeling that weakened from the previous events.
DODONA ARROW. FOREVER IN MY HEART.
Artemis is here when Apollo wakes up. She's by his side, she's the first person to tell him he succeeded, she hold him while he sobs...
The first thing he does is to greet his horses :) and then to see his friends.
When he gets back to the Dodona bush ! To tell them all how brave and heroic the Arrow have been !
I could spend hours talking about the character developments of Apollo, Meg and the Dodona Arrow (i love the arrow so much you have no idea) but its for another day
There's many things I didn't talk about, but the post is already long enough. I love those 5 books, and Apollo is an amazing narrator.
I love the Arrow of Dodona with all my heart.
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otomefiend · 6 months
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Alfons Sylvatica
Story Event: Dark (What) If ~ Who are you in this twisted fairytale world? ~
Chapter 1
Al is his usual self & the chapter ends with non-con, so proceed with caution.
~~Part 1~~
Victor: "Kate, reaching the best ending is now in your hands."
Victor: "...... come, let's send you to the twisted fairytale world."
~~~
When I woke up, I was lying on a bed in a beautiful castle.
(...... this place)
As I looked around, under the veil of the night, for a brief moment, I felt a sense of serenity.
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Blue-eyed, blonde man: "...... you're awake?"
(...... what a gorgeous person. I've never seen someone so beautiful)
Blue-eyed, blonde man: "Good morning, Snow White."
(I'm Snow White!? That means I've been transported to the world of 'Snow White')
Kate: "... Um, I'm sorry, I know we've only just met, but who are you?"
Queen Elbert: "...... I'm Elbert. Also known as the 'Queen of Greed'."
(He's the Queen?)
The Queen in the fairy tale was jealous of the beautiful Snow White and tried to kill her with a poisoned apple.
(Could he be the one who is causing distortion in this world?)
Kate: "... Why am I in this castle?"
Queen Elbert: "Thanks to the huntsman called Roger..."
~~~
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Roger: "Oi! This young miss dropped (unconscious) in the forest. You in there?"
Queen Elbert: "... I'm here."
~~~
Kate: "Humph, treating someone like an object!...... I appreciate the help you have given me."
This world was a little different from the usual fairy tales.
(... It was not unexpected, considering it became warped because 'something was missing')
Queen Elbert: "... Snow White."
Kate: "Y-Yes...?"
~~Part 2~~
The intensity of his gaze made me stiffen, which in turn caused the beautiful queen to tilt his head innocently.
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Queen Elbert: "Are you hungry?"
I was taken to the dining room, where I was presented with a plethora of dishes lined up on the table.
(Woah, fluffy bread, corn potage, and desserts!)
(Wait, they might be laced with poison...)
Queen Elbert: "......Is there something that's not to your liking?"
Kate: "Oh, it's...... no, not at all."
He pulled out a chair and urged me to sit down, but then sat a few spaces away from me.
It felt like he was trying to show concern, picking up on my distrust of him.
Kate: "Why are you being so considerate towards me? We've only just met."
Queen Elbert: "...... why indeed? I'm searching for the most beautiful thing in the world."
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Queen Elbert: "It might be that you're what I'm looking for."
A beautiful and terrifying smile filled with madness reached his blue eyes, but
It soon vanished as fleeting as a summer mirage.
Queen Elbert: "...... besides, I didn't want to leave you alone."
Kate: "Huh?"
Queen Elbert: "..... It feels lonely to wake up alone."
Disarmed by the sincerity coming through this combination of madness and kindness, I felt myself slowly letting down my guard.
Kate: "I'm also looking for something that is 'missing' in this world."
Queen Elbert: "Oh, then... you might want to ask Al."
Kate: "Al?"
~~Part 3~~
Queen Elbert pointed to a portrait,
depicting him and a figure visible only in their profile.
Queen Elbert: "My attendant, Alfons Sylvatica. He's my mirror."
Kate: "Mirror..."
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Queen Elbert: "He lets me know whether something is beautiful or not, amongst other things."
(Hmm, does that mean I should go and see the mirror called Alfons?)
Kate: "Where can I find him?"
Queen Elbert: "??......?"
Queen Elbert: "......I wonder."
(What?)
With Lord Elbert's permission, I set out to search the castle.
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(Not here)
(Not here either)
(He's nowhere to be found! Does this mean he's not in the castle?)
???: "You seem troubled, Snow White. If you're looking for Alfons the Mirror, he's in the pub."
(Huh? I just heard someone's voice...)
There was a little bird by the window, its feathers reminiscent of the colour of the night.
Kate: "A talking bird...?"
Little bird: "I talk, of course. This is a twisted fairy tale world, so your common sense doesn't really apply."
(Oh, I see...)
Kate: "Thanks for letting me know he's in the pub."
Little bird: "Make sure he doesn't touch the nape of your neck. He has the ability to briefly alter your perception."
Little bird: "Well then, take care. Byeee."
~~~
I slipped out of the castle and made my way to the pub in question. The moment I entered, an atmosphere of decadence surrounded me.
(The person in that portrait, the one with raven hair...)
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Alfons the Mirror: "Snow White has awoken from her slumber. Would you care for an apple?"
~~Part 4~~
Alfons the Mirror: "Snow White has awoken from her slumber. Would you care for an apple?"
Alfons the Mirror: "... Ah, this sounds like something El would say."
Sitting in front of me was the person from the portrait.
Kate: "You're Alfons, am I right?"
Alfons the Mirror: "Uh-huh, I'm Alfons. How did you end up in a place like this?"
Alfons the Mirror: "Wouldn't it be nicer being pampered by the queen with a hoarding addiction?"
(If I want to get information, I have to confide in him about the situation I'm in, don't I?)
Kate: "Actually..."
Alfons the Mirror: "You want to find 'something that's missing' in this world in order to return to your reality, is that right? Why do you care about finding it?"
Kate: "Eh?"
Alfons the Mirror: "There are more ways to get back to normal, don't you think? There's no point obsessing over what's missing."
Kate: "What other ways are there?"
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Alfons the Mirror: "Being hit on the head, drowning in a river, or simply just dying."
(......what the heck)
It only took a short exchange to realize how insolent and inappropriate this guy was.
Kate: "There might be other ways, but... I don't think it'd be right if I was the only one saved."
Kate: "I will find what is missing and correct the distortion of this world. That's my happy ending."
Alfons the Mirror: "A-ha! You're so very serious, aren't you?"
Alfons the Mirror: "After all, distortion of the world and turmoil of others are trivial matters when compared to protecting yourself."
~~Part 5~~
Kate: "I'm fine with being seen as foolish. So, is there anything missing in this world?"
Alfons the Mirror: "Is there, or isn't there, I wonder?"
Kate: "Please, think about it."
Alfons the Mirror: "Mhm, I've already committed myself to this, so here's an idea."
Ostentatiously, he held out an amber coloured cocktail in front of me.
Alfons the Mirror: "Shall we have a drink together until I remember?"
Kate: "...... but I'm in the middle of conducting my search."
Alfons the Mirror: "It's unlikely you'll find it today or tomorrow, am I right? If you don't take a breather, you'll exhaust yourself."
Mesmerised by the gentle swirling of the drink and the voice pouring into my ears, I could feel my resolve weaken.
(...... indeed, he's right. I've been on my toes up until now)
Kate: "Then... I'll have some of it."
Alfons the Mirror: "Please do. Bottoms up. Barkeep, same again."
~~~
Two shadows flickered in a small room at the back of the pub.
Alfons the Mirror: "Heh, watch out... careful where you step, please."
Kate: "Ng.... no more drin...k."
Alfons the Mirror: "Haha, you're properly sloshed."
As he tried to lay her on the bed, Kate firmly grabbed Alfons' neck.
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Alfons the Mirror: "Whoa..."
The gesture was so innocent that it seemed like a child lost on their way home.
Alfons the Mirror: "You shouldn't hug a man whilst looking so lonely."
His fingertips slid down to the nape of Kate's neck, and his lips whispered in her ear.
Alfons the Mirror: "I'm your precious lover. Feel free to entrust your mind and body to me..."
Kate: "......Alfo......ns?"
Alfons the Mirror: "Now, forget all the troublesome things..."
~~~
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bluerskiees · 2 years
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Hiii!! Can I request a Mikey x reader where Mikey just met the reader and got to know her and the reader is like Shinobu?
Where the reader always smiles and to the enemy she's like "So we can be friends!! Oh, So I can see, you receive the proper penalty and be reborn, I could gouge out your eyeballs or slash your stomach to rip our your organs☺️"
but she's actually such a nice person when she's not fighting enemies, and so what does he think of her? :)
OH MY GOSH ANON. YOU'RE SO BIG BRAIN FOR THIS.
BONTEN MIKEY WITH A CALM BUT FEROCIOUS BONTEN DOCTOR!READER
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𓇼 You were a very friendly person who was always aloof and calm, no matter what the situation was.
And this trait of yours got the other bonten members question your ability in the gruesome world they were involved it.
It wasn't as if they didn't trust their boss's choice but they did try not to be their "usual self around you much. Like for instance, Sanzu stopped doing drugs around you, Ran and rindo the sadistic Brothers made sure to never go anywhere near you with blood stains on them and koko kept his mouth shut even though it was mostly only to not say something to you that he would regret later. And kakucho along with Mochi tries their best to keep these dorks in line whenever something that seem to go out of place. More than often being the infamous bonten trio, Haitani brother's vs Sanzu.
Sure they were dangerous criminals who kill people for a living but oh man— they weren't inconsiderate pricks who would traumatize their sweet, innocent teammate for the rest of their lives.
As a doctor, you always cared for them. Everytime they got involved in a fight, you were there, wide awake in the middle of the night treating their wounds, asking them if it's okay and if they're fine or if they need any mental or physical assistance even if it was tiniest of papercut. This made the members adore you and honestly, you were just a cute little fluffball for who they would do absolutely anything— until they realized maybe you weren't all how you seemed to be?
Mikey sent you out on a mission one day along with the bonten higher-ups. And sure enough, the members were arguing with their boss for doing this? They treated you as if you're a fragile glass, spoiling you with gifts, sweets, designer outfits, rare collections, you name it. Oh‐ would you believe me if I told you even Sanzu, yes the one and only sanzu "akashi" haruchiyo went out of his way to talk against mikey this time?
Sure you said you'd be able to handle this by yourself but did they trust you? Nope. Why, you ask? Because nothing about you was scary- well, nothing except the way you often greet others by saying "yoo-hoo" after suddenly showing up next to them, often startling others.
They were still not sure about u coming along with them, afterall they never wanted to take off the precious smile you wore in your face. Eyes glistening In the sunlight. Damn— they felt too guilty for this.
The members made sure to often look for you in the middle of the fights, making sure you were always safe and not out of reach for even a second. When the fight was just about to get over, they realized something— something that they dreaded, something they hoped that never happened. You were missing. They went into full on panic mode until they spotted you standing behind some partly abolished part of the building.
"Just because you haven't been beheaded don't think that you're safe from harm. There are people like me who use poison with their swordsmanship. I may be the only one among Bonten who is unable to torture people but creating a poison that's lethal to them: that's quite impressive don't you think? Oh! Pardon me I guess you can't hear me if you're dead. Silly me!"
They couldn't believe their eyes, sure theyre heard the saying that goes.."never trust what you hear until u see it happening right in front of you" but was it really the truth? The sweet, naive little girl killing people ? Sure they couldn't believe it, but oh man, they were so damn proud after seeing you unfold right before their eyes. Sure you were charming and alluring with that sweet smile on ur face, but even with that you looked so mysterious and they finally found the reason.
Needless to say, this only strengthened the bond with the guys as they started teaching you to fight, to use guns and many more gang stuffs.
Afterall they were dangerous criminals who kill people for a living and u were an angel— but the angel isn't always one too.
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thetisming · 18 days
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Why Take Me To Church is a Very Jumeo Coded Song
Disclaimer: I am not a person who understands metaphors, which songs are often full of. Please don't get upset if I don't understand any metaphors in this song, I am autistic and take things as they are.
Disclaimer #2: I know this song is about the Catholic church. But music is meant to be fun and sometimes people just want to write about their favourite couple because the lyrics remind them of them.
“My lover's got humour, she's the giggle at the funeral”
Both Juliet and Romeo are very fun, bright characters! Romeo is the type of person to laugh at a funeral, and genuinely they're both just humourous people. This line is one of the less jumeo coded lines, however mixed in with the rest of the song it makes more sense.
“Knows everybody's disapproval, should've worshipped her sooner”
Both of them knew nobody would ever approve of their relationship, and then Romeo kills himself. This line I see as Juliet talking about Romeo, about how everyone should have loved him when they had the chance. A personal headcanon of mine is that Romeo is a trans man, which would be even better for this line. He knew that nobody approved of his transition or of his relationship with Juliet and now it's too late for anyone to treat him as he deserved.
“We were both sick, you heard them say it”
Humans are born with whatever sexuality they are – Juliet and Romeo were both born and they were both born alloromantic, which led them to a love of each other that they couldn't stop. They weren't given a choice or anything that could have stopped them from falling in love. There's also Romeo's canonical bisexuality, which could be described as a sickness that he was born with.
“The only heaven I’ll be sent to is when I’m alone with you”
Pretty self-explanatory. Their heaven is with each other, their love for each other is so strong and they won't go to any sort of heaven. They've both done things that are described as ‘sinful’, so they're not getting into heaven, but they can be together and that's all they need. That's what matters.
“I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies”
While in the original song the lies were about the Catholic church’s views of homosexuality and other things, this isn't about the original song. This line I see from Juliet’s perspective – the lies being Romeo’s speech, ‘has my heart loved ‘till now? For swear it, sight, I never saw true beauty until this night’, which at his funeral was revealed to be a lie. But Juliet loved. She loved and she worshipped and she almost died.
“I’ll tell you my sins, and you can sharpen your knife”
I'm not entirely sure how to relate this to them but it's about the dagger – Romeo's dagger that he takes everywhere. The one that Juliet almost kills herself with. That dagger.
“Offer me that deathless death”
Very simple! Romeo taking the poison, the one that he thought would kill him that turned out to be a sleeping potion. He was dead, but not really dead. A deathless death.
“If I’m a pagan of the good times, my lover's the sunlight”
Much like in the song, it's about how the pagans worshipped the sun. Now, this is a very jumeo coded line, because of Romeo saying ‘Juliet is the sun’. Romeo is like a pagan worshipping the sun, because Juliet is the sun. Juliet is goodness and light and the reason he's alive. Without her, his life would be cold and he would be dead. Juliet is the sun and without the sun, you cannot live.
“There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin”
Very simple as well. Their ‘gentle sin’ being their relationship, which was forbidden by their families. But it was love, it was innocent, it was sweet, and it was barely a sin.
Also, Italy is generally very Catholic and this song is about the Catholic church, so there's also that!
Hope y'all enjoyed this!! I had fun with it although I skipped a lot of lyrics.
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bohemian-nights · 6 months
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Young Snow is definitely in my opinion still a budding psychopath (and narcissist) but isn’t completely unredeemable. It’d take a lot of self work for him to be a quote on quote “good person.” Especially since a lot of his actions (befriending sejanus and lucy) were rooted in the fact that it would bring him more power. Which is why I really liked the bit where Dean Highbottom tells him how convenient it is that he doesn’t have to choose between winning the money and saving Lucy (choosing between power or love). It also makes the scene where Sejanus dies even worse. Because in the books you get the feeling that Snow couldn’t care less about Sejanus. Whereas in the movie you can tell he cares about him. He snitches on him to Dr. Gaul but as he’s being executed Snow cries, showing he still has a bit of humanity and emotion in him. All in all he’s a really fascinating character in the way that he’s truly willing to do whatever it takes to remain in power (poisoning himself in order to poison others, killing children, and selling people into lives of forced prostitution) and that’s something that’s rare in a book. There’s no overly tragic backstory to somehow excuse his behavior, nor is there anyone forcing him into situations he’d rather not be in.
Full disclosure, outside of a couple of quotes I have not read any of the Hunger Games books so I can't comment on Snow's book characterization.
Although, I have heard that young book!Snow is a little bit more malicious than young movie!Snow(particularly with the Sejanus situation).
That being said I'm a firm believer that evil isn't born it’s made. Under different circumstances, Snow could’ve been better(if his grandmother wasn’t constantly reminding him that he had to live up to his father's name, and social pressure, or if Dr. Gual hadn’t taken him under her wing).
However, yeah he had free will. He chose to put his ambitions first over love, friendship, and even family(what he would later do to Tigris after everything she did for him was so messed up).
Ultimately Snow loves power more than anything else. He loved Lucy Gray IMO, just not as much as he wanted to be someone. In the movie, he did like having Sejanus as a friend just not as much as he liked getting back on top.
That line Highbottom says to him is brilliant. Snow does seem to only care about people as long as they are useful to him and then promptly discards them. Which was his downfall.
That and his obsessive nature, but the obsession drives his want for power. It was fun to see the makings of the villain we see in the main series. He really is a fascinating magnetic character that you can get sucked into.
Lol, I can’t take credit for this, but @nettlesdefensesquad said Coriolanus Snow was a twisted version of Daemon Targaryen. If Young!Snow chose love (like Daemon did with Nettles) instead of ambition that’s who he’d be, but if that had happened the Hunger Games would’ve looked different/maybe would’ve ceased to exist.
Analysis aside, Lucy Gray is better than me. I’m not going to lie, I’d probably miss all of the warning signs and be like Yes Daddy to whatever Young!Snow said. I mean look at him:
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He’d have me hook, line, and sinker. I'm not even ashamed to admit it. For that reason, I probably wouldn’t survive the games(well I would if I was useful to him) or him, but it would be fun while it lasted🤣
Not the games. The games would not be fun. I would be absolutely petrified the entire time I'm in the arena, but the rest would be bliss☺️
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demonslayedher · 3 years
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I lost a bet to myself and paid the price by making another demon sibling AU. Was originally just going to be headcanons and doodles, but I wound up writing the parts I felt like. The names of Tengen's siblings are entirely made up. This will come in two parts due to length.
Clicking each bone in his spine, Yogen stood to his full height, taller than Tengen remembered. It wasn't uncommon to go long periods of time without seeing his siblings when they were on their own missions, but Yogen shouldn't had changed that much. "I'll spare you. It wouldn't do for the Uzui clan not to have a head. Now you're the strongest one."
"...Yogen..."
"I wouldn't had been able to take you on, if not for the fact that you'd never have done it if you knew. You should thank me, Aniki. You know what I've spared you? Father was going to make us all have a fight to the death. You'd have done at least half of this."
"What have you done!?"
"I ate them," he laughed, something Tengen had never heard Yogen do in his adult voice. He had the most infectious laugh when they were children, and this rang with the same pleasure, however dissonant. "I was stunned too, at first. When I came to, I had eaten two of them, they were still warm in my mouth, their cells already nourishing mine. But you know what? I decided to eat the others. I was going to kill them anyway, what difference does it make that I should eat them?"
Tengen's face pearled back into a snarl, his eyes flaring.
"One, two, three... Eizen got away before I could bite him, though. That whelp would had done nothing for me. The one I really wanted to eat was the strongest," he said, his glowing white eyes shifting down to their father's fresh corpse. "And now, even he's nothing to me."
Tengen could stand no more of this. "Yogen!!" he screamed and gripped one of the swords at his back, and charged at Yogen all in one motion. A hard sickle burst out of the flesh of Yogen's arm and caught it, but when Tengen pulled his other sword down through Yogen's shoulder and chest, the sound of ripping sinews what different than it should had been. A look over to the injury revealed that the shoulder was repairing itself before Tengen's eyes. When had he learned any technique like that?
The momentary lapse in focus caught him, Yogen swiped up against Tengen's forearm. It felt too varied to had been spiked knuckles--those were his fingertips, he had grown claws. Tengen drew a sword up to lop off Yogen's forearm, and then his brother let out a shrill scream as his features lit up and revealed how contorted they had become. Yogen didn't look human anymore with how his veins bulged and burned. Burned? From what? Tengen took a look over his shoulder to the sun rising and casting light through the wide open door, and when he looked back, Yogen was gone.
---
Tengen watched the flames consume the house and the bodies of his slain family. He had combed it for any trace of Yogen, but his brother left none. Hope though he did that the flames may consume Yogen too, he knew in his gut that he was still out there.
Behind him, Suma sneezed in a gust of smoke that wafted into her face. Hinatsuru handed her a handkerchief, as she and Makio were already covering their faces in case of poison. Tengen didn't bother, he was resistent to most ninja poisons, and the scratches down his forearm were already less swollen. "You three should go back to your homes."
"No!" insisted Suma.
"We're already members of the Uzui clan," said Hinatsuru.
"Your revenge is ours," added Makio.
Hinatsuru made the most important point, they were already seen as his property. He could hear whispers and feel them all being watched; the other ninja clans knew what had befallen the most powerful family, and the Uzui name was now shunned. Even if Tengen wanted to stay, he had no place in the village, and neither did anything that belonged to him. The only thing left for him now was to track his brother down and drag him to hell.
Someone else was approaching, and Tengen reached for one sword. Uneven footsteps. One didn't have the splat of a foot, it was the thunk of wood--a cane, or two canes? A leisurely, but determined pace. Self-assuredness, even for entering ninja territory. A robust heartbeat. Who was coming?
"Well, is that what you all look like? I feel like I've wandered into one of those storybooks," said an old man. He had one missing leg, a full head of hair and moustache to rival it, a grin, and a telltale scar lining the underside of his left eye. "I had always left your kind alone, but I couldn't when I felt the presence of a demon over here."
"Who are you?" Tengen asked, stetching one arm before his wives while the other hand stayed at his weapon.
"You didn't chop its head off, did you, ninja boy? It's long gone by now, you know. It'll hide from daylight. Be even more trouble to find if it's one of your folk."
"How do you know about us?" Makio shot back.
"How do you children not know about demons? Aye," the old man huffed to himself as he set down a stool he carried. He planted his rump on it, then folded his arms. "The name's Kuwajima Jigoro, former Roaring Pillar of the Demon Slayer Corp. I figured this would be out of your expertise, so I've come to help."
Tengen felt in his gut he could trust that. He dropped to one knee and bowed his head, his wives all doing likewise behind him. Jigoro seemed to enjoy that, but insisted they do not. Instead of bowing, he'd appreciate the ladies rubbing his shoulders to display their gratitude, he said.
While Hinatsuru and Makio set about at each arm, Suma kneeled at his remaining foot with a gasp. "Aren't old people not supposed to be this beefy?"
"Can it, Suma!" chided Makio.
Hinatsuru said nothing, but could feel something was different in this man, not only in his physique. Whatever he had to say was going to change their lives more than the previous night already had. They all listened carefully as Jigoro orated about the existence of demons, how they eat humans, how they are near impossible to kill, but also the methods of those who hunt them, with specialized blades and an organization to support them. As he began describing Breath, however, Tengen stopped him. "I already know all that, that's ninjutsu basics. That's not giving me anything I don’t already have."
"Oh? I figured as much. Always made me curious about you pups. So you you've got the basics of Breath technique, huh?"
"It's beyond basic," he shot him an annoyed frown.
"I'll be the judge of that. See that tree over there? That's probably about the strength of the usual demon neck. Go hog wild on it." As much as showing off was against the ninja code, Tengen wasn't in the mood to argue and made short work of that tree, the only sound being the pop of it seperating into two halves. Jigoro gave him a clap, then stood with his cane. "Good accuracy. Spot on. Now you pick one out for me. Take some mercy, though, I'm only working at half-strength." He balanced on his foot and his peg, plopping the end of his cane in his palm to show off that he meant to use it in place of a sword. Tengen hated when other people tried to be show-offs, so he pointed to a tree a few rings thicker than the one he had cut.
The old man eyed it, then slid his good foot through the dirt, and as he leaned forward, clouds of steam rose from his lips. "Breath of Thunder, Fifth Form. Heat Lightning."
The sound hit Tengen so hard that he covered his ears, and the old man was gone--on the other side of the tree, which was not only cleanly chopped, but split itself in half vertically as it fell. A rarity, Tengen's jaw dropped. Jigoro looked back with a fierce grin, knowing he'd have left them all impressed.
Rather than one knee, Tengen planted his palms and face to the ground. "Please teach me this technique, Master."
"When did I ever say I wanted a student like you? You already said you know Breath technique, don't you?"
"You won't teach him?" Suma sat straight up, little tears in the corners of her eyes.
"I only want students with talents I can mold. You're already set your ways and would just try to make Thunder Breathing into what you want. You can't fill a full tea cup, as they say."
Tengen wanted to insist he's do anything to take his revenge, but the old man was right. As he was, he wouldn't be able to unlearn everything he always knew, it was as much a part of him as every experience and memory, like every scar, such as the ones running down his left arm.
"The true nature of Thunder Breathing would escape you, you'd get too caught up in how powerful it looks. You're too flashy!"
His cheeks flushed. "Say that again."
"You're too... flashy? I don't think a ninja should find that a compliment."
"You can't tell him all that and then not train him!" insisted Makio. "Please! There's got to be something you can do! Tengen-sama works really hard!"
"Tengen-sama works harder than anyone!"
"Please, Master. Tengen-sama can think flexibly, please give him a chance."
"I won't! I can already tell he's not the sort of student I'm looking for!" he barked back, and Suma burst out into sobs, while Hinatsuru hid delicate tears and Makio's face turned dark red. Jigoro flinched at the sight of the upset girls, then looked back to Tengen. "I--I didn't come out here to leave you high and dry, you know. I already told you about the Corp, didn't I? That's where you really need to go. I can't teach you Thunder Breathing, but if you really think you can pick up something new, there's an old scroll I've got of an off-shoot Breath. Someone like you might be able to pull it off. What do you say, ninja boy? How about I give that to you and you teach yourself Sound Breathing?"
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---
From there, Tengen took much the same course as in canon. When he became a Pillar and had his meeting with Oyakata-sama, he was upfront about his reasons for entering the Corp. Oyakata-sama appreciated his frankness and assured him that the entire Corp would support him if they found any information on Yogen, but Oyakata-sama was also keen on the undercurrent of Tengen's heart; that he was relieved to leave the murderous ways of ninja, and that he wanted to live an upright life. This finally gave words to something Tengen always felt, but thought he had no right to wish for. He and his wives were moved and they swore loyalty to Oyakata-sama.
However, as time went on, there were no clues whatsoever about Yogen. Around the time they all got antsy, Makio finally couldn't stand it anymore and suggested they may never find him. "Think about it," she said. "This Corp is full of strong swordsmen. Someone might had already chopped off his head long before we got here."
While that should had come as a relief, Tengen couldn't help but find the idea frustrating. That revenge was his to take. He could think of only one person stronger than him who might had done it, so he described Yogen to Himejima one day and asked if he remembered seeing a demon like that. Himejima plainly replied that he was blind.
As they began to accept that they may never have closure, Hinatsuru proposed that they be satisfied bagging an Upper Moon. That should be enough for them to earn their peace, she said, and as much as it grinded away at Tengen's heart, he agreed.
In the course of performing Tengen's Pillar duties, they closed in on what was likely an Upper Moon in Yoshiwara. Hinatsuru, Makio, and Suma slipped in, but when he lost contact, Tengen went looking for some female Corp members to sneak in and see what was up. That's when he reencountered the boy whose head he meant to spill at the last Pillar meeting, as well as his two annoying buddies. Inosuke would had been satisfyingly flamboyant, if not for the fact that he was gross. The other whelp was named Zenitsu.
"You write that 'Zen' with the kanji for virtue?"
"Yeah. What's it to you?"
"Nothing," Tengen replied, never saying anything of it ever again. It didn't take long for him to notice that Zenitsu had ears on par with his own.
The boys managed to get in, and soon the plan went awry. Tengen's first encounter with an Upper Moon broke out, and that went awry in the most horrifically flamboyant of ways. Tengen found himself unconscious, needing to stop his heart to keep the demon poison from spreading, as it was many times more potent than any ninja or demon poison he encountered before. There was fire in the wreckage nearby, he'd be consumed if he doesn't move soon. In the odd space where consciousness was returning to him, his hearing reached into a deeper plain, where he could hear the most carnal thoughts pounding though the bodies of those around him.
Tanjiro was panicking.
No scent! No scent! Upper Moon Five--where did--but--no scent! No scent!!
Tengen could hear Upper Moon Six, in both bodies, but he couldn't hear any other demon. It gave off no sound. He struggled to look in Tanjiro's direction, and was stunned by the sight of a demon partway sticking out of the shadow Tanjiro has cast, guarding Upper Moon Six with a kunai stuck in his arm.
"Sakage!" growled Upper Moon Six. That is not the demon's name. "I don't need you here! Were you intruding on my thoughts?"
"I didn't need to. I heard the cacophony from ages away. You wouldn't had seen wisteria coming anyway."
Upper Moon Six looked to the kunai, while Tanjiro panicked that the poison had no effect on the newly arrived demon.
"Quit with all the fuss. I'd appreciate it if you hurry up and silence that Pillar over there," he turned his glance to Tengen. His eyes had writing in them, but that was Yogen. "I can't be bothered."
Yogen disappeared into the shadow as suddenly as he appeared, and Tanjiro fell forward with a stumble. He'd be a sitting duck like that, Tengen had to go save him, he pushed himself off the ground to--but--but his arm was missing--the scars were torn off-----
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---
Yogen had been quick to learn some of the ins and outs of being a demon, but not all the finer details. He gathered from the surrounding demons' fear of the drum demon that the "Twelve Moons" were the most fearsome demons, closest to their progenitor, but didn't those other demons notice that the drum demon couldn't stomach humans as he ate them? That demon was weak, and Yogen wouldn't stand for it. He cut off his head.
It did not kill the demon, who screamed at him with the characters "Lower Six" in one of his eyes, but he shut up quick when Kibutsuji Muzan arrived. Despite warning Yogen that this was not how fights between demons were done and he should kill Yogen for acting without permission, Muzan smilingly decided to allow it, and instructed him to absorb the former Lower Moon Six and assume his role. Muzan did not care for how Yogen's name referenced sunlight, though. He renamed him Sakage on a whim.
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Sakage went on to learn very quickly how to please Muzan, and how to climb the ranks. While not immune, he could resist wisteria poison, which Muzan was more than pleased to borrow from him and see how he could try to adopt it into his own cells. Sakage could move between connected shadows, and in spying on the Corp, he picked up on the hand signs the swordsmen used and quickly deciphered them, and openly reported so to the demons that outranked him. With hearing far more advanced that his brother's ever was, he listened to the information shared between crows, piecing apart their language to the best of his understanding.
Lower Moons Three and Two later, he used his spying abilities to identify his next target: Upper Moon Five.
Gyokko was startled by the challenge, and under Muzan's gaze, he could not refuse. Sakage made short work of him, and the other Moons all felt a chill. Akaza's chill was excitement.
Akaza wasted no time in chatting up the new Upper Moon, for Sakage likewise had a stated hatred for weaklings. While Sakage did find it a bit of a bother, especially since he knew he was a long way from ever being able to pose a real challenge to Akaza, he learned that the quickest way to stop Akaza from pestering him was to spar. Akaza loved to chit-chat even while sparring, though, and this became a useful way for Sakage to catch up on a hundred years of gossip about the other Upper Moons.
While it did feel they had somewhat of a friendship, one day they got on the topic of poison. "I hate people who use poison," said Akaza, between punches. "It's as cowardly and low as you can get."
Sakage, who could create a myriad of weapons from his cells as needed and always laced them in poison, was not offended, but disagreed. "I see no problem in being effective."
This gave Akaza pause, and an uncomfortable drop in his stomach. He excused himself, and bothered Sakage not so often after that.
Muzan was typically pleased with Sakage, which made Hantengu tremble that the ambitious demon had it out for him next. When Muzan was in a foul mood after Upper Moon Six's defeat, Sakage was likewise in a bad mood for the annoyance he encountered out there, someone who should had stayed hidden away instead of bearing free his inherently show-offy personality by joining the Demon Slayer Corp, especially since he was sure to have his ears set to the ground now for any new sign of him. He was certain Tengen witnessed him. But, for as much of an insult as it was to the Upper Moons that Gyutaro let him live, Tengen wouldn't be much of a threat anymore.
Still, Sakage knew to keep his cool. He had news to report, and he was certain of his deciphering. When he declared where the swordsmith village was located, Muzan had no doubts, and sent Hantengu alone. "Now why couldn't you find that, after all this time?" Muzan smirked to Nakime. She, not being of any rank, could merely apologize. Sakage took no pleasure or pride in looking better than a peer whom he knew he was stronger than. Muzan's mood could never be sustained for long, though, and he very soon frowned back to him. "You've brought no word of the blue spider lily."
"My apologies."
"Aren't ninja supposed to have knowledge of these things? Weren't you of a high ranking clan? Go back and order them to search."
And, at that moment, a dangerous thought escaped Sakage's inner filter, it leaked though to his mind at the same moment it leaked to Muzan's: But I can't show my face back there.
The way Muzan's face bent with disgust drove more terror into Sakage than when he was still a human and first encountered the demon lord. He felt certain of a swift death, but Muzan let him be. Sakage was still too useful. But, Sakage knew he'd have to crawl back to Muzan's graces by providing something of more use to him. He had to unveil a secret of more value.
--
Tengen, who remained active despite missing an eye and a hand, was present at an emergency Pillar meeting. Tokito and Kanroji were bandaged up, and they recounted how the swordsmith village was attacked by Upper Moon Four. With two Pillars and a few other reliable Corp members all working together they defeated him well before daybreak, but not before discovering an ancient ability known only as "the mark."
As he was now, Tengen knew he'd never attain this. What bothered him more was how the demons found the village, so hidden that he'd have to put his mind to it to have figured out where it was. He could had resorted to old tricks to figure it out, whether that be silently tracking the smiths after their deliveries or flirting with the Kakushi, but what recourse would a demon have had?
'I heard the cacophony----'
A demon may have had ears that rivaled his own, or were better!
Feeling sure of which demon it may had been, he set to thinking of what he would do next. If the demon moved in shadow, listening for the Corps' secrets, what would be a bigger target than the swordsmith village?
Oyakata-sama!
"Uzui-san, are you alright?" asked Himejima. "You seem quiet today."
"You look pale," added Kanroji.
"I'm jealous I won't get one of those flashy marks," he lief without flaw. "We all know I can't take any demons on like I used to. Maybe I don’t belong here."
"Uzui, what sort of talk is that?" Iguro looked to him with his flamboyant dichromatic eyes wide, and brows knit tight over them. "This isn't like you."
"I've got a different sort of mission to go on, I'll see myself out. You all stay here and keep each other company discussing this."
"Then I'll excuse myself here as well--"
"Not you, you've got no excuse," Uzui forced Tomioka back to a seated position by pressing on his head.
In conducting his own investigation, Tengen set his crow to work investigating from the sky. What the crow learned, tracing a few leaks and scolding the birds involved, was that their mid-air communications may had been what spoiled the secret location. This confirmed Tengen's suspicion about Yogen's hearing. He had a feeling about some other spoiled secrets too, and in following up with Corp members involved in previous mishaps, he concluded that the secret hand signals had been divulged.
--
(Read the conclusion reblog here.)
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dreamwritesimagines · 3 years
Text
Burn The Witch 13 - Trouble [Bucky Barnes x Reader]
A.N: Thank you so much for your wonderful support and feedback my loves ! ❤ Here’s the next chapter, I hope you like it as well and please let me know what you think! ❤ Thank you! ❤❤❤
Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female Reader
Warnings: Enemies to lovers, fake dating, mentions of blood, sex, violence, death, manipulation, language, guns, knives.
Summary: Fights can be inevitable.
Series Masterlist
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Oh God damn it.
This mission was not supposed to include anything from your real life, and it certainly was not supposed to include your real life ex-boyfriend.
Not only was this going to make things very, very complicated, it also put the entire operation in danger. No part of the background that was specifically created for your cover had any details on your ex relationships and you didn’t think you would have to come up with something now.
Well. For what it was worth, you weren’t the one who came up with it.
“Just joking man. I’m her ex-boyfriend but no worries, I pose no danger.”
Bucky didn’t even dignify that with an answer and you heaved a sigh, trying to control the anger bubbling in your stomach.
“Yeah,” you managed to say, “Yeah, we used to—um, we used to date.”
Bucky frowned, “Didn’t you say you moved here two months ago?”
“I did move here two months ago.”
“We used to date back in Oregon,” Julian explained and Bucky huhed.
“Yet here you are.”
“Yeah you know, the big apple,” Julian motioned around you, “I just got a job here and I figured I could come and see Y/N. Small town people have to look out for each other, you see.”
You gritted your teeth, watching him with narrowed eyes.
“She took you there yet?” Julian asked Bucky “Cannon Beach?”
“No,” you answered on his behalf and Julian clicked his tongue.
“I guess you could take him with you when you visit next month,” he said, “Surely you are visiting next month?”
“I don’t think I am.”
“Come on, no way.” he said, his voice filled with disbelief. “It’s sand castles contest time, you love that contest!”
Right.
Julian had always been the best at playing the civilian and memorizing the back story of any cover. He was great at lying and that was why every mission you had gone on with him was that easy, he could fool anyone.
Including you.
“She came in fourth place two years ago, she made this dragon castle, you should’ve seen it.” He told Bucky, and you rolled your eyes.
Fourth place.
Easy enough to make someone believe, hard enough to find a trace of on the internet.
Julian was an asshole for sure, but he was a great spy and now you were beginning to remember why though every mission with him was a success, you had still avoided it even before your break up.
This was what he did, he took over every single assignment, no matter who was the leader.
Not this time. This was your mission and your mission only.
“Y/N, did you….” Julian let out a chuckle, “Did you tell him about the time your grandma caught us at the—“
“It was good so see you,” you cut him off, glaring at him “But you should probably go now, I’m kind of busy.”
Julian paused only for a moment before holding up his hands, gesturing surrender.
“Okay,” he said, “It was nice to see you too. Again.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“It was nice to meet you Bucky,” he said, “Take care of yourself, Y/N.”
He walked away from you and you closed your eyes for a moment, leaning your head back to the wall.
“Fuck this shit,” you murmured under your breath without even realizing it wasn’t something your cover would say, and opened your eyes to look up at Bucky.
“Was he bothering you or something?” he asked you and you scoffed.
“Please,” you muttered but then pulled yourself together. “He’s not…that type no. Just annoying, that’s all.”
“Are you sure? Because I can—“
“No,” you shook your head fervently, “No, please don’t. It’s fine, it’s just— who he is.”
How dare he?
How dare he try to take over your mission? You had put so much thought into this, coming up with multiple strategies, trying to convince yourself that-
That you were doing the right thing. Even if you felt yourself getting lost in this cover, it didn’t mean that Julian could swoop in and take this over as if you were a rookie agent in need of help.
This whole assignment belonged to you, not to anyone else.
If you were going to betray Bucky’s trust and feel like the most terrible person in the world, the least you could do was not let Julian take the credit.
“I didn’t know you were coming,” you attempted to change the subject and Bucky tilted his head.
“Come on Y/N, don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what?”
“You don’t have to pretend like it’s fine,” he shrugged his shoulders, “I mean you don’t have to pretend, ever.”
Okay, this was too much. You could almost feel your defenses going up, the whole hangover and stress and anger and now Bucky being able to tell you were faking something, it was all getting the best of you and if you weren’t careful, you would say something you would regret later.
“I’m sorry?”
“I just,” he took a deep breath, “Sometimes you’re like…too good to be true, you know? And Sam has this theory that you’re—you’re somehow you’re doing this for me or the people around you but you don’t have to.”
“You think I’m pretending?” you asked, your voice coming out way too defensive for your own cover but you could hardly care.
You were slipping, and you didn’t have the luxury to slip. It seemed to take Bucky by surprise because for the first time since you had met, you were-
Aggressive. That was the word. Less like your cover and more like your real self.
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way,” he said and you let out a bitter chuckle, nodding.
“Yeah,” you said, “Okay. I’m kind of busy you see, I have so much to do at the shop so I should probably go back inside.”
“Y/N—“ he started but you pushed yourself off the wall.
“No it’s fine,” you managed to say, “This is me not pretending, for the record. I’ll see you later I guess.”
With that, you walked past him and went back to the milkshake shop, fury still poisoning your insides.
                                                 ***
You could hardly wait until you could go back to the base. Even though you thought that by then you would have calmed down, that didn’t seem to be the case.
You were fucking good at your job, and you were going to prove it to anyone and everyone. Without any help.
“Is he here yet?” you asked Chloe who rushed to greet you as soon as you stepped out of the elevator into the base and she cleared her throat.
“Who?”
“Don’t even, I know you heard what happened,” you cut her off and she shifted her weight.
“Yeah. I read his report.”
“Exactly. Where is he?”
“Okay, before I tell you where he is I feel like it’s important that you remember we’re not supposed to kill our own agents,” she said, “The paper work is a nightmare.”
“Where is he?”
“Keith says it’s considered rude to kill your team members.”
“Chloe,” you looked her in the eye “Where is he?”
She heaved a sigh, “In the training room.”
“Great, more weapons to use,” you muttered as you walked away from her to walk downstairs to the training room. Anger was pulsing through your veins and you kicked the door open, making the pair currently trying to hit each other stop.
“Get out,” you nodded at the other agent and Julian let out a small chuckle before he wiped his face with the towel. The agent rushed out of the room and you narrowed your eyes at Julian.
“You look upset,” he commented, “Want to exercise it out of your system?”
“What the fuck was that?”
Julian uncapped his water bottle to take a huge sip. “Come on, I saw an opening-“
“You made that opening,” you cut him off, “And crossed the line.”
“Oh please,” he waved a hand in the air, “It worked out perfectly fine.”
You could barely control your voice now, “You almost blew my fucking cover!”
“I would never,” he said, “Trust me, if anything I did you a favor.”
You dug your fingernails into your palms, “A favor?”
“Yeah. Guys love competition, an ex-boyfriend being in the picture will even speed up the process.”
“This is my mission.” You said through your teeth, “You don’t get to make spontaneous decisions without running them by me first.”
“When was the last time you had a proper fight?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You always get cranky if you haven’t had a good challenge in a while,” he stated, “A good fight. I take it your boyfriend doesn’t tire you out enough?”
The innuendo wasn’t lost on you and you let out a small chuckle.
“You couldn’t tire me out if you tried.”
He tilted his head, “Is that a promise?”
You shot him a look and lunged but he easily dodged you, scowling.
“Come on Y/N,” he taunted you, “I won’t hold back, you shouldn’t either.”
“Oh don’t worry, I won’t hold back.” you grinned at him and darted to grab at him but he twisted your hand to push you back, making your back hit the wall. You pulled your hair into a ponytail and jumped to wrap your legs around his neck, spinning in the air to shove him to the ground. As soon as you both fell, you straddled him and pulled the dagger out of your boots to raise it and slam it to the ground right next to his head. A sly grin pulled at his lips as if he was having the time of his life.
“Look at you babe,” he said, “You got even better.”
You were very, very aware of the position you had both found yourself in. You used to find this whole thing hot, it was like foreplay to you. Mock fighting, training, all of it -especially with Julian- it used to be your second favorite activity.
Now, all you could think about was just how much more fun it would be with Bucky.
Maybe Julian was right. Maybe you were just a wild card.
A smirk curled your lips and you leaned in slightly to lock your eyes with his, looking down at him.
“My mission,” you growled. “Not yours. The next time you try to control what’s mine, I won’t be so nice.”
You pushed the dagger into your boot again and got off of him before storming out of the training room, still trying to keep your anger in check.
For some reason, you had a feeling it wouldn’t work.
                                               ***
No matter what you did for the rest of the evening, it just wasn’t enough to calm you down. Now to think of it, it wasn’t even completely about Julian and his nonsense, it was because—
You didn’t want Bucky to think you were pretending, even if you were.
Just because it was a cover, didn’t mean your reactions and the happiness you felt with him was fake as well. But he could still tell something was off— Sam could still tell something was off despite your best efforts.
Great.
You poured wine into your glass and changed the channel, trying to decide whether you should go and bug Keith or not. You heaved a sigh and tore your eyes from the screen to lean your head back, nibbling on your lip.
Dealing with feelings was much more difficult than taking down a target.
You groaned to yourself and took a huge sip of your wine, but before you could grab your phone you heard the doorbell ring. Your head shot up and you grabbed your gun to walk to the door, but as soon as you looked through the peephole to avoid yet another mistake like actually opening the door to Julian, you froze.
Bucky.
….Fuck.
“Um- just a second!” you called out before rushing to your room to hide your gun, then quickly looked around the apartment to see if there was anything that could tip him off. Overall, it looked perfectly civilian and you ran a hand over your face to pull yourself together.
Your cover was supposed to be angry at him.
You threw your shoulders back and walked to the door to open it, then leaned sideways to the doorframe, your lips pulled into a slight pout.
“Hi,” you murmured and his gaze lingered on your shorts and flimsy tank top before he looked away for a moment.
Ah.
Compared to 1940s, it was almost the same as you opening the door in your underwear.
“Hey,” he said and held up a small box of bagels. “Listen, I know you’re angry but um…I was hoping we could talk?”
Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Keith’s door opening and he stepped out but as soon as he caught the sight of Bucky on your doorstep, his eyes widened and he froze. He quickly fixed his jacket so that it would cover his gun tucked into the back of the waistband of his jeans and gawked at you.
“What the fuck?” he mouthed and you got momentarily distracted, causing Bucky to follow your gaze over his shoulder to Keith.
And Keith, the badass spy, probably the only spy in the whole division who could give you a hard time in a fight, whom you had seen take down five armed soldier by himself with no weapons-
He waved at Bucky.
“Hi- hi neighbor,” he stammered as he turned to you and you shot him a forced smile.
“Hi.”
“Thanks for the cookies, I was going to bring you your plate the other day,” he said, “Do you need it now?”
Translation: Do you need back up?
“No, no,” you shook your head, “No worries, it’s fine.”
“Alright then. See you later.”
You cleared your throat and took the box from Bucky.
“Come in,” you turned around to walk to the living room, hearing him close the door behind him. It didn’t take him long to step into the living room and his eyes darted around as if trying to take in as much as he could. You figured it was natural, homes always gave clues about who their owners were.
Not to mention, as an ex-assassin he was automatically finding the nearest exits and things to use as weapons.
You would know. You did the same thing whenever you were in a new place.
You peeked into the box and frowned.
“What is this?”
“To be honest with you, I have no idea,” Bucky admitted, “It’s supposed to be a bagel. I just asked the guy to give me the most modern and weirdest combination.”
“Is this—is this glitter?”
“He said it was edible glitter, yeah. With lavender and cheese with honey.”
“Why is there two of them?”
He put his hands into his pockets. “I figured I could try one.”
You blinked a couple of times, “You want to try a lavender cheese honey bagel with edible glitter.”
Even the sound of it seemed to be painful for him but he pressed his lips together and nodded fervently. “Mm hm.”
You tried to stop the smile threatening to warm your face and put the box on the coffee table before looking up at him.
“Bucky, listen—“
“I’m sorry,” he cut you off, “That comment back there, it was so uncalled for.”
You crossed your arms, “Why did you say that though?” you asked, “Is that—is that what you think?”
“No,” he shook his head fervently, “Of course not.”
“Then?”
“I don’t know if I can give an explanation without it sounding incredibly weird to you.”
“Try me.”
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way,” he said “It’s like— the way you are, it’s like someone somehow looked into my whole life back in 40s before everything and saw every single detail of what I wanted and made you.”
Yeah. That was exactly what you and the division had done.
“I’m not used to…” he motioned at you, “This. It’s like you’re too good to be true, like you’re perfect, does that make sense?”
A dull pain flipped your stomach and you stared up at him, trying to ignore your throat tightening before you went to sit down on the couch.
“I’m not,” you rasped out, “I’m not perfect. You’ll see it sooner or later.”
That right there was as honest as you could be with him. You rubbed at your eyes and grabbed the wine glass to take a huge sip as he sat down beside you, his gaze fixated on you.
“I’m sorry too,” you said, “It was an overreaction, it’s just… Julian’s effect on me.”
He stayed silent for a couple of seconds as if he had no idea how to approach the topic.
“Rough break up?”
“You could say that,” you scoffed a laugh, looking down at your glass, “I mean….you think you know a person, right? And they have no problem with proving you otherwise, prove that you didn’t know them at all. They—they betray your trust and everything was a lie all along and—“
And just like that, the realization hit you like a ton of bricks, making you stop talking.
You were doing exactly the same. It was just another version of the betrayal you had seen from Julian, and you were doing the same thing to Bucky.
He thought he knew you, and you would prove him otherwise, and betray his trust and walk away when this mission was over. In fact, by the time it was over, he would hate you even more than you hated Julian.
You cursed under your breath and took another sip of your wine, trying to ease the crushing guilt making you feel almost breathless.
“Sorry,” you managed to say, “I didn’t mean to unleash it on you, I just don’t want him anywhere near me.”
“I could pay him a visit if you want?”
You pulled your brows together, distracted for a moment before you tilted your head to the side.
“What?”
“To warn him to stay away from you.”
“Uh, I appreciate the chivalry,” you said, “But I can take care of myself.”
“Never said you couldn’t,” he pointed out, “It’s just the old-fashioned thing.”
“Oh the old-fashioned thing?” you repeated with a smile and he shrugged his shoulders.
“Yeah,” he said, “You know, taking care of my girl.”
You thought your heart would leap out of your throat as the warmth spread through you before the idea of betraying him hit you once again. The words felt like they were trying to escape from your mouth, the urge to come clean getting heavier and heavier before you leaned in to brush your lips against his, making him wrap his arms tight around you to pull you closer. You settled in his embrace, the back of your eyes burning but you blinked a couple of times to get rid of tears. He nuzzled into your hair, inhaling your scent.
“Can we stay like this for a while?” you asked and he smiled, pressing a kiss on top of your head.
“Sure thing,” he said and nodded at the TV screen, “What is this movie about?”
“I don’t know, it has cars and criminals,” you said, the guilt making you feel almost nauseous, “Bucky?”
“Hm?”
He would never understand what your confession actually meant, but you felt as if you would choke if you didn’t say it.
“I like who I am when I’m with you.”
A chuckle rumbled in his chest before he reached out to caress your cheekbone.
“Makes two of us darling,” he murmured, “I like who I am when I’m with you too.”
A bitter smile curled your lips and you bit inside your cheek to control yourself, sniffling inaudibly before you closed your eyes, enjoying his warmth.
Chapter 14
582 notes · View notes
whump-a-la-mode · 3 years
Note
Would it be possible to get the aftermath of a heroic whumpee who went up against someone incredibly far out of their league? Kind of along the lines of that one time Dazzler went up against the Juggernaut on her own (A heroine with light projection powers vs a villain with the power of unstoppable force) and ended up being beaten to the point where she was too weak to move. The other heroes become her caretakers for a little while. I loved that arc and could really use something similar.
I can hardly describe how much I love this prompt. I absolutely adore it, and I can only hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! I think I’m somewhat familiar with Dazzler, though when I looked through the wiki, I couldn’t find anything about this story? The wiki may just be incomplete, though. It reminds me of a story arc of the original ms. marvel, too!
This is absolutely one of my favorite kinds of whump, and I really hope that I did it justice. Thank you so much for the ask!
CW//Medical settings, poison, therapy, paralysis, inability to speak, self-hatred, low self-esteem, hair-pulling
The metal doors at the entrance to the Metropolis General Emergency Room swung upon with the force of a thunder clap. And, just as thunder, they too heralded lightning.
Or, at the very least, light.
A pair of lab-coats pushed forth a gurney on ratta-tatta-tattling caster wheels, footsteps crashing on the floor in even rhythm. Close behind, an entourage of two sprinted in close pursuit: A pair of heroes in civilian clothes.
“Lux!”
To the person laid upon the gurney, the voice felt to be emanating from a thousand miles away. Or more. Maybe a couple thousand, or a million... It was hard to think about numbers when their mind was stuffed with cotton, and their vision was dominated by blurry white ceiling tiles.
“What in the world happened to them?” The doctor that spoke had had all sense of clinical professionalism drained from their tongue.
“We don’t know.” A hero, outfitted in jeans and sweater, replied in a single, slurred sound. “We just found them, and-”
It was too loud. Far, far too loud-- Lux felt as though the full force of the ocean had made the sudden decision to crash into their eardrums. And, beneath at all, the caster wheels refused to stop their clitter-clatter. Spikes piercing their temples, they let out the tiniest of cries.
A tiny sound, and all eyes were on them.
“Lux!”
“Lux, what in the world happened to you?”
“What the hell did you do?”
“Talk to us!”
“Wake up!”
“Wake up.”
“Lux. Lux, what did you do?”
Lux, what did you do?
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The support beam shook against the force of the body, hurled at it. Shudders rocked from the base to the top, threatening for the thousandth time the structural stability of the building.
And the structural stability of Lux’s ribs.
With several hoarse coughs, the hero struggled to hands and knees, joints wobbling as though the ground they were braced against were the epicenter of an earthquake.
They could taste it.
They could taste what they had been inflicted with, more than they could feel it. The wound upon their side had long since gone numb-- at the very least, the poison had that benefit to it. Now, the sensation had migrated to Lux’s tongue. A bitter flavor of burnt coffee.
Even if they had the chance, they had no desire at all to examine the gash that had been torn across their side. They’d heard the stories, seen the headlines.
Lux knew what happened to Mercury’s victims.
That was why they were here, after all.
“Had enough yet, kid?”
The voice was booming, sounding from the other side of the half-toppled warehouse. In their weakened state, Lux could barely raise their head high enough to meet the eyes of their foe.
Mercury’s height was unimportant, as was their general stature. After all, it was hard to focus on his body. It was hard to focus on anything but the claws-- terrible, wicked things curling outwards from his knuckles.
A single slash from them, and flesh would begin to curl away, to rot. To necrose.
The wound they had been inflicted with was already a death sentence. But, not an immediate one-- Lux had a bit of time left on death row.
A bit of time to make this right.
Shivering, the hero stood to their feet, facing their opponent from a hundred foot’s distance. It was the most ridiculous of match-ups. A chihuahua against a pit bull. A garden snake against a cobra.
That didn’t mean that Lux couldn’t try.
“Firefly wants another round, then?” The villain’s voice curled, almost as venomous as their blades. “Try me, kid.”
And try they did.
Hands balled to fists at their side, Lux took one, single step forth, stomping onto the warehouse’s concrete floor with a decisive strike.
It was as though a bomb had gone off.
The world was swallowed, all at once, by white. Light engulfed each shadow, each color, until the universe was as blank as unexposed photo paper.
It was merely a distraction, a smokescreen. But they needed time to recover. Time to catch their breath.
Time to remember why they were doing this.
In the world of heroes, Mercury had a particular nickname-- “The Untouchable.” He was the lion in the zoo. No one dared get near him, much less touch him. It was a death sentence, to be slashed by his claws. The heroes were terrified of him, and that gave him a free license to tear the world to shreds.
It was from one of their villainous informants that Lux had heard of the plan initially. The water supply. Mercury had found a way to distill the poison held within their claws, and they intended to release it into the city water supply.
To kill every last citizen of Metropolis.
But the others turned merely a blind eye. No one would touch the villain. They had resigned themselves to dealing with the aftermath.
That would mean deaths. That would mean ‘acceptable causalities.’
To Lux, there was no such thing as an acceptable causality. Only a problem that needed to be solved.
Their teammates had insisted, begged, nearly, that they not be so careless. But, when had Lux even been known as the careful one?
Not once in their life.
“Stop this, Mercury!” The hero snapped into the expanse of white. “Just-”
Lux did not so much as see the fist before it connected. Did not so much as feel the claws, raking their neck.
Not before the world went from black to white.
Lux, what did you do?
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“You did it.”
Those were the first words that Lux heard clearly, after escaping from their haze. Consciousness teased them as the world above turned from colors to shapes to vision.
White tiles, spotless and all in a row. Their perfect nature was threatened only by an out-of-place beeping that nearly forced the hero to once more fall to sleep.
But, they managed to cling to consciousness as they turned their head to the side, revealing a figure, interrupting their view of the tiles overhead.
A figure. A person. A-
“You did it, Lux.”
Nora. Nora, their friend, their teammate, their comrade. Not Mercury. Not a villain. If Nora was here, then they were safe. The hero had an almost supernaturally calming way about herself, located somewhere between her wispy tangle of black hair and the way her movements imitated the performance of a dancer.
But, wait- Why wasn’t she in uniform? No, now she bore only the clothes of a civilian.
No. No, of course she wasn’t wearing a uniform. Lux had gone on a mission, yes. But it hadn’t been with their team.
They’d tried to stop Mercury, and-
“The water’s safe.” Nora’s voice was only just as smooth as her movements. “Mercury’s been contained. You did it.”
“And by god, what were you thinking?!”
The shout sent a stabbing agony through the side of Lux’s skull. That was more so the reaction they had expected.
Nickel. The most paranoid superhero on planet Earth.
Lux struggled to open their lips, to bring forth an explanation. To state that they had been doing what was right. That they had been doing what a hero should have done.
And yet...
And yet, their lips refused to so much as twitch. Too, their tongue sat dead in their mouth, numb and useless.
The only muscle in their body that functioned was their heart, which in that moment began to race.
“You could’ve died!” Nickel’s tirade continued, despite the fact that the target was showing not a single reaction. “Or worse! You could’ve died, or worse, or both! That was so stupid.
Don’t give me the silent treatment, dammit. Explain yourself!”
Lux wanted so desperately to do so. Their heartbeat turned, now, to a pounding tattoo within their skull, the pedal of a bass drum, slamming against the inside of their cranium.
They couldn’t move.
A twitch of the head. A blink, maybe. That was all. That was all they had left.
Lux had saved the world.
Their vision began to swirl.
Lux had saved the world, but what had they given up in exchange?
Telling when the hero fell unconscious was nearly impossible. Yet, when their eyes at last drifted closed, it became clear that whatever wakefulness they had had was now extinguished.
That left two heroes, one proud and one paranoid, leaning over a hospital bed. Shivering both in their own rights, Nickel and Nora stood. It was with great care that the room’s entrance was pushed open. The doctor that did so walked backwards-- their hands were quite thoroughly occupied by a clipboard.
Nickel and Nora said not a word, as speechless as their teammate. They both knew that this was the bringing of news.
This doctor was the bearer of their friends fate.
“They’re going to live.”
That was what they started with. 
“With medical care, Lux will survive this ordeal. However, they will need to stay under intensive care until their immediate symptoms subside.”
Nora stared blankly for a long moment, before whispering:
“They aren’t moving. They aren’t talking.”
The doctor could manage only the more sympathetic of nods. Again, they repeated themself, but, this time, with an addition:
“Lux is going to live. But, most likely, they will never be the same. The poison has taken its toll on their system. There’s no cure. No antidote.
One day, they may be able to move, or speak. But, they have a very, very long road ahead of them.”
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Very, very long was an understatement.
No, the doctor would have been better have describing Lux’s journey as a highway from Moscow to Las Vegas.
“The rains in Spain fall mainly on the plain.”
“Da ra’zz spa- ff mm a pla.”
“The rains in Spain fall mainly on the plain.”
“Za ree z’pa fa ma- play.”
“One more try. The rains in Spain-”
“Nnn- oh! No!”
The lab-coated doctor sitting before Lux set down their clipboard with a heavy sigh, sending only another bubble of rage rising in the hero’s chest. They balled their hands into fists, shaking them furiously before placing their open palms upon their temples.
Lux hated this. Lux hated every last minute, every last instant of this. They hated the doctor. They hated the doctor’s office they had to sit in, walls covered from floor to ceiling with charts of vowels and consonants. More than anything, they hated their exercises.
It should have been simple! Eight words. Eight simple words. If they could repeat them properly, then they would never have to go to one of these stupid appointments ever again.
But, they couldn’t. They couldn’t say eight simple words. In fact, they couldn’t even say one.
A month in the hospital, and Lux could not so much as speak. It made them want to tear their hair out! In fact, they would do that, had they had the motor control for it.
But, they didn’t. They didn’t have anything.
The last month had been the longest of the hero’s existence. Hell, those thirty days had felt to be longer than the rest of their entire life, put together! Thirty days and thirty nights of utter hell.
When they had gone off to face Mercury on their own, Lux had been very well prepared to die. They had not been prepared for this.
From the outside, the progress that the hero was making was undeniable. They had begun in a state of complete and utter paralysis, able to move their head, their eyes, and not a thing else. It was only with thrice-a-day physical therapy that they had begun to move. First, it was only moving their head. Then, their arms. Their legs. By the end, they could even sit up, with the help of a helping hand.
Every day, Lux’s teammates visited. And, every day, they congratulated their friend on their progress.
But, as far as Lux was concerned, it had been a month, and they hadn’t made an inch of progress. As hard as they tried, they were still laid up in a hospital. Still broken. Still useless.
They knew that their friends were trying. They knew-- it was evident on their expressions. Those constant, stupid looks of pity. They would never speak about their own lives, about their missions. The villainous plots they’d stopped, the battles they’d won. No. They focused only on the mundane: Where they’d gone for lunch, how they’d spent their evening.
It was out of pity. Lux knew that. It was all pity. But, in all truth, those were the only moments during which they ever felt, truly, like themself. Like Lux.
Like a hero.
So they’d heard, the media had praised them, lauded them for their victory. But they never spoke of the sacrifice it had taken.
Their friends’ visits were the only parts of the day that Lux had to get forward to. The rest of their life was filled with... this.
“Lux.” The doctor coaxed. “You need to do your exercises. You’re already getting so much better! But you won’t make any progress if you don’t try.”
“Don’ thwaa ex- thwaa ta.”
“Don’t want exercises, want talk?”
Lux narrowed their eyes. But, that had been what they were trying to say. The fact that it needed to be repeated, interpreted, however, made them feel sick.
“You need your exercises, Lux. How about we just try one more time? I know you can do it. You’re already doing so well!”
Eight simple words. Eight simple words, and Lux could be a hero again. Eight words, and they could be a person again.
“Okay, Lux. Repeat after me: The rains in Spain fall mainly on the plain.”
“Tha ran-”
Yet, that was all they could make out. Lux’s throat ran dry of words, void of syllables. They couldn’t speak before, and now, they couldn’t so much as make a sound.
They never cried in front of others. Never. Yet, that rule had been broken in the hospital already a dozen times. And, so it seems, this would make thirteen.
Lux’s chest was wracked with heavy sobs as they buried their face in their hands. Soon, tears leaked from beneath their shaking fingers.
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“I’m right here for you, Lux. Lean on me all you need.”
Nora’s voice carried the same cadence as water, meandering through a stream. Too, of course, did her gestures. A gentle, yet firm hand took Lux by the wrist, wrapping their arm around their comrade’s shoulder.
“It’s going to be hard, okay? It’s going to be hard. It’s okay to get tired. And you don’t have to get it on your first try. Or your fifth. Or your hundredth.”
Lux stopped listening on the last part.
This was it. The final gauntlet. Nearly an entire season spent within hospital walls-- now came their test. Everything counted on it. As far as they were concerned, it was a matter of life or death.
If they succeeded, they were home free. They could be brought home by their teammates-- of course, while still attending outpatient physical therapy, but still! They would be home.
And, yet, if they failed? They would be placed back in their hospital room. They would continue to be useless, a burden on both doctor and friend alike.
Everything was riding on this. Lux took a deep breath, and opened their eyes to face their challenge:
A hallway.
They had studied it extensively. Seven feet in width, and perhaps twenty in length. A tiny little thing, used only to get between two particular rooms. It was in the very depths of the hospital; that was why they were using it. There was no chance of distraction, of interruption.
“Are you ready, Lux?”
“Yesthh.”
“Okay.”
Their weight was leaned, nearly entirely, upon Nora. But, that didn’t matter. It wasn’t a test of standing on their own. If that was the test, they’d never get out of this hellish place. All they had to do was make it to the end of the hallway, with help. They could go slowly. They could lean. They could rest.
They only had to make it to the end.
Nora placed one foot forward, waiting for Lux to do the same, which they did, slowly and shakily. It was in this manner that they moved. One foot, one foot, staying always in the slowest of locksteps.
For Nora, it was simple.
For Lux, it was agony. Their knees felt mere milliseconds away from buckling, legs straining under the weight of the rest of them, even as the vast majority of it was leaned onto their friend.
Five feet. Five tiny, minuscule steps. That was how far Lux made it.
And then they were falling.
They did not remember the fall, not really. One moment, their knees had given out. And, the next, they were on their side, on the carpet.
Shaking.
This had been it. This had been their chance. All they had to do was walk down a hallway, that was it! Then, they could have gone home. Then, they could have been with their friends.
Then, they could have finally been a hero again.
And they’d failed. They’d failed the simplest of tasks.
In that moment, a certainty struck Lux like a dagger to the chest: They were never going to get better. Never. It didn’t matter how many exercises they did, how many doctors they saw. This whole thing was pointless! They were going to be worthless until the end of time.
On the floor, Lux screamed. It was a babbling, incoherent thing, as most sounds they made were. Too, they began to thrash, slamming their fists into the floor as they howled in anguish.
Then, they weren’t thrashing anymore. They couldn’t.
Lux had no need to open their eyes to tell what was happening. They knew Nora’s footsteps, knew the sound of her racing over. The feeling of her, hauling them into her arms. Holding them close.
They knew, also, the sounds of doors opening. Of more footsteps, familiar footsteps. Of chattering voices. Their friends’ voices.
Their whole-
Lux’s breath caught in their throat.
In order to avoid distraction, it had only been them and Nora in the room. They had assumed that it was only Nora who had visited that day. And, yet, they knew these voices.
Their whole...
Their whole team. Their whole team had come to watch. They counted every voice, every pair of footsteps. Every last one of their friends had come to watch them succeed.
But, they’d only watched them fail. Lux expected heckling, expected to be berated.
They did not expect the half-dozen pairs of arms, wrapped around them. They didn’t expect to be the center of a group hug.
“You’re doing so well.”
“You got so far!”
“Just a little more practice, and you’ll be back out there fighting crime in no time.”
“You’re almost there!”
“That’s the furthest you’ve been able to walk yet!”
“We’re proud of you.”
Lux’s tears did not stop.
And, yet, they realized something:
They were no longer tears of sorrow.
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lepusrufus · 3 years
Text
To bargain for immortality pt.3
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As it turns out, poison did not kill her. Not by a long shot. Not if the numerous tests with different kinds of poisons were to be believed.
Nicole was currently bent over the sink placed in the corner of Miranda's lab, her assistant hovering behind her with a timer in hand. What was it this time? Hemlock? Belladonna?
She stopped caring when a new wave of blood carrying the replaced tissue from internal damage came rising in her esophagus. With a disgusting gag, it came splashing onto the white porcelain, now stained and coated in crimson multiple times over. She coughed, trying not to let any of the burning mixture remain stagnant in her throat, and focused on the feeling of her body healing itself. It felt, for lack of a better word, like static coursing through her nerves and organs. After that too was gone, and the only thing that remained was the nauseating coppery taste in her mouth, she raised a shaky hand, too tired to speak up.
"Seven minutes, thirty four seconds," Emma announced.
Mother Miranda noted it down, fingers typing quickly over the keyboard.
It was a miracle that Nicole was still able to stand, although leaning a good part of her body weight on the sink thankfully secured to the wall did help. She took a few deep breaths, doing her best to not sound too croaky when she spoke.
"Can I see the results once we're done?"
She could keep track of everything herself of course, but it got difficult when her body was fighting toxins meant to shut it down. And she'd be lying if she said that she wasn't dying of curiosity.
"It's none of your concern," Miranda replied coldly.
That got a scowl to appear on thin blood stained lips, partially hidden by her hunched position. "I stood here quietly while you shoved pill after pill made from every poisonous plant you could get your hands on down my throat. At least grant me the grace of knowing my own body's limitations."
Her reply was little more than a tongue click. She couldn't help a scoff when Miranda simply ignored her request and told her assistant to continue with the next test on their list. Emma picked up one of the numerous pill bottles lined on her employer's desk and came over to Nicole, who unceremoniously grabbed one pill and swallowed it before looking at the label. Cyanide.
Oh for fuck's sake.
Her body's reaction was immediate, heart starting to beat painfully quick while her head started to spin. It was nauseating, the ache seeming to flood her chest and going up her spine in a searing migraine. Not to mention the deep breaths that didn't seem deep enough, as air itself seemed choking, the oxygen not quite reaching where it should. Mild panic started to settle in when black splotches began to cloud her vision and the tingling sensation seemed to battle with the pain for dominance. Before she knew it, her shaky legs gave out under her and the white ceiling of the lab blurred out of focus.
---
She woke up with a start, the bluish lights a painful glare to her eyes. The sound of ticking stopped and Nicole realized it was Emma's timer. She looked down at herself, haphazardly placed on a bed and then at Miranda, typing down a result the ringing in her ears hadn't allowed her to hear. With a few shakes of her head to try and chase the fog in her brain, Nicole finally croaked out: "What the hell happened?"
"The cyanide was damaging cells and keeping them from taking in any oxygen at a slightly faster rate than those cells were getting replaced. Which caused you to lose consciousness."
Miranda's tone was just as cold and clinical as ever, but a slight smirk tugged at her lips when she continued, the excited scientists buried under the mask of a goddess showing a crumb of itself.
"Although I'm quite certain we solved the mystery behind the accelerated heart rate. All previous tests show that it takes no longer than a few minutes to recover, while this took over twenty five."
Nicole was still fighting some mild dizziness, but she put all the focus on Miranda's words.
"We'll have to rerun the tests under anesthesia, but for now it's safe to assume the healing slows down while unconscious."
She acknowledged the theory with an oh. She wasn't really capable of much conversation at the moment, but she let the thought be metaphorically chewed in her brain. That made sense. If healing was slower after passing out, then her body had a damn good reason to keep her awake, hence the unnaturally high heart rate.
A slow shuddring sigh was let out when Miranda asked her assistant to prepare the anesthetic, laying back down. At least she wouldn't be awake for this one.
It took around double the normal dose to finally get her unconscious. She kept her eyes glued to the needle embedded in her arm until her vision was starting to fail her, the surrounding room becoming nothing more than dark blurs and vague beeping sounds.
People do not dream under anesthesia.
Nicole knew that of course. But as the lab blurred into odd shapes and more or less familiar places, there wasn't really a better word to describe it. Perhaps a result, she would later muse, of her overactive brain, fighting for consciousness at any given moment as it now had an instinctual need to stay awake.
That need manifested itself in the vague image of one of the castle's hallways. It was in an old wing, not frequently used by many other than the cleaning staff. She was walking along the wall, using it to compensate for her wobbly legs, and looked around for something. What exactly, was beyond her comprehension at the moment, but that didn't stop her from stumbling inside each room on her path, looking around the bright and beautifully decorated space, only to exit and continue down the hallway.
Something. Something ugh.
Nicole tried not to lean on the wall too much when she got to the golden frame of a painting, not wanting to risk damaging it. Slowly walking around, she threw a glance at the canvas when she was fully in front of it. She frowned.
It was the familiar portrait of all three sisters, dressed in period appropriate clothing and hair up into small curls. Their eyes, painted in such a way that they seemed to follow any onlookers around, greeted her with soft expressions. Some details seemed different though. They were small, and it took a bit of effort to notice how the brushstrokes seemed to have shifted ever so slightly in places. A familiar rose tattoo was present, albeit quite faint, on each of their foreheads, and their features seemed a little less soft and more akin to how Alcina would paint them. Nicole stopped to look at Cassandra's hand for a little longer, as if something was supposed to have changed there too. But before she had time to dwell on that, the realization that the painting should not be there dawned on her. Why would Alcina move it? And to a near abandoned wing of the castle no less. If she remembered correctly, that portrait had been at the main entrance for decades.
Nevermind that, she could just ask Alcina herself if they crossed paths. She kept walking down the hallway, trying to ignore the nagging feeling at the back of her mind that something was off. Off, like the slightly misplaced furniture, or the lack of certain decorations, or antique objects that she knew for a fact were on display on a completely different wing. No, Nicole kept looking through every room she came across, in search of something her foggy mind couldn't quite grasp the memory of.
She finally reached one of the more populated areas, and although still not fully able to grasp her surroundings and walk around without any support, a shiver still ran down her spine. The off-putting feeling turned to dread with the realization that she was completely alone. No maid or other staff member has crossed paths with her in what felt like an eternity. No sound could be heard aside from her own breathing and a faint beeping coming from outside. At that moment, Nicole longed for the sound of giggling or the shuffling of a broom, hell even the sound of lycans howling outside. Anything.
By that point, shuffling against the wall felt more of a psychological need than a physical one. There was a fear that accompanied anyone when you found yourself in a place that seemed so unlike its normal self, and Nicole tried to make herself smaller than she already was in the eventuality that something would pounce out from the silence and tear her to shreds.
She found herself traversing another corridor littered with numerous doors to guest bedrooms or simply storage rooms. Each was opened one by one, whatever laid behind it inspected, and then shut again. Rinse and repeat. Repeat until Nicole found herself in front of an oddly familiar door. It had nothing special, the crest and color exactly the same as the ones she had left behind, but its position seemed to tug at her memories.
The door was pushed open, a slight creak accompanying the movement, and Nicole found herself in a well lit office. It was obviously a rarely used one, the shelves only holding a small number of oddly organized files and boxes, while the chair was tucked under a large desk. The plush carpet underfoot caught her attention, beautiful black, white and golden motifs waved around each other in an intricate pattern. She walked across it, up to the desk and crouched down to run her fingers on the old worn wood of small drawers. The iron handles used to open them seemed to be gone from all but the topmost one, which she opened slowly.
Oh.
The drawer was empty save for two familiar objects, a pair of matching rings with minuscule branches in flower engraved on them. She picked them both up but almost dropped them back when a set of hurried footsteps sliced through the dead silence just outside the room.
There was no time to scramble for a hiding spot, especially not with how her head started to spin the moment she stood up again. All she could do was put the hand that wasn't holding the rings on the desk to support herself and watch as the door swung open.
A sigh of relief flew past cracked lips at the sight of confused golden eyes framed by dark locks of hair. Cassandra was standing at the entrance, head cocked slightly to the side.
"Did you lose it again?"
There was a hint of annoyance in her tone, but it was mostly drowned out by an amused chuckle as she walked up to her.
"No, I-..." Did I? "I'm sorry."
Cassandra simply took one of the bands and wordlessly slid it on Nicole's ring finger, gesture that was imitated in turn.
"Why are they here?" Nicole's question was barely a whisper, either due to the dizziness she felt or the cemetery-like silence that almost demanded not to be disturbed. "I know I instructed the staff to bring mine to my room if they find it."
"Oh it wasn't any of the staff members," Cassandra replied matter of factly, even waving a hand to dismiss the apparently absurd idea.
"Then who?"
"I don't know."
Nicole frowned. She pinched the bridge of her nose trying to chase away the eerie feeling that seemed to have made its roots deep inside her mind. Cassandra's voice seemed off, and that beeping from earlier seemed to close in ever so slightly.
"Why here?" She repeated.
Her wife only shrugged and looked around the room, taking her time with the reply.
"Isn't this where we first saw each other?"
Right. That's why the office was so familiar. The memory of Lady Dimitrescu, so beyond intimidating at the time, sitting in the chair and interviewing her for a maid's position came flooding her foggy brain. Then the giggles and the rather dramatic entry and the small bickering.
"Are you waking up?"
If Cassandra wasn't so close to her, she would've thought a third person had spoken. Her wife's voice seemed off before, but now it didn't even sound like her own. Familiar, yes, but the regal icy tone belonged to someone else.
Nicole tried to instinctively put some space between them, only for Cassandra's expression to twist with concern, furrowed brows over soft golden, always so uncharacteristically soft when pointed at her. Cassandra opened her mouth to speak again, but the beeping came in louder, almost as if making its way from her throat with the sole purpose of attempting to bust her eardrums.
The room seemed to rapidly bleed out of focus, details replaced by black dots and blurry lines. Cassandra's shape slowly morphed, her beautiful black dress leaving way to a plain lab coat and golden eyes turning into icy green, ever calculating and scrutinizing. Incessant beeps from the cardiac monitor brought her back to consciousness more rudely than she would've liked.
Nicole shook her head slightly, trying to chase away the last effects of anesthesia. Her body seemed eager to oblige, quickly trying to wake up and be back on her feet. Not that she had any intention of actually getting up, but soon enough, she was looking around the space and all the pristine equipment held within. Emma was busy arranging vials and pill bottles inside a cabinet while Miranda was by the bed typing away, nails annoyingly loud on the keyboard. She shook her head once again, and looked to the opposite wall, where a clock was ticking. It was almost 11 p.m. and Nicole let out a soft groan thinking about how she'd been under anesthesia for about three hours and how her family was probably waiting for her to get back.
She laid her head on the uncomfortable pillow while waiting for the goddess wannabe to be done with her observations on her current lab rat, which meant Nicole, and finally dismiss her.
It took a moment to realize that Miranda had turned towards her and pushed her laptop close to the side of the desk, screen facing Nicole. After receiving a confused look, the woman rolled her eyes as if she were a teacher explaining basic maths for the hundredth time.
"You wanted to see the results."
Nicole's confused expression did not change, though now it was more directed towards the suspicious willingness to give what she asked for. Nonetheless she scooted to the side of the bed, letting her legs dangle over the edge, and she narrowed her eyes at the file on the screen.
---
Date: 23rd April 2012
Subject: Nicole [REDACTED] Dimitrescu
Mutation experiments - 2 (Regeneration - 2)
Resistance and healing time to various poisonous plants (in the form of highly concentrated pills or injectable) and other toxins. First number refers to the healing time while conscious and the second while unconscious.
Belladonna (Atropa belladonna) - 2'13" // 6'30"
Rosary pea (Abrus precatorius) - 2'20" // 7'02"
Crowbane (Cicuta virosa) - 2'40" // 7'12"
Wolfsbane (Aconitum lycoctonum) - 3'30" // 8'11"
Hemlock (Conium maculatum) - 3'18" // 8'28"
Oleander (Nerium oleander) - 3'55" // 10'17"
Ricin (Ricinus communis) - 5'58" // 16'19"
Arsenic, 100mg - 7'34" // 21'38"
Cyanide, 50mg - / // 26'53"
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an-ambivalent · 3 years
Text
Sukuna x Uchiha! Reader
A/N: This is purely for my own self-indulgent purposes -- expanding on this scenario I was daydreaming about. You are invited along to read about my cringefest scenario but only I’m allowed to call it cringe. 
Headcanon synopsis: You are amidst fighting Kabuto with Sasuke and Itachi in the Fourth Great Ninja War when the strangest thing happens. Between struggling to stay conscious from the poison that’s slowly eating you alive to trying to focus on the lengthy explanations of never-heard-before jutsus’ between the two emo brothers, the clash of such jutsus teleports you to another world during another fight. There, the line between enemies and comrades is nonexistent. However, one thing is certain: apparently you wear the same face as of a thousand-years-old demon’s deceased lover. 
For clarification, you are not related to Sasuke and Itachi because that would mean this “reader” insert has fixed looks of black hair and black eyes. You are from the same clan with abilities like the Sharingan and affiliation to fire chakra nature. But fill in your blanks of whatever you want to look like. 
Warnings: This has very minor spoilers about the JJK manga, specifically Sukuna’s abilities. So read at your own risk. It’s just a bunch of OP assholes trying to one up each other ig :P 
                                                          ~***~ 
The rustic smell of blood is present profoundly in the atmosphere. The heavy rain that is suddenly drenching you, and increasing the heaviness and wetness of your clothes and making them stick disgustingly to your grime skin, does nothing to waft away the awful smell. It washes off some of the dried blood from minor cuts and other injuries you had acquired during your fight with Kabuto, triggering your pain receptors in response and causing stinging and burning of pain. But for someone like you who has already been traumatised from the blood shed you have experienced as a ninja, the revolting smell of blood and the burning pain is nothing new. However, the thing that is new is the rain. It had abruptly replaced the mid-day sun that shone horribly bright. During the war, the clear and sunny weather felt like it was nature’s way to laugh at everyone’s face when they were fighting and barely hanging onto their life. The sudden darkness of the night and the open space you find yourself in, instead of the dark cave you were in just mere moments ago, has your shoulders becoming tensed and your blood flow and heart-beat going faster. 
Instantly, your eyes are their notorious deep red colour presented with three black tomes. Your refined shinobi instincts kick in, and you catch the lean and spikey black-haired male that was thrown your way. There is blood trickling down his mouth, and as you held him momentarily, it was easy to deduce that some of his ribcages and other bones were broken, in addition to more serious injuries. Like how milliseconds decisions were required as a shinobi because they determined life or death,  the abrupt situation you were thrown into also required it. You carelessly threw him aside as a half-naked pink-haired teen with black markings on his skin, a hole in his chest and blood dripping down his abdomen charged at you. 
He aimed a vicious and strong punch to your face, which you avoided by side-stepping. When he repeated the gesture with his other arm, you blocked it with your forearm, before twisting your body at an angle, and delivering a strong kick to his stomach and sending him flying away. Using the new created distance to your advantage, you quickly made the necessary hand-signs with practiced ease, before taking a deep breath in. 
“Fire Style: Great Fire Dragon Jutsu,”  You exclaimed, as you exhaled a vicious and high temperature dragon head-shaped flame towards your attacker. 
Sukuna, currently in possession of Itadori’s body, was internally questioning whether the very few hits that Megumi had landed previously had damaged his brain because there was absolutely no way he had seen her face. There was absolutely no way in hell that a mere human would be strong enough to land a painful kick on him. Evidently, the thought that he had seen her face had made him falter in his concentration so it was probably a lucky hit. But the giant dragon fireball that was currently heading towards his way was not going to be a lucky or a pleasant hit, if he did not counter or dodge it. Attacks with fire meant play-time for Sukuna. So, he simply waited until your attack was mere inches away from him, before he easily manipulated the flames and extinguished them. Then, without any current motivation for more fighting, he started to walk towards you. 
Your eyes widened when you saw your jutsu disappear in thin air. Then, when you saw the pink-haired male began walking towards you nonchalantly, your hand automatically went to your back and you unsheathed your sword slightly. Cracks of lightning sparked through it. You stayed grounded on your fighting stance and narrowed your eyes at him, ready to strike should he attack. 
The intense cold expression you wore on your face with her familiar features was so strange to see; and usually, Sukuna enjoyed fighting and taunting seemingly stuck-up people like you. Overpowering such humans before burning them to their demise -- it was such a great way to pass his time. But right now, right now, he was infuriated. He was surprised, and somewhere deep down in his dead demonic heart, was a small sense of longing and hope to regain what used to be. 
His red magenta eyes dug through you in a fierce glare as he stopped just a small distance in front of you. 
“Oi, who are you?” 
The corner of your lips twitched up into a smirk. 
“It’s customary to introduce yourself before asking for someone else’s name. Surely, you have that much manners?” 
Your reply evoked an eyebrow twitch from Sukuna. 
“You’re unnecessarily cocky, aren’t you? If you knew who I was, you would know what was good for you. It’s no wonder it’s so tempting to kill you humans.” He remarked easily, and took a step closer towards you. 
You raised an eyebrow in question. “Me, a human? You’re talking as if you aren’t one.” 
His lips stretched into a wide grin. “Huh, so you can see me and you’re attacking me, seemingly a fellow human without mercy and not actually knowing who I am or what’s going on?” 
It was something about the way he was questioning and taunting you like you were a three-years-old kid that made you glare at him. But, there were no hints of deception or lies in his words. And the nagging feeling you felt churning in the pit of your stomach made you know that something was seriously wrong. 
“So what are you then, a monster? That’s quite subjective though isn’t it; I kill another to protect myself or my loved one, I’m a human in their eyes. The loved ones of the one I killed in order to protect myself, I’m a monster in their eyes. There’s no difference. Although, why I’m suddenly here and not where I am meant to be... maybe only you can answer that. And if you know who I am, you would know what’s good for you. Answer me or you will regret even having the nerve to look in my eyes.” You warned, and just then, the black tomes in your crimson irises started spinning. 
Your cold threats, your body bent in the certain angle it was, ready and just waiting to kill something, and the power radiating off of you -- especially your brilliant blood eyes, it sent unanticipated shivers down Sukuna’s spine. His grin widened until his canine were visible, and just before he could respond, Megumi’s shouts were heard from the distance, interrupting his intense stare off with you. 
“What the hell are you doing?! Get out here civilian before he kills you!” 
Your gaze switched to him and the moment your cold red eyes met Megumi’s eyes, they widened in surprise. Then, finally, the poison that was still in your bloodstream sent sharp waves of pain to your head, causing you to wince and hiss out in pain. This was not missed by the two men around you, especially Sukuna, who was watching you like a hawk. 
He smirked. “Reaching your human limits already?” 
You scoffed. “Hardly. But looks like our chat will need to end here.” You responded easily. Then, with a single hand-sign and your Sharingan tomes spinning more fiercely, you triggered a low-level genjutsu. Both males, who did not know better than to not look into your eyes, were easily swept into it. It was solely for a moment; however, that moment was enough time that when the world around them stopped spinning, there was not even a single clue of you ever being there was even left. 
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starshipsofstarlord · 3 years
Text
The Sheriff and the Murderer
Part Three
Previous Parts | Part One | Part Two
Series Masterlist
Quick link to my masterlist, if you’re interested in reading more of my crap 😬
Summary | one of the many things that you had never had the chance of doing was disposing of a body; luckily for you, you know just the right person who can tend to your aid.
Warnings | mentions of death, disposing of a body, mentions and aftermath of murder, mentions of rape, mentions of sex, swearing, mention of suicide
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The smell of the carcass had your nose turning up, and the sight wasn’t much better. There was blood staining your lovely dress, that Lee had taken off hours prior. Now it was ruined, with the red digress of your husband; he always had to taint everything, and it still appeared to apply despite him being deceased.
Your eyes wallowed with water, as you thought of the mistakes you had made. There were so many, and marrying Simon had been of the greatest, considering that his treatment of you had been beyond disgraceful. And now, the red of his departed insides was sticking beneath his nails, causing you to gag.
This part, the slashing and ripping apart of his limbs, using your trusty shovel, had been worse than actually committing the initial crime. Killing him had been bliss, but this, reminded you of the possible consequences that you would be forced to partake in.
“Oh no.” You heaved, feeling nauseous from the pungent aroma, grasping at the top of your chest in sickness. You dropped his hand, that felt ironically lighter now that he was dead, letting it fall with the other parts of his distorted, and broken, body.
The worst part of all was, now that you had control of where his palms were permitted to go, and the power had you feeling complete. It had you basking in your own glory, but now, you were lost, grieving the path that you had lost regarding the man that you truly were infatuated with.
Walking backwards, and closing the shed door, you abandoned the sections of Simon, hurrying back into your empty home, and going towards your lined phone. Without caring about the prints of blood that you were padding onto the numerical keys, you dialled a woman that you knew to be in the business of cold body abandon.
For a minute, the line rang, leaving you antsy and picking at your stained nails, chipping away at the surrounding skin. All you could smell was the reminder of blood, that smothered you in a hermit of remembrance.
A remembrance of the times that he would splatter your body with his self, claiming that you were his wife, and even bragging about it to the fellas that he worked closely with. But you were nothing more than a shadow in his eyes, a prize that followed him around the house, flaunting her terrified doe eyes at his silhouette.
His greatest flaw was, aside from his poisonous and lingering touch, that smothered you in the cruelest of ways, was that he thought he was aware of everything that went on around him. It was as though he thought he were the sheriff...
But behind his turned back, your shadow would dance with the image of Lee Bodecker, in a private and disclosed matter. He was the true sheriff of the town, the wine who could order you to do anything, and you would wilfully comply.
Lee had, and never would hurt you. That was the definite difference between the polar pair. He was a lovely gentleman, and Simon, well, he was more like a rat swimming out of the sewer.
All these thoughts and actions of adultery were fair play, you slept with Lee behind the now scathed and chopped up back of your husband, whilst he bedded as many women that were actually willing to slumber with.
You were not dumb to his pattern, each night when he went out, he was pursuing a dame, but that never bothered you, because while he was out, the sheriff would make a stop, and check you over, in more ways than one.
Finally, you running with your thoughts was disrupted, for the ringing ceased. A upbeat and facade of a ‘hello’ rang though your ears, making you breathe a much deserved intake of relief.
“Hey Sandy.” You replied, holding the phone aggressively against your ear. Anything she had to say, you were willing to listen to, after all, she was a master in the ways of murder, as you knew and were trusted peculiarly with that detail of secrecy. “I need your help.”
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The sound of Simon’s body parts beating around the trunk as sandy surpassed over a bump in the road reverberated through the entire vehicle. It soothed the initial silence that was exhibited in it, and nervously, you licked your thin lips, hoping that you would reach the ‘middle of nowhere’ soon.
It wasn’t that you and Sandy didn’t get along, in fact, you got along great, which was one of the reasons that she insisted to husband Carl that they leave you alive. But it was the fact that there was an unspoken gesture that waded through the air, like a muting toxin.
“Does Lee know?” She asked, finally breaking the silence like ice. It was a relief to hear voice, deep down, you were insecure that she was silently judging you for the entire ride, or at least, how far you had gone so far.
“No, and I intend for it to have a cap kept on it.” You slunk your shoulders, whilst thinking of Sandy’s sibling. He was far too good for you, he was the sheriff, and now, you deemed yourself as nothing more than a murderer.
The fact that you were a survivor of all sorts of horrid extremes wouldn’t matter to the boys in blue, they would not see you past your crime, and you feared that sheriff Bodecker would not either.
“Son of a bitch had it coming to him anyways.” Stated Sandy, being heartless to her admission. “The sight of you and that prick drove my brother insane. We all knew what he was doing to you, yet, they wouldn’t charge him, all because you were simply married to him.”
“What would you have done if Carl had dared lay his hands on you in an in-consensual manner?” You asked, plucking away at the trim of your clean skirt. Before you had left to go on this joyous trip with Sandy, you had changed, all in favour of the neighbours, and anyone else you happened to pass.
“I’d have done the same darling.” She comforted you, looking away from the road for a moment, to send you a quick and sincere smile. Things within the car were falling into their previous rhythm, it being apparent that the two of you were good and well adversed friends. “I wanted to kill Simon too, you know? But with the threats I have made in the past, it would have been far too suspicious.”
“Yeah.” You agreed, suddenly feeling guilty that if it were found to be known that Simon was butchered, Sandy would be interrogated, most likely from her own brother. “How is Carl?” You changed the subject, shifting under the grip of the seat belt.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you how my lovesick brother is?” She replied, laughing lightly at your warm face. “He’s still head over heels for you girl, and yet, the other man won your heart.”
“I wouldn’t say won it, I’d say he manipulated it.” You retorted, crossing your arms over your chest to pave down the swell of tension inside. “I’d always told myself, and you, that I’d choose Lee Lee, but high school was a long time ago, and I can’t go back to sneaking kisses with him under the bleachers when your back was turned.”
“Trust me, I knew all along.” She smiled, thinking back to the simpler times. “And though, I know when he was training to be a deputy, he’d told you he had no time for a relationship, and he didn’t exactly expect you to wait for him. But you may as well have, considering the two of you continued to fornicate like wild rabbits.”
“Please stop.” You groaned at her words, covering your face with your clear and evidence free hands. “And we did not fornicate like-“
“My bedroom was right beside yours when we got that apartment, and before then, well it was against Lee’s. Trust me, when I say that I know off by heart how you sound in bed sweetie. And god, did I grimace as I heard you mewling my brother’s name.”
Breathily you laughed, thinking back to the times that were spoke of. “Sandy.” You spoke her name, earning a radical hum in reply. “I love Lee.”
“Trust me darling, I am well aware of that. The two of you are like Romeo and Juliet, except you’ve killed someone else rather than taken your own life. And then, there’s never been anything holding the two of you apart-“
“Okay, you’re trying to make a point here Sand. Nothing like Romeo and Juliet, I got it.” You nodded your head, before leaning it back into the plumpness of the head rest. “And then there’s you and Carl, Bonnie and Clyde.”
“Sweetie, you’re a killer too now, so I wouldn’t make comparisons. You’re just lucky that the first suspect for Simon’s disappearance will be a man, and then we’ll see where I am on that list. And you know me, I will always protect you, it’s what we do.”
“It is what we do.” You repeated, watching the road ahead, and tapping your feet in tune with the floundering of Simon’s own rolling feet.
Tags;
@charmed-asylum @brynthebulldozer @tcc-gizmachine @stucky-my-ship @acciosiriusblack
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the-velvet-worm · 3 years
Text
We need to talk about Mai.
The Avatar: The Last Airbender fandom is one that’s seen better days, that’s for sure. Even in its better days, it was full of ship wars and shit takes. It’s always been like that, despite how near-perfect the show is, and that’s nothing that can be helped. We all consume media differently, and that’s what makes so many movies and TV shows so great. Differing opinions are what create discussion and debate, and we should almost always at least entertain them to help get a better understanding of the thoughts and opinions of others. So… let’s dive into one of my most unpopular opinions.
Mai. We all know her as the knife-wielding goth girl, friend to Azula and girlfriend to Zuko. Many have come to the false conclusion that she’s all surface and no substance, that she never cared enough for Zuko, that she was too passive and uncaring and didn’t cater enough to the emotions of the people around her. She turned on Azula to save Zuko, and Ty Lee turned on Azula to save Mai. It’s one of (in my opinion, at least) the most badass and iconic moments of the show. Mai stealthily pinning down all the prison guards without spilling a single drop of blood, buying Zuko, Sokka, Suki and co. just enough time to escape the Boiling Rock is one of the best action scenes in all of ATLA, that much isn’t up for debate. But it’s also one of the most profound and selfless acts of love in the entire series. Zuko, whose mother poisoned his grandfather to save his life, who betrayed his uncle just as he was going to make a major heel turn as a person, was saved by a girl he broke up with… in a letter. I’ll get into the letter later. But for now, I want to unpack Mai’s sacrifice.
She knew exactly what she would be facing by saving Zuko. Azula was right there. And Mai still did it. She resigned herself to the fact that she would have to face Azula’s fury — and her lightning. Mai’s only defense? Her knives. It was a test of speed and precision. Or at least, it would’ve been, if Ty Lee hadn’t stepped between them and taken Azula down. The important part was that Mai was willing to die to save Zuko’s life. “I love Zuko more than I fear you,” is one of the most powerful lines of dialogue I’ve ever heard in my life. It confirmed two things: Mai loves Zuko (which she said with her actions as much if not more than her words) and Mai has only been friends with Azula as long as she has because she actually feared what Azula would do to her otherwise. It was never any secret who had the true power in the Fire Nation royal family — Mai knew that better than most. And still, even after Zuko ditched her in the middle of an invasion, she would’ve traded her life for his without a second thought.
Which leads me to my next point — the letter. Mai read a portion of it out loud. We saw Zuko write it just a few episodes prior. We know from context and dialogue that he didn’t want to leave her, he tells Sokka as much on their way to the Boiling Rock. In Zuko’s mind, he left Mai behind to protect her. But flipping it and looking at it from Mai’s perspective is so key to understanding why she was so hurt. This wasn’t just a case of a jerk boyfriend breaking up with his girlfriend through a text message. This was two traumatized teenagers who fell in love despite all odds, who were separated for three years, and were finally reunited… just for him to leave again. The first time Zuko left, he didn’t have a choice, as we all know. That’s fair. The second time? He did have a choice. He made the right choice. He knew it. We as the audience know it. But who didn’t know it was Mai — she expresses as much. She doubts herself and her relationship with Zuko because of it. She more or less infers that she feels their relationship has been built on a lie — and in truth, it partially has been. Zuko withheld information from her and withheld his feelings. Remember ‘The Beach’, toward the beginning of book 3? That episode where Mai and Zuko (and Azula and Ty Lee) all addressed their childhood trauma and finally began to be able to work through it? Mai didn’t shut down Zuko’s feelings — she actively encouraged him to share with her how he was feeling. In the same scene, Zuko claimed Mai didn’t care about anything, and at the end of the episode, she affirmed that although she had difficulty expressing her true emotions, she did care about Zuko. And I think it says a whole lot about her that even after having her heart broken by him, after opening up to him and offering a safe place for him and getting hurt as a result of that, she still couldn’t let him die.
What I’m getting at is… would a girl who REALLY didn’t care do that? I see a lot of people claim she didn’t listen to Zuko… when was that? In ‘Nightmares and Daydreams’, when she constantly tried to affirm him, comfort him, reassure him, and was met with silence? In ‘The Beach’ when he dumped all of his trauma on her and she sympathized with him but still held him accountable for his actions? She did nothing wrong in those instances. She was never in the wrong to demand decency from her boyfriend — he accused her of cheating because another man looked at her. In what world doesn’t she have a right to be upset about that?
Circling back to the first episode of book 3 — in a scene that many blow wildly out of proportion — Zuko is being his usual angsty self, having a moment of reflection and self-doubt. He’s afraid his father won’t accept him, that going home to the Fire Nation might be a mistake. It’s easy to forget that Mai wasn’t present for the death of Aang, so she has no idea what happened during that scene. She has no idea that Zuko wasn’t the one that killed Aang. She has no idea what Zuko’s been doing in the three years he’s been gone. So… in her head, she assumes Zuko’s just being his usual dramatic self, and makes a joke about not wanting to know his life story to put his mind at ease and assure him that his worries were misplaced. She wanted the same thing she thought Zuko wanted (and I say thought because, well… he never told her what he really wanted because *he* didn’t even know) and encouraged him to strive toward that. She waited for him for hours outside the war chamber in ‘Nightmares and Daydreams’, and when the meeting finally ended and he came back out, she enthusiastically congratulates him on it, she’s happy for him because with her limited knowledge of what’s actually going on in her boyfriend’s head, this is what he wants. Earlier in the same episode, he’s lamenting about not being invited, and then decides the meeting is dumb and he doesn’t want to go to it. And she agrees with him, again, simply just trying to affirm him and make him feel better. She supports him in all things — all things that she can to the best of her understanding of the things.
At the end of it all, communication is a two-way street — Zuko was shitty at expressing himself and so was Mai. That was something they both needed to work on separately in order to be able to come back together. Their separate and individual personal growth does not hinge on their relationship. Mai was not Zuko’s therapist, nor should she have been. She tried to be supportive and be there for him in the only ways she knew how with her very limited (but expanding) sense of sympathy. Mai was a person who never let herself care, at least not outwardly, lest she get her feelings hurt in the process. She did open up to Zuko, and encouraged him to do the same with her, offered him support, unconditional love, and a safe place, and he needed to do some growing away from her, and that’s fine. He should’ve communicated that to her a little better, and she should’ve tried to be more understanding from the start, but they’re still just teenagers. I don’t know many teenagers who can take what they know they are capable of emotionally handling and applying it to their interpersonal relationships as well as Mai does. I was a hell of a lot farther behind in my own emotional development than Mai was at 15.
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vore-scientist · 3 years
Text
Return of the Dragon King pt 1: Prison Break
[A non-sexual high fantasy GT/vore story with both hard/fatal+ other fantasy violence and safe/soft]
This story is a prose adaptation of an RP between @vixen525 and I. It takes place in one of her worlds and features mostly her characters.
Summary/Pitch: Separated from Sophia by the evil (and illegitimate) Prince Nero, Yonah must rescue his princess from Nero's devious clutches. With a collection of quirky fantasy characters as allies, Yonah aims to bring an end to Nero's reign and return the rightful heir to the throne.
But before that, he must escape from one of Nero’s prisons.
Story General Warnings: Return of the Dragon King overall will contain hard/fatal vore (in an intense fantasy violence style) along with soft/safe (the good stuff). Themes of abuse and torture as well. (There may be one instance of soft fatal that if I ever get that far I’ll warn for that specifically but it’s so far off from this it may never get written down)
Chapter Specific Warnings: This chapter contains all the story general warnings. This is NOT the chapter with soft/fatal. It’s hard only. It very much treads the line between hard vore and just standard fantasy violence. This part contains a very brief mention of attempted (and failed) sexual assault.
Onto the story:
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For the 20th night in a row Yonah was replaying the moment in his mind, and like the 19 times before, this time was slightly worse than before.
It started with merriment, feasting, dancing, joking. Then transitioned to screaming, to blood, to Sophia being dragged away and him unable to stop it. And finally ended with waking up here, on a hard stone floor, in a room with no windows, with cold metal around his ankles and a chain attached to a back corner. With a terrible pounding in his head and an indescribable weight upon his core.
While he wondered why it had happened. Why this diplomatic mission to another world had been under false pretenses, however it wasn’t really worth dwelling on. He wasn't going to get answers here. All that he knew was he had failed. He had failed to protect Sophia. His charge. His friend. His princess. She was taken and he had let it happen!
After his 5th day in the prison cell he had given up trying to escape. Whatever that pressure was, pushing on his core, it stopped his magic. He had woken up without his robe, staff, and hat. For a normal wizard that would be a problem, but Yonah HaEsh was half FireWitch in addition to half giant. He had his own natural magic! Surely he could melt the cuffs and bars.
Nope. He could see the air shimmer with heat around his hands. He was generating magic, but it seemed to be… negated as soon as he tried to release it. All it succeeded in doing was make him tired. And hungry.
He was so hungry. The prison guards were giving him just enough food and water to stay alive for reasons that were beyond him. So he spent most of his time laying on the floor. Conserving his energy. For what purpose? For what event? None at all. He just hoped. And cried. Or at least tried to. His tears had long since dried up.
The screech of the prison bars sliding open grated upon his ears and he drew a harsh breath but did not give the guards the satisfaction of interacting with him. He had tried to rush at them a few times, just to have a little fun. But the chains weren’t long enough to let him reach the bars. All his antics got him was humiliation.
“Oy! Halfbreed Thing, you’re in luck,” came the voice of a nameless guard, “the warden decided to give you a treat tonight!”
Yonah didn’t respond. It was clearly sarcasm.
“He also said if you don’t eat up, you get nothing for a week!” And the door was closed again.
He still did not look. He had decided he wasn’t going to even touch what they had assumedly given him. It was probably poisoned, or drugged. Or both. He drew another breath.
That smell.
He finally looked. His heart racing. They wouldn’t… would they?
Standing with her back against the bars was a young woman with straight black hair, wearing a similar tattered outfit as himself. She must have been cold, and scared, but she was not shaking. Instead she stared right into his eyes. The fear in them was evident.
Now that his ears were no longer ringing he could hear her breathing. She was trying to calm down.
Apparently she succeeded. As she talked first.
"So... I guess they put you in here because you use magic too?" her voice was weak, and her accent thick upon his ears but he understood her well enough.
Yonah did not respond right away. Carefully he sat up, leaning against the back wall where his chains were connected, rattling them as they piled up.
“Well they certainly didn’t throw you in here so you could be my pet.” he snorted steam with his words, happy he could still do that much, and pleased him to see her concern at this display. So perhaps he could have some fun, even as her scent started to permeate his cell, leading his thoughts in another direction.
“No…” she answered, not moving any closer. “I doubt they’ve been feeding you well. I suspect they threw me in here in hope that you’d eat me.”
Yeah no shit. Had she heard the guard? Or was she too scared to listen. He had listened, even if he pretended otherwise.
“Being tossed a person to eat. How barbaric. Do they think I am some sort of feral animal?” His voice was hoarse with dehydration, and conflict. For he was considering eating her. Yonah HaEsh, despite being half giant, was not above eating smallfolk, if necessary. And she certainly smelled…delectable.
She shook her head “Many giants wouldn't hesitate if hungry enough… They may be normally polite to smaller folk but when half starved? All bets are off”
Yonah nodded, “I suppose so… Though I am only half giant.” He couldn't do more than suppose, as he did not know anything about giants of this world, though he remembered seeing one at Prince Nero’s castle. A little less than twice as tall as his own mother, and his mother was over 40ft tall! What he did know was that giants in his world would be tempted just like him, and while they were also normally polite… ish… their own survival was more important than the life of someone they did not know.
So why was he holding back? Well for one thing, she was out of reach. For another… He did not like the idea of being fed a person, it was insulting. The idea was nearly offensive enough to scare his hunger away. Nearly.
“Why you?” he hissed. Trying to chase away the remaining offensive thoughts. The mental images of grabbing her, sinking his fangs into her soft tasty flesh, and using his jaws and hands to rip her apart. The thoughts of how delicious it would be to finally satiate his hunger properly for the first time in weeks.
It took her a long minute to answer “I… keep escaping. I got out the door this time, nearly made it to the outer wall.”
“Ohhhh, curious” he breathed out, glad his ‘treat’ turned out to be interesting enough to distract his thoughts with. “You do not look like an escape artist. Or are you of hidden talents?”
She shook her head “The magic they use to… nullify the magic of others… doesn’t work on me. And my own magic doesnt like that im captive and kept… helping me escape”
Ohhhhh fascinating. He did not say out loud this time. “Sounds like you are a handful. Though perhaps you are rather, a mouthful. Or two in my case.” he smiled with all his fangs.
She swallowed nervously “Y-yes”
“Why don’t they just kill you? Are you important?”
She shook her head again “They are waiting for the execution order. That’s… why I’m here.”
“What do you mean by that?”
She took a breath. “If another prisoner kills me… they don’t lose their capital funding for executing a prisoner without the proper paperwork…”
“That’s where I come in” and he snarled “I don’t like being used as a tool. And I don't really want to eat you”
She nodded “That’s… good”
“But I am hungry.”
“Oh…”
“Why are you in this prison?”
She looked away. “I… killed someone. With magic.”
More fascinating by the second. “Why, would you do that.”
It was an obvious struggle for her to answer “It wasn’t… it wasn’t intentional. He pinned me up against a wall and started tearing off my clothes. My magic just... reacted. The next thing I knew he was dead”
Yonah snorted again “Should have been intentional!”
“I haven't had any formal training! My magic just happens!”
“Shame” he sighed. “Do you know why I am here?” he asked, changing the subject.
“You’re… a mage. A rogue one. Like I am.”
That was new to him, “A rogue mage?”
“Practicing magic is highly regulated, don’t you know?”
“No.” Yonah saw that made her very confused “I am not of this world”
She seemed to accept this easily. This world seemed to be more comfortable with the idea of other worlds than his own, which had only started to make contact with new realities. He had also decided she didnt need to know his story yet. For he had not made up his mind on keeping her alive, or eating her. If he ate her, then it would have been a waste of breath to tell his own tale of woe.
He tugged on his chains to pile them up and keep them from getting tangled. And for the next few minutes he occupied himself with this task.
“They stop-”
Yonah looked at her so fast his neck cricked. She started again.
“They stopped using shackles on me because the chains kept breaking. Perhaps I could” she took a single step forward, and seeing that Yonah did not react, took another. “I’m sure you would appreciate more freedom of movement.” She took another step.
“Well not all of us are so damn talented now are we?!” he growled. She took two steps back.
“Im trying to help you! Maybe I can figure out how to get it to work on you too!”
“A self proclaimed untrained mage!” he spat “and why would you help a monster like me?”
For as much as he wanted to be civil, he was also a monster. And as much as he tried to fight the temptation to be monstrous, he did not know if he could succeed.
“It wasn’t being a monster that got you in trouble! It was magic.”
She sounded very sure of that.
Yonah snorted “That is your own assumption”, and turned around to lay his head on the chains, facing the corner.
After a few minutes he heard her soft footsteps, and he craned his neck to look. She had gotten a lot closer than he expected and was reaching for his chains. She was clearly in the mood to help him. Unfortunately he was in a mood to play with his would be treat instead, and he did not have any confidence that she could help, so why not have fun.
“Are you sure that’s wise little morsel?” he sighed with a fanged smile.
Amazingly she did not back up but touched chains by his ankles.
“No. But sooner or later they will get the execution order signed. So my odds of survival are shit. But they are better if I free you.”
Yonah made his eyes glow with what fire he had left “Are they better? You said you were untrained.”
She looked embarrassed, “I’m hoping I can practice on these chains of yours. My magic does disable the nullification. We can work together to get out.”
“Untested magic is dangerous” yonah growled “Maybe I should just eat you!” he snapped his teeth.
Still she did not leave. Instead she stood up and glared at him “So what? I die and you survive another week until the next council meeting and your execution is approved?”
Yonah narrowed his eyes “Maybe I dont care about that anymore.” but he does not move either. “You dont know why im truly here. Maybe I deserve this!”
His fiery eyes still on hers, she retaliated “I dont care if you do! I need to get free, and I cant on my own. You want to be free to dont you? If I can use my magic, I can break these chains, disable the anti-magic on this room, save us both!”
Yonah rolled his eyes, losing their staring contest. He did not stop her from continuing her investigations of the chains. But his mind wandered, until he exclaimed.
“Maybe you’re a plant! Instead of using me to kill you, you’re here to kill me!” he jerked the chains away from her.
“I’m unarmed!” she insisted and scrambled forwards to maintain contact with the metal.
“You said they cannot chain you, that their anti-magic shit doesnt work on you, so yours does work, and it’s killed someone before!” He knew that this new panic was not helping him in the slightest, and yet he did not care.
“Most of my magic isn’t working! I just somehow break chains and disable the magic nullification! I don’t know how it works or how to activate it! But the fact I can means they want me dead so they stop having to catch me! And magic isn’t allowed and I definitely don’t have the indicator that I have special permission, those are super obvious.”
Yonah blinked “Could be lies! You could be spitting lies! Permission to use magic. How ridiculous”
“Everyone knows that the few legal mages have face tattoos to make them obvious”
Yonah breathed steam again and finally she backed away from the painful heat. “I dont! I don’t know anything about this world! You could say anything and I wouldn’t know if it was truth or lies!”
“Oh… right” she looked at her feet “You aren't from this world. That must suck as much as my own problems with my memory…”
She rambled a little more about how she was definitely a prisoner, it was obvious from her malnutrition, and that despite not being able to be kept in chains she had marks on her wrists and ankles from the failed attempts.
But Yonah was not listening anymore. Once again he turned away and was trying to cry himself to sleep.
So she took the opportunity to touch the chains near his ankles again.
“Careful now!” he hissed without looking at her. “You don’t want to get burned” Hearing her yelp as she touched the chains, which he had put his mind to pumping his fire into. Maybe he couldn’t melt them, but he could make them painful to touch.
He heard her curse, and then the chains rustled again as she grit her teeth and grasped the half giant sized links, whining in pain and holding back tears. 3 seconds were all she could manage before she had to stumble back, sitting on the ground and blowing on her burnt hands.
Yonah sat up and looked at the chains. He did not let his face show any surprise as he found rust and cracks that had not been there before.
“Wow. It didnt work. Big fucking surprise, some help you were, but I guess you were telling the truth about being being put here for me to eat.” he lay back down. “Maybe I’ll do that in the morning.”
Suddenly the pain in her hands was not as important as what the half giant had said.
“It started to work! But I couldnt hold on long enough!” she wailed, “I tried! I really tried, to help you’re sorry ass!”
“And you FAILED” he snorted back.
“Only temporarily!” she insisted
“And look where it got me. Nowhere. I’m going to sleep”
“If the chains were just a little cooler! Then maybe-”
“I told you to be careful. You have only yourself to blame for your failures and your injuries” he stated, fully aware it was his fault. And that he was sabotaging himself. And yet he couldn't stop himself.
“I was trying to help you. You don’t have to be so rude. We are stuck in the same situation and I am trying to make a difference.”
“I dont have to be polite either. Now you’re the one being rude, keeping me awake”
She crossed her arms in defiance of her own fear “You’re kind of an asshole. I thought maybe we could work together to escape but apparently you’d rather stay and be executed.” She stood up, glancing at her hands, “Guess I’ll just try to figure out how to disable the nullification and escape without you if you really are that opposed to working together.” She turned and walked back to the cell bars before sitting down again.
Yonah looked away, no longer amused by her company, for he was too tired, and too hungry, too angry. Mostly at himself for heating up the chains.
Of course, he couldn't sleep, even though he wanted to do so. After about 10 minutes he glanced at the human, who was making hand motions at the bars. He could just barely feel the sparks of magic failing to become embers at her will.
That got boring really quickly, and he noticed that, unlike earlier, she was shivering. Not with fear…
“You’re wasting your time, little one”
She gasped and jumped from her sitting position, nearly toppling over. He was not asleep like she had assumed. And now he was staring at her with those glowing eyes again, full of fire and hunger.
“I am not giving up” she yawned and shook even worse, “I have no desire to be executed, not by the prince, and not by you!”
Yonah’s eyes dimmed with compassion, “You can try again in the morning. You keep this up and you’re going to freeze to death”
To his surprise she snarled at him, “What do you care!? You obviously arent worried about execution, and I dont have much else to do at the moment!”
Yonah rolled his eyes “Do you want a warm place to sleep or not? I’m only offering once. Can’t imagine you’ve had a warm bed in a while”
“I- what?” she paused, processing what he said, “Warmth… sounds wonderful… But you talked about eating me in the morning!” so she did not step near him.
“I said maybe. So you don't have to worry about it until then” He considers for a moment “I’m still making up my mind. I dont want to be used as an execution method, but I am starving. However” he yawned, his fangs looking larger than before, “I promise not to eat you tonight, and I am very warm if you want to sleep in my arms.”
“This room is absolutely freezing…” she admitted, “But I dont like the idea of you waking up before me to have a snack!”
She still looked hesitant so he added “Tiddles won’t be able to bring anything with you still visibly uneaten”
Now her fear was replaced almost entirely with confusion “Tiddles?”
“One of the little guards who did this to us. Sneaks me food most nights. If he comes tonight, I promise that I will let you try again, in the morning, to break the chains, before I resume considering whether or not to eat you. How does that sound?”
“How… likely is this Tiddles to show up?”
“He appears most nights, but not the last, and he never skips more than one night in a row.”
“How about you promise to let me try again, regardless of if Tiddles shows up!” she was not about to take such a chance.
Yonah scrunched up his face “Fine.”
“Alright, that’s much better.” she took a step towards him again “It means you have to let me go, and you wont think about eating me until after I get to genuinely try to free us”
“If you’re not tucked out of sight soon, I dont get fed, and I’ll have have a much harder time not thinking about it” he threatened “Tiddles can’t claim he thought I ate you if you’re standing alive at the front of the cage!”
A few more steps, she was almost within reach… “Fine… I guess… I just want to try a couple more times, it will be quick”
His patience waring thin he made his eyes flash “but I want to sleep, and to get fed”
“It will only take a moment!” she stopped just out of reach.
“Tiddles often manages to get me an entire barrel of crap! I’ll be willing to share” his mind now on the food, he couldnt think of much else.
“Im starting to figure it out though”
Why was she so insistent! This was not the time! “You’re tired, and cold, and hungry. You try any more magic and you’ll just pass out.”
He had gotten to his knees but he deflated a bit, lowering down into a position not unlike a crouching dragon “So I offer one more time than I said I would. A warm place to sleep. A proper meal. Or you refuse, and I get angrier, I get hungrier, and you stay cold and my only option for dinner”
She hesitated and finally sighs, “You are probably right... I just got so close to escaping today... I was gonna use a wind spell to blast open all the doors when one of them tackled me...” She took the step forward that got her within reach, and Yonah slowly reached around her, stopping her rambles. “But maybe after a rest I’ll have better success”
Having held back long enough, yonah scooped her up and returned to his corner to curl around his new teddy bear, thin and cold as it was. In contrast, his own embrace is soft, pillow-like even. And warm. So very very warm. She tensed in his grip for only a moment before calming down and closing her eyes with a deep sigh.
“By the way, I didnt introduce myself. My name is Savina”
Not resisting the urge, Yonah nuzzled her with his face, his normally neatly trimed facial hair overgrown and tangled and in need of a wash. He was drinking in her scent, even if he was resisting getting a taste, “I didn’t introduce myself either. Now shut up or I’ll put your head in my mouth to shut you up. I hear Tiddles”
As he was facing the back wall, it appeared as if he was alone in his cell, as the footsteps got closer, along with scraping noise and soon, a jingling of keys. Unlike earlier, the screech of the door opening was not so bad, knowing what it meant.
“You awake big guy? Damn this thing is so heavy… I managed to get a lot of scraps so it’s not mostly water this time! Probably tastes just as bad as all the rest, worse since I couldn’t sneak any salt in... but better than nothing right?”
The only response Tiddles got was a slight movement of Yonah’s head. His bushy mane of unkempt black hair shifting. Then two orange lights appeared. The giant's eyes locked on him with anticipation and hatred.
The guard, Tiddles, who couldn't have been older than 20, dragged a barrel within reach of Yonah, though the prisoner did not make any move.
“The others were laughing earlier about how you got a decent meal tonight… but I dont see any plate. Not surprised it was a lie. Im sorry again that this is not seasoned. But…” He left and returned before Yonah could investigate the food. Holding a large sack, the smell coming from which made yonah take a very intense breath.
“I did bring these… They were going to be used to torture other prisoners. Tested them on me. Just one bite and I thought my tongue would burn up in my own mouth, I drank so much water I thought I would throw up. But maybe it’s not as intense for giants!”
Through his dehydration Yonah started to drool, the spicy smell of the hot peppers filling his half FireWitch brain.
The display of hunger caused Tiddles to freeze up a moment “Um… I’ll take that as a yes to these. Great Goddess they make my eyes water!” he set the sack down and went to the other back corner where an empty barrel was on it’s side.
“I’ll take this one, yes?” Tiddles didn’t wait for an answer but said “you’re… not as talkative tonight. Usually you threaten-joke about eating me along with the slop. You alright?”
As soon as Tiddles had moved away from the full Barrel and sack of peppers, Yonah Sat up and scooted over with one hand. Revealing the reason he was not talking. Savina was tucked into his elbow, having fallen asleep.
Tiddles seemed briefly transfixed by the woman. If yonah had to describe the expression the closest would be reverence. Before cringing away.
“That’s what they meant by a good meal!?” He shook off his surprise “what a load of dragon crap. You’re not some feral animal”
Yonah didnt respond to this continued attempt to bond with him as he dragged the barrel back to his corner and stuck his finger in, building up his fire to warm up the cold scraps and water. Tiddles made no more small talk and left him to his pitiful “meal”.
Once the contents of the barrel started to steam, Yonah nudged Savina awake. She was not happy about that.
“I was actually sleeping well, what the fuck”
Yonah set her on his lap, the barrel in front of them both. “If you dont eat some of this now, I’ll eat all of it. You wont get a single drop, but if you eat now, you wont make a dent in it noticeable to me”
She nodded, understanding, and put her hands into the barrel. Yelping in pain as the hot slop made contact with her burnt hands.
Grumbling about how she was an idiot, yonah rummaged around in his chain pile for a flat piece of metal. It was a band from a previous barrel that he had broken. That was the only time he had gotten an earful from Tiddles about how if he continued to do that, Tiddles wouldnt be able to sneak him more food. He was able, with some effort, to heat it, pinch it, and bite it into a sort of ladle, which he used to scoop up the scrap soup and hold it to Savina who was very grateful.
Even with his encouragement she ate very little. Yonah had no idea how long she’d been here, but it was likely longer than himself, and it was very probable that her stomach had shrunken, so he eventually gave into his own hunger and stopped trying to get her to eat more and let her slump against his middle and fall back to sleep.
But before he ate any of it he took the peppers out of the sack and crushed them into the prison soup. It took all his self control not to just eat the peppers straight up. So he rewarded himself by licking the juice from his fingers.
He would have downed the contents of the barrel like a shot but resisted as it would have wasted all his patience preparing it for better taste. And even if it was literal scraps in unsalted water, hunger was the best seasoning. And the peppers, made this the best thing he’d tasted in the time since he woke up in this cell.
It made it much easier to not think about eating the woman in his lap as he too lay down to fall asleep.
---
He woke first, and during the hours of the night his stomach had become rather empty again. Though he kept his promise and resisted thinking about eating her. He did not, however, resist tasting her; he never made a promise involving tasting.
“NO!” she yelped and sputtered as he licked her face like a very large dog waking up it’s owner, clearly convinced he was going to eat her, panicking.
He stopped licking her, But he was not listening to her protests. The moment she yelled the world felt lighter. He felt… no, no time to dwell. He tossed Savina aside and focused on generating a lot of fire into his ankle cuffs. It wasnt enough to melt them, but it was enough to make them soft. Soft enough that he could pull and stretch them and get free.
And then the feeling was gone. Back to that soul crushing feeling that had been ever present, as if it was never gone.
“What did you DO?” he snarled as he rubbed his freed ankles, which were red and raw from the previously tight metal cuffs.
Savina got up, looking frazzled with one side of her hair sticking up and out at odd angles due to half-giant spit. “What I was trying to do last night! Hey!”
Yonah crawled to her and picked her up, putting his face close to hers to demand, rather loudly “Do it AGAIN”
Defiantly she took his gaze and his rank breath “I wish I could! Like I said before, and like you just saw, I can’t do this on purpose! It just happens!”
In a rage his eyes flash and he bares his teeth “Fucking useless!”. His urge to throw her against the wall lost out to his being touch starved and instead he sat back down to hold her just a little too tight.
He did not fail to notice that a small hint of the relief of pressure occurred when she gasped at his moment of rage.
“So. Did that count as your morning try? Should I start considering whether or not to eat you again?”
She stiffened in his grasp “that wasn’t intentional! But doesn’t it prove what I was saying, that I am too useful to consider eating, that with practice I can succeed?”
“I already got my legs free. I can reach the bars now. Reckon i can try smashing them… and if I eat you i may have the strength to do it” he huffed. With a small amount of food and a night’s sleep, what he had was the energy to be a massive dickhead again. “So you would be helping me.”
“Those bars are heavily reinforced with the prison magic! They’ve kept giants bigger than you in this prison!”
“I’d still like to try, so you’re lucky I want company more than a proper meal right now,” he chuckled against her. She was so skinny she wouldn't even be a proper meal, maybe half of one.
“Please let me try again later to disable the nullification. Then we can both get out and get decent food” she sounded both desperate and angry.
“I know exactly what I’m eating if I get out” his eyes flashed again and he licked his lips.
Savina shuddered but did not sound disgusted when she said “i think i have an idea of what… or who… that might be”
“So, are you going to try again or what?” Yonah was getting impatient.
“Will you be ready to break down the bars when the magic reinforcement is gone?” she asked.
Yonah backed up against the wall, bracing himself so he could charge. If she succeeded.
Savina went to the front of the cell, grasped the bars and closed her eyes, muttering. Occasionally she let go and made hand gestures.
Nothing.
Maybe she needed encouragement. Yonah growled at her. Low and threatening. Savina stiffened and he felt the pressure lift, very slightly, very briefly.
“Get on with it!” he hissed.
“I’m trying!” she shot back, walking to the center of the cell, it didnt seem to matter where she was.
Then she screamed, her whole body hitting the ground as suddenly Yonah was on top of her, having pinned her under a hand. He snarled in her face “Maybe I should just eat you then! At least my last meal will be a tasty one!”
This succeeded in having the desired effect. Whatever the nullification was, it lifted. However he could feel it coming back.
“NO! I’m trying, give me one more chance, I know I can do it!”
He was not listening to her. He had confirmed his theory. Without hesitation he took her left arm in his jaws. She started crying and screaming, Pushing at his face to pull away. “Stop Stop! You’re hurting me!” Her voice was shrill.
/That’s the idea/ he thought.
With a sickening CRUNCH and a shriek, it was Yonah’s turn to be thrown, against the wall.
Not that he cared. Not one bit.
The magical nullification was gone.
From the entire prison. With no signs of coming back.
Keeping his promise not to eat her, and extending that promise to any part of her, Yonah crawled over to Savina and opened his jaws to release the nearly severed arm, along with at least a gallon of bloody drool. Savina just sobbed. Hmmm she could bleed out. That would also be counter to his promise, in spirit, if not in word. He rubbed a thumb and finger together until they were red hot and pressed the tip of the finger to her shoulder.
The scent of burning flesh filled the air as he cauterized her wound. But there were more important things to take care of now.
Fueled by adrenaline, hunger, and literal fire in his veins, yonah gripped his prison bars, making them red hot. In a few moments he wrenched them apart and he was out. He barely noticed the flash of light behind him as he stepped out of his cage.
The alarms hadn't even started ringing by the time he ran into the first unfortunate guard.
----
It was the alarm bells that brought Savina back to earth. She sat up, and blanched as a sticky arm rolled off her chest and into her lap. She was still covered in blood but the wound had sealed. For all her lost memory she did recall something very important. She should keep her arm. Holding it kept her from trying to touch her shoulder. She had never experienced anything so painful in her life-
No… wait. She had experienced something more painful… Now her head throbbed too! Nevermind any of this! She had to find the half giant mage, he was her ticket out. Even with the magic nullification gone, she wouldn’t get far drained of her own magic and severely injured.
It wasn’t hard to find him. All she had to do was follow the trail of carnage and busted cell doors.
The first guard she found had no head, and a chunk of a shoulder missing. Blood pooled on the ground from the massive bite. Hmmmm. He had a nice sword. Putting her arm down momentarily, She took the sword and a belt to sheath it. It was a bit tricky to get the belt off the person and onto herself but she managed. Before she took her arm off the ground and continued on, not caring to avoid stepping in the blood. .
More dead guards lined the halls as she progressed. Most of them were missing their heads, some of them burned to a crisp. But many were only missing their limbs, or had a bite taken out of the side. Some of those were still living. One in particular had been bitten from the hips down, their guts spilling out onto the floor. She decided not to use her sword to put them out of their misery. Her excuse being that it would be too much effort to put her arm down every time.
Finally she caught up to the large mage. He was in one of the storage rooms where the more dangerous items confiscated from mages were kept. He was ransacking it, shoveling items into something, but finished as she entered and stood up, putting a hat on his head. If he wasn’t so large and didn’t have such a distinct physique, she might not have recognized him.
Dressed in a stunning outfit of mostly blues and golds, with a massive wide brimmed pointed hat to match, his hair now shining and tied back in a segmented pony tail, standing up to his full height and holding a majestic wooden staff, the once brutish creature from the cell was looking more like a person. Except for the fire in his eyes and blood and viscera hanging from his jaws.
With misplaced confidence she walked right up to Yonah and holding the shoulder end of the severed arm she swung to smack him in the ankle. He had on boots now and she wasnt sure he felt that until he looked down at her.
“You FUCKING ASSHOLE!” She bellowed “You TORE my arm off! Why would you do that?!”
He looked at her angry and quizzically “The anti-magic field is gone. It worked.”
She did not back away from his gaze, since he was not currently trying to eat her she figured he wasn’t going to. Clearly he had not hesitated with the guards. She waved the arm around in frustration "you didnt have to BITE IT OFF"
Yonah crouched down to snarl “Clearly I did. You weren’t in enough… danger to disable the field. I’m rather clever you know.” Without asking he scooped her up to hold her up to his face with a cheeky, blood stained grin, “After you told the story of your assault, I started to put the pieces together. Mortal peril seems to do the trick nicely”
“I still dont think you needed TO BITE MY ARM OFF,” she repeated.
Once again she used the severed arm to slap him, now in the face.
He blinked in a kind of shock and then bared his teeth “I think you’ve lost your arm privileges”
His first instinct was to get the wrist between his teeth and gulp the arm down. But… he still felt like he should keep his promise. And now that his belly was half filled with chunks of prison guard he could think clearer.
“WHAT THE FUCK YOU BASTARD!”
Savina shrieked as the giant man pinched her arm, the severed arm, plucking it from her weak grasp. His eyes flashed and it was lit up like a match.
Lost for words she watched as her arm burned into ash before her very eyes, the giant man grinning once again.
Now she was shaking with rage “I COULD HAVE RE-ATTACHED THAT”
His grin became a scowl “How in this reality was I supposed to know that?”
“Weren't you listening, you didnt even need to bite it off in the first place! My magic was starting to work!”
He talked as he placed her onto his shoulder, securing her to the harness he had found with his belongings.
“Didn’t I? We dont know that. Guess we will have to experiment later” he smiled wickedly, marching out of the room “But right now, I’m still hungry and there’s still more guards left alive.”
As he said this a guard rushed around the corner with a crossbow and fired. Yonah, having heard the footsteps just jerked his staff and the bolt exploded. He snatched up the guard, put the poor fucker’s head in his mouth and bit down, while pulling the body away. The sound was similar to when he’d bitten her arm, and blood spurted from the neck onto his face, and Savina’s entire person.
Yonah swallowed the head and tossed the body aside “I can’t eat them all at my size even if I only eat pieces. I can burn them, or crush them” he explained as yet another guard appeared which he simply squashed by slamming his staff down upon, “but I think we need some help. The human prisoners do not seem so eager to get back at their tormentors as I had thought.”
“They are running away from you. If you weren’t on a massacre they would probably be taking the advantage to riot and get revenge.”
“So we need more monsters.”
As he continued through the prison he broke every occupied cell, letting the prisoners run, and killing every guard with an intense savagery. But the most horrific thing, in Savina’s opinion, was when he picked up whole and alive guards and tossed them into his hat.
Eventually he broke into a cell and the prisoner inside did not immediately cower or run, but stood up, eyes reflecting in the darkness. A tall pale man with dark hair smiled with sharp fangs.
“That’s a vampire!” Savina informed him. The vampire bowed.
“A very blood starved vampire, and I could smell the flood coming from the other side of the prison, yet I was too weak to break myself free once I felt the magic nullification just, go away. Was that you?” he stared at Savina, not Yonah.
Savina gingerly touched the raw, burned flesh of her shoulder and looked very annoyed, “Yes. it was me.”
“I’m going to feast now, as I see you have been doing, mysteriously small giant”
“Don’t fill up on the ones I’ve killed, take out the ones still alive” Yonah instructed.
“Wise words,” said the vampire, “though I will take a little of this one, just to gain back my strength.”
Before leaving yonah sniffed at the vampire. Then reached up into his hat and pulled out a fancy, though sadly wrinkled and dirtied, suit. And tossed it at the vampire.
“Smells like you”
The vampire stood up from taking a drink of blood from the guard who Yonah had decided to merely kick against a wall.
“My clothes! You are a gentleman monster!” And with a snap of his fingers swapped out his prison outfit for his old one. “I feel more like myself already!”
Done with the small talk, Yonah moved on. It was time to get out of this place, with hopefully minimal distractions. He would still make a snack, a charred corpse, or a bloody pulp out of any guard he came across.
But it was only a few cells later that again, the prisoner did not immediately scream or flee. Yonah could sense a very eerie magical aura from her, she was pale like the vampire but he suspected she was not one. She smiled at him like the vampire but her teeth were flat.
“My dear emancipator, did you come across a spider necklace during your rampage? I would very much like to have it back.”
That was odd enough that Yonah decided not to ignore it and instead reach into his hat. He did not recall a spider necklace so he could only think the words. An object indeed fell into his hand. Which he tossed to the woman who squealed like a giddy teenager as she caught it.
Putting it on she rubbed the shining black thorax of the obsidian spider inlaid on the silver medallion.
That eerie aura from before increased 100 fold, followed by the chittering, skittering, buzzing of millions of tiny legs and wings. Unlike Yonah’s cell, this woman’s had a window. And through it marched or flew an unimaginable number of insects and arachnids.
Yonah took a step back. But the plaque of bugs was swarming into the prison from every window, every crevice, every crack in the wall, every broken pipe.
“My children will clean out this place” she giggled, though it was closer to a witch’s cackle.
Yonah backed away from her. Deciding that it was now time to leave this wretched place, confident the bugs could take care of the rest. It was by her merciful magic that the bugs avoided him entirely, and seemed to be able to scramble away from his footsteps even as he started down the corridor.
Ah, another guard, coming out of a nearby door, a good distraction from the creepy crawlies. He rushed and shoved the guard up to their torso into his mouth and got ready to bite down. As the ribs started to crack between his teeth the taste of this guard matched up to a familiar smell.
Releasing his jaws he held a gasping, screaming Tiddles.
“If you dont want that one, my babies will happily take him!” The bug witch called from behind him.
Ignoring the creepy aura yonah wheeled around snarling “He’s MINE” and he secured the flailing young man to his shoulder.
“Suit yourself” said the witch, “but he seems to not like you very much, and I am not overly fond of him myself”
Tiddles was indeed trying to free himself, earning him a swift flick to the head. “Probably hurts with those broken ribs to struggle like that, little one. I will keep you safe.”
Without another word Yonah turned back. Enough of this. He pointed his staff at the wall and blasted a hole through, stepping outside. Still in the walled compound he did not take a fresh breath of freedom just yet. He ran for the walls.
Arrows and crossbow bolts rained down at him. Fine. It was time for some big magic. Yonah stopped and took his staff, raising it into the air he found in it the perfect spell. He swirled it around and chanted. The morning sky, which was clear, crackled, and a swirling storm cloud gathered overhead.
The guards on the ramparts screamed as bolts of lightning struck them, leaving Yonah free to take down a section of wall and flee into the forested mountains.
It was after he had been half running half jogging for 15 minutes that he stopped and sat down against a cool boulder shaded by the trees. Or rather he nearly collapsed. One big gorey feast after weeks of starvation would not immediately restore him. That would take time. He had been running on the reserves of his magic, adrenaline, and a bloodlust.
The moment he closed his eyes to rest however, he felt Tiddles renew his struggling.
“Why do you keep this up” Yonah mumbled, not looking at Tiddles, but feeling him freeze.
“I dont want to die!” the young man squeaked. “I saw you eat the other guards!”
“Well then aren’t you in luck that I filled up on them? I had enough to be satisfied for a while.”
That did not calm Tiddles down any more, the struggling was back “You kept me as leftovers!” he shrieked.
“Naw” Yonah said and reached into his hat to draw out an intact, but dead, guard, “I already did that.”
He felt Tiddles faint at that declaration. This did not bring Yonah any joy, as Tiddles’ terror had done before. Being so full Yonah just returned the corpse to the pocket space that was his wizard hat.
“So, where to now?” Savina said after five minutes “We need to get going, surely someone will try to follow! There is more than one shift of guards and they will be looking for all the escaped prisoners, especially you, who was responsible!”
“I think the bug witch will make sure no one does” yonah said, though it was more likely that at least one idiot would manage to slip away. “But I am tired, We need to find a cave or something to hide out in to recoup my… I mean our strength”
“I can help with that”
As if on cue the bug witch stepped out from behind a tree. Yonah eyed her suspiciously. Savina was too hurt and too exhausted to do the same.
“Oh really? And why would you?”
She just laughed “You saved me? And you returned my amulet to me! I owe you big time. By the way, you look just awful. Would you like my children to clean you up?”
“What do you mean?”
Before she answered there was more buzzing in the air as wasps swarmed around her “these little gals are very efficient! I promise they will not sting”
“They cannot hurt my humans either!” he said, nervous about what was about to happen.
“Of course”
He still held his breath as the wasped charged at him and his companions. Savina screamed as well before she smartly held her breath too. Tiddles was the luckiest, unconscious for the whole thing.
It was over in just a minute, thank the gods, as Yonah would have to take a breath. Still, he sneezed and a few bugs flew out. Savina was breathing heavily.
“So, bug witch,”
“Cait!”
“Cait… What’s a nearby place for a big monster to get some rest?”
The woman considered “Hmm… The woods that way are decent. Bears will be scared off by you. Humans should leave you alone. There’s a cave in those woods if you want extra shelter. I want to get back to my home but I can have one of my babies guide you there”
“That would be much appreciated” Yonah focused and gathered up more strength to stand up. And then froze in place as the largest drider he had ever seen came into sight.
“Babe!” he called, ignoring yonah and scooping up the witch into a hug that transitioned into messy kisses.
“I got out of the prison!” she declared, “this nice big fellow helped me! Got my amulet!”
The Drider was a full head taller than Yonah and eyed him over with all 8 eyes before nodding. From between all of his feet a smaller, but large dog sized tarantula, scampered up to Yonah.
“Charlie here will lead you to shelter!” said Cait, “Now I haven't been home in a long time”
And with that, the witch and the drider left.
Charlie made a hissing sound while scraping her feet on a rock to get Yonah’s attention. She led Yonah to a large rocky incline and eventually to the mouth of a cave.It was large enough that if he crawled, he could get in. Which he did without hesitating.
The cave was larger in the inside and he probably could have stood up but he stayed sitting.
The spider stayed at the entrance of the cave, made a little dance, and then disappeared.
“Seems safe enough…” Yonah said. He unharnessed Savina so she could sit in his lap. “Guess what, I was lucid enough during my rampage that I picked up food that wasn’t dead guards!” and from his hat he got out some bread and cheese, and even a barrel of water.
“Um… no thanks” she said.
“You must eat, Savina”
“Im too nauseated from the pain.”
She did look a little green now that she said it.
“I have a healing potion… it should numb the pain a bit.” This he took from a sleeve. A small vial. Just a single ounce. It was like a grain of rice in his palm “It will even help with your shoulder, to at least regrow the flesh around it and stop infection”
She took it, and still looking like putting anything in her mouth would make her vomit, she downed it like a shot.
30 seconds later she felt much better. Or at least, felt less pain… She still felt like complete shit. But took the food with her good arm and started eating.
“I dont know why you brought him along…” she said, referring to Tiddles through a mouthful of bread.
“I doubt someone as kind as him works at an evil prison if he has a happy home to return to. Plus if i had let him go.. The other prisoners might not have been so kind to him. He was still a guard.” Yonah yawned, “Fuck. Im tired. Didnt we just wake up like, an hour ago?” he asked.
“Sure but you just broke a prison” Savina pointed out.
“I did… didn’t I…” Yonah tried to lay down but found that didn’t work with Tiddles on his shoulder. So he resigned himself to sleeping upright for now.
Still half starved, Savina did not manage to eat much. So yonah put the food back. He found a outcrop of rock that he could lean against and put an arm protectively in front of Savina. She put her own remaining arm over his. And they both fell asleep at the same time.
Even through the exhaustion of his over half a month in prison, and the torpor his kind got from a full belly, Yonah HaEsh heard the quiet footsteps of someone entering the cave.
Yet his brain was still slow to react. He opened his eyes and stared down.
Kneeling in his lap, holding Savina’s arm to his fanged mouth, moments away from biting down, was the vampire.
----
[FIN]
UHHHH thanks for reading. If you liked this please let me know. If this fits your blog theme please reblog it!
I hope you enjoyed this. and I hope to have more of it for you in the future. lots more adventure to come!
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Pairings: Sam Winchester x Reader
Trope: Enemies to lovers  @serenityhayato​ ( WRITTEN FOR @negans-lucille-tblr​‘s SPN FIC EXCHANGE )
Warnings: Death of a friend, Canonical Gore (werewolf attack), Cursing, Smut (rough Sam, light choking, hand job, oral if you squint- male receiving, unprotected sex), Probably sex at inappropriate times if I’m being honest
Word Count: 7500 (I am so sorry I didn’t realize until I went to post this that it had a 3k word limit… this was definitely my bad but I’ve spent a week writing this and really didn’t want to scrap the whole thing to fit the word limit. I didn’t realize how carried away I got in the set up)
A/N: I have never written anything for Sam before, much less smut, but I wanted to give it a shot. I’m sorry if it’s totally OOC. I was trying to go off the knowledge that he’s canonically pretty rough in bed. I also couldn’t imagine him being super talkative and vocal. I don’t know, I’m just kinda stressed about this one. Also, this was probably definitely an inappropriate time for them to get down and dirty but my brain was glitching on any other idea so I hope you don’t hate it! Happy holidays!
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Sam Winchester.
The name alone made your blood boil.
You’d met the man for the first time, just before your hunting career began and quite frankly, you weren’t sure if you could ever truly forgive him for what he’d done.
It was the first semester of your senior year of college, a proud graduate-to-be of your dream university. Life had been great since you got to college. Old toxic relationships with people back home had practically disappeared, you’d formed a group of the best people you’d ever met, and your academics had been going strong.
Life was going great until people started disappearing only to turn up days later, slaughtered and nearly drained of blood. Anxiety was running high all across the board. The university even turned all night classes to online courses to prevent the likelihood of someone being abducted at night. Your best friend had started acting weird. She constantly shook as if she’d drank a pot of coffee for breakfast and was always looking over her shoulder. “It’s okay, Beth,” You tried to reassure her, “I know everyone is on edge but we’re doing everything we can to stay safe. Just make sure to bring your wooden stake in case the vampire attacks.” You chuckled weakly, knowing your nerve-fueled joke was definitely inappropriate considering that four people had actually died from whoever was out there but humor was a good coping mechanism.
Beth didn’t appreciate the joke at all and had run out of your apartment, disappearing. When she hadn’t returned by seven that night, you got worried enough to go look for her. Grabbing every self defense weapon you had, which was pepper spray, a pocket knife, and a key chain that looked cute but was actually a form of brass knuckles with sharp extrusions on it, you left your apartment to look for Beth, surprisingly well strapped.  
You started with her favorite spots: a hipster coffee shop on Main Street, Taco Bell, that one bench in the botanical gardens that overlooked the pond, and the fourth floor of the library. She was nowhere to be seen. You were on the verge of calling the police or those FBI agents that had been questioning people on campus, asking some weird questions from what people had told you. You’d never spoken with them but they did say to come to them with information if anyone had any. You didn’t but they’d be a good start to finding Beth. Where to find them though? Figuring it would be best to just start with campus police, you walked across campus, looking over your shoulder every few seconds. The hair on your neck stood on end and it was impossible to feel safe. Campus police was located on the opposite end of campus and the busses stopped running early on weekdays so walking was your only choice.
“No, please!” You heard a man whimper from somewhere in the trees to your side. You stopped in your tracks and your heart dropped to your stomach. Should you help? Should you run? Should you stay here and call 911?
But then you heard Beth’s voice, “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I can’t control it anymore!” And then screams. There were deafening screams of pain and you decided to say screw it. You ran down to try and protect your friend, even though you knew it was probably the last thing you’d ever do. This was stupid. What could you even do? Who knew what was down there attacking them?
When you saw them though, you stopped, skidding to a halt on the leaf covered hill. Beth was knelt over a man’s body, his backpack thrown to the side and ripped open. Though you were quiet, she must have heard you because her attention was whipped to you in an instant. Her face and shirt were covered in blood. It was obvious she’d been eating him or something along those lines.
You felt like a deer in headlights, utterly frozen in terror, denial, and confusion. “I can’t control myself anymore…” she admitted, a regretful sob hiccuping from her lips.
“Why?” You breathed out the question, silent tears falling. Whether they were for fear for your life or just the knowledge that someone you cared about could do something so horrible, you didn’t know.
Before she could answer, there was a loud bang and she fell dead. You flinched and covered your head, crouching instinctively from the gunshot. Your best friend slumped over dead and, despite the fact that you’d just watched her brutally murder some poor stranger, you couldn’t help but call out in shock and horror, “Beth!"
Two men came running down the hill, one of them to Beth’s body and the other to you. "She’s dead. Werewolf, just like we thought.” The man with short hair announced in a deep gruff voice.
“Are you alright?” The one who had come up to asked. He looked a little younger than the other, with longer hair too.
You were shaking, “What the hell just happened?"
"I know this is hard to understand but your friend over there… wasn’t human.” When he said it, you almost scoffed. Of course she was human. What the hell else would she be? Monsters weren’t real.
“You’re kidding me…” You said almost angrily. Then something hit you, “Wait, you’re those FBI detectives.”
The one with short hair walked up to you and the man talking to you. The taller one spoke again, “I’m Sam and this is my brother Dean. We aren’t really FBI. We hunt monsters. Monsters like your friend over there."
"She wasn’t a monster.” You said, a single tear finally falling down your cheek. Glancing over, you saw her lying dead on the ground, “Not the Beth I knew."
"Well then you didn’t know the real Beth because one look at that thing will tell you she ain’t human.” Dean told you bluntly.
Sam noticed the confusion, fear, and anger in your eyes. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen this. It was never easy to tell people they were close to the truth and he preferred to just stay out of it completely but that wasn’t an option this time. “Look, I know this is difficult to understand. But Beth was a werewolf. And yes, they are real. Most monsters are. We’ve been tracking her for weeks."
"W-was she always like this?” Your mind whirled as you struggled to comprehend, truly comprehend, what was happening.
Sam shook his head, “She was turned by a werewolf back in her hometown a few weeks ago. We tracked her from a pack we hunted down over there.” You remembered when she came back, she had a big bandage on her arm. When you asked about it, she brushed it off, saying she ate it racing her brother on longboards. It was probably the bite.
“The fact that she made it as long as she did without killing is honestly impressive. I’ve seen some turn and right away they’re slaughtering people.” Dean chimed in. You hoped their words would console you but they only served to make you angrier.
“So you’re telling me that she was attacked by a werewolf and then turned into one? She was probably terrified! She kept saying how sorry she was! You could have helped her! But you just killed her!” You screamed at them angrily.
“Your friend murdered a bunch of people. Once they turn, there’s no saving them. They’re killers.” Dean said with such conviction that it almost scared you.
Sam put a hand out to Dean, signaling for him to shut up, “There’s only one known way to stop the transformation but it has a really low success rate, is extremely painful, and needs to be administered almost right after the bite. I’m sorry.” He reached a hand out to comfort you but you dodged it, shrugging off his gesture and beginning to walk away.
“I need to go."
"Wait!” Sam called out behind you and you stopped.
“What?!” You snapped, spinning around to stare at him. It was rare that anyone dwarfed Sam Winchester but since you’d been walking up the small hill, you towered over him. The way you glared down at him made him jump.
His words faltered before he finally spoke, “You can’t tell anyone about this. If people knew monsters existed-"
"I’ll decide how I deal with the fact that my apparently werewolf best friend was just murdered by some dudes who think they’re Ghostbusters."
Sam saddled up to the bar next to you and promptly ordered two beers. You kept your eyes straight ahead, not sure of what you’d say to him if you made eye contact. You could feel him side eyeing you curiously. Finally, he looked over, "I’m sorry if this is strange but you look so familiar. Have we met?"
You swiveled in the chair to face him, "It’s been a while but yeah. We’ve met. Remember that werewolf at (your college)  about a year ago."
Realization dawned on his face, "Oh… I knew you looked familiar.” He didn’t sound excited like people usually did when they saw old friends because he knew you weren’t old friends. In fact, he assumed you felt quite the opposite and he understood why. “I never did catch your name."
"Y/N.” You informed shortly, taking a sip of your preferred poison.
Sam rocked back on his heels, “Well, uh, what are you doing out here?” It was Middletown, Arkansas, not exactly a happening place, so seeing you of all people here seemed almost too good to be a coincidence.
“I get the feeling the same reason you are.” You answered, eyebrows rising to infer a hunt.
It didn’t take long for Sam to figure what you meant, “Wait, you’re hunting now? Why?"
"After you guys left, I was devastated. You’d murdered my best friend,” you watched him sink into himself a little when you said that but continued seamlessly, “I was left alone with the sudden knowledge that monsters existed. I decided one day that I wanted to protect people like Beth. You know, the ones that innocently stumble into dangerous situations and have their lives ruined by a bite or scratch."
The tall Winchester brother was about to say something but Dean called from a few tables over, "Sammy!” He called out, pointing to a booth on the side wall. The bar was fairly busy for it being such a small town, with people playing pool or eating fries with their gin and tonics. Music played in the background and, though it wasn’t a song you knew off the top of your head, it sounded like every other dive bar in towns like this.
Sam held up a finger to his brother, begging pardon for just a second, before looking back over to you, “Look, I’m really sorry about everything. I really am. I know it doesn’t help but I’ve lost friends who were turned as well so I know how you feel.”
“Yeah, well, shit happens, right?” Your voice sounded anything but forgiving but it also wasn’t hostile either. It was more matter-of-fact. As much as you had hated Sam Winchester for what he had taken from you, if there was one thing you had learned over these last few months it was that shit really does happen. As hard as you tried, you really couldn’t save them all.
Sam glanced back over his shoulder to see Dean wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at him, clearly thinking you were someone Sam was trying to pick up for the night. Sam rolled his eyes and turned back to you, “If we’re both here for the vamp nest, then do you maybe want to come work with us?"
You thought for a moment. In all honesty, you had been under the impression that it was just one vampire wreaking havoc on the small town. Call it a novice mistake, because in all actuality, you really were still a relatively new hunter. One vampire you could take, a whole nest would be trickier. "Fine. But just so we don’t die."
You hopped off the barstool, glass of liquid fire in your hand, as you followed Sam back to the booth Dean was sitting at. At first, the older brother looked confused as to why his brother would bring his company for the night to meet him but didn’t say anything about it when you sat down beside Sam across the table from Dean.
"This is Y/N. She’s gonna help us work the case.” Sam announced, not leaving much room for objection.
Dean’s eyes studied you, “You look familiar. You’re a hunter?” He asked, trying to piece together why he recognized you.
You shrugged, “Am now but you know me from ‘bout a year ago when you guys killed my best friend. She was bit by a werewolf. Remember, that college girl?"
Realization dawned on his face, "Oh… yeah. Sorry about that but she was, y'know, a werewolf. So-” he shrugged insensitively, earning him a hard kick in the shin from Sam under the table. Dean looked back with that expression of 'what?’ That little kids had when they got in trouble.
“Well, anyways, she’s hunting now and is in town for the nest. I figured working together would be our best option.” Sam tried to be a peaceful moderator but it was hard when he knew how much you loathed him. It was frustrating, really, that you wouldn’t just see that Beth had become a monster. He understood that losing friends was hard but she had been killing innocent people.
“What’s the plan, then? We want to pick them off one by one so there’s less to fight at once or-” you began before Dean interrupted.
He shook his head, chewing some fries he’d shoved in his mouth while he spoke, “Nuh-uh. Gank the whole nest at once. Get 'em all in one place and torch it."
"Okay, well where’s the nest then?” You questioned.
Sam shrugged, “We don’t know yet. That’s what we gotta figure out."
"I have a file of police reports and eye witnesses on my laptop back at my hotel. I was just gonna grab a map of the town while I was out tonight to try and see if I could draw a location from the attacks.” You hadn’t planned on actually bringing work to do at the bar. You’d mostly come to see if you could overhear any drunken tales of vampires around town but it had been pretty dead as far as crazy stories so far.
Something behind you caught Dean’s attention and he leaned in close to you and Sam, “Hey, I’ll be back. Don’t wait up.” He said with a smirk and a wink.
As his brother stood, Sam threw his hand up in exasperation, “Where are you going?"
"Hopefully for a homerun.” Dean winked with a cocky smirk before walking away. You turned around to follow Dean with your gaze and immediately saw his target sitting at the bar, a beautiful African American woman with bouncing curls and a sultry smile on her berry stained lips. Honestly, you couldn’t’ say you blamed the older Winchester one bit.
Sam let out a huff of disappointment and rolled his eyes at his brother’s priorities. “Guess it’s just you and me then…” He groaned, not at the prospect of having to spend time with you but just at his brother’s laziness. Dean always managed to find an excuse out of the research part.
“Great.” You responded, unamused. Of the two brothers, Sam was the one you had an issue with- the trigger man on the night that changed your life. “Well, we should get a start on all this so we can get out of here sooner. If you didn’t get any food, you wanna head back to my room?”
The second the words left your mouth, you realized how it sounded and you became a bumbling mess, “Wait- I didn’t mean it like that! I just meant-”
Sam bit back a chuckle and raised his hand up off the table, motioning for you to stop, “It’s okay. It’s okay.” He laughed, long hair shining in the dim light as he moved to turn away from you with closed eyes while he chuckled. It really was a shame that he had done what he’d done to you. An opportunity with such a handsome man just had to be killed by his lack of compassion all those months ago.
You slid out of the booth, “Alright, well, I guess I’ll drive. Looks like Dean will be needing your car.” You smirked knowingly as you glanced over at Dean who had the woman he’d had eyes on in stitches over something he’d said.
Sam followed your lead, “Sounds good. I don’t think I want to be in the car after whatever they do anyways.”
Your black 2007 Honda Pilot was clean enough to not be totally embarrassed about but then you saw Sam’s little snort, “A Honda Pilot?”
“We can’t all have cool muscle cars or old trucks, jackass. I can go all terrain with decent gas mileage. Besides, I’d rather sleep in the back of this than your gas guzzler. She’s surprisingly spacious.” You defended your vehicle rather seriously, running your hand across the dash soothingly. The funny thing was that you’d really never been all too attached to the car until Sam insinuated insulting remarks about it.
“She?” He quipped with a raised brow, climbing into the passenger seat.
You slammed the door shut and started the engine, “Yes, she. Dahlia.”
Sam put his hands up, resigning his teasing assault on your car. The drive to the motel was short. You never really liked travelling too far from where you were staying when you didn’t have to. Hunting on your own, especially as a newbie, made you anxious. When you pulled into the parking lot, Sam looked out the window, “You’re staying here too?”
You looked over at him, “You guys are staying here?”
He nodded and patted his pockets, looking for the room key but quickly finding the gesture useless, “Room 24. You?”
“34. You must be right under me.” You said, again visibly cringing at your poor word choice, “You know what I mean.”
Sam tried his hardest not to smile, “Wasn’t gonna say anything.” He assured. You pulled into a space right in front of room 24 and parked. Sam followed you up to your room, which was relatively untouched still. You’d only arrived that morning so, aside from your bag of belongings that was thrown onto the single queen bed, the motel room was still as you had found it.
Sam closed the door behind the two of you and you grabbed your laptop from the bag. So many rooms you’d stayed in had little tables or desks but you quickly noticed that this one was lacking. As Sam awkwardly shuffled up to the bed where you sat casually, you noticed that there wasn’t really enough room for the two of you to work on the ground either.
With a huff, you scooted over, “You can sit on the bed. Just no shoes on the covers.” You had toed your own shoes off on the floor before tucking your legs underneath you. Sam sat beside you, careful to keep a respectful distance between your bodies, while you opened the lid of your laptop and began typing away.
“Alright, this is what I have so far.” You began.
Time became lost on you and Sam as midnight rolled around and you were still discussing the facts of the case. “I’m still confused as to why the hell you think Lenora’s body turning up on Seventh St and Jason’s body turning up on Hargrove Ave means the nest is on Willow Dr.” You were getting annoyed at Sam. In all honesty, you were annoyed at yourself for not seeing what he saw because as much as you hated to admit it, he was probably right. He and his brother hadn’t earned their reputations for being wrong. But, geez, why did it have to be Sam Winchester?
“Because it’s not so much Jason’s body. The old lady, Meredith, made a phone call to her nephew, saying she was at Willow Dr, just before she attacked.” Sam pointed at the map of the town with one finger while leaning his weight back on the bed. His other hand reached back to prop himself up but you quickly flinched away when you felt his rough fingers blindly land on your own.
Sam’s eyes shot wide when you felt your sudden movement, “‘M sorry.” He said, moving his hand closer to his body.
The contact made your heart race in a way that made you simultaneously crave his touch again and be angry at yourself for feeling that way.  You cursed yourself, scooting an inch or so away from Sam’s body. Clearly, your body was just blindly reacting after being touch starved for so long. You hadn’t so much as kissed anyone since before you became a hunter. It had to just be a primal reaction, nothing more.
“I’ll just take your word for it.” You grumbled, returning to the original matter at hand. You hated feeling like you were just letting him think he was right about everything but you were getting tired. “So what’s the plan? Gank ‘em all tomorrow night?”
Sam shrugged, “We’d have to talk to Dean. Most of them will probably be hiding in the nest in the morning to avoid the sun so at least they’d be in one place. But night gives us more time to plan. Who knows when he’ll be back.”
“Why don’t we just lure them all out into the sun and watch them burn?” You suggested, thinking it was a brilliant idea. You actually had yet to deal with vamps. This would be your first case hunting them and you were actually a little excited to learn something new.
The Winchester shook his head, “The sun doesn’t kill them. Think less Interview With a Vampire and more… bad sunburn.” He explained, “Have you never hunted one before?”
Again, you got defensive, “I’m still new at this. I mostly stick to werewolves and ghosts.” Admitting to yourself you needed to learn more was one thing. Admitting it to Sam was another.
He looked over at the gun on your nightstand, “Is that what you were gonna use?” He questioned, brows furrowed.
“No, I’m not dumb. I have some wooden stakes in the car.”
It took everything in Sam’s power to not laugh at you. At you felt like the wrong way to put it. He wasn’t laughing at you. He just found your determination to be a good hunter cute in an endearing way, even if you got your information from cheesy TV shows.
“What?” You asked, almost angrily, seeing the look of amusement on his face.
Sam shook his head, “Decapitation is the main way to kill vampires. Unless you have special bullets or weapons, cutting off the heads is the easiest way to go.”
Your jaw clenched and you turned away from him, upset that he of all people had to explain something that was apparently Hunter 101. You didn’t mind learning. Not knowing things typically was just an opportunity to pick something new up but this incident just felt like nails on a chalkboard.
“You know what? It looks like you and Dean have things handled here. I’m gonna go. Divide and conquer. I’ll just go find somewhere with monsters that I know about so you don’t have to babysit me.” You stood up aggressively, voice surprisingly calm and just almost convincing enough to make him think you weren’t being petty, which of course you were. You didn’t mean to be acting childish. It was just that running into Sam and Dean had been enough to handle. Having what was still left for you to learn shoved in your face was just the cherry on top.
Sam stood up after you, exasperated, “I didn’t mean it like that. You’re still new to this and everyone has to start somewhere. Hell, Dean and I are still learning new stuff all the time.”
“It’s not that. This was just a bad idea. I thought I could handle working with you but I can’t.” You shook your head, turning around just to reach around Sam’s body and grab the jacket that you’d discarded before shrugging it back over your shoulders. You started shoving the few things you’d unpacked- a gun, your laptop, and some files- back into your blue duffel bag.
Sam had always considered himself fairly level-headed and capable of dealing with difficult people but something in him snapped when he saw you packing up to leave over something so stupid, “Fine, go ahead and leave. We’ll deal with the nest without you. But you know what? Nobody asked you to get involved in hunting. You can’t just go run off every time someone dies.”
You scoffed, “I got into hunting to prevent people from dying. I got into hunting to try and save them from being killed by people like you!”
“You’re acting like we just kill everyone we come across. We kill monsters, Y/N. We save people by killing them. We prevent more people from getting turned into monsters by killing them. And you know what? Beth became a monster.” Sam’s voice raised to almost a yell as he gestured widely and aggressively.
“Beth was scared and you murdered her!” You shouted angrily, tears welling in your eyes.
“Beth was killing people!” Sam yelled at you before taking a moment to breathe, continuing more calmly, “Can’t you see that? Most of these monsters we hunt were just poor bastards in the wrong place at the wrong time. There’s not a lot we can do for people like that. But we can keep them from hurting others. If we had known there was a werewolf back in Beth’s hometown, we could have killed them before they could turn her and she would still be here. Would you be angry if we’d have killed the werewolf that turned her? Would you still be calling me a murderer?”
You chewed your tongue in your mouth hard, trying to use the physical pain to distract you from the urge to cry out of frustration. Why did he have to make sense? Why did he have to confirm every rational thought you’d ever had concerning the situation? You wanted to hate Sam Winchester for what he’d done but you knew deep down that it was never that simple. You knew he had a point but you didn’t want to admit it.
Sam saw the way your jaw clenched angrily, the way your throat moved as you swallowed hard, and the way your eyes glistened with unshed tears. He took a step closer to you and reached a gentle hand out towards your arm, “I am sorry that you lost your best friend.”
For some reason, the gentle sincerity of his voice is what broke you. Tears fell down your face in hot streams as you cried. They weren’t tears for Beth’s death. Those had long been drained from you, many nights spent mourning what you’d lost. These tears were for the final snap of your animosity for the Winchester. You had spent so long hating him. You wanted to hate him, needed to hate him, but how the hell were you supposed to do that when he looked you in the eye and truly meant it when he said he was sorry.
There was a twinge of pain in his own green eyes that made you realize that he truly had experienced the same sort of heartache that you did and that he was sincerely apologetic for being the cause of it. But it was also clear that, while he was sorry for hurting you, he was not sorry for what he had done. Part of the cause for your tears was that you were angry with yourself for not being able to hate him, despite knowing that he didn’t regret killing Beth. You were crying because he was right. She had become a monster and, in his shoes, you probably would have done the same thing. You would have shot your best friend.
“I’m sorry.” You whispered, voice shaky as you did.
Sam used his light grip on your arm to pull you in slowly for a hug, his large arms enveloping you in a surprisingly comforting embrace. You buried your face into his flannel, tears staining the fabric. One of his large hands gently cradled the base of your head while his other rubbed up and down your shaking back.
He didn’t know what to say anymore. Your response had honestly surprised him. The girl that he was used to receiving nothing but animosity from was now shaking in his arms and apologizing. “It’s okay,” was all Sam could think to mutter out.
He held you like that for a while, though you weren’t sure exactly how long it was. It could have been thirty seconds or thirty minutes and you would be none the wiser but all you knew was that you didn’t want Sam to let you go and, for once, you didn’t hate yourself for it. The tears had dried, leaving only slightly stiff feeling skin in their place. Your breath had long since stopped leaving your lungs in wracked hiccups. Your arms had moved from resting on his broad chest to being loosely wrapped around his waist at some point.
You pulled back first, lifting your head from his chest but keeping your hands on his body still. Sam lifted his cheek off your head, where it had been residing in a surprisingly soft show of affection, and he gazed down at you. You were amazed by how completely you had let your rage blind you. Before tonight, Sam was nothing more than scum to you but now, looking into his eyes after forgiving him, you realized that he was easily one of the most beautiful men you’d ever laid your eyes on.
Even with the tears now gone, Sam still saw the dim light of the cheap motel lamp sparkled against the color of your irises and damn if it wasn’t beautiful. He slid his hand up from your shoulder to gently brush away a few thin strands of hair that had stuck to your cheek while it was pressed against his chest- a feeling he found himself missing. His breath caught in his throat when you reached up to cover his hand with your smaller one, pressing it gently to stay on your cheek.
Your eyes slid closed and you gently nuzzled against his hand before opening your eyes again, reaching around his neck, and oh so slowly pulling him down while you perched on your tiptoes. There was more than enough time for Sam to pull away but he didn’t. In fact, much to your surprise, he closed the gap between you faster. His lips pressed to yours, rougher than you anticipated, but enjoyably nonetheless.
The breath was knocked out of your lungs and you struggled to breathe against his lips but refused to pull away. You bit his lip gently while you kissed, slipping your tongue against his when he gave in to what you were craving.
Sam reached down under your ass and lifted you without you even needing to jump. A squeal of surprise was swallowed by his lips as he walked you both to the bed. Once his legs bumped the old mattress, he sat down, lowering you to land on his lap. Your knees fell to either side of his hips where you gave an experimental rotation of your hips against his clothed erection. He let out a strangle exhalation at the friction, his fingers digging into your ass and pulling you harder onto him. The fabric of his rough jeans rubbed delicious against your clothed core, a wetness beginning to form in your panties.
Slowly, you pressed your weight forward and Sam allowed you to push him onto his back. You laid on top of him, lips moving from his lips down his neck but he didn’t let you get far. Sam placed a supportive hand on the small of your back and managed to flip you both over so he was on top and before you knew it, he was devouring you. Lips kissed hot trails across your face and down your neck, across the tops of your breasts that were ever so slightly revealed by your v-neck t-shirt.
Your fingers tangled in his long hair and he let out a breathy groan when you tugged on the brunette locks, pulling him closer to you. Sam crawled down your body, his hands sliding up underneath your shirt to run across your burning skin beneath. He felt like heaven and hell all in one, burning with fiery lust and yet so sweet and comforting despite the fervor with which he moved.
You pushed yourself up, pushing Sam to sit back on his knees while you did, all without breaking the kiss, to shrug off your jacket. Your shirt was next, falling onto the floor with your jacket before Sam pushed you backwards again, your back hitting the mattress. His large hand started low your belly, running straight up between the valley of your breasts and then raking downwards, pulling the cups of your bra down and grazing your nipples deliciously with his calloused fingers.
It had been so long since you’d been touched like this that even the small act had your back arching into his body. “Sam…” You breathed out, eyes sliding closed at the sensation. Every flick against your sensitive buds sent a shock straight to your core that had you hooking your leg around his hip, pulling him closer into you. Your hands ran up and down his large biceps before moving to pull the sleeves of his flannel down his arms. He only pulled away from you long enough to throw the restricting clothing on the ground, his shirt joining short after.
Your mouth started physically salivating at the sight of the man before you, sculpted by the gods. Defined pectorals and rippling abs covered his torso, adorned with a symbol that looked like a pentagram inside of a sun- a symbol you were unfamiliar with. Sam didn’t give you much time to marvel though because he was back to kissing a line down your body, the light stubble of his beard tickling the sensitive skin of your neck and chest. He stopped to revel in your breasts, wiggling his hands under your body to expertly unclasp your bra and shimmy it off you. The second they were revealed to him, his tongue was dragging across the supple sick and his teeth were lightly nibbling at the sensitive buds.
“Oh my gosh-” You let out in a breathy giggle. Sam switched breasts, giving the other equal attention. Your fingernails raked lightly over his shoulders and across his chest and you felt Sam shiver at the touch. His lips trailed lower and lower until they found the waistline of your jeans. With a quick flick of his fingers, the button was popped and the denim material was dragged down your legs, taking your socks with them as they were pulled over your ankles. He kissed his way back up your legs, from ankle until he slowly inched closer and closer to where you wanted him most.
His scruff scraped along the sensitive skin of your inner thighs and you bit your lip at the sensation, unsure if you were trying to hold back a giggle from the ticklish feeling or a moan from the shocks it sent to your core. Sam chuckled to himself when he saw the wet patch of cloth over your clothed heat. He’d barely touched you and you were already dripping for him.
He had a wicked idea though. He got closer and closer to your sex, the smell intoxicating, and gripped your thighs tightly, possibly leaving bruises. Just when his lips were about to land on your core, he moved to the left, kissing your hip bones instead and back up your belly.
Annoyed by the teasing, you sat up, pulling Sam up gently by the hair to be face to face with you. Your ass was a few inches from the edge of the bed, toes just touching the ground, when you pushed Sam back just enough to be able to reach his pants. You hooked your fingers into the belt loops on either side of his pelvis and pulled him close to you. His forehead pressed flush against yours, “Are you gonna keep being a tease or are you gonna fuck me already, Winchester?”
Sam didn’t need to be told twice. He made quick work of his remaining clothing and hovered over you like a predator about to move in for the kill. “You want me to just fuck you already?” He mimicked, voice low and testing. His green eyes bore into your own orbs with a challenge that you refused to back down from.
“That’s what I said, isn’t it?” You challenged, standing up and sliding your underwear down your legs, all while keeping unyielding eye contact with Sam. Once they left your form with a small flick of your toes, a dark smirk krept up on his face.
“Turn around.” He demanded and, while you were inwardly more than happy to comply, you didn’t want him to think he had you quite that easy.
You rolled your eyes as you did, an sinful smirk playing on your lips, “Yes, sir.” You chimed sarcastically.
Before you knew it, you were bent over at the waist, face and chest pressed into the mattress by Sam’s nearly crushing body. His hand snaked around your front, picking up some of your slickness on his fingers before circling your clit while he growled in your ear, “Don’t know what the attitude’s about. You’re the one who asked to get fucked.”
Your knees quivered at his filthy words while his fingers worked your clit slowly and painfully. His rock hard erection rubbed along your ass, teasing your entrance every now and again as he rocked his hips against your body. He stood up and removed his hand from your clit. Your hips moved back, trying desperately to chase his fleeting touch. Sam groaned when your body slid over his cock, skin burning against his own. After a few experimental tugs at his own member, he positioned himself at your entrance, giving you a few moments to back out if that was what you’d wanted. Backing out was so far from what you wanted though. You wanted - nay, needed - him inside of you and you needed him now. You were convinced you’d combust if he made you wait any longer.
His hands landed on your hips to help guide a slow thrust forward. His length gradually entered you, the searing stretch to accommodate him making your muscles contract around him. Sam hisses out a sound of pleasure, “You’re so tight.”
His first few thrusts were slow, each time managing to grind impossibly deeper into you. “Fuck, Sam.” Your fingers wound tightly in the sheets with each thrust of his hips and your eyes screwed shut as your breaths came out almost as hisses through grit teeth.
Sam used his leverage on your hips to move your body in time with his thrusts. Each motion sent your body into the mattress, the bed shaking as he pounded into you. You let out little squeaks of pleasure every now and again but Sam wanted to hear more out of the girl who’d had nothing to say to him but spiteful things for so long.
A large hand came to clasp around your throat, not tight enough to choke you but enough to guide you up. You pressed your body up to your feet sloppily on your hands but standing proved to be a difficult task with Sam still moving relentlessly into you. Your thighs were shaking, barely able to support your weight, as this new angle allowed for Sam to hit that spot inside you that made your toes curl. His hand stayed around your throat, tightening along the sides of your neck when he lost himself in the way you felt around him- warm and soft. You were grateful that he was letting your head lull back against his shoulder otherwise you weren’t sure if you’d be able to stay upright.
Sam’s free hand first sloppily groped around the front of your chest until it found one of your breasts, kneading it roughly. The rough skin of his fingers grazed your nipples yet again, only adding to the pleasure you felt below. The knot was tightening and it was tightening fast.
“Please-” You managed to gasp out, not because of the choking (his grip wasn’t that tight) but because the electricity in the room seemed to have stolen your voice. Sam’s hand moved from your nipples down to your clit where he rubbed fast tight circles. “Oh my gosh, yes!” You whined, reaching up overhead to tangle your fingers in his hair. You forced his mouth down to meet yours and the pressure in your core snapped. Your moans and cries of pleasure were swallowed by Sam’s lips and he could have swallowed a thousand more.
He worked you through your orgasm until your body went limp in his arms. Slowly, he came to a stop before pulling out and quickly working himself in his hands. After catching your breath though, you turned back to Sam, placed your hands on his shoulders, and used them to spin the two of you around and push him back onto the bed. His long legs hung over the edge and you settled yourself between his knees, gently grasping his member, still slick with your wetness, and worked him with your hand.
Sam lied back on the white duvet, head thrown back in bliss at your touch. Your hand felt so much better than his own as it worked up and down his shaft before coming up to circle around the tip. He was rock hard and ready to burst at any given moment. When you leaned forward to like a long stripe along the underside of his cock, he was done for. A few more pumps and Sam fell apart in your hand, painting your hand and his stomach with his seed. “Shit!” The muscles of his abs contracted mesmerizingly as the waves of his high rolled over him.
Your hand slowed as his climax came to an end, his member softening in your hand. You wiped the mess he’d made on your hand on your breasts and stomach, knowing it would be easier to keep those parts of you off the covers than your hand. With a heavy sigh of crashing relief, your body fell onto the mattress beside Sam and you both stared at the ceiling in a fucked out post-coital haze.
“So, does this mean you don’t hate me anymore?” Sam asked after a few moments, surprising you with the genuine tone behind the semi-joking question.
You stared up at the chipping popcorn ceiling, “I didn’t for like two seconds but now I do again just because those were the first words out of your mouth.” Your voice was steady, unwavering, and Sam cringed inwardly, avoiding eye contact entirely. That is, until you sighed and continued, “But, I guess, if you wanted to take me out for a drink sometime there’s a slim chance I wouldn’t object.” This time, there was a teasing smile on your face when you turned your head to look at Sam.
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shimmeringclouds · 3 years
Text
Todomatsu - Kill her? Why Would I?
𝘛𝘰𝘥𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘴𝘶 𝘟 𝘚𝘪𝘤𝘬!𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳
(Can you tell I'm running out of title ideas)
"[Y/N]!" Todomatsu sang from outside your front door, rocking back and forth on his heels excitedly. "We're gonna hang out today, remember?"
It was silent from the other side of the door. His smile faltered for a split second before he knocked again.
"[Y/N]...? Y-You haven't forgotten, have you?" His laugh was tense while he fidgeted with his fingers, shifting from one foot to the other. He tried again, louder this time.
"Hey! Did you sleep in? You're at home, right?" He hated how desperate he sounded, but this was you he was talking about. One of the few people (if not, only person) he truly cared about. The one person he wanted to keep by him for as long as he could before those five demons came along and messed everything up for good.
The thuds on your door echoed throughout your apartment before shuffling was heard from behind the door. Todomatsu froze as it began to unlock and open slowly, squeaking on its hinges. He gasped, quite dramatically.
There you stood. Still donned in your pyjamas, with your hair very dishevelled and eyes rimmed a pale pink. You were breathing a little heavy for someone who just walked a few feet to their door. All in all, you didn't look good. Todomatsu would never say it out loud, but you looked horrible.
"[Y/N]? Are you okay?" He quickly asked after a split second of silence. You clutched onto the door frame, a guilty frown on your lips.
"Todomatsu.." he flinched at how dry your voice sounded, "I'm so sorry.. I didn't forget about our plans today, but I got sick. I meant to call, but my mind's been all fuzzy..." At those words, your legs wobbled dangerously. Although you were using the doorframe as a stand, you began sliding down to the ground as all strength dissipated from your body.
The man leapt into action, hastily wrapping his arms around your waist and holding you against him. He could feel your body heating up through your clothing (which he tried not to let get to him. It wasn't the right time).
"S-Sorry.." you mumbled. You tried to push him away with feeble hands, only for him to hold you tighter. "Don't, Todomatsu! You'll just get sick, too!"
"It doesn't matter," he stood up carefully with you still in his arms, leading you back inside with no struggle. "I can just pass it on to my brothers. I'm not gonna let you stay like this on your own, though. Who do you think I am?"
You were taken back to your bedroom, and you thanked your past self for at least managing to keep it tidy, save for your bed. Todomatsu straightened it out a bit before helping you sit back down. His cheeks flushed a light pink as he moved away.
"I'm gonna get some stuff from back home. My mom has some kind of homemade remedies for this kind of stuff. In the meantime, you..." he cleared his throat. Now was not the time to act like some kind of virgin. "Y-You should change out of your c-clothes, since you're probably... s-sweaty. I'll be back later!"
He cursed himself for stammering and that damn squeakiness in his voice, hoping you hadn't seen too much of his now flushed face. If you didn't know any better, you would think that he was the one who was ill.
You let out a small smile as you slowly went about gathering a fresh set of pyjamas, the image of his pretty pink cheeks and quivering lips stuck in your mind.
»»----- ♔ -----««
The door to the Matsuno home slammed open and shut in a hurry, startling the five others in the living room. They watched curiously was the youngest brother rushed through to the kitchen, making quite the racket as he rummaged through various cupboards and shelves.
"Todomatsu?" Choromatsu called from the doorway, squashed by the others. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing." He replied blankly, pointedly ignoring them as he reached up for a small container. Ichimatsu glared at his younger sibling, knowing he was hiding something.
"What a dry monster..." he murmured darkly.
"Totty!" Osomatsu leaned against the small table in the kitchen. "C'mon! You can tell your favourite older brother what's going on, right?" He cooed.
"Of course he will tell me!" Karamatsu jumped in, pushing Osomatsu out of the way. "Dear burazza, whatever the issue is, just know that I, your absolute favourite older brother, am here for-!"
"Why are you getting the homemade medicine?" Jyushimatsu asked, covering his mouth with along sleeve.
"Eh..?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Todomatsu shoved the small containers and numerous other medicines into his bag before adjusting the strap over his shoulder, preparing to walk out as if nothing had happened. However, he knew that a fight was to be fought as the aura of his demonic brothers flooded the doorway, blocking his escape.
"Now, now, Totty," Choromatsu grinned darkly. "Just tell us what's going on and we'll let you go."
"Don't try to bluff your way out of this," Ichimatsu toothily smiled, placing a hand on Todomatsu's shoulder with a painfully obvious tight grip. "Play nice with your onii-sans, okay?"
Todomatsu's expression was blank as he stared down at the ground. He flexed his fingers around the strap of his bag, taking a deep breath.
"[Y/N]'s sick."
A tense silence filled the room.
"...Huh-?"
"So.." His face contorted into fury, eyes practically bulging from their sockets as he suddenly grabbed the kitchen table, chucking it across the room towards his shocked brothers. "Get out of my way!!"
His screams echoed through the house as he took off at a sprint, leaving his brothers in the dust. They all squirmed to get out of the pile of heavy bodies and wooden bits of table crushing them down.
"What the hell was that about?!" Osomatsu wheezed as Jyushimatsu pressed his body weight further into him instead of getting up, laughing giddily.
"Totty's gonna kill her, probably!" The yellow clad boy chuckled.
"How can you sound so positive when you say something like that?" Choromatsu scolded, being the first to squeeze out of the pile.
"Get off me, Shittymatsu!" Ichimatsu growled, kicking at his older brother as he scrambled out next. Karamatsu fell to the ground with a light thud, groaning as he rubbed at his head.
"M-My apologies, burazza..."
"This is an emergency!" Choromatsu cried.
"Shouldn't that be my line..?" Osomatsu mumbled underneath his breath, sitting up.
"If we don't hurry, Todomatsu's gonna kill [Y/N]!"
"What if Todomatsu's actually trying to help her, though? We shouldn't doubt our youngest this quickly," Karamatsu contemplated, cupping his chin. He felt a hand grab his shoudler, finding Osomatsu staring at him with a tense smile.
"Don't you remember what he did to us the last time we got sick?" He reminded. "He set us on fire, the little bastard."
"...True." Karamatsu began to sweat, worried for your safety like the others. They all leapt to their feet, rushing out the door together.
"We're gonna save [Y/N]!" Jyushimatsu announced excitedly, waving his arms around as they all took off down the street, heading towards your apartment.
»»----- ♔ -----««
"I'm back!" Todomatsu sang happily, as if he hadn't just ran for his life. He popped his head into your room, smiling softly as you tried to sit up.
"You didn't have to do this, Totty.." you clutched your head, feeling dizzy. The man came over and guided you with soft hands, fluffing the pillow behind you so that you were comfortable.
"You're right, I don't have to. But I want to look after you," you were a little surprised by how soothing his voice was, only for him to snap back out of it. "Doesn't that just make me the best? Teehee!"
You rolled your eyes playfully, swatting weakly at him with your hands. He chuckled as he rummaged through his bag, bringing out the medicine.
"I'll just go and grab a spoon.." he mumbled, leaving for a moment and returning with the utensil in hand. He settled beside you, pouring the liquid onto the metal.
"Say 'aah!'" He teased mischievously, making you giggle. You took the spoon into your mouth, face scrunching up almost instantly at the weird, tangy taste lingering in your mouth.
Todomatsu laughed loudly at your reaction, pressing a kiss to your temple.
"That was adorable! I should've taken a picture!" He nuzzled into your hair before pulling away, sure that the redness of your cheeks wasn't entirely from you being sick.
You covered your face with a whine, wishing you could hide in your bedsheets if it wasn't so warm. Todomatsu smiled fondly at you, opening his mouth to say something else.
"[Y/N]!!!"
There was a loud bang from the other room, startling you both heavily. Todomatsu shot up out of his seat, running over to the front door to find his brothers on the floor in a heap once again, the front door barely hanging on its hinges with a large crack in the wall from where it hit.
You stumbled after him, gasping at the wreckage of your home.
"What the fuck are you guys doing?!" Todomatsu screeched, seemingly more frustrated than you.
"We came to save [Y/N]! What else does it look like?" Osomatsu replied with a pointed look. All heads whipped towards you, taking in your appearance.
"[Y/N], are you hurt?" Choromatsu asked, trying to crawl towards you only for Todomatsu to kick his face.
"Did he actually give you poison and not medicine?" Ichimatsu asked next, earning himself a smack.
"Did Totty try to set you on fire?!" Jyushimatsu called, crying out after he get pushed back out the door.
"Did he-"
"Shut up, Shittymatsu!!" Todomatsu screamed, attempting to push everyone out. "Why do you all think I'm trying to kill her?!"
"Because that's just who you are!" They all responded.
You watched on in shock as they continued to argue violently in front of you. Releasing a heavy sigh, you massaged your forehead. A really bad headache was coming on...
"Guys!" You yelled suddenly, freezing everyone in place. "Todomatsu's looking after me! He hasn't done anything to hurt me and he never will, okay?"
"But-!"
"I think we all know that if he, or anyone, tried to do anything, I would kick your asses harder than Totoko can punch."
Your threat hung heavy in the air, making them gulp. You dragged your feet over to the pile of bodies in your doorway, removing Todomatsu from their clutches and looking down st the others on the floor.
"Thank you for being concerned, but there's no issue other than me being sick. I trust him to take care of me, so there's nothing to worry about, okay?"
You were met with silence. Another sigh, you tugged at your door, thankful that it was still somewhat intact. You began closing it up, offering a final goodbye to the Matsuno brothers before shutting it completely.
Todomatsu was tense behind you, eyes worriedly darting from you to the door.
"I-I'm really sorry about that.. You know how idiotic they can be!" He pointed at the door, hoping you wouldn't get mad at him. Instead, you turned to him with a tired hit gentle smile.
"I'm not mad, Totty," you weaves your hand into his, intertwining your fingers and tugging him back to your room. "Let's just forget about it. You're still gonna take care of me, right?"
"Todomatsu!" Osomatsu yelled from behind the door. "If you don't come back a virgin, then don't come back at all!"
You both rolled your eyes, Todomatsu's deathly aura increasing slightly. Way to ruin a sweet moment...
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