#i saw my follower count hit a new milestone and i’m remembering all of the fic i started reading quite literally about a year ago | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

samwilsonshandsandass · 3 years

Text

Surprise

Pairing: sub!Bucky Barnes x dom!reader Summary: Bucky surprises you with a new outfit Warnings: Smut, malesub, femdom, oral (f receiving), handjob (M receiving) Word count: 1849 A/N: This is my entry for @navegandoaciegas Maneater Writing Challenge to celebrate 2.6K followers. Congrats on reaching that milestone! I chose the prompts House Husband kink, Mistress Kink and character surprises the reader with a maid costume. So here it is: “Surprise”!

It had been a normal day. Long, yes, but that was normal. Several meetings and calls, also with people who didn’t understand what they were supposed to do. Still, they insisted they knew more than you and as a consequence furiously denying to let themselves be referred to someone else. Oh, the joys of being one of the few higher up women in the company. Your network of the company’s female leaders helped you but the implicit misogyny still stung.

At home, you heard the sounds of a piano recording coming from the kitchen. You smiled to yourself. Bucky must be in the kitchen just listening to it. Taking a step further and after putting your coat and heels away, you were closer to the kitchen door and smelled something. It smelled like it could be your favorite food.

You quietly opened the door and either Bucky with his heightened senses actually didn’t hear anything or he chose not to move towards you. That actually was against the rules you two had laid out together. Normally he was to greet his Mistress by kissing her hand as soon as he noticed her arrival home, unless he was seriously indisposed. Even if he was doing the laundry and he didn’t hear her, that just meant he’d kiss her hand when he heard her on the upper floor and so on.

But this time, you forgave him in the moment you saw him.

He wore something you hadn’t really talked about together but you couldn’t complain about it at all.

The ends of the big white ribbon on the back laid on his butt cheeks. The seams of the neckline, the short sleeves, the skirt were trimmed with white ruffles and you could see part of the white apron. The rest of the maid outfit was traditional black. It fit him, maybe it was a little tight but that made his muscles stand out, even in his relaxed stance while he stirred something in one of the pots.

“Oh” A moan left your mouth.

“Mistress! I did hear you come in, but I…” He trailed off and bent down to kiss your hand.

You cradled his cheek and felt him lean into your hand. “Everything’s okay, darling. This is an incredible surprise, thank you for this.”

“Thank you” He mumbled and you pecked his cheek. Then you felt something poke you above your hip.

“What has you this hard, hm? Just the cooking doing that for you or did you think of something?”

“I thought of something, Mistress.”

“Wanna tell me? Or show me?”

“I could show you, but only after the food’s done. It just needs to simmer with the residual heat.”

“That’s good, because I don’t wanna wait anymore.”

Bucky nodded eagerly, shut the stove off and put the lids on the pots.

“Undress me and do what you do best” You ordered.

He did, and when you were fully naked, stepping out of your stockings, Bucky went up again and kissed you. His tongue played with yours and he stroked your back. Each kiss he placed on your body, from your neck, to your collarbones, over your breasts and tummy to your core.

On his knees, Bucky kissed your thighs and slowly worked his way up, paying attention to every dip of your skin, the small scar on the middle of your thigh. Short of your core, he stopped and repeated the same thing on your other thigh.

Bucky put his hands on your butt and squeezed. “Love this ass, Mistress.”

“And you get to squeeze it” You moaned, because he sucked above your vulva.

He kissed around your outer lips and nibbled on them. He soothed them and licked. His tongue slipped into you and he grabbed your hands. You knew what that meant. You twisted your fingers in his hair and felt his left hand pulling the hood from over your clit.

“Mistress? Got a good grip?” Bucky asked smugly. He deserved to be that smug. He may have once eaten you out in a similar position and made your legs buckle and you both had tumbled to the floor.

“Yes, darling.”

With that, Bucky wet his lips and slowly closed them around your clit. He started off with light sucking and each time you rocked your hips, he intensified his sucking. Your moans got louder and you pulled on Bucky’s hair. That made him purr and the subsequent vibrations immediately traveled to your clit.

You moved in a way that didn’t even have you be sure if you wanted to be closer to it or get away from him. No matter what it was, Bucky didn’t let you go. He pulled you closer and sucked on your outer lips. You whimpered. Bucky switched to your clit again and inserted two fingers into you.

With one come hither motion and the sucking, you came. You spasmed around his fingers and the quelching sounds as he pumped them in and out through it, rang through the kitchen. He drank everything of you up, licking you dry. You stroked his hair until he straightened up and kissed him.

“Wow. Thanks, darling” You took his hand and pulled him in the direction of your bedroom. “Let’s take a bath and cuddle for the rest of the evening, okay?”

“Wait, no! This isn’t even the main part of the evening I planned!”

“What did you plan?” You tilted your head.

“Could you wait here at the kitchen table?”

You nodded and with a soft kiss to your lips, Bucky put the food on a plate and vanished into the living room. A minute later, he came back, took two glasses and a bottle of wine. Another minute later, he took your hand.

“Now, Mistress” He smiled and lead you to your spot on the couch.

Sitting down you saw the plate and a set of cutlery on the coffee table. Bucky knelt between couch and table. He pulled the table closer to himself and carefully scooped up some of the food. With a hand under the fork, he fed you. Over the last years, you had often cooked your favorite meal when you felt down, sometimes just because you felt like it and because Bucky had asked you to show him, wanting to be the prefect househusband.

“Darling, this tastes incredible! Did you change something up in the recipe?”

Bucky leaned his head against the inside of your knee, a position that still allowed him to reach the plate comfortably. “I upped the dose of the usual spices and added some for extra tanginess. Do you like it, Mistress?”

“Yeah! You gotta remember what other spices you used for next time!”

He beamed at the praise. “More?”

“Don’t stop until everything’s in me” You grinned.

Bucky continued feeding you, then quickly put everything away and came back to you, who hadn’t moved an inch.

“C’mere, let me thank my perfect husband!”

Bucky basically skipped over to lay down between your outstretched arms as quickly as possible. “I’m glad you liked it.” He rolled over so he laid chest to chest to you. He rubbed his head on your neck, softly kissing it. Bucky moved a little higher and rubbed himself against you.

“Now, what’s this?” You smiled.

Bucky blushed a little.

“You know how it goes, baby. Talk to me and I’ll do something.”

“I’m hard, Mistress. Been hard since I heard you enter the apartment.”

“Since I entered the apartment? What did you think about in that moment?”

“About pleasuring you, serving you the food, making you come, being a good husband” He whined and rutted once against your calf.

You raked your fingers through his hair and pulled. “I felt that rutting. It’s starting to hurt a little, right?”

“Yes, Mistress! Please, may I-?” Bucky whimpered.

“Lay back and I’ll get my dick nice and wet, and I’ll cum around you. I want that dick to be entirely covered in white. What do you say to that?”

“Yes, Mistress!”

You sank down on his dick slowly, moaning, until Bucky was fully in you. You started a slow and languid pace and Bucky moved his left thumb to your clit to rub it how you taught him you liked it. His right hand went around you to hold onto your lower back. But instead, he scratched along it. You grinned down at your boy. There was the pent up sexual tension and energy he had been holding back so well until you gave him permission to let loose.

And let loose, he did. He angled himself to hit your sweet spot each time. It seemed like Bucky wanted to work thrice as hard. On one hand there was the simple energy that needed to be let out but then there was also the fact of Bucky’s outfit, especially the apron, hindering him from watching his, or your, cock disappear in you. That never failed at making his subby pride soar, to be the one to make you feel pleasure, and the only one.

With each thrust, he brought you closer to your second release of the evening and in what felt like no time at all, Bucky made you clench around him. He fucked up into you to carry you through it as best he could. With a scream and an additional thrust of Bucky, the aftershocks became their own orgasm and you scratched along the fabric on his chest.

When everything ceased you climbed off and scooted back to sit on his thighs. You bunched up skirt and apron, took his dick in your hand and angled it to point at his chest. Normally you liked to tease him with your hands, especially since the one time he had admired your hands after a manicure. But this time, you started a quick pace with short strokes. Every so often you swiped your thumb over his slit and in no time at all, Bucky spurted all over his chest and dirtying his outfit. You didn’t stop until he whimpered and tried to move away from you.

“That’s my good boy, even with that mess you made. So what do you do with messes? Hm?”

“Y- you clean them up, Mistress.”

“Smart boy. Then, clean it up.” After he calmed down from the overstimulation, he contorted himself to reach his cum with his tongue, because he knew you wanted him to use his mouth if possible. “M- Mistress…”

“Aww, it’s not working? You were so good, I’ll help you.” You scooped up the cum that landed on his uniform and pushed your fingers into his mouth. Bucky cleaned them diligently and then waited patiently for the next portion. When everything was gone, you pulled him up to a sitting position. You quickly got him out of the outfit and enveloped him in your arms.

“Five minutes cuddling, then I’ll get you water and snacks, okay?” You whispered in his hair.

“Okay. I’ll wash everything in the morning” Sleep already laced Bucky’s voice.

“That has time, darling don’t worry about it.”

#my things #my writing #bucky x you #bucky x reader #bucky x y/n #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x y/n #sub!bucky x you #sub!bucky x reader #sub!bucky x y/n #sub!bucky barnes x you #sub!bucky barnes x reader #sub! bucky barnes x y/n #sub!bucky barnes x dom!you #sub!bucky barnes x dom!reader #sub!bucky barnes x dom!y/n

351 notes · View notes

yuzukult · 3 years

Text

—saccharine

pairing: seokjin x reader word count: 2,319 prompt: seokjin doesn’t believe in love at first sight. so... what’s this feeling that’s churning in the pit of his stomach when he meets you for the first time? warnings: none. minor cursing. fluff attack. a/n: to celebrate my follower milestone! thank you all for supporting and reading my fics, it means a lot to me!

Everyday is a continuous, recurring cycle.

First, the alarm rings. Then, he slams the snooze button on his phone before resuming into a light sleep for another eight minutes. The annoying horn sings again, and a wash of regret hits from never changing it out of the default, so he finally accepts this by getting up and sliding his feet lazily into a pair of slippers by the side of his bed before making way into the bathroom.

His hair is a mess. But it’s a mess everyday. Life has gone to the point that even brushing his teeth has become a dreadful chore. Shuffling through his bin of hair products, he finds the mousse he consistently loses and finds on repeat and then slaps a boatload of it onto his head.

This is basically a day-in-the-life of Kim Seokjin. Except it’s everyday. It’s never ending. It feels like one of those time loop movies where when he ends his day, it starts back off exactly like it did yesterday.

To be fair, he can’t complain. He’s got a roof over his head, an apartment all to himself (that means without a roommate), plus a well-paying full time job. It’s hard to whine and cry about how his life seems to have no excitement, other than the occasional meeting with his friends, but contrarily… there’s not much to look forward to.

It’s the same mundane activities. Opening the cabinet above his kitchen counter as he usually does at this time, he grabs his favorite Cheerios. Good starts with happy hearts, as their commercials say, but Seokjin isn’t entirely sure that’s true.

He’s a “cereal first and milk last” kind of guy. Not that he judges those who do it backwards, but he thinks if anyone does the routine in the opposite order, they might actually be backwards. It’s a condition—he makes it seem, and it’s a rather controversial topic for the guy.

Nonetheless, he enjoys his bowl of breakfast goods. He reads the news on his phone, and when the reminder on his watch dings, Seokjin rushes to put his dishes into the sink and hauls himself down the hall, in direction to his walk-in-closet that evidently is just too big for it being only himself. It’s a constant indication that he’s alone.

By the time it’s 8:30AM, he’s dressed in his suit and tie, hair slicked back, and has a satchel slung over his shoulder in preparation of yet another day at the office.

But maybe he’d stop by that new place this morning. Change of pace. Maybe it’ll liven up his day and give him something to look forward to. Maybe he’d like it.

The place is around the corner, less than a three minute walk the moment he leaves his apartment building, and if he timed himself, it probably takes longer to leave his home and out of the building. The shop is cute; decor stickers are laid out delicately along the windows, the walls are painted a pretty blush pink, and there’s smiles on all the workers’ faces as if they enjoyed being there.

There’s a smile on your face in particular that captures his attention.

Seokjin is a relatively kind guy, or so he thinks he is. He’s never pinned over girls like those shows he’s seen on TV, but he’s had his fair share of relationships. He’s not shy, but he’s also not outgoing. He has an abundance of friends but only a few are ones he trusts.

And the girlfriends he had were great but… no one really appreciates his generosity as much as he’d like.

He thinks he’s crazy at this moment, quite frankly, because he doesn’t believe in love at first sight. It’s this theory and idea that writers of a romance genre film and story that people whipped up together to make it seem more appealing to their audiences. But he doesn’t actually think it’s true.

Or is it?

Hair up in a messy bun, there’s a swipe of flour that coats your one cheek, and a smile that dresses your face so beautifully. You’re in a simple outfit that’s a combination of a white tee and blue jeans with the shop’s apron on top, while running around to keep up with all the orders coming through. He has hearts brimming in his pupils and he can’t seem to stop the way his chest tightens the second he lays his eyes on you. Is this what love at first sight is?

Seokjin doesn’t only regret not changing the default ringtone of his alarm this morning. He also regrets not asking for your number.

When he reaches his office, he realizes he forgets to ask for cream and sugar at the bakery. The dark, warm liquid glides down his throat with some difficulty; the bitterness layering his tongue but the memory of you sparks sweetness from within. Who were you? He doesn’t even know you and you’re on his mind like crazy.

Now, Seokjin has seen How I Met Your Mother. He’s watched the nine seasons, totaling out to two-hundred and eight episodes, so needless to say, Seokjin knows what goes on in that show. And ironically, he hates Ted. The guy is a hopeless romantic that thinks every girl he has his eyes on is ‘the one.’ Seokjin refuses to become like Ted, and he would be caught dead replicating those same actions.

Then why the fuck is he caught up on a girl he’s seen once?

The second time Seokjin comes by the bakery, it’s a hell of a lot less busy. In fact, it’s only three people that man the storefront, rather than the six that he saw the first time he stopped by. He has his fingers crossed behind his back as he waits in the queue patiently, hoping you’d be the one taking his order this time around.

Luck must be on his side because you’re greeting him with those pearly white teeth. “Good morning, nice to see you. What can I get for you today?”

Abort, abort! He can’t talk. He swears that his heart has found its way up into his throat, and he can’t get any words to come out.

You blink. Those gorgeous long lashes brush your cheeks so deftly, and it swells his heart that’s now lodged in the path of his airways. “Sir?”

Seokjin swallows. “Oh—yeah, sorry sorry. Uh, can I get a medium hot coffee? Cream and sugar, please. Forgot to mention that last time and I almost died from the bitterness.” Was that an appropriate comment to make? Did it make you laugh? Or were you offended that he just insulted your workplace’s coffee

He cheers in success on the inside when a soft chuckle escapes from your lips. “Aw, I’m sorry to hear. I guess we should have also done our part and asked if you wanted any. Did you want to order anything else?”

Ah. Was the conversation already ending? But it’s so soon! He barely held the dialogue for a couple seconds, and since he’s got your attention, he can’t let go now. Quickly, his eyes skim the menu and the display case full of baked goods. “Uh, what do you recommend?” He asks, gesturing to the sweets.

You wave your hand for another coworker to take the next customer’s order. Walking over to the sweets, Seokjin trails over as well, observing your expression. You’ve got your brows furrowed, deep in thought with a quirk of the side of your lips, engrossed with the plentiful of options. “Do you like tarts?”

—

Seokjin is a regular now.

Whenever the clock strikes 7:30AM, he’s already in his work attire, hair at its best, and has checked his face in the mirror for the fiftieth time. Then, he’s on route to the corner bakery.

He wants to look good before he meets you. Handsome guy for a pretty girl. It’s only right.

The bells at the front door of the shop ring loudly the moment he enters in, and immediately his ears are filled with that beautiful laugh of yours, but you’re not alone. It’s accompanied by someone else’s, a voice that doesn’t match any of your other coworkers and his jaw clenches at the thought. Who is this male that claims to be the purpose of your giggling with a mop he calls hair on the top of his head?

“Oh!” You beam, lifting up the cup of hot coffee in hand. “Seokjin! Come here, I have a new pastry for you to try, and your daily caffeinated beverage to pair it with. Plus, I want you to meet my friend.”

His name is Taehyung. The freaking guy looks like a model, strutting into the café like it’s his runway, and when his gaze meets Seokjin’s, it makes Seokjin feel small.

Seokjin likes you, if the amount of times he comes in a week is evidence for it. He doesn’t just do that either; he often stirs up a conversation, asks how your day is going so far, and even goes out of his way to remember small details so he can bring it up next time. But he can’t help but wonder—do you have a boyfriend? Are you being kind only because Seokjin is a customer? Or are you normally this sweet as those raspberry filled pastries you set him up with?

And those questions are only emphasized when Taehyung smiles, extends his hands and offers Seokjin a firm shake. “I’m Taehyung.”

Seokjin’s entire work day has gone to shit. All he could think about was who Taehyung was and why you were so adamant about Seokjin meeting him.

After taking the last bite of the delicious pastry you packed for him (free of charge, too), it hits him.

If Seokjin liked you, he should just confess his feelings, no matter what the consequences. Instead of sitting here with his shoulders slouched, eating this treat you gave him with a pout upon his lips, he shouldn’t continue waiting around and feeling sorry for himself anymore. Why would he make himself suffer like this when there’s a way to end this vicious cycle?

Seokjin concludes that he’s going to confess tonight.

—

What Seokjin learns about you is that you are by far not close to his ideal dream girl.

You’re the “milk first, cereal last” gal, and he believes you’re ass backwards. You like consistency, and your favorite ringtone is the sound of those stupid horns he has for alarms in the morning. You enjoy the first few hours of your day, basking in the routine that you’ve put together yourself, including the one that had recently involved seeing Seokjin’s face.

And although you’re not his dream girl, you’ve become it.

“I like you,” He finally confesses, a bouquet of flowers in his hands that match the decor stickers plastered on the shop's windows. “Would you… go out with me?”

Seokjin isn’t here in the mornings like he normally is, opting that since this is definitely a change of pace, he might as well go all out. Maybe this will be different. Maybe he’ll be happier.

Stunned, your mouth drops open. You’re stuttering over your own words, practically malfunctioning like a machine. “Wha—Like—what? Like… you like me as in like… a woman? More than a friend? You want to take me out?”

“Uh,” Seokjin scratches behind his ear anxiously. Was his plan backfiring? “Yes? I… like you. As in, I come here in the mornings for coffee, yeah, but I mostly came to see you. I enjoy hearing your laugh, seeing your smiles, and listening to you talk about these pastries like they’re your world and I—“ He pauses, inhaling a sharp breath, “—then you introduced me to this really good looking guy named Taehyung and I didn’t know what my chances were with you anymore, so here I am. Confessing.”

You’re silent. Truthfully, Seokjin’s not feeling good about this. His palms are sweaty, his heart is racing, and you still haven’t said a word and he’s sure that over thirty seconds have already passed by.

“What—“ You start again, quickly stopping yourself with a shake of your head. “Thank god, really.”

The front of Seokjin’s brows dip in confusion. “I’m sorry?”

You laugh, combing your fingers through your loosened locks. “I’ve been trying to tell my coworkers that I had this stupid crush on you since you first came in. You’re such a great listener, you’re handsome, and fun to talk to. They think you’re too good to be true, so they thought you wanted to be my gay best friend. Hence… the Taehyung test.”

“The Taehyung test?” Seokjin reiterates.

Chewing on your bottom lip, your eyes are swirls of apologies. “He’s cute, right? Either you’d get jealous that a guy like him has my attention and you like me, or you like him and you’re jealous that he’s making me laugh instead of you.”

Seokjin’s shoulders drop in relief. “So… does that mean you’ll go out with me?”

You smile softly. “Of course, Jin.”

He doesn’t think those mundane activities he identified before are boring anymore. No, not with you, they’re not. He doesn’t mind watching you pour milk instead of cereal first in the mornings because he’s glad he gets to be the one who pinches your side teasingly and call you a weirdo. He doesn’t hate the sound of the horns—okay, a lie, he hates it so much, but they’re bearable when you’re around since you don’t hesitate to shut it off the minute it rings, and immediately hop out the bed, without using the snooze button. Brushing his teeth is a delight, especially when he sees your toothbrush sitting in your own designated cup on your side of the sink.

Everyday is a continuous, recurring cycle.

But Seokjin doesn’t mind those things if it’s done with you.

#seokjin #seokjin x reader #bts #bts fanfic #jin x reader #jin fanfic #gyukultfics #jin

107 notes · View notes

vemuabhi · 3 years

Note

Hello Abhi!! First of all congratulations on that 500 milestone!! Thats crazy!! You totally deserve it and im sure many more are coming your way :D i saw your event and i was wondering if i could join?? Id like a normal love letter, a fluffy one, established relationship and with Bokuto. I don’t have a theme in mind but i overthink a lot so maybe a comforting and reassuring one but thats up to you!! My name is Elena and i go by she/her, idk if i need to add anymore info but if you have any questions please feel free to message me!!

Neway, again congrats on those followers!! Im sure it feels great <3 i hope you have a great weekend and please hydrate yourself and stay safe, also take your time, there is no rush or anything :)

Oh my! Hi @tatiquichi !!! You are so cute. This is my 2nd request for my 500 followers drabble event. I hope you like it. I now present you the love letter 💌 bokuto sent to you!! I hope you like it.

Character : Bokuto Kotaro

Word count : 340

Genre : Pure fluff.

A/N : Bokuto writes a letter to you while he is away for a match.

Please support me if you like my writings.

To the most beautiful person in the world,

I love you so much, it isn’t even enough to even express my feelings towards you. I’m writing this letter to you while the team is on a break. I really miss you a lot. This practice is really fun and there is a new team of good players. I can’t wait to play against them.

Agh... I wish you were here. I know you are busy studying for the next exam and couldn’t come >_< But really, you don’t even know how many times I wished you were here. And and I spiked this ball so swiftly that the opponents didn’t even realise that the ball had already hit the court. If you were here you’d cheer for me and I’d focus more on this game. Let’s go on a date together when I return...

Ah! Do you remember the time we went to museum? I still wonder how you could know and remember all that stuff. And here I only remember the happy look on your face. Oh my even though I don’t know much abou... uh... yes I know nothing about that museum but... trust me, I really had a good time. I want to come back to you soon.

Oh and you know I saw a cute cat and it reminded me of you. The day we went to the cat cafe. I wanna go there again with you. Don’t over think my dear. You know that I am always here for you. Talk to me whenever you feel like. If you feel like no one is listening to you, always remember that I’ll listen to you. I may be slow but I’ll definitely try to understand you. Because you matter a lot to me.

Okay! Lets bake a cake together. I know it will definitely cheer you up. Wait? No i wont eat up the dough last time. I promise! Okay then. I’ll see you on Monday. Can’t wait to meet you baby~~~

Your Loving boyfriend

Kotaro

Thanks for reading. Hope you liked it.

Like, Reblog and comment your feelings.

#bokuto x y/n #bokuto x you #bokuto koutarou x reader #bokuto x reader #bokuto #bokuto koutaro x reader #haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #haikyu x reader #my writing #500 followers #drabble event #x reader #love letters

20 notes · View notes

mrvdocks · 3 years

Text

Plus One Finale

Summary: You and Steve make up. Steve plans for the future ahead.

A/N: We finally made it to the end, thanks to everyone who read it and liked it and reblogged it. :))

@mochminnie, @80strashbag, @artsymaddie, @har-rison-s, @theblueslytherin, @prettysbliss, @deliberatequeen, @fl0ating, @crystalyn-aurelia, @itsbabybat��, @bellasymph, @hawishima, @hvtelcalifornia, @stevexharringtonx, @fisherbrookphotos, @revangeline

He paced back and forth in the hallway of the animal clinic, somehow both muttering to himself and racking his head for some way to reply other than the incredulous reaction he just gave you.

You squeezed your eyes shut and shook your head. You knew it, you knew it was too soon to say.

You cross your legs in an attempt to stop the distracting bouncing of your leg and ease your nerves.

Sure he just confessed he loved you and apologized, but now that you could possibly be pregnant? What if that was the dealbreaker?

“Steve.” You call, attempting to break him from his trance.

He mutters more, going much too fast for you to understand.

“Steve!” You exclaim, unable to take the suspense.

He stops and turns to face you, visibly shaken. You exhale shakily, trying to keep yourself steady emotionally.

“Listen, if what you said earlier is true, then this is nothing.”

“This is nothing? (Y/N) we’re bringing someone else into our messed up lives. What if we’re terrible parents?”

You stand and take his worrisome hand in yours, “So we don’t have the best model. That’s fine! They’re not the ones raising this kid, it’s us. It’s you and me.”

He bites his lip in thought, eyes falling to his feet. You felt your heart race as you tried to decipher his emotions. You loved Steve, kid or no kid. But this was something you two needed to face.

“I don’t know. I - ” he shrugs.

You try not to remember the last time he shrugged and what followed.

“You and I don’t need to make a decision so quickly. We can sleep on it. Alright?” You try to be comforting, smoothing out the lines on his disheveled shirt.

He seems to relax at this and nods. You nod in conclusion.

“I’ll be back.” He says, letting go of your hands and walking down the dimly lit corridor.

“Where are you going?”

He won’t leave you, right?

“I have to do something. I’ll see you back home.”

He leaves in a rush. It hit you then. Home. You were dreading returning to the apartment all this time because you were afraid of the confrontation.

You had planned on coming back sure, maybe yell at him or take Mickey as you’d promised, but the thought of having to confront his issues and your own made your stomach do somersaults. And not in the good way.

But it seemed to turn out fine. You sighed.

You and Steve barely got by as it is. Robin’s leave put more strain on both of you to come up with rent money. Neither you nor Steve were too content in your career choices, and God knows the place would get cramped with a kid.

It was hard to be an optimist in these trying times but you tried to hold out hope. Maybe things would get better. After all, you had new friends, you’d made new connections. Who knows where that would take you.

You wondered what your sister would say. For once, you valued her input in this.

Honestly, the thought of the future from this point on made your heart race.

Steve was capable of growth…..right?

Once Mickey was cleared to go home, you let out a breath of relief you didn’t realize you were holding. Things felt a lot lighter, it was a weight off of your shoulders. Though a tiny pebble by the name of Steve remained.

You carried your dozed pet out in your arms in the early hours of the morning, choosing to walk it home and avoid another Danny encounter.

It was a chilly week in November. The crunch of the leaves under your feet wasn’t enough to rouse Mickey awake but you kept count of how many you stepped on.

You don’t recall how long it took you to get home. It was most likely the autopilot in you flipping on, your head just too worried about other things at the moment.

You just know you’d made it home without a scratch. You kick away the pile of mail at the foot of your doorstep and take the extra key under the mat. Once you’re inside, the warmth of the radiator kicks in, letting your body relax after the tensing up of your muscles to keep warm outside.

You lay Mickey down in his makeshift bed, the foot tub with a mix of yours and Steve’s old shirts. He grumbles in his sleep, his tiny tongue peaking out in lazy and unconscious movement.

You shake off Jonathan’s coat and drape it over your body like a blanket and collapse onto the couch, too lazy to curl up into your own bed.

You shiver as you run your hands over your arms and cup your hands together to blow air into them. The tiredness from walking and overall excitement of the day weighed over you from the way you felt your eyelids start to fall.

You blink once, twice, and then fall asleep just in time to see Mickey kick and stretch his paws in his sleep.

Steve pants as he reaches the door of the room at the hotel his father’s staying at. He’d been too hasty to berate his future stepbrothers once he saw what they’d done to Mickey.

He knocks rapidly on the door, seeming like a madman to the couple who’s just leaving their own room and staring at him. He composes himself, zips his jacket up, and gives a faint nod as they pass him.

His dad opens the door a second later. “Hey kiddo, what’s with the commotion?”

“She’s pregnant.” Steve regurgitates your confession to his father. Don’s mouth falls open slightly.

He closes it and stammers. He turns to check on the kids in the room, seeing them preoccupied with the tv. When the coast is clear, he closes the door behind him and stays with Steve outside in the hallway.

“I - that was fast.” Don chuckles, feeling flustered for his son. “What did you tell her?”

“I ran here to tell you!”

Don’s hand comes up to pinch the bridge of his nose in disappointment.

“So you’re telling me, the girl of your dreams, the one you’ve been miserable over breaking her heart, just told you she’s pregnant and the first thing you do is leave her and run to me??”

Steve understands the gravity of the situation but he is stuck on the thought that he needed all the advice he could squeeze out of his father.

“Basically.” He says simply.

Don sighs. “What’s the problem, then?”

Steve’s shoulders slump. “I don’t know how to be a dad. In case you haven’t noticed I didn’t have the best model.”

Don nearly rolls his eyes.

“Is that really the reason, or is there another?”

Steve stays silent, contemplating while his eyes scan every inch of the hallway from the detail on the carpeting to the colors.

“I guess….I’m not happy with where I am right now. I’m pushing thirty in two years, I’m a bartender, everyone I know got married and I just feel like I’m out of time. But Dad, this girl. She - she’s everything I’m not. She’s spontaneous and funny and sarcastic and - I don’t know, sometimes I just feel like she could be doing so much better than me.”

Don places a hand on Steve’s shoulder and gently shakes him. “Hey, don’t say that. You’re a Harrington, you’re a catch!”

Steve half smiles at the encouragement.

“Steve, everyone progresses through milestones differently. No one knows what they’re doing. And if we’re being honest, I think you just have to find what you like and hold onto it. Something that makes you want to get out of bed every day and just take all of the bull that life throws at you because, at the end of the day, that something is always going to be there. Have you found something to do that for you?”

Steve nearly dissociates altogether as he falls deep in thought as his father speaks. His mind reeling the montage of memories his brain concocts like film.

He sees you the day you walked into the apartment and into his life, covered in dirty water from being sprayed by a taxi on the curb and taking it in stride and making jokes about it. He sees you dancing in the kitchen to god awful music he’d grown to love in a big shirt and long socks. He sees the way your eyes crinkle when you laugh hysterically at the prospect of trying to help him find dates. The image of you sitting near the radiator with a book in hand and your thinking face.

He thinks these past few months might’ve just been the best ones he’s ever had. Before he went and ruined it.

He didn’t think he would experience something like this after Nancy. He thought he could just run away from Hawkins and leave the bad memories there, but they crept up on him when he least expected it. His fear was not your fault.

He was done running and he was ready to grow.

“Yeah,” he nods. “I think I do.”

The phone ringing off the hook startled you awake. You sit upright, finding Jonathan’s coat at your feet and Mickey pawing at the phone cord. He wriggles his head side to side when he finally gets the cord in between his teeth.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” You mutter to yourself. You pick Mickey up with swift ease and pull the cord out of his mouth to pick up the phone.

“I’m up.” You announce somewhat sleepily into the phone.

“Good! I have news!” Nancy’s rapid-fire voice comes through and alerts you awake.

“Wait! I did it, Nance! I told him!”

“Oh, what did he say?”

“He….kind of took off.”

“He what?!”

“Okay to be fair, a lot has happened in the past,” you glance at your wrist to see you’ve been asleep for a while. “Five hours? Geez.”

“Okay, okay. Well, we don’t have to worry about this anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“The tests! They’re faulty! They’re recalling them for false positives or something. I don’t know but Kali just called to tell me.”

“Oh….” You trail off.

In a way, you're very relieved. And yet also a little disappointed. But very relieved.

“What’s wrong?” Nancy senses something’s off. “I figured you’d breathe a little better if you knew the truth.”

“No I am,” you say, cradling Mickey in your arm like a mom with a baby on her hip. “I don’t know, I guess I kind of made my peace with it.”

“Oh, well hey, maybe it’s a good conversation starter for both of you.”

You lean against the wall where the phone hangs, letting your furry son sit on the counter. “Yeah maybe. I mean, it was all too fast anyways.”

“Yeah! You have lots of time. Just take baby steps. I think slow and steady would put yours and his mind at ease.”

You had to agree. Time had to heal all wounds. You two had to start again, without interruptions.

You finish talking to Nancy, reassuring her that you’d need to get over the first wave of shock and tell him when he turned up. She offered to go over but you’d declined. When everything’s over, you collapse onto the couch again, slumping as far as your back would let you. Your stomach protruding a little from under your tee. You roll up the lower half of your shirt and let it sit above your belly button.

You prod your fingers at nothing, feeling odd and a little bit silly at the thought that there would be a little person in there.

Mickey whimpers.

“Looks like you’re the baby still.” You chuckle, scratching behind his ears.

The peace and silence are broken by the door swinging open to reveal an out of breath Steve. You straighten up immediately and pull your shirt down.

“Are you okay?” You ask, making a pass to reach for him but he sticks a hand out for you to wait as he regains his composure.

“I’m….fine…..just have to….talk...holdonaminute.”

He’s visibly sweating, beads of sweat on his forehead. He looks like he just ran track. His pants come to a slow until he’s back to normal. He puts his hands on his knees and it takes everything in you to not make an old joke for the sake of the seriousness of the situation.

He stands up straight, keeping his eyes trained on you, and with a softness in them, you feel at ease.

“I quit my job.” He says finally.

Your eyes widen. “You what?”

The confession hung in the air, settling in like the warmth of the radiator. He rushes to you and kneels before you can leap up off the couch and takes your hands in his.

“Hear me out. Before you get mad, just hear me out.”

“Okay.”

“I’ve done a lot and I mean a lot of reassessment about you, me, everything. If we’re going to do this, I want them to be proud of me. I want to be there for them as much as I can be. I’m starting over. At 28.”

You stifle a laugh but release it when Steve takes the initiative to laugh at himself.

“So….what are you going to be doing now?” You give his hands a squeeze, utterly terrified at the plunge he’s taking.

He looks as if he hasn’t planned that far ahead besides quitting. “I….don't know. But it’s, um, kind of cool. I get to see a bunch of different jobs. Find out what I really like.”

“And, what’s that?”

“You.” He smiles, the sight of it sending butterflies free in your stomach. “I like you. So, so much. You’re not hard to get at all, you’re hard to earn. I’d take that over any messy, drunk bridesmaid.”

You tilt your head, feeling the corners of your lips lifting and before you know it, you’re grinning like an idiot.

“And that’s why,” he says, his right hand leaving yours and digging into his pocket to bring out a plastic ring from the bubble gum machines in the laundromat downstairs, “I’m jumping in, all the way.”

“Steve…” You’re nearly speechless. “Oh my god, what are you doing?”

“I know it’s not perfect or big or shiny. But this is just a placeholder for now. I’m all in if you are.” He holds the ring with the pink gem in his fingers, waiting for you.

Maybe it’s the fact that ever since you started to see him in a different light since the start of the year, you’d determined that you’d follow him anywhere. Whether he’d have you or not. Even with his moods and awkwardness and clumsiness. He’d been scored on your heart. You’d marry him with paper rings.

“I’m not pregnant.” You reveal.

His face softens. “What?”

“Nancy called earlier before you came. The tests were faulty. I just wanted you to know that so that wasn’t the only reason you decided to do this.”

It was and wasn’t the reason. But in all honesty, he didn’t think he could bear to stomach the idea of not being with you or the image of you with someone else. He also doesn’t think starting over with someone else was the best idea, you two had been through so much in two years. You shared a particular connection. One that he now realizes he had been looking through seas of beige and silvers and golds.

“It’s not,” he titters, “I don’t care that we don’t have the meet-cutes or the chance run-ins. That’s not what love really is. I thought it was more complex but it’s so - simple. It’s about being comfortable with someone and wanting to hang out with them as long as it’s humanly possible….and just not trying to mess it up the way I did.”

Your heart swells. This is love for him. This is him planting his foot in the sand and not running away when the sea rushes for him. Anyone else would’ve ditched him the moment things got ugly. But you were nothing if devoted.

“Yes, Dingus. I’m in too.” You nod, overjoyed as you feel your eyes get watery.

Don & Mary’s Wedding

December 25, 1994

Hawkins, Indiana

“Okay, okay, how does this look?” Steve asks, fixing his tux for the fifth time that day.

You roll your eyes. “You look fine babe, honestly. We’ve ironed the jacket out twice. Any more and I think you’re going to set it on fire and then you’ll upstage the bride.”

Steve snorts, fixing the knot on his tie. “I’m sorry. I’m just so nervous. I can’t mess up the speech.”

You fix the starchy collar of his shirt. “I’ve heard it many times and I think you’ll do great. Just don’t think too much about it.”

“You don’t think it’s too late to back out?”

“I think,” You pull him by his tie close to your face to tease him. “If you can get through this, you can either have the best after-party experience or you can get the new fridge.”

Steve purses his lips, conflicted. “We do need a new fridge.”

You playfully smack his arm as you feign offense.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding.” He repeats, enveloping you in a hug.

“Whoa, whoa, easy on the goods.” You say, smoothing out the easily crinkled fabric of your dress.

“I’m always easy on them.” He jests, slipping in innuendo that you still find yourself blushing to.

“Alright, alright. Let’s go before they start guessing why we’re late.”

You climb onto his back and ride him piggyback all the way to the elevator. He goes over his speech one more time as you descend and tries to tell a joke at the end that doesn’t stick the landing.

You arrive just in time, settling at the table next to the newlyweds. You pat Steve on the shoulder, give him a glass, and wish him good luck. “Go get ‘em.”

He kisses you tenderly before he goes up on stage, feeling like a teen again the way his senses go crazy when he kisses you. He fumbles his way up the stairs to the microphone making you hold back a laugh. He composes himself a second later.

“Hey everyone! Thanks for coming. I’m Steve. Most of you know me as Don’s son. And if you’re wondering why I’m up here giving his best man speech, so am I.”

The crowd of family and friends laugh in unison.

Steve fixes his footing and his grip on the champagne glass tightens.

“The truth is, I put up a pretty big stink about all of this. I didn’t want to do it. To me, a second marriage was ill-advised. I mean, my parents’ divorce was pretty hard to swallow. But also, I just didn’t get it. I believed in things like fate and love at first sight, that once you found the one, that was the ballgame.”

He scans the crowd, passing familiar faces like Jonathan and Nancy, Dustin and Suzie, Robin and Kali, each one helping take the pressure off just a bit. He stops when he lands on you, your warm smile and thumbs up making him feel better.

“But the truth is, if you spend your whole life looking for something perfect, you wind up with nothing. See, there are many innings in this ball game and I don’t think it's about good timing or fate. It’s about trying not to mess up.”

He locks eyes with you for the last part.

“But you will mess up. No matter how hard you try, you’ll get in your own head. But if you can learn from your mistakes, you might just end up with something...even better.”

“I’d like to raise a glass,” He says, raising his cup along with everyone else. “Dad, Mary, congratulations.”

The guests applaud as Don is overcome with emotion and wipes at his happy tears and takes his son in a bear hug. Steve is taken aback by the sudden strength of his father and nearly drops his glass.

The party goes off without a hitch. Steve actually partakes in the festivities with pride and even makes an attempt to get to know his stepbrothers. He laughs at their awful attempts at jokes and bestows some girl advice when they ask him about you. Jonathan, Nancy, Robin, Kali, Dustin and Suzie all congratulate Steve when they find out what the pink stone on your finger means. You meet Steve’s mom for the first time, a charming and lovely woman who is eager to show you loose baby pictures in her clutch and embarrassing stories.

You wait on the sidelines watching as the new Harrington family take their family photos. Mary and Steve talk in what seems to be a sincere and sweet conversation. Don is trying to bribe the rambunctious kids with sweets if they can sit still for the photo. Jonathan glances from them to you.

“Hey,” He asks from behind the camera. “Why aren’t you in there?”

You open your mouth to justify it until Don speaks up.

“He’s right. What are you doing there? Come in! Come in!” He waves you over with encouragement until the entire Harrington gang begins to beg for you to jump in.

“Come in sweetie!” Mary cheers.

You’re about to make your way until Steve leaves the group and carries you over his shoulder. Jonathan smirks as he takes multiple photos, taking advantage of the candid moment. Steve’s stepbrothers singsong about you two kissing in a tree. The Harrington party make a mixture of sounds and cheers as Steve puts you down and wraps his arms around you in a prom pose. You go with it, feeling like you belonged in this crazy puzzle with other people. The little kids make a disgusted sound when you peck Steve on the cheek.

He kisses the top of your head in return and gives you a squeeze.

For the first time in his life, Steve’s not afraid of the future.

#steve harrington x reader #steve harrington imagine #stranger things imagine #joe keery x reader #joe keery imagine #aaaaannndd fin

124 notes · View notes

februaryflowers · 3 years

Text

hi!! so i hit a milestone and i want to say thank you so much 💓 while i’m a tad late i wanna open my requests again (and with a new(ish), longer prompt list to boot :3) as a thank you so here we go! (just please read the rules underneath before requesting)

squeezing someone’s hand

a trinket that reminds you of them

susurration - whispering/murmuring

cheek kisses

“why are you looking at me like that?” “like what?” “divine.”

mellifluous - sweet/musical, pleasant to hear

swings/swing set

waiting for them

reverie - the state of being lost in one’s daydreams

a tight hug and burying one’s face in their neck

追 zhui1 - to pursue, to do one’s most to seek/procure

saving mementos

“please, let me in.”

redevenir - to rebecome

“you know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” - dr. seuss

相合傘 ai ai gasa - sharing an umbrella (alternatively 愛愛傘 ai ai gasa - love-love umbrella)

basorexia - overwhelming desire to kiss

一日三秋 yi1 ri4 san1 qiu1 - one day, three autumns – a day apart feels much longer

swinging intertwined hands while walking

“good night.”

remembering little things

dolce far niente - pleasant idleness

“how do you like your eggs?”

gushing about them to someone but getting overheard

an arm around their shoulder

恋の予感 koi no yokan - the sudden early knowledge you are meant to fall in love with the person you’ve met

a warm blanket

“you’re the one i want to come home to.”

liberosis - the desire to care less

“my road towards you will never end” - seventeen (us, again)

缘分 yuan2 fen4 - fateful coincidence

feeling safe + comfortable in their presence

syzygy - a pair of connected things

“you/they’re my joy” “really?” “you heard that?”

matutine - of early morning

“i hope that in the future… we’re as close as we are now… always.” - ichigo takano (orange)

sleeping on their shoulder

learning/picking up something new for them

“is that mine?” “i thought it was mine.”

biting back a smile

laughing/smiling until your cheeks hurt

“my eyes open wide every night, i tried counting sheep ‘till i fell asleep. but you’re floating around in my endless imagination.” - gugudan (could this be love)

moonlight on water

“i thought you were busy.” “never too busy for you.”

smitten chuckling

staying up late

“we’ll get lost together, let me fall. don’t ever let me come down from your love.” - ten (dream in a dream)

“you didn’t have to get me anything.”

letting them win

trouvaille - a lucky find

“you and i today, now we shine even brighter” - kun + xiaojun (back to you)

couples’ items

heart shaped objects

“you’re everything to me.”

"you’re my escape.” - seventeen (your choice concept trailer)

epiphany - a sudden realization

seeing the stars in their eyes

a warm kiss on a cold part of their face

knowing all their little expressions and being able to read them

“i saw you in my dreams again. it felt so real.” - seventeen (your choice concept trailer)

meeting eyes from across the room

love letters/poems

a box full of mementos

“you don’t need to impress me.”

“you told me to dream good dreams now. i don’t wanna fall asleep without you” - taeyeon (galaxy)

missing their presence/warmth

allegro - lively, cheerful

pet names

roses

“heaven knows i’m falling. i can never be the same” - wayv (electric hearts)

“i love you endlessly.”

a soothing presence

“let me let you go, please.”

ebullience - exuberance, being full of energy and excitement

feeling lucky because of them

rules:

i will be accepting requests for the following groups: a.c.e, seventeen, victon, wayv

you may req with up to three prompts :3 (quotes from a person/group/song aren’t meant to be dialogue for the req just inspo/vibes)

however prompts from seventeen’s your choice concept trailer are dialogue prompts

i do not write smut and also reserve the right to not write things that make me uncomfortable/things i don’t feel comfortable writing

requests will be closed on june 26th at 11:59 pm est // 3:59 am gmt

i will delete requests submitted after this time

i anticipate being extremely slow so please forgive me if i don’t have your request up as soon as you’d like

you can check if i’ve received your request here!

i’m gonna try out a new way to write requests so your patience is appreciated 🥺

#a.c.e imagines #a.c.e scenarios #victon imagines #victon scenarios #seventeen imagines #seventeen scenarios #seventeen x reader #wayv imagines #wayv scenarios #wayv x reader #nct scenarios #nct imagines #nct x reader

28 notes · View notes

twomoonstwosuns · 4 years

Text

graduation.

back to you [series masterlist]

previous part · next part

pairing: professor!poe dameron x reader

warning: a swear word or two

word count: 3.3k

a/n: ok I have not proofread this, I wanted to get it up before I was out of town for the weekend! I hope you enjoy this, I can’t BELIEVE we’re almost at the end.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“Why are we standing outside the field house?”

“I’m watching them unload the truck. They’re hauling a thousand plus chairs into the football field for graduation tomorrow.”

You followed Jessika’s line of sight, watching as staff members moved rows of folded up chairs on dollies from the moving truck and into the back entrances of the football field. Jessika sighed heavily and you looked at her.

“Reminiscing already? We haven’t even graduated yet.”

“I’m not reminiscing,” Jessika said, not taking her eyes off the movers as she sat down on the grass. “I’m wondering how anyone’s going to be able to understand anything that’s being said across an open football field.”

You snickered as you sat down next to her, watching as they finished unloading the first set of chairs.

“What are you even doing here?” Jessika asked.

“I was on my way back from dropping off a paper and I saw you.”

Jessika nodded, shifting so her legs were outstretched in front of her.

“You ready for this?”

“Not at all. You?”

She shook her head. “Glad I’m not the only one.”

You bumped her shoulder against hers, a sign of support.

Finals were done. Final papers turned in, exams taken, and anything you had checked out from the library as a resource was returned. Packing had already begun for Karé, who was beginning to move things into Snap’s apartment. The lease for your apartment was up in July, still a month and a half to figure things out. But while Karé knew what she was doing, you did not.

You didn’t know what would happen when you moved out. Would you go home and live with your mom…almost an hour away from Poe? Or would you move in with him despite only being together for less than four months?

You didn’t know and it was making you anxious.

“Hey!”

Karé and Snap walked towards you hand-in-hand.

“What’re you guys doing here?” Snap asked as they approached you, looking over towards the field where you were just looking.

“Just…thinking about tomorrow,” you answered. “How’d you know we were here?”

“I used your location to find you.” Karé said.

“Okay, creepy.”

“Well, it was better than calling you and saying ‘where are you, we need to tell you something’ because then you’d be worried.”

You glanced at Jessika, the both of you standing up.

“Wait, what is going on?”

Snap sighed. “You remember that job I interviewed for at three weeks ago? I got it.”

“Snap! Congratulations!”

“They want to send me to their London office.”

Yours and Jessika’s smiles faltered. Snap looked at Karé and squeezed her hand. “We talked about it and we’ll be moving to London at the end of the summer.”

“Y—You’re moving?” Jessika asked quietly. Karé nodded.

“At the end of the summer. Which means we have three and a half months that we’re still here.”

You swallowed thickly and looked at Snap, who gave you a soft smile.

“We’ll fly you guys out there anytime you want. They’re starting me at a high salary so I can afford it…you know, because I’m kind of a genius.”

You laughed and shoved his shoulder. “Yeah, for a guy who was late to pretty much every class, you did okay.”

Snap chuckled and shoved you back and you smiled sadly at him.

“So?” Karé asked hesitantly. “What do you think?”

Jessika put her arm around Karé’s and put her head on her shoulder. “I think I miss you guys already.”

Karé held her arm out to you and you stood next to her, holding your own arm out for Snap. He stepped in, the four of you hugging each other like you’d never see each other again.

And so it hit a little harder when President Organa congratulated all of you and had you move your tassels to the other side of your caps.

Black caps flew into the air as cheering filled the air. The bright sun shone down over a thousand new college graduates as they celebrated loudly and hugged their friends, their college careers now at an end. Friends and family members stood and applauded their loved ones, wiping tears away as they celebrated a major milestone.

You hugged the friends that sat around you, the excitement and happiness eclipsing any other emotion you were feeling. Music started playing, a signal for the graduates to head out. You followed the line of black robes, looking amongst the stands for your Poe and your family, making eye contact with the latter and waving at them. The minute you got outside the football field, you thought up a meeting place for your friends to meet you for pictures and you grabbed your phone and texted both your family and Poe.

I’ll meet you guys by the fountain in front of the field house for pictures!

“Y/N.”

It was the second time you’d heard his voice call your name at school in a matter of months, only this time it didn’t make you angry. When you turned and saw your father standing a few feet away from you with his hands in his pockets, you felt nervous.

“You made it,” you said, giving him a soft smile that he returned.

“I did. Congratulations.”

“Thank you.” You took a step towards him, looking back at the direction in which you were just heading. “I’m, um…meeting everyone just over there if you want to follow me.”

“Actually, I was going to head out. I just wanted to see you before everyone else got here. We’re rebuilding our relationship and I want to take it slow, not put any pressure on you or make things more awkward.”

You nodded, the air around you becoming a little awkward.

“The ceremony was nice,” he said, the small talk of strangers nearly making you laugh at how ridiculous it seemed. “Kind of slow, though.”

“Oh god, so slow.”

He chuckled, the sound warm, familiar, and full of memories of easier times.

“So…how do you feel?”

You shrugged. “So far, if just feels like I’m going on summer break like I do every year. But I’m sure it’ll really hit me when I start working full time and when I don’t go back to school in the fall.”

“Do you have anything lined up yet?”

“Not yet, but I do have an interview on Thursday in Los Angeles.”

“I’m sure you’ll do great.”

A warm smile crossed your face and he reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope.

“Um…this is for you.”

You took a few steps towards him, taking the envelope out of his hand and opening it. Inside was a check, the amount big enough to make your jaw fall to the floor.

“I…I can’t take this…” You held the envelope and the check back out for him to take and he gently pushed it back towards you.

“Not everyone gets a job right out of college, let alone one they love and want to make a career out of. You can pay off your student loans and the rest of it will make sure you’re comfortable doing whatever until you do find that job…so you can start your life.”

Your lip quivered and you looked up at him with tears in your eyes. “Dad…”

“I was going to give this to you on your wedding day, but with everything we went through this year, everything I’ve put you through…I felt this was the more appropriate time to give it to you.” You sniffled and he put his hand on your shoulder. “This isn’t a bribery to make you like me again and I know it can’t make up for the hell I put you through, but you deserve it. I am so, so proud of you and I love you very much. And I’m so sorry for hurting you.”

He was taken aback when you wrapped your arms around him but soon returned the hug, kissing the top of your head as a few tears trailed down your cheeks. You looked up at him and wiped a stray tear away.

“Thank you.”

He nodded and gave you a warm smile. Stepping back, you started to fan your face with your hand.

“Crap, I can’t remember if I put on waterproof mascara this morning.”

He chuckled, taking an opened pack of travel tissues out of his pocket.

“I shed a few tears watching you walk across that stage,” he admitted as he took one of the tissues and dabbed under your eyes. “You did indeed put on waterproof mascara.”

You smiled as you wiped the remaining tears from your cheeks. He put the tissues back in his pocket and looked at his watch.

“I should go, let you meet up with everyone. Coffee next week?”

“Friday morning ok?”

He nodded and you gave him another hug, kissing his cheek as you did.

“I’m so glad you made it. And thank you so much for the gift. it’s…more than I think I deserve.�� He put his hand on your cheek. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Y/N.”

He kissed your forehead before leaving and you watched him until he was lost amongst the bustle of

students before continuing to the designated meeting place. Tallie and your mom were already there, looking around for you until they finally spotted you.

“There you are!”

You walked into your mom’s embrace, followed by Tallie, who’s seven month pregnant belly was making it a little harder to hug. When you pulled back, your mom put both your hands on your cheeks.

“My baby all grown up and done with college!” You giggled and rolled your eyes playfully.

“Where’s Chris?”

“I sent him ahead to start getting things set up at the park,” Tallie said. “So…where’s the boyfriend? I’m dying to meet him.”

“He’s probably saying congrats to other students or talking to other professors. He’s a popular teacher. I told him we’d meet up here and if he misses us then to just come to the park.”

“‘Popular’, huh?”

“Shut up, Tallie.”

“Girls…” Your mother’s warning tone made you shut your mouth. Looking at Tallie, you muttered an apology and fiddled with the envelope in your hand, forgetting for a moment what it was.

“Can you hang onto this for me?” You held the envelope out to your mom and she glanced at it as she took it. “It’s a gift. From dad.”

She smiled softly and placed it in her purse. “So he made it.”

You nodded.

“And? How do you feel?”

“I feel….okay.” You smiled softly at the memory of the interaction that had happened just moments ago. “It felt normal. I hugged him, which I know doesn’t seem like a huge thing…”

“It is though,” Tallie said. “You really struggled with this. It’s a good first step.…”

She trailed off in the middle of her sentence and you furrowed your brow.

“Tal?”

“Okay, don’t look now, but there is a very handsome man looking at you and walking towards us.”

You looked where she was looking behind you and smiled when you saw the one other person you were waiting for.

“Excuse me a sec…”

You ran to Poe as fast as your wedges would let you and you jumped into his arms, hugging him tightly. He kissed you sweetly, knowing your family’s eyes were on you. You didn’t know if people around you were seeing you kiss your professor and gossiping. And quite frankly, you didn’t care if they were. You were too happy. Poe pecked your lips several times before setting you down.

“Congratulations, baby. Cum laude, huh?” he asked, smiling widely and tugging on the extra cord around your shoulders. You nodded bashfully.

“Yeah…your girlfriend’s smart.”

He chuckled. “Well, I knew that already. Guess I just didn’t know how smart.”

You giggled as he flirted with you, the butterflies you felt in your belly the moment you met him still very alive. Tallie called your name and you glanced back at them, biting your lip nervously as they looked at you expectantly.

“It’ll be fine, Y/N,” Poe said reassuringly, rubbing his hands up and down your arms. “Unless you want to wait.”

“No, I don’t. I’m just nervous….but let’s do it.”

You grabbed his hand and he gave it a reassuring squeeze as you walked over to your mom and sister.

“Mom, Tallie, this is my boyfriend Poe.”

He smiled warmly and shook Tallie’s hand before your mom’s. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, I’ve heard so much about you.”

“Good things, I hope.”

“Nothing but good things.”

“Oh bull, I’m sure she’s bitched about me one time or another.”

You shot Tallie a look like ‘what the hell?’ and Poe chuckled. “Well, that’s what sister’s do, right? I’m an only child so I’m just assuming.”

Tallie smirked at him. “No, you’re right. I’m just giving her a hard time.”

You ran a hand down your face, your cheeks tinting red in embarrassment. The sound of your name made you turn your head and you saw Jessika, Karé, and Snap walking towards you. Your mother immediately opened her arms for your friends and hugged them tightly.

“Can we do a few pictures here before we head over to the party?”

Your mother opened her mouth to answer but Tallie cut her off.

“I’ll take them. Mom, you talk to Poe.”

You glared at her as Jessika pulled you over towards the fountain. As Tallie took pictures, you kept glancing at Poe talking to your mother and looking for any signs of disapproval. They smiled politely at each other and even laughed a little bit and the more they did it, the more you relaxed through your pictures.

“So…” Tallie asked when she finished up taking pictures. “What are you and Poe doing now?”

You waved at your friends as they rejoined their families, promising to meet you at the park later for your party. “I don’t know.”

“Are you moving in with him?”

“Probably not. I don’t know.”

“What do you know?”

“I know I have a job interview in L.A. next week on the same day Poe has his job interview.”

“L.A. Really? Does Poe know?”

“Yes, he does.”

“What’re you going to do if you get it?”

“For god's sake Tallie, I don’t know. Enough with the interrogation.”

“I’m not interrogating, I’m just asking—“

“I literally just graduated, we don’t know what’s happening yet.”

“Girls…”

You sighed heavily and looked at your mom, who had interrupted her conversation with Poe to give you and Tallie a second warning tone. You weren’t interested in hearing a third one. Tallie’s phone pinged in her hand and she looked at it before looking at you and your mom.

“It’s Chris, he says the food is just arriving, we should get going.”

“I’m gonna stop by my apartment and get different shoes but I’ll meet you guys there.” You looked at Poe, who took his car keys out of his pocket. “We’ll meet you there.”

Your mom kissed your head and waved at Poe before heading towards the parking lot with Tallie in tow. She shouted a very loud “no quickies!” back at you and you flipped her off as she disappeared towards the parking lot.

“I’ll go grab my car…since you’re coming over to my apartment after the party anyway.”

You smiled and nodded, pecking Poe’s lips before heading in the direction of your apartment. It was a short distance away and you took the time to look around as you walked.

You thought about your first few days on campus, how nervous you were that you weren’t going to make any friends and make all the wrong decisions that would get you kicked out. You remembered the first party you went to, how you got so embarrassingly drunk so quickly that you were the laughing stock of your dorm hall for weeks. You remembered staying up until five in the morning with Karé and Jessika listening to Karé talk about her first date with Snap…and now they were moving to the other side of the world.

So much growing up had been done in four short years and you regretted making fun of Jessika for reminiscing the day before. It was exactly what you were doing now.

You got to your apartment and quickly found your sandals, changing out of them and grabbing your sunglasses. Poe was already outside your building when you got back down to the entrance.

“Beebs!” You exclaimed as you got to the car. You had seen the little dog’s head through the back window but thought maybe it was a reflection of something else.

“I figured he could run around while we enjoy the party, get him some fresh air and room to run around. He’s good off the leash.”

“Tallie is going to love that, she loves dogs.”

He smiled as he put the car in drive, but you put your hand on his.

“Wait…can we just sit a minute?” Poe nodded and put the car back in park as he looked over at you.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, just…the last half hour was so rushed with meeting up with people and pictures and I just want to relax a minute.”

“Just not too long though, otherwise your sister will make jokes about us being late.”

You giggled as you leaned back against the seat, closing your eyes and sitting still for a minute. Poe put his hand on your knee, rubbing it so slowly you’d thought you’d fall asleep. When you finally re-opened your eyes, you gave him a soft smile and nodded.

“Okay. I’m good now.”

He gave your knee an affectionate pat and pulled away from the curb in the direction of the park.

“I want to ask you something.” Poe glanced at you and raised his eyebrows and you turn to look at him. “So, I’m graduated now…”

He chuckled. “Yes you are, that’s why we sat through that three hour long ceremony with the same speeches I’ve heard four years in a row now.”

“Oh ha ha,” you said with a smile. “Anyway, graduating means I won’t be going to school here or living on campus…I guess what I’m asking is what we’re going to do…”

“Well…I’ll make it really simple.” You swallowed hard and he stopped at a red light and looked at you. “I love you and whatever happens with you finding a job or moving back home, I still want to be with you. We’ll find a way to make it work, we’ve done it all year long.”

Sitting back in your seat, you gave him a small smile.

“Well, good. I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

Poe shot you a humored smile, his eyes lighting up.

“When do you fly to L.A.?”

“I leave very early Thursday morning, interview at 10a.m, then lunch with Finn, and then I fly home. I should be home like 8ish…if you want me to come over.”

“I always want you to come over.”

“Then I’ll come over and you can tell me all about your interview and I’ll tell you about mine.”

He pulled up to the park where you could see people gathered just a few hundred feet away. The trees were full and bright green, a stark contrast to the last time you had been at the park. The abandoned ice rink was a few feet away, the middle of it brown and unappealing to the eye from the mud and puddles that took up most of the space.

“Think I can convince you to go ice skating again this winter?” Poe smirked as he eyed the empty ice rink.

“Only if you catch me when I fall.” You sputtered out a laugh as you internally cringed. “I’m sorry, that sounded so cliché, like ‘don’t chase me unless you’re ready to catch me’ nonsense. But seriously, do not let me fall on my ass.”

“You watch too many romantic comedies.” You nodded because he wasn’t wrong. The cheesy plots and pick up lines were comforting to you. “Besides, I thought I told you I liked the bruises on your ass.”

You shoved his shoulder and he laughed as he caught your arm and kissed you. You giggled against his lips.

“Shut up, lets go to the party.”

tag lit [open] - @ah-callie @darksideofclarke @gloomygoregirl @leilei-draws @imaginecrushes @i-ievu @brianamaree @yeeintensifies @spider-starry @krazykatkay456 @milleniawrites @afootnoteinyourhappiness @easterncryptid @my-child-gaara @myrandom-fandomlife @onebatch--twobatch @the-cry-of-youth @p3nny4urth0ught5 @porgiez @umchrisevans @galaxy-of-stories @seeking-a-great--perhaps @behindmyeyes-insidemyhead @dameronsgalaxygal @mserynlarsen @yougottakeeponkeepinon @linibirdimagine @hannie2k @starrykitn @liadamerondjarin @april-14-blog @damnyoudameron @cloud-leader @demigod-dragonrider-schoolidol @xremember-me-notx @obiwanownsmyass @princessxkenobi @yourbucky084 @frietiemeloen @softly-sad @xxidontwikeitxx @roserrys @clairesmunchkin @justanotherblonde23 @angelicadameron @millllenniawrites

#poe dameron x reader #poe dameron x y/n #back to you series #poe dameron fanfiction #modern au #modern poe dameron #poe dameron fluff

137 notes · View notes

bucky-of-the-opera · 4 years

Text

Put a Little Boogie in It

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: A night out with friends leads to a horrible, wonderful mistake.

Warnings: language, alcohol

Word Count: 2,323

A/N: This is for @captain-rogers-beard follower milestone One Hit Wonder Challenge! My song is “Mickey” by Toni Basil

You were several episodes into a marathon binge of your latest Netflix show when you heard a knock at your door.

“One second!” you shouted as you struggled to unravel yourself from your cocoon of blankets. You opened your bedroom door to find Natasha fully dressed for a night out.

“What are you doing?” she asked coolly.

“Watching the new season of –”

“Not anymore,” she said, cutting you off. “We’re going out.”

“Where?”

“There’s a new bar opening tonight, and I need a designated driver.”

“Can’t you use one of Tony’s drivers?” you groaned.

She smiled sweetly at you. “But you’re much better company.”

You rolled your eyes. “Fine.”

“Great. Now put some pants on, and meet me in front of the elevator when you’re ready to go.”

You looked down at your exposed legs and tugged on your oversized sweatshirt as Natasha walked away.

“So much for a cozy night all to myself,” you muttered as you shut your door and started getting dressed.

A little while later you emerged from you room and found Natasha waiting by the elevator.

“Took you long enough,” she said as she pressed the down button. Seconds later the doors opened, revealing Bucky Barnes leaning against the back wall of the elevator. He looked surprised to see the two of you.

“Evening, Barnes,” Natasha said as she moved to stand next to him.

“Romanoff,” he responded.

She pressed the button for the garage level. As she did so, she noticed no other button was lit up.

You scuttled inside before the doors shut, standing on his other side. “Oh, hi Bucky!”

“Hi, Y/N.” He gave you a quick once-over, his gaze lingering on your outfit. He normally saw you in combat gear for missions or in comfortable clothes for exercising or lounging around on a day off. “You look…nice.” His cheeks blushed a bit as he continued. “Where are you two headed?”

“Nat’s dragging me to a bar.”

“I thought you were planning on watching some new show all night. I explicitly remember you telling Steve you were off duty for the foreseeable future until you finished it.”

“And now she’s helping a friend in need,” Natasha interrupted. “By the way, Barnes, it seems you forgot to select a floor.”

His cheeks grew even hotter. “Oh, uh, you’re right.”

Bucky pushed a random button and then shoved his hands in his jacket pockets.

The rest of the ride was endured in silence until the elevator stopped at Bucky’s floor. He walked through the doors as you called out to him. “Have a good bight, Nucky.

Natasha had to bite her lip to hold back from snickering.

Your eyes widened as you quickly corrected yourself. “I mean night! Have a good night, Bucky!”

Bucky smiled as he turned around to face you. “You have a good bight too, Y/N.”

The doors shut once more as you slammed your hand to your forehead.

“Interesting,” Natasha said.

“What is?” you asked, annoyed.

“Oh, you know. Just you and Barnes.”

“There is no ‘me and Barnes’.”

“If you say so,” she said, unconvinced.

You huffed in response and left the elevator when it reached the garage. The two of you had just started walking when you saw Maria Hill heading your way.

“Where are you off to, all dolled up?” Natasha asked.

Maria smoothed down the front of her blouse. “I was supposed to be meeting someone tonight. But the guy cancelled last minute. Again.”

“Why don’t you come out with us?” you asked.

“Well, I am already dressed for the occasion. Why not?”

“His loss is our gain,” Natasha added as she whipped out her phone. “Our driver will be here any minute.”

You turned to look at her. “I thought I was driving?”

“You were,” Natasha said. “But now it’s a party.”

***

“What are we drinking to?” Maria asked as she picked up her glass.

“To Tony, for sponsoring tonight’s event,” Natasha winked.

The three of you clinked your drinks together before sipping from your glasses.

“So,” Natasha began, “who’s this mystery man you were supposed to see tonight.”

“No one, really. We’ve only gone out twice,” Maria responded as she swirled her drink. “What about you two? Anyone new and exciting in your lives?”

“Not me, but…” Natasha trailed off as she glanced at you.

“Why are you looking at me like that? I’m not seeing anyone.”

“Are you sure?” she continued. “Not even a certain 100 year-old cyborg?”

“Of course not! And he’s not a cyborg.”

“Are you talking about Sergeant Barnes?” Maria asked. “I didn’t realize you two were –”

“We’re not! We’re just friends!” you exclaimed, cutting her off.

“But you want to be something, right?”

“Is this why you asked me to come out? So you could badger me about Bucky?”

“No, of course not,” Natasha paused, “well, maybe a little. I can’t help it; this whole will-they-or-won’t-they routine is killing me.”

“What are you talking about?” you asked, confused.

She sighed. “I’m talking about the way you’re dancing around your feelings for him. It’s blatantly obvious to every else that you’re infatuated with him.”

You turned to Maria. “Is that true? Does everyone think I…like Bucky?”

“I mean, I’m not around as much as Natasha and the others. But from what I’ve seen, it does seem like you, uh, care for him quite a bit…”

You groaned and buried your head in your folded arms. “I’m going into hibernation when we get back. No one will see me for the next few months.”

Natasha chuckled and patted your back. “There, there. Aunt Nat is here to make all your worries go away.”

You snuck a peek with one eye and saw her slowly push a shot glass toward you. You sighed before grabbing the drink, downing it, and slamming the glass back on the table.

“There you go,” Natasha smiled. “Nothing a little alcohol can’t help.”

“Alcohol is only a temporary fix. I’ll still have to live with the fact that everyone knows I like Bucky.”

“Don’t you think he likes you as well?” Maria asked.

You fiddled with a thread on your sleeve. “I’m not sure.”

Natasha leaned forward. “Well, lucky for you, I’m very observant.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, I see all. Including his pining for you.”

You scoffed. “I don’t believe you.”

“Take tonight, for instance. Bucky was coming to your room to confess his love for you.”

“Natasha,” you warned her.

“All right, I don’t know if that’s why he was coming, but he was definitely on his way to see you.” She took a sip of her drink, leaving you in suspense. “He was surprised to see you dressed up and leaving the compound.”

“That’s because I told Steve I was confining myself to my room to –”

“Let me finish,” Natasha said. “There was no button lit up besides the one I pushed.”

“He already said he forgot.”

“Or he had pushed the button for your floor and was heading for your room when we caught him on the elevator.”

You traced the rim of your glass with your finger. “Hmm, maybe.”

“Not to mention all the times I’ve caught him staring at you. Much like the times I’ve caught you staring at him,” she grinned.

You groaned. “Okay, that’s enough. I don’t wanna hear your theories anymore.” You lifted your empty glass. “Can you just get me another drink?”

“That, I can do.”

***

A few hours later, you and Natasha finally arrived back at the compound after Tony’s driver had dropped Maria off at her place. There was no way you were going to be able to make it back to your room by yourself, so you leaned on Natasha as she led the way.

She closed the bedroom door behind her when the two of you finally reached your bedroom. After carefully placing you on your bed, she searched your drawers for pajamas.

Meanwhile, you pulled out your phone and opened Pandora, scrolling until you found the 80s Pop station. The app buffered until a song finally started playing.

You gasped. “I love this song!”

“Really?” Natasha asked.

But you had already started singing along. “Oh Mickey, you're so fine. You're so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey! Hey Mickey!”

Natasha rolled her eyes as you continued singing to the song. Halfway through however, you had a revelation.

“Natasha!”

“Y/N!”

“You can replace Mickey with Bucky, and the song still works!” You sang more to prove your point.

“Oh Bucky, what a pity you don't understand. You take me by the heart when you take me by the hand.”

Unbeknownst to you, Natasha was already recording your new rendition of “Mickey” as you danced on top of your bed.

“Oh Bucky, you're so pretty, can't you understand? It's guys like you Bucky! Oh, what you do Bucky, do Bucky! Don't break my heart, Bucky!”

After you had come down from your momentary high, Natasha left so you could finally sleep. But before you did, your phone dinged. Natasha sent you the video she had taken of you.

You watched a bit of it before deciding to send it to Maria, thinking she might find it funny as well. You turned the sound on your phone off before crawling under your covers and finally dozing off.

When you finally woke up, you felt like shit. I’ve gotta stop drinking with Natasha, you thought. You headed into your bathroom to freshen up.

Minutes later you came back to sit on your bed and checked your phone. You saw a text from Natasha asking if you were still alive. You also saw that you had apparently texted Bucky at almost four in the morning. When you opened the message your heart dropped. Apparently in your inebriated state, you had sent the video to Bucky by mistake.

Your first instinct was to call Natasha. The phone rang twice before she picked up.

“She’s alive!”

“I sent the video to Bucky!”

“What?”

“The video from last night! I accidentally sent it to him!”

You heard nothing for a few seconds, and then Natasha burst into laughter.

“This isn’t funny; I have to move now! Or fake my own death! I can’t face him. Please Nat, you have to do something.”

She exhaled to try and catch her breath. “I think this could actually be good for you. Expressing your feelings for someone can be hard; but luckily for you, your drunk self did it for you.”

“But I didn’t want to tell him!” You collapsed back onto your bed and mumbled into your phone, “I just wanted to watch my show.” You ended the call and pulled your blanket back over your head, eventually drifting off again.

A loud knocking on your door roused you from your slumber.

You groaned. “No one’s home; please leave a message!”

“It’s Bucky.”

Your breath caught in your throat. You rolled onto your side with your back facing the door as you pulled your knees closer to your chest.

“Y/N, can I come in? Please?”

“It’s unlocked,” you said softly.

The handle turned and Bucky slowly entered the room, closing the door behind him. He sat down on the edge of your bed, his back to you.

He sat in silence for a few moments before speaking. “I went on a jog with Sam earlier today. He told me a corny joke that I think you would’ve appreciated.” Bucky glanced over his shoulder at you, but you were still facing away from him. “How do you make a tissue dance?”

Several seconds passed until you finally answered, your voice muffled by the blanket. “You put a little boogie in it.”

He smiled. “So you’ve heard that one? How about this one: What do you call a fake noodle?”

“An impasta.”

Bucky shook his head. “I swear, you and Sam have the same sense of humor.”

“We have the best sense of humor.” You rolled onto your back to look at him, the blanket resting just below your chin. “Did you come up here just to tell me some jokes?”

Bucky adjusted himself so he could face you. “Yes. But also because I missed your face.”

You failed at trying to hide your smile. “I missed your face too.” You sat up, letting the blanket drop to your lap. “I’m sorry about the video. I blame alcohol.”

He chuckled. “I never knew you were such a good singer.”

“Can we just forget about this whole thing, please? It’s embarrassing.”

Bucky moved so he was sitting next to you, his arm pressed against yours. “I won’t bring it up, but I want to keep the video.”

“Why?!”

“Because it makes me laugh. And because you called me pretty.”

You crossed your arms and pouted. “I didn’t call you pretty. My drunk alter ego called you pretty.”

“But you think I’m pretty too, right?” He nudged you with his elbow.

“You’re gorgeous,” you said in a flat tone, making him laugh. You sighed. “If you promise not to show the video to anyone else, you can keep it.”

He crossed his heart. “Promise.”

“I need a real promise,” you said, holding your pinkie out to him.

He squinted at it before locking his pinkie with yours. “I promise.”

“Thank you.”

His eyes met yours. “Ya know, I think you’re pretty too.”

You tried to pull your hand away but even the grip from his pinkie was too strong to break free of.

Bucky moved his face closer to yours, making your heart race. He stopped just mere inches from you, giving you a chance to pull your head back if you wanted. But instead you moved forward as well, your lips meeting his for the briefest moment. When you pulled away, you saw him grinning at you. You smiled back at him before burying your head in his shoulder.

Don’t break my heart, Bucky.

#mimi's one hit wonder challenge #bucky barnes #bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader

113 notes · View notes

marcilled · 3 years

Text

5 years

It was 5 years ago today that a humble little minecraft server first opened its gates. 5 years ago, I started @quixol with a team of 8 friends. Today, only 4 of those original friends are still on our Staff team, and the server is a shadow of its former self.

There’s a lot I could talk about with Quixol, but before I get into it, I just want it to be known that this is a highly personal post from me. This isn’t an official announcement, but seeing as I’m an admin, it’s definitely of pertinence if you are someone who is a part of the Quixol community.

If you’re new to following me, or just don’t know what I’m talking about: Quixol is a trans-friendly minecraft server started by me and a few pals back on November 16, 2015. It’s primarily populated by folks from here on Tumblr, and is an LGBT+ only community. Over its 5 years, it’s gotten over 1600 unique players. And... Well, there’s a lot of history that took place during and after that, I can’t hope to summarize it here. You can see more on the about page on our blog.

So, yeah. Today is the 5-year anniversary of Quixol. Pretty big deal! And... we have nothing in store for today to celebrate that huge milestone. Pretty big bummer. The prior 4 years, the anniversary was the single biggest celebration of the year. We typically tried to schedule large server updates to coincide with the anniversary, just to make it feel that much more special. So, on the day that marks a whole half-decade of being online, why do we have no plans? It’s a long, complicated story. I’ll only be able to tell you my side of it. Everything written below is from my perspective, and doesn’t necessarily reflect how others think or feel.

Regardless of the lonely feeling on the server now, I just want to say, I’m really glad I could host such a fantastic community for so many years. Thank you everyone who has made the past half decade so special.

Long retrospective below (plus, discussion about Quixol’s future):

-----

Where to begin... All I can say at the start here is, don’t expect anything coherent, I typed this up while sleep deprived just the night before posting this, without much forethought of what I’d say in it. I just feel I need to get these feelings off my chest before I can mentally move on, you know.

Before I delve into this, I just want to put this sort of disclaimer at the top here: Despite how gloomy I make things sound throughout this post, Quixol is and was an amazing place, that I’m so glad to say I got to play such a pivotal role in. I wouldn’t trade my time here for anything. It’s been an honor to serve as an Admin over such an incredible community. I’ve seen countless new friendships forged, plenty of laughs and fun times to be had... I’ve even known several couples that met through their time on Quixol, I’ve known several people that came out or discovered more about their identity/gender/sexuality while on Quixol. It’s a great community, despite its flaws, and what we did over these past 5 years is nothing short of spectacular. I’m forever thankful for everyone who helped make this place as special as it is- you’ve all been such great friends. Thank you.

While I may speak a great deal about some of the lowest lows that happened on Quixol, you better believe it had some of the highest highs as well. Keep that in mind, so you know why I’m spending this much time and effort to commemorate this server that I’ve called home for so long.

I’ll start here with a rough timeline of Quixol... I’ll even include some screenshots for you all.

Old World (Nov. 2015 - Mar. 2017, mc 1.8 - 1.9)

Quixol began back in 2015 like I mentioned- whitelisted at first, but moved on to being unwhitelisted at a later date (I believe it was summer of 2016). Hundreds of people joined after the whitelist was removed, in just the first month or so. We owe that initial success to how much our blog post about the server got shared around, it served as a nice advertisement for the server. It was only posted to tumblr, so everybody who joined then was from the same sort of social sphere of 2016 tumblr. It was pretty lively, and we made lots of friends very quickly. A lot never logged in again after the first initial burst, but a fair amount stuck around.

The server started on minecraft version 1.8, which was before the end update that introduced elytra & all the controversial combat changes. Most people never even saw the server on this version, though, since it was still whitelisted when we updated to 1.9. The world we used back in 2015-2016 eventually got deleted at a later date, however we did provide an archive of this old world to download, it’s... somewhere on our blog, you can go find it if you poke around a bit. (Assuming the download hasn’t been removed from the website I uploaded it to, which would make sense since it’s just 20 gb sitting on some server doing nothing).

While there was plenty of merriment, there was also the fair share of drama. I can’t even hope to recall all the drama that happened in 2016, but one of our og mods got banned completely after the rest of the staff sort of woke up to the realization they were incredibly abusive. There’s lots of other stuff that happened then- I wish I could tell the “full tale” as it were, but it would be so long-winded that almost nobody would bother to read. Plus, my memory isn’t very good, so I would need to dig through old blog posts, discord messages, screenshots, etc etc to jog my memory... way too much work.

Protos (Mar. 2017 - Nov. 2018, mc 1.11 - 1.12)

2017 came around, and that’s when we updated the server to 1.11 and created a new world (Protos). That update happened on March 26, 2017- I remember because march 26th is my birthday, and the other staff made a cute little celebration for me on that day and I literally cried from how happy I was. It was the nicest thing anyone’s done for me in a long time. (God, I miss those times.)

A lot more happened during this time period, and honestly I’d consider the period in which Protos was our main, active world to be the most consistently active the server has ever been. It wasn’t always exploding with activity, but the people who joined and played during this time were consistent. And we had a relatively consistent influx of new players.

There was a lot more drama that happened during this time... More staff members left, mostly of their own accord (but never on a wholly positive note). Drama amongst some of the veteran/long-time players, arguments over how to interpret and enforce our rules.

Regardless of the troubles, I’d say this period was overall quite positive for Quixol. We even brought in our first batch of new staff members during this period.

Ghalea (Nov. 2018 - Present, mc 1.13 - 1.15)

I believe late 2018 was when we updated the server from 1.12 to 1.13. We rushed the update to this version quite a lot, which was a shame since it ensured the server had an egregious amount of bugs to work out, and lots of missing plugins/functionality. With this update, we made another new world (and, our current main world): Ghalea.

Regardless of buggy behavior, we managed to hit what I believe is the all-time peak concurrent player count we have ever gotten, which is something like 54-56 players playing at the same time. The server chugged so hard, I’m surprised it didn’t crash. All of those parties were so stressful to put on, but at the same time, incredibly fun and fulfilling to see when lots of people showed up and had a good time.

Funny, though: despite the success of the server, 2018 and early 2019 are the closest the server has ever gotten to absolutely tearing itself apart from internal staff drama. By early-mid 2019, several staff members ended up getting banned one after the other. So that left us with very few staff by that point (only 6 active staff, myself included, if I remember correctly).

2019 should have been a great year for Quixol, seeing as it was what many people referred to as the “minecraft renaissance”, “the great minecraft revival”, etc etc etc. However, the drama amongst the staff, coupled with drama in our personal lives, and just an all around lack of staff members to kick things into gear, resulted in a pretty lackluster year compared to the previous 4 years.

Despite all of that, we worked tirelessly to complete our greatest project yet, Chroma Park, just before our 4th anniversary on Nov 16th, 2019. It took a whole team of builders to complete, and several months in preparation/building.

With such a grand project completed, you would expect it would result in a flurry of new activity on the server... unfortunately, it ended up being almost the opposite. Because we called upon our “build team” to help with it, (several talented veteran players who volunteered their building skills), nearly all of our active players suffered some serious burnout after the major project they just completed. Lots of people just weren’t feelin’ up to minecraft anymore... And, that spelled the beginning of the end, really.

The culmination of this was that, going into 2020, activity on the server just... plummeted. Then, we all know what a shit year 2020 turned into. That just furthered feelings of burnout. I made another personal post about this, back in April- explaining why I had been relatively absent from the server for a while. It goes into more detail about the “hiatus” at that time, what caused it, why it continued so long, and how my personal feelings were at that time. Give it a read if you want. It even goes more in-depth about some of Quixol’s former staff, and how toxic behavior from them may have negatively impacted the community (especially in 2018-2019).

So, basically nothing has happened on Quixol in 2020... I took the time to update the server from 1.14 to 1.15 back in July, just so that the server was on a more stable version of minecraft- but all the effort poured into that resulted in basically nothing happening. Barely anyone even noticed, because it was such a minor update focusing on bug fixes. I hoped it would get the ball rolling again, but it just wasn’t enough.

While I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel just yet, I decided it was for the best if I put any plans on the backburner for a while, and focus more attention on building infrastructure back up again. I spent some time researching sysadmin stuff, and looking into upgrading my PC. I set up a new discord bot that we’re currently using on Quixol, & have in a few other discord servers I’m active in.

Then, I got tossed one of the most difficult months of my life in a long time pretty recently. It’s very recent/fresh, but suffice it to say, a decent chunk of what made it such a horrible month was related to drama within the Quixol friend group, particularly... me being a shitty friend. I made another post about this a while back, but I won’t link it since it’s a bit vague and not super relevant to what I’m talking about here. Just know, September this year pretty much demolished any feelings of hope I had for continuing work on Quixol.

So, that leads us to... Today. The 5th anniversary of Quixol.

Where did it all go wrong?

Now that I’ve laid out as quick a summary of the past 5 years as I could, I want to talk about some of the mistakes we made along the way. The people that made Quixol what it is, and how that history always seems to tie me down.

To tell you the truth, saying that “it all went wrong” sounds horribly pessimistic to me. Sure, I felt pessimistic going into writing this, but... Just looking back on everything we’ve accomplished, there’s never really a point where it “went wrong”. Moreso, Quixol has had its fair share of flaws baked in from the very beginning. But, perhaps those flaws are what made it what it really is. I can’t go back and change the past, and neither can you. Perhaps the best we can do is just accept Quixol for what it is, and acknowledge its shortcomings while allowing ourselves to feel happy about the good memories we do have.

While I’m not going to cast away every pleasant memory I have of Quixol, I must admit I find so many of them tainted and forever changed, just because of how many people entered this community, made their stay known, then left or were cast away on a sour note. There are countless people that were a huge part of Quixol, of my life, my friends, that I don’t speak to anymore. People that hate me. Maybe even some that I hate.

If I go back and think fondly of those times, I remember how the people in those memories largely don’t think fondly of me anymore. I remember all of my mistakes, all of the ways I could have avoided that outcome. All the ways I could have worked with those friends, to work out our differences, to just fucking communicate. Sure... some of those friends, there was nothing I could do for them. Nothing I could do to make things work. But, all the same... it stings, thinking of everyone I used to know. Not knowing who is still a friend, or who simply has no need for me anymore...

So much of Quixol’s history is tied up in knots this way. Complicated webs of emotion, suffocating in the tethers to its past. So many things built on the server, just wasting away, never to be touched again... New players won’t even know it. They don’t know, can’t know the history behind those blocks that were placed. It sounds a bit silly talking about it this way, but that’s how it feels to me. There’s real history behind each of these blocks, all of the little farms and structures and silly signs. So much of it, nobody even knows. But it wears on my heart, knowing all of that history, and feeling so disconnected from it. Feeling cast away by the people who forged those memories.

It’s a disconnect that’s always hurt, to me. Maybe I’m just too sentimental, nostalgic. Maybe I cling to the past too much. But it feels impossible to ignore... So much of what made Quixol what it is today was left there by people who want nothing to do with me, us, anymore. What does that say about Quixol? About me...? About our group?

There’s a lot I could say about this, but it’s stuff I’ve mentioned before. I hang on too tightly to the past, and am often too critical of my own mistakes. But, sometimes the past is just the way it is, and there’s not much that can be done about it. Regardless, I find myself feeling regrets about every little thing that went wrong, and thinking about where all those people are now... Maybe one of them is even reading this right now. If you’re out there, hey. We can still talk. I’m not going to hold a grudge on you forever. It’s ok.

My influence

Since Quixol began in 2015, I’ve tried my best to be nothing more than an “Admin” of Quixol... not the “owner” or “lead admin” or “founder”, just “admin”. I hoped I could encourage the other admins to be leaders in their own rights. While each of the admins we’ve had has been great leaders in their own respect, I feel that every one of them has been, unfortunately, tied down by my influence to some extent.

In most aspects of life, I’m a very timid, indecisive person. I’m incredibly anxious, and lack confidence to a worrying degree. However, a different side of me can be seen in the safe, comfortable environment that Quixol provided for me. Surrounded by friends and people who I felt really got me, I became comfortable enough to show some level of confidence in myself... In all honesty, for a long time, I was never able to recognize this self confidence for what it was. I really was not, and mostly still am not, used to feeling confident in myself or my own abilities. Like, at all. So when I actually feel good about myself, like I actually know what I’m doing... Well, for a really long time, I didn’t even process it as such. I just felt like I knew the right answers, and that was it.

On Quixol, this often manifested in a specific way... Being proud of my own knowledge & skills with minecraft, I would insert myself into any discussion about Minecraft, the server, or just anywhere I could, and offer up my knowledge, opinions & help. This hardly sounds like a problem, but... The problem was just in my unwavering presence. I was everywhere on Quixol, you couldn’t escape me. I dominated the space with my presence. Not that I interrupted people (usually...?), I just would try to put myself anywhere a conversation was happening, assuming it was, like, appropriate for me to do so on some level.

Whenever I chimed in with my thoughts, eventually there became this sort of air of almost... superiority about it. This feeling that my word was “final”, or that I had some layer of expertise on everything, and that if I said what you said was right, that was a pretty good indicator you were on the right track. I didn’t pretend like I was infallible, and I don’t think anyone ever saw me as that. But the perception was generally that if Vivian says it, that holds weight to it. Perhaps this is somewhat unavoidable of a staff member, but... it was this way even amongst the staff.

I never really realized that I was creating this environment within the community, because it happened rather slowly. But as things moved along, other staff began to pick up on this (perhaps subconsciously). Including even the other admins. Quickly, my own insistence on doing things a Specific Way, became “the Right Way” to do things on Quixol... Whether I intended it or not.

Now, this is something I didn’t know until quite recently, but I actually have OCD (undiagnosed, but it’s glaringly obvious to me at this point). My ocd comes out in minecraft, and specifically Quixol, quite a lot. I have very ritualistic ways of doing things, whether it be while building a project in-game, to managing specific parts of the server- we have a very detailed format in which update logs are written, and I have very specific rituals related to updating plugins on the server, taking backups, etc. Even just the way I play survival minecraft has sorts of rituals in a way, like specific patterns in which I place torches. I’m not too educated on ocd, so excuse me if I’m using some terminology of this wrong, or if I’m spreading some sort of misinformation about it. This is just my experience.

Anyhow, with the extremely regimented way I manage things on the server, coupled with my constant presence in things, you can understand how this might lead to other admins, who have their own mental illness issues, to become very averse to doing a lot of admin-related duties. After months and months, years, even, of this sort of stuff... and... yeah. That leads to where we are now.

With my selfish behavior in the past, I’ve unintentionally created this staff environment where people are reluctant to make their own decisions, show their own creativity, etc. And that must feel incredibly frustrating if you actually want to do something to make a difference on Quixol...

I’m not even accounting for all the times I’ve butted heads with the other staff before, either. While much less frequent, I’ve definitely had arguments with folks in the past. And with the great amount of influence I hold over the server, it takes a lot of courage to stand up to what I say.

I’ve always resented that I hold this position of power over everyone else, and tried many times to address it. However, I don’t think I ever quite had a full picture of why things were this way. Now, I think I understand it better. Sadly, it feels too little, too late to make any significant changes without uprooting pretty much everything we have set in place already. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m being too pessimistic here... But, this is how I feel at the present moment.

I’m sincerely sorry to any current or former staff members, who have wanted to do something great for Quixol, but felt they could never convince me to go through with your idea... Or who felt pushed away from doing something they otherwise would’ve liked to, just because the attitude I gave, the environment my presence created, made you feel like you weren’t good enough or qualified enough to do it. You are good enough. I’m so sorry that my actions made you convinced otherwise...

I will say, this sort of mindset of mine, that I have to be the Most Right about anything relating to minecraft, or any hyperfixation/special interest of mine, has caused problems elsewhere, too. I talked about this in another post I made. I’ve only really come to realize all this stuff within the past few months, but I’ve been a really terrible friend to a lot of people. I never even realized until recently just how often I struggle with empathy, and how that’s colored so many of my friendships. Needless to say, it’s affected things on Quixol before, sometimes without me even realizing it.

My influence over the community also means if anybody’s relations with me in particular ever become marred, it must inevitably result in them leaving the community because there’s simply no escaping me. There’s not really anything I can do about this, though, aside from doing whatever I can to become a kinder, more

I’m far from a perfect person, and my imperfections seeped into so much of what made Quixol what it is. However, it’d be silly to suggest that I’m the singular reason that Quixol is flawed, if anything, that would be another form of arrogance- assuming that I singlehandedly shaped the way Quixol took form. No, it was always a team effort, and every single staff and community member held great influence of their own.

The Future

This part is probably why many of you clicked on this post... You want to know what’s going to happen to Quixol. You likely noticed I’ve been referring to Quixol in the past tense a lot in this post. Honestly, I’m not sure why I did that, it just felt the most natural to type it that way. But, I will be honest- the future of Quixol right now isn’t looking very bright.

This is a personal post, so I don’t want to deliver any sort of formal announcement about plans for Quixol here, especially since I haven’t run this post by the other staff before posting it.

For the past 2 and a half months, I’ve been taking a very long break from Quixol. Much greater than any previous break of mine... I’ve neglected to even log in for weeks at a time. I still keep an eye on the discord server, and check the mc <-> discord bridge channel to see which players have been logging in. But I have little to no motivation to play, even just casually.

While I’d love to give you some fun cool news about how this hiatus is ending soon and I have a million and one projects planned, that simply isn’t the case. I’ve gotten to this point where I’m rethinking everything about myself, who I am, and what I’m doing with my life. Surely, I can’t dedicate all my time and energy to running a minecraft server for the rest of my life, even though I do care deeply about this community. But at the same time, it’s not really my call to shut down Quixol, and I’d hate to pull the plug just because of my own lack of motivation.

So, for the time being at least, you can probably consider Quixol to be on a sort of “indefinite hiatus”. I am generally the one to update plugins, do major server updates, etc., and I likely won’t be doing any of that any time soon. I fully entrust the other staff to handle that stuff if they really want to, and I’ve expressed that to them already. But as things stand, nobody else seems to want to pick up the torch right now. Shit is rough for pretty much everyone, and we’re all equally burnt out. We’ve all grown up quite a lot since Quixol began, too. So... Don’t expect anything anytime soon.

If there are any updates, they’ll come in our Discord server first.

As for me, personally... I just need time away from all of this. It’s clearer than ever to me that I have a lot of personal problems I need to work on, and I think that the cozy safe environment provided by Quixol didn’t challenge me enough to really address those issues. I need time to focus on myself & my own growth. At the same time, I also feel like I need more experience being a part of a team, instead of just running the show. I’m not getting the kind of enrichment I need from running Quixol, so I’m trying to turn my attention elsewhere.

I’m doing this not because I want to abandon you guys, or because I feel like I want/need to move on from this community. It’s just... Something I need to do, for myself. And I’ll still be around, I’m still gonna be posting to my tumblr & twitter and stuff, and you can still reach me on discord. I’m just focusing my time elsewhere for once.

What does that mean for the future of Quixol? I don’t really know yet. But, for now, it’s not going anywhere. It’s just... also not changing anytime soon. Not even a little bit. I’m sorry to give you this disappointing news, but I hope you all understand.

I miss the good times on Quixol, too. I really do. Maybe we can share them again sometime? Who knows...

For now, that’s all.

It breaks my heart that we don’t have anything glitzy and glamorous to do to celebrate Quixol’s 5th anniversary... But it would be asking far too much of the staff to set anything like that up right now. Maybe we can have some sort of celebration later...? I dunno.

I hope you’re all staying safe & healthy out there. Thank you so much for reading this. I love all of you.

Happy birthday, Quixol.

#vivi bleats #txt #Quixol #long post

15 notes · View notes

zigtheeortega · 4 years

Text

to hell and back

✿ pairing: logan x mc

✿ word count: 4174

✿ warnings: mentions of violence from book one & angst

✿ tags: @diamondsless ; @agentsewell ; @violinet ; @messofakind ; @hudush ; @roguemal ; @troublemakerinspace ; @choicesarehard ; @litgpop ; @auroraemery

✿ author’s note: i’m incredibly nervous to post this, as this is my first ever logan fic so please be gentle! i got the idea for this fic after watching portrait of a lady on fire, after being reminded of the myth of orpheus and eurydice, which if you haven’t ever heard of it, read up here! the idea of a forbidden love always breaks me but i’m a sucker for punishment, so i thought i’d apply that myth to future logan x mc (my mc’s name is raquel). i hit a follower milestone, too, so i thought i’d celebrate by pushing myself out of my comfort zone! woo![disclaimer: i’d never want to accidentally upset anyone by writing him ooc, so if you have any pointers, please dm me]

•─────────✦✿✦────────•

He was the last person she’d expected to hear from. It’d been years. Her life was finally getting back on track, and she was moving on.

She white-knuckled the steering wheel, her hands slick with sweat, and peeled out of the parking lot of her dorm, leaving her world to enter his again.

Some days, her time with the Mercy Park Crew felt like a distant dream, a day dream she’d conjured while bored at school. Other times, she’d reminisce on his specific features to make sure she’d never forget what he sounded like, how he looked, how he felt.

Some days, she’d zero in on his eyes, the way the brown tones were multidimensional, layered, and how dark and full his lashes were, shading his dilated pupils when he’d stare at her lips before leaning in for a kiss.

Other days, she’d focus specifically on his hair; the strong coconut smell of his deep conditioning mask, which he unabashedly used, a secret she swore to keep, and the silky feeling of his thick waves beneath the pads of her fingers.

She’d spent years mulling over her time with the Mercy Park Crew, spilling tears every time she came across her prom photo with Logan, so often that she had to lock it up in a journal she’d filled long before. She was used to the feeling of a choked sob, the tension in her lungs and the soreness that came after a good cry: a comfort so familiar to her that it was one of the only things that reminded her she was alive – that she was human.

She’d spent so much time grappling with her morality, the guilt of her involvement weighing heavily on her for her entire freshman year. The depression that came with it was unrelenting, the loneliness of moving across state lines settling in almost immediately. The nightmares were worse.

They came as quickly as they went – in short blips, interwoven with her worst memories. It wasn’t unusual for her to wake up in cold sweats, vivid details of bullets ripping through flesh, the metallic smell of blood burned into her memory.

She often woke up trembling, panting, always quick to muffle her cries with her pillow as to not wake her roommate.

She spent the majority of her first year in isolation, a self-inflicted punishment for the people she’d harmed in such a short span of time. Thankfully, her roommate was rarely there.

She was homesick, but not for Los Angeles.

No matter how much she wanted to go back, she wouldn’t allow herself to go. Not for holiday breaks or summer.

For the first year, her chest felt like a gaping wound, and she struggled with aimlessness, the thoughts of her purposelessness a constant mental burden. She toed the ledge, always close to jumping but never committed.

It took intense therapy to get her to a safe distance.

She slammed on the brakes, the red hue of the brake light in front of her the only thing warning her to stop. The burst of adrenaline she got from almost rear-ending another car was the most she’d felt in a long time.

She had chased the high relentlessly, either isolating herself completely during depressive episodes or throwing herself into high risk situations to feel something – anything.

Driving had become a utility to her, transportation and nothing more.

She associated the exhilarating sensation of pressing the gas pedal until her foot was nearly pointed, the smell of burning rubber, her tangled, windswept hair caught in her lip gloss – with Logan. It was wrong to try to recreate it without him.

When she’d left for Langston, she’d never looked back. Partially because she felt like she had nearly nothing anchoring her to L.A., but also because her last semester had a sense of finality to it. The crew vanished without a trace, and her inhibitions returned.

It took her five days of driving and stopping to make it to the campus. Her once intimidating, tightly packed car barely filled her half of the shared dorm room. And once she was on campus, she rarely drove anywhere, unless absolutely necessary.

She clung to the hope that she’d be able to find a crew of her own in undergrad, and that she’d hear his voice again. Envisioning Logan’s lips enunciating her nickname gave her a rush close to adrenaline, but not quite.

The soft pattering of rain on her windshield drew her out of her reminiscent thoughts. She blinked, glancing around the pitch black road, searching for a road marker. She flicked her high beams on, bouncing off of a distance marker. “Greenwood – 13 miles”.

He’d called at nearly midnight, his voice trembling, quiet, the bass of his voice keeping him from a true whisper. “Raquel, I need you.”

His tone was pure fear, the four words dripping with the subtext of a flubbed deal, a job gone wrong.

She kept the same phone number, clinging to the belief that maybe, just maybe, she’d hear her name roll off his tongue one more time.

It took three years for her to hear his voice again. And he was terrified.

She’d spent three long years dealing with the aftermath of the spring of her senior year of high school. A couple months of living in a new world had left a lifetime of damage, and she’d come out of it changed. The damage had festered, so much so that she had to seek help.

She’d promised herself that if she ever saw him again, she’d stand her ground, and try to pull him out of the deep end. She was strong willed, and well intentioned, that much she was sure. She learned so much about herself during that last semester, and she was grateful for it.

And all of that was abandoned the second he spoke her name.

She turned off the highway, and after a long stretch of backroads framed with gravel driveways, the bar came into focus. The open sign flickered, overshadowed by the numerous draft beer logos shining brightly around it.

The parking lot was nearly empty, a couple of reverse-parked pickup trucks scattered across the gravel. The muffled music met her ears, barely audible over the electric bug zapper near the entrance.

She still couldn’t get used to the muggy, swampy weather of the east coast, much less the mosquitoes and the irritating itchiness of a fresh bite.

The chill of the air conditioning hit her before her nerves did. With nothing but a few bills, her driver’s license, phone, and determination, she’d set out to save him. She hadn’t even prepared.

What was she supposed to say to the one person who burrowed his way into her subconscious and never left? The one that she was forced to live without, even though she craved daily him like the sweet bitterness of nicotine, the fleeting high enough to keep her coming back, no matter if it’d eventually kill her.

In the back booth of the dingy bar, she saw him.

She noticed the stubble first, so foreign from the smooth tanned skin she remembered running her fingers across. The dark circles under his eyes aged him, the years of trauma finally catching up to him. It’s like his light was dimmed; she thought he was broken before, but whatever healing journey she’d had, he’d endured the opposite over the years.

His cheeks looked hollow, like he hadn’t eaten in days. From the look of his greasy hair and dirt stained white tee, he’d been on the run nonstop.

“Logan?” She called out, just loud enough for him to hear.

He met her eyes, and for a brief second, they were empty, devoid of emotion, just long enough for her to notice, before they filled with tears. He jumped up from the tattered booth seat: grabbing her in a crushing hug, burying his face in her neck.

He murmured her name into her neck over and over, like he couldn’t believe she was real. She wrapped her arms around him, his familiar warmth bringing her to tears.

And they stayed like that, enveloped in each other, not a single thing around them mattering, except the feeling of being in each others’ arms after years apart.

When she pulled back to look at him, he stared at her lips, and ran his thumb across her chin. “Hey.”

“Hi,” she breathed, her arms snaking around to his front, and she grazed the tight muscles of his torso.

A drunken man shoved past them towards the restrooms, taking her out of the moment.

“Should we sit?”

He nodded, sliding onto his side of the table. “Do you… want a drink, or?” He asked, a bit nervously.

“No, I’m driving.” She fiddled with the braided keychain attached to her car keys, pulling at the frayed edges.

“That’s the responsible Raquel I missed,” he chuckled, breaking the tension a bit. He took a deep gulp from the beer bottle in front of him.

“I missed you so much,” she sighed, watching his face intently, committing every new detail to memory, tucking it away for later.

“I missed you, too.”

It was a hard conversation to initiate, much less navigate. She was still deciding if he was real – she’d dreamt of the moment she’d see him again, and it wasn’t anything close to what was happening.

She’d daydreamed of him pulling up to her dorm, parked out front like he did when they first met, as cliche as it sounded. Donned with the same white tee and jeans, he was leaning against the car (in her dream she pictured a convertible, so she could watch how beautifully the wind’s rough caress styled his hair, able to tousle it in a way a pair of hands never could), a smirk on his face, his arms folded, but his body language was never uninviting. He was relaxed, untroubled, as she kissed him, and they drove off into the sunset. A cliche, but at least they were both happy.

“So…” she started.

“I know you have a lot of questions, but I don’t know if I can answer all of them right now,” he finished, apologetic.

“Why not?”

“Let’s just say that… subter-fudge doesn’t always work to get you out of sticky situations.”

“You mean subterfuge?”

“Okay, truth be told I’ve never used that word in my life, but it was the word of the day on this dictionary app I have. And I was saving it for a good time, but I think I fucked it up,” he smiled, shaking his head.

She reached across the table, covering his hand with her own. “Let me get this straight. You not only learned a new word to use on me, but you have a dictionary app? You know you can just Google words, right?”

He shrugged. “I try to learn a new word as often as I can. It’s not much, but I feel smarter, even if I never use the word.”

“I thought it was cute.”

He chuckled, tracing his thumb across her knuckles. “You’re just trying to flatter me because I messed up.”

“No, I’m flattering you because you tried… and I missed you,” she said, squeezing his hand, the roughness of his skin comforting to her.

“God, I missed you more,” he whispered, eyes roaming over her face. “You really answered after all that time?”

“Yeah, of course. I knew you’d come back for me, eventually,” she smiled, burying the years of grief underneath the momentary gratification.

Her life since meeting and leaving Logan had been a probability. The numbers were infinite, the outcomes varied. She thought her psychology class would’ve been more rough on her mentally, but numbers didn’t lie.

Her calculus and statistics classes had been terrible – not just because she had to work twice as hard for a good grade in math classes, but because the problems so well translated to her life.

There were so many times that she could’ve died – so many times that she could’ve gone to prison for working with “criminals.” So many times that she jeopardized her future. And she was offered a way out, to start fresh.

But as many times as she tried to scare herself into feeling lucky and grateful for being steered back onto her path to success, she felt hollow. She had a one in a million chance of getting out of that life alive, but she had a one in a million chance of meeting Logan, too.

There were millions of people in Los Angeles County – she could’ve gone her whole life without knowing him, blissfully ignorant to the rough underbelly of the city she’d grown up in.

He changed her from the second he met her. Her probability split down the middle, branching into paths and subpaths, and multiple more until each move she made was critical. And the moment he left, she clung to him, despite the probabilities of them ever meeting again slimming more and more with each passing day.

He squirmed a bit, looking uncomfortable. She could tell that he was holding back. “Look, Raquel, I have to be completely honest with you, or it wouldn’t sit right with me. I know you haven’t seen me since you left for college, but… I’ve seen you.”

Her breath hitched in her throat. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, all of the jobs I’ve taken since leaving L.A. have been on the east coast, so I could stay close to you. To protect you.”

It shouldn’t have been music to her ears, but witnessing those words fall from his lips filled her soul with a sensation she could only describe as tranquility.

Her first year of college was riddled with depressive episodes, but the ensuing paranoia that came after she was reminded of The Brotherhood was even heavy, even more suffocating. She watched her back so much that her body was covered with bruises from the times she’d run into door frames, trash cans, people, sometimes causing her to trip and fall.

She was so unhealthily fixated on all of the possibilities and outcomes that she withdrew, not wanting to be the reason anyone close to her was harmed. She spent so long worrying that it nearly ruined her.

But hearing that he was always there, close enough to keep her safe, alleviated her, renewed her, replenished her. It nearly undid the hurt, minus a critical detail.

“Why didn’t you reach out to me?”

“I couldn’t… hurt you. The crews I ran with… it would’ve –” he cut himself off with a shake of his head, throwing back the bottle to finish it off.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, Logan,” she whispered, watching his labored breathing, like he was so close to crumbling before her eyes.

“No, I can handle it. It just might take me a few tries to get it out,” he smiled weakly, gripping her hand, and she held firm, grounding him.

“Truthfully, I wanted to call you. You don’t know how many times I typed your number out and deleted it. I know your number by memory now.

“I was already here by the time you moved in. I’d been recruited by one of Teppei’s old friends, if you could call him that. He seemed like a great guy at first, but…” he trailed off, pained.

“It got really bad. This guy said he never worked with the same crew twice, and I thought since he kept calling me back that I was special.” He laughed curtly, the familiar look of brewing rage bubbling beneath the surface. “It was stupid, but each time he kept pushing me into doing more than I bargained for. I did a lot of things I couldn’t stomach, but by the time I realized what I was doing, I was already getting orders for the next job.”

He watched her hand on his, refusing to meet her eye.

“I always thought I’d dip when things got too rough, but I couldn’t give up being so close to you.”

“You didn’t run?”

“I told you I was tired of running,” he grinned, and it seemed alien on his gaunt face – like it’d been so long since he smiled he’d forgotten how to do it.

“So, what are you doing now, then?”

“Running.”

He said it so matter-of-factly, so deadpan, so pragmatic, that she knew not to pry. He was at rock bottom, and she was his only way out.

“What can I do?” she asked, no hesitation, ready to throw herself in the line of fire for him.

“I just need a ride to the used car lot on the other side of town. I have cash and someone there waiting to sell me one, so all I need is a ride.”

“You could’ve just called a cab or something, though. Why do you need me?” She prodded.

“I don’t know if you’re gonna like what I’m gonna say,” he hesitated, clearly torn.

“I can’t like or dislike it if you don’t tell me.”

He sighed. “Well, this might be the last time I can see you… for a while.”

“Can’t you just hide out and wait out till it’s safe? You can’t leave now, I just… I just got you back,” she choked, panicking and grieving all over again.

“I have to. There’s a pretty hefty warrant out for me. And I’ve got people looking for me. I can’t drag you into that,” he said, solemn.

“No, you can get out, Logan, we just have to plan it out. We can beat this, we just have to try,” she whispered, vision blurring with tears.

“Hey, hey, Raquel, it’s okay, I’ve accepted it,” he soothed her, reaching out to stroke her face, swiping his thumb across the streaks of water the teardrops left behind. “I just wanted to see you before I left.”

“Logan, I can’t say goodbye again. I just got you back,” she repeated, the familiar sense of dread creeping in, her chest tight.

“I can’t. I’m in too deep.” And he left it at that.

He left a tip, and they walked to the car, hands intertwined. She wanted so badly to just talk – to catch up on the years he’d missed, to make him proud, but it wasn’t the time. There’d never be a time. Being together in that moment was precious, every minute counting.

She’d have to memorize every second; they would have to last her a lifetime.

“Do you want to drive?”

He chuckled in response, a spark of his old self coming back. “Nah, I’ll be doing enough of that. I really missed seeing you behind the wheel.”

They slipped onto the warm leather seats – the moist air left over from the rain had seeped into the atmosphere of the car. She cranked up the AC, sweat beading on the back of her neck.

She peeled out onto the gravel backroad, not knowing what to say next. Thankfully, he leaned forward to tap the volume knob, turning on the radio, but the soft hum of the engine drowned it out, white noise in their silence.

He slipped the dog tag from around his neck, ruffling his hair, and placed it on the neck of the rearview mirror. It dangled, catching the occasional light of the passing streetlight.

“Is that a new necklace?” she asked, watching it sway as she turned onto the ramp to merge onto the highway.

“I hope you don’t think it’s weird.”

“I think we’re past that.”

“After I gave you my last necklace, I wanted something of my own to remember you by, so I got this done,” he rotated the piece towards her.

“Troublemaker” and her phone number was carved into the metal, scratched and slightly rusty.

“Oh, Logan,” she breathed, gripping the steering wheel harder. She couldn’t tell him bye. She’d just gotten him back.

“I want you to keep it.”

“No, you need it to remember me by, like you said,” she forced through a sob, the composure she’d thought she’d had a grasp on crumbling with each syllable that fell from his lips.

“I don’t need it, Raquel.”

“If I take it it means that…” she couldn’t say it.

“That it could get ugly. And I might not ever come back for you.”

“I want you to, though, Logan. I’m so close to finishing college, and I’m going to start med school soon, and I’m gonna have a great job, and I can take care of us and I–” she cut herself off, crying, her body heaving.

“I’m so proud of you,” he whispered, and was met with the calloused pads of his fingers on her jaw.

“I can’t do this without you.”

“You can. You’re way stronger than you think. I know you made it through some hard ass classes without anyone’s help,” he joked.

“You are too.”

“This isn’t about me anymore. It was never really about me,” he said, tracing a hand down her shoulder to rub the nape of her neck lovingly. “I know you never moved on. Hell, I didn’t really let you move on since I was secretly playing bodyguard for years. But this time I’m serious. You’ve gotta let me go, Troublemaker.”

“You know I’ll never do that,” she laughed feebly.

“You have to at least try. For me.”

She didn’t answer him. She pulled off of the highway, begging for the car to break down, for some divine intervention to happen to prove that they deserved to be together.

When she parked in the empty lot, the only light coming from her headlights and the flashing streetlight, he turned to her, a softness in his haggard appearance.

They stared at each other, drinking in every inch of their bodies. She wanted to remember him as bright, more vigorous, more alive.

And before she knew it, their lips were on one another’s, fervent and hungry. He smelled exactly the same, and she breathed him in, lacing her fingers in his hair, taking full advantage of their brief moment of solitude.

He parted his mouth, tasting her, groaning. They kissed over and over, reacquainting themselves. It morphed into her breaking down, yet again, kissing and embracing him over and over, trying desperately to reclaim the moment as healing. But she couldn’t see it that way, even as he whispered affirmations in her ear, reminding her of all of the things he loved about her.

The rain picked up again, tapping insistently against the windshield, setting a much more soothing ambiance than the situation called for.

Finally, she leaned back, so unwilling to part from the warmth of his arms. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” he breathed, wiping his cheeks with the back of his hand. “I need to hit the road so I can make it over the state border by sunrise.”

“Logan…” she whispered, begging. “I know we can make this work.” She sounded like a broken record, proposing empty ideas with no solutions. She knew there wasn’t a solution, but she preferred empty words to the stinging slap of the truth.

“I’m a fugitive. You’re going to be a doctor. I can’t compromise that. It’s selfish.”

“But I want you to be selfish,” she clasped his hands in hers, holding it to her chest. “You know I’d do anything for you.”

“That’s the problem, Troublemaker. I can’t let you do that,” he brought her hands to his mouth, kissing her knuckles once, twice, before unlocking his door, and stepping out. “You were always too good for me, Raquel.”

He circled to the front of the car and smiled at her one last time, the tears in his eyes glimmering, reflecting the headlights. She watched the rain dot blotches all over his ratty tee, clinging to his form, and it made her wish she’d been able to see all of him.

Then he turned, and walked further and further into the lot of cars, his form becoming hazy before disappearing completely.

And she couldn’t stop him.

Probability always won in the end – the numbers didn’t lie. She could’ve seen it coming from a mile away, but she didn’t want to see it.

She was paralyzed in fear, knowing that there was no way she could save him from the hell that’d engulfed him, but refusing to believe it.

#playchoices #rod logan #choices rod #logan x mc #my fic #jade writes choices fics

76 notes · View notes

lokispettigerr · 4 years

Text

2,000 Followers Celebration!

Today I hit a milestone; 2,000 followers! This excites me and brings me so much joy. I want to celebrate this with you all, as a way to not only have some fun and connect with you all but also to give you thanks for being my readers! I want to celebrate this with a writing challenge! So let’s begin. ***There will be a special prize given away! Keep reading for more info!

How does this work?

The rules:

Put an ask in my askbox with your request, this is the only request I can accept.

Below are three categories from which you need to pick one of each.

Once you submit your chosen categories, I will then write a 500-800 (give or take) drabble on your submission.

Your requests can be submitted between now and 3/31. After that, I will begin to write!!!

I ask you be patient with me while I work on your submission.

The categories:

1. Choose a character from this list (these will be X reader fics):

Loki

Geralt of Rivia

Tom Hiddleston

Henry Cavill

2. Choose your content:

1. Smut (you can specify if it is normal, dub-con, non-con, or other kinks, etc) 2. Fluff 3. Angst 4. Aesthetic Relaxation (check my masterlist for these, they are generally those that are very relaxing) 5. Whatever you would like!

3. Choose your prompt (You can choose your own prompt but here are some examples you can choose from)

“Bend over, I’m not kidding.” (requested by xoxoarts)

“Look at me. Now.”

“You know how to make me cum, so do it already.

“Slap my ass again and I’ll make you fuck me _______ (in a certain place).”

“I like it when you call me a drunk whore.” (requested by littleredstarfish)

“You’re wet? I won’t believe it till I see it.”

“That’s what I am, right? Your cock slut?”

“I’m really hard/wet and I’m gonna die if you don’t do something about it ASAP.”

“Don’t hold back, baby.”

“I can make you cum harder than that.” “Try me.”

“Your parents would be royally disappointed if they saw what you have on right now. Even more disappointed at what I’m thinking about doing to you.”

“Oh, the things I’d do to that pretty mouth.”

“Make it hurt, baby.”

“I’m going to die if you don’t let me cum.”

“How about we do something different tonight?”

“You’re so fucking sexy when you do that.”

“Oh. Keep doing that.”

“Don’t stop, please don’t stop.”(Requested by scorpionchild81)

“Just for that, I’m gonna suck your clit ‘til you go blind.”

“I’m too busy.” “I’ll be quick, I promise.”

“Not to make things weird, but I thought about you when I came last night.”

“You’re really bad at hiding how turned on you are.”

“You better muffle yourself with a pillow then, because I’m not stopping.”

“Try to stay quiet for me. Can you do that?”

“Spread your legs. I want to feel how turned on I made you.” (requested by rougepetale)

“I want to watch you take off your clothes.”

“You look so beautiful tied up to my bed,”

“I want you to be rough with me, please leave marks on my skin,”

“Say my name,” “Louder,”

“I love hearing you moan,”

“I want to hear you beg for it.”

“I want to kiss every inch of your body before I fuck you,”

“I don’t have the patience to remove your clothes right now,”

“Were you just touching yourself?” (requested by anon)

“I love how your body loses control when you cum.”

“Spank me,”

“Are you trying to turn me on right now? Because it’s working.”

“I’d hold on to something if I were you.”

“You’re really going to make me beg for it?”

“Are you going to eye fuck me all night or are you going to do something about it?”

“You’re so sexy when you’re all hot and bothered.”

“Fuck, I love the sounds you make.” (requested by rougepetale)

“Please… Don’t stop.”

“Please. I need you. Now.”

“Get on your knees.”

“I know all of your weaknesses.”

“If you don’t like my teasing then why are you moaning?”

“I’m gonna fuck you so hard that you forget you ever even met that asshole.”

“I know for a fact that you can be a hell of a lot louder than that.“

“You make a sound and it’s game over baby.” (requested by anon)

“If I have to pull over, you won’t be able to walk for the next week.“ (requested by anon)

“Can you feel what you’re doing to me?”

“Don’t think I’m letting you get away with that, darling.”

“The things that I want to do to you, baby.”

“You’re going to regret that, sweetheart.”

“I may or may not have left some….marks.”

“Really? You wanna have sex….here? Now?” (requested by thereisa8ella)

“do you like that? like being in control?”

“Are you sure? Once we start, i might not be able to stop.”

“You’re in trouble now.”

“Tell me what you want.”

“Bite me.”

“Could he make you feel as good as i do?”

“If i have to stop what i’m doing, you won’t be able to walk for the next week.”

“I haven’t even touched you and you’re already this wet.”

“Tell me again.”

“Don’t ruin the sofa.” “Ill just have to cum inside you then.” (requested by anon)

“You know, you always look so much better when I mark you up.”

“You look so good with my hand wrapped around your throat.” (ladyyyglittersparkles and anon)

“You don’t have to be gentle with me, I don’t break easily.” (requested by anon)

“Maybe if I punish you it’ll help you remember who you belong to next time.”

“Such a needy little thing, aren’t you?”

“You look so good on your knees like that.”

As an extra special gift to you all for being readers and as a way to say thank you, I am going to do a prize drawing. Each person can enter ONE TIME ONLY by reblogging this post. The prize will be either an already written fic of your choosing printed and signed by me and sent to you with a special note OR a submission you created for this celebration. Just be sure to make note of it and let me know that you did that if you are chosen as the winner!

Rules:

You must be following me on this blog @lokispettigerr. If the blog you reblog to is not following me, it will not count.

You must be 18 years or older to enter.

You cannot enter on a giveaway blog.

You can enter until March 31, 2020 by 11:59pm ET. 3 different winners will be randomly chosen from all eligible entries and separately contacted through the Tumblr messaging system.* If a winner does not respond within 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen and contacted.

*All communication will be done through Tumblr, but this is in no way officially administered, endorsed, or sponsored by Tumblr. All given information will be private (not shared with anyone but me).

Best of luck to you all! Can’t wait to hear from you!

Peace, Loki’s Pet Tiger

138 notes · View notes

perpetuelledaydreaming · 4 years

Text

BACK TO YOU (CHAPTER VII)

Summary: Y/N Stark and Peter Parker are unconditionally and irrevocably in love with each other, being friends for years was just the step before making it official. BUT, just the weekend they did, Thanos and the snap happened, leaving Y/N broken: without friends, avengers family or Peter Parker. So, she has to move on, at least that’s what everyone’s telling her and she really tries to do it and who better to help her than Harry Osborn. But, has she really let Peter go? What if Tony Stark -genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist- knows how to bring Peter back? And what happens when he does? Is Y/N going to avenge again? Who’s going to lead the avengers now? Who is she going to choose? Harry or Peter? and who the hell is mysterio? *He doesn’t even go here

word count: 7.3K

author’s note: Okay I know this story isn’t getting too much love and I have an idea for the sequel of this which I’M IN LOVE but I don’t want to abandon another story like I did with my GMW stories so I’ll definitely finish this one for sure. Plus, I love it. Let me know what you think, even a like helps my motivation.

SERIES MASTERLIST

You grinned your teeth together as you glared at Harry who was already exiting the elevator into the lobby of Stark’s Industries.

What did he meant with ‘I mean, do you have to?’? It ranged on your ears as you dragged yourself from the elevator, following Harry who was carefree and unaware that he had upset you. You didn’t know which annoyed you more, that he had said it or that he was completely oblivious that it had touched a nerve.

“What do you mean with that?”, you growled as he opened the door for you, not looking at you distracted by waving goodbye to the receptionist, Mark, that had a clear crush on him.

You pursed your lips, not because you were bothered by Harry being somehow nice to him, but because Harry wasn’t even acknowledging you.

“With what?”, Harry asked you, cocking his head to the side.

You watched him carefully as he answered, maybe he hadn’t even meant it or he just didn’t want to bring it up after hearing your tone.

You doubted yourself, a part of you wanted to bring it up because it seemed like an important thing to discuss. Being head of the Avengers would become your main activity for the next couple of years, you would go to college as well and then it would come second to being CEO of Stark Industries, but that would take a while. So, Harry had to be supportive.

But another part of you was scared, maybe he wouldn’t support you and in the back of your mind, a small part of you was worried that if Harry didn’t support you, he would show you that you had made the wrong choice.

So, you decided to restrain yourself.

“Nothing”, you shrugged as you walked through the streets of New York, putting on a smile. “So, how has everything been with your father?”

“Oh”, Harry said as he lumbered, looking at the ground and you saw his face turning a bit slack. “I mean… he has been undoing a lot of what I did in his absence”, he explained and he tried to seem chill, but you recognized the pain in his voice.

“What?”, you cried in disbelief.

Harry had been killing himself over all the projects he had worked on while his father had snapped, you had been a witness of his hard work and dedication. Yes, he helped you with your non-profit but he still had his projects with his passion for bioengineering, with his goal of making an impact wherever he saw fit.

“Yes, the resources wouldn’t simply manage to do both of our projects. So, he cut some”, Harry shrugged while you still watched him with bulging eyes.

“Which ones?”, your tone was dead, making Harry turned to you with a lopsided grimaced.

He sighed as he took a hold of your hand, lacing your fingers together.

“The one that helped people in Japan?”, he fretted naturally.

It was as if he was mentally shrugging as if it was something that had to be accepted.

“Are you serious?”, you said with lingering annoyance on your voice.

It pained you to see him that way, you felt your cheeks growing hotter as time passed and you remember the times where he had told you he couldn’t go to New York because of his projects, or the times when you would spend entire nights at his lab working on a new thing while you learn more about bioengineering by his side. Now, you knew for sure that Norman -as your father had said before meeting Harry- was a real asshole.

“Yes…”, Harry replied apprehensively, raising his eyebrows and pulling you into him. “But he allowed to keep the ones regarding children and public health”, he said with a genuine smile. “I fought for those”

You remained silent for a moment, watching your boyfriend carefully, analyzing his dark almond eyes and his features. How much could you intervene without being

too

much?

“Still, I’m so sorry”, you muttered. “You know that you can transfer those programs to other companies, right?”

He stayed silent for a moment as he zoned out. Somehow, it didn’t fit with the picture that you had of Harry. He always had something to say, he was always witty and surprisingly good at making conversation, confidence was his second name. But this version of him, you didn’t know how to handle it and you didn’t know if it was more trouble to actually speak on the situation or just remained silent. But then again, you were the daughter of Tony.

“Is there anything he did that you also wanted?”

Maybe it was a bit too forward and you shouldn’t have gotten into it because it was none of your business. And honestly, you understood what was listening to your parents’ wishes; You almost always listen to what Tony and Pepper had to say, maybe a bit too much for being a Stark but you knew that if you made a decision, they would respect it. You just wished it was the same for Harry.

You didn’t hear him huffing at your reply and you didn’t notice how he held a little bit tighter to your hand or his flashing eyes, so what he managed to say next really surprised you. You were still thinking about Norman Osborn and if there was some way you could move those programs to another company.

“He wants to meet you”

You stopped dead on your tracks, which made Harry turn back to you a little unsettled by your reaction. You could feel your face growing hot as your eyes connected with his.

In the time that you and Harry had dated -about a year or so- you had reached almost every milestone, for example, him meeting your family, you met his friends, saying the actual words “I love you”, giving each other access (since everything was with AI) to each other homes, among others. He had always been nothing but perfect, a charming gentleman in every occasion.

But although you had gone through all of that together, you were not at all prepared to meet his father, it never even crossed your mind, not even when he came back.

“What?”

You couldn’t believe it was your actual voice, it was wheezy and tight; which Harry picked-up immediately. You could see on his eyes how uncomfortable he was with your state and you hated yourself for it because it wasn’t your intention to hurt him but you couldn’t avoid thinking not only about the words of Tony about Norman before you went to Oscorp for the first time and also your current state of mind with Peter back in your life.

Harry nodded, “Yes, I told him about you and he really wants to have dinner with you.” He said it slowly as he pulled you a little bit closer to him slowly and with a soft smile as if he was treating you like a scared bird that would fly away if he made any more sudden moves.

Your eyes went back to your hand holding his, gazing downwards. Something deep in you told you that maybe you didn’t really want to meet Norman Osborn, maybe it was better off like this but how could you explain it to him? Without hurting his feelings.

“I-I, well it’s such a big step”, you cleared your throat as Harry watched you carefully. “Are you su-”

“You are not sure…”, Harry cut you off sternly as he cocked an eyebrow.

You could tell he was upset, you could see it on his sleek jaw, how tense he was and the way he was gazing at you, like as if he was trying to dig every little thought that went through your head to know what was happening in it. He did that usually when you were in a lab together, as he watched you worked and you hadn’t become used to it because you felt on the spot; this time you liked it even less.

It was weird since it was something Peter often did, maybe it was the memory of Peter on the back of your mind that made you uncomfortable.

Before you could say anything trying to save the situation, he intervened.

“Why didn’t you tell me Peter Parker was back?”, he spat.

You felt as if cold water had been thrown over you, you shot your eyes up and somehow you felt your eye twitching at how he mentioned Peter’s name. Maybe it hit a little too close to home with your current status with Peter or maybe it was the way Harry had said his name that it stroked a chord on you.

“How did you know he was back?”, you snapped while your eyebrows bumped together.

Harry sighed, he rolled his eyes and passed a hand through his sleek black hair, exhaling noisily through his pursed lips. He was trying to find the right words to bring this up, you could tell and you began tapping your foot impatiently, your lips tight in a fine line.

“I bumped into him”, he finally said. “Pepper needed to talk to him and we got into the elevator at the same time”

There was a beat of silence between the both of you, as your eyes linked together. Yes, you had talked about Peter a couple of times with Harry which usually ended in tears. Somehow Peter held such a personal and sacred place on your heart that you felt like you were disrespectful to his memory if you brought it up with Harry, sometimes it felt as if you were cheating completely on Peter. But you knew Harry wasn’t dumb and you knew that by now Harry had done his research on Peter Parker, he must’ve seen all your photos with him, how his face was all over your houses, how you had been capture by paparazzi with him, your Instagram, everything.

So, the fact that he was bringing it up now… it felt like it was a big deal.

Before you could open your mouth, you heard a growl that shook the earth beneath you, and both Harry and you turned your heads to where it was coming from. Everyone around you doing the same, some running or walking a little bit faster to their destinations, or some others taking their phones out as the chaos ensued.

It was lower Manhattan and you felt right away the same electricity and jolt of adrenaline you used to feel years ago. It was almost automatic how your stand changed and how quickly you contacted HAPPY

You tapped your earpiece quickly, “HAPPY, give me an update”.

Harry turned a little bit surprised as he heard you, but he was unable to speak.

“There’s a situation at Brooklyn Bridge, Miss. Stark”, the AI told you softly.

“Y/N…”

“I have to go”, you said pressing a quick peck on his cheek and pressing the small charm on your necklace as if it was an instinct, allowing the nano-tech to spread across your body.

Thankfully, you had been working on your suit since the fight with Thanos and the hard work had paid off. It wasn’t as bulky as before as you had worked to fit you nicely, even with your actual clothes rather than the ones that Tony had created to be more comfortable, it felt like a second skin.

People near you on the street seemed in awe as you transformed right in front of their eyes, kicking in the usual excitement that you felt when you wore your suit. You were no longer a girl, but a hero.

“Wait, you had that com there the whole time?”

You shook your head laughing while your face began being covered by the nano-tech, then you activated your thrusters and they sent you off into the sky.

“HAPPY, who’s coming?”, you said as overflew the city, finally locating the commotion coming from Brooklyn’s Bridge and there was something, it was as if someone was pouring water continuously over it.

But no, it wasn’t possible and as the steam cleared out while you got closer you saw it.

“What the hell?”, you whispered to yourself.

It was a water being? A water monster?

“Miss Stark, Sam, and Bucky already left on the quinjet to Europe”, HAPPY informed you and you cursed mentally. “But Mr. Parker is already on the scene”

As always, Peter seemed to be one step ahead of you and you remembered a time where it annoyed you, but right now you were glad you were doing this with him.

“Okay, tell KAREN to connect us”, HAPPY didn’t say anything and before you could blink you saw on your screen the saved photo for Peter’s profile.

“Are you here? Y/N?”, Peter’s voice sounded a little bit desperate and agitated as you landed in front of the bridge.

A few people were still running away and you tried to help some that fell, almost giving you a double-take since, at the end of the day, it seemed as if your father was there.

“Yes, I’m here”, you answered as you saw him swinging from one part of the bridge to another, as he webbed different cables and structures that were being attacked by the water being that growled once more. “Did you call first responders?”

“First thing I did”, Peter gasped as he managed to dodge a stream of water, that seemed a bit too strong, managing to bend a bit of the metal. You rolled your eyes,

obviously, he did

. “Any idea of what to do?”

You flew over the being, as the water creature was continuously attacking Peter, who was dodging the shots of water coming from it. Your mind process how to even begin attacking him, what could you possibly throw at the water monster to defeat it?

Bullets? No, clearly not. Rockets? Possibly, it was fire. Canons? They can work. Flamethrower? yes.

“Keep him distracted, avoid damaging the bridge too much”

“On it”, he yelled over the com, as he gave the flips that only he knew how.

They were intricate enough to confuse the creature that shot a rapid number of streams where Peter had been, missing him continuously and giving you the chance to shoot your shot. Soon, you were shooting the first flames, causing the creature to let out a loud cry and making you his target. It roared in your face as he began shooting its long watery arms towards you, your eyes opened wide as you flew from left to right as you tried to avoid the tentacles to touch you, he wanted to drag you down on the river. Nonetheless, as if it had been yesterday, Peter was there to distract it when it got too close to you and it worked.

“Hey, big guy!”, he shouted, making the creature turn around for a second. It was enough for you to fly over him and losing its sight on you.

Peter crawled through the towers of the bridge, jumping from them and then swinging between suspension cables as he avoided the shots of water that were now being fired towards him. But now you were there to back him up, you circled the creature, firing him as he was too busy trying to catch Peter with one of its streams or waves.

Once Peter felt too tired from swinging and avoiding the creature you entered into action to take away his notice on you, and then he did the same when it came too close to you. Honestly, it looked as if you had choreographed the fight, you were so in-sync that it felt as no time had passed and neither of you had to speak to know what the other one was doing next.

But soon you realized it was doing no-good.

“Nothing it’s happening to it!”, you grumbled as you saw how a part of the creature was burned away but soon was patched by another stream of water.

“Don’t you have any other trick on that suit?”, Peter asked a little bit annoyed.

You glared at him as you hovered above it, trying to avoid how he was trying to smash you. “It’s my first time fighting a

water monster

, what about yours?”, you snapped back at Peter who was crouched as he watched you from the other tower closer to Brooklyn.

Peter was glaring at your comment, you could tell and you turned around to watch him, the nano-tech disappearing for one second from your face so he could see your smile.

It was supposed to be one second but it was enough for it to catch you.

And as soon as you were going to answer, you felt the hard push thanks to the water stream on your back, knocking you out of the sky and sending your body through the air and crashing it into the river. You were somehow thankful that your helmet had managed to cover your face before crashing since it had driven you deep into the bottom of the river.

“Ouch”, was the only thing you managed to say.

The screen in front of you was red, signaling possible damages to your suit and body, which didn’t surprise you.

“Miss Stark, you might have a concussion and a bruised spine”, you closed your eyes for a second before trying to stand up and use your thrusters. “And I recommend getting out if the water, it appears that your suit had sustained some damages”, HAPPY said as you activated your thrusters.

“You don’t say”, you grumbled as you charged thrusters and they sent you into a wobbly path to the surface.

It didn’t take long for you to reach the surface, the mask dropping from your face as you took a deep breath and found a rather weird scene.

It seemed like the golden lines that Doctor Strange and The Ancient One conjured with their hands but this was rather different, it had triangle symbols over it and it was

green

And there was this

guy,

conjuring them with its hands and effectively

hurting

the waterman.

“HAPPY, who’s that?”

But before the AI could answer, you heard Peter on the com.

Peter felt sick as he saw your body helplessly crashing into the river. He tried firing some webs on your way but it was way too far for him to catch you and he panickily avoided the waterman as best as he could as he positioned himself under de bridge to see if he could find you.

“KAREN?” He muttered as his eyes frenetically looked for you. “Where’s Y/N? Should I go down?”, he could feel the anxiety on his voice and it felt the same way when Thanos had threw you away.

“Miss Stark is coming up”, Karen informed him and as if he had called your name, you appeared on the surface of the water. Taking a deep breath as your mask came off.

“Y/N, thank god”, Peter sighed as he hanged from under the bridge, upside down.

It seemed like he was looking for you and your heart thumped at the thought of Peter being worried about you.

Quickly, he fired his web shooter and the web caught you, he then began to pull you towards him from the water and you honestly let him. Your back was hurting and so was your head, you were thankful for the help. But not so thankful for the other guy that was keeping the water monster occupied as Peter pulled you out.

But your thoughts faded away as you got closer to Peter, who took your hand and pulled you in.

“Peter, I’m -”,

Suddenly, he took a hold of your whole body, easily and pressed you against him as he climbed the side of the bridge quickly and laid you down on the ground. You winced as he let you on the floor, the nanotech being removed from your body as you coughed. By his agitated moves as he checked your whole body, you could tell he was worried although you couldn’t really see his face.

“What’s hurting?”, Peter asked as he looked into your eyes, checking if the concussions were serious.

His hands were touching your face, holding it so close to him that it remained you to older times. It sent a jolt of warmth through your body, seeing that he still cared, after everything that had gone down between the two of you. You didn’t know what Pepper had told him, but you were sure you had to thank her for it later because just by seeing his movements, you could feel that something had been lifted from him. So, you placed your hand over Peter’s who was holding your face, you could see how he tensed up for a second but then relaxed, a smile appear on your face and Peter was smiling under his mask as well.

But suddenly, another grumble filled the air and both of you turned your face to see the masked man fighting with the water being.

“Wait, who’s that?”, you asked as you began to stand-up while Peter did the same, your suit retracting from your body.

Peter really didn’t know who the hell he was, but somehow it reminded him a little bit of your dad and how he usually ended up helping both of you, saving the day.

“I- I don’t know but I’m glad he’s here”, he muttered.

For some reason, the green mist was actually working and it seemed like it was making it weaker and weaker as the mysterious man surrounded it, conjuring green triangles with its hands. It seemed like magic, it really did seem like something Strange could do and somehow you internally cursed him for not appearing.

Wasn’t he supposed to protect this dimension?

Now, you were not only mad with him about what had happened with Tony but you also felt your eyebrow twitching at the thought that he had sent an amateur magician to deal with an actual real danger that was threatening the city. Nowhere else ever you had faced a treat like this, you knew it by heart because a little bit before what happened with Thanos you had sneak with Peter to your father’s files and research about the many many threats earth had.

Nothing had warned you about the monster that seemed out of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Suddenly, the man attacked the monster once again, and further away from the bridge, he conjured a whip made of the same dark green mist and managed to trapped the monster who growled as his water arms tried to reach him but they failed.

“How’s he doing that? Who the hell is this guy?”, you snarled as you watched him carefully, limping a bit towards Peter who was watching the man closer to the edge of the bridge.

“I don’t know but it seems to be working”, he muttered.

Peter was, in fact, impressed by the mysterious man that had managed to give him time to rescue you. He seemed like, somehow, a

real

hero. Those that appeared on the comic books that Peter used to read on his childhood. Somehow coming out from the meeting, with no Tony giving instructions and not holding your hand, made him nostalgic. But now, it seemed as if things could really be alright.

But on your other hand, there was something inside of you that didn’t sit right with you as you watched the strange man wrapping green mist whips on the monsters wrist, quickly he tore the monster apart without much damage done to him and it seemed as if the monster hadn’t even been there, only the mist of the water that quickly dissipated. The growls that had covered New York just a few seconds ago had become howls of hurt and defeat.

It was gone, it was easily gone and you didn’t even know the guy who had done it.

This was for sure going to be a headache on your first day of being the head avenger. “HAPPY”, you grumbled under your breath. “Get me everything you can find on this guy and…”

Before you could continue you could see people coming close to the bridge and to the edge of the river, slowly but surely you could hear them

applauding

him and your stomach dropped.

It wasn’t as if you were jealous

per se

, it was about losing the control that you had just acquired that very same day. You believed you had done it right; you were following Tony’s footsteps and you were hoping deep inside your guts that you were actually doing the right thing. But now this man, who appeared out of nowhere, was being praised for only

one

fight.

And somehow it felt like it had erased what you had done and how Tony had prepared you.

Tony was the one that was usually applauded.

Peter turned around to see your face of defeat and annoyance, but he on the other hand was almost mystifying but what had just happened. Because the one that was usually applaud was your father and this man, who was now waving at people on a green cloud of smoke above the river, seemed like a good one to add to your group.

Still, he could see the pain on your face and his heart began beating faster as he tried to get close to you, not a lot since people were returning to the scene and he usually left so no one could see how close you actually were.

“Y/N, we should leave”, he muttered as he fired a web to one of the towers of the bridge.

Your eyes linked with Peter’s mask, who before were stamped on the mysterious man that had quickly dissipated before you notice. You were fighting to keep your tears together, not because it was in front of Peter but because people were getting closer. You sniffed for a second as the few people that had come to recover their car began to stare at you and honestly, there was nothing more you wanted right now.

“Do you need a ride?”, a dead voice suddenly said.

You turned around, startled as you watch Nick Fury with crossed arms in front of you, Maria Hill from behind him and an obvious crew of SHIELD agents behind them with a black jeep. Doors were open and they were obviously waiting for you.

Before you could open your mouth, Peter spoke behind you as he walked in a protective manner towards Fury.

“She needs to see Bruce, she’s hurt”, Peter stated with a gruff voice.

It wasn’t that Peter didn’t like Fury, but like when the Scorpion had hurt you and he had lost it, he needed you to be okay. It was compulsive almost how protective he got when it came to you and although years had passed for you, you felt your heart jumping on your chest as you saw how his muscles contracted and how his hand became fists.

But you weren’t the same one and neither was Peter, you were head of the Avengers now and you were the one that had to protect everyone.

“Don’t worry, I’m okay”, you replied as you placed a hand on Peter’s shoulder and limped a bit towards Fury. “You can go now, though. I need to talk to Nick”, you said with the annoyance lingering on your voice as you glared at Fury.

“We were hoping

both

of you would come”, Maria stated as she walked towards both of you. “May you please come with us?”

You glared at the black jeep with the other agents looking back at you and contemplated it for a moment. You looked back at Peter who was already looking at you, checking in to see if you were okay with this.

He could sense how tense you were; he could listen to how your heart was going crazy at the moment but he could also see in your eyes the spark of defiance he knew very well.

“This better not take all day”, you muttered as you walked towards the jeep, limping a bit but trying to ignore the pain.

You could hear Peter’s steps behind you and the rest of the SHIELD crew moving to transport you to, what you supposed would be, a secret base in New York that you probably didn’t know about. You entered the vehicle, ignoring the pain on your ribs and glaring at anyone that crossed your path. This meant something, that Fury had been at the exact same time that this asshole had defeated the water monster and that they had caught up to you and Peter just before you were about to leave?

Something didn’t fit and you were determined to know Fury’s ulterior motives, which he always had.

Nevertheless, your thoughts faded away as Peter took his mask off and shook his curly brunette soft hair to make it look normal again.

It was immediate how your cheeks grew warm and somehow, you eased up and you didn’t know if he noticed but with everything going on at the moment, you didn’t care. Peter, on the other hand, did notice but he didn’t really want to pay much attention, turning his head and looking around, trying to remain somehow alert on his surroundings but also being clearly clueless about what this was about.

The car ride was silent, neither of you spoke a word but you could still feel the shift on the air because if you really wanted to talk to Peter, you felt like he wouldn’t shut you down anymore.

Which you felt really thankful for but you still decide that for the moment you should keep it to yourself. You were known for being the queen of limits and keeping things to yourself, you knew that you couldn’t force Peter for the moment to be okay with you and if he wanted to talk to you, he would. So, you just left your unspoken truce to dwell while you were driven through New York.

Either way, it didn’t take long for you to get to the secret base, it was underground as you had suspected and you could feel Fury’s eye-burning you while you tapped your phone as you tried to find out where the hell you were, silently asking HAPPY to scan the place, quickly taking on your hand one of the chips that were used to recollect information by hacking any system that Tony had created. This was the same way he had found out about what SHIELD wanted to do with the Tesseract, you just wished SHIELD hadn’t reinforced their system since.

“This way”, Fury stated as you both followed his step and Maria’s down a cold metal hallway that ended in a rather small room with high tech around you, where multiple agents were working in small tables, giving coordinates and controlling the recent event, how was it going to be portrayed in the media and more.

You scanned the room, trying to find anything strange or unusual and as you thought about it you stopped dead on your tracks while the man in front of you turned around with a rather hooded sight but other than that he was perfectly dressed and styled; as if he was one of the heroes in a movie that could do whatever he wanted and not a single hair was moved from his place.

It didn’t sit right for you.

“This is Quentin Beck”, Fury presented as the man, now Beck approached you.

“But you can call me Quentin”, his fruity voice catching you by surprise, then he offered his hand.

You stayed silent as you shook his hand with a little bit more strength than usual, your eyes fixated on him as you tried to read into this guy.

He seemed

normal

, nothing out of place and some could say he was actually a good looking guy, he was tall and his jaw was accompanied by a well-groomed beard, his body seemed to be molded by the gods -at least, with his ridiculous suit it seemed like it- and he had a good tight-lip smile but there was something in his blue electric eyes that made you uncomfortable. See, it wasn’t exactly the color that triggered something or the way they were surrounded by deep dark circles that you also had come to know but they seemed

intense and cold

inflexible.

His sclera was clearly visible above and below his iris, it was as if he was glaring wide-eyed at you.

There was a drop of

something

on them, something

unstable.

“These are Stark and Parker”, Fury stated as Beck let go of your hand but remained to look at you for a moment.

“You handled yourself well out there today. I saw what you both were doing”, Beck said softly to both of you, as Peter held out his hand for him to shake it. “We could use someone like you on my world”, he said talking directly to Peter.

Peter felt his chest filling with pride and a soft smile appeared on his face while you, on the other hand, frowned.

“I’m sorry, your world?”

“Mr. Beck if from Earth, just not ours”, Fury explained as they walked you to a large table in the center of the room which had multiple holograms above it.

“There are multiple realities. This is Earth 616 but I’m personally from Earth 833”, Beck followed as Peter’s eyes opened like plates while you focused on the holograms.

“It’s just theoretical”, you huffed but Peter continued.

“That completely changes how we understand the initial singularity. We’re talking about an internal inflation system and how does that even work with all the quantum-”, Peter’s voice died down when he realized everyone was looking at him, unamused. “S-sorry”

“Don’t ever apologize for being the smartest one in the room” Beck said quickly with a smirk and a wink, making Peter smile again.

Peter felt his chest puffing again and there was a familiar sense that also felt when he trained alongside Tony or manage to figure out something with him in the lab. Peter throughput his life wasn’t really confident, not even after he got his powers and became an Avenger; it was Tony that had been the one who planted that seed of confidence in him. So, to hear Beck saying something of that nature, it made him glad.

You rolled your eyes and you quickly intervened, crossing your arms. “So, what does he have to do with these beings?”, you asked Fury.

“They came from his planet and after the snap, it seemed like something shifted in our realities”, Maria Hill explained to you, you could feel her giving you a look.

“So, what do we have to know about these beings?”, Peter interrupted

“They were born in stable orbits within black holes. Creatures formed from the primary elements and we just called them Elementals”; Quentin explained. “They first materialized on my earth many years ago. We mobilized and fought them, but with time they only grew and got stronger. I was part of the last battalion left trying to stop them, but the destruction was inevitable”

“And now they are here, trying to do the same as they did on your planet?”, Peter asked.

Quentin gazed at Peter with a brooding expression and nodded. “But with your help, I think I can stop them. I manage to eliminate the Water Elemental today and last week we manage to eliminate the Sand Elemental”

“The attacks are imminent and Mr. Beck here believes that with your help on further attacks we can save the earth. He will lead us to save the earth on- ”

“Fury, may I have a word with you”, you stated sharply, interrupting Fury.

Everyone bug-eyed for your lack of subtlety but you didn’t care at the moment. You could feel Beck’s eyes burning you, as well as Peter’s but you didn’t flinch a bit. Still, your eyes locked with Fury’s eye.

He cleared his throat as he looked at Beck. “We have to deal with our plan next, Stark”, he seemed like he was going to continue.

You could swear your eyes rolled so back into your skull that your eyes looked white for a second. It was unbelievable how you were supposed to be in charge of this type of thing and the representation of the Avengers but you had to put all your trust into an unstable guy who

no one

knew and claimed that he was the

only

one to defeat these beings that were threatening earth? How stupid could that sound?

It was infuriating and it was so much more infuriating that you were being looked over and asked to be in a second seat.

“How could you not tell me about this guy”, you snapped as you slapped the desk.

Everyone stopped talking and turned around to look at you, even the agents working around and you could feel how Peter immediately took a step closer to you.

“My name is Quentin”, Beck intervened, seeming a little bit upset about how you referred to him but it was the least of your concerns what he thought of you or whether he was offended.

“Literally, nobody cares”, you replied as you glared at him for a second and turned back to Fury.

It left Beck a bit stunned and also Peter, who didn’t really know if he should slap his face or give you a look that he often gave you when you step a little bit out of line.

“Follow me, Stark”, Fury sighed, clearly losing his patience, as he walked towards the hallway where you had entered, you followed him swiftly.

If it was the time to state your authority, then it shall because you weren’t about to give this up that easily and you had a responsibility, not only to the world but to your father as well.

Once the door closed behind you, Fury began stealthy expression. “Stark, I understand you might be upset but I’m not only helping you run the avengers but more things are happening and as threats rise, so do the heroes”,

“And like the one in the position, as you clearly stated, that you put me in, I should know about recruits. Especially someone you claim can save the earth! I should’ve been informed of these attacks”, you growled back, brows knitted together in a frown.

“He’s not like one of those recruits, I can’t disclose it”, Fury replied, talking through his teeth.

It was clear that he wasn’t backing down either, that Fury had decided to shut you out of this and that he took the decision on his own. He wasn’t even planning to tell you and that what had happened today and your involvement on it was merely circumstantial.

But this was not the way you were going to work; this was not how you were planning to spend the next years of your life; always watching your back and being careful with who you worked with and fearing that someone might take your place if you didn’t prove you were good enough.

That was not your life.

“How the hell do you want me to run the Avengers without being able to trust the people I have to work with?”, you stated gravelly.

Fury shut his mouth into a tight lip as he glared at you. It seemed like an eternity passed, both locking eyes and struggling to see who would stand down.

Finally, he sighed. “Fine, I’ll tell you anything that concerns or affects your leadership on the Avengers”, Fury stated. “See? I’m nice like that”

But you remained with a deadpan expression because nothing so good would come that easily from Fury. You knew it by heart because although SHIELD would do the right thing, there would always be collateral damage or some unsuspecting exchange of favors.

“In exchange for what?”

“Working with Beck”

You sighed and look back at the door thinking about Beck, you didn’t trust him. There was something on him that didn’t sit right with you, which cause you to be even more hesitant about this whole thing. There was a time your dad told you to always follow your instinct but this time you were at crossed roads and you didn’t know what to trust.

But it seemed like Peter did.

“So, your girlfriend is lovely”, Beck muttered as he got close to Peter who was anxiously gazing at the door, waiting for you to come back.

He knew you were upset and his body was aching to hold you and tell you that it was going to be fine. But he knew it wasn’t his place and he was even surprised by how sudden he let go of his grudge. The thing was that when he fought with you, such in sync like you did before when he was so close to you to the point that he could hear your heartbeat; he felt that those two seconds of nothingness that still haunted him were completely gone along with all the loses suffer from Thanos.

But then again, you and he weren’t together anymore.

“Oh no, she’s not my -uhm-no”, Peter muttered as he tried to explain this beyond complicated situation but once he turned around, he saw Beck giving him a look, raising his eyebrows with a smile.

He seemed good-natured.

And it made Peter feel at ease.

“Don’t worry about it, kid”, Beck replied as he placed a hand on Peter’s shoulders and gave him a comforting squeeze “It was a great work what you did today, on that bridge”

Peter gave him a nod and gave him a dimpled smile.

“Than- Thanks”

“Seriously, I’ve never seen someone doing those moves. Not even in my dimension”, he said with his gazed unfocused. It seemed as if he tried to recall sometime in the past, maybe lost battles against the elementals.

So, Peter remembered once again his origin, which distracted him completely from you.

“I can’t believe that! You come from this Earth with so much technology and science. I bet your scientist were incredibly smart, including you”, Peter exclaimed with a broad grin.

“Yeah, but I have to tell you, kid, you got something that I haven’t seen”

Peter felt his chest getting warm and shook his head.

“No, I’m a big fan of what you did today”, Peter replied as he tangled in a conversation with Beck.

He was so into it that he didn’t even notice when you passed through the door, sulking after you had agreed with Fury about working with Beck to deal with this. You hoped that maybe this had passed, you could find a way to get him to another dimension since you didn’t want him sticking around if you were being honest.

Before you could interrupt them, you felt Fury taking advantage of you and going to talk to them, so you thought it was the perfect chance as you got closer to the table with the hacker chip and place it under without anyone watching you. It was subtle and you smiled to yourself, but your smile quickly faded away as you saw how Peter was looking at Beck: his dilated pupils and his dimpled smile. It worried you because that kind of look, it only appeared when Tony was around, not even with Cap. It just transmitted such a close-knit relationship between Tony and him that it was strange for you to see him this excited by someone. It worried you even more how Quentin Beck was, he was full of himself and that egocentrically smirk with his all-powerful stand made him want to vomit, he had a big ego and you could see.

You didn’t like it.

____

TAGLIST: @spideylovin @erindanus @zlamaneserce @bethanystan @cedricisnotonfire @lyzalovealk @babebenhardy

24 notes · View notes

fireinmoonshot · 4 years

Text

REBEL | ARMITAGE HUX x READER | PART TEN

CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE RISE OF SKYWALKER.

PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE | PART FOUR | PART FIVE | PART SIX | PART SEVEN | PART EIGHT | PART NINE Summary: Armitage Hux finds himself strangely fascinated by you, a Resistance fighter and pilot, even though he knows he shouldn’t. You know that there’s much more to him than you see on the surface. Pairing: female!Reader x Armitage Hux Fandom: Star Wars Word Count: 3657 Warnings: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER SPOILERS, mentions of death. A/N: Woop, woop! We’ve hit the milestone of ten parts – but the fun is not over yet. I love this part. I mean, I love it so much. I think it’s the most fun I’ve had writing a part since the early parts that followed the storyline of TROS. I hope you’ll all enjoy it just as much, especially because I know that you guys have been looking forward for them to head to Arkanis ever since I mentioned it forever ago. Thank you for all the love so far, so excited for what you’ll think of this one and beyond! Read it on Ao3 here.

The rain, Armitage notices, smells different on Arkanis. It’s cooler, much more fresh, crisper and nicer. But overall, the planet doesn’t smell like he expected it to smell, it doesn’t smell like home, it doesn’t smell like forgotten memories. It doesn’t look like he expected it to look.

It’s raining when the two of you settle the ship down on the ground, as he expected it would be. He’s used to rain after living on Ajan Kloss for a month. This rain, it’s something different. Where Ajan Kloss is humid rain, Arkanis is cold rain. The moment he steps out of the ship with you by his side, the chill air causes goosebumps to arise on his arms.

“This is… not what I was expecting,” Armitage speaks as he looks at the rain falling around him. He’s still under the cover of the ship, but some of the spray still wets his arms and the bottom of his trousers.

“What were you expecting?”

“Not this. I didn’t expect this much rain. Rain, yes, but not this much of it. That sounds rather silly now that I say it, but I’m hoping you know what I mean. I just mean it’s nothing like how I remembered it,” he admits, looking out at the city around him. “This place I’m standing now, the things I’m looking at, I feel like I should remember them. I feel like I should have a connection with this place, but instead I’m looking at it now, and I don’t.”

You cross your arms as you look out at the planet you called home. It does look different, just like Rey had said it would be. You didn’t realise it had been this long since you’d been home. And really, could you even call it your home anymore?

“We’ve only just touched down. There’s plenty of time to start remembering things, or to not remember things at all,” you nudge him.

Arkanis reminds you a little of Kef Bir – only because of the overcast sky and the sound of water, but rain here instead of the ocean. And this time, you’re here with Armitage by your side too. It’s a nice sort of full circle.

“Come on, let’s get going. It took longer than I’d have liked for us to get here and I want to get started as soon as possible.” You step off the ship and out into the rain, narrowly avoiding a muddy puddle to your right. “And I want to see what you remember, or what you don’t.”

You flash him a grin, and Armitage lets out a breathy laugh in reply as he follows you off the ship. The ramp closes behind you, and he follows your lead away from it and down the hill towards the city.

Into the city he once called home.

–

It’s nearly midday when the two of you finally make it into the city. It’s not busy outside, which you blame on the constant rainfall that hasn’t let up since you arrived. It’s one of the only things that you remember as being the same – the rain. When the two of you find a small bar after a few minutes of wandering, that is where you find probably all of the inhabitants of the city.

You’ve never been in here before – and for good reason. You were too young and too preoccupied with flying, and then you’d left Arkanis and thought it would be for good. It feels a little bittersweet, being back.

“What’s our plan, then?” Armitage asks you as you walk towards the bar to order.

“Well, have a drink, settle ourselves, get some energy back from the early start, and then we just start a conversation. Tell them who we are, why we’re here in Arkanis, start talking. It all depends on whether they’re willing to open up to us and let us help them if they need it.”

Arkanis hadn’t been hit so hard by the First Order. It was relatively out of the way, settled firmly in the Outer Rim, and the New Republic had held a firm grip on it for as long as it could. It still remained a wealthy planet because of it, but by the looks of it now, things had changed a little. Things had been changing when you’d left, but you hadn’t noticed them. You’d been too focused on the future ahead of you.

But the First Order had reigned terror over every planet, no matter how strong.

You slide into a seat by the bar and Armitage joins you.

There are people staring at him. He notices.

“What’ll you have?” A woman stares at the two of you from across the bar.

You hesitate. “Uh– two– two moof juices? Please.”

She nods, and then disappears off to get them for the both of you.

Armitage clears his throat. “Everybody in here is staring at us.” He speaks, leaning in close so that only you can hear him. “I think some of them know who I am. Perhaps I should go back and wait in the ship.”

“No, you’re just as important here as I am. We do this together.” You assure him.

His suspicions are confirmed only a few moments later as someone taps him rather harshly on the shoulder, and instinctively, he turns around to look at him.

It’s a large man – taller than him, and bigger in size and frame, too, and Armitage nearly balks at the sight of him. He can’t at all be entirely human. He narrows his eyes as he looks at Armitage’s face, and then turns around and looks at a group of other men and women sitting on a table by the door.

“It is ‘im an’ all, knew it from the secon’ I saw ‘im,” he shakes his head. “You, you’re First Order. Thought the lot o’ you went down in that big fight. How come you made it ou’ alive then, eh? How come you’re posin’ as Resistance?”

Armitage stumbles over his words, and it’s exactly what the man wants.

“You both First Order, then?” His gaze switches to you. “Both posin’ as Resistance, both tryin’ to hide from the rest of the world now that you’ve lost everythin’? ‘Bout time, in my opinion. You ain’t got no place here on Arkanis. Get outta here, both o’ you.”

You shake your head and go to stand. “No, we’re not First Order. He was, but he’s now on our side – he helped us win. We’re here to help with the recovery. To talk and help you find normality again in any way we can.”

The man snorts. “‘Ere to ‘elp with the recovery? Yeah, bollocks.”

“No, really, sir–“

Armitage makes the mistake to stand in a paltry attempt to defend you as the other man takes a step towards you. He regrets his decision just before he lands firmly in a rather deep puddle of water outside the bar, his knees, legs and arms soaked. He groans as the impact takes full force.

You land somewhere beside him, equally soaked, and turn to stare up at the sky – the rain has eased off a little, not much, but a little. And you’re soaked from the puddle anyway, so what does it matter?

“That… did not go as planned.”

He pushes himself to his feet. “I apologise. That was my fault.”

It was a bad idea for him to join you on this trip to Arkanis, even though it had been your idea that the both of you go there together anyway. He’d thought he’d made a good choice in tagging along… but now he just feels shame.

Shame that you are here to help, and he is here to hinder.

He holds a hand out toward you. You take it and accept the help to stand.

“It is not your fault. They’d probably be weary of me if it were just me, anyway,” you shake your head, and then look down at your water soaked shoes. “I have an idea for what we can do instead. At least until some of the locals agree to cooperate.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Change out of these wet clothes?”

“Well, yes. But after that, I’m going to take you on a small tour. Where we hopefully won’t have to run into any locals and get thrown in puddles again. But we might end up accidentally stepping in some anyway.”

He’s confused. “Care to tell me where you’re taking me?”

You meet his eyes and smile. “I’m going to take you to where I grew up.”

–

As soon as you’re out of your wet clothes and dry – or as dry as you can be on a rainy planet – you both leave the confines of the ship again and, instead of heading off down towards the main city, you lead Armitage away from it towards a large, dreary looking forest.

He’s intrigued by your promise – you taking him to where you grew up. It had been the last thing he expected, but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t interested about your life here on Arkanis. He’d been gone by the time you were born, since he’d left when he was five, but you’d been here longer than he had been. And he had noticed that you talked about it less. That you skirted around things and thought he didn’t notice.

He does. He notices everything.

Most of all, he notices that you never talk about specifics. You never said why you left Arkanis to join the New Republic Defense Fleet. You never said why you started to learn how to fly or what you did in your spare time while you learnt.

Armitage Hux knows a lot about you, but there were things he doesn’t. Things he wants to know. It works both ways – there are things about him that you don’t know. But they’re the same things he doesn’t know if he wants you to know.

He walks a little behind you as you lead him away from the city and into the forest. The brush above you stops the rain a little, though the ground is still wet and a little muddy and he’s hoping his shoes won’t get stuck.

It feels like you’ve both been walking for hours, and he truly believes that you might have been, when he sees something up ahead.

The place… it looks like a house. But it also doesn’t resemble one at all. It’s round, but one side of it is crumbled to the ground, entirely destroyed, and the other half looks like it’s never been touched. And it’s small – smaller than he’d expected.

“Is this…?”

You nod as you stop in front of it. “This was home. It hasn’t been for a long time.”

Armitage stops beside you, crosses his arms over his chest, looks up at the destroyed house. Where he’d lived on Arkanis, he didn’t know. And it wasn’t like there was anyone he could ask. But he’d expected your home to be… intact. You’ve never said otherwise.

“I know, it’s a bit of a mess,” you smile sheepishly up at him. “But after it was destroyed, I moved away. I got a small room in the city which was closer to where I was being taught to fly. I didn’t have the nerve or the funds to fix it, so I left it.”

He stares at you for a moment, confused. “What about your family?”

“They’re dead – my parents. They died.” You speak simply, and then you feel the need to tell him how and why. And it’s strange – because you’ve never really told anyone, only Poe and Leia, but you’re here with Armitage, and he is the first person seeing the remnants of what your life on Arkanis had been, and you feel like you owe it to yourself to be honest. “When the New Republic took hold of Arkanis, things were fine for a few years. But as time went on, there were some Imperial loyalists still here, floating around, causing trouble when nobody was watching. I was sixteen, and my parents had stood up for someone at the market. Someone who these Imperial loyalists were targeting for their belief in the New Republic. And then, later that night, when I was out flying with my instructor, those same loyalists came here… and did this.”

Armitage feels like his heart is in his throat.

“They did– they did this?”

“Yes.”

He’s never wanted to hug anybody more than you right now. But you’re pretending like everything didn’t happen moments after telling him everything he didn’t know he wanted to know. You’re turning away from the house and taking a deep breath and thanking him for listening. And he can’t bring himself to do it like you would. All he can think about is how grateful he is. How grateful he is that you opened up to him. That he is the first and only person to see the place first hand.

And then things fall back to normal just as rain starts to seep through the leaves above you once more. You’ve forgotten almost entirely about the words you’d spoken, the truth you’d let him into, and you’re back to thinking about your mission.

“I don’t think we’re going to get anymore out of these people today,” you say, looking back towards the city even though all you can see is trees. “We should try again tomorrow. We might have more luck then.”

Armitage, not for the first time, decides not to push.

–

You sit your empty container from dinner down on the grass beside you and lean back against the ramp of the ship. Arkanis looks beautiful out in front of you. The rain has fallen back to a light drizzle, and in the distance you can see the lights of the city, shining brightly. It makes you smile. You can remember seeing that view from your room years ago. It’s different now, but it still carries the same sense of comfort as it always did.

“It’s beautiful here,” you hum.

After the day you’ve had, you’re happy to just have a moment to breathe and feel calm for a second. Even though Arkanis is your home, you’d felt a little out of place all day, and this is the first place you feel like it’s home again… in some way, anyway.

Armitage isn’t looking at the city when he agrees with you.

He’s looking at you.

But then you glance over at him and he tears his eyes away and finally settles them on the lights in the distance. You weren’t going to venture into it again tonight, and your plan of finding a bed in the city was pretty much destroyed by your being thrown out of the bar earlier in the day, and so the ship remained your base.

“So, tell me – what do you remember about this place? Have you remembered anything during our day here?

“Not as much as I would have liked to.”

He looks off into the distance. He remembers that ridge in the mountains, he used to be able to see it from his bedroom window, but from where he sits right now, that’s all he can remember. It’s a little disheartening.

“Well… I used to fly over those mountains,” you start to explain. “When I was just learning, the woman who taught me would challenge me to fly up, out and around them all and be back within a set amount of time. I used to ace it.”

Armitage’s lips quirk up. “I somehow don’t doubt that at all.”

“I’m an incredible pilot, you’ve witnessed it first hand. But I’m not going to go into detail about the time that I nearly crashed an X-wing between those mountains over there.” You point over to the left and Armitage looks at where you point.

“Mmm, probably better to keep my good opinion of you.”

“Oh, there are things I could tell you about me growing up here… I’ll save it, though.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Save it for when?”

“For when we come back.”

Your words take him off guard. “We’re coming back?”

“Uh-huh.” You’re nodding excitedly. “I mean, the locals might not like us very much. But this is home, right? Well, one of them. Whenever we win over the locals, they’ll beg to have us back. And we’ll have to choice but to come back and grace them with our presence.”

He snorts. “I don’t think anyone could say I grace their presence.”

You shrug a shoulder. “You’ve graced mine.”

He nearly chokes on air itself.

He should say something. He can’t think of anything worthy. So, he stays silent. Stares down at the ground in front of him and fiddles with the edges of his own empty container. And he can feel you looking at him, but he can’t bring himself to look up at you. He’s worried about what you’ll see if he does.

And then, you break the silence – by thankfully changing the subject.

“Arkanis, then. Would you live here again? Work here? Find a life here?”

He chooses to stare out at the city as he answers.

“If you’d asked me that when we first got here, I would have said yes. But now, I’m not sure if I could. I think I would be better finding a planet I’ve never been to before. A planet that the First Order never even thought of touching. And then settling myself there in silence.” He pauses. “A place where nobody looks at me like the people here did this morning.”

His words break your heart a little. But you know where he’s coming from – you’d seen those looks in the eyes of the people in the bar. Half of them had been directed at you, and the Resistance uniforms hadn’t saved you from them – hadn’t saved Armitage from them. Still, they found him. Still, those eyes tore down the walls he’d been building up for the past month to cover the First Order part of him.

You can already see him starting to rebuild them.

“You have Ajan Kloss for as long as you want it. You know that, right?”

He nods. Once.

You take that as your cue to slowly shuffle over closer to him, so you’re sitting right beside him. You nudge him with your elbow, and finally he looks at you again.

There’s a look in his eyes you’ve never seen before.

“It’s not going to be like this forever. The strange looks, the judgemental people. It’s just like this for now. And soon enough, things will change and the First Order will just be a bad memory. And you’ll be free to live the life you want to without fear of others judging you for it.”

Armitage looks down at you, looks into your eyes, and his lips quirk up into the smallest of smiles, but you still see it. And your words – they’re words that he wanted to hear, but words he didn’t know he wanted to hear. It’s like they’ve travelled straight to his heart and hit home.

Because a different Armitage wouldn’t have believed in them. But him – this Armitage, the one he is now, the one he’s happy to be, does. He believes them. He has to. He has to believe that the First Order is soon going to be nothing but a bad memory. He has to believe that there will soon be better. That better will come.

You smile sweetly up at him then, and his breath catches in his throat.

He’s looking at you… and you’re looking at him, and something travels between you both in that small moment. And then, Armitage starts to lean in – instinctively. He’s never done this before. He’s never felt a feeling like this before… but he hopes he’s doing the right thing… not overstepping. He wonders if he should ask. He wonders if that would ruin the moment. But no– he should ask. He’s going to ask– and then he notices that you’re doing the same as he is. And–

Something thumps on the grass a few feet away from you, and he jumps. His eyes flicker between you and the source of the noise, and the moment is gone just as quickly as it came. His chance disappears before he even realises it’s gone.

A woman pulls herself up from the grass where she’s just fallen. She looks over at the both of you a little sheepishly. “It’s muddy there– watch your feet if you walk there.”

You glance at her, and then back at Armitage– and your mind whirs with the possibility of what was just about to happen. And… of course there was an interruption.

“I was in the bar this morning,” the woman continues, “and I heard what you were talking about. I didn’t want to say anything then, but I saw you two leaving the market earlier and coming this way. And I wanted to talk to you, so I followed you… I know, that sounds creepy, but I don’t mean it that way. I just… I lost my parents to the First Order… and I don’t know how to resume normal life knowing that the First Order is gone… and I just wondered if you could help.”

And then you’re springing into action.

Armitage watches wordlessly as you stand up and wander over to her, and as you start to talk to her about her inquiry. His eyebrows furrow a little as he stares. As he thinks about what he was about to do. About why he was about to do it. About why he was about to do something he’s never done before in his life.

And he knows. He knows why. He knows why, and it terrifies him.

He’ll have to do something about that.

–

TAG LIST: @agirlinherhead, @songforhema, @sleep-paralysis-demon @midgardian-witch @capcrayon @redsacrament @wlucyw @the-dream-catch3r @petalduck @hopesxxhigh @treblebeth @burritonee @acaprioglino @rebelspykim @iwritefanficnotprophecies @ahsfan23 @erys-targaryen @tazzclegane @ibikus @seafrost-fangirl @percivalgravs @chewle @j1224 @livy1391 @drowsebaby @lafy-taffy @sleepy-blossom @memys-art-stuff @pink-pirate @sophiasescape @whovianayesha @theserenityspace @rageofpatroclus @hanyasnape @pancakefancake @esperanzavelez @shoochi @iirelynn @we-all-are-strange

(To be tagged, just send me a message or drop a reply. I’ll do my best to check the replies on posts so I don’t miss anyone wanting to be tagged! If you’re bolded, it won’t let me tag you!)

#rebel #star wars #armitage hux #armitage hux x reader #star wars x reader #general hux #general hux x reader #armitage hux x you #general hux x you #tros #the rise of skywalker

178 notes · View notes

scribbles97 · 4 years

Text

Left Behind -- Chapter 13

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 / Chapter 12 / Chapter 13

Read On Ao3

I promise this one is just pure fluff and a whole lot of Scott with the adults and flying a certain Thunderbird for the first time.

It felt strange being the only one home with his mother. Aunt Val and Grandma had taken Thunderbirds Two and Four to some offshore farming platform that had been damaged by a particularly bad storm. Gordon and Alan were both in school on the mainland, though how much studying the elder of the two was doing between swim training, Scott wasn’t sure. John had gone back to NASA to complete his space training, and Virgil back to college to finish his degree before joining the IR training.

He had been home an hour and technically had nothing that immediately needed doing. All the manuals had been read, the protocols memorised, and the launch sequence gone over. It was just the call he was waiting for.

“You know, our pilots are expected to spend time in their ships outside of rescues,” Mom murmured from where she was flicking through some file, “You don’t have to wait for a rescue kid.”

He did know. Yet, when the consideration had come to mind he had found himself instantly rejecting it. It seemed wrong to take his father's ship out for a simple joy ride. Especially when Dad wouldn’t be at his back giving directions and pointers.

“You were always going to have to get in that cockpit without him at some point, Scott.” She closed the file and leant back in the big leather desk chair as she watched him.

Looking towards the chute, he straightened, pursing his lips and looking back to his mother, he swallowed. He’d done all the simulations, knew the controls by heart, had even flown the ship before. Just never alone.

Even at twenty-six, that seemed like a big step.

“I’ll have your back son.” His Mom stated, “Not that you need your hand holding, your Dad said you never did after your second flight out in her.”

He smiled, nodding as he swallowed hard. Dad had wanted this for him, the ship on the other end of that chute had always been meant for him.

“Permission to launch Thunderbird One?”

Her nod and smile was encouraging as she brought up the launch feed, “Granted. Fly safe son.”

He had always wondered what happened behind the revolving wall. Sure, he’d read the specs and been told about it plenty enough times. Experiencing it for himself was something entirely different though. His stomach dropped through his feet as the platform descended, and there was something strange about having to stay still as his suit assembled itself around him.

And then he was there, stood in the hanger facing the red tipped ship, the platform automatically reaching out towards its belly as the seat presented itself to him. Swallowing hard he stepped into the seat, holding on to the arm rests as it retracted back into the ships belly, the glass hull closing around him.

There was a moments silence as he looked around the cockpit, needlessly reminding himself of the controls that were standard for any IR ship. A jolt and he was moving, ascending up into position beneath the pool, sunlight bright against the dark rock of the hangar.

Within his gloves he could feel his hands sweating, tense and sticky against the controls as he gripped and released them.

“Thunderbird One you are clear for launch.” His mother spoke into his ear, “Enjoy your flight.”

A small smile let slip as he started the launch sequence, counting down in his head as the thrusters ignited and the g-force pushed him down into his seat. It was all he could do to bite his lip to stop the yell of thrill from escaping as the house and pool deck blurred past him.

As his flight leveled off, he found himself letting go a breath he hadn’t realised he had been holding. Just as Dad had shown him, he brought the ship back down to cruising level and banked around the island.

“You gonna say it?” Lucy smiled as she popped up in front of him in hologram form, “You know it’s tradition.”

With a grin, he nodded, pushing on the horizontal thrusters with as much power as he could, “Thunderbird One is go.”

***

Lucy smiled as she relaxed back in her desk chair, only bothering to keep half an eye on Scott’s flight path and the engine readouts from the ship he was flying. He knew what he was doing and she trusted his ability, no longer did he require babysitting full time in any of the ships. Though that didn’t mean she would be letting him near her Thunderbird Two any time soon, too much of a speed demon like his father had been she wasn’t quite ready to trust him not to break her ship like Jeff had almost done plenty of times.

Cargo planes weren’t meant to go fast. She had always had to remind him, it would get there when it got there with the equipment needed. Two was by no means a slow ship, just not as fast as her sister.

“Thunderbird Two to base, we are on our way home.” Val interrupted her thoughts, “The offshore farm has been stabilised, no casualties reported.”

Sitting straighter, she smiled with a nod, “F.A.B. Thunderbird Two. Keep an eye out for Thunderbird One on your approach, someone’s taken her out for a test flight.”

Both Val and Sally smiled at the comment, each murmuring their approval and appreciation at the milestone.

“Any news from Lee?” Val asked in the following silence, “Did he and Kyrano get to the retreat okay?”

“Kyrano called to say they’d got there,” Lucy confirmed, thinking back to how her brother had been noticeably absent in the call. Her friend had assured her that he was fine, simply jetlagged and had headed to his room to rest after their trip.

“Lee had gone to rest after the flight, I’m sure he’ll call in in the morning.”

It was impossible not to ignore how Val’s face fell at the response, a twist of hurt at the reminder of the fact that whilst they were still married on paper, it was a long time since they had been a couple.

“He’ll be back before we know it,” Sally interjected, “and hopefully for all of us in a better mood for it.”

“Agreed,” She sighed, shaking her head, “I think it’s hit him harder than any of us have realised. It’s probably the space he needs to grieve properly and get over it.”

Val’s head was bowed as she nodded in agreement, “Space was what he needed after my accident.”

Lucy winced, remembering how Lee had run away to his and Jeff’s old moon base after the rescue that had almost cost Val her life but had taken away so much more from both of them.

“He’ll come round Val,” She assured gently, “You know he always does.”

“Yeah,” Val sighed, straightening again, “Sorry, just tired. It’s been a long day.”

“We’ll soon be home. Then I think a good meal and some sleep is what you need.” Sally offered.

Lucy saw the opportunity and took it, “I’ll make sure there’s something in the oven for you.”

“Well you’d best hurry up.” Val smiled, “We’ll be in in fifteen.”

“F.A.B.” Lucy nodded, “And according to my readings you’ve got company bringing you in.”

“Nice of you to join us Thunderbird One!” Val called as Scott was added to the call, “How’s she handling?”

Scott almost laughed across the line, but Lucy could see the grin that was splitting his face now that he had relaxed into the flight.

“Like a dream Aunt Val. An absolute dream.”

Lucy shared a private smile with his Aunt and Grandma across the comm, knowing the answer couldn’t have been anything different from him.

“Can I trust you to land her is the question,” She smirked, “That’s the real challenge you know.”

Scott’s eyes widened slightly at the challenge, whether in fear or thrill Lucy couldn’t quite tell. He was still smiling though, so she trusted she hadn’t entirely put him off.

“Well,” Val started, “Last one to the kitchen does the dishes sounds fair to me.”

Scott’s mouth dropped slightly, his eyes still wide as he laughed lightly, “Is that-- do we--”

Lucy couldn’t help it, she had to laugh at his disbelief as did Val, both giggling at the look on his face.

“Scott, dear,” Sally smiled kindly, “Just because we are professionals, doesn’t mean that we have to act professional all the way home.”

Wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes, Lucy sat straight again, “Oh honey, do you really think we always played sensibly when we were flying those ships? Your father and Lee especially?”

“Well… I thought--” His cheeks were quickly colouring a deep pink as he shook his head, “So we’re allowed to race?”

“As your Aunt said,” Lucy shrugged, “Last to the kitchen washes up.”

His face suddenly fell to the picture of seriousness, lips pressed in a tight line as his eyebrows dipped to the slightest frown, “In that case, see you around Thunderbird Two.”

Lucy shook her head as Scott’s comm cut out and Val snorted, “I’m not at all worried, he has a much harder landing to negotiate than I do. You turned off the landing guidance, right Luce?”

“Don’t be ridiculous Val,” She smirked, “That would make me a terrible mother.”

Val scoffed again, still laughing as she shook her head, “Let’s not tell him how many attempts it took us at first until later though, right?”

“Deal.” Lucy agreed as, in the corner of her eye, the pool began to retract, “Here he comes. Fly home safe you two, I’ve gone to make sure he doesn’t land it in the pool.”

She cut off Val’s laugh as she stood, shifting so she could watch readouts and the pool at the same time. Landing the ship seemed easy enough, but from her own experience it was a skill that took practise to perfect.

Watching as One swept upwards into the sky, she began the count on her fingers, waiting for just the moment when her comm rang again.

“Erm, Mom?”

Smiling to herself she returned to the desk, opening up the readouts for the rocket as she sat down.

Maybe Scott was qualified, but he still had much to learn.

#thunderbirds are go #Thunderbirds 2015 #Thunderbirds AU #Lucy AU #scribbles writes #Left Behind #Scott Tracy #Lucille Tracy #Sally Tracy #Aunt Val

7 notes · View notes