#i'm incapable of keeping things simple

[starleska]

If you're still taking writing requests, could you do possessive Wally headcanons?

*cracks knuckles* oh anon, i most certainly can 😈 yandere!Wally fans (me too 😳), this one's for you! (this is less headcanons and more a oneshot... kinda wanna write the whole thing 🙈)

content warnings for possessive behaviour, manipulation, threats, arson, entrapment and kidnapping!

Possessive/Yandere!Wally Darling x Reader headcanons

👁 it all started so well. Wally was a Darling both in name and behaviour, and you fell hard and fast. such an attentive sweetheart, from the moment you moved into the neighbourhood it was as if he were always at your side. anywhere else, you may have been unnerved, but Wally's simple warmth and easy smile dispelled all of your doubts. while you tried to spread your time equally between your kind new neighbours, you somehow always found yourself in Wally's presence, talking to him for hours.

👁 in time, you found yourself becoming bolder. you start returning Wally's curious glances, and soon allow your eyes to linger a touch longer than they should. curiously (and with a little bit of a thrill), you notice that Wally seems incapable of breaking eye contact - no matter how long you stare, he'll always stare right back, unperturbed.

👁 one day, you find yourself closer to Wally than usual. you're half-pressed against one another on your sofa, Wally's cheek nestled in the crook of your shoulder. he's drawing something in his sketchbook: an indistinct, wobbly shape that you can't make heads or tails of. while Wally's right hand scribbles furiously with his pencil, the fingers of his unoccupied left hand spill at your side, reflexively clenching every now and again with the automatic motions of his drawing.

👁 the closeness imbues you with a newfound confidence. you take a breath, steady yourself...and reach across, brushing your fingers lightly across Wally's own. Wally's eyes snap towards you. for a moment, his pupils blow so wide you think they might just swallow you.

👁 the next day, your house catches fire. such an incident is unheard of in this neighbourhood, and all your neighbours are horrified for you. however, Wally is strangely calm. "I'm sorry you lost so much," he says, still smiling. "Would you like to live with me?"

👁 you're shaken - but accept Wally's offer. the shock of the fire takes a few days to wear off, but nothing could be more unsettling than living in close quarters with Wally Darling. existing within the living, breathing (creaking? squeaking) walls of his Home has an atypical effect on the puppet. Wally's voice is lower, and he moves with more purpose, as if he and Home are one and the same: symbiotic entities which exist in tandem with one another.

👁 to add to your creeping sense of dread, Wally flips the script on your personal space. now he is the one letting his fingers slip easily around your waist, and fixing you with uncomfortable, impossible-to-ignore stares. you try to laugh off his behaviour, questioning him openly if he enjoys having you as a guest so much. for once, Wally doesn't smile when he replies, "I love you living with me."

👁 it isn't until a week has passed that you learn all the doors are locked, and Wally never gave you a key. you try wrestling with the door handle, but it doesn't budge. then you try the windows, but they're sealed shut. 'I'm not trapped!' you think to yourself. 'Wally is just being a good neighbour - he wants to keep me safe.' but that still doesn't stop you from panicking, scouring the house for the heaviest thing you can find and trying to smash the window. the glass does not break. Home suddenly groans with the sound of a thousand old floorboards and overloaded pipes - a dreadful, ear-rending noise - causing the glass in the window to triple in height and thickness right before your eyes.

👁 terrified, you scramble backwards to run out of the kitchen - only to run smack into Wally. you collapse to the floor and gaze up at Wally, standing in the doorway with his hands tucked behind his back, that cat's smile of his holds some private amusement.

👁 "did you try to leave Home?" Wally asks. "Silly, silly." he takes a step towards you, and then another - slow and loping steps, his cute puppet form now moving in a way equal parts unnatural and sinister. he crouches next to you, those eyes now whirlpools of void which obscure all but the slight white rim of his scleras. "Try again," Wally whispers. "I'd like that very much."

#hoo BOY i think i received this ask blacked out and then woke up with a book 🙈🙈🙈 #this kinda stuff is my favourite so i hope you guys enjoy it too 😉 #wally darling #wally darling x reader #welcome home #welcome home arg #starleskasks #starleskawrites #tw: manipulation #tw: threats #tw: arson #tw: possessive behaviour #tw: entrapment #tw: kidnapping #wally darling x you

[intrepidacious]

almost believing

summary: You and Bucky aren't exactly on speaking terms at the moment. That doesn't mean you're getting out of having to pretend to be married for a mission.

pairing: bucky barnes x f!reader

word count: 5.4k

warnings: miscommunication dialled up to eleven bc it's me; friends to lovers with lots of seething in between; set around christmas, but not a christmas fic; slight spoiler warning for wakanda forever just to be safe

please note that my blog is rated 18+. minors dni. ageless/empty blogs will be blocked without warning.

prompt: fake dating, baby 😌 title and initial inspiration for this fic were taken from "so close" from enchanted. yes. that scene.

a/n: this was written for my wonderful tiff's sweet as sugar writing challenge!! @traitorjoelite i'm so proud of you and i hope you enjoy this fic. i really thought this one would be short i swear. big shoutout and thank you to @sweetascanbee for listening to me rant about this for weeks, i appreciate you so much!!

masterlist | read on ao3

Here’s the thing: It’s supposed to be a simple mission. Just gathering intel at the hotel for one single night, the two of you pretending that everything is fine for a couple of hours more.

After all, it’s Bucky’s last mission with you before his reassignment goes through.

Well, it’s not like it’s going to make a difference to how much you’re seeing him, to be honest.

You’re not sure when he started making himself rare or why, but once you noticed it, it was impossible not to.

"Sorry, I’m heading out," when you ask him to grab lunch together seems inconspicuous enough, as does, "Ah, I’m already supposed to meet Sam," when you try asking him about that trip to IKEA you’d been talking about for ages.

But it doesn’t stop there. One excuse follows the next, and suddenly there’s always something more important than the two of you hanging out.

Of course, you try to rationalize it at first. Swallow down your hurt feelings, because Bucky is your friend, and sometimes people just need space. You’re fine. The two of you are fine.

Once he starts scheduling dates for Friday night, though—which has always been movie night, always, every week since you met him—you know that something’s wrong.

"Is he angry with me?" you keep asking Steve, who looks very uncomfortable and definitely knows what's going on.

"Just give him a little space," he suggests timidly. So you do. You let the whole thing go.

For like a week.

"I just don’t know what I did," you tell Sam over drinks, your head held in your hands.

"Nope," he answers, downing his dregs. "I’m not doing this. Nuh-uh."

"You know, too?" you cry, accusingly pointing at him.

"I don’t know anything," Sam deadpans. And then he puts his scarf on and leaves.

"Maybe try talking to Bucky about it?" Natasha suggests, either incapable of hiding her amused smile or unwilling to try.

"I would if I ever saw him for longer than a 'hi, how are you' at the gym," you mumble. Fact is, you’re getting pissed about him giving you the silent treatment without even knowing what you did wrong.

Because before this, whatever this is, things were fine. Great, even. Free afternoons were spent on each other’s couches, introducing him to your favorite tv shows and letting him teach you that stupid card game he loves so damn much. You’d even been starting to imagine that there might be something …

Clearly, you were wrong.

Now, you can’t even look at him without your throat closing up. It’s like you woke up a few weeks ago and he’s become an entirely different person around you, much more like he was at the beginning of your friendship, distant and cold.

He didn’t even tell you that he’d signed up for a transfer.

The mission call feels like your last chance.

A whole evening of teamwork and espionage, of him basically having no other choice than talking to you and finally telling you why the fuck he would get himself reassigned without even telling you beforehand. You could’ve hugged Fury for the opportunity.

That is, until you’re handed the file containing your fake identities for the op a few hours before you’re supposed to leave.

"You’re joking," you say as soon as you open the door.

"Great, you’re here as well," Steve says dryly. "Again, a) you both gotta learn how to knock, b) the whole thing wasn’t my idea or my decision, but I also think it’s the best directive for what you’re trying to do, and c) no, there’s no one else available for the mission. Anything I missed?"

Bucky deliberately doesn’t meet your eye, his arms still crossed as he stares Steve down with a look you can’t decipher. He doesn’t even acknowledge you standing in the door, but his foot is doing the tapping thing again.

You purse your lips and join the staring.

Steve sighs, rubbing his temples with the palms of his hands. "Listen, you two work well together and I know these past few weeks have been … strained"—you almost laugh at that—"but it’s just one night."

"We need to pretend we’re married," you say. "How’re we going to pull that off if he can’t stand being in the same room as me?"

"I trust that there won’t be any issues." Steve raises an eyebrow at Bucky as he says that, but of course he doesn’t get a reply. That would necessitate talking in your presence.

"One night," Bucky repeats through gritted teeth.

Not for the first time, there seems to be some sort of silent conversation between the two of them that you’re not privy to. You roll your eyes.

"I’ll see you later."

You leave with your back straight and without a glance over your shoulder, the door slamming shut behind you.

For a moment, you’re tempted to barge into Natasha’s office next, but you have a feeling like she’d just give you another one of her looks again, which really won’t better your mood. So instead, you slam another door and flop onto your bed, blankly staring at the ceiling for a while.

Surely, there’s some twisted sort of irony in this whole situation, but you’re not laughing.

Usually, before a mission, you’d get bagels together from the bakery around the corner. You haven’t done that in a while, but you’re still quietly begging your phone to show a new unread message when you look at the time however long later.

Instead, there’s just your lockscreen picture of Bucky’s grinning face that you can’t bear to get rid off, no matter how many times it stings you. It’s almost a year old, now, back when you’d taken him to go do your holiday shopping with you, insisting that "no one’s gonna recognize you, look at that great cap you’re wearing".

It’d started snowing halfway through the afternoon, and he’d kept reaching for your hand in order not to lose you in the crowd. You both gave up halfway through your list and just went to get coffee instead, strolling through Central Park and talking about nothing and everything.

That’s when you’d realized you'd been falling in love with him, laughing and fingers freezing around your paper cup, a strange new warmth spreading throughout your body.

You need to change your lockscreen.

***

Half an hour before pick-up, you leave your room with a duffle bag slung over your shoulder and almost run into Bucky. He’s leaning against the opposite wall like he’s been waiting for you, and it stings because that’s what he always used to do, back when you were still talking. When you could still pretend that maybe, just maybe, your feelings weren’t quite so hopeless.

Now, though, his easy smile is missing. Instead, an ever-present frown is furrowing his brows again, his mouth opened just a little, but nothing comes out.

"Look, I don’t want to do this any more than you do," you sigh. "But it’s a two-person job."

He nods, his tongue poking his cheek. "I know."

"Do you think you’re gonna be alright with us pretending we’re madly in love for a whole evening?"

Bucky’s jaw tightens. "I’ll be fine."

Of course he’s going to be fine.

You grab the strap of your bag more tightly. "I wish you would just tell me what I did."

"You didn’t do anything." If he’s telling the truth, though, why does he look so numb?

For a moment, you want to shout at him, cry, beg, make him tell you when and how this went wrong, but you don’t. You just stare at him in silence, hoping he’ll get it anyway, and he refuses to notice it.

"So," Bucky finally says. "You ready to get hitched?"

There’s the ghost of a grin in his eyes, and even though it’s not enough to mask the uncomfortable tilt of his shoulders, you sigh. At least he’s trying, you suppose.

"Let’s just get fake-married so we can fake-divorce and go our separate ways," you say, walking past him.

"I’ve got something for you."

You turn around again, raising your eyebrows as he holds up a ring between the fingers of his left hand. There’s a giant stone set in its center, striking and sparkling and not subtle in the slightest. Tony really went all out for appearance’s sake. Your fingers involuntarily tighten around the strap of your bag.

Bucky drops the ring in the palm of your hand.

"Quite the present," you chuckle nervously. You don’t even want to know how much this thing costs, and you feel like they're going to chop off your head if something happens to it.

"Try it on, then."

It’s a bit too large on your finger, and it feels foreign. It’s not you at all. Then again, it’s not supposed to be you.

Before you can say anything, though, Bucky shakes his head. "What?" you say with a roll of your eyes.

"That couldn’t look more fake if you tried. Wait a sec."

He turns his back towards you and rummages through his bag for a while, his jaw still set as he holds out his hand once more. With a sigh, you pull the ring off again and return it, but before you can pull your hand back, he catches it in his own.

This one slides onto your finger perfectly, and your eyes widen at the sight of it. It’s a lot subtler, with only a small emerald for decoration, but it’s so delicate and beautiful it takes your breath away.

Bucky’s mouth opens and closes, but he swallows whatever came to his mind. "That’s better," he says instead, and his voice sounds oddly rough.

"They gave you a backup?" you say, angling your hand this way and that to see how the gem catches the light.

"Mhm."

Something is off about this whole situation, but then you feel like you don’t really know Bucky anymore. Not like you used to, anyway. It used to be so easy to get a read on him.

You stand there in silence for a moment, and it’s only then that both of you realize he’s still holding your hand. He drops it immediately, and you pretend it doesn’t sting.

"How come you don’t get a ring?" you ask.

"Says who?" Bucky says, clearing his throat and activating the camouflage sleeve Tony had installed for his arm. Sure enough, there’s a ring on his hand as well.

You grab his hand curiously. When you touch it, there’s no difference between his fingers and the pseudo-platinum band, all of it just cool vibranium in disguise.

"It’s fake," you say. "It’s not the same."

"No," he agrees and pulls his hand away. "Looks real enough, though."

You notice the red splotches on his neck and wonder what it is that you’ve said this time, but it’s pointless anyway. He’s not going to tell you even if you asked.

Maybe you should be used to him icing you out by now, but it still hurts.

***

"Yes, Steve, I know," you sigh. "We’re just gathering intel, nothing else."

"I just wanted to have you say it again so we’re all clear. You both love taking risks when it’s not necessary."

"Alright, punk, we got it," Bucky says, tugging at his tie again.

You can’t even blame him for the nervous habit; you’ve been twisting your fake wedding ring around your finger for the entire drive.

This isn’t the first time the two of you had to go undercover as a couple; hell, it’s not even the first time you’ve pretended to be married. Usually, though, you could have a laugh about the whole thing together.

Now you barely know how to act around Bucky as yourself, let alone as some made up woman.

"I think we’re going to attract a lot of attention if we don’t get out soon," you say, readjusting the collar of your blouse underneath your coat.

You notice Steve staring at your hand for a moment, a frown between his brows, but his lips curve upwards a split second later. "Ready to do this?" he asks and you smile a little in confirmation.

Bucky takes another breath and then he nods curtly. "Let’s go."

The change that goes through him as soon as the two of you climb out of the car is so stark you almost turn on your heels again and beg Steve to let you off the hook, after all. His hand sneaks around your waist and pulls you closely into his side as you walk towards the hotel, all soft smiles and charm.

"Sorry for the holdup," he tells the bellman waiting next to your bags with a wink. "The missus and I just needed another minute."

You lightly slap Bucky’s chest in fake indignation. It’s quick thinking on his part, really.

When you’re checking in under your assumed names for the evening, he keeps his arm around you, and the content look stays in his eyes. A subtle glance at your surroundings tells you some of your persons of interest have already arrived early for the event tonight, looking around the sparkling lobby with the same feigned boredom.

Bucky nudges your cheek with his nose and then smiles again when you look at him. It makes your brain shut off for a moment.

When he looks at you like this, it’s so easy to forget the past couple of months and just pretend for a moment. What if there was no mission at all, and it could simply be the two of you?

But of course, that’s not possible. All of it is fake, including the way he looks at you. You know that.

So how come it doesn’t feel fake to you at all?

***

You hate this dress, you hate these people, you hate this dinner, and most of all, you hate how much you enjoy spending this much time so physically close to Bucky.

It feels so natural when he links your hand with yours, so fucking meant to be, even though he’s just putting on a show for the band of creeps you’re tasked to keep an eye on.

But damn if he’s not good at it.

It’s amazing, really, how his eyes immediately soften when you turn your head towards him, like you’re the only person in the whole room. He looks at you during this charade like you wish he’d look at you daily, even far from prying eyes around you; especially then. It makes your breath shorten, your heart pounding erratically because it thinks it’s getting everything it’s ever hoped for.

Hearts are often stupid like that.

A full night of glances and touches and the pretence of secret whispers will do all kinds of twisted things to your feelings.

There’s a lull in the conversation, and when Bucky squeezes your hand you realize he’s no longer the only one who’s looking at you.

You chuckle nervously. "I’m sorry, I got … distracted for a moment. What were you saying?"

"Ah, newlyweds," one of the investor goons laughs. He’s a particularly vile looking man whose suit is way too big on his spindly limbs.

Bucky, academy award winning actor in another lifetime, chuckles politely while the fondness in his eyes seems to increase tenfold. "We’ve been married three years, actually," he says, sticking to your official cover story.

It’d been Tony’s idea to keep your fake timeline as close to the truth as possible to avoid any slip-ups. It’s a great move on paper, really, but in reality it just adds another nail to the coffin.

Three years ago, you were on a mission in Brussels, only the second one ever where it was just the two of you. It was mostly surveillance, so one of you usually had downtime while the other kept lookout. It became customary that you’d entertain each other during those long hours, getting to know each other intimately for the first time, taking the first tentative steps towards the friendship you now share.

That mission was the groundwork of your falling in love with him in the first place.

"You seem to be doing something right if you’re both still so enamoured with each other," Spindly Arms says.

"I’m the luckiest guy in the world," Bucky responds, still looking into your eyes. "It’s hard not to do the right thing, then."

He presses a kiss to your cheek and you smile timidly. His lips linger for just a moment, and then he moves to whisper into your ear, something you’re sure looks like sweet nothings to everybody else but is actually a, "Don’t fall asleep on me."

You tilt your head, shove him teasingly as if he’d said something inappropriate, and because he’s always been quick to catch on he winks, obvious enough so that the other people that are part of this conversation can clearly see it.

It’s not long after this that you excuse yourselves, walking around the room with apparent aimlessness. Everything is sparkling with pure gold decorations and countless little twinkling lights that have been scattered around the room like millions of fireflies. You spot an actual orchestra right underneath the massive Christmas tree.

"Kind of tacky, don’t you think?" Bucky murmurs with a sideway glance at you.

"Maybe a little," you say.

The truth is, though, the room looks oversaturated and expensive and magnificent. Something straight out of a Hallmark movie, more like a movie set than a real place.

It’s the one thing that keeps this whole thing from being completely unbearable.

He must have seen the truth in your eyes, because he ducks his head and says quietly, "I’m gonna go check out the terrace."

You just nod and smile as he kisses your cheek again and then vanishes through the crowd with a few long strides. Sighing, you take another drink from the tray a waiter offers you, absent-mindedly rubbing your cheek.

"What a lovely surprise," a voice says next to you and you freeze for a moment before forcing yourself to calmly take a sip. "Miss … Winter, was it?"

"Mrs," you say with a pleasant smile. "Good evening, Director."

"Right, of course." Director de Fontaine eyes her martini warily. "I don’t suppose these olives are fresh, do you?"

Your mind is racing. If she’s here on official business, then your entire operation might be compromised.

"So," she continues, looking rather bored. "Met any interesting people yet, Mrs Winter?"

"Oh, yes," you say lightly, clinging to your role of unassuming young wife. "It’s all rather exciting."

"I’m sure. These kinds of events are all very … shiny." She looks into your eyes and there’s an almost explicit warning written in hers. "It’s surprisingly easy to get blinded."

You swallow heavily even as she smiles. "If you’ll excuse me, I think I see someone …"

You quickly walk over to the buffet table where some of the wives have formed a semi circle of gossip, trying your best to hide your sigh of relief when the director doesn’t follow you.

For a few minutes, you lose yourself in pointless gossip, until one of the women takes hold of your forearm.

"You must tell us, what’s your secret?"

"Excuse me?" you chuckle nervously.

"Your husband!" she exclaims, earning a few nods from some of the others. "He clearly adores you," she goes on. "I don’t think he’s looked away from you once since you joined us."

You steal a look around your shoulder. She’s right. Bucky’s gaze immediately locks with yours, an almost bashful grin on his lips. You caught me, his eyes seem to say, and you feel a rush of heat go through you.

He should be nominated for an Oscar with this performance.

Quickly, you turn around again to meet several expectant pairs of eyes.

"I don’t know what to tell you," you say. "He’s just … always been like this. I mean, he’s my best friend. I really don’t know what I would do without him."

There’s not a word of a lie in what you’re saying, and it elicits a round of coos and murmurs even as your heart gives a sharp pang.

"Dance with me?"

You flinch, turning to look at Bucky’s outstretched hand, at the sad, hopeful look in his eyes, and the line between reality and fiction blurs a bit more.

You take his hand, and he pulls you onto the dance floor, some cheery Christmas song ramping up to its big finale. Then, the band switches to a slower song. To you, it sounds mournful.

"That was nice," Bucky mutters into your ear. "What you said."

"I meant it, you know," you whisper, but he turns, and you don’t think he’s heard you.

Bucky places his hand on your hip and you hide a shudder. His gloved fingers wrap around yours, and then you start moving again.

You barely know the steps, but he’s a great leader, and he doesn’t say anything when you step on his toes. In fact, his gaze softens even more when he looks at you after the third time, the hand around your waist pulling you a little closer.

"How are you doing this?" you say without stopping to smile.

"Easy," Bucky says, and the way he says it almost makes you believe it’s true.

You bite your lip, trying to stop yourself from breathing him in. "I didn’t mean the dancing."

With the last note of the song, you stumble over his foot again and he snorts. "Me neither."

The melody changes and neither of you lets go. His steps are getting slower, smaller, like he’s just trying to keep both of you in motion. Your head is spinning. The twinkling lights are starting to blur into a great mass of stars in the background, like you’re at the center of a music box and everything else is just background noise.

You wrap both hands around his neck as you’re swaying, then, your foreheads only inches apart. You could stay in this moment forever, you think, as it stretches into blissful infinity. Somewhere, a clock strikes ten.

Bucky leans in a little closer and your breath hitches again.

"It’s time," he whispers, and your eyes fly open.

You’d almost forgotten about the mission.

"Val is here," you say quietly.

His expression hardens for just a second. "What?"

"She came to talk to me earlier. She knows we’re here."

"Why didn’t you say something?"

"I … There wasn’t time."

"We’re just gonna have to be quick and discrete."

You open your mouth, but then you see the distance close in again between you two, and so you just nod.

The plan is almost laughably simple, but it’s probably going to work out just as you’ve laid out beforehand. Everyone in the room has watched the two of you staring at each other for the past couple of hours, so no one bats an eye when Bucky nudges you gently and you make your way up the stairs to the fancy elevator that’s going to take you up to a bedroom.

Or, more specifically, to a bedroom that’s being used to store all kinds of evidence, but no one else needs to know that little detail.

You notice the director talking to Spindly Arms and a couple of other people, but you force your gaze not to linger on her. Instead, you grab Bucky’s hand more tightly.

He lets go of you as soon as the elevator doors close behind the two of you, dragging a hand through his hair and messing it up. There aren’t any cameras in the elevator, but you’re both pretty sure there will be on the floor you’re going. "CIA exposure, that’s exactly what we needed."

"There was nothing I could’ve done," you say, tugging your sleeves down your shoulders.

"I’m not blaming you, sweetheart," Bucky says distractedly, loosening his tie. Your heart makes a very heavy thud. "But if Walker shows up tonight as well, I’m gonna shoot first and ask questions later."

"No, you won’t," you say with a grin, mostly because you know he didn’t bring his gun because the male attendees were all frisked at the entrance.

"Maybe I’ll throw a knife. I could say it was an accident."

The conversation lasts barely a moment, but it reminds you so much of what the two of you used to be, it hurts.

You follow him stumbling out of the elevator onto the right floor with a breathless laugh. There’s no one in sight as you subtly check the room numbers before making him follow you with a coquettish smile for the security camera.

You find the right door without much trubble, pulling the keycard out of your inconvenient little handbag. "Come on now," you murmur as the lock rejects it at the first try.

Suddenly, Bucky’s hand is on your waist again, and you gasp as he spins around. The keycard drops to the floor.

He presses you against the wall, effectively trapping you in his embrace. Your hands are laid flat against his chest, his heart thundering madly underneath your fingertips. Bucky’s eyes flit around madly, like he’s trying to come up with something on the spot and, for the first time since you’ve known him, is left without ideas.

You gasp as his nose brushes against yours.

"Sorry," he whispers hoarsely. And then he kisses you.

Your body responds immediately, lighting a fire in your core as his lips press against yours, hungry, gentle, almost apologetic. You can taste the champagne on his tongue.

You arch your back against him on instinct as his hands travel down your arms, brushing your hips, your tighs, slowly parting your dress at the slit. Your eyes fly open the moment you realize what he’s doing, even though he swallows your gasp.

In one smooth motion, he pulls the I.C.E.R. out of the garter on your thigh and fires a single, silenced shot. The guy with the earpiece barely has the time to grunt before he sacks against the opposite wall, unconscious, his hand still in the pocket of his jacket.

"Fuck," you hiss, pushing Bucky away from you. He stumbles slightly, the gun loose in his fingers. His eyes are almost black as he blinks at you. "You could have told me we’re being shadowed."

Bucky’s mouth is stained from your lipstick, and the sight of that alone makes your head swim. You can still feel the ghost of his hand on your leg.

"It’d have blown our cover," he replies, infuriatingly calm. "Hate me later, our window has just narrowed by a bit."

You swallow, blinking to try and gain control over your breath again, grabbing your gun back with a short nod. "Let’s finish this, then."

***

Back at the Compound, you both give an exhausted report about the events of the night, leaving out nothing but your improvised kiss on floor fifteen.

Your lips are still tingling with it.

Finally, you and Bucky are left alone in the briefing room, and for the first time in weeks, he doesn’t just get up and leave as soon as the silence takes hold. Instead, you both sit next to each other, staring straight ahead.

"I guess we should talk," he says slowly, reluctantly, and you can’t help it.

Your defenses shoot up again.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about," you say, squinting.

"Yes, you do." He’s lost the tie hours ago, but he keeps tugging at the fabric in his hands as if it could give him the words he’s looking for. "I shouldn’t have kissed you, not with … Not like that."

"Like you said, the guy would’ve blown our cover," you say, crossing your arms.

"Doesn’t make it right."

"What do you want me to say, Buck?" you say sharply. "That you should’ve talked to me before? Well, I’m kind of used to you not doing that anymore, so just forget it."

"Y/N—"

"No, really, it’s fine. Like I said, you’re leaving, anyway, so what does it matter. Didn’t tell me you were planning to do that, either. You just did it."

"You know why I’m leaving."

"No, I fucking don’t!" There are tears in your eyes now. "I have been trying really hard, Bucky, but you’ve just shut me out. I thought you needed space, which is fine, by the way, but you just—one day you decided you were done with me and that was it."

He stares at you incredulously. "You seriously don’t remember."

"Don’t remember what?!"

"That you were talking about me. To Natasha."

The memory rushes through you so violently it’s almost ridiculous you hadn’t thought about it in months.

You’d just come back from another undercover op, and you’d called her right as the door to your room had closed behind you because not for the first time, your feelings had threatened to spill over again.

"You should talk to him. Be honest."

"No, Nat, come on, I can’t—I can’t do that to him. I can’t risk … you know, he’s my best friend. And that’s all it can ever be. I don’t want to ruin what we have. I just wish he’d make it easier."

"You’re making excuses, you know. Both of you deserve a bit of happiness, don’t you think?"

"I tried," Bucky says now, barely looking at you. "I tried making it easier. But you’re so …"

"So what?" you ask hollowly, ignoring the fact that you can feel the tears starting to trickle down your cheeks now. "So pathetic? That’s what this is about, isn’t it? That’s why you asked for the transfer, so you can be rid of me."

"Rid of you?" Bucky starts, but you ignore him.

"You know what, Bucky, fuck you if you think my feelings for you are so much of an inconvenience that you need to leave the state. Silly me for thinking we could be adults about this."

"You’re the one who wouldn’t just tell me."

"Well, now you know anyway and I’m sure once you’re off to Cairo or wherever the fuck they’re going to send you, you can have a big old laugh about the stupid girl who fell in love with you despite the fact that—"

"Love?"

"I mean, obviously?!"

"You … you’re in love … with me?" There’s something very soft and vulnerable in Bucky’s eyes.

"Are we talking about two different phone calls?"

"I thought you hated me."

You huff incredulously. "Why would I hate you?"

"That’s why I gave you space, I thought … but then …" He grabs your hands. "Sweetheart, I’ve been in love with you for years."

It punches the air out of your lungs. "What?"

Bucky’s eyes are devastating as he looks at you, then. "I’m so sorry, I—I got it all wrong, I was just—I thought you know and you didn’t see me like that and that’s why I …"

"You …?" you say, still not quite comprehending what’s going on.

His thumb caresses your knuckles, halting when it makes contact with the ring you’re still wearing. "I'm in love with you," he says quietly.

"I don’t understand," you whisper.

"Please tell me I didn’t fuck this up completely."

This time, you’re the one to lean in.

Where your first kiss in the hallway had been feverish, this one is soft, almost unbelievably sweet, both of you still breathless with the fact that you’re allowed to do this. Finally, it feels like all the pieces are falling into place and you’re home again.

You press closer into him and Bucky smiles against your lips, pulling you in with his hands on your hips just like he did when you were dancing earlier.

The loudspeakers overhead crackle. "Alright, kids, we’re gonna break this up until you’re back in your own quarters, I don’t want to expose FRIDAY to the creation of your sex tape."

You break up with a snort.

"Fuck you, Tony," Bucky shouts, but he’s still smiling as wide as you’ve ever seen him do.

You giggle as you nudge your nose against his, curling your fingers into his hair. "That reminds me, you know."

"Of what?"

"Quick and discrete," you mumble, repeating his words from the hotel. "Title of your sex tape."

Bucky groans and shuts you up again.

(A few years later, you get the ring back.)

happy holidays, y'all 💛 thank you for reading!! if you want to see more of my writing, check out my masterlist or follow @intrepidacious-fics for update notifications!!

#sweet as sugar challenge #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes x you #bucky x reader #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes oneshot #marvel fanfic #mcu fanfic #almost believing

[animeomegas]

The Quest for a Second Life - Part 3 - Potions and Magic and Sex, Oh My! (2)

ITACH X ALPHA!READER

Summary: Having immensely enjoyed your first day with Itachi in his pocket dimension, you were excited for the hunt for potions ingredients to begin. You didn't expect to come across a green monstrosity in the woods, nor a flock of unusually persistent old people, but all the shenanigans were worth it because you finally, finally managed to get your mouth on those beautiful nipples! GN!Dom!Alpha!Reader x Multiple!Naruto Characters

Word count: 11.7k

Warnings: N-sfw content. Vague references to a murder. At one point, MC believes that there is some non-con going on, but is mistaken. All alphas have penises, fyi.

A/N: Hmm, I think it's still too early for Happy Holidays wishes, although December is almost upon us. To those who didn't see the announcement, I'm cutting the third book from this series to elongate the first two. So, this is now the second of three Itachi parts. He is really holding out for the majority of the porn being in part 3, but Itachi is a classy guy like that. The mysterious book 2 love interest doesn't feel the same way lol. I hope you all enjoy it, and as always, this is for @omeganronpa 💞💞

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Epilogue

The next morning had seen the search for the ingredients for the Amnesia Reversal Potion begin. You had felt a little bit bad that Itachi was putting in so much effort to make a functionally useless potion, but you figured the story had to go on someway, and you couldn’t deny that it had been immensely fun to do a magical scavenger hunt.

Itachi had dedicated a wooden tray to keep all the ingredients together, which now sat in the corner of the living room. It was almost full after the two weeks of buying, finding, and gathering you’d gone through, covered with pots and bottles and bags stacked on top of each other.

Itachi had said that the potion was extraordinarily simple to make but had an eye-wateringly long ingredient list. You could tell that he was a little baffled by the whole thing, but it all made sense to you; him having to hide away in his study for a month to brew something delicate was decidedly not sexy, but your joint excursions had proven themselves rip for horny scenarios.

During the last two weeks, your relationship with Itachi had also progressed significantly. You hadn’t gone all the way yet, although the steadily increasing tension was certain to burst soon, and you hadn’t added a formal relationship label to anything, but the way that stolen kisses and sleeping in bed together had become the norm said a lot.  Neither of you acknowledged that Itachi now seemed incapable of sleeping unless he was directly on top of you either. When you had taken a midnight walk on one of the nights, unable to sleep, to stare out of the kitchen window, Itachi had found you in only three minutes and sat with you until he could entice you back into bed with him. With his loose, messy hair and revealing pyjamas that seemed determined to slip off his shoulders, it hadn’t taken very long.

What? You were a simple alpha, and a warm, sleepy omega’s charms were simply too strong to resist.

Itachi was so much more domestic than you could have imagined, now that you’d broken down his walls. He was softer, less stoic, desperate for praise and companionship. He still refused to let you cook, cooking for you every night, constantly trying to perfect new recipes despite the limited number of supplies available to him in the dead of Winter. Some dinners were just as good as the stew from day one, and some weren’t. Itachi was experimenting, you understood that. He wasn’t as experienced a cook as you had originally believed, but you still heavily praised every attempt just to watch him purr.

You shook yourself out of the memories of Itachi’s cooking and instead crouched down in front of the ingredient tray, mentally checking each ingredient against the recipe pinned to the wall above it. Most of the ingredients on the left side you had grabbed on the second and third days, as they’d come directly from Itachi’s own stores.

You smiled, tracing the tops of the bottles and remembering that he had literally fallen into your lap or arms no less than three times while retrieving them.

“I don’t know why I stored the apple seeds so far towards the back of the top shelf,” Itachi said, huffing as he tried to stretch his arm as far as it would go. You only sighed, amused, and knowing full well that the porn logic had made it so. You were holding the base of Itachi’s ladder steady, but you knew that what was about to happen wouldn’t be stopped no matter what precautions you took.

“I’ve almost got it… Almost… Ah ha! Eep!”

Itachi’s foot slipped out from under him, toppling him off the top of the ladder and into your already waiting arms. You were glad to see that the jar filled with apple seeds was clutched tightly in his hand.

“Hey beautiful,” you cooed, adjusting the princess carry a little. “I think I’m going to have to get rid of this ladder, because I can’t have you falling for anyone else.”

Itachi scoffed, cheeks blooming pink. You grinned down at him, and his fake annoyance melted into pure affection. You probably looked like a pair of lovesick fools.

‘Ah, you did an excellent job of delivering that line, human, all that practice in the bathroom mirror certainly helped!’

‘James, you’re ruining the moment.’

‘My sincerest apologies human. Perhaps to salvage the moment, you could use another falling themed pick-up line in order to encourage your omega towards behaviours associated with playful sexual aggression?’

‘James—’

‘Xethrofeth recommended this one, “I enjoy safe sex, shall I tie you to the bed so that you don’t fall off?”’

‘James!’

You smiled, remembering the moment. The best moment though, was when one of the ingredients required Itachi to crawl into the tiny loft space in the ceiling. He had emerged covered in dust and sneezing like a kitten, and then, after his shower, he had approached you with a towel and brush to help him dry his hair.

You dragged the boar bristle brush slowly through Itachi’s hair as he sat on the bed in between your legs. His silky black hair was thicker than it looked, and watching the brush glide through it was enchanting.

Itachi shivered as the bristles tickled his back. His head twitched like he was trying to resist the impulse to bare his neck to you.

Bathed in candlelight, warm while a storm raged on outside, just existing in a comfortable silence… you felt content.

“You’re so beautiful.” The words escaped you without your permission, but as Itachi turned to face you, his newly dried hair fanning out around him, you didn’t think he minded.

“So are you,” he muttered, leaning forward to connect your lips with his.

That kiss had become so heated that it had taken everything in you to resist going all the way. Itachi seemed a little put out that you stopped things from progressing, but you wanted to go slowly. The slow build up of tension was delicious.  An orgasm was always more rewarding if you’d been denied first, and you were determined to apply that logic to the entire relationship. And so, you had gone to bed as normal.

Well, it had been mostly normal. Itachi had spent most of the night grinding on your hip in his sleep. You had almost given in and woken him up, but you had managed to resist.

You turned your attention to the middle of the tray now, counting each little bag or newer bottle that had been bought from the market in the nearest town. Now, that excursion had been fun. It had been a pretty long walk, but with warming charms on your clothes and Itachi’s delightful company, the walk had flown by.

The town had been incredible and just remembering it made you want to go back as soon as possible. It had felt like walking around the best historical reenactment in existence, except real, and also smelling better than you imagined the actual past would. It made sense though; if food intolerances were too inconvenient for erotica, piss and body odour certainly were.

Although, you admitted, that would probably depend on the kind of erotica.

Regardless, the town setting introduced just as much porn (and cliché romcom) logic as Itachi’s cottage. You weren’t exaggerating when you said that every single old person had something to say about you and Itachi being the cutest couple. Itachi had insisted on walking with your arms linked ‘in case you got lost’, so you couldn’t really have faulted the old people for assuming you were a couple. What you had been taken aback by though was just how bold they had been. You had met horny older people before, but that had been on another level.

“Oh, look at you two,” the old lady running the exotic goods stand said. “I can tell that pups will be along for you two soon enough. I have an eye for these sorts of things, you see.”

You and Itachi stuttered, verbally falling over each other as you tried to deny any such thing. This didn’t deter the old lady for one moment.

“Although, here’s a tip from me: some people insist on the missionary position for conception, but doggy has a far better success rate in my experience. Ernest’s shop on Main Street sells plugs if you’ll be needing one to—”

“Um, can we just have 50 grams of crushed snake fangs please!”

…

“Oh, Itachi dear, you’ve brought an alpha with you!” said the old man running the bakery cheerfully. “Although” -he squinted at you both- “no mating mark yet.”

While you picked out some bread, he pulled Itachi aside to whisper in such a way that meant you could hear everything. You couldn’t tell if that was intentional or not.

“Some advice from back in the day,” the old man ‘whispered’. “This pressure point here on your palm will supress your gag reflex.”

Ironically, you almost choked as soon as you registered those words.

…

“Oh, an alpha! I’m so glad, Itachi, I was scared you were all alone out there,” the old person at the grocers said, quickly untying their apron to give Itachi a hug. They then turned their gaze to you. “You treat him right, or I’ll have something to say about it, you hear?”

You had a feeling that no amount of explaining that you weren’t technically together would help, so you just nodded, “Of course.”

The person smiled, mollified by your words, “You know what they say about omegas, dearie, make their legs shake, not their hearts break. Words to live by, in my opinion. And if you can, invest in one of those fancy magic vibrators. They’re a little pricy, but more than worth it in my book, especially if you have a talented witch like Itachi on hand who can charge them for free. Why, I said to my wife just last night, I said—”

“We should probably get going,” you said, dumping the vegetables you needed on the counter. “It’s a long walk back, y’know?”

Itachi had been horrifically embarrassed all day, but paradoxically he also seemed to bask in the positive attention. In fact, he had been wearing a pleased little smile under his rosy cheeks for most of the day as acquaintances congratulated him on entering a relationship.

What had pleased Itachi less though, was the very flirty omega who worked in the tavern, where you had stopped for a bite of lunch.

“Let me know if you need help with anything,” the waiter said, letting his hand linger on yours as he took your menu. “Anything at all…”

Itachi immediately bristled at the obvious flirtation. The fact that Itachi was obviously bothered was satisfying. You knew full well that if you stayed in this universe, you wouldn’t be straying from Itachi, but it was still ego boosting to have such a pretty omega ready to defend his claim on you, needed or not.

“That’s alright,” Itachi said, voice and face tight. “We’d rather be left alone to enjoy our date.”

Oh, so that was how he was going to play it. You didn’t correct him on it being a date, more than willing to let the situation boil a little for your own ego and amusement. You wanted to see what would happen if you didn’t intervene.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” the waiter said with an obvious fake surprise. “Let me bring you some waters then.”

Itachi settled a little once he was gone, but he made a point of conjoining your hands on top of the table so that everyone could see. You gave him a squeeze but decided to save the teasing about your ‘date’ until you had returned home.

When the man returned, two glasses in hand, his beige shirt had been thoroughly drenched in water and was now completely see through. His nipples, which you could now tell were both pierced, were clearly visible.

He laughed as he approached the table, “Sorry, there was a bit of an accident in the kitchen. Here are your waters.” He put both the glasses down and then carefully and deliberately placed down a little scrap of paper down in front of you. A quick glance confirmed that it was an address, likely his.

Itachi stood, growling. He grabbed the piece of paper and tore it in half and threw the pieces to the ground. The waiter only watched, amused.

‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’ you were chanting in your head thoroughly amused.

James did not speak and yet her presence in your mind felt judgemental.

Regardless of her feelings, your plan to watch things play out changed anyway when Itachi’s eyes bled to red and his intentions seemed to switch from instigating a cat fight, to committing a murder.

“Hey, Itachi,” you said, trying to sound light and unconcerned even as you were silently ‘what the fuck’ing in your head. “Why don’t we take our food to go and have a nice picnic on the bench outside? You look so beautiful with snow in your hair, and with these amazing cloaks that you designed for us, we should be nice and warm.”

Even you could tell that you were laying it on a bit thick, but it seemed to work, as Itachi dropped the outward aggression for something more akin to proud posturing. He sent a satisfied smirk at the other omega, who only rolled his eyes.

“I’ll bring you your food to go then… Insecure omegas always demand such things.”

Itachi bared his teeth, eyes bleeding red again. You decided to step in.

“We didn’t ask for your opinion,” you said, putting a hand on Itachi’s shoulder to hold him back. “Please just bring us the food we paid for.”

Knowing a losing battle when he saw one, the waiter huffed and returned to the kitchen.

‘Interesting,’ James said in your head, thankfully without the earlier judgement.

‘What’s interesting?’

‘This situation didn’t escalate like this in the other three trials for Itachi that I’ve witnessed.’

‘What, really? How come?’

‘I am not sure. Perhaps Itachi just finds himself more attached to you than the others. None of those three picked him, of course, so perhaps they were also less attached to him than you appear to be.’

That had made you happier than you wanted to admit, and you had ended up returning to the cottage with a skip in your step and Itachi’s arm linked around yours.

To summarise the last two weeks though, things had been very romantic, and filled with so much genuine connection and sexual tension, that you felt like you were about to burst. You had seen so much of this pretty omega: his passion for magic, his love for his brother, his beautiful nipples, you mean, his beautiful home.

You were enjoying the slow burn and teasing so much that you almost wanted to drag it out further. You probably would if you weren’t so worried that the demo would suddenly end before you’d had a chance to go all the way with Itachi. James still wasn’t giving you a straight answer about how much longer you had in this world.

‘Enough time,’ she would say.

‘Time flows differently in these worlds,’ she would explain.

‘Are you really so eager to leave?’. That last one stopped you from asking altogether lest she start thinking you wanted to be pulled out early.

The point was though that today was the day that you had decided to properly confess and try and seduce Itachi. Your skin tingled with anticipation and saliva started to pool in your mouth as your thoughts ran wild. Yes, you had both waited long enough and you were quite literally hornier than you’d ever been.

But today was also the day that you were going scavenging in the woods for the final three ingredients. You had to do that first, but as soon as you returned, you would use your alpha charms on Itachi. Nothing would get in your way.

Behind you, Itachi stepped into the living room from the kitchen, a little basket of supplies packed and ready for your journey.

“Moss found on a blackwood tree, five leaves from a thizzberry bush, and two seeds from an Amplexus plant?” you read off the remaining ingredients that weren’t yet on the tray. “Are those going to be difficult to get?”

Itachi hummed, slipping on his cloak and holding out yours, “The last one might be a little complicated, but there’s nothing dangerous, I promise.”

You stood, gratefully taking the warmed cloak and wrapping it around you. Ready to go, you took one more glance at the ingredient list before joining Itachi by the front door. He was frowning down at the basket of supplies, lips pursed.

“Are you okay?” you asked, poking him on the nose to pull him out of wherever he had gone.

Itachi blinked, before sending you a smile, “Yes, sorry, I feel like I’ve forgotten something important, but I can’t remember what.”

“Have you got the stuff to collect what we need?” Itachi nodded. “Have you got snacks and water?” He nodded again. “Have you got emergency first aid supplies?” Another nod. “Then it can’t be that important, right? That’s all the main stuff.”

Itachi took a deep breath, still looking a little conflicted, “You’re probably right, let’s go, the days are getting shorter, and I don’t want you out after dark.”

You pulled open the door and held it for Itachi to exit first. You were rewarded with a smile that made you want to kiss him senseless, but he wasn’t joking when he said the days were short, so you supressed that instinct for the moment. Later, you reminded yourself, you’d get the pretty omega into bed later.

The snow crunched under your feet as you stepped outside, and your breath suddenly became visible. You took a moment to take in the view of the snowy trees surrounding the little clearing you were standing in. Despite the temperature, the charmed cloak was keeping the worst of the chill away.

You pulled the front door shut and startled some nearby birds, which then took flight, scattering clumps of snow onto the ground.

You appreciated the beauty of your surroundings; you didn’t think you would ever get bored of living here.

“Which direction first?”

“Towards the mountains,” Itachi said, looping the basket through one arm and grabbing your hand with the other. You gave your conjoined hands a little squeeze of acknowledgement and then allowed Itachi to lead you. Walking in the snowy woods had given you some trouble at first, but after half a month, you’d literally found your footing and were able to keep up.

“Itachi?” you asked, as you walked in the direction that Itachi had pointed out.

“Hm?”

“Can you tell me something about your childhood? A story, maybe? Something nice. I want to learn more about you.”

“Oh, if you’d like me to, then I don’t mind. How about… yes, this one is good: my best friend was called Shisui, and he used to play pranks all the time,” Itachi said slowly, the ghost of a smile on his face. “Sasuke was his favourite target, I think, because he always reacted violently, but mother and I often intervened to protect him, so Shisui targeted me most of all. It was easier, I suppose.

“There was a girl in our village that liked me. I was too oblivious and busy to notice at the time, but everyone else knew. My mother thought it was sweet, even though my father would never have allowed me to court a beta. Shisui however, thought it would make for an excellent prank.

“He doodled mine and the girl’s names all over a piece of paper, joining our surnames and putting hearts everywhere, even writing lists of possible pup names. He then slipped it into the pocket of some trousers in my wash bin, as if I had been the one to write it.

“The next day, when my mother did my laundry, she found the paper and of course, believed it to be mine. There was no amount of begging and pleading that would convince her that it wasn’t, and believe me, I tried.”

Itachi chuckled, and you let out an amused breath, imagining how embarrassed a teenage Itachi must have been.

“When did you figure out it was Shisui?”

“It only took me about five minutes to figure out that it must have been him playing a prank, but my mother wouldn’t hear it, and she was insufferable about my ‘crush’ for several months.”

You snorted, “That’s a good story. Your mother sounds funny.”

“I can’t wait for you to meet her,” Itachi said, sending you a bright grin. “I think she’ll like you a lot.”

You laughed, “Let’s think about getting my memories back first, then we can handle the family meet and greets, okay?”

You watched as the amusement drained from Itachi’s face. You tried to keep the conversation going, but Itachi no longer seemed to be in the mood. You continued to search for the ingredients mostly in silence, with occasional descriptions of what exactly you were looking for.

You wondered what was wrong, but there never seemed to be a good time to bring it up.

It ended up taking less than an hour to find both the moss and the leaves, even hidden amongst the snow, but according to Itachi, Amplexus plants only grew at the base of the mountains, so it had taken another hour to even get close to where he thought one might be.

You had entertained yourself by swinging your hands back and forth and asking Itachi questions about the world once his mood seemed to lighten again. You loved James, but Itachi’s explanations were significantly more helpful. You’d learnt the names of all the nearby settlements, a rough run down of what they were like, and roughly how far away they were. You were making extra careful notes of which on you’d claim to be from when the time came for your ‘memories’ to return.

You were in the middle of asking Itachi about what kind of pets existed in this world when Itachi suddenly stopped, eyes squinted towards your left. You stopped too, falling silent immediately.

“There!” Itachi said, voice hushed but still excited. “I think I can see one. Follow, but stay behind me.”

Here, in an unfamiliar and vaguely unnerving snowy forest filled with unknown entities was not the time for you to start exercising your alpha bravado, so you obediently followed three paces behind Itachi, remaining alert all the while.

You were out of your element, so caution was the best approach. You imagined that broken bones were also not sexy enough for an erotica, but you could only rely on the world so much; there had to be a level of stupidity that would overcome the narrative safety nets, and you didn’t want to find out what level that was.  

The Amplexus plant came into view as you rounded past a tight cluster of trees. It was not something you would have seen in your world that was for sure, although it did remind you a little of a giant Venus fly trap, with slowly swaying, green appendages, each capped with larger, circular parts on the ends. Much to your horror, it was about the size of a bear.

At its centre of the plant were the seeds you had to collect. They looked a lot like pumpkin seeds but were each the size of an orange and suspended in some sort of purple, translucent organic pouch. You and Itachi somehow had to get your hands on two of them.

“This one is backed up against a tree which isn’t ideal,” Itachi said, studying the Amplexus from a distance of about three metres. “I’ll have to approach it from the front.”

“Is it dangerous approaching from the front?” you asked, anxiously pulling the cloak around yourself.

Itachi shook his head, “Not dangerous, just not ideal.”

‘James?’ you asked, struck by an awful sense of dread. ‘Is the Amplexus plant sentient?’

‘I cannot answer that question without four botanists, a linguist, and at least half a politician present, human, my apologies.’

Great. That meant yes. Nothing non-sentient had that much debate around it. You were just going to let Itachi handle this and hope nothing went wrong.

Speaking of Itachi, he was currently pulling a wrapped parcel out of the supply basket.

“Hold this please,” he said, passing it over to you. You took it easily, tucking it in the crook of your arm. “Please stand back and don’t approach the Amplexus, no matter what happens.”

You swallowed nervously, “Okay, I’ll stay here.”

Itachi opened the parcel revealing a chunk of raw red meat. Delicately, he took it out and passed you the empty wrappings. You watched, entranced as he laid the meat flat on his palm before muttering a spell under his breath. The red meat lifted gently off his skin, like it was being carried by an invisible force, and floated over to the Amplexus plant. Itachi followed behind it, but as the red meat floated towards the right side of the plant, Itachi tread carefully towards the left.

Your heart felt like it was beating a bruise onto the inside of your throat. You had no idea what was about to happen. Everything was agonisingly slow, until suddenly it wasn’t.

All at once, Itachi used his magic to fling the raw meat to the right of the Amplexus plant, while he darted towards its left side. The tendrils that had been swaying rhythmically suddenly jumped to life, snapping towards the red meat. Your comparison to a Venus fly trap was strengthened when the thicker end part of the largest tendril yawned open, before snapping down on the meat with a loud, and wet sounding slap.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Itachi was now right beside the plant. He reached quickly in and grabbed two of the seeds, one in each hand, before kicking off the ground to propel himself backwards to make a hasty escape.

Seemingly finished with its tasty morsel, the Amplexus plant returned to its original position, where it suddenly gained awareness of Itachi. He was already two paces away, the Amplexus seeds clutched in his hands, but that didn’t stop the plant from trying to grab hold of him.

You watched, frozen in place, as the tendrils lurched towards the witch. It was going to be close. You gripped your own cloak in your fists, tense, but unable to help. Itachi was fast, faster than you would have guessed.

But ultimately, he wasn’t fast enough.

Two tendrils managed to wrap around his upper arms, immediately tugging Itachi backwards towards the main body of the plant. You heard Itachi’s gasp of surprise, and the thump of the Amplexus seeds hitting the ground as he let them go. More and more tendrils shot forward now that Itachi was caught and aided in tugging him back, wrapping around his legs and torso.

Itachi struggled for a moment, trying to pull his way out and rip the tendrils off him, but once he was pressed against the body of the plant, being held in place by at least sixteen plant tendrils, Itachi seemed to accept his fate and all the fight bled out of him.

It was at that exact moment that you realised what erotica trope this was.

‘Oh my god, James, what the fuck?’

‘That was phrased as though it was a question, but it is not one I know how to answer, human.’

“Ah!” Itachi gasped, as the plant tendrils covered all his visible body from the tops of his shoulders to his ankles. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, I, ah, I thought I could grab the seeds fast enough, but, ah, it caught me.”

Itachi seemed to be treating this as a minor inconvenience, but for the first time since arriving, you felt completely unbalanced by the porn logic here.

How could Itachi be okay being… touched… by that plant against his will? You were aware that this was a fairly common and not unpopular trope, hell, you’d even partaken a few times in your lowest moments, but to make it real? It didn’t seem right. You clenched your fists into your cloak as you reached a decision. No, you wouldn’t stand for it. You were going to defeat this hentai monstrosity and defend Itachi. No plant would touch him without consent if you had anything to say about it!

You dropped the basket and wrapper to the ground and grabbed the first thing you saw that could feasibly be a weapon: a hefty, gnarled stick.

“How do I kill it?” you said, whirling around with the stick and holding it up menacingly towards the Amplexus plant.

“Kill it?” Itachi said, sounding more alarmed by that than whatever it was currently doing to him. Only his face was visible now, as most of the tentacles writhed around his body, barring the largest one which seemed happy resting on top of Itachi’s head. “These plants are already so rare; you can’t kill it! I’ll be fine. I’ll just give it what it wants, and it will let me go.”

You deflated at his words. You felt awful just standing by, imagining all the things the plant might do to him. Itachi let out a little squeak and you had a sneaking suspicion that his rapidly reddening face wasn’t from the cold.

“Itachi, are you sure there isn’t anything I can do to help?” you asked desperately. “Anything at all?”

Itachi only blinked at you, brows furrowed, as though he were confused by the anxiety in your words. “Oh!” he said suddenly, face melting into a reassuring smile. “I’m sorry, I completely forgot that you have no memory of the local flora.”

Itachi paused for a moment as the tendril resting on his head decided to tug out his hairband, releasing the inky waves around his face. He sent the plant a glare and shook the hair out of his face as best as he could.

“Amplexus plants don’t hurt people,” he continued. “They just really, really enjoy hugging humans.”

You blinked at him, trying to comprehend what he was telling you.

“It’s giving you a hug?” you asked, blankly.

“Yes, and it will release me in a moment, I promise.” Itachi squirmed again as the tentacles around his chest tightened and the largest one gave his head a rub.

Now that you weren’t as panicked, you realised that the way the tendril on his head was touching him was more affectionate than anything. It was bumping up to him, nuzzling, and giving him pats, almost like an over eager dog, except in the form of a writhing mass of hentai plant tenacles.

“Oh,” you said, relieved, dropping the branch. “I thought it was, um, touching you.”

Itachi’s blush darkened but he shook his head, “It’s just a hug.”

You huffed, “You scared me! With the way you were trying so desperately not to get caught, I thought it was something bad.”

“I won’t lie… it is a bit inconvenient, and I had hoped not to get caught, but I suppose it’s too late for that now.”

“Will it be holding you for long?”

“No, no more than around a minute longer, I should imagine.”

You let out a relieved sigh, feeling much better about the whole thing, “That’s not too bad.”

“Well, the problem is less the time and more of the effect of the hug,” Itachi explained sheepishly, avoiding eye contact. “You see, Amplexus plants secrete a substance that doesn’t interact well with most fibres used for making clothes.”

“It’s damaging your clothes?”

“In a way, yes.” You got the distinct impression that if he were not currently pinned by a giant writhing mass of plant tentacles, Itachi would be fidgeting a lot more than he was. Certainly, his face was only getting redder as the conversation progressed.

You didn’t have to ponder his answer for long, because at that moment, the tendrils suddenly withdrew, (the main one giving him a couple more head pats for good measure), leaving Itachi sitting on the floor at the base of the plant.

An unharmed, but incredibly, and shockingly naked Itachi was revealed to you, his bare butt nestled in the snow.

Of course the plant had dissolved his clothes, you thought, a little hysterically. You didn’t know why you had expected anything different in this whacky dimension.

Itachi bashfully tried to stand, already shivering, while keeping one hand firmly covering his crotch and the other arm braced across his (still beautiful) nipples. You had a wonderful view of his blush creeping down his chest. His nipples must have been incredibly hard from the cold—No, not the time.

But as much as you enjoyed the view, you weren’t going to let your omega freeze because a random plant had got too enthusiastic. You took off your cloak, now the only one you had between you, and went over to Itachi (avoiding getting too close to the plant, of course), bundling him up in the warm fabric and helping him get to his feet.

“There you are darling,” you said softly, clasping the cloak around his neck. Itachi used his hands to keep the fabric pulled tightly to his body. Now that you didn’t have your cloak, you were grateful that Itachi had insisted on charming all your clothes for warmth like the mother hen he denied being.

‘There. You can’t say I’m not a respectful alpha, James.’

‘Why am I forbidden from making such a claim?’

‘Because I just gave my cloak to a naked omega in need!’

‘Human alpha, you’re staring at his hardened nipples through the cloak right now.’

You jumped when you realised she was right, and hastily averted your eyes with an awkward cough.

‘No comment.’

Itachi shivered and you dropped the connection with James to rub his arms with your hands to warm him up. At least he still had his shoes, otherwise you’d have been carrying a very naked Itachi home. On second thought, that didn’t sound too bad.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, standing in the middle of a fantasy forest, warming up a naked witch, while a suspiciously hentai adjacent plant swayed in the background, that you were hit with the absurdity of the situation.

The first couple of giggles forced their way through your firmly pressed lips. Itachi shot you a glare and elbowed you lightly with a huff.

“It’s not funny,” he said, still glaring at you. That was enough for you to lose your composure completely. Hysterical laughter burst forward with such strength that you bent over and braced yourself with hands on your knees.

“Oh my god,” you said between gasping laughs. “It melted your clothes because it wanted to hug you too much, what in the fucking hentai.”

“You’re laughing at me.” Itachi pouted, but soon, even he couldn’t deny the humour of the situation and a couple of chuckles bled through, melting his pout away.

“I’m laughing with you darling.” You stood, wiping away the tears that had built from the hysterics.

“I’m not laughing,” he denied.

“Yes, you are.” You pinched the end of his nose playfully and Itachi struggled to smother his smile with another pout.

“Hmph.”

You blew out a breath, watching the cloud of white float away from your face, “If you knew this was a possibility why didn’t you just pack some extra clothes?”

“I did! They’re—” Itachi froze, wide eyed. “I knew I forgot something!”

“Of course, you did.” You collapsed into laughter once more. “This universe is hilarious.”

Itachi ignored you, turning away to collect the basket and fallen seeds. He had just put the two seeds in the basket and turned to rejoin you when one of the Amplexus tendrils decided to be a menace and shot out towards Itachi’s ankles, tangling them together.

“Eep,” was the only noise you heard before Itachi was crashing into you, sending both of you sprawling to the ground. You hit the ground back first, knocking all the air out of your lungs. Itachi landed on top of you, legs spread over your hips, and hands braced against your chest.

“Sorry,” he said sheepishly, sitting up and glaring back at the Amplexus plant, which only swayed innocently. “This is so embarrassing.”

“Hey,” you said, propping yourself up so that you were now sitting with Itachi on your lap. You tried to ignore his stark nakedness for the moment and instead brushed some fallen snow from his hair. “You don’t have to be embarrassed. It’s only me here, and I’m not going to hold this over your head. Do you trust me?”

“I do,” Itachi said, pupils expanding as he stared at you. “But still—”

“Still nothing. There isn’t anything I could see, even the most embarrassing thing in the world, that would make me feel differently about you.”

His facial expression suddenly changed, closing off, and just like that, Itachi pulled back and the moment was broken.

Bewildered, you asked, “Are you okay? Did I do something? I didn’t mean—”

“I’m fine,” he said, his voice as cold as the snow around you. He got up off your lap and tugged the cloak around himself. “We should get moving; it’s cold.”

You jumped to your feet, “Right, yes, of course, I’m sorry, I got carried away.”

Itachi didn’t say anything, he just picked up the basket and started moving in the direction of home.

“We should eat something, before we go back,” you said, anxiety clawing at you. You weren’t sure what had caused him to get so cold all of a sudden. “We’ll need the strength.”

Itachi stopped walking and tipped his head consideringly.

“Fine.” That was the only thing he said before he veered left. “There is a sheltered cave opening just down here that will be a safe place to rest.”

You followed him in silence. This wasn’t the first time today that he had suddenly grown cold. You couldn’t figure out a pattern in what was causing it, but something was very clearly wrong. You wondered if he was mad at you, but as you walked, he seemed to soften slightly, linking his free arm with yours. He still didn’t speak, but it assuaged your worries that you’d somehow messed everything up.

If he wasn’t angry at you, though, then what was wrong?

The cave appeared around the corner, just up from a small, frozen pond. It looked like any cave really, if a bit shallow, but it had a large, flat rock just inside the opening that would make a perfect bench, free from the wet snow that covered everything outside.

“It’s too shallow for any large animals to live in,” Itachi explained, stepping inside. His voice and footsteps echoed slightly as he moved. “It makes for an excellent resting stop. See, someone else was here earlier.”

He pointed to the remains of a campfire that was in front of the stone bench. It was long cold, but it still looked somewhat fresh. There was still dry firewood and kindling resting in the stone lined pit. Itachi considered it for a moment before clearly deciding something.

“Stand back,” he said, gently moving you to stand behind him.

“Why?”

He eyes your damp clothes and his own nakedness for a moment, “I figure we could use some warming up.” He brought two fingers from both hands up to his mouth and forcefully blew. To your shock, a jet of fire burst from his lips and towards the fire pit, bathing the cave in an orange light. The wood caught immediately, and you quickly had a burning campfire.

“That was incredible!” you said, sitting down on the little bench and holding your hands up to the warmth. “Can you teach me that at some point?”

“It’s a unique family magic, I’m afraid.” Itachi sat down next you to as you deflated. “Don’t worry though, there is much, much more I can teach you, if you’re interested. But for now, we should eat.”

He dragged the basket over and unloaded a selection of bread and various spreads and cheeses, along with a small pot of dried fruit.

“Which cheese if your favourite?” he asked, pulling off a chunk of bread.

Not expecting the question, you stalled, “Um, whatever one you’d recommend, I guess.”

Itachi nodded. He cut of a section of a harder looking cheese and placed it on the chunk of bread. You expected him to hand it to you, but instead he held it out over the fire.

“This type of smoked cheese is better slightly melted.” He held the cheese and bread there for a few minutes before withdrawing it. He blew on it gently before holding it towards your mouth. “Open up.”

Amused, you did as he asked. He placed the chunk of cheese and bread into your mouth, laughing lightly when you deliberately nipped at his fingers.

This was the Itachi you were more familiar with, but once the food had been eaten and packed away, his melancholic mood seemed to return.

“I can almost hear you thinking,” you said, pressing a kiss to his head. “What’s on your mind, Itachi? You’re worrying me.”

He didn’t answer, he only sighed, staring at the fire. The shadows it was creating on his face only worsened the hollow sadness on his face. You wished you could wipe away all his problems, the way he seemed to for you.

“Hey, whatever’s wrong, we can—”

“I killed someone.”

You stopped speaking, letting what he said linger in the air.

“I think you should know that, before we… before we get any closer. You have a right to know.”

You leant forward, trying to get Itachi to look at you, but he refused, continuing to stare directly into the fire.

Okay, you thought, trying to make sense of things, he killed someone. To be completely honest, you had considered that his exile had been caused by something like that. It wasn’t like the legal system in this world was the same as your old world, so he could very well have been punished for a murder with exile. The only thing that made you doubt that theory was that he was the love interest in an erotica novel, and this didn’t seem like the kind of erotica world where murder was sexy.

But many people did consider tragic backstories to be sexy, which would explain the angst. There was little as satisfying as good comfort sex in a saucy novel, you could admit that.

Regardless, even if he had killed someone, if you knew Itachi, and you really felt like you were starting to, he wouldn’t have killed someone for a petty reason. From what you knew of his childhood, he had likely been pushed into it, one way or another.

You were certain that whatever had happened wouldn’t change your opinion of him, but you could understand why he had been worried, why he had been pulling away. You couldn’t let that happen.

You put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed, “Tell me what happened, Itachi?”

“I just did.”

“The whole story,” you clarified. “Because I know there’s more to it than that.”

Itachi didn’t move, just continued to stare blankly. When he spoke, his voice was monotone.

“When I was a teenager, my best friend, Shisui, as I have already mentioned, died. He took his own life, but the circumstances were suspicious. I was next in line for village leadership at the time, and I was struggling to grieve in between all the classes and meetings that I was never excused from. Everything was so sudden. To be honest, I can’t remember much of those first few days after he died.” Despite his flat voice, you could tell as clear as day that Itachi was still hurt deeply.

“That’s horrendous,” you said, scooting closer to him. “That sounds like too much pressure on a child regardless, let alone after a significant loss.”

Itachi didn’t acknowledge your words. He just stared.

“Some of the other members of my village, distant cousins of mine, decided to accuse me of personally killing Shisui.” You sucked in a breath. How dare they? Itachi was so gentle, he could never! “I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Every inch of my skin itched and burnt because I was so angry. I completely snapped.

“Again, I don’t remember much of what happened, only that I killed one of them and injured the other two. The council was furious. My father tried to argue that I had been provoked. My mother tried to argue that I wasn’t in my right mind. They were, and still are, the village leaders, so their words held enough weight to spare my life, but not enough to keep me in the village. I was exiled two days later.”

A log fell in the fire, casting new shapes of light and shadow across Itachi’s cheeks. He didn’t cry, he didn’t even tear up, but the pain was obvious. You were furious that Itachi’s family, his village, had pushed him until he couldn’t handle it anymore, and then punished him for breaking down when everything became too much. You kept that anger carefully simmering below the surface, refusing to let any of it seep into your scent or voice, lest Itachi misunderstand.

‘James?’

‘Yes, human alpha?’

‘You have to promise me, if I don’t choose to stay here, that you’ll make sure someone worthy ends up in this story. Itachi deserves someone who can love him properly.’

‘…’

‘James?’

‘I… I will try, human alpha.’

That was probably the best you were going to get.

You moved even closer to Itachi now, until you were pressed up against him. He still kept his head stubborn turned away from you, but that didn’t matter. You wrapped an arm around his waist, so that he knew you were there for him.

“You are the most amazing person I’ve ever met,” you said softly, directly into his ear. You could feel more than hear Itachi’s shaky exhale of breath as his shoulder stuttered against your chest. “You are kind, generous, skilled in so many things, not to mention completely and stunningly beautiful.” Itachi let out a little disbelieving breath and you squeezed him as a little reprimand for doubting how amazing he was.

“I’m not a good person, I—”

“You’re a person who was pushed so far that you couldn’t cope, but that doesn’t make you a bad person, Itachi. I promise, I’ve met many bad people in my life, and you aren’t one of them.” You squeezed him again, but you could almost feel the way he was dismissing your words. You hadn’t expected that one motivational speech would cure all of his self-esteem issues, even in an erotica, but you had hoped that he’d at least listen to you.

You weren’t sure what else to do to help, until you realised that you had already touched upon an obvious solution. An erotica. You were in an erotica. Maybe you needed to play by the rules of this universe to make him understand. Maybe… if you made your point the way points like these are often made in erotica stories, he would feel the message you were trying to convey.

You nosed your way down his neck, tucking your face into the collar of the cloak and making the most of the fact that he was completely bare underneath by settling your lips on the warm skin at the juncture between his neck and shoulders.

“Itachi,” you cooed, making sure to breathe directly onto his skin as much as possible. Shivers that had nothing to do with the cold ran down his body and you took that as a sign to keep going.

You pressed open mouthed, wet kisses all the way up his neck until you reached his jaw, where you nipped lightly at the skin. Itachi gasped, his hands coming to grip the forearm that was still latched around his waist. You let out a little amused hum before placing another kiss on top of the same area to soothe it.

You kept up the assault on his neck until he was a puddle of blushes and shivers, leaning all his weight into you and unabashedly accepting your love.

“Itachi,” you whispered again, licking the outer shell of his ear. Itachi arched into you. He really was incredibly sensitive.

“Wh-why do you keep saying my name?” he gasped out, voice thick. “What do you want from me?”

“I want to tell you something.” Perhaps it was cruel to be purposefully obtuse, but you needed to make your point properly.

“Then tell me.”

You shook you head against his neck, “I want you to look at me first.”

With little hesitation, Itachi did as you asked, pivoting on the stone bench until he could comfortably look you in the eye.

All the skin on the right side of his neck was pink and covered in love bites, much to your pleasure.

“Tell me,” he demanded once more. His voice was quiet but not gentle.

You leant forward until your foreheads were touching and Itachi’s face was all you could see.

“I forgive you,” you breathed. “Itachi, I forgive you.”

Here, with his face pressed so closely to yours, Itachi couldn’t hide even the smallest of reaction from you. You were privy to every minute part of his response. You got to see the way his eyes widened as he registered your words. You got to feel the way he was torn between pulling back and pushing closer. You got to smell the way his scent spiked, formed from the indescribable mix of emotions held within him. You got to feel the way his face scrunched up, the way his hot tears felt as they rolled down his cheeks.

You got to see Itachi, the real Itachi, without his walls and without his fears hiding him from you.

Itachi finally gasped and pulled himself away, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Large tears streamed down his face at a rapid pace despite his obvious attempts to stop them.

“Don’t be sorry.” You wiped his tears away with your thumbs, but it was a fruitless endeavour as more tears replaced them every time Itachi blinked.

“I don’t normally cry,” he said, looking almost bewildered at his emotional response. “I’m sorry, I just—” He cut himself off as his face scrunched up with emotion again.

You pulled Itachi towards your chest until his head was resting against your shoulder and your bodies were fused together as one. You grabbed the napkins from the picnic basket and wordlessly placed them on Itachi’s lap for him to use at his own pace.

He grabbed the pile almost immediately, pressing one to his face. As thick, cloth napkins, you were sure it was doing a great deal in helping Itachi stem the tears.

You held Itachi as he sobbed, letting out years of pain and worry onto your shoulder. His loose hair allowed you free reign to run your fingers through it, scratching at his scalp whenever the sobs got particularly loud. You looked out of the cave and into the beautiful winter forest, listening to Itachi’s cries slowly turn into sniffles before disappearing altogether. Eventually, his breathing was so slow and deep that it wouldn’t have surprised you if he’d cried himself to sleep.

“I love you.”

You inhaled sharply at the quiet words. Itachi had whispered them like they were a shameful secret, so quietly that it was almost impossible to hear over the fire.

You couldn’t pretend to be surprised that someone so lonely and starved for positive affection had already reached the point of love, even after such a small number of weeks together. No, Itachi’s feelings you had expected, it was your own that took you by surprise. Because if you were to be completely honest, you loved him too. You had fallen head over heels with him, as a friend and as a lover.

It had only been two weeks, but you’d spent almost every second of that time together. You’d got to know him, seen more of his than perhaps you ought to, and yet there was still so much of him that you hadn’t seen and were desperate to.

You loved him. It felt right to say.

“Is that… okay?” Itachi asked hesitantly. Oh, you had been leaving him in suspense. Well, that wouldn’t do.

“It’s more than okay, Itachi, do you know why?”

Itachi lifted his head from your shoulder and searched your face. He was still red around the eyes.

“Why?” he asked, voice tinged with desperation.

“Because I love you too.”

You watched emotions war on Itachi’s face. He opened his mouth, and like a tap, words and worries poured out uncontrollably.

“But what if that changes when you get your memories back?” he asked, grabbing onto the front of your shirt. “You’ll go back to wherever you came from, and you’ll have a job, a family. And what if, what if you have a partner, a lover? What if you’re married?! What if this ends as soon as you take the potion?”

‘What if you leave me?’ went unsaid but was clearly communicated.

“Hey, stop—”

“No! You can’t know that that won’t happen! I can’t… I don’t want this to be too good, because it will only hurt more when I lose it.”

You cupped his face in your hands, running your thumbs underneath his wild eyes that were still tinged with red. You needed a way to reassure him without giving away that you didn’t actually have amnesia. Your own backstory was yours to create, and none of his fears were going to become reality. Either you would stay in this world and be with him, or you wouldn’t, and he would reset and forget that you had ever existed.

It was strangely emotional to consider such a dichotomy. On one hand, you’d miss him terribly if you decided to pick the other book for whatever reason. On the other hand, if you did stay here, imagining that future was a lot too. You would give him your mating mark, and maybe a ring to match. Maybe you’d stay in his cottage or maybe you’d move slightly closer to civilisation and build a new home together. Either way, you’d made sure to have an extra room for Sasuke and whoever in your family that you’d yet to invent that might want to stay. Maybe you’d have some pups, or maybe you’d just raise chickens or something. You could see a beautiful life here, with your witch.

But how could you reassure Itachi?

“There is no job that could keep me from you.” You tried to sound sure, unwavering, to reassure him. “And if I have a family, they can visit, or I can visit them. And maybe this is unfounded, but I feel like I would know if I had someone waiting for me, and I don’t think I do.”

“You can’t know that until—”

“But even if I did,” you continued, cutting him off. “I have no mating mark, no wedding nor engagement ring. If I did have a mysterious partner somewhere, then, in the words of Beyoncé, ‘if they liked it, then they should have put a mark on it’. I’d rather be here with you.”

“Who’s Beyoncé?” Itachi asked, bewildered.

You laughed, “Don’t worry about it.”

Entranced, you both leaned in at once, sealing your lips together in a desperately horny kiss as weeks of tension suddenly burst. There was a raw intensity to the kiss, born from the clashing of pent-up emotions. There was some awkward teeth clanging, a little pain, but the way your lips danced together was warming you more than the fire ever could.

You couldn’t feel much of Itachi through the cloak, but that didn’t stop your hands from wandering. You moved from cupping his face, to running your hands down his chest, to squeezing at where you guessed his waist was.

Itachi was doing much the same thing, running his hands over your shoulders and chest without pause. You could tell that he was most enthralled by the obvious tent in your trousers though, as his hands kept drifting towards your crotch. This wasn’t exactly a surprise because you’d caught him staring there a few times since The Boner Incident™️, but now it seemed that his hands were suffering from the same curse as his eyes.

Itachi’s scent was clogging every sense you had as you continued to kiss. The sinful noise from Itachi that you managed to coax out and swallow suggested that your scent was doing much the same to him.

“Here, baby,” you whispered against his lips, hands teasing at the clasp of the cloak. “Let’s make this more comfortable.”

“Wait.” Itachi’s hand landed over yours. You stopped immediately.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, but… we’re outside,” Itachi said, his eyes darting to the entrance of the cave. “That’s not allowed.”

You blinked at him, “Itachi, there’s no one but us for miles.”

“Oh… yes, of course, sorry, carry on.” He lifted his hand from yours with a sheepish smile. You sent one back and slowly, purposefully, unclasped his cloak.

The fabric clung to Itachi’s shoulders, but with a little nudge, the cloak fell and pooled around Itachi’s hips on the stone bench. And just like that, Itachi was fully, properly, bare to you for the first time. Or, at least the first time that you were encouraged to stare at him.

His pale skin glowed in the firelight, catching on the silver hints of barely visible scars. It was normal for everyone to have a few, but you hadn’t expected to see so many. It was another question to add onto your list about his upbringing.

It was also with a glorious delight that you were able to truly study his nipples after being teased with only glimpses for so long. They were pebbled from the cold, just as you’d predicted, but as pink and delightfully round as your dreams had promised you. This world would certainly have artists who accepted commission work; you wondered if Itachi would let you get a painting or sketch of his nipples? Maybe if you asked him nicely.

“Is this… okay?” he asked, seeming shy under your gaze. ‘Am I okay?’ his eyes asked instead.  

“More than okay; you’re perfect.” Itachi’s shoulder’s relaxed and softened at your admittedly cheesy words. Well, erotica was a cheesy genre, and hey, now that you were in an erotica story, you couldn’t say it was a bad thing. It certainly made flirting easier; you didn’t have to be so witty. “Stand up for a quick second, darling.”

Itachi did as you asked without question, which shouldn’t have been as hot as it was, but you could unpack that later. You stood too, and taking the abandoned cloak, you laid it out so that it covered the entire stone slab. It wouldn’t do much to make it more comfortable, but it would keep the chill of the cold stone at bay.

Guiding him, you laid Itachi down against the covered stone and hovered over him in one smooth motion.

“Let me warm you up.”

You connected your lips again. You kissed more slowly this time, but with no less desperation, your lips tingling pleasantly. Itachi’s hands tugged at your shirt. You thought he was pulling you closer, but a little growl of frustration soon hit the air as he tugged more incessantly.

“Off,” he growled. “Take it off. I need—Take it off. I’m naked, you’re not, that’s not fair.”

You laughed at his logic but obliged, pulling off your shirt and dropping it by the foot of the stone slab. The rush of cold air was a shock to your system, but with the roaring fire, the temperature could have been worse.

Itachi seemed to be possessed by a hunger when the shirt obstacle had finally been removed. His hands and eyes feasted on your exposed flesh. You shivered at the sensation of his surprisingly calloused hands dragging across every inch of exposed skin.

“Is it okay?” you asked, parroting his earlier question.

“Perfect,” Itachi moaned, propping himself up to kiss and bit at your neck, one hand still groping every bit of free skin that you had presented to him.

It was clear that the sexual tension hadn’t only been affecting you. Itachi was more intense than you’d imagined, which was fuelling your own desperation. And there was one desperate desire that sat above all the rest.

“Itachi, hang on a second,” you said, pulling his face away from your neck. “I have a question for you.”

Itachi, who had looked rather displeased to have his neck kissing session interrupted, now looked curious.

“I was wondering if you knew” -you pushed him until he was laying flat against the stone and started kissing down his throat- “what you were doing when you grabbed that glass of water, the very first day we met.”

You didn’t linger on his neck for long, moving your attentions to his collar bones, and then eventually down to the valley between his pecs. Itachi’s hands flew to the back of your head.

“Wh-what do you mean?” His voice was breathy, and while the intensity of his desire remained, he seemed happy to submit to you now.

You hummed, using your thumbs to massage the underside of each of his pecs while you continued to leave wet kisses everywhere but where he was trying to guide your head.

“That afternoon, when you grabbed the water, you gave me the most amazing view straight up your jumper and to your pretty nipples. These pretty nipples.” You ghosted your fingers around his areola but drew them away when he tried to arch into the touch.

“What?! I- I didn’t mean to do that!” he gasped, face going bright red. “It was an accident.”

“Hmm, I don’t know. It seemed like you wanted to tease me, Itachi. Were you trying to tease me, the strange alpha that you’d only just met? How naughty.”

Itachi tried to tug your mouth to his nipple again, but you held firm. He made a little frustrated noise, lifting his head up to shoot you a glare that you only grinned at.

 “That’s why I want you to ask me,” you continued. “No, actually, I want you to beg me, Itachi. Beg me to give your nipples some attention, to kiss them, suck them, bite them.”

Itachi held firm for a few moments, but a couple more touches and a few well-placed breaths later, and you were rewarded with something beautiful.

“I-I- Please… Please k-k-kiss them.”

“Kiss what, ‘tachi?”

He sent you a flustered glare again, but soon he stuttered out a reply.

“My ni-nipples, please.”

Every nerve ending that you had set alight, and your trousers were quickly becoming painfully tight. Every instinct you had was screaming at you to ravish the pretty omega, to reward him for submitting so nicely. And, well, you’d never been one to ignore important instincts.

“Good boy.” His cock twitched where it was resting on his stomach and that was all the encouragement needed to fulfil the witch’s request.

Your thumbs and forefingers went first, settling on Itachi’s hardened nipples and pinching and flicking to their heart’s content. Itachi groaned, his eyes fluttering shut and his head falling back against the wooden bench. Moans and squeaks continued to pour out of him with reckless abandon. The blush pink colour darkened a little as you continued with your gentle abuse.

Then, once you could resist no longer, you removed your hand from his left nipple, and descended with your mouth. Like a person dying of thirst coming across an oasis, you lapped at him greedily, drinking in all the sensations. The feel of him against your heavy tongue was divine, and soon your own moans joined Itachi’s, who had become twice as loud.

You were delighted to find that, with the presence of your warm mouth, Itachi’s nipple was slowly softening. You could feel every crevice relax, coaxed open just for you. You took the newly soft nipple in your mouth and sucked. Itachi arched so far off the bench, desperate to push closer to your mouth, that you were surprised he didn’t hurt himself.

You hummed, amused and more than a little smug. This was quite literally a dream come true.

You pulled back from his chest, purposefully catching him with your teeth as you did, so that you could admire your handy work. Slicked with your spit, his nipple glistened in the firelight, painting a stark picture of difference with the one beside it.

You clicked your tongue in faux disappointment; that wouldn’t do. Those beautiful, pink temptations needed to match.

Once you had performed the same on his other nipple, you pulled back once again, focused more on Itachi as a whole this time. He looked entirely debauched from head to toe. He was breathing harshly eyes closed, neck covered in bites, chest red and cock practically weeping. The dark black fabric of the cloak didn’t show stains, but you were certain that the patch under his hips was now damp with slick.

Itachi let out a shuddering breath, “How did… Is it supposed to feel that good?”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it, my darling,” you said, amused. “If you’ll allow me, I’d be honoured to show you something else that’ll feel amazing too.”

Itachi propped himself up on his elbows and gave you a bashful look, “You should know that… I haven’t done stuff like this before.”

You took a shaky breath as a thousand and one things you wanted to do to him flooded into your brain at once, competing for dominance. Of course, he hadn’t had sex before. His childhood was spent being groomed as the next village leader, and then he’d been exiled with his only rare piece of company coming in the form of his immediate family. Thinking about it, it would have probably been more surprising if he had experience, but you just hadn’t expected the love interest of an erotica novel to be a virgin.

“We don’t have to go further if you don’t want to,” you said, trying to sound reassuring over the lump in your throat. Hey, if he didn’t want to keep going, the general cold in the air should get rid of your boner this time, no need for cold water. That was marginally better.

“I do! I mean…” Itachi hesitated for a moment, and you were expecting him to call it a day. “You’re not going to leave me as soon as you get your memories back, are you?”

Your face softened at his question. To be completely honest, you had kind of got caught up in everything and forgotten about his anxieties in the process.

“Never,” you promised. You felt a little guilty at the prospect that you might choose the other pocket dimension, but if that happened then Itachi would quite literally forget you existed, promise included. Perhaps it was a little scummy to make a promise with someone who would forget if you broke it, but you justified to yourself that these were exceptional circumstances. “I know it sounds a bit silly to say out loud, but I feel right when I’m with you. Meeting you was like a part of me I never knew was missing clicking back into place.”

“No, it’s not silly!” Itachi said breathlessly, staring at you with wide eyes. “I feel the same. It’s like I’m alive when you’re here, for the first time in my life, truly alive.”

“When I look at the future,” you started, breaking for a moment to peck Itachi on the lips. “I see us sharing a home, waking up together every day, maybe even raising some chickens together. Never do I ever imagine a day without you in it.”

“I’ve always wanted chickens.” Itachi was looking at you like you hung the stars in the sky.

“Then I’ll give you as many chickens as you want.”

“And you don’t mind that I don’t have any experience with relationships?”

You grinned sheepishly, “To be honest, it’s kind of hot.”

Itachi seemed amused for a moment, but sincerity quickly overtook it. “Then I would love for you to take my virginity.”

“No,” you said, kissing the surprised look off his face. “If we do this, nothing will be taken. We will both gain something, a great experience, together.”

Itachi looked entirely besotted, but you had meant every word. Even if you left, even if he forgot, you would still have this experience with him, and you would treasure every second.

‘That was very smooth, human. The commodification of the social construct of virginity is harmful indeed, why, Glatheenron was talking about it just the other day and—’

‘James, genuinely, that is an important discussion and I appreciate your support, but I’m sort of preoccupied right now, so maybe you could wait until later?’

“Then allow me to rephrase my earlier statement,” Itachi said, drawing you out of your head. “I would be deeply happy if we could share my first time together.”

You leant down and pressed a loving kiss to his forehead, “As would I, my sweet omega, as would I.”

Next Chapter

#the quest for a second life #itachi #omega!itachi #sub!itachi #omega itachi #sub itachi #dom!reader #dom reader #gn reader #alpha!reader #omegaverse #a/b/o #itachi uchiha

[dyns33]

A Silly Dream

Another idiots in love with Morpheus and female reader.

"… What did you just say ?"

Sometimes Y/N forgot that Dream of the Endless wasn't human, and therefore didn't think like a human. He had great difficulty communicating and understanding that there were things he shouldn't say or do if he didn't want to hurt people.

The problem was that even when she remembered that, she also remembered that he was an old being, so normally experienced and wise, the prince of stories and words, who yet kept behaving like a selfish, spoiled child who never learned from his mistakes.

"I just said I couldn't stay long for our meeting."

"No, after that. And, what 'meeting' ? We didn't have an meeting, it was you who came to my place."

"As with Hob Gabling every hundred years, I meet with you once a year, for you to give me your impression of the new dreams and nightmares, and in exchange I let you read an unfinished book from my library. But I am very busy and it will be difficult for me to stay more than an hour today."

He was really telling her that for all this time, more than a hundred years, their relationship was not at all friendly, but hardly professional, a simple obligation, which annoyed him but that he had the kindness to fill in each time ? Oh, Y/N felt really honored at that moment.

"… You're a jerk."

"I beg your pardon ?" wondered Morpheus, visibly very offended.

"I said you're a jerk. It's because of the kiss, right ? It's your way of telling me that I shouldn't have, and that I'm very lucky that you keep coming to see me instead of punishing me ?"

"You know I have to come see you."

"You're a real jerk. Go away, since you're so busy."

His face still impassive, Morpheus stared at her for a long time, as if he still didn't know what he should do, before standing up without saying anything and leaving.

The kiss had been stupid, Y/N agreed to admit it.

It had happened two years ago now, when she had just finished her review of the last nightmare he had created, and Dream was trying to explain to her why she was wrong in her reasoning.

It could have happened much sooner, because her heart had been beating for him and only for him for decades already, but before that day, she had always known how to keep her feelings buried deep inside her.

But this time, without her being able to explain why, while she admired his eyes deep as the ocean, his skin pale as the moon, listening to his lulling voice, Y/N had not thought, and she had kissed him.

Dream of the endless went silent. He had looked at her as if she had just stabbed him, and of course he had left without listening to her excuses, not finishing his sentence, but leaving her a book, because he had only one word.

She had strange dreams after that, where she was in a labyrinth, then in a castle, then in corridors, and always she had the feeling that she was looking for something without really knowing what.

Sometimes she saw Dream, sometimes a cat, and she began to follow him, never being able to catch up with him.

The following year he came back, they didn't talk about what happened, and everything seemed to be back to normal.

It hurt to think that all of this was actually just an obligation for him. Y/N had met Hob several times. She knew that Morpheus was really bad with people, since it had taken him more than half a millennium to admit he had a friend, but she had also heard of his lovers, and so she knew that he was not incapable of feelings.

There had been the secret hope then that he liked her, at least a little. It was over now.

The next year, when he showed up on her doorstep with a book, Y/N wondered if he was more mean than stupid, or the other way around.

"I thought I told you to leave. I know you're terribly busy."

"The competition is indeed quite exhausting, but everyone else has given up for the day."

"Oh, you have a moment for me in your schedule ? Too kind. No, wait, we have a meeting, I forgot. Well, I'm busy. Goodbye."

"You do not want…"

"Bye." she repeated, closing the door in his face without taking the book.

It was the first time she hadn't taken the book. If he wanted to, Dream could have appeared in her apartment, or in her dreams, to scold her and throw the book at her, but he didn't.

Y/N didn't know if she was happy or disappointed.

Meanwhile, the bizarre dreams continued.

This time, she was in the gardens of his castle, in the Dreaming. She knew it, because she had already been there. It was because of this stuff that she felt she was more than an obligation.

There were a lot of people in the gardens, some looking human, some not, and they were all looking for something.

Tired, Y/N decided that this time she didn't feel like running, and she sat down on a bench. A wing sound told her that a little spy had decided to join her.

"They all look ridiculous, don't you think ?"

"I don't know who they are or what they do, but I guess."

"They participate in the competition, of course." Matthew said with a desperate tone. "It's been so long now, what's it been, four years ? Five ? I don't know. Some like you have a point, others are starting to despair a bit. I wish they all despair and stop. The boss is tired."

"… What do you mean by 'I have a point' ?"

"The rules are simple, one kiss, one point. Two kisses, two points. Three kisses, the hand of the Master of dreams. None of them asked for his consent, wicked ones. Neither do you, I'm a bit disappointed, young lady. You're the least bad, but still. He was hurt, that was not good manners."

"Matthew… Matthew, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

The raven looked at her like she was stupid. Then he realized she must be really stupid.

"No… That can't be true ! You two are really the same. Two idiots, you deserve each other ! Idiots ! He was hurt, but happy ! He was waiting for the other kisses during your little dates in the Waking !"

"You're talking about our more or less professional and obligatory meetings that he doesn't have time to go to ?"

"What ? What do you mean by… He said something stupid, right ? Of course he said something stupid. You do stupid things, he says stupid things, when you could just kiss. God damn it ! He was grumpy last year, and sad this year, because he thinks you don't want to compete anymore. But you don't know there's a competition ! And you don't want to see him anymore, not because you don't like him, but because you think he doesn't like you ! Boss ! Boss, you really kill me sometimes !"

Y/N woke up not sure if she had dreamed or not. Of course, she had dreamed, and all dreams were real, but she didn't know if she had talked to Matthew, or if she had dreamed that she was talking to Matthew, which was not the same thing.

In one case, she could continue to hope stupidly. In the other, she was just plain stupid.

She got her answer when she came home from work one evening and found Morpheus on her couch. He looked smaller and more fragile than usual. Tired, as his raven said.

"I thought we already had our meeting this year." she said taking out her jacket, not knowing what she should do, or what he was going to do.

"We didn't. You were busy."

"Ah, yes. That's right. Tea ?"

"No, thank you."

Usually things were very simple. They greeted each other, talked quickly about the past year, then Y/N talked about her dreams and nightmares, saying why she liked them or not.

This time, they said nothing, sitting next to each other. Of course, he had brought a book, placed between them. She didn't know if she should talk about those weird dreams.

It was a new surprise when he spoke first.

"You're near my sister's realm lately."

"Which one ?"

"Despair."

"Oh. How is she ?"

"What do you think ?"

"I don't know, you are not really dreamy yourself. I mean, you are, just when you are not talking. The talking you is a real nightmare. But I meant, how is she, as in is she alright ?"

"I must say that I don't know."

"You should call her to ask, she's your sister. Except if she's a bad sister. I guess it's not my business. How are you ?"

"You never kissed me again. Why ?"

He was back, the child with his big deep eyes, his innocent look and his dangerous words. How could he say such important things without the slightest hesitation ?

Y/N found the courage to meet his gaze after taking a deep breath.

"I don't know. Maybe because you have to come see me, and you clearly didn't like the first time I kissed you."

"I appreciated that. I would have fully appreciated it under other circumstances, but at that moment I thought you were acting like the others, in order to win the competition."

Matthew wasn't wrong, they were both a bit stupid, and mostly unlucky. All of this was mainly a problem of bad timing, and communication. If Y/N had acted sooner, and if Morpheus had known how to talk, there would never have been any problems.

"Following your entry into the competition, I am obliged to join you, in order to give you a chance to steal two more kisses from me, under the same conditions as the first. All the others who succeeded having it done in the Dreaming, I do not have to meet them elsewhere."

"… So you've been obliged for two years. But before too, since you impose one meeting per year."

"I told you, I'm very busy. I wanted to make sure I can see you at least once, as much as possible, so it seemed safer to set a specific date."

Damn, he was a jerk. A lovely jerk, a sweet idiot, a pleasant fool.

"And so… You want to kiss me ?"

"I'm not allowed to give kisses, you have to take them. It's the rule."

"I don't like that rule. I didn't kiss you for that, I should have asked your permission, and I'm not going to do it again, that's wrong."

"So you don't want to kiss me." he whispered, looking disappointed.

"I don't wish to force you. I won't steal another kiss."

"You could ask me."

"And would that change anything ?"

"I can't give kisses, but I can give you permission."

During their little conversation, Matthew had been very clear, clear as he always was and much more than his boss who gave him a headache. Silently, for three years, Morpheus had been patiently waiting for Y/N to kiss him again, silently giving her his consent.

He had been too proud or too stupid to understand that he had to verbalize such things.

"Morpheus, I love you very much and I don't care about this competition, can I kiss you ?"

"You can." he sighed with relief and what looked like a smile.

This kiss was much nicer than the first. Probably because it had been desired for more than two years now. Y/N would have liked it to last forever.

"And… For the third one ? Do I have to wait until next year ?" she asked nervously, keeping her hands on his shoulders, thinking he would leave as soon as she let go.

"You can take as many kisses as you want, my love. You can take everything you want."

"Dream… My Dream…"

It was difficult to know what happened in the Dreaming at this moment. No doubt that Lucienne and Matthew announced to the other participants that they could leave because they had lost. Then the wedding planning began.

Y/N hadn't thought about marriage. She had only thought about Morpheus, silly Morpheus, and all the love she had for him. They would need to discuss all of this. But right now, she was too busy kissing him again and again, and him not devouring her with his endless passion.

"I'm glad it's you." he whispered against her lips. "I have to go now. We'll see each other tonight, I'll wait for you."

Being a man of his word, he left a book on the sofa before disappearing. A love story with a happy ending, maybe because he knew they would be fine, or just because he hoped they would.

Y/N read it before going to sleep to join her future kingdom, and her stupid prince of dreams.

#the sandman #dream of the endless #dream of the endless x reader #dream of the endless imagine #dream of the endless fanfiction #morpheus #morpheus x reader #morpheus imagine #morpheus fanfiction

[wholoveseggs]

Secret Santa

{Masterlist}

~Five days of Fluffmas~

Elijah faces a nerve-wracking challenge when arranging a secret Santa gift for you. A surprise unfolds during the gift exchange, leaving Elijah in a panic. Yet, he discovers that sometimes imperfections make the most perfect moments.

1k words - No warnings, no smut! just pure fluff.

Secret Santa

Elijah felt a little frightened, an odd sensation making him jittery and unable to stop himself from nervously adjusting his cufflinks. The task at hand was simple, yet navigating it was an extremely delicate matter; a single mistake could ruin everything.

He approached Rebekah, who was quietly humming to herself as she wrapped Christmas presents. She gave him a warm smile, pulling out a chair and gesturing for him to join her. 

Opting to stand, he tried his best to sound nonchalant. "Rebekah, dear, who did you get for secret Santa?"

She gave him a curious look, a sly smirk forming on her face. "Isn’t telling you going against the whole point of it?"

Elijah chuckled lightly, feigning casual interest. "Well, one could argue that a bit of harmless curiosity won't hurt anyone, especially during the festive season."

Rebekah raised an eyebrow, clearly amused by his attempt at subtlety. "Oh, Elijah, you're not fooling anyone. You just want to know who got y/n," she laughed.

He sighed in defeat. It was true, but it seemed he was incapable of being inconspicuous when it came to you. "Let's say I am, hypothetically of course. And since you are in charge of it, couldn't you give your brother a little clue?" He begged, shamelessly hoping his sister would go easy on him.

"Why does it matter? You are getting her a gift either way; she's your girlfriend after all," she teased.

"Because-" He stopped himself mid-sentence, knowing his flustered reply would only prompt further ribbing from his baby sister. "Look," he sighed again, trying another angle, "I just need to know who drew her, so I can make sure they give her a good gift,"

"Now why would I do such a thing? It goes against the rules of exchange. And are you saying we are not good gift givers?" Rebekah tilted her head at him, seemingly relishing in his agony.

Elijah didn't want to tell Rebekah the truth, but he knew his sister well enough to know that she would find some way to wheedle it out of him if he did not confess.

"If I tell you why, you must promise to keep it a secret," Elijah leaned in towards his sister, watching her intently for her response.

"How very scandalous of you, brother," she smiled in anticipation.

Elijah trusted his sister would never betray his confidence. More than that, she would understand and support him in his endeavor. Still, it was humiliating. He felt so stupid, wanting everything to be absolutely perfect.

"I'm making plans to propose to her during the holidays, and I just want to make sure nothing goes wrong. That is...," he cleared his throat awkwardly, "If she says yes, of course."

Rebekah looked surprised and thrilled. With wide eyes and a large smile, she jumped up and hugged her brother. "Oh Elijah! I'm so happy for you!"

Releasing him from her embrace, she pulled back and patted his chest affectionately, tears brimming in her eyes. "She will definitely say yes, no woman would resist you, especially my dear, sweet, handsome brother, whom I love very, very much."

Elijah couldn't resist smiling back. His heart was pounding, unsure if it was from relief or anxiety, but either way his sister's words calmed him immensely. "Thank you, Rebekah. Your blessing means a great deal to me."

"Show me the ring," Rebekah urged impatiently, giving him a serious look. “Do you have it on you?”

Pulling the small box out of his suit pocket, he revealed a beautiful diamond engagement ring, glistening under the warm lamplight of the living room.

"Elijah," Rebekah let out a wistful sigh, her eyes shining at him with approval.

"Now, can you please tell me who drew her name for secret Santa?" He asked, hopeful.

Rebekah wiped her eyes, fighting to regain her composure. She pulled out her phone and brought up the exchange list, "Well, it wasn't me, nor was it Freya… oh no,"

Elijah groaned, cursing his luck. "Niklaus.”

Elijah hoped his brother would be in a good mood tonight, and more importantly, willing to cooperate.

As usual, his wish went ungranted.

"Why on earth would I trade with you?" Klaus questioned him, as if he had just asked him to donate his own kidney. "Do you think I won't get her a good gift?"

"Well," Elijah searched for the right words to say, knowing this was a dangerous minefield to navigate, "It's not that. It's just..."

Klaus raised his eyebrow, giving him a challenging look. "It's just what, brother?"

"She's my girlfriend, and I want her to have something special," Elijah admitted.

"Oh don't worry, Elijah, I'll give her something special," he laughed, patting his shoulder condescendingly.

Elijah gritted his teeth. His brother was being intentionally obtuse, but he did not wish to resort to violence, especially so close to Christmas.

"Just don't give her anything inappropriate," he emphasized the word, knowing full well Klaus would just do what he wanted anyway.

"Inappropriate, how?" Klaus looked at him incredulously.

"Anything that would ruin the festive atmosphere," Elijah was growing more and more annoyed with his brother, who was clearly enjoying the situation a bit too much.

"Ruin the festive atmosphere? How could I do that?" He was playing dumb, but Elijah would not give him the satisfaction.

"Niklaus, you know exactly what I mean," he warned, giving him a stern glare.

Klaus smirked, crossing his arms over his chest. "Don't worry, Elijah, I'm sure it will be perfectly, appropriate."

Elijah's instincts told him this was not going to go well.

Elijah held onto you tightly as you sat in his lap, snuggled up close together, listening to the sound of Christmas music softly playing in the background. He nuzzled into the crook of your neck, inhaling the scent of your perfume, his heart skipping a beat. He couldn't wait for you to be his forever. The rest of his family was scattered throughout the living room, talking, drinking, and enjoying the holidays.

"It's almost time to exchange gifts," you said excitedly. "I hope everyone likes what I got them."

Elijah tensed up, nervous for what would come next. He had tried desperately to get his brother to reconsider, but it was no use. His attempts had been met with nothing but amusement, and in the end, it seemed it would have to remain a surprise.

"It should be starting soon, yes," Elijah replied, doing his best to keep his voice calm.

"I got Kol, which was a bit of a challenge. He's hard to shop for," you laughed, resting your head against Elijah's chest.

"Ah, well, I'm sure whatever you got him, he'll appreciate," Elijah stroked your arm affectionately.

You both watched as Kol was given a small, brightly wrapped gift, and unwrapped a bottle of scotch. His face broke out into a huge grin, giving a big thumbs up.

"Whoever got me did good," Kol raised his glass to toast his mysterious benefactor.

Elijah watched as each person gave out their gifts. There were plenty of smiles and laughter, everyone seemingly pleased. He was happy to see his family enjoying the festivities, and hoped his gifts would also bring them joy.

You got up and grabbed two packages from under the tree before settling back into Elijah's lap.

"It's our secret Santa gifts, open them up," you urged him.

Elijah unwrapped his gift carefully, revealing a new tie. It was dark gray with a subtle pattern woven into the silk, very stylish and expensive.

"Oh, it's lovely, thank you," he smiled, genuinely impressed.

"That's from me," Rebekah chimed in, looking very pleased with herself.

"It's great, thank you," he nodded to his sister, grateful that someone understood the importance of proper decorum.

"Now, let's see what mine is," you smiled, pulling out a small rectangular package.

As you removed the wrapping paper, Elijah could feel his nerves growing, hoping his brother would have some mercy on him and not give you anything too embarrassing.

He held his breath as you lifted the lid, revealing a small, black velvet box. Opening the box, you gasped at the sight of a stunning diamond ring.

You looked to Elijah, a questioning look in your eyes.

"Is this from you?" You asked, unable to hide your surprise.

Elijah's eyes went wide, unsure how to react. His brother had truly outdone himself, and he was utterly speechless.

Klaus, on the other hand, was laughing hysterically. "I'm afraid this is my gift, sweet y/n."

"But...it's an engagement ring," you looked back and forth between the two brothers.

Elijah could not deny it was a lovely ring. In fact, it was nearly identical to the one he had picked out for you. A sudden rush of panic shot through him and he reached into his pocket, searching for the small velvet box, only to discover it was not there.

His brother must have pick-pocketed it from him when he was distracted.

"Ah, well," Klaus gave a mischievous smile, "I thought it would be a wonderful gift, given that I was told not to give you anything inappropriate."

"This is an engagement ring," you repeated, your eyes darting around the room.

Elijah wanted the floor to open up and swallow him whole. How could his brother have done this? What was he supposed to do now? He couldn't very well propose this way.

"I-I, ah," Elijah stammered, his mind racing.

"You're not going to ask her to marry you, are you?" Klaus gave a dramatic sigh, putting his hand over his heart, feigning surprise.

You turned to focus on Elijah, his usual composed demeanor gone, replaced by a man who looked as if he were about to faint.

"Elijah," you cooed, lifting his chin gently so that you could look into his eyes, "Are you trying to propose?"

Elijah could only manage a nod. He wanted this moment to be perfect, and now it was ruined. He didn't know what to say, or even how to look at you. 

"Yes," you whispered, smiling at him.

"Yes?" He repeated, not quite believing his ears.

"Yes," you said, leaning in to kiss him softly.

Elijah was stunned. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so he settled for kissing you back, feeling his body relax.

"Congratulations!" Everyone cheered, rushing forward to offer their best wishes.

Elijah couldn't believe it. After everything that had happened, you still said yes. You wrapped your arms around his neck, and he held you close, feeling happier than he had ever been.

He pulled the ring out of its container, throwing the box in Klaus's direction, and placed the ring on your finger, finally ready to make his dreams a reality.

#elijah mikaelson #the originals #klaus mikaelson #the vampire diaries #tvdu #elijah mikaelson imagine #tvd #elijah mikealson imagine #the vampire diaries x you #the vampire diaries x reader #the vampire diaries imagine #the originals x reader #the originals imagine #the originals fanfiction #elijah mikealson #christmas #rebekah mikaelson #kol mikaelson #secret santa #proposal

[he-calls-me-kitten]

Jealousy, Jealousy (Part 1)

Solomon x F! MC

Long Slowburn, Angst to comfort, Rough language and behaviour

"I'm resigning as your apprentice, Solomon." The conviction in your voice was clear. You had clearly contemplated it for some time.

"You're... you're not even close to ready for higher level magic MC-" Solomon was clearly caught off-guard. More shocked than displeased.

"I don't need it. I don't need anything to do with magic or being a sorceror. I just- I'm done. So thank you for everything so far, but you won't need to waste your time with me anymore." You barely met his eyes before you walked out.

💮

This was two days ago. You were careful to tell him on a Friday, so you could avoid him for the weekend.

Mammon and Asmo both asked you whether you'd like to go out with them, but you refused. You didn't want to run into him on the streets either.

A part of you felt guilty for doing that to him. He did deserve an explanation atleast. But what could you possibly tell him?

I can't be around you anymore because I'm desperately in love with you but you already seem to have someone else.

No. It makes no sense. It sounds so juvenile and conceited, you shake your head and bite the inside of your cheek. You cringe at how strange and tense your next interaction with him might be.

But that wasn't a good enough reason for Lucifer to let you stay home. So you took a deep breath and left for RAD.

💮

To your relief, you had no classes in common in the first half. At lunch you sat alone, in a place where you'd usually never sit. Further lowering the chance to see him. So you ended up with a friendly bunch of Succubi from your classes.

They were complaining about how the assignments were too long to complete in one week and you wholeheartedly agreed. While one of them was mimicking the professor's stern voice, another one screamed.

She was holding up her phone and squealing in excitement. You peered at it. Asmo posted a new Devilgram story.

Of course.

You feigned interest to match the energy of these excited fangirls. But honestly you'd lost your appetite, listening to the conversation.

"Oh look, isn't that Solomon in the back? Oh he looks extra smoldering today. I wonder where he's staring so intently?"

"Yes yes that's definitely him. They're always together aren't they? Like an old married couple haha!"

"Solomon stays in Asmo's room when he stays at HOL, doesn't he? Oooh I wonder what sort of kinky things they get up to in there?!"

Asmo is incapable of loving him. He has known him for centuries and yet doesn't know anything about him. Even simple things like his favourite work of fiction or his music tastes. He has never taken interest in what Solomon's works or passions.

"Oh but I've heard Lucifer is more Solomon's type. Did you know he's been trying to get a pact with him since the last century?"

"Oh yeah I've definitely seen them around too. There's even fanart of them in the RAD fansites now ahaha!"

"They are totally like rivals to lovers. Did you see the magical duel they got into once? They are so equally matched!"

Lucifer cannot stand the sight of him, let alone trust him. He always told me how dubious and shady Solomon was, literally asking me to shut him up and keep him away once I became a sorceror.

You couldn't sit and stew in this conversation anymore, painfully close to puking out all the contents of your stomach. But they caught you trying to leave.

"What about you, MC? As his apprentice who do you think suits romantically Solomon?"

Me.

You wanted to scream it. But you didn't. How selfish and conceited of you. Who the hell were you decide? And it's not like people were not allowed to have their opinions on it. You couldn't in your right mind, judge them for simply making the most logical assumptions.

"Haha I honestly couldn't tell. We never really talked about things like these." You laughed awkwardly before excusing yourself. The bell rang just in time. You headed straight to class.

💮

You were clutching your books to your chest. How did things turn out like this? You were sure to be as fast as possible. How did all the seats get filled up? And why was the only empty seat next to Solomon?

"MC, please come in and sit down. We need to get the class started." The professor said, impatiently. You nodded in apology and headed in the direction of your doom.

You could feel his eyes on focused on you, sending chills down your spine. But you didn't dare glance more than once. It didn't help that this was a double period.

And anytime your hands or elbows accidentally touched, you flinched, muttering soft apologies and tried to move your seat away. But somehow your seat was being pulled back into place again.

"The next assignment is to be done in pairs. So everyone partner up with person you're sitting next to and finish it by next class. Class dismissed."

Oh, just my fucking luck.

"I'll come by the House of Lamentation at 7:30 tonight." His voice was icy as he got up from his seat, moving back so you get out of class first. On your way home, all you could hear was the sound of your heart pounding wildly.

💮

You were suprised that the house was still empty at 7. You texted the brothers asking if something happened.

Satan texted back about how there had been a sudden increase influx of student requests and the student council has too many of them to review.

Beel texted you to eat without them cause they might have to stay in school overnight. You felt your anxiety rise. The thought of being all alone in the house with Solomon...

The doorbell rung exactly at 7:30. You opened the door and welcomed him in. The coldness never left his eyes. His footsteps were deliberately slower and more weighted as he followed you to your room.

"I've set up the initial requirements of the experiment, so if you have the magical items and extracts, we can just get started right away-"

SLAM!

The door shut and locked loudly behind him. You thought you could get away with pretending everything was fine but clearly he had different intentions.

"I believe you owe me some explanations, MC." He walked over to the bed, grabbing your wrist along. You could feel the repressed anger in his grip. It scared and excited you all at once.

You found yourself cornered against the wall behind the bed, your ankles binded together by his glowing ropes. Struggling was useless. He leaned forward until you could feel his hot breath on your lips.

"Sorry about the extreme measure MC, but you have a rather unpleasant habit of running away from conversations."

💮

To be continued....

#obey me #obey me solomon #obey me angst #obey me imagine #obey me long fic #obey me fanfic #obey me mammon #obey me satan #obey me beel #obey me asmo #obey me Lucifer #obey me smut

[lakesbian]

💝 for Rachel (for the ask meme)

💝 A headcanon about their love language

yeah these are def just shaping up to be analysis of canon vs. headcanons for most of 'em because we already have interesting canon answers for a lot of these questions but that's ok because that's fun too. this is gonna be a bit messy bc i'm real tired but anyway:

the long and short of it is that she's a dog. she loves like a dog. and i love how that behavior interacts w/ the specific way taylor is fucked up. it is So meaningful and compelling. taylor is for the most part absolutely incapable of admitting or even noticing when something has hurt her, let alone reaching out for support. she's very similar to brian in the sense that people verbally acknowledging that she's upset (generally synonymous with 'weak' in her mind) is intolerable to her, because ignoring and repressing that emotion is critical to her ability to force herself to stay standing & push herself thru the agony to achieve what she wants to achieve. there's this moment during the echidna fight where she sees wards verbally checking in w/ each other and she thinks that she's glad that her team would never ask if she's okay because she wouldn't be able to stop from breaking down if they did.

and the thing abt rachel's love language is that she's Direct About Everything All Of The Time Forever because she doesn't know how not to be. but it's not in a "asking if someone is okay" way, because even that is a level of indirectness, of giving someone the option to say "yes" and reject comfort! she instead directly notices when taylor isn't okay, and moves straight to offering comfort without forcing taylor to experience the weakness of admitting that she needs it. she's not great with words--she frequently feels frustrated by not knowing how to communicate what she wants to communicate--so instead she shows love through simple, blatant acts of physical affection, devotion, and trust. she's the equivalent of a big ole dog that just silently huffs and climbs into your lap when you're sad, and you can't do a damn thing about it because you're getting cuddled now and that's just how it is. she doesn't force taylor to acknowledge the situation to her, she simply notices when taylor needs a hand to hold and very firmly grabs taylor's hand. she's silently, unobtrusively understanding. she sees things as they are, and responds not with social niceties, but with firm and direct kindness. if you start crying while she's sitting next to you, she won't make a big deal out of it, she'll just keep sitting next to you. and that's exactly what taylor needs--affection and comfort sans expectations for her to have any sort of coherent explanation or conduct.

the devotion & trust is also Sooo. auugh. ough. when taylor turns herself into the PRT and she's unquestionably faithful that taylor has a plan, regards everyone else like they're idiots for having even the slightest sliver of doubt in her. during gold morning, when she willingly steps into taylor's field of control, saying that taylor is smart & to let her do what she needs to do. there's this moment during the behemoth fight that i think a lot about where rachel says "you have a plan" in response to taylor, y'know, having a plan, and taylor sort of confusedly reads it as smug & then satisfied without really grasping why. and the reason why is that rachel has put up with so much social bullshit she doesn't understand--the way the undersiders interact w/ her, coil, the prt--and taylor, without fail, has made things make sense. she's the only undersider to successfully speak to rachel on terms she fully understands, the one to kill coil, the one who soundly trounces the heroes every time. whenever things are confusing or scary or nonsensical, taylor, smart and strong taylor, fixes them with her plans. the earth is cracking and coming apart around them, because There's A Fucking Kaiju, but it's okay, because taylor is there, and rachel knows taylor will always make sure things turn out alright. genuinely doglike levels of unquestionable devotion, where there are ways she understands taylor more intimately than anyone else on the planet, and there are ways she can never understand taylor, but she still unquestionably trusts her enough to place her life in her hands. taylor even remarks that rachel trusts her too much when she steps into her radius during gold morning--and the reason that rachel trusts her too much is because she trusts like a dog trusts their person. i've seen ppl say that taylor is rachel's dog, but no, rachel is 100% taylor's dog. she loves that girl like a dog would. it rocks. autism forever.

#ask #parahumans #scarf don't look #worm spoilers

[thewebcomicsreview]

hey, just wanted to say thanks for the rec for Cat Girl. it is the best kind of extremely uncomfortable! but it's got me musing on your note about the relevance of the cat girl element itself. I agree that it is depicting an abusive relationship, but it's clear that Peter is completely incapable of perceiving that that's what it is, because he's so far down a deeply screwed hole of ideology. (continued in a sec, hang on-)

- so Peter is the way he is because he has accepted a series of small explanations for the things in his life as seeming accurate, that has stacked up into a deeply dysfunctional worldview that he's too deep into to question at all. so I think the Literal Government Issued Cat Girl is very much a metaphor for a society-level case of "you don't question your own idea of normal". rather than address the root of the problem, a wildly unethical bandaid has been slapped on it. in other words; Peter doesn't question that his ideas are correct, when they're obviously very skewed. but the society that gave him Andi doesn't question that it is normal for people to get this twisted up in an effort to make sense of the world. of COURSE there are internet chuds, people like Peter existing is "normal". and in the process of just accepting that some people are unsalvageable, innocent people like Andi get hurt, and that's just "normal" too. Peter isn't unfixable. it's clear he could be better, WANTS to be better, because he is straight up miserable. but he doesn't consciously know that, or how to start. the decision that some people are just fundamentally screwed up and there's nothing anyone can do about it doesn't just hurt him, it lets him hurt the people around him. Andi is, metaphorically, everyone else being tossed under the bus alongside Peter by the simple act of treating him like he's just inherently a shitty person.

Man, this is a long ask! If I were the author of Cat Girl, I'd be honored to see someone spend so much time thinking about it. But I don't think I agree, exactly.

Peter wants to "be a good person", yes, but his understanding of what a "good person" is is completely self-centered. Him calling Andi "Yua" while talking over her trying to explain that she does in fact have a name is obviously establishing him as a douche, but it's also worth noting that "Yua" is a Japanese name. He's thinking of her as an anime waifu and not a person (or, given the first results when I google "Yua", a porn star, but maybe it's a Breath of Fire 2 reference)

And while he falls into depressive self-loathing after she complains about not having a change of clothes, his internal monologue is entirely about himself. At no point, ever, does Peter even consider that Andi has feelings or is anything other than a reflection on him.

When he locks her in a closet, his most overtly abusive act, he starts crying because he feels bad about what a bad person he is, but even while he's crying he's simultaneously blocking the door, which is a very literal depiction of their relationship. His angsting about being a good person is not his way out of the problem, it is the problem. He never even once considers being nice to Andi because she'll like it, it's entirely "I don't want to force her to have sex with me (because that would make me feel bad), but maybe if I'm nice to her she'll initiate the sex". And he doesn't even care about the sex itself, just the implicit validation of being Confirmed Good By A Girl.

Peter is the way he is because his morality is entirely self-centered. Andi is a way for him to prove his morality to himself (well, try to and fail), not an actual person whose feelings he's ever considered except for if she hates him or not. That's what makes him such an interesting villain, he keeps concocting a story in his head where he's the poor sweet babu trying his best and never stops doing that to let his girlfriend out of the closet.

#Cat Girl

[warmerstranger]

COMMON ENEMY OF DECEPTION

。°˖ ʚɞ ꒦꒷⩩ Ft. Edogawa Ranpo & Edgar Allan Poe x gn reader

At this point I'm just promoting the ship www :33

°°``Marked as and not excluding: Yandere (many gaslight 🔥, obsessiveness, manipulative, breach of privacy/confidentiality hints, heavy dependence indications, overprotective, gatekeeping you), kind of angsty having a friends-to-enemies dynamic with Ranpo, messy plotline going on idk anymore my brain just shrunk writing this

°°``Recommended to read for those 16+, please proceed with caution.

↪What starts out as a mere fascination descalates into a mixed up dedication.

❇✧ You're a fun little enigma which is like that of a stimulating Rubik cube. Always determined, Ranpo successfully manages in getting your true best outcome from all the possibilities he could show for you to be amazed at. Sometimes, the fact that he can be stumped figuring you out frustrates him to no end, but he's proud to be the one doing it to you overall! After all, there's no other person more capable and fitting than him to 'solve' all of your worries, problems, or low level predicaments so you should be at ease if you just leave them to the greatest detective ever!

❇✧ Whenever you would feel like you're hitting a dead end in a seemingly neverending maze, he can easily show you the way out of that maze—no, miniature garden! It's only a simple and rewarding trade all in all, you need his point of view towards the solution and Ranpo will receive your praise as the reward (+ your cleared up face out of recognition, breaking to a smile <- he considers it a bonus even though he would expect for that view to keep coming, reserved for his eyes only!).

❇✧ The very few moments though, you wish for a comfort or time in facing a dilemma instead of being shoved a cold revelation like what he usually does. But why, he thought, why wouldn't you just walk the rest of your way out of the maze even with him graciously leading you onward? What's the point of standing around and mulling it over? The answer is already right there, it's obvious and even you could see it. He knows the reason, but he can't really do anything about it if you don't move yourself, can he? He hates being incapable in these kind of situations.

❇✧ You might get some of his snacks instead and something along the lines 'I guess I could do it, just doing something so simple by being here for you if that helps you'. He would pout and everything if he sees your gloom face isn't going away any soon.

❇✧ Your praise and smile are his daily dose of dopamine (healthy ofc, totally not addicted) at this rate and he demands more! He becomes very prying... of your matters which aren't that easy to deal with and even the touchy subjects you wouldn't dare speak out loud, it's as if you're being exposed to the core and then poked at for him to nitpick about certain parts you really have difficulties with.

❇✧ Anytime, any day, his words slowly plague your mind; you should do things this way or you should follow what he say that way you don't regret it, are you sure you should be doing this? He's getting persistently clingy while his minor tantrums increase more often whenever you don't approve his presence, you should've admit you need him any moment now!

❇✧ A bad move on your part, he takes that as a sign it's not enough so you just... avoid him altogether, explaining about his behavior and that you need space from him on text to refrain from losing control over your emotions if you face him. You figure you should do something about this, then you finally go to seek out his rival—no, the closest person he's to and the one you're comfortable with asking for help; Edgar Allan Poe.

❇✧ ...that's what he expected. When Ranpo realized all his efforts would backfire him, he have created a plan with Poe in advance way before you do. He won't let you escape him! Not when he has Poe by his side; his most trusted aid.

❇✧ The moment you take a step back, he instead sees it as a challenge he should take so he will come out victorious; as the one you would admit to be right, backed up by Poe's statement about him. Ranpo won't back down... So you shouldn't go down easily and cower away! Things wouldn't have to be this way if you were just of one agreement with him from the beginning.

❇✧ To Poe, even if through complaints only, Ranpo accidentally makes you out to be more of a formidable foe and villain than you actually are in this case that Poe doesn't hesitate at all lending him a hand. Fueled by jealousy—the moment you step into Poe's room—he welcomes you as his most dangerous rival at the highest priority who needs to be handled in his own hands now that Ranpo leaves the rest of the plan to him.

✏✉ It was needed as a convincing prove for Poe that you're worthy of his help. It was supposed to be like that right before... you are trapped within Poe's book. And out of all people, it's with Ranpo, where almost all (under influence of Poe wanting you to think of them as such) the puzzles are designed in such a special mechanism needing two certain people to be solved at the same time. But, the puzzles put you at a disadvantage more, highlighting Ranpo's ability instead whenever you can't solve them. Your intentions to work together with him in peace and solving some riddles on your own—are outweighed in the end. 'If you want this to be easier for both of us, you should just count on me more!' stated Ranpo.

✏✉ Compared to Ranpo, you know you're not that smart, but you can still stand up by yourself very well even without his help and so, you show it to them. Oh, what a bold and risky action you took, with that being out of their predictions as well... You have Poe enthralled, in awe towards your efforts as if you're under a spotlight—like him—the past him trying hard to win against the same once 'enemy'. With Ranpo getting worried sick of you now and Poe feeling guilty as well, he ends the story on that note before releasing you both out very soon.

✏✉ After Ranpo throws an outburst for your idiotic reckless stunt you pulled and he gets a childish tantrum trying not to mind a particular stupid person whenever he meets you, Poe have since become your wingman for both of your happiness. He's sad seeing the state of relationship you have with his best rival (lie) is turning tense. Poe has been also the mediator from then on who presents Ranpo's good qualities he's proud of. It's as if he's his defender, apologist more than someone who supports both side to make peace rather.

✏✉ Poe would be able to make you feel bad, because maybe you are just being too stubborn surely? Things would go smoothly on your end once you understand Ranpo if you were in his shoes and he would then forgive you. At some other times, Poe is just a walking contradiction, taking your side and discussing about his plans of deduction game to go against Ranpo and with your help, you two might even win past his level of intelligence together.

✏✉ Truthfully, Poe is just playing a devil's advocate card and you might realize it sooner or later since he can't help but rant more than he needed when you push the conversation a right way. You play along with him, admitting you're wrong in some cases related about Ranpo, and even acknowledging Poe's skills because he must be on the same level as him when they managed to get closer than ever~ Poe would be all flustered being treated like that by you.

✏✉ In that moment, Ranpo unexpectedly appears and gets along with you well enough as if nothing ever happens between the two of you, teaming up to tease Poe together. Karl also takes the chance to be his savior by obstructing his own face. All is well that ends well. Not long after, Ranpo admits his fault from before. Your trust in him wouldn't be able to return the way it was, though. Poe is now the one you would confide in, his awkward gestures supported by Karl's help mostly becomes your comfort and they're more heartfelt genuine. In return, Poe would need your feedback and opinions for his stories from time to time.

✏✉ Poe starts glorifying you as his most precious friend, even comes a few lavish gifts he give to you along with a letter he writes for a special occassion. That recent development of you getting closer with him doesn't seem to bother Ranpo much, the detective would simply come and borrow you at appropriate times, sharing stories about his accomplishments of usual and extraordinary cases strewn about in the city or coming to talk in private with Poe or, sometimes have you all hang out together to some place he's interested in.

✏✉ Things seem normal as if you're just spending time together with your close friends(?). Well, besides some claims from Ranpo's co-workers about how he seems to like you very much and he's really insistent of scolding and demeaning anyone who would be having the slightest interest in you. Ranpo is completely honest about it, telling you they're all just creeps or someone you wouldn't want to get involved with. And right he is, when you find out, even if some of them may be your acquintances or friends, Ranpo just knows to get the dirt on expose them and you would thank him for just looking out after you.

✏✉ Although rare, things would escalate further until one of those people is desperate enough to hurt Ranpo with you or Poe having to stop it and that only make his point more clear, sealing the deal. Meanwhile, Poe is absolutely secretive of mentioning about your presence to anyone, surprisingly capable of not letting them know more about you. He would tell the reason is for protecting you since he must have many enemies, or dangerous people meeting him. Before you know it, you're always with the two of them more often. And will always have been.

✏✉ There's a silent agreement going on between them and it would make you feel left out sometimes because it couldn't be easily guessed. Even though you're actually their very solidarity, it's a sign they're doing a good job hiding their intentions you wouldn't guess that they would secure you within their own length of distance only. A triangle fixed towards you; it's two against one. The winner is decided.

#yandere bsd x reader #yandere bungou stray dogs #yandere headcanons #yandere ranpo #yandere edgar allan poe #male yandere x reader #yandere x reader #yandere bungo stray dogs x reader

[di-42]

I've been putting off writing this because I was trying to find a way to not sound defensive. But, I mean, I do feel attacked on this subject, so I may as well sound defensive in my response to it.

If you have read some of my other posts and are wondering... yep. Yes, you might have guessed this is yet another post about Aziraphale's choice in the final 15. Or, rather, not. This post is not about Aziraphale. This post is about explaining Aziraphale's choice in a way that differs to the one-layer depth that we are shown on screen and being accused of lacking the ability to accept that characters I like can be complex and can make mistakes.

Oh, the irony!

So, I mean, possibly no one will be interested in this but let me rant on.

So first off, and I can't believe I'm having to say this, my opinions on Aziraphale are just that: my opinions. I won't specify that on every post I write. If your opinions are different to mine, I strongly encourage you to reply/reblog my posts with your own thoughts and pointing out what and why you disagree with. I take this as a healthy exchange of opinion and really what the fandom is for! I can learn from you! Just, needless to say, keep personal attacks out of this.

Secondly, surprise surprise, Aziraphale lovers can see clearly that Aziraphale makes mistakes. We have watched him making mistakes for 2 seasons, dropping our jaws and shaking our heads. He can be self-righteous, self centered, oblivious to other people's (especially other demons') feelings and incapable to read the room at times. But you know what? He gets it right the time that matters. And that time we are talking about mattered. But that's beside the point. The point is, the point is, we know Aziraphale can be, deep down, a bit of a bastard (and we know Crowley wouldn't love him as much as he does if he wasn't). So, these two things live together in our little, simple, depth-deprived minds: the knowledge that Aziraphale can be a bastard and the feeling that that one time he wasn't being a bastard, he was in fact being selfless.

Thirdly: our little, simple, depth-deprived minds know that stories can have, wait for it, plot twists! When something later on in that story is revealed to have happened for different reasons to the ones that were apparent at a previous point in the story. Neil Gaiman has done it in most of his work. This, of course, doesn't necessarily mean he's doing it here. Again, this is just my opinion. But really, dismissing completely the idea that there can maybe be reasons we don't know yet behind Aziraphale's choice is doing a disservice to Neil Gaiman.

Fourthly (do you even say fourthly?). The most important point of all: do you think we don't feel for Crowley? Do you really think that, because we believe Aziraphale didn't betray Crowley, we can't identify with Crowley's feelings of abandonment? Do you think our little, simple, depth-deprived minds can't hold these two feelings at the same time? Do you think we are dismissing his and our own traumas? Do you really, really think we never wanted to drive that Bentley off a cliff? We do feel for Crowley. We do feel desperate, broken, empty. We know he's lost EVERYTHING and we do recognise that feeling as well as you do. Whatever I think the reasons are behind Aziraphale's choice I do enjoy reading fiction that explains it in a different way to what I think because, again, I can believe something and feel something different at the same time. Reading so wonderfully written fiction about Crowley's pain makes me feel less alone, like bloody all of us. I write my own poems from Crowley's desperate, heartbroken point of view. It is much more alluring than the calm certainty of trust. But I digress. My point is, don't think for one second we are dismissing Crowley's pain. Don't think for one second we don't love Crowley as much as you do only because we believe Aziraphale loves Crowley even more.

Rant over, I guess.

Justice for Aziraphale. Justice for Crowley.

#good omens #aziraphale #crowley #justice for aziraphale #ineffable husbands #azicrow #good omens season 2 #final 15 #good omens 2 #aziracrow #rant post

[downtherabbitholethatisanime]

It's 4am and too hot to sleep so you know what that means?? Time to do MATH :D

In ascendance of a bookworm they mention the price of a lot of things and the mention of 'silver coins' or 'gold coins' makes it sound like a lot right there and from the reactions of everyone else around myne it's clear she's spending alot. But I have absolutely no clue how shocked I'm supposed to be cause myne herself doesn't seem to have any problem with throwing money at things she wants. Leise, Fridas chef, actually comments on it in the side chapters of the LNs saying that a poor girl suddenly coming into a lot of money all at once has clearly skewed her sense of money.

So I'm gonna do a very simple conversion just to make the math easier

10 lions=10 cents

Small copper=10 lions=$0.10

Middle copper=100 lions=$1.00

Large copper=1,000 lions=$10.00

Small silver=10,000 lions=$100.00

Large silver=100,000 lions=$1,000.00

Small gold=1,000,000 lions=$10,000.00

Large gold=10,000,000 lions=$100,000.00

So $0.30 for some fruit at a market. Giving a 6 year old a couple dollars as thank for walking your daughter home.

After that it falls apart a bit. Tulli and mynes mom are really excited to be making $2 a hairclip to the point of pulling all nighters. Then again in the light novel myne also shows a lot of surprise that they're so excited over making so little. She has to rationalize with herself that in Japan small crafts like bracelets were sold for 100 yen and she later finds out that the baskets they made the year before likely paid only a couple small copper on top of the families having to provide their own materials.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this cause I'm too lazy to try to find the chapter but Ralph working part time as an apprentice brings home about 8 large copper a month. Or 80$. He's a child only working 3 out of 7 days a week so let's say people who just sign on to be full time (can't remember the term) make double as newly signed apprentices to keep math easy. That's 320$ a month

They're poor and they're not affected by late stage capitalism so this math is still fine especially since it's normal to have several working people

Lutz states later that he feels weird saving money when the most any poor commoner saves is stashing loose copper around the house for winter prep. So 5-10$ stashed here and there as emergency money.

Benno offers myne 2 small gold for the rinsham recipe as a way to help myne save for her devouring. She raises it to 3 and benno, a rich store owner, is incapable of going higher. With this conversion he offered 20,000$ and agreed to 30,000$. Given the circumstances the conversion still holds pretty well

Apprentice outfits for Lutz and myne are either 8 or 11 small silver I can't remember. So between 800 and 1,100$ for hand stitched work clothes for a high end store. Which means it has to be made with higher quality materials and made to order.

So when myne offers a large gold to enter the temple she's offering $100,000. It's no wonder everyone was shocked

Slight spoilers

I'm pretty sure the reward for helping Angelica pass her classes was a small gold for Damuel and Bridgette and a recipe for Cornelius. Thats 10,000$, enough to make a poor lay noble like Damuel weep tears of joy cause he can finally pay off a debt.

She tells the other dutchys she spent 18 LARGE gold on making a book of another dutchys history. She spent $1,800,000 on materials for a hobby (of course it was less for her since she made the stuff in her own workshop but no one else knows that and shes not about to explain it)

This girl is absolutely insane with money no wonder everyone is speechless

Someone add more examples cause thinking it out like this is actually so funny

#ascendance of a bookworm #Honzuki no Gekokujō #honzuki no gekokujou #myne #rozemyne #after so many hours trying to sleep this has been the only thing to actually make me pretty tired #brain can finally turn off #none of these sentences will make sense to me tomorrow watch

[rhosyn-du]

Comyn he is of gret - Dreamling - AO3 Link

Rating: Explicit | Status: WIP | Chapters: 1/2 | Words: 10.5k (so far) Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Porn With Somewhat More Plot Than The Author Intended, Canon Divergence Purely For Porn Reasons, Bets & Wagers, Monsterfucker Hob Gadling, Light Dom/Sub, Enthusiastic Consent, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Multiple Orgasms, Overstimulation, Come Marking, Come Eating, Additional Tags To Be Added Summary:

"I’ve had a bounty of, ah, enthusiastic and appreciative compliments on my skills, as it happens."

"A claim I've heard more than one man make," the stranger says dismissively. "I'm uncertain there's anything men lie about more often."

"Ah, but in my case, it's simple truth." Hob grins, because it is the truth, and he damned well knows it. He might have grand aspirations and be just a bit incapable of keeping his mouth shut when he ought to, but he more than makes up for it with his skill in the bedchamber. "You don't have to take my word for it."

The stranger rolls his eyes, and it's the most human thing Hob has seen him do. "Do you plan to give me a list of your past lovers so I might consult them on the degree of your prowess in sexual matters?"

"I suppose I could," Hob says amiably. "Or, you could find out for yourself."

In 1389, Hob follows the mysterious stranger out of the White Horse, makes a number of questionable choices, and gets thoroughly railed for his trouble.

#the sandman #sandman fanfic #dreamling #dream x hob #dream of the endless #hob gadling #my fic

[hapi-transformers-enthusiast]

A Soldier, Nothing More.

The first part of an Ultra Magnus x Human Reader fic I'm writing. I know it's short, but I felt like that last sentence was good to cut it on. I hope you all enjoy it!

WARNING: This is a work of fiction, and not affiliated with Hasbro in any way, shape, or form. This work contains no NSFW, but one mention of Lust as an emotion. Reader discretion is advised.

Ultra Magnus was, first and foremost, a soldier. That was the one thing he did best. Made as a heavy transport frame, and immediately shuffled into the military by the caste system on Cybertron, he was literally groomed to be a commander. Everything he had ever been taught, he learned in the Military. Was that a good thing? Absolutely not. Ultra Magnus knew that such an upbringing stunted his social skills; He knew that people disliked him because of his rigid, authoritative nature, burnt into him by millennia of military experience. He knew that he was an outlier; A man of order and procedure, surrounded by freedom-loving wildcards who longed for an open society. He too longed for that open society - after all, that was what he’d been fighting for, for almost 4 million years now - He just didn’t know how to operate in such a world. A world without need for a rigid outline, without any desire for one.

When you, a college-aged, short-lived human being were placed under his protection, he didn’t complain. Unlike the other bots, he didn’t think of it as babysiting: Because you were an adult. A grown person, fully capable of making your own decisions. You were here because you knew of their existence, and that alone put you in danger; That was all. Sure, every now and again you’d make a bad decision, and he’d chide you for that, but he was nowhere near as strict on you as he was with the Autobots, because you aren’t his soldier. You’re a civilian, and that’s how he thinks of you. A citizen in need of protection.

However, things started changing after only a few months of being with you. Somehow, with that sweet smile you’d always give him when he’d pick you up from work, and the way you encouraged him to keep trying to integrate himself in the family that Team Prime had become… you slid right through the metaphorical walls he’d built around his spark. He began looking forward to driving you to and from dierent places, or conversing with you about the many confusing things about human culture, and he didn’t even realize it until he caught himself talking about it with one of the other Autobots. He didn’t realize that he’d began to enjoy the simple feeling of your hands on the interior of his alt mode until you commented on how warm he got after you’d goen in one day. Things that he’d never even considered important before now were coming to the front of his processor, because they were things that you considered important. He just didn’t understand it.

At first, he contemplated visiting Ratchet and asking about such a feeling, wondering if it was something medical. Then he heard June talking about the way she felt when she met her rst husband – A raised temperature in his presence, a faster heartbeat, wanting to do things that he approved of, all of it – and he had a startling revelation. One for which he had to seek solitude in order to fully process.

Love.

It was something he’d never experienced before, and something he never thought he would experience. Not that he thought that he was somehow incapable of it, but rather that it was just one of the many things about civilian life that was on the boom of his priority list. He’d experienced comradery, friendships among his brothers and sisters in-arms that went deeper than simply ghting with one another… but never this sort of Love.

This particular feeling of trust and companionship, a desire to help and assist, and even Lust, all melded together into one, painfully intense feeling. He didn’t know what to make of it… so he didn’t.

For now, he believed that it’d be too dangerous to get involved with you. He was a soldier – someone who could die at any moment, or be called to battles that lasted for months at a time – and you deserved beer than that.

You deserved someone who was guaranteed to be able to stay.

And he wanted to give you what you deserved, and nothing less.

#my writing #tfp #maccadam #transformers #transformers prime #tfp x reader #ultra magnus #ultra magnus x reader #tfp x human reader #written by hapi transformers enthusiast #tw lust mention

[tired-teacher-blog]

My jerk

Characters : Bakugo/ Fem reader

Genre : NSFW/ 18+/ Smut/ Blowjob (male receiving)/ Bakugo is being a little asshole/ Angst/ Fluff/ One shot

Summary : Your shy and quiet demeanor is about to be tested by your boyfriend in the meanest way imaginable.

Please do not read if you're a minor

Masterlist|Second Masterlist

You paced the room nervously, tugging on your boyfriend's hoodie— as it barely managed to cover your bum, and wondered internally..

Why has he been distant lately? How come your intimate times have noticeably decreased? He barely even kisses you anymore, let alone doing anything further than that.

He's always been all over you, hardly able to keep his hands away, but for days now things have felt different.

Granted, this could be just your hypersensitivity messing up with your head, but you still couldn't shake that sickening feeling in your stomach.

_ "Babe I'm home!" your heart skipped a beat hearing his voice, and you ran to greet him as you prepared to receive the usual-passionate-desire filled kiss, but his lips pecked your cheek instead, leaving you blinking in confusion.

_ "I'll take a quick shower and start making dinner alright?" his smile was as genuine as ever, but everything else seemed unfamiliar.

_ "Yes.. yeah, okay." you were too frightened to hear a response that you couldn't find it in yourself to confront him.

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

_ "So, how was work today?" you tried to keep it casual as you practically forced down your food.

_ "Uneventful actually, but that's a good thing right?" puzzling, how can he fill you with panic, and then soothe you just as fast with a simple chuckle?

But then again, he's the only one who's always been able to mess with your heart and render you incapable of forming a logical thought. Though it was different this time.

What's even more unusual was that he actually didn't seem annoyed with you, quite the opposite, he still talked, joked, complained about work, called you "beautiful" like he always does and even teased you by making a suggestive comment about you wearing his hoodie.. but that was it, never once did he place the usual warm hand on your thigh, or lace his eager fingers with yours.

Something must be wrong.

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

_ "Good night babe." his sleepy groggy voice uttered before draping an arm around your waist and closing his eyes for the night.

So, that was it? Another day passes without you figuring out what's happening?

The lump in your throat tightened as you wished to shake him awake and demand an explanation, but what could you say exactly?

Words seemed to fail you and you had to think fast before he falls into a deep slumber, so you moved cautiously, nuzzling his neck and planting soft kisses along his pulse and further down until you reached his collarbone.

You heard a low groan and looked up to see him staring down at you, "what are you doing y/n? We both have jam packed schedules tomorrow so let's sleep." he did not look or sound amused at all, and at that moment, you had to make a choice.. carry on with what you were doing and have your answer, or listen to him and spend another night wondering.

You bit down on your lip and pushed him flat on his back before straddling his waist.

Your move caught him off guard, leaving him wide eyed and speechless, and you took advantage of his confusion to lock your lips in a needy kiss.

_ "Katsuki.." you whined against his mouth and he finally responded.

_ "What is it y/n? What do you want exactly? Tell me clearly, I'm listening." his voice dropped, sending shivers down your spine.

But you couldn't respond, everything you wanted to say seemed more embarrassing than actually showing him. So you sat up, moved down until you were kneeling in front of his pelvis, and placed a hesitant hand on his bulge before looking into his crimson irises. His expressions remained the same, except for the teeny tiny smirk you can almost swear was a fragment of your imagination.

Your other hand joined the first as they worked together in pulling down his sweatpants and boxers just enough to free his half hard cock. Your breath was caught in your throat, was he enjoying your advances? You could only hope.

You wrapped your fingers around his shaft and moved your hand up and down in slow motions, squeezing just enough to feel him twitching and growing in your hand.

You were filled with confidence and excitement as you watched his body responding, but you wished he would touch you too, guide your hand or squeeze your arms, groan your name or tell you how good you're being for him.. but there was nothing.

You leaned in, pecking the smooth head once before taking him into your mouth and sighing as he filled your maw beautifully.

You moaned around his fully hard length, bobbing your head faster as you inhaled the intoxicating musky scent emanating from him. Your tongue laid flat on the underside of his cock, as you hallowed your cheeks and relaxed your throat to take him in deeper, just the way he likes it.

You felt his thighs tensing underneath your palms and tightened your lips around him as your movements quickened.

You wanted him to cum into your mouth, to lose control and speak your name when he does. And he was close, so close you could already taste his precum.

_ "Stop! Please stop!" he urged, pulling you up and growling as a gush of cold air fanned over his wet-abandoned-rock hard cock.

You were confused, did he not like it? Were you doing something wrong? But you've always managed to drive him insane every single time you took him in your mouth.

Unless it's true, he truly didn't want you anymore..

_ "Katsuki, why.. ah!" you yelped mid sentence, immediately forgetting what you were about to say when two strong arms yanked you up and placed you on top of his firm stomach, hard cock laying flat against your lower belly.

_ "You were saying?" it was a new demeanor, unlike what he's been showing you the last few days, but similar to what you're used to.

Should you be hopeful? Maybe you were wrong all along.

_ "I'm.. I was saying that.." your mind went blank all of a sudden but his hearty chuckle snapped you back.

He sat up, arms supporting your back and nose brushing against yours, "come on gorgeous talk to me, tell me what you have in mind, what you want me to do, use your words or we'll be stuck here all night." his teasing didn't help but this was the closest you two have been in days, and you didn't want to mess it up.

You opened your mouth to speak but nothing came out, you couldn't even breathe properly as his arms sneaked under your shirt, removing the soft barrier of clothing and leaving you exposed.

_ "I'm listening," his lips ghosted over your neck, barely skimming against your longing skin, and intentionally denying you the connection you yearned for.

You still couldn't formulate a single thought, and the fingers moving your panty to the side didn't help either.

And then, everything stopped as he leaned back a bit to look you straight in the eyes, "alright, seems like you're not ready to talk just yet, why don't you show me then?" the fire in his eyes mirrored the unbearable heat in your loins.

You propped yourself up on shaky knees, holding his throbbing shaft in one hand while keeping your panty out of the way with the other. And with no hesitation whatsoever, you lowered yourself on him with a loud moan of his name. It felt so good to have him buried to the hilt inside of you.

You tried to regulate your breathing as you adjusted to his massive size, because no matter how many times you've done it, it always feels like your first.

Your eyes moved to watch his expressions, and the face you were met with almost drove you over the edge. His brows knitted and jaws clenched in an attempt to keep his cool, and the heavy breathing leaving his parted lips, landed on the sensitive skin of your neck.

You started bouncing on top him, shallowly and clumsily at first, clutching onto his shoulders for support, until you finally found your rythme.

You were so backed up that you knew it wouldn't last too long, but you still needed to speak, to tell him what you failed to earlier, and that was the time.

_ "I hate that you're not affectionate anymore, I hate that you've been ignoring me lately, all I want is for you to touch me to kiss me to make love to me, to be all over me like you used to, but I'm afraid you don't want to anymore.." still bouncing erratically on his twitching cock, your tears trickled down your cheeks as you blurted it all out and kept nothing in, barely believing that you were the one speaking those words since you've never been really expressive when it came to your feelings, but the fear of losing him pushed you to speak freely.

_ "There we go, you finally said it," his palms cradled your bum, squeezing your luscious cheeks as he picked you up and slammed you back down on him, repeating the action at a brutal speed, "do you have any idea how hard it was for me to hold myself back all this time?" his lips found your neck again, but this time he bit down hard on your skin and growled like a beast against you.

Your mind went blank at the shifting of his behavior, that all you could do was hold on to him and take it all.

_ "You really believed I would actually give you up? tsk, maybe I did take it too far." his groans filled your senses and his lips devoured every inch of you they could reach.

You were so close at that point, unconsciously tightening your walls around his invading cock.

_ "Oh, you're not gonna last much longer are you? Come on speak to me, tell me clearly how you're feeli.."

_ "I love you! I love you so much and I can't bare the idea of losing you one day! But you were mean.. ah! so mean to me.. and I'm mad at you for teasing me so much! But I still love you damnit.. mhmph.. I'm cumming! Katsuki!" for the second time that night, you managed to speak your mind— unrestrained, like you have never done before.

Was that his plan all along? To stir you up and get you to express yourself straightforwardly? It was cruel of him to go this far for that, but face it, you would have never done it otherwise.

_ "Cum for me babe, don't hold back." he cooed, rutting into your fluttering cunt and running his tongue along the side of your neck until he reached your quivering lips and latched onto them. That did it for you, the tension in your lower abdomen snapped, and your body spasmed violently as pure ecstasy washed over you.

He thrusted up a few times, fucking you throughout your orgasm before pulling out of your heat and releasing his pearly seeds all over your belly.

_ "Fuck, you're beautiful.." he breathed out against your glistening cheek and you couldn't miss the smile illuminating his voice.

Your arms desperately held on to his shoulders as your brain replayed the eventful night.

You were embarrassed of your unusual straightforwardness and he knew it.

_ "Forgive me sweetheart, I took it too far didn't I?" he nuzzled your neck as he spoke, squeezing you tighter between his arms.

_ "You did," you giggled hitting his shoulder playfully. To be honest, you weren't upset with him anymore since you get why he teased you the way he did. He simply wanted to see that rare side of you, the one where you spoke unabashedly.

_ "I'm sorry for making you worry it was never my intention to hurt you, please never doubt my feelings sweetheart, I know I can be a jerk sometimes but my love for you is eternal and will remain until the end of times. I will love you even from beyond the grave."

Hearing his words made you realize that you too needed to speak more openly, that it was okay to be vulnerable around him.

_ "You are a jerk, the biggest jerk there is but I wouldn't change a thing because I love you the way you are, the good and the annoying. You're the only one who gets me even if I don't say a word, and I guess I unconsciously took that for granted, but I just want you to know that I can not imagine a life without you in it, you are my best friend and my soulmate." you weren't as nervous or as embarrassed as you had been moments ago, words flowed out of your mouth naturally and it felt so right. So maybe— just maybe, his way wasn't so bad after all.

_ "I love you beautiful." was what he whispered right before claiming your lips in a breathtaking kiss.

#bakugou katuski x reader #bakugou katsuki x female reader #bakugou katsuki x you #bakugou katsuki x reader #bakugou katsuki smut #bakugou katsuki fanfic #bakugou katsuki fluff #katsuki bakugo imagine #katsuki bakugo headcanons #katsuki bakugo fanfiction #katsuki bakugo x reader #katsuki bakugou smut #katsuki bakugou fluff #katsuki bakugo smut #katsuki bakugo fluff #katsuki bakugo x you #my hero academia smut #boku no hero smut #my hero academia fanfic #boku no hero fanfic #my hero academia fluff #my hero academia headcanons #boku no hero headcanons

[entomjinx]

Uta is NOT a Mary Sue

I wrote this on twitter for a "what's a controversial One Piece opinion" post, but I definitely want it here too. Also I apologize for any typos, as I'm physically incapable of not making at least one.

Uta, by definition, is not a Mary-Sue despite how people seem to believe so due to her past, abilities, family, and how she's introduced into the story.

Definition: The term "Mary-Sue" comes directly from whether or not the character in question is 2 dimensional, depicted as lacking any flaws, which makes them unrealistic, and the rules of the story tend to bend to them second they would stop the character. Other notable things about Mary-Sues is that they are typically free of any weaknesses, they're innately virtuous, and typically attractive.

So let's break this down bit by bit.

Right off the bat, I will say she's attractive, but so are most characters in One Piece. If attractiveness is all it took to make a Mary-Sue, then everyone would be a Mary-Sue. It's the same with the fact that she has a unique design.

Uta has several very clear weaknesses:

One: her devil fruit is stamina based. If she falls asleep, they all return to their bodies. If she dies, they die with her. She has to die to take her opponent down like that, and it is therefore, a weakness.

Two: she doesn't fight much outside of the song-world. This could be because of a lack of training to fight, as shown by her unwillingness to harm someone's body. Instead, she has to have unconscious people fight for her.

Three: If they can't hear her, they're unaffected. There is a whole scene depicting marines in headphones to block her voice, and it works until they're knocked off.

Four: she's not omnipotent while in the song-world. Several people were able to hide from her and the things she created.

Five: she can't alter a person's will, only their form. Sunny, Bepo, and Blueno fought against her after their bodies were changed. The people from the audience still called out for Uta to stop.

I could continue, but I think these get the point across.

She's not virtuous; she's morally gray, like most characters in One Piece.

She wants to start a new era, but the way that she plans on doing so removes people's freedom and will kill them. That's not virtuous, even if she believes it is. It makes her similar to a cult leader. Even if they somehow had everyone's best interest in mind, wouldn't call a cult leader virtuous, would you?

Everything above covers how she has character flaws, but I'm going to add a few more.

She begins to panic when things don't go how she expects them to. That's why the audience gets turned into stuffed animals and such. If they won't stay themselves, then she has to keep them there.

She was eating wake-shrooms the whole movie. Those are literally in universe stimulant drugs. Another point against virtuous and towards character flaws.

She didn't seek help for the things that were bothering her, which ultimately led to her crazed idea. Her isolation led to her being so independent that she probably didn't know asking for help was an option.

And finally, the big one: is she a two dimensional character? Definition first: a 2 dimensional character is a character with little to no character development. They're too simple, and show little to no serious thought. The have no real dimension to them.

Guys, the whole movie is about her. We see how her trauma changed her from loving being a part of the red haired pirates to not being able to stand pirates at all. How her lack of outside help and isolation only made everything worse, and what ut eventually turned into. We see her realize she was wrong the second she's able to process a fraction of what she's done, which if you pay careful attention to the movie, you know that not all of it was fully her. Parts of it were the wake-shrooms, which make people slowly go insane. (How many shows was she using one or two on, I wonder?). Some theories even believe that Tot-Music was still affecting her mind after the first summon, but I digress.

She just needed help.

There's so much more I could put into this analysis, but I've made my point. She's not a 2 dimensional character.

To address some of the concerns I know will come up:

"She's the daughter of the strongest Yonko." Being Shanks' daughter doesn't make her a Mary-Sue anymore than being Garp's grandson and Dragon's child makes Luffy one.

"She's Luffy's childhood friend. He was supposed to be alone." Being friends with Luffy doesn't make her more of a Mary-Sue. If anything, it adds more depth to both characters, as it helps explain why Luffy wanted a musician so badly. It also explains part of his hatred for loneliness. He had one friend who went missing and he never saw her again. ("Being alone is more painful" -Luffy's flashback post Marineford) -She was adapted into that spot of the story very well. "Luffy's never mentioned her before." Luffy never mentioned Ace before Alabasta either. In case you haven't noticed, Luffy doesn't really talk about things unless he's asked directly or has a direct reminder.

"She's so overpowered that she almost killed 70% of the world at once." Yes and? Kaido regularly attempted suicide. Big mom steals people's life spans. Luffy has a god devil fruit that the government renamed because they couldn't get a hold of it for 800 years.

All of them are objectively stronger than Uta in terms of strength. She had to become popular enough for most of the world to listen to her, and then strategize exactly how this would play out. There's also the fact that some people may be immune because of Haki (gorosei)

She had a plan and it was effective because she blindsided everyone with it. That's a talent and a half, and it wouldn't work more than once.

It also has nothing to do with whether or not she's a Mary-Sue and I think it's silly to bring it up, but I know how people are.

And finally: nothing is stopping you from continuing to dislike her. You don't have justify disliking her by calling her something she isn't. If she doesn't vibe with you, she doesn't vibe with you. Everyone has things they dislike, and that's perfectly normal.

If you'd like to know what an actual Mary-Sue looks like, then I recommend trying to read just five chapters of "My Immortal," with the main character Ebony Darkness Dimentia Raven-way, the Mary-Sue of Mary-Sues. Everything is so exaggerated that it's easy to spot.

If you genuinely want to discuss any of this, then I'm down to talk about it, but if you're here to hate and didn't even bother to read everything, then I'm not interested.

Thank you to everyone who made it this far, and I hope you have a good day <3

#uta one piece #one piece uta #film red #one piece #uta op #uta #monkey d luffy

[romanarose]

Fucker Notices Everything

Marc X Reader

Masterlist

Drabble Summary: A sound triggers you in a small way, but Marc still noticed.

This was supposed to be like, 2 paragraphs, but I'm incapable of sticking to lengths I initially intent to write. Oh well. Just wanted to write a short lil something with my baby boy Marc.

********************************

You lay in Marc’s arms, listening to the sounds of the outside lulling you to sleep. The night was cool, but you liked the windows open. The two of you had taken a little trip, just out of the city, to a simple hotel in the suburbs. Just to do something different. He held you close, fingers training your body in your warm PJ’s. You had packed sexier lingerie, but the night was so peaceful, you wanted to keep the windows open. This, of course, meant it was too cold to dress like that. Luckily, Marc thought you were sexy in your Star Wars themed pajamas, and anything else you wore. He couldn't keep his eyes off you, and he wouldn't take his hands off you if you’d let him. 

You wondered how you possibly found someone like his, someone who was so in love… your whole life you were taught to settle. That men were something you were supposed to chase, that you should be so lucky if they looked at you. But Marc? Marc chased you. You never even considered him someone that was possible outside your fantasies, well, look at him! And yet, somehow, you found yourself the object of his interest. Slowly but surely, you allowed yourself to believe it, and he proved his love to you again, and again, and again. 

You were deep in thought, and pretty sure Marc was asleep, when you heard it. A motorcycle outside. You briefly, and ever-so slightly tensed and then relaxed as it continued on down the road. You still your heart rate back down, and continue falling asleep. No big deal, it happens sometimes. You usually don’t notice, with all the sounds of the city surrounding you, but it was quieter here. Nevertheless, it comes and it goes.

“What was that?”

You wince. Marc. Of course he noticed. Fucker notices everything.

You play dumb. “What was what?”

He’s spooning you, arms wrapped around your chest, face in your neck. “You tensed.” He’s sleepy, but painfully aware. As always.

“I was just stretching my back…” A bad lie.

“Sweetheart, please. I felt your heart rate pick up.” Fucker really notices everything… You turn over, letting him hold you as you look into his eyes. They were big, brown, and compelling, even half asleep. “Talk to me, please?”

You sigh. It was hard to deny him. It wasn’t that you were hiding it, necessarily, but Marc was a fixer, and this couldn’t be fixed. This… wasn’t a big deal. But he wanted to know, and you couldn't say no to those eyes, not for something as small as this. “My dad rode a motorcycle.” His concerned look softened in understanding. But he kept giving you that face, so you continued “Since he worked evenings, he’d come home when I was usually in bed. I was almost always up.” Marc knew that you slept painfully little as a kid. “We’d have our windows open any chance we had to save money, and my town was so fucking quiet, I could hear him from miles out. And I just pile listen to him come on 9th, turn onto our street, come up the drive and shut the bike off, hear him open the the door and then it just depended on the day whether he’d go watch TV or start slamming things or yelling…” You bury your face in his chest as he holds you tighter. Marc knew of your chaotic and tense home life, this wasn’t new. And likewise, you knew of his abuse. “So when I hear a motorcycle go by at night, it just… I don’t want to say triggers me… but it does. But it’s silly and it just comes and passes super fast. I promise…” You look at him again, wanting to reassure him.  “It’s not a big deal, and I promise to tell you if it ever is, okay?”

He studies your face for a while, seeing if you were hiding yourself from him or downplaying something upsetting. He nods. “Okay. If you’re sure.. and I don’t think it’s silly, baby.”

You smile and kiss him, happy he believes your truth, and you settle into his arms. He lays on his back to allow you to rest your head on him. You were starting to learn that not only was honesty best with Marc, but you were safe in your honesty. If you had a bad day for the 4th time this week, you could tell him and he wouldn't say you were dramatic or ask if you were on your period. You could tell him to slow down or stop during sex at any time, for any reason, and he would never show the slightest sign of being annoyed. You could be honest about your past, and in return, he was honest with you. There weren't secrets. And when two people come from the background you and Marc have, openness is key. There is a comfortable silence, happy and in love.

“Wine bottle cork.” A sleepy, soft voice speaks above you. You look up to face him, but his eyes are closed. You watch his beautiful mouth, lit by the moon, as he continues, spurred on by your silence. He was muttering, voice slightly slurred by the sleep that pulled at him. “When the corks in wine bottles get popped off, it startles me. Makes me think of my mom. She drank about everything, but wine had a distinct sound.”

You carefully touch his face, the start of stubble on his pretty, perfect, brown skin. Your heart hurt, and you wished you had paid better attention. You wished you had noticed. “Why didn’t you tell me?” 

He shrugged, eyes still closed, chest steadily rising and falling under you. “You like wine.”

“Oh honey…” You swore to yourself, no more wine with corks. Twist off wine only. Fine by you, Stella Rosa is great.

“The point is, I get it. It’ll startle me for a moment, then I’ll be fine.” A smaller shrug this time. “I guess we’ll always be this way, to a certain extent.”

“Yeah.” You kiss between his pecs. “But if I ever need help, I got you. So I’ll be okay.”

He gives your arms where his hand was resting a squeeze “And I’ll be okay, as long as I got you, babe.” He sounded far off, drifting off into sleep. “You alright? Do I need to go break every motorcycle in the the city or anything?”

Despite the fact he was clearly almost asleep, you could hear the little bit of play in his voice and you didn’t doubt he’d do it if you asked. He’d do anything, if you asked. “I’m better than okay”

“Arighty.” He mumbles. Now you knew he was tired. He wouldn’t say ‘alrighty’ without a gun to his head. As always, he reassures you that you are safe. “You can sleep now. I got you.” You were pretty sure he fell asleep right then, a soft snore escaping his perfect nose that you loved.

And you didn’t doubt him. Even fast asleep, you knew you he would protect you. His senses were always going, always aware. It’s why he was always so tired, he never really, truly rested. You would gladly take the ‘super high risk’ of him turning his brain off, just to let him get a full night's rest…. But he would never. Not right now, anyway. Maybe someday. 

You hug him, a quick, innocent hug you might give your friend in college as you left a party. “I love you, Marc Spector.” you say quietly into his skin.

A whisper. “I love you too.” Fucker notices everything.

**********************************

If you like this, you might like Seattle, which is also Marc focused. very much protective!marc, but it's a situation he's largly helpless. It started as a one-shot fanfic, but I'm turning it into a miniseries. This one is quite a bit jewish!marc and Jewish!reader.

You might also like Marc Spector: Angel, Knight, Protector. A darker fic, but a big protective! Marc Spector fic.

#marc spector #marc spector reader #marc spector x reader #marc spector x you #soft marc spector #loving marc spector #marc spector needs a hug #moon knight #moon knight fanfiction #moon knight fluff #Marc spector comfort #marc spector fluff #marc spector hurt/comfort