#it is fair to say she probably never cried again after that but whatever | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

inairbinad · 11 months

Text

Steve's Got a Date with a Vampire! (4)

part four of seven | Explicit (eventually) Part One | Part Three | Read on AO3

“Come on Steve, we never get quality one-on-one time anymore,” Dustin whined into the phone, trying to get Steve to forgive him and hang out again.

“That’s because you’re a little sneak,” Steve replied casually, examining his cuticles as he held the phone cradled between his ear and shoulder. It’d been two more weeks since the closet incident, but Dustin’s punishment of no rides—even when the other kids were getting them—had only lasted a few days. Steve couldn’t stay mad at the kid, but he could keep lording it over him as a guilt trip every chance he got.

“I promise I won’t do anything like that again,” Dustin pleaded. “But you have to admit, you guys are closer now, right?”

Steve had seen Eddie a few times since, and things did seem at least back to their flirtatious status quo, but it was never just the two of them. They very pointedly hadn’t brought up the feeding situation, either, though Steve was more than willing to offer again. He spent too much time worrying if Eddie was eating at all, actually.

(And if Steve started exclusively jerking off to the memory of the Eddie’s teeth in his wrist and tongue on his skin after that, well, that was Steve’s business.)

“If you say so, Henderson,” Steve relented without giving too much away. He hadn’t admitted to anyone exactly what happened in that closet, not even Robin. But he couldn’t deny that Dustin’s little scheme had done something to shift whatever relationship he and Eddie had now. “What did you have in mind?”

“How do you feel about a night at the fair?” Dustin asked, smile obvious in his voice.

Steve didn’t trust the sound of that smile, but he agreed anyway.

———

Steve was completely unsurprised when Dustin’s version of ‘quality time’ together involved Eddie. In fact, he would have been more surprised if Eddie didn’t magically run into them at the fair in some capacity. Eddie, on the other hand, seemed to be at least a little appalled by Dustin’s blatant lying.

“You said you wanted to spend time, and I quote, ‘just the two of us!’” Eddie cried. “No offense, Stevie.”

“None taken.” Steve could only laugh at the nerve of this kid they practically shared custody of. Steve knew this was just another ploy to get him to spend more time with Eddie, but at least Dustin would be a buffer between Steve and his wildly inappropriate thoughts this time. He was willing to go along with it as long as Eddie was. “He told me the same thing.”

“Is it so bad of me to want a family outing?” Dustin crowed, pleading his case. “Where we can all spend some quality time together?”

Steve rolled his eyes and didn’t dignify the display with any more of a response. “You got us here, alright? Now what are we doing first? Food, rides, or games?”

“Games!” Dustin and Eddie said in equally excitable voices. Steve smiled at them both and led them off towards a row of booths filled to the brim with unwinnable stuffed animals.

First Dustin made them play their hand at water pistols, a game Steve resoundingly hated. But then, it was already well established that he was bat guy, not a gun guy. Dustin ended up winning, but all he had to show for it was an off-brand Star Wars themed pencil sharpener and a finger cramp that he wouldn’t stop complaining about.

Next they went to have their fortunes told by an old lady with scraggly gray hair and a (probably fake, Steve suspected) mole on her nose to complete her witch’s getup. She took one look at Eddie when he sat down, whispered “I see blood,” and all three of them booked it out of there faster than she could say boo.

After that Eddie wanted to shake off the creeps and play Skee-ball, claiming he was “the master,” and that Steve couldn’t possibly beat him. Steve begged to differ, as that title had historically been his, and a whole lot of bickering and competitiveness ensued. Eddie tried his usual tricks of trying to distract Steve with various gutter-minded and flirtatious remarks (“Bet you can’t get it in the hole,” said in the most delighted and daring voice was one Steve was having trouble forgetting), but Steve did his best to steel his nerves and ignore it.

He was only partly successful, so after a couple of rounds he decided to play dirty, too.

At first Steve stood back, his hip cocked and his arms crossed as he very deliberately stared at how Eddie’s body moved with each throw. But he waited for Eddie to come to him.

“What, Harrington?” Eddie asked, after his second toss, looking a little put out. Dustin perked up, expectantly watching the both of them with a stupid grin on his face.

“Nothing,” Steve said, innocent. But Eddie wasn’t buying it. He just crossed his arms over his chest and mirrored Steve in a challenge, just like Steve had wanted. So Steve shrugged noncommittally and said, “Your stance is wrong, is all.”

“My stance—” Eddie huffed and cut himself off with a disbelieving smile. “You’re losing and you’re critiquing my stance?”

“I’m not losing,” Steve pointed out, because he wasn’t. He probably would be after this round, based on how many 100s Eddie was hitting, but that was all the more reason to try and throw a wrench in the works. “Score, Dust?”

“Steve’s right, actually,” Dustin replied with ease, and Steve couldn’t help but suspect Dustin was trying to help him out.

Eddie grumbled something unintelligible under his breath, and Steve just chuckled when he dropped his chin to his chest in resignation. Then something in his posture changed, and he looked up at Steve with a dangerous grin. “Why don’t you come show me what I’m doing wrong, then?”

If Eddie thought he’d found the upper hand by suggesting it, Steve couldn’t wait to show that this was exactly what he’d been gunning for. Or maybe they both just wanted to give Steve an excuse to touch Eddie and all of this was just silly pretense. Either way, Steve didn’t care.

He inched up behind Eddie with a crooked smile, and gently put his hands on Eddie’s hips. Then he twisted Eddie back towards himself a bit, until Eddie’s right hip pressed into Steve’s. Steve just barely kept his nose out of Eddie’s hair when he murmured, “Just tilt your hips like this. It's all about finding the right angle.”

Eddie scoffed, but it sounded a little stiff. All the same, he managed to bite back, “You’re not the only one who knows how to use their body, jock.”

The line might’ve given Steve a plethora of ideas of what else Eddie might’ve been able to do with his body, sure. But invoking jock culture also gave Steve a devious idea.

“Fair enough, nerd,” Steve laughed lightly, then smacked Eddie’s ass as if he’d just made a great play on the court. He lingered just for just a moment before he retreated back to his perch beside Dustin.

Eddie looked mildly scandalized, while Dustin just snickered and gave Steve an appreciative pat on the shoulder. Eddie managed to recover well enough to shake his head with a laugh and throw the ball, but it was the first time he’d missed potting a 100 in several throws.

Steve didn’t do much to contain his self-satisfied smirk.

In the end it was close, but Steve failed to account for the special vampire advantage, and he lost on the last throw. He couldn’t even be bothered to care, because the victory dance Eddie did somehow managed to be both cute and sexy when he wiggled his hips and his shirt rode up a little.

All-in-all, Steve was willing to consider it a win.

Dustin wanted popcorn next, so Eddie went off to get some while Steve and Dustin wandered around, looking for their next attraction. When they came upon the basketball free throw game, Dustin immediately bounced on his heels and pointed at a giant pink stuffed bear that was hanging there as one of the grand prizes.

“I have it on good authority that Eddie very much wants that pink bear,” Dustin said, loudly.

“Oh? Did he tell you that psychically?” Steve asked.

“No,” Dustin grumbled. “I just know him well enough to know he would love it.”

“Good for him,” Steve shrugged. He knew exactly where Dustin was going with this, but Steve was pretty certain it was an impossible ask. Steve had spent a lot of time and trying to win prizes from this game, thinking he’d have an advantage since he was good at actual basketball, but these hoops were too small and the ball never had the right amount of air in it. He could never get the feel of it right, much to the disappointment of several of his former dates.

“You should win it for him,” Dustin suggested, but it sounded more like an order.

“Pretty sure that would be weird,” Steve said, instead of addressing the more glaring problem with the fact that he didn’t think he could win it.

“It would not,” Dusting sighed. “It would be romantic! God. I thought you were good at this stuff.”

“I am,” Steve defended himself weakly. “But these games are rigged anyway. The hoop is too small!”

Dustin opened his mouth to argue some more just as Eddie sauntered up to them both, munching on a giant stick of cotton candy and handing over two bags of popcorn for Steve and Dustin each. Steve had to do a double take.

“What—“ Steve stopped and tried to figure out a polite way to phrase his question about the dietary restrictions of vampires. “Does that even taste like anything to you?”

“Of course it does. Like pure sugar,” Eddie flashed him a toothy grin, showing off his dimples as he did. “It’s like drinking the blood of a Care Bear.”

“Charming,” Steve remarked, but couldn’t keep his grin quite contained. Eddie noticed and only smiled bigger at him.

“What were we arguing about, dearest family?” Eddie asked, turning to Dustin.

“Steve doesn’t think he can win the free throw game,” Dustin said immediately.

“Please,” Eddie scoffed. For a split second, Steve thought he might be taking his side, but then Eddie faced him full on with that same daring smirk. “I’ve seen you play. You can kick that game’s ass.”

Steve appreciated the vote of confidence, but he was too busy getting stuck on the words ‘I’ve seen you play’ to pay it much mind. “You have?” he asked, baffled. “I thought you hated basketball.”

“Um.” Eddie shifted his eyes quickly between Steve and Dustin, apparently realizing he’d admitted something he hadn’t meant to. Dustin had a look of pure glee on his face, and Steve had to admit he was probably nearly as happy in that moment. At some point, Eddie must have decided to roll with it instead of being embarrassed, because he leaned in and rested a hand against Steve’s chest, then said in a low tone, “I do hate it. But I believe in you, Stevie.”

Fuck me, Steve thought. Now he had to win that goddamn bear.

It took him three rounds—the first to really get a feel for what kind of force he had to toss the ball with, the second to actually use that knowledge and get into a groove, the third to perfect it—but he did, in fact, win the goddamn bear. Eddie and Dustin were both bouncing up and down and cheering him on.

“How in the hell did you actually manage that?” Eddie asked between cheers, squeezing Steve’s biceps in excitement as he did.

“I thought you believed in me?” Steve asked, playing at being offended. Eddie’s eyes practically sparkled as he opened his mouth to respond, but the kid working the booth interrupted when he flagged Steve down to ask which prize he wanted.

Before he even had a chance to ask and make sure he picked the right one, Eddie leaned into his ear and muttered, “I’d pick that teddy bear, if I were you.”

Dustin overheard it anyway, because he snorted so loud that any astronauts in orbit probably noticed. He didn’t have to say I told you so for Steve to hear it anyway.

Steve pointed out the pink bear, and once it was in his hands he promptly handed it over to Eddie with a bow and a bit of flourish.

“For me?” Eddie put his hand flat over his heart and let his eyes go wide. Steve couldn’t help but smirk.

“Couldn’t have won it without you,” Steve said, and Eddie gingerly accepted the bear from him. It was so big it stretched from the top of Eddie’s head to his knees, so he had to wrap his arms all the way around it to wrangle it in. Steve reached out and felt the soft plush of the bear’s fur between his fingertips, making sure to let his knuckles brush against the back of Eddie’s hand as well. He moved a fraction of a step closer and dropped his voice for only Eddie to hear him say, “It just takes a soft touch, is all.”

Steve was close enough to see the way his words made Eddie shiver, but Eddie managed to keep a straight face throughout.

“I think I’ll name him Lars,” Eddie said, turning back to his bear.

Steve bit down on a triumphant smile.

They took a long enough break for Steve to force Dustin to eat something resembling real food, before Dustin insisted on going to ride the Ferris wheel next. He practically skipped on the walk over while Steve begrudgingly trudged along behind. Strictly speaking, he didn’t exactly find the concept of a Ferris wheel appealing, and he hadn’t braved getting on one since he was about thirteen.

But by the time they’d already been in line for fifteen minutes, Steve couldn’t really bring himself to stay back and wait for Dustin and Eddie to ride it on their own. This night was going too well, and Steve refused to be a party pooper on account of his fear of heights. He decided the best thing he could do was suck it up and try not to look down.

Once they were next in line, he thought he’d talked himself down enough to try and enjoy it. Even though it was four to a car, Eddie and Steve were struggling to fit Lars in while Dustin idled behind them. Once they finally did, Eddie plopped onto a bench and Steve sat beside him. To Steve’s surprise, the operator closed the door behind them without Dustin getting in.

“Wait, where’s Dust—“ Steve started to ask, looking around the platform for Dustin’s Thinking Cap, before it dawned on him exactly what just happened. Again.

Eddie could only manage a bubbling laugh, probably resigned to the fate of dealing with this kind of shit from Dustin for the rest of their lives. Not only was he not getting on the ride with them, he was absolutely nowhere to be seen.

“He better not have gotten kidnapped,” Steve grumbled. “Because I’m just assuming he’s a little shit and doesn’t actually need help.”

“He’d be an awful person to kidnap,” Eddie said around his laughter. “They’d give him back before they even made a ransom demand on account of his meddling in their personal lives.”

Steve snorted, unable to disagree with that. Instead of getting even more worked up than he already was, he tried to settle in for the ride. He leaned back in his seat and stretched his arm across the backrest, casually resting it against Eddie’s shoulders. “Guess it’s just you, me, and Lars.”

To Steve’s complete surprise, Eddie responded by leaning further into his side just as the wheel started to turn.

“He’s very invested in our getting along,” Eddie said quietly.

“Who, Lars?” Steve asked, and Eddie lightly slapped his arm.

“Dustin,” he corrected with a lopsided grin.

Steve held in a scoff, not yet wanting to admit aloud what Dustin was actually trying to do here. Eddie wasn’t stupid, and Steve thought he had to know already—but Steve still wasn’t sure if Eddie was actually open to more than whatever it was they were currently doing.

“Well, to his credit, I think it’s working,” Steve said, unable to keep his hesitance from bleeding into his voice. Last time he’d confidently asserted that he and Eddie were on good terms, he turned out to be very wrong.

“Oh, it definitely is,” Eddie said, staring at his hands in his lap with a small smile. “In fact I think he’s going overboard. We’re already friends. What more does he want?”

Steve’s mouth went dry as he searched for any answer to that question that wouldn’t leave him caught out. He pretended to clear his throat before saying, “I don’t know. Friendship bracelets?”

“Oooh, or we could wear matching outfits,” Eddie suggested.

“Yeah? You wanna go through my collection of khakis?” Steve offered.

“Don’t kill our friendship in its crib, Harrington,” Eddie warned, pointing a finger at Steve’s chest. “Especially not when you’d look much better in my clothes.”

Steve spent a good long pause getting caught up in picturing that in his head, but was abruptly interrupted when the wheel jerked to a stop.

“Uh…” Steve said, braving a look towards the ground. They were nearly at the top of this thing, and the view alone was starting to make his heart hammer in his chest. He knew sometimes Ferris wheels paused for people to ‘hang around,’ so to speak, but he didn’t think it usually came with a screeching grinding noise. “Is that normal?”

“I—“ Eddie looked down as he was cut off by the sound of the guy in the car below them yelling.

“What the fuck!” He practically screeched.

“—don’t think so, no.” Eddie finished. Then he looked back at Steve’s face and frowned. “You okay, Stevie? You’re looking a little green.”

“I, uh, don’t exactly love heights,” Steve admitted. Eddie went paler than usual.

“Then why in the fuck did you get on a Ferris wheel?” he demanded.

“Didn’t want to ruin the fun?” Steve tried, only to be met with a truly unimpressed look from Eddie in return.

“You need to learn to tell people no, my friend,” he chastised, while staring Steve down quite effectively.

“Well I didn’t think the damn thing would get stuck, either!” Steve cried, starting to feel himself panic. Stupidly, he looked out over the edge of the cart again, where he saw the damn child they had operating this thing run off in search of help. Steve dragged his eyes back into the car and stared at his shoes as he felt his breath come in quick, short spurts.

“Okay, okay. I’m not helping.” Eddie realized aloud. He looked around him, apparently scrambling to come up with some kind of idea to help Steve calm down. He seemed to settle on a course of action when he twisted in his seat to face Steve, and gently tugged Steve’s chin between his thumb and forefinger.

“Look at me,” Eddie prompted, then dropped his hand when Steve did. He almost whined at the loss of contact, until Eddie took both of Steve’s hands in his own instead. “Don’t look down, don’t look at the horizon, don’t look at anything but me.”

Desperate never to look down again, Steve followed Eddie’s instructions. He focused on Eddie’s eyes, on the deep brown of them that sometimes seemed tinged with amber these days, and the softness with which they regarded Steve in that moment.

“Good,” Eddie praised. “Now breathe with me. In, two, three, four….out, two, three, four…again.” Steve followed Eddie’s breaths until it seemed like he and Eddie were the only two people that existed, sitting here on top of the world together. He stayed in that presence of mind for as long as he could hold onto it with shaky, desperate fingers. By some miracle, it started to calm him down.

“Where’d you learn to do that?” Steve asked once he felt like he could speak again. He could still feel the buzz of something excited and a little scared in his veins, but he wasn’t entirely sure that was his fear of heights so much as it was just a side effect of Eddie still gently holding onto his hands.

“Wayne,” Eddie answered with a faint smile. Steve’s surprise must have shown on his face, because Eddie elaborated. “I used to get panic attacks, especially after I finally moved out of my parents’ house and in with him.”

Steve didn’t have much time to process that information, because now that Eddie seemed satisfied that Steve wasn’t going to hyperventilate, he turned away and started digging around in one of the many pockets in his leather jacket. Steve had been wondering why Eddie’d even worn the thing at all, but then realized he could probably get away with fashion statements without overheating anymore. After another moment of fidgeting, Eddie huffed out a small ‘aha’ and dug a flask out of one of the pockets. He presented it to Steve like it was a prize. “Drink up, big boy. Looks like we’re gonna have to wait here.”

Steve accepted the flask and took a swig, not caring much about whatever might be in it. It turned out to be vodka.

“Why did you bring a flask if you can’t drink anymore?” Steve asked after taking a gulp. The burn of the vodka at the back of his throat did a lot to make him feel more grounded, despite the fact that he was currently suspended about a hundred feet in the air.

“Thought you might want it,” Eddie shrugged, apparently trying to avoid Steve’s eye.

Steve thought it was very cute that Eddie thought of him at all, but eventually his brain caught up to the part of that explanation that didn’t quite add up.

“I thought you didn’t know that I’d be here?” Steve tilted his head to try and get a better look at Eddie’s face. The most he could make out was a faint, crooked grin.

“Please,” Eddie scoffed then looked back at Steve. “Henderson is very predictable. I just put on that surprised act to guilt trip him for being a little liar instead of just asking, ‘Hey, wanna go to the fair with me and Steve?’ like a normal person.”

Steve felt a little smug at the admission, but he didn’t rub it in. Instead he said, “Thanks. For bringing it, I mean. It’s helping.”

“Yeah, well.” Eddie scratched the back of his neck. “Technically I owed you a drink. Or a transfusion. And don’t try to tell me that I didn’t need to do that, either.”

Steve pressed his lips together and mimed locking them and tossing the key over the side of the car. Eddie rolled his eyes in an affectionate kind of way and rested his chin in his hand. He never took his eyes off Steve, who took one more swig from the flask before capping it and handing it back over. He needed the liquid courage for his next question.

“Have you, uh, been eating well? Since?” Steve winced at himself, but he was dying to ask. He tried to lighten his tone a little, at least, by adding, “Or is cotton candy one of the food groups for vampires?”

“Oh, god,” Eddie groaned, but it seemed mostly good-natured. At least Steve hoped it was. “You’re gonna fuss over my eating habits for the rest of time, aren’t you?”

“Probably, yeah.” Steve shrugged and smiled. Eddie cast him a sideways glance and then ran his hands through his hair, fluffing it up in the process. He kept staring forward though, and Steve couldn’t help but miss the eye contact.

“I mean, cotton candy is enough of a nothing food that it won’t make me throw up later,” he said, as if that part of Steve’s question had been serious at all. “But it doesn’t give me much of a sugar high anymore, which is sort of the whole goddamn point.”

“Eddie—“ Steve started, but Eddie cut him off.

“Fine, yes,” Eddie huffed. “I’ve been eating.”

“Good.” Steve nodded, bit his lip, then decided to throw caution to the wind and say what was on his mind anyway. “Because I can—“

“Let’s just call that a one time thing, yeah?” Eddie cut him off again before Steve could even offer to do it again. Was it weird that he wanted to? Eddie seemed to think so, otherwise he wouldn’t have been quite so short about it.

“Oh,” Steve pushed out, his voice sounding pathetic to his own ears. He was sure his face had drooped into something pitiful looking as well. “Okay. If that’s what you want.”

Steve went back to staring at his shoes, but he could feel Eddie’s eyes boring holes into the side of his head. He couldn’t bring himself to look back up, though—at least not until Eddie gently nudged his knee against Steve’s.

“Did you…” Eddie started to ask something, then bit his lip and stopped. Steve returned the knee-nudge to try and encourage him. “Was that something you wanted to do? Again?”

“I mean,” Steve’s voice creaked, and he had to clear his throat again. “Yeah. If you wanted to.”

“No seriously, Steve,” Eddie said. “I’m not asking what I want. This won’t be another ‘sure I’ll ride the Ferris wheel even though I’m terrified’ situation. Do you want to?”

“Yes,” Steve breathed out, not bothering to lie. Robin was really the only other person who ever asked Steve what he wanted most of the time, and hearing it come from Eddie too opened the floodgates. “Is that weird? Because if it is—if it’s too fucked up for you—I understand. Like absolutely no offense would be taken—”

Eddie put a hand on Steve’s arm to get him to stop rambling. Steve chewed the inside of his cheek to keep himself from starting up again, while Eddie took a beat to choose his next words.

“It’s not too fucked up, Stevie. It’s just the right amount of fucked up, actually.”

His shy grin made Steve feel like he could fly, but still being trapped up here, the thought kind of made him nauseous. Or maybe those were just the butterflies that were kicking up in his stomach. Either way, he couldn’t stop the dopey grin that spread across his face, like agreeing to let someone drink your blood was the height of commitment.

It was pretty damn intimate, though, Steve had to admit.

“Okay then,” Steve nodded, unable to tear his eyes away from Eddie’s.

“Okay then,” Eddie repeated. They were still incredibly close, even by the standards of the enclosed space they were stuck in. Steve felt the heat of each place their bodies made contact—where Eddie’s hand still rested on Steve’s forearm, where their thighs were pressed together on the narrow bench. Steve watched as the breeze picked up a stray curl and made it dance across the sliver of Eddie’s collarbone that peeked out beneath his shirt. Steve wanted to tuck it behind Eddie’s ear and leave his hand to rest right on Eddie’s neck.

Steve thought this would have been the perfect set up, on Dustin’s part—to the point were Steve wondered if Dustin had actually managed to sabotage the ride himself, somehow. All except for the one detail that threatened to ruin it. They were in public. There was literally nothing Steve could do about the way Eddie was looking at him now, not with so many prying, small-town, small-minded eyes around to catch them out.

Steve didn’t know if he was more grateful or infuriated that the ride lurched forward in that moment, then began its descent back towards solid ground.

By the time Steve managed to drag himself out of the car, his knees felt wobbly. He felt Eddie come up behind him and gently put his hands on Steve’s waist to help stabilize him.

“You alright there, soldier?” Eddie murmured in his ear. Steve gave a stiff nod, curling his toes in his sneakers to try and bring some sense of stability back into his body.

“I’m good,” Steve assured him. “Don’t forget Lars.”

“As if I ever could,” Eddie huffed out a laugh. Steve felt it against the curve of his neck and had to suppress a shiver. Just as quickly as it had come, Eddie’s presence at his back vanished. He reappeared by Steve’s side a moment later, Lars in hand, and said, “Now. Shall we go find us a Henderson to kill?”

Dustin was full of excuses once they’d found him. He’d said, “I didn’t do it on purpose!” and “I saw a friend I had to say hello to!” so many times that none of the words sounded like English anymore. Eddie and Steve only exchanged a series of exasperated looks over the top of his capped head before giving him more shit for being an incorrigible liar.

They spent another couple of hours on rides that Steve actually liked, or just wandering around, or listening to Dustin’s lame excuses for ditching them. It was absolutely an improvement over Steve's minor meltdown, but really it was all about Eddie wanting to be sure that Steve was okay to drive home on his own as well. Steve never really felt the effect of the couple of swigs from Eddie’s flask he’d taken at all, beyond the way it helped him feel a little less like he was about to die at the top of a Ferris wheel.

All the same, it felt strangely nice for Eddie to fuss over him and buy him a funnel cake to be sure.

Eddie offered to take Dustin home since Steve brought him, but Steve only agreed to it once he’d made Eddie promise not to throw the little interloper in the quarry. Then they’d hugged goodbye in a lingering sort of way that made Steve want to scream.

Instead he settled for rolling the windows down and letting the sticky July air come whooshing into the beemer in a rush, blaring I Want to Know What Love Is and singing it at the top of his lungs as he drove home alone.

Steve called Robin the second he got home. She didn’t answer until the sixth ring. “Hi, Steve.”

“How did you know it was me?” he asked, once again wondering how she always was able to guess.

“Only my favorite platonic soulmate would let it ring that long on a Friday night and still expect an answer,” Robin said. Steve could hear the shrug in her voice.

“Well obviously I was right,” Steve pointed out as he twisted the phone cord between his fingers. “Are you busy?”

“Nope,” Robin sighed. “My favorite platonic soulmate ditched me to hang out with a fifteen year old tonight, if I remember correctly.”

“You said you had plans with Nance!” Steve yelped indignantly.

“Jesus, calm down. I did, dingus,” she said with a scratchy laugh. “I’m just fucking with you. What’s got you all squeaky?”

“Guess who also just happened to be there, also hanging out with the fifteen year old?” Steve offered.

“Gee, could it have been Eddie?” Robin asked, full of mock surprise.

“It was, indeed,” Steve confirmed, then launched into a rather whiny recap of the events of his evening. When he got to the part about his and Eddie’s little blood pact, though, he hesitated. “I should probably also tell you about something that happened when we were trapped in the closet at your graduation party.”

“Okay…” Robin said, clearly wary. “I thought you already told me all of that?”

“I kind of left out a key part of the story,” Steve hedged.

“Like?”

“I may have let Eddie…suck my blood. Just a little.” Steve knew enough to pull the phone away from his ear a bit as soon as he stopped talking.

“You WHAT?!” Robin screeched, and Steve knew he’d made the right decision.

“He hadn’t eaten in two weeks, Robin—“

“Get your ass over here right now, Harrington,” Robin cut him off with her sternest tone. “I need details.”

The line went dead before he even had a chance to consider if he wanted to agree or argue with her. Steve sighed and grabbed his keys.

———

Naturally, Robin had about a million questions. By the time Steve thought she’d exhausted them all, it was nearly midnight, and he was sprawled out across her bed feeling completely sorry for himself.

“What am I going to do, Robbie?” he whined. “Eddie is not an idiot. He has to know what Dustin is doing, because he is not subtle.”

“Neither are you, apparently,” Robin deadpanned, and mimed biting her own wrist. Steve pulled a pillow over his face and let out a muffled howl.

“I know,” he agreed once he was done. “I’m a disaster.”

“Well, to be fair, you weren’t subtle before the blood sucking either,” Robin pointed out. Steve hated that she was right about that, too.

“Yeah, well,” Steve stammered his way into an excuse. “That was when I thought he was just fucking with me or playing around. Now he’s got to know I was serious about all of it.”

This time it was Robin’s turn to scream into a pillow. When she emerged, hair mussed and face a little red, she said, “You big baby.”

“Robin,” Steve whined again. “I’m in crisis.”

“Oh my god. Look,” she shifted her posture to sit up straighter, like she was about to level with him, so Steve made sure to pay attention. “If he realizes you’re serious, that’s a good thing. Because then maybe you’ll both stop being assholes and tell each other how you feel instead of whining to your friends about it—“

Robin abruptly cut herself off, and her eyes widened like she’d just let something slip.

“Rob…” Steve drew out her name in a way that he hoped would make her confess. Her cheeks were turning increasingly more pink, and she refused to look at him.

“What?” she asked, then bit her lip.

“What do you know?” Steve asked, sitting up for the first time in probably an hour or more. He hugged the pillow he was still holding to his chest and stared her down.

“Nothing,” Robin squeaked.

“Robin.” Steve said, and put on his best begging face—the one he knew she could rarely resist.

“Ugh, please don’t look at me like that,” Robin tried to look away from him, but he just kept shifting back into her line of sight.

“I’m going to cry if you don’t tell me what you know,” he threatened.

“Fine!” Robin growled. “Nancy may have told me that she has a similar problem with Eddie whining to her about you. It was very cathartic to talk to someone who understands what idiots you two are, honestly.”

Steve gave himself a good minute to process what Robin had just said, because he was pretty sure his brain was audibly making a whirring sound.

“…Whining about me how, exactly?” Steve said, when finally managed to ask a follow-up question.

“The same way you whine about him! About how he’s totally into you, but keeps worrying that you’re gonna realize that and hate him!” Robin exploded this time. Probably a little too late, Steve wondered if her parents were home. “Because of the fucking popsicle, of all the damn things!”

“The popsicle?” Steve asked in a tiny, dumbstruck, yet hopeful voice. “Why?”

“Because for most of the day you were flirting your ass off, but after that you avoided him all night,” Robin explained. “And now you’ve been dancing around each other without admitting you want him for weeks.”

“I only avoided him after that because I was so…” Steve paused to look for the right word, “affected by it.”

“That’s what I told Nancy. And that’s what Nancy told Eddie. But I’m pretty sure he’s gonna have to hear it from you, dingus.”

Steve thought about that for what was probably too long to be considered a natural pause in the conversation, but Robin humored him and waited patiently while he digested all of it. It made sense, since Eddie pulled away after the pool party, and then seemed to be under the impression that Steve was afraid of him again until the closet incident.

Goddamnit, Steve was such an idiot sometimes.

“It felt like if we weren’t surrounded by people earlier—“ Steve trailed off, feeling his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth as he tried to push the words out. Robin poked him in the side and urged him on. “I don’t know. It felt like we might’ve kissed, if we were alone. Or if we were a boring straight couple.”

“See?” Robin immediately shifted from exasperated to bouncing with some kind of optimistic glee. “He’s into you. Clearly. He literally wants to eat you. Just do something about it.”

“Just do something about it,” Steve repeated it like a mantra.

“Yes,” Robin agreed. “But do something about it tomorrow. Because we have to work the morning shift and we should go to bed. I washed your PJs from the last time you stayed over.”

“Aren’t your parents here?” Steve asked, though he already knew the answer.

“Oh sure,” Robin scoffed and rolled her eyes. “I regularly scream about my friend the vampire and his sad little bisexual boyfriend for my parents to hear. Of course they’re not here, Steve. They’re out of town.”

“Alright, alright,” Steve held his hands up in retreat. “Just checking.”

Long after Robin had fallen asleep beside him, Steve laid awake with images of amber brown eyes and Ferris wheels turning in his head. When he finally drifted off, it was with a newfound sense of hope.

I know I probably don’t have to point out that it’s unwise to do a shot of vodka, have a panic attack, and then drive, even if you do have a vampire to buy you a funnel cake and make you walk it off. But I’m pointing that out anyway. Anyway, next update is gonna be a double chapter. Take from that what you will!

#steddie #stranger things #fanfic #steve harrington #eddie munson #dani's drafts #steve's got a date

42 notes · View notes

autumnalwalker · 1 year

Text

Find The Word tag

Thank you for the tag, @writernopal.

My words were: melancholy, opaque, repeat, mixture, & spell

Passing the tag to @cljordan-imperium, @ceph-the-ghost-writer, @writingpotato07, @talesofsorrowandofruin, @talesofsorrowandofruin, @blind-the-winds, and an open tag for anyone else who wants in.

Your words shall be line, depths, internal, egg, & never

Melancholy: The Archivist's Journal, Day 223

It’ll be so nice to get to that spring. Possible healing magic aside, it’ll be a relief to wash off days of being sticky with salt water and sand. That said, I’m amazed that none of us are really any worse off than that. Four days now of being out on the open water with no shade and exposed to the breeze and splash of seawater, and I’d be expecting sunburns and chapped lips and cracked knuckles, but none of that so far. Closest to that is, upon examining myself, my arms and legs seem maybe a little darker, but then again, that’s not saying much given that I normally get less sun than anyone else in the Village, possibly this whole world.

The palms of Lin’s hands are looking rough though, threatening to blister if they haven’t already. She seemed to be trying to hide that though, and when I asked her about it earlier she shrugged it off saying that we’re going to a healing spring so nothing to worry myself over. And then she added that she does expect me to do more of the rowing on the way back. She laughed when she said that last part but I think it was less of a joke than she was trying to make it seem. I hope she’s not forcing on a happy face just for my sake.

Okay, enough of that melancholy line of thought. Going to go stretch my legs and walk this beach a bit. Maybe catch up with Cass. Haven’t talked to her much since this trip started.

Opaque Murky: The Archivist's Journal, Day 72

Our island has docked with and left that primeval forest.

It was after dark when we arrived, but we had unclouded stars and lantern light to go by. There had been a fair bit of discussion while we waited on whether or not to set foot on that approaching solid ground. We decided that as long as we didn’t get out of sight of the docking point we’d probably be safe to walk around for at least a few minutes. Assuming it was anything like the docking at the main island.

The docking point was another protruding cliff, much like Siren Overlook. Similar enough to make me wonder if both of them were artificial. This one however was overgrown with creeping vines and broadleaf ferns. (They looked like ferns to me anyway.) There was another matching arch here as well, but it had collapsed and shattered, now easy to miss except as raised blocky patches of greenery.

This rampant growth stopped as it met the treeline at the landward end of the cliff. Gazing into that forest was more like peering into the mouth of a cave. Little grew from the ground other than the great trees. Each of them was nearly big enough around at the base to fit my cabin inside, and it easily could have fit in the spaces between them with room to spare. I wouldn’t have expected such tall trees to be able to stand with expansive branches, yet up at the edge of our lantern light we could make out the bottom of the canopy and the branches of the trees tangled together with their neighbors in a dense web. A web that helps them hold one another aloft perhaps? But certainly a web that catches the sun. It would not surprise me if the forest floor is as dark at noon as it was while we were there.

As much as Cass wanted to, we did not walk beneath those branches this night.

While that choice was mostly a matter of not wanting to get stranded if the floating island left unexpectedly, part of it was the noises. Even at that hour we could hear a constant distant din of animal cries. Most came from the canopy far above, but at least one came from the murky depths and whatever it was sounded large.

And as a quiet compliment to that wild melody was another siren’s song. Quieter here than the one we were used to, even accounting for how that one dimmed in the presence of the floating island. But while the song back home was soothing, this one was energizing. Not a lullaby but a chant. Pounding, pulsating. A rhythm to run to. A song to hunt by.

All too soon the floating island started to shift and take off again. Lin and (surprisingly) Cass had already re-boarded again by that time. I was close behind. I wound up briefly stopping to turn and call to Maiko. For a moment, I thought she was going to stand behind. In the next moment I saw what she had stopped to stare at. Half-concealed by the shadows at the edge of the forest stood the Wandering God. Or else another being of the same essence.

That moment too passed and we ran back to the floating island, Maiko grabbing my wrist as she passed me and practically dragging me behind for all I tried to keep up. Needless to say, we made it. It wasn’t even that far of a jump, even if it felt like it in the moment.

Panting, we asked Lin and Cass if they’d seen anything beneath the trees. They did not.

We’re back at the camp in front of the mansion now. Lin and Cass are in their tents already and the chickens have already congregated where Maiko’s lying in the grass. She’s still refusing a tent.

I’ll be turning in soon myself. I can’t help but wonder if I’ll get the chance to explore that place for real someday. To hear that song for longer.

Then again, Pat said the Endless Abyss appears in dark places, and I’ve seen nowhere darker than that primeval forest.

Repeat: Empty Names - 11 - Afterparty

A series of rapid beeps emits from his breast pocket. What to do about that morsel is a decision that will have to be tabled for another time. It was hard to tell with how they blended together, but at a rough guess Sullivan would say about twenty. Roughly twenty people have just crossed the bounds of the perception ward around Lachlan’s lighthouse. More than he’d anticipated - even before he gave up on anyone showing - but not, he thinks, more than he can handle.

This morning it had taken the carriage roughly forty minutes to make the trip from the front door of the Manor to the base of the cliff below the lighthouse.

Alone, Sullivan figures he can make it in five.

He stands and his skin ripples and writhes from that which is beneath it.

Space warps and compresses to a single point in his vision.

He takes a step and is out in the hallway.

Another step and he’s at the far end.

A turn, a step, another hallway.

Cross rooms and repeat.

The internal labyrinth of Bridgewood Manor is not conducive to this mode of travel.

He doesn’t bother waking his friend or Ashan.

Outnumbered as he expects to be, he may do some things they wouldn’t approve of.

He’s faster alone anyway.

And he hates to disturb his friend’s rare sound sleep.

One minute.

He steps out the door into the night air.

One step to the edge of the forest.

Three steps to the correct tree.

He lets himself settle for a moment so as not to confuse the security.

A brief transit north through the dark of the bridge.

Still faster for the master of the house alone than it would be with others.

Rise from the weathered wooden floorboards to stand in an arctic wind.

No longer a storm but still enough to rattle the remains of the old collapsed cabin.

Two minutes.

The twisting beneath his skin resumes.

One step down to the shore.

Practically a leisurely stroll down the winding coast.

Faster than the wind whose bite is but a tickling nibble to him.

Three minutes.

The boom echoes across the water and off the cliffs from kilometers away.

The pillar of fire erupts high enough to pierce the perception ward.

The lighthouse’s last light.

He picks up his pace.

Four minutes.

The receiver in his breast pocket beeps twenty three times.

The beeps are more spread out this time.

He swears and rounds the bend in the coast.

The dragon and the bone ship are long gone.

A single, strained step takes him across the bay and to the top of the cliff.

The receiver beeps once with his passage.

He stands at the base of the lighthouse.

It looks like the door’s been kicked in and then lit on fire.

Five minutes.

Mixture: The Archivist's Journal, Day 130

In overall form, it was much as I’d pictured; a black-painted rectangle about as long as I was tall, and half as high with a tray jutting out and running along the bottom. Melaina handed me a chunk of chalk (or something close enough to it) and urged me to try it out. I had to press harder and with more resistance than I expected but I was able to write a quick “Hello, World” on its surface handily enough. Cass looked unimpressed, but I passed her the chalk and started waxing poetic about the usefulness of being able to write examples large enough that all the students could see and follow along with at once instead of relying on my own paltry verbal explanations. Before I got too far into that, Melaina handed me a damp cloth that I’d been too distracted to notice her retrieve and I took that as my cue to try clearing the board. Again, it took more effort than I expected, closer to scrubbing than the wiping my otherworld memories told me was the ideal, and there were certainly ghostly traces left behind if you looked for them, but it would get the job done more than well enough. Just might need a new coat of paint every now and then (some sort of mixture of eggs and charcoal I think Melaina mentioned). Still easier than working with the wax tablets.

Cass and I thanked Melaina - myself more excitedly than I ever expected to be regarding a blackboard - and she told us she’d get some help and bring it by the library the next time the rain let up.

I wonder if the children will be half as excited as I am about this?

Spell: The Archivist's Journal, Day 72

My curiosity got the better of me and I asked about that pouch she had hanging from a strap over her shoulder. Pointed out that I hadn’t seen it before she showed up asking to go on this trip.

The humming noise of one considering how to answer a question about something personal.

She said she normally keeps it at whatever camp she has set up so she doesn’t accidentally lose it or its contents while out and about. That she only takes it with her when expecting to set up somewhere else for a long time.

An acknowledgment of an answer from me followed by a mutual silence.

She asked me if I wanted to see the contents.

Only if she wanted me to.

Moving further away from the edge first, she unslung the pouch from her shoulder and carefully removed the contents one by one, placing them on the ground between us. A stone knife. Another stone for sharpening it. The cracked crystal I’d given her. A small wooden figurine of an animal I didn’t recognize.

I asked about this last one.

She said a word that didn’t “translate” and I have no idea how to spell. She’d never seen one herself but her mother had told her about them. Fierce, smart, loyal, protective. Good companions.

I said it sounded like a dog.

Maiko had never heard of dogs.

It occurred to me that I’d not seen any dogs in the Village, nor heard mention of them in my time here. I think I’m getting used to this sort of revelation. My existential freak out was considerably shorter this time.

We returned to the edge and went back to watching for islands while I tried to explain dogs.

#tag game #find the word tag #manuscript search tag #writeblr #my writing #The Archivist's Journal #Empty Names

8 notes · View notes

dxncingwithastrxnger · 2 years

Note

hc (because the two days later is my villain origin story) ♥︎

— after el woke up after the fight against vecna she fell into mike's arms and when she calmed down a bit, mike carried her to the van with a piggyback ride. he didn't care if he got wet or not. mike kept el warm with a woolen blanket that argyle found in the surfer boy's office.

— they stayed at the nearest motel and while everyone was asleep, el and mike had been talking. not much like mike said to will, but definitely it was also about their feelings towards each other. they fell into bed together in each other's arms. mike kissed el several times on the head and forehead and she was the one who fell asleep first. she was totally exhausted. (and mike promises himself that they will never be separated again.)

— and on the second night, mike and el definitely lay in each other's arms on the back seat of the sufer boy van. for breakfast they shared a pack of eggos that they got with their last money at a gas station.

Bro, yes, these are absolutely amazing 🥺🥺🥺 And yes, I agree, that 2 days later haunts me, dude. There's so much potential within all that and they gave us none of it. Like what was that for, that's not fair at all 😩😩😩

Yes, El definitely needed to be held by Mike for a long while after she came out of the fight with Vecna. The poor baby probably sobbed and cried for like a whole hour after all that 😔 And Mike didn't even care, he didn't mind it at all. She woke up, gasping, immediately using the hand that was holding hers to pull herself to Mike before she just wrapped her arms around him and broke down as he pulled her close and held her. He half carries, half guides her back out to the sitting area of the restaurant and sits back down in one of the booths, El halfway in his lap as she clings to him and cries, the other 3 kinda just watching from afar, trying to give El some space to just let it all out. None of them no what really happened, obviously, but they know they can't ask her in the state she's currently in. And Mike is just holding her and trying his best to reassure her without knowing what happened, saying things like, "I'm here, I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere. Whatever happened, we'll get through it. We'll figure it out together. Just let it all out, I'll be right here the whole time." Until she eventually calms down for now and manages to tell them how the fight went and that they need to get back to Hawkins soon and she definitely clings tight to Mike throughout that entire 2 days, but especially for the rest of that night.

They have a very much needed conversation that night while everyone else is asleep about things and they both may or may not end up crying a little bit during/after the conversation because they just love each other so much and so much is going on for them right now, the poor babies ☹ And Mike definitely clung to El, too, it wasn't just her. When she started choking while she was in Vecna's lair, he was absolutely fucking terrified, no doubt about it. And he definitely had a long conversation with himself in his head that night about everything after El fell asleep, just holding her and thinking about everything. Boy makes a whole ass vow to himself that they will never be separated ever again. It's happened way too many times by now and he will literally attach himself to her in order to make sure it never happens again. His poor little heart can't take anymore of that worry and anxiety and sadness from it. He just wants to be with El and be able to love her and be loved by her forever and ever, that's all he asks 🥺🥺🥺

And yes 😩😩😩 They would've been cuddled up together almost that entire van ride to Hawkins and they would of been all cute and shit, ughhhhh. And yes, El would get so excited when they found the eggos, too. She would be extra happy about it because it's such a small thing but holy fuck, it's been a long week and they have fucking eggos hell yes thank you universe and they immediately grab them and buy them without looking at anything else and then they just munch on them in the van, cuddling and talking quietly and being all cute and shit and ughhhhh, I need it so bad, it's so not fair 😭😭😭

But anyways, thank you so much for sharing your headcanons with me!!!!! I love them so much!!!!! I appreciate it greatly!!!!! I hope you're having an amazing day/night!!!!! 💜💜💜

#purple_strxnger #purplestrxngerasks #mileven #stranger things #mike wheeler #el hopper #eleven #mileven headcanons #mileven hc #el jane hopper

28 notes · View notes

ninolookgood · 2 years

Text

I wanna talk about mike and el and how they just don’t make sense

Season 1 mike and el focused on finding will she didn’t really understand anything

Season 2 el and mike didn’t see each other most of the season I think end of the season they end up kissing making it official or whatever

Season 3 we see them kissing Dustin said they’ve been doing that all summer just kissing in el room not really spending time together even hoppers annoyed

Season 4 she moves away it’s known they’ve talked and sent letters to each other a lot but it’s not really communication in the letters when els been lying to mike in her letters

Now next I’m gonna talk about what a unhealthy relationship is

1 is control mike try’s to control el tell her what she can and can’t do but you know els outspoken so she’s not going to listen mike even tried to get el from around max because he felt she was brain washing her and even admitted to being jealous his explanation didn’t really make sense

2 I don’t think their relationship has hostility because mike is pretty out spoken but he do believe that she’s superior to him and believe that she’s like a god or something

3 I’m not going to say el makes fun of the things mike is interested in but she does make him feel like he shouldn’t embrace the things he like an example is when he was playing with toys and stuff and she just walked away somebody did that to me I would’ve cried I would’ve been embarrassed understandable why he never showed her again

4 I feel like the relationship do have dependence but I’m pretty sure if max would’ve never stepped in to help el be dependent el would’ve probably been very angry if they ever broke up I think

Those are all unhealthy traits now we’re going to see if they have any healthy traits

1 there’s no mural respect mike don’t value el he don’t show it and el didn’t respect mikes boundaries even though it was encouraged by max she could’ve made her own decision and she choose to do it

2 Naw he ain’t trust her when she said will was still alive after he saw the dead body he just yelled at her was very rude I mean that’s typical cause you saw a body but I mean we’re past typical when there’s a supper-powered girl on the loose and bad men are out to get her I think besides there’s trust he believed her over will when will was trying to say that el was lying about having friends but I’m pretty sure he ain’t really believe that

3 don’t have good communication because if they did el would’ve felt comfortable opening up about being bullied and not really having any friends and her feeling like he don’t really love her mike would’ve told el the reason he couldn’t say I love her (his family issues as people like to say)

4 don’t fight fair mike couldn’t stay on topic about how he never said I love you to her he had to bring mouth breathers into the conversation

5 can’t even solve their problems in season 3 never really talked about why they broke up or anything el just kissed him and said I love you before that mike wanted el to play the guessing game

6 try to understand mike doesn’t even try but he does it when it comes to will all he does is make it seem like it’s els fault

7 do el have confidence good question season 4 naw she’s not even confident that her man love her (not bashing her) (I mean I would be too)

8 sexual yea they be having a lot of kissing going on mike doesn’t really look at her in a im thirsty way but else does

Conclusion their relationship isn’t healthy and mike is the problem in the relationship because he can’t accept the fact that he’s gay and is in-love with his best friend

#byler tumblr

7 notes · View notes

xtinyslip · 1 year

Text

@lcvenderhcze continued from here.

“we both know you don’t have the balls too.” him fuck her? as if he would, maybe that was why it was so easy to say it. "woah. who said anything about caring deeply?" lynn had to laugh at that. sure, she was in a better place than she had been and she cared about her job and she was starting to care about herself again but anything else? nope, same numbness that had been there before. did she care about john? was he right? well, she didn’t want to even think about fucking going there. oh, it didn’t take much to guess at what these important things were that he was referring to. it was like they were both just stuck in the same old cycles. “so to be clear that was a no? you can’t have an honest conversation with me? go figures. after everything, can’t even give me that much. huh?” she rolled her eyes but she hadn’t been expecting anything different from him either. hearing him speak of her daughter that way did strike a nerve, not many people could get through her layers to be able to do that. only him, it seemed. “and what about you daddy of the year? your kid wants to go back to his adoptive mommy who doesn’t even want him than spend more time with you!” she had struck back because his words had cut her and she wanted to cut back. it wasn’t healthy but other than her job, it was probably the most she felt alive. it was doing the opposite of make her a better person but at least it made her feel alive. “you never were a very good liar.” tilting her head. “you wanted her to let me go. i was there, i heard all your bullshit. she failed her test because of course so she failed me, she failed you. she failed all of us so i will go there. i have a right to go there.” and he could hate her for it, hell he could do whatever he wanted to her for it but that’s the truth as she saw it. her smile only got wider when he pulled back like that. “excuse me?” was he joking? “tool or not. it was still me that gave you that time. when i was trying to save your life, she sat and cried on the sidelines. it was me.” if this had been any other patient, any other scenario then she wouldn’t be mocking that because... no one should have to see someone they care about have open brain surgery like that. however, since they’d been the ones to kidnap her and threaten her life? well, it felt like fair game. “we did have an understanding, some fucked up connection but if you want to keep denying it then by all means. let’s see where it gets you.” not far.

#lynn ; convo #lynn ; john #tw: mental health #tw: murder mention #tw: death mention #tw: kidnap mention #tw: injury mention #tw: surgery mention #this though? like #kdjfjgdkhgkjdgdfh

3 notes · View notes

rebouks · 6 months

Text

Brynn hadn’t anticipated Gael taking the news of her departure too well, but she hadn’t expected him to get quite so irate. He’d acted like a child throwing a tantrum. He’d snatched her necklace and screamed at her to leave, only to tug her back and beg her to stay, berated her, cried, stolen her phone, threw things-.. it was ridiculous, really.

She’d interrupted him eventually, held his hands and looked him in the eye like a mother to a child and told him to take this as an opportunity to reveal his truth; not that she thought he would, but that wasn’t her problem. She’d left him sat on the floor, snot strewn face watching her leave like a sad little puppy. Maybe he thought she’d come back, but she wouldn’t.

He’d probably tell his friends something innocuous to save face, something like “oh we wanted different things from life” or “we just drifted apart”. Whatever he said, it wouldn’t be true…

As soon as the door closed behind her, Brynn breathed a sigh of relief. It was a shame she hadn’t hidden her phone in her panties – like her passport – but hindsight was a beautiful thing, wasn’t it? Besides, she didn’t really need it. It felt exhilarating to be completely untethered from Gael, despite her lack of planning-.. even the clothes she wore were her own. Old and tatty they may be, but they were hers.

Unsure of where her steps might’ve been taking her, Brynn hilariously found herself outside a strip club not half an hour from Gael’s apartment, one she’d never even noticed before. Looking through the window surreptitiously from across the street, she’d felt the familiar sirens song of temptation calling to her. It’d be so easy.

She knew what she was doing, she could walk through those doors and earn enough money to see her through the week in one night-.. probably; but that’d be silly. She didn’t want to return to that lifestyle - not that there was anything wrong with it - but Brynn knew first hand just how dangerous those places could be.

It shouldn’t be that way, and not every club was the same, but the risk wasn’t worth it. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice-.. well three times, shame on her.

Brynn frowned, wondering how she’d been so gullible in the past. Would it happen again? Did she have a sticker on her forehead that said “take advantage of me”? She stared stupidly at her own reflection, almost expecting to find one plastered there, poised to rip it off when a women tapped on the glass, startling her.

She’d ignored the woman’s beckoning gesture and scurried off instead, sprinting into the night like a fox, hounded by past mistakes.

Trying to declare herself homeless at the local council office had been a waste of time. She had her passport, but apparently that wasn’t enough, nor did she have a phone for them to call her back on. Unfortunately, they’d also requested a lot paperwork that Brynn simply didn’t possess.

A birth certificate, a national insurance number, an alternative postal address? Nope, nope, nope. She’d lied, saying she’d gather some things and come back later, knowing full well she wouldn’t.

After a week of dozing during the day and wandering at night, Brynn didn’t feel great. She was dirty, exhausted, and her feet hurt something rotten. On the eighth morning, she dragged herself to a nearby bench, alternating between hot and cold for a good few hours before nauseously draping herself over a trash can; a good chunk of dignity lost along with the contents of her stomach as she gave in and threw up. Perhaps supermarket trashcan “meals” weren’t as edible as she’d thought.

Passers-by hurried along in disgust, no doubt assuming she was a drug addict or an alcoholic, deserved of her suffering.

Miserably sliding back onto her bench, Brynn was surprised to find a smiling woman waiting for her. She’d shook her head disbelievingly when met with a classic “I’m fine” hand wave and slipped a fair amount of cash into her lap instead, telling her to find a hot meal and a sweater before taking off again. Brynn was so taken aback; she hadn’t even had chance to express her gratitude.

Feeling better after some buttered bread and a hearty bowl of soup, Brynn had a quick wash in the café’s restroom and took the strangers advice, heading to a nearby thrift store to find herself something slightly warmer to wear.

She’d found something pretty quickly but tactfully struck up a conversation with the bubbly assistant instead of leaving, the warmth of the shop was too good to give up so soon. They’d gotten along so well, she decided to be bold and ask if they were hiring; a dry “I wish” was the response, but the owner couldn’t afford any more staff at the moment.

A laundromat nearby needed an extra pair of hands though, which sounded promising-.. Brynn hadn’t had much luck job hunting up until now. She offered a nod of thanks and headed out, hoping for the best.

Previous // Next

#ts4 #sims 4 #simblr #ts4 story #sims story #forever in between #fib #brynn franz #gael gilbert #seeeeee she's fine!!#mostly!#she's cold homeless and a lil sick but at least she's doing stuff by herself!#honestly she's being a bit idiotic setting out without -anything-#not even a plan!#but hey.. that's brynn #¯\(°_o)/¯#this is pt 1 of 2 btw cos BOI WAS IT LONG AF

117 notes · View notes

beanswrites · 2 years

Text

"A Second Chance I Didn't Want" Asra x MC, from "The Arcana"

You know how I usually say that whatever I'm posting here is a cute fluffy one-shot? Yeah, this is not it. This is probably the angstiest, sourest, saddest one-shot I've written in a LONG time. But hey, this anon right here did request for it to be angsty as heck! (And I took that personally)

My readers, after reading this one-shot: Have you ever considered... Therapy?

I'm warning you now, this is really triggering and might not be for some people. I cried while writing, if it matters. Yet, you can always check out my masterlist for loads of fluff!

Requests are open! Check out my rules for requesting (pinned post) before placing your request, or pick something from my prompts list!

Also available on AO3!!!

masterlist | rules for requesting | prompts list

Word count: 1300 words

Trope: Angst, Angst with an unhappy ending

Pairing: Asra Alnazar x gn! MC

AU: none

Warnings: depression, suicidal thoughts, suicide

Picture from Pinterest!

Another day passed, feeling like it lasted years. Sure, the saying was true: "Time flies when you are having fun" But each saying has its other side. Time also feels never-ending when you are miserable.

To be fair, MC wasn't miserable, yet they weren't happy either. The apprentice was very familiar with this feeling, the feeling of numbness. Lately, it's all they've been feeling. Nothing fazed and nothing bothered, nothing managed to bring a single tear or even a laugh. Oh, but how they tried.

Portia made MC's favorite dish every day. Every time she would see them, she'd always bring them a hot plate of the delicious food they liked so much in hopes of getting them to smile, even once. Just to get them to eat one little bite.

Nadia was the one who'd always invite them over for tea, or even for a quick stroll around Vesuvia. They did reply and went a couple of times, trying not to hurt the countess' feelings. But, lately, the pile of Nadia's lavender-scented invites was only getting bigger and bigger, as it was left untouched. For several weeks.

Julian took them out to the Rowdy Raven a couple of times, buying them beer and requesting their favorite songs to play. They used to love hanging out with everyone in the pub! Memories of the time MC was snorting with laughter would always overflow Ilya's mind whenever he returned to their favorite tavern. It was clear that those times were long gone.

And Asra.. Poor Asra! He's probably gone through most for MC. The way they were suffering was unbearable for him. The magician loved his apprentice with everything he had, and he wanted to make sure that the other half of his heart beating in their chest will never have to suffer an ounce of pain again. He noticed right away that something was off. That with each day, MC was getting greyer, losing that warm, happy aura they used to have.

He went through so many sleepless nights worrying that it was him. That he had done something wrong. Maybe he wasn't good enough of a partner? Good enough of a master for MC?

Soon, he realized it was far more complicated than that. It wasn't a particular person or a thing that did this to them. It wasn't even their fault! They tried their hardest every day, and Asra appreciated that. He was always there for them, talking, kissing, and cuddling the pain away. But it was never enough.

MC first changed once their memories were retrieved. Everybody knew they weren't doing fine even before that, but the change in their behavior was a lot more visible after that. They became quieter, more distant. It was obvious that something about their past haunted them.

Now, MC was sweeping the floor of their oh-so-quiet shop. They knew that Asra will be home soon. After he noticed they were hanging by a thread, he didn't dare to leave them alone for more than a day. Of course, that meant that his regular trips were cancelled since he had to get home to his MC.

All kinds of thoughts were pooling up in MC's mind. That's what being alone did to them - not having anybody to talk to, not having any quick repairs to cope. The scariest place in the world is your own mind. And their mind? Their mind was full of all sorts of dark places.

They didn't want this. MC didn't ask for this! The first chance, the first shot at this crazy little thing called life was enough, and they didn't need more. They fucked up that first chance, didn't they? For as long as they could remember, the never-ending sadness was there, swirling deep in their chest.

Some people understood. Their friends, their closest ones, completely understood the ache and the tears, and never judged the poor apprentice. But some people didn't understand. The people who'd say: "You have no right to be unhappy! You have everything, your life is great! You have a home, you have friends and a wonderful partner, why are you so miserable?!"

And unfortunately, MC listened. They did think they were crazy for a while. The people were right. They had everything anyone could ever ask for and more. Yet, the voices in their mind kept whispering: "They'd be better off without you.."

MC remembers how angry, how mad they've gotten at Asra for what he did. As if he did anything wrong! He just wanted to save the love of his life, he wanted a chance to reverse their horrible faith. But they didn't want to be saved. Instead of kissing and hugging him as the prize for what a hero he was, MC started crying about how he reversed the cards.

It wasn't as if MC wasn't grateful for everything Asra did. That gesture meant everything, it meant more than a thousand "I love you's" He's given them something many people can't even hope to have: A second chance. A second chance they didn't want.

Now, the worst guilt imaginable flew through their veins. A person they love gave up half of his heart for them, and they didn't even want it! They didn't want to have a heartbeat anymore! How does one tell that to their lover? That it would have been better if he kept his heart complete?

Maybe, they could still give the heart back. Maybe it wouldn't hurt as much anymore if it came back to its original place in Asra's chest, if it reunited with its other half. And it would be so easy, so easy to just take it - to rip it from their chest and give it back to him.

They've dropped the broom from their shaky palms. Just like the ancient magic of The Arcana, something was pulling them - chanting their name like a mantra.

"Do it, do it, do it" The whisper was getting louder each time.

Asra trained MC for situations like this. He warned them not to listen, not to ever listen if they heard voices like those, especially after what happened with Lucio. No, they had to ignore them. Ignore them!

But this time, the pull was stronger than ever. Almost as if it was unbearable, as if the voices became stronger than ever before. The mysterious pull of what seemed to be their mind led them to the kitchen of their home, towards one of the drawers.

They knew what was in the drawer. It was the place of Asra's special, magical dagger they weren't allowed to touch. Apparently, it could either provide the most painful or the most peaceful of deaths, depending on what the user wanted. The magician prohibited the sharp dagger from ever leaving its place, just because he was afraid that MC would get hurt.

The handle of the dagger was cool under their hands. The razor-sharp metal was so shiny, that MC could see the reflection of their scared but eager eyes in it. This was what they waited for. Finally, there wouldn't be any regret, there wouldn't be any wishes that things played out differently.

A sharp sound echoed through the small room as the dagger sunk into their skin. The last thing MC saw was the person they loved, Asra, and the terrified look on his face as he walked through the door. His loud cry, followed by waterfalls of tears, became blurry, as everything seemed to ring in MC's ears.

"MC, NO, PLEASE!"

At last, they will be at peace. They know they've hurt Asra with their decision, but he'd be better off without them anyway. To ease his pain after what they did, they collected their last few breaths, and shakily whispered:

"Goodbye, Asra.."

166 notes · View notes

father-time-and-baby-new-year · 3 years

Note

happy 200! i’m so glad to see your blog grow, it’s one of my favorites and i adore all your writing. i’ve never cried so much and i love the kind of unsettling feeling you write in your fics, it’s perfect in the category of yandere and dark content. in particular, i loved your drabble about shigaraki mourning over a dead reader and i’ve reread that one too many times to count haha! as for asks for headcannons and drabbles, it would be amazing to see that with bully!eren especially since he was such an awful person to the reader. i’d love to see him suffer honestly, but if you don’t want to write it, that’s completely fine! once again, i’m so proud of you for hitting 200! that’s such a huge milestone and hopefully, there will be many more in the future! :)

SYNOPSIS: bully!Eren has to navigate the world without you.

Pairing: Bully!Eren x Fem!Reader

A/N: I can't even explain in words how much I CHEESED at this message like my grin was ear to ear. can't explain how many times I read this. It singlehandedly made my day anon, and to repay you for my happiness....here is some angst. this is a slightly different route than the shiggy one but I hope it still suits you <3

TW: mentions of death, past dubcon/noncon, mentions of trauma, bullying, alcohol addiction, drunk driving, abusive behavior, revenge porn, nonconsensual photography/videography, mentions of infidelity, angst, so much of angst, violent behavior

WC: 2.5k

It's not like Eren had been doing a lot of soul-searching. He's not delusional enough to label his half-assed epiphany of "maybe I'm a shitty person" as soul searching.

It's just the conversation with his very sick mother burned holes through the back of his mind. Carla had asked about you and why you don't come by the house anymore. How she missed baking with you in the kitchen, and how you sweetly smiled whenever you would see soft creamy peaks form in the meringue.

Eren felt like he was swallowing needles as he assured his mother with false truths, that nothing was going on and distance between childhood friends is natural, and if it means so much--ok ok he'll bring you over.

He stays until he sees her chest slowly rising and falling into a gentle asleep. He touches the tip of his ears, unsurprised by how hot it was.

Eren, when you tell a lie, the tips of your ears turn red.

You're not at school the next day. Or the day after that. Or the day after that.

Guilt is not an emotion he feels often but the events of the past weekend replay in his mind. It was just a dumb party that Floch threw, and he was surprised to find you cornered by a trio of thee dunderheads. Like a distorted fairytale, he swept you away from the bad guys like a knight in shining armor, to only shove you in an empty room and demand compensation for playing hero.

Fuck, with that big mouth, you would think that you'd know how to suck cock.

Use your tongue stupid slut. If you use teeth, I'll shove this dick in your ass without any prep.

No, I don't care, you're taking all of it.

There's a video on his camera roll. How could he not record it? You're sobbing, mascara running down your cheeks, looking so beautiful and ruined with jizz smeared at the corner of your mouth. He was brutally fucking your mouth, making you take all of his length.

Breathe through your nose dumb whore. Or else you're gonna run out of air.

You were pleading with whatever garbled sounds you were constricted into producing.

Breathe through your fucking nose. This is for your sake. Otherwise, I don't mind face fucking your lifeless body. You'd be more useful that way anyways.

Eren is conflicted with muting the video because he can't stand to hear himself like that. But he didn't want to miss out on your pitiful whines.

He remembers the distraught expression on your face when he was finally done with you. He tucked himself inside, and sneered, "I've got a girl coming here. Get lost." You looked so fucking distraught. Why? All he did was make you suck his dick. He didn't even fuck you.

He should have. Eren thinks grimly when he stares at your empty desk on the first day you didn't show up to school. He's gotten off to the video more than enough times than he can count over the weekend, and he was aching to see your pretty face twisted into a terrorized expression when he flipped up your skirt to grope your ass.

Kindly, Eren decides he'd allow you to have a rest day. But the second day, Eren pays a visit to your house finding it dark and locked, like no one was home and hadn't been there for a while.

On the third day, you're declared missing.

Your incompetent workaholic mother who finally came home and decided to give a damn reported you missing to the authorities who had scratched their heads because as far as they knew, the pivotal 72 hours were up.

Paradis was surrounded by forests. No one wanted to say it, but they were all thinking it. If you got lost in there, chances are you wouldn't make it out.

Eren wasn't always this admired and fawned over. He had his fair share of behavioral issues that frightened people (not you though, not then at least, not when you were children, and you still came back every day to play).

But when he channeled that anger into sports, there was somewhat of a star in the making, especially for some small-town boy. He was becoming extremely popular, and that's nice and all, but at the end of the day, he has a mother whose health was taking a sharp decline. He was constantly under stress, stress that he took out on you.

Where did his favorite stress-ball go?

It's all fucking surreal. Having detectives in the school. Not that there were many students to question (because christ, did you even have any friends after Eren turned everyone against you?).

Eren was questioned. He can't help but mirthfully chuckle. Maybe this was your grand plan, maybe you were able to finally sort out a mountain of evidence against him. If you were going to fuck him over, didn't you want to see it happen with your own two eyes?

The dark-haired boy wishes that was true. If you had gotten your revenge, would you be here? No, revenge isn't the right word. If you got any justice for what he made you suffer, would you come back?

Hi, I'm Detective Hange. I would like to ask you some questions today. You're Eren Yeager, right?

Yes, that's me.

How do you know ___?

We were childhood friends. We're uh, we're not as close anymore.

When was the last time you saw her?

Friday night at Floch's party-

-Floch Forster right? There were a number of kids there from your school.

Yeah. It was a big party. She uh, doesn't usually come to parties but she was there that night.

You were the last person to be seen with her. Other kids have said that they saw you and her entering a room together, and then only her leaving the said room.

[Sigh] Yeah we sorta...hooked up.

I thought you said you guys weren't close anymore.

You can be not close to someone and still hook up with them.

But you guys were close once right?

Yeah. Once.

The dark-haired boy asks if he was under any suspicion. The detective waves their hand in a dismissive gesture, “If her diary tells us anything, it’s only that she really liked you.”

Were detectives even allowed to divulge that sort of information? Eren doesn’t know but the stray detail that they offered off-handedly made him feel like he was swallowing needles.

At that point, Eren honestly still doesn't believe you're gone. You had a habit of running away, even when you were little kids, but you always came back.

Still, he participates in the search parties with a renewed vigor, even going alone in the forest with a flashlight on most nights.

And he's just so fucking tired. The darkest crevice of his mind almost wishes you were dead because this ignorance was just agony. Almost. Because he still clings to the feeling that one day, he’ll stroll into class and find you in your seat in the back of the class, looking out the window like some cliche shojo manga protagonist.

There are folders and folders on his phone. Albums. The most recent one is dedicated to your crying face as you were choking on his dick. Earlier albums are composed of creepshots of your panties, of that obscene o-face, of your skirt flipped up and your ass cheeks, pictures of your cleavage, videos of you thrashing as he dunked your head into toilets like a villainous middle school bully.

Pictures of your neck covered in hickeys, your naked breasts, ass cheeks striped with red after getting spanked, your leaking cunt, just endless and endless media dedicated to pieces and pieces of your body like you were never a whole person.

The earliest ones though tell a different tale, from off-guards to your drooling face as you napped in the middle of the day.

He has a favorite picture. Your eyes are watery from the cold, snowflakes stuck between lashes, nose and cheeks flushed red, and you're smiling. Smiling right to the camera. Right at him.

"Eren, are you taking a picture?" You asked, bouncing in place, giddy that it was finally snowing.

"Not of you, shut up. Get out of the way." His voice is gruff but not harsh.

You laughed and jumped into frame anyway, and the bright streetlamp behind you made you seem like you were wearing a halo.

He wishes he had more pictures of you being...yourself. Because now your crying face displayed over countless pixels haunt him. But like a fucking degenerate, he still jerks off to all the nudes he coerced from you. Sometimes he cries when he's jerking off which is probably the most pathetic thing he's ever done. This is what you've reduced him to.

He hates the sound of his own voice.

Breathe through your fucking nose. This is for your sake. Otherwise, I don't mind face fucking your lifeless body. You'd be more useful that way anyways.

Eren goes through the motions of life without really feeling like he's in the moment. Seasons change and time flies. His mother dies, and his withdrawn father dies a year later. He proposes to Mikasa because it's something he was always supposed to do. She loves him unconditionally, so even when he doesn't put any effort into the relationship but proposes, she says yes hoping he'll change and be a good husband.

He doesn't go to his parents' funerals because they're already dead. What's the point. He doesn't visit the candlelight vigils in your honor either. After tearing his ACL again and a somewhat traumatic injury, he kisses his pro-football career goodbye. To be totally honest, he's relieved. Because he had gotten quite bored, and maybe he was looking for excuses to quit the entire time. It's not like you'd be cheering on the bleachers anyways.

Mikasa has an affair, more out of a desire to see her fiancé feel something for her as opposed to any burning lust. But when she asks him if he's ever cared at all, with tears springing out of her eyes, he's just calmly drinking his fifth of whisky.

The dark-haired man doesn't even look up, "Let's break up."

"Is this about her, huh? Fucking get over it already Eren. She's GONE. And you have some big fucking audacity moping about her death like you weren't making her cry in the bathroom stalls every fucking day you piece of shit."

"Get out."

"You know what, I bet she killed herse-"

SMASH

The dark-haired woman doesn't finish her rant because the whiskey bottle smashes on the wall next to her head, sending glass everywhere and staining the carpet amber. She's unharmed, knowing it wasn't Eren's intention to hit her but Jesus Christ, what a monster.

She packs her bags and leaves the town like she should have a long time ago. All her friends had left years before and she stayed behind because that's where Eren was. She thanks her lucky stars that they didn't marry.

It's funny because he had always imagined himself being the first to move out of their small town, but he's the one staying. He can't leave this place. feels too tethered to ever leave. Every diner and liquor store is saturated with memories of you. He remembers buying cigarettes and exhaling the smoke to your face to piss you off in empty parking lots.

Maybe he stays in case you'll come back.

Eren's days consist of alcohol-fueled hazes. He doesn't know how his liver is still functioning. He doesn't know he's still alive after crashing his car into a tree when he was drunk out of his mind. He was on his way to get some more vodka.

He barely recognizes himself in the mirror anymore, not that he looks at himself much. His hair is long, nestled around his shoulder because he couldn't be bothered to cut it, dark circles under viridian eyes, and a perpetual stubble on his jaw.

His parents had left quite a sizable inheritance so there's no need to work but he's good with his hands. Likes crafting up birdhouses and cabinets, and occasionally does odd jobs around the neighborhood, never charging the elderly.

He's under the sink, tinkering with a wrench against the pipes when he hears the old lady coo at him.

"We're so lucky to have you Eren. I'm surprised a handsome young man like yourself doesn't have a special lady. The girls must be lining up at your door!"

The dark-haired man winces, and offers no comment, knowing that that the older lady was susceptible to long tangents.

"You know, we're getting a new neighbor." Eren grunts as a response. "They're young, I've heard. Isn't that exciting? Oh my, Eren! I think they're gonna be living in the house right next to yours..."

He tunes out the rest of the conversation because doesn't really care. He just hopes his new neighbors are quiet.

It's Sunday noon when obnoxious noises of moving trucks and people wake him up from his deep slumber. Eren's annoyed to wake up despite the fact he's probably been sleeping over 15 hours. He oscillates between getting too much sleep and getting none, his sleeping habits completely dependent on his dreams.

His nightmares are too visceral, visions of your corpse asking him if he'd enjoyed hollowing your soul with his teeth.

His dreams are achingly sweet. You in your prom gown, shining so iridescently like diamonds were sewn into the silk. He's dancing with you, holding you close, and then after you guys go to your favorite diner and gorge on burgers and milkshakes.

There's a peal of distinctly feminine laughter that stirs up Eren's senses. He's so pathetic, was the mere sound of a woman laughing getting him excited?

He sighs. He thinks of the whore he's frequently visited because of her resemblance to you. Hair color, skin color, face shape--with enough alcohol, he could really convince the person beneath him, was you. Maybe it's time to give her a call, but she's gotten so fucking needy and he hated how her voice didn't match yours.

The green-eyed man peers from the lace curtains, irritated by the brats playing on his lawn. A full family next door? Great, just what he needs.

The friendly knock on his door breaks him out of his daze. He contemplates whether he should answer but on the second more muted knock, he lets his feet guide him.

He turns the knob.

And Eren Yeager completely shatters.

Because it's you isn't it? You're the person standing in front of him? He can hear what you're saying but he doesn't really register it, soaking in the cadence of a voice he had long forgotten because all he had were pleading whimpers and frenzied moans stored on his cell.

He's shaking. Is he dreaming? He's dreaming, right? He knows it's you. You're older, far more beautiful than he's ever seen you. You have a different hairstyle, wearing clothes he would have mocked you for, and there's this joyfulness within you that makes you glow.

There's a mess of emotions electrifying in the pits of his stomach from euphoria, anger, and dread. He could feel his skin growing clammy like he was about to vomit at any second.

"Hey, are you all right?"

Doe eyes full of concern peer up at him. He voices out the syllables of your name like a desperate prayer.

You tilt your head to the side, "How do you know my name?"

#eren yeager x reader #bully eren yeager #toxic eren #eren yeager x you #yandere eren x reader #eren jeager x reader #eren x fem!reader #eren yeager x reader fanfiction #attack on titan fanfiction #dubcon tw #tw noncon #tw abuse #tw drinking #tw drunk driving #eren yeager fanfiction #dark content #dark fic #tw trauma #tw depr

1K notes · View notes

ladyartemesia · 3 years

Note

Since I'm in love with your writings and your taste in reading too. I know that your favorite is Brother's best friend or Best friend's brother, I would like for you to recommend me some of them please ❤️❤️🙏

꧁Brother’s Best Friend꧂

Clandestine by @junghelioseok is fantastic. Jeon Jungkook is the best friend of the reader’s slightly younger brother. He’s sexy and charismatic and DEFINITELY knows what he wants. The growth of his (clandestine) connection with the reader is utterly delicious. This one made me laugh and swoon.

Guarded by @xjoonchildx is basically legendary in my book. The lady in this story is not only Hoseok’s best friend’s sister—she is also his BOSS’s sister and by boss I mean mafia. This is the first installment in Ana’s amazing Rap Line Mafia Universe and it delivers on every level. Hoseok is tasked with protecting the boss’s sister after she is being threatened by sinister forces unknown and sparks fly.

Plums and Melons by @winetae is THAT FIC. The fic I just daydream about sometimes. It’s a fic about two people caught hard in eachother’s gravity. It’s so sexy and cerebral and the main characters are so hot. Jimin is just a guy trying to live his life, but whatever is brewing between him and his best friend’s sister is driving him insane. He wants to be a good guy, but she just isn’t playing fair.

Are You Sure? by @cutechim is such a swoon-worthy and touching piece of wonderful. I tell you I was MOVED. This is beautiful and emotional and EXTREMELY satisfying. Taehyung’s best friend has a sister who he has always secretly adored. When she comes to him and asks for some intimate experience, he isn’t strong enough to say no—not when she’s everything he ever wanted.

Drivers License and Detour by @gyukult is sweet and tender and just a fantastic coming of age story. The reader has been in love with her brother’s best friend, Park Jimin, for almost all of her youth... but what is going on in his head?It’s a tender story that really warms the heart. AND I am happy there is more coming. I would read about these two all day. She published the second part and oh my gosh it’s so incredibly perfect I could scream. This was just such a beautiful journey every step of the way.

Milestone by @1kook is probably one of the first brother’s best friend BTS fics I read and it is amazing. I adore it so much. Because Jungkook is your brother’s best friend he is there for every milestone in your life. But you’ve both grown up now and neither of you are kids anymore. It’s hot. Like really hot. Dialogue and set up are so sharp and fast paced I really loved every second.

Young God by @njssi is scorching hot smut with complicated feelings and warm revelations. You think it’s going somewhere and then it goes somewhere else and honestly it is so awesome the whole time. Jungkook was always your brother’s sweet little friend, but he’s returned determined to show you that he is all grown up.

Tease by @caiuscassiuss floored me. I loved it so much! I spent the whole story just squealing happily about everything. This story has it all. It’s scorching hot. It’s enemies-to-lovers. It’s Taehyung. Jungkook’s sister and Kim Taehyung do not get along AT all—so she decides to bring him to his knees by making him desperate for her. It’s a wild and completely awesome ride.

Wasabi by @ironicarmy is a classic. Hobi is a bad boy that Namjoon vehemently refuses to let near his precious baby sister. But love is too strong a force and soon Hobi and the clever object of his desire decide that some things are worth fighting for. It’s a really sweet story of facing challenges and relying on the people you love. Warm and fuzzy feelings abound, but it’s also super hot.

Forbidden by @btssmutgalore is a masterwork blueprint for this trope. Hobi is a carefree player who falls brutally for Taehyung’s sister. They two of them eventually give in to a VERY steamy series of secret encounters and feelings get very involved. This is hot, suspenseful, and emotionally satisfying. Excellent characterizations as well.

Prohibido by @personasintro is an office AU with a twist. Namjoon is not only her brother’s best friend, he is also her boss and the two of them have incredible chemistry. Watching them pretend that they’re not insanely attracted to each other is so endearing and hot. Reader is convinced her feelings are one-sided. It’s lovely and fun. Definitely a slow burn, but worth it.

Strawberry Kisses by @kimnjss is a fic that I devoured in one sitting and then re-read again immediately. Jeon Jungkook is a player who matches with a girl on a dating app and has no idea she is the sister of his revered mentor and close friend, Min Yoongi. I laughed. I cried. I GASPED OUT LOUD a bunch. It was a whole thing. This is a hybrid social media/written AU and it’s pretty much perfect.

Tempestuous by @ppersonna is so special to me because it was written at the very beginning of my friendship with Lindy. She was looking for requests and I was quick to request my favorite trope. Lindy is bae now and this fic she wrote is marvelous. You are forced to spend the weekend in the same house with your sexy arch-rival Taehyung who just so happens to be your brother’s best friend. Naturally snarky hotness ensues.

Off Limits @floralseokjin is basically a famous entry when it comes to this trope. It’s a Jin fic and Miss Jordan writes EXQUISITE Jin characterizations. There is a hint of mistaken (or unknown) identity in this one which makes it even more fun. Sparks fly between you and a devilishly charming Kim Seokjin at a party. You don’t find out until later who he really is—and why he’s off limits.

And finally I’ll recommend my own Brother’s Best Friend fic All I Want for Christmas is You featuring a charming Taehyung who falls for Jimin’s sister. Jimin basically blackmails his best friend into escorting his sister to several holiday galas. Tae and Jimin’s sister have never gotten along, but they soon discover (through multiple pranks and mishaps) that love (and desire) are out of their control.

Not Your Fairytale by @yeojaa is incredibly sweet and tender. Erin really does emotion so well and her Yoongi characterization is honestly so nuanced and brilliant. This story is about a girl who had her heart broken and instead of canceling the cake tasting she scheduled with her philandering ex-fiancé, she wrangles the tsundere best friend of her brother to pretend to be him.

Brother’s Best Friend by @bts-hyperfixation is a short and sweet moment between two people who have been fighting their attraction for each other. It is so hot and delicious I tell you. You’re in trouble and the person you call is probably the person you shouldn’t—but you aren’t the only one willing to take a risk tonight.

Off Limits by @kaddiiction will break your heart and put it back together again. This one was recommended to me by a reader and I cannot thank them enough. It is fantastic. Jimin is a player but he crosses the line when he begins a liaison with his best friend’s sister. Still there is far more to this situation—and Jimin—than meets the eye.

꧁Best Friend’s Brother꧂

Orectic by @gimmesumsuga is one of my favorite fics of all time. It is a hybrid fic where the reader is a cat hybrid and Hoseok is the brother of her best friend who comes to stay with her while her bestie is away... It is so tender yet SO HOT. I’m telling you I cannot even keep count of how many times I have read it.

Theophany by @ilikemesometaetaes was a JOURNEY. It made me so emotional. Like the story centers around art a lot, but let me tell you, this fic IS art. Jimin is just the man of my whole dreams in this piece as the brother of a former best friend with an irresistible allure. It is a coming of age story with the most beautiful twist. AND THE LOVE SCENE—oh my gosh I screamed it was so good. This story is just so so good.

Run by @neonlights92 is Jungkook’s story in the mafia universe I am COMPLETELY OBSESSED WITH. You don’t have to read the whole series to understand it (BUT YOU SHOULD). This is best friend’s brother meets arranged marriage and honestly it’s fantastic. Jungkook doesn’t do love and affection and being forced into an arranged marriage with his sister’s friend who has always had a crush on him is just a blow to his freedom... or is she? GAH! This story—like all the stories in this universe—is superb.

The Magic to Happiness by @readyplayerhobi is a best friend’s brother meets teachers AU meets Hogwarts AU. Now... all of those are top tier tropes so finding them together is like winning the lottery. Hobi was once just a skinny kid who had obvious heart eyes for you (his sister’s best friend) but now he’s tall and confident and really attractive. The magic of this story is evident in every word of the sweet relationship that blooms between these two.

Problem with You by @monvante is so sweet and kind of hilarious. I giggled so much! Jungkook is your best friend’s brother and he is kind of too perfect and too handsome and he’s always around and you hate him and he hates you... Right? When you cross paths with the infuriating Jeon Jungkook at your best friend’s wedding, you discover that you may have been wrong about a great many things.

Show Me Yours and I’ll Show You Mine by @ktheist is so so SO fabulous. I was obsessed with this (now complete) series from the very first installment. You and Tae are besties who have know each other since you were little kids, but lately Tae’s older brother Jin has been lookin mighty fine. Just how far can you push him till he breaks. And if he breaks.... what then?

This list is BY NO MEANS exhaustive. I just used it to compile some of my FAVORITES in this particular trope.

➪ IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER BROTHER’S BEST FRIEND FICS I SHOULD CHECK OUT PLEASE COMMENT (seriously please I love this trope so much) AND I WILL ADD THEM TO THIS LIST.

➪ Newer Additions are in PINK!

➪ Newest Additions are in BLUE

3K notes · View notes

mypoisonedvine · 3 years

Text

vignettes of a bond || alpha!bucky barnes x omega!reader

I originally wrote this in two parts for my sleepover but after I realized how long it accidentally became, I've reformatted it, added/changed a few things, and made into a oneshot!

word count: 3.1k

warnings: smut, angst, knotting, violence

June 2nd, 1943, 11:43 p.m., James Barnes’ bedroom

“I wanna do it, before I go,” he whispered against your skin. “But I know it’s wrong. It’s too cruel.”

“No, please,” you whimpered, “I want it. I want your mark.”

Bucky pulled back for a moment and you examined your Alpha’s face carefully, knowing it might be the last time for a long time. “I couldn’t bond to you and then leave you. It wouldn’t be fair… you deserve to find somebody who can stay, and be with you, and protect you.”

“All I want is you,” you whispered. “Please, Alpha… bite me.”

You saw him hesitate for a moment before he leaned in and sucked at your neck, building the anticipation before he finally sunk his teeth into your skin and you cried out, one single tear rolling down your cheek. “Mine,” he growled against your skin as he lapped at the healing wound, “my Omega. Forever.”

“Yours, only yours,” you agreed eagerly.

It wasn’t the first time Bucky had taken you, but that night he really and truly claimed you, left you a desperate begging mess, stretched out over his knot as he filled you over and over.

The next morning, you were still sore between your legs as well as on your new mark, and it took everything in you to be strong as you saw him off at the train station, waving goodbye and praying that your Alpha would return to you soon.

November 9th, 1943, 2:24 p.m., undercover SHIELD facility

“You promised Bucky you’d take care of me,” you reminded him with a little smile, wiping a tear from your cheek.

“I know,” Steve relented, “but we both know I can’t do that. Not in this state. But maybe I can protect you if I do this. Maybe I can protect my country. I owe it to everyone, especially Bucky, to try.”

You nodded. “But I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too. Come see me before I ship out for good, alright?”

“Of course,” you agreed.

December 27th, 1943, 8:32 a.m., your front porch

“You’re lying,” you gasped as you shook your head. “You’re wrong, no, it’s not true.”

“It is,” Steve promised as tears welled in his eyes, “I’m so so sorry, I saw it myself, I had to watch him fall…”

“It’s not true! He’s not dead!”

“I know he loved you so much. He talked about every day, he couldn’t wait to come home to you,” Steve remembered, choking up noticeably. “But he won’t. He’s gone.”

“You don’t understand, I know, okay? I know.”

“You’re in shock, I understand, it’s hard to lose your mate—”

“You’re a beta, you wouldn’t understand,” you dismissed; sure, he looked like an alpha now, but it didn’t make a difference. “Omegas, we know when our Alpha dies, we feel it, it kills us. He’s far away, but he’s still there, I still feel him!”

Steve held you as you sobbed, your body crumpling into his arms. Sometimes you thought maybe he held you too tight on accident because he was still getting used to his new strength; other times you thought he did it on purpose.

February 3rd, 1944, 12:00 p.m., undercover SHIELD facility

“Even when I had nothing, I had Steve,” you recalled shakily, “and now he’s gone too.”

“Is that why you’re volunteering?” Agent Carter asked you. “Because you’d rather sleep for a hundred years than live without your mate and your best friend?”

“I’m volunteering because my mate and my best friend died for SHIELD,” you corrected firmly, “and if I’m not willing to also, then I’m admitting I think they went to waste.”

“Steve told me you didn’t think Bucky was dead,” Peggy remembered.

You winced. “I’m not sure. But I know he’s not coming home again. I came here to give whatever I could to help find him… I was asked to participate in a cryogenics research study. If it helps him, then I’ll do it.”

She was about to get up, apparently satisfied with your final interview, but you stopped her.

“On one condition,” you added. “If James Barnes is found, alive or dead, wake me up to see him.”

She nodded, stepping out of the room and leaving you alone again.

May 8th, 2012, SHIELD headquarters

“Can you hear me?”

You slowly blinked awake, your vision taking a moment to catch up with your mind. You saw tubes coming out of your arms; you saw Steve above you, looking like the day you saw him last.

“Did you find Bucky?” you asked instantly. Why else would they wake you up?

“No,” Steve answered, seemingly a bit disappointed that that was your first and only question.

“Then put me back to sleep,” you demanded.

“It’s been 68 years,” he told you. “You’ve slept for 68 years. It’s time to wake up.”

And you did, more than you ever wanted to, because you realized you couldn’t feel him anymore. Your Alpha was gone. Worse, he probably died while you were asleep; he probably died alone.

One more time, like he had 68 years ago, Steve held you while you sobbed.

August 1st, 2014, 2:11 a.m., Avengers compound, Steve Rogers’ quarters

You ran into Steve’s room barefoot and still in your pajamas, barreling through the door and right into his bed.

“Steve, I feel him!” you rushed.

“What?” he groaned sleepily, looking up at you as he blinked in confusion.

“I feel him again, he’s alive,” you explained. “I know it. He’s weak… he’s hurting… but he’s there.”

“That’s impossible,” Steve shook his head. “It’s been too long, he would’ve died of old age anyways.”

“Don’t you want to believe it? Don’t you want to think he’s out there?”

“Do I want to think he’s alone and I didn’t save him?” Steve hissed. “No, I can’t say that I particularly do!”

“But we still can, Steve, we just have to find h—”

But before you could finish, the feeling left you, and you were just half of something again.

“Oh,” you breathed.

“He’s gone again?” Steve realized.

You nodded, biting your lip as it started to quiver. He sighed and pulled you into a hug. “If I could just see his body, and know it was over,” you whispered, “if I could just bury him, have a funeral…”

“We’ll have one,” Steve decided, “after this mission. We’ll put him to rest. He deserves that, and so do you.”

You nodded into his shoulder. It shattered you into a million pieces but it was still the better option, to try to let him go in whatever small way you could. He would always, always, always be your Alpha, nothing could change that, but a funeral would at least bring some closure.

That would have to wait until after your next mission though… and it was going to be a big one: tracking the elusive Winter Soldier.

August 3rd, 2014, 1:14 p.m., Lower East side

You were a few blocks away, helping civilians escape the firefight, when you felt it.

For one impossibly brief moment, you felt him, stronger than you had in nearly 80 years. He was here.

You instantly got up and ran like you’d never run before, finding the Soldier and Steve locked in a brutal showdown— but his mask was gone now, and you nearly fell to your knees at the sight of him.

“Bucky!” you yelped, but you knew he wasn’t there or you would’ve felt his presence. Your Alpha was somewhere underneath the shell that wore his face, and you needed to find him.

You ran forward just as Steve made a break for it, getting to him just in time to stand between the Soldier and his mission.

“Alpha, please,” you whimpered, clutching at his chest. A metal hand backhanded you to the ground.

“Out of my way, Omega,” he growled, stepping over you, but you grabbed at his ankles even when he tried to kick you away.

“My mark,” you explained hastily, pulling your shirt down some to make sure it was visible. “It’s yours. Do you remember? You gave me this. This is your mark on me.”

He stared down at you, seeming to be contemplating it, and you scrambled back to your feet and faced him.

“I still feel you,” you whispered. “I knew you were alive, I knew you’d come back to me. I could feel you, right here,” you explained as you took his hand and placed it on your chest. “Could you feel me? Did you know I was waiting for you all this time?”

His eyes were watering but he still seemed confused— stunned, more specifically, as you placed your hand on his chest.

“I’ll always be yours, Bucky. I’ll always be your Omega, no matter where you are.”

A stun gun took you down, an array of masked men appeared, and before he could really see you for what you were, he was dragged away and taken to be erased again.

August 3rd, 2014, 9:04 p.m., Avengers compound, medical bay

“I can’t believe we let them get away,” Steve lamented, resting his face in his hands. “I can’t believe they took him again…”

“They’ll be back,” you promised sternly. “They’re going to figure out what I am to him. They’re going to realize I could break his programming. And they’re going to come for me.”

“And when they do?” Steve pressed.

“We’ll be ready. And I’ll get my Alpha back.”

August 3rd, 2014, 9:04 p.m., temporary HYDRA operations facility

"The woman on the bridge... the Omega..." Bucky mumbled. "She knew me... she had my mark."

"No she didn't."

He furrowed his brow. "She showed me..."

Pierce sighed, glancing over to the HYDRA scientist who looked back at him sternly.

"She's too dangerous to be left alive," the man sighed, shrugging in his lab coat. "We can't deprogram a bond like that."

"We'll take care of her," Pierce promised.

Bucky launched from the chair, snapping his restraints like paper. "Touch her and I'll fucking kill you!" he bellowed, tackling his handler to the ground.

Pierce just laughed as another scientist jabbed Bucky with a needle, dosing him with something strong enough to kill any other man but just enough to knock out a super soldier. Pierce stood up and dusted himself off as he watched Bucky go limp and be lifted back into his chair.

"I can see the fight in your eyes, Soldier," he taunted as he leaned into his face. "I know you really would kill me, if you could. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, right? But don't worry about your mate, we'll make it quick and painless. Hey, maybe beforehand me and a few of the other Alphas will show her a good time, poor thing's been without her mate for 70 years... I bet she's raring to go."

Bucky's arm twitched as his eyes started to fall shut, a tear falling down his blank and motionless face.

"Wipe him," Pierce instructed to the scientist, turning and walking away as the electric whirr of the machine charging up filled the room.

August 11th, 2014, 3:53 p.m., SHIELD headquarters

Steve was impressed with how accurate and imminent your prediction was; HYDRA was hot on your trail and desperate to eliminate the biggest threat to their Asset. Knowing they were coming made it easier, but it was still a brutal fight.

You and Steve tried to stay together, but they were smart, they used the perfect bait to lure you away.

"Tell me where he is," you demanded from the HYDRA agent as you held a blade to his neck, "then I'll kill you."

"Isn't it supposed to be 'or I'll kill you'?" he frowned.

You shook your head. "Not the way I operate."

Opposite to the reaction you were expecting, he grinned widely. "He's here."

Your heart stopped.

"On the roof. He's here to kill you."

You dropped the knife and ran straight for the stairwell, ascending them like they were nothing and calling out for your Alpha.

You found him there, waiting, gun trained on you. Raising your hands in surrender, you yelled to him again.

"Bucky," you called across the windy roof, eyes nearly blinded by the bright afternoon sun. "Alpha."

"I'm not who you think I am," he yelled back. "I'm not your Alpha."

It hurt to hear it in his voice, but you knew it wasn't him. Cautiously, you stepped closer. "Before you left, you told me you didn't want to mark me and leave me behind," you recalled. "But I wanted it. I wanted to be bonded to you more than I'd ever wanted anything."

He could clearly see you were coming closer, he even tightened his finger over the trigger of his weapon, but he was waiting. You kept walking to him, slowly.

"I've never regretted it," you continued, "not even when I thought you were dead, not even when I had to spent a lifetime-- more than that-- apart from you."

Finally you were face to face, and you stepped closer until his gun was pressed right into your chest.

"You can shoot me now and I still won't regret it," you promised. "I love you."

Shakily, he lowered his weapon. "Omega..." he breathed.

"Your Omega."

He pulled you into him and you sobbed as you felt him come to life in your arms-- the real him, your Alpha, your Bucky. He held you close and breathed against the top of your head and it was like a dream coming true decades after you'd forced yourself to let it go.

But you'd never given up. And now you had found him again.

Agents started to come onto the roof and Bucky spun the two of you around, firing with his right hand and using the left, metal arm as a shield for you.

He carried you and you didn't even know where he was taking you, but it didn't matter. In his arms, you were home.

August 12th, 1:03 a.m., Avengers compound, your quarters

You hadn't stopped coming or crying for at least an hour. Bucky had all but split you open on his knot all night and he didn't show any signs of stopping.

He apparently intended to make up for lost time. And you'd lost a lot of time.

"Just one more, I know you can give me one more," he groaned furiously rubbing your clit as his knot began to swell again.

You could give him anything, as long as he asked for it like that.

You'd lost count of how many times he'd told you to come for him, and how many times you did it immediately.

"I can see how full you are," he whispered as he rubbed your stomach gently. "So much seed in you that your body can't hold it all."

You looked down and yep, you were distinctly bloated from his come alone; it made you a little dizzy to even look at it.

"The idea of you alone during your heats, no one to protect you, it kills me," he explained with a growl. "I won't let you go again. I can't."

"Then don't," you sighed. "Never leave this bed, fill me with everything you have."

"Did anybody ever help you through them? The heats?" he asked. "I wouldn't blame you, they can be so painful... I just need to know so I can make sure you forget about them."

"No, Bucky, never— I never let anyone touch me."

"Steve could've helped you, at least some..."

"He wouldn't have, he loves you too much. And I wouldn't accept anything less than you, ever. You're my Alpha. We're bonded. There's never anyone else."

That didn't seem to satisfy him, his eyes darting away as he swallowed. Your gut sank with the realization he probably wasn't being totally honest about why he asked.

"Your ruts," you gasped. "Were you alone for all of them?"

He shut his lips tighter.

"Bucky, it's okay, just tell me. I was asleep for 70 years, I skipped most of them, but you... you had to live through them all."

"They gave me betas, and omegas," he mumbled, "but I don't... I don't really remember. I know they wanted me to. They threatened to hurt me if I didn't, because they knew I'd go crazy after so many ruts alone, but I can't remember if I really did it. I remember... I remember crying, and begging for you."

"Alpha," you breathed as you felt new tears run over the stains of your old ones. "It's okay. Whatever happened, it's okay now. We're together again. Everything's okay."

You wiped his tear away with your thumb, holding his face tightly, weaving your fingers into his long hair.

"I'll always be your Omega," you promised.

He leaned in closer to you, kissing your cheek before pulling back a little. "It's faded," he whispered as he ran his thumb over the mark on your neck. "The last time I saw it, it was still fresh."

"It's older, sure, but it's stronger than ever, Bucky."

August 14th, 10:12 a.m., Avengers compound, residential area kitchen

Steve's eyes went wide when he came into the kitchen for breakfast and found you there, steeping your tea. "Surprised to see you out of the love nest so soon," he smirked.

"It's been three days, I don't think that counts as soon," you scoffed.

"It does to him," Steve frowned. "He's asleep, isn't he?"

"Yep."

"I know he wouldn't let you out of his sights if he was conscious," Steve chuckled.

At that moment, you heard Bucky call your name and run out into the hall, only a bedsheet covering his groin as he appeared in the doorway. You spun around and smiled when you saw him come running towards you, embracing you with his free arm.

"You should've told me you were leaving, I got scared when I woke up without you," he admitted weakly.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry!"

He pulled back and clutched your face in both his hands. "I'm waking up next to you every morning for the rest of my life, you understand?"

You nodded dutifully. "Yes, Alpha."

"One hand on the sheet, please, Buck?" Steve winced, looking away.

“Whoops,” Bucky groaned, reaching to cover himself as you laughed softly.

“Let’s go back to bed, baby,” you decided quietly, taking Bucky’s (free) hand in yours and waving goodbye to Steve, who was already making his way as far out of earshot as possible.

#alpha!bucky barnes x omega!reader #alpha!bucky barnes smut

2K notes · View notes

books-and-catears · 3 years

Text

Old Flames and New Faces

Continued from part 8

"You know the truth deep down and you hide it for the sake of peace" : Lilim Ending

You didn't want to admit it. But you knew. You knew what was going to happen.

Any moment now Lucifer was going to grab you by the arm and twist it behind you. With gritted teeth he'd reprimand you. "What do you think you're doing MC? How dare you attack my brother like that?"

Mammon would probably try to release you from Lucifer's iron grip, but he'd look so disappointed. "MC...all this time, ya were just trying to get back at us?"

Levi would be frozen in his place, glaring at you with an angry look in his eyes. "I thought we were friends now..."

Satan's anger would be beyond explosive. It would be cold and snappy. He wouldn't spare you words. His demon form and icy glares would speak for themselves as he nursed Belphie.

Asmo would be hiding his face in his hands, tears running down his face while he kept saying Why over and over again.

And Beel... well his would hurt the most. He wouldn't look at you. He'd make sure you don't even get a glimpse of his face. The hollow in his stomach could not compare to his hollowed out heart as he cradled Belphie's weak body in his arms.

No. You would be dead before you even tried to explain anything. There was no trusting them anymore. They with their fluctuating emotions would not spare someone like you. Two years is a dot in the ever growing timeline of their lives.

They hadn't done anything and yet your heart screamed it's decision.

"I understand now, Lily. Its true. I know what they are. Now please, let me let go of him." You cried out.

She rose out of the water, her wings in their full form. Pearly white with silver ended feathers. She held your hands and lifted you off the water while almost all the brothers fussed over Belphie.

Almost.

"MC, no! MC where are you going!? MC No come back!" Mammon's voice grew distant, as Lily flew you higher and higher.

"He can fly too you know." You said. "His demon form has wings too."

"Not up here he won't." Lily said before placing you on a cloud. You marvelled at the fact that you weren't falling over.

"So you were an angel all along? Are you taking me where we were supposed to go on that trip?" You ask, trying to look ahead.

"Yes. Yes I am. You, me and Lilith. And Lilith's lover. Can't forget them." Lily sighs.

"Oh you poor thing, how long have you been third wheeling hahaha?" You try so hard to laugh. Humor the pain away. But you kept thinking about the people you left behind.

"Too long." She laughed back. "I'm finally glad to have one more person there!"

"I didn't say goodbye to Luke. Or Simeon or Solomon." You said after a pause. "It's not fair on them. They never did anything wrong."

"They'd convince you to stay. And you would be stuck down there for your eternity." Lily said. "Normally I wouldn't have let you go in the first place but..."

"Lilith wanted you to go. She wanted you to meet her brothers. Get to know them and love them. But she didn't recognise them anymore." Lily sighed. "She blamed herself for sending you down to the world of monsters with little to no power. She blamed herself for your death too."

"So now...she wanted to fix things? By taking me away?" You ask "Why not just send me back to the human realm?"

"They have portals to Earth. Too risky to leave you unattended. So we're bringing you to our home instead."

"Up in the Celestial realm? That's what it looks like atleast."

"We call it The Bright. It's somewhere in between life and death. You've been here before. It's as peaceful as the world can get. Welcome home, MC."

Beneath the stars that night, seven demons, two angels and an immortal carried your body ashore. You were still breathing - but you'd never wake up again. That much they knew.

Your body would never rot, your eyes wouldn't sink. But it won't move and your eyes won't open. But they'd take care of whatever's left of you.

439 notes · View notes

evevoli · 2 years

Text

fnaf security breach au: gregory is the crying child reincarnated

i have been thinking abt this lil idea of mine almost nonstop for the past two weeks so i wanted to share it because it will not leave my head. it’s about what it says on the tin; the crying child (who will go by Evan in this au) reincarnates into gregory and doesn’t realize it at first feat. some Michael Afton Is Possessing Glamrock Freddy because i’m messed up

please enjoy!

to start, this AU takes place after the 3 star ending because oohe i have so many headcanons for that one and now i get to Use Them. to be clear in my version of this ending basically:

vanessa takes gregory (and by extension freddy) in after they leave the pizzaplex, mostly out of guilt and some sense of moral obligation.

she Just So Happens to have two bedrooms in her apartment because fiction is my sandbox and this is a utopian au where a 23 year old chuck e cheese employee is able to afford that alone

assuming she’s going to be fired anyway, vanessa engages in further Risk Behavior and goes back into the pizzaplex to fix freddy, putting his head back on, turning off his safe mode and getting him in somewhat of a working order. his shell still has several gaping holes in it but hey he has a working battery now don’t worry about it

she Does Not end up getting fired actually, because the same higher-ups that recommended her for her position in the first place despite lack of experience thought her too valuable to let go of for whatever probably-nefarious reason. i’m not saying this because i think it’s a reasonable amount of plot convenience; it just sounded fair considering what we already know about her.

(note: i do not yet know how or if they are going to address burntrap still being in the basement. i like to think that with vanessa free and glitchtrap without a host to infect he’s just kinda stuck down there in his tube for the most part)

she manages to clear the murder virus infecting the other animatronics in the same trip and freddy is working and it’s all good so everyone is happy and well forever and nothing bad ever happens again yayy

so now freddy has a mostly-functioning body and he and gregory are living in vanessa’s apartment. gregory is reasonably distrusting of vanessa for a good while but stays because he literally has nowhere else to go and it’s so warm inside and there’s real food in the fridge, and maybe he cries a little sleeping in a bed for the first time in five years but shhh that’s a secret

they are a happy found family consisting of a traumatized college student, a traumatized feral orphan and a remarkably well-adjusted stolen pizza restaurant mascot and they all love each other :)

and now for the actual reincarnation thing i promised lmfao. big TW for child death, trauma, and psychological/memory/identity issues.

so a few weeks pass and our band of idiots has settled into their life together, figuring things out one day at a time, when gregory starts feeling weird.

every now and again he’ll catch flickers of memories belonging to someone else; an old house, a family he doesn’t know, a strange pizzeria he’s never been in. and if he concentrates he can still hear the cruel laughter of a teenager wearing a foxy mask.

(wait, but who is foxy? why does he recognize him?)

it scares gregory; these... aren’t his memories, right? who is he? what’s happening to him? is he really gregory after all, or is he the evan afton these people in his mind keep calling out to? which of his memories are real and which aren’t? he must be losing his mind.

he tells freddy and vanessa about what’s been happening, and they both feel this... strange sense of familiarity. as if they know this child haunting him.

william would sometimes fill the silence in his and vanessa’s shared mind by talking about his family. it was all so twisted how he spoke, of course, so cold, but vanessa remembered every detail, remembered all he’d said on the fate of his youngest.

and freddy can almost picture the old foxy mask gregory tells him about. he can envision its owner’s face as clear as his own reflection, as if he were there, as if he’d been the one taunting that child, as if he’d known him better than anyone.

(and if he powers on one morning knowing how half-rotten skin feels when it’s set on fire, he tells no one.)

as gregory remembers his past life more and more, he subtly starts to change, becomes more skittish and prone to tears as the past weighs on him. a glamrock freddy plush he kidnapped from the pizzaplex becomes his best friend — him, someone much too old for stuffed animals, thank you — because he is so afraid and something about it is so familiar to him.

it grounds him when it becomes too much and freddy isn’t nearby to comfort him, until it almost starts to replace him, until freddy is almost unneeded.

(and of course there’s something... off about freddy, sometimes. it looks as though he has too many teeth, or that he’s just too tall, or maybe his gaze is too cold and stares right through him, and sometimes his eyes seem to glisten purple.)

(but... no, no, he loves freddy. freddy would never hurt him. freddy would never hurt anyone.)

#fnaf #fnaf security breach #five nights at freddy's #fnaf au #gregory fnaf #glamrock freddy #glammike #crying child fnaf #evan afton #fnaf 3 star ending #gregory reincarnation au #my wips #ev.post #thats a lotta tags good god

88 notes · View notes

punkrockgirlalmighty · 2 years

Text

this is me trying

Read on A03

words:1633

post 3x08 fic

It’s not that TK deliberately tries to hide it from Carlos, there just never seems to be a good time to bring it up.

In the days and weeks after the plane crash Carlos is so attentive and concerned. He is already so reluctant to leave his side and TK thinks if he tells him that the last time Carlos left him alone he immediately high tailed it to find drugs, he will never let him out of his sight again.

It’s not fair to Carlos to put that kind of pressure on him.

And then there is the trip to New York that they do eventually take, to help care for Jonah and sort through his mom’s belongings. Carlos holds his hand the entire flight, keeping up a constant barrage of whispered reassurances.

Soon it’s been months and they are both back at work, trying to regain whatever semblance of normality they can, and TK almost forgets there is anything to tell.

Until Carlos is staring down at him, arms folded tightly across his chest, from across the room.

“Who told you?” TK asks, shrinking himself into the corner of the couch.

“Nancy. She was the under the impression that I would already know.”

TK can’t meet his eyes.

“Why didn’t I know, TK?”.

With a gulp TK finally looks up and the guilt that wells in him is too much, so he reaches for anger instead and snaps, “because I can’t stand having you look at me like this.”

“How am I looking at you?” Carlos says, voice quiet and strained.

“Like you’re disappointed in me. Like I’m a screw up. Like you’re not surprised.” Which is not what TK reads in Carlos’ eyes at all but it’s how he feels. It’s what he is scared of seeing.

Carlos sighs and his voice breaks when he says, “Baby, I’m not disappointed, I’m hurt that you didn’t tell me.” He starts to move closer to TK, his hands coming out like he is going to reach for him, but he stops when TK barricades himself in with his arms, pulling his knees up against his chest. “And I’m worried about you.”

“It’s not a big deal Carlos. I didn’t take anything so can we just drop this please?” TK can feel the familiar itch building beneath his skin. He wants out of this conversation. His eyes dart to the door and he knows Carlos doesn’t miss the gesture.

“Not a big deal?” Carlos is louder now. TK tries to tell himself it’s because he is mad at him, but he knows it’s really that he is upset and probably a little scared. “You lied to me TK. I asked you why you went to the firehouse, you told me you didn’t know. I asked you if you were feeling like using again and you told me no!”

Now TK needs out of this conversation. He fucked up. He fucked up when he went to the rig to steal drugs and then he fucked up again when he didn’t tell Carlos that he’d done it. But he can’t deal with this now, he isn’t strong enough yet.

Carlos is looking at him, wide eyed and pleading, but TK has nothing to offer him.

This time it is Carlos who glances to the door.

“If I go out right now will you be ok?” he asks.

Are you going to score? is what he means.

TK can’t speak around the lump in his throat and the burning in his chest so he nods and squeezes his legs in tighter.

Carlos is halfway out the door when he turns and says softly, “This is not me walking out on you, I will be back soon. I just need to clear my head.”

And then he is gone and TK is alone. It’s too quiet and there is a pressure building behind his eyes, he pushes his balled-up fists against them until lights start to pop.

He wants Carlos to come back. He wants to tell him he’s sorry. Or maybe he wants to yell at him; scream can’t you see how hard I’m trying.

He wants drugs. Wants to be numb, floating, disembodied and soulless.

He wants his mom.

He is startled from his thoughts by a gentle knocking on the door and his head snaps up as it slides open.

“Carlos?” he cries out as he rushes to meet him.

Except it’s not Carlos.

“Dude what the hell?” Nancy says, pulling him into a tight hug.

“What are you doing here? And how do you have a key?” TK asks when she finally releases him.

Nancy keeps her hands on his shoulders as she studies his face carefully. “Carlos called me to come over and then waited outside until I got here. He didn’t want to leave you alone.”

TK feels affection swelling in his heart even as shame grows in the pit in his stomach. Carlos couldn’t even storm out like a normal person because TK was such a disaster.

“I’m such an idiot, Nance.”

“No, you’re not” Nancy replies with a forceful shake of her head as she pushes him back into the living area and takes the seat next to him on the couch. “I’m so sorry, this is all my fault, I never should have said anything, I was just worried about you and I really thought he would know…”

“Nancy stop,” he says, cutting off her rambling apology, “It’s fine. You didn’t do anything wrong. I should have told him.”

Nancy doesn’t disagree, “Hmm, I’m guessing you were trying to protect him?”

“Trying to protect myself more like,” TK says with a snort.

He drops his head back against the couch and staring up at ceiling lets out a frustrated groan. “I liked that he thought I was strong. I liked that he thought I was handling this better than I am because it made me feel like I could handle it. And I didn’t want to let him down, but I did anyway because I lied to him. Which is worse in a way because he not only knows I almost relapsed, but now he can’t even trust me to be honest with him. I really messed this up Nancy.”

“Oh hun,” Nancy says, placing a hand on his thigh and squeezing it reassuringly, “it’s going to be ok. The dude loves you so much, there’s no way he isn’t going to forgive you.”

“I hate that he keeps having to.”

Nancy shakes his leg gently in an attempt to break him out of his own head and TK turns to look at her with a frown, “What?”

“Honestly, it seemed to me like he was mostly upset because he thinks you don’t trust him. Like you still don’t believe that you won’t scare him off.”

TK closes his eyes, but it doesn’t stop the tears from falling or block out Nancy’s words.

“TK, you are not going to lose him,” she says, quiet but firm.

He nods because he does know this, deep down. Carlos had pretty much said as much before he left. It’s just terrifying to let himself feel it.

They put on a movie and Nancy runs her hands through his hair as they pretend to watch it and TK starts to feel a little better.

It’s not even an hour later when Carlos comes home, his hands laden with take-out boxes.

Nancy takes it as her cue to leave and TK stands to hug her, whispering ‘thank you’ into her ear as he does.

She gives Carlos a kiss on the cheek on her way past and, with a last pointed look at TK, closes the door behind her.

TK watches the muscle in Carlos’ jaw twitch as he dumps the food on the table and shrugs out of his jacket. He pauses for a moment with his back to TK, his hands braced on the back of the chair.

TK counts three deep breaths.

And then Carlos is striding across the room and throwing his arms around TK in a hug so forceful it almost lifts him off his feet. Carlos has his nose pressed against TK’s neck and he feels him inhale. His own hands are fisting into Carlos’ shirt, trying futilely to pull him closer.

It’s relief and love and sorry and I’ll do better but it rushes out of TK as a laugh.

Carlos pulls back, his hands coming up to frame TK’s face as he rests his forehead against his. “I’m sorry. I find out you almost relapsed and I made it about me and I am so sorry.”

“Don’t be,” TK says vehemently. “You were right to be mad at me. And it is about you. You deserved to know the truth and to hear it from me. I’m sorry Carlos.”

Carlos’s thumbs stroke his cheeks and his head tilts back so he can look TK in the eye, “Do I still need to be worried?”

TK bites his lip and shakes his head, “I’m good, Carlos.”

“But you’ll tell me if you’re not?”

TK hesitates and Carlos practically growls. “I want to know, TK. I will always want to know.”

TK still doesn’t say anything but he catches one of Carlos’ wrists when he starts to move his hands away. He curls his fingers around it, bringing his palm back to his face and turning his cheek into it. He closes his eyes and focuses on the thrum of Carlos’s pulse beneath his fingers.

TK whispers what he has never dared to let himself think, never mind say out loud before, “Please don’t leave me.”

“Never,” Carlos says and presses the intention into TK’s lips when he covers them with his own. “I’ll never leave you.”

#tarlos #911 lone star #tarlos fic #tk strand #carlos reyes #post 3x08 #911 ls fic #911 ls 3x08 #911 lone star spoilers #i had feelings and I needed to put them somewhere

88 notes · View notes

robininthelabyrinth · 3 years

Note

Prompt~ hoping you'll like it ♥️

Things between the Nie brothers are not always nice and happy, they fight, just like any other pair of brothers, and sometimes things are said, sometimes these things are heavy and painful. Sometimes they're said in the wrong moment (maybe at the eve of a battle? Sunshot campaign?) and huaisang doesn't know what to do with the broken look his brother gives him before leaving the unclean realm. Because what if he doesn't return? What if the last thing he said to him was how much he hated the man he became?

Labyrinth - ao3

“But I didn’t mean to wish him away!” Nie Huaisang cried out.

“That’s really too bad,” the goblin king said, looking pleasant and humble and charming the way he always did, even in his cape of glittering gold and high-browed hat. “I wish there was something I could do for you, but the rules are the rules. You wished him away, and I took him.”

“Aren’t you supposed to only take babies?” Nie Huaisang demanded.

“Your brother’s enough of a crybaby to count, it’s close enough.”

“It is not!” Nie Huaisang wrung his hands. “You don’t understand, the last thing I said to him was that I hated him! Meng Yao, please!”

“It’s Jin Guangyao,” the goblin king corrected. His smile looked a bit strained. “Listen, do you think I’m happy about this? He’s my sworn brother! I’m only doing what I have to –”

“Oh, save it for Lan Xichen,” Nie Huaisang growled. “Show me the labyrinth already.”

“You’re going to face the labyrinth,” the goblin king said. His voice was very polite, and yet still expressed significant doubt. “You.”

“Yeah, me!”

“You remember that it goes ‘through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered’, right? Not ‘through a nice teacher and a forgiving grading system’?”

“Yeah, well, your father is a fragging aardvark. Let me at the labyrinth already!”

“You know what,” Nie Huaisang said thoughtfully. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

The life-sized animated puppet blinked at him. “You – don’t want my help?”

“Nope. I’m good.”

“You haven’t even gotten into the labyrinth yet!”

“It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t have a chance to get in,” Nie Huaisang said, patting around his sleeve and pulling out a fan. “So I’m just going to walk over and beat at the wall till something happens.”

The puppet followed him, staring blankly. Quite a change from his original apologetic ‘I’m sorry, I’m busy with my own things, I really can’t help you, also it’s too dangerous and you shouldn’t go’ response.

“You were blackmailing me to help you just a moment ago,” the puppet said after a little. “Don’t you need a guide?”

“Listen, I’m bad at memorizing things and I’m a little useless, but I’m not actually dumb,” Nie Huaisang said, fanning himself. “Jin Guangyao is a demon of the mind above all else, and the labyrinth is supposed to be ‘fair’ – which means, more than likely, that the labyrinth is a reflection of the subconscious, specially tailored to each person’s strengths and weaknesses. And that means that you, who sound exactly like Lan Xichen, are almost certainly a set-up sent by Jin Guangyao to ‘reluctantly’ aid me and then betray me.”

“Uh,” Lan Xichen-the-puppet said. “My name’s Hoggle, actually.”

“Whatever makes you feel better, er-ge…A-ha!” Nie Huaisang beamed at the gates that automatically opened. “Perfect!”

“Oh, don’t go that way,” the worm said. “Never go that way. And are you sure you don’t want to come in for a cup of tea?”

“No time,” Nie Huaisang said. “Thanks a lot – wait.”

The worm blinked at him.

“You’re a pretty attractive worm, in a slimy sort of way,” Nie Huaisang said, frowning at him.

The worm blinked again. “Why, thanks!”

“No, that’s not what I meant. Is your name Su She, by chance?”

“Definitely not!”

“Mm. Oddly vehement of you. Never mind. Just, quick, could you tell me exactly why do I not want to go that way?”

“I don’t suppose straight ahead is an option?”

The hands-faces stared at him.

“I’m just saying, I feel like most of my problems so far have come from the fact that I decided to accept the whole concept of turns. It seems like a mistake.”

“…it’s a labyrinth,” another set of the hands said. “You have to make turns!”

Nie Huaisang shook his head mournfully. “I should’ve brought Baxia or something and just – ZIP. Gone straight through. You know what I mean?”

“I’m dropping you in the oubliette regardless of your decision,” the first set of the hands said. It sounded a bit like Sect Leader Yao. “Just so you know.”

“My life is so hard,” Nie Huaisang sighed. “So hard! Do you know what it’s like to be overlooked by everyone? Do you know how hard I have to work at being this useless?”

“Drop him,” the set of hands that sounded like Sect Leader Ouyang said, and the set of hands that sounded like Sect Leader Yao said, “Yes. Now!”

Down Nie Huaisang went.

“I can take you back to the beginning of the labyrinth,” Lan Xichen offered.

“What, and waste all that time? I have a time limit, er-ge!”

“It’s better than being stuck in an oubliette. That’s where they put people to forget about them, you know.”

Nie Huaisang’s eyes filled with tears. “You want to forget me, er-ge? You think I’m useless, don’t you? A good-for-nothing, who’ll never amount to anything –”

“Please don’t cry.”

“ER-GE! WHY DON’T YOU LOVE ME!”

“Please stop crying!”

“So what’s the point of you?” Nie Huaisang asked the Wise Man with the Talking Hat.

“Not everyone exists to contribute to your storyline,” the Talking Hat snapped at him. “Some of us’ve got our own problems. Now hand over the candy!”

“Don’t be mean,” the Wise Man said. He had a white cloth over his eyes, and was smiling like he found the hat funny.

“Awww, but daozhang…!”

“Different plotline entirely, I guess,” Nie Huaisang decided. “Probably just here as a foil. Shall we keep going, er-ge?”

“I can’t believe you scammed me to get out of the oubliette,” Lan Xichen mumbled. “I can’t believe…”

“Oh, leave him alone, he’s just sensitive!” Nie Huaisang snapped.

“Am not!” the upside-down creature snarled, curled up on itself and trying to hide from all those that had been hitting him. Its fur was a vivid sort of purple. “Go away!”

“Don’t you have some sort of special power to help you here,” Nie Huaisang asked him as he tried to get him down before the goblins came back with weapons. “Rocks, maybe?”

“…lightning?”

“Well then get to it, will you?” Nie Huaisang frowned. “Wait. Lightning, constantly being tormented, terrible at communication, and purple? You’re Jiang Cheng, aren’t you?”

“…maybe.”

“Well then get down faster! I need to copy someone’s notes here!”

“Leave me aloooooooone!” Nie Huaisang howled, running away from the measuring snake.

“Wow,” Lan Xichen said, holding his cheek. “You kissed me.”

“You saved me from the snakes,” Nie Huaisang said. “Can we focus on how we’re in this awful stinking bog?”

“It’s not that bad!” a voice piped up. “I don’t smell anything!”

Nie Huaisang turned to stare, then pinched the bridge of his nose. “Of course you don’t,” he said. “I bet the total absence of a sense of smell helps when you eat spicy food, Wei-xiong.”

“There’s nothing wrong with spicy food!”

“You’re short,” Nie Huaisang informed the small goblin-like creature with the big grin and the red ribbon in its hair. It looked vaguely fox-like, or possibly like certain large breeds of rabbit.

“Why you..!” Wei Wuxian crossed his furry little paws over his chest. “Just for that, I’m not going to help you.”

“Uh-huh,” Nie Huaisang said. “Really. That’s awful…oh no! A dog!”

Wei Wuxian jumped high into the air. “A dog?! Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan! Save me!”

Much to Nie Huaisang’s surprise, a furry dog immediately darted out of nowhere – only Wei Wuxian didn’t seem afraid of it, but rather hid behind it, teeth chattering.

Truly, Nie Huaisang reflected, the eyes of love are blind.

“I think the ‘dog’ is gone now,” he said. “Your brave and noble Lan Wangji must’ve scared him away.”

Wei Wuxian’s head popped out from behind dog-Wangji. “Well, Lan Zhan is really cool…hey. Are you trying to manipulate me?”

“Is it working?”

“No!”

“So you won’t help me?”

“No!”

“Not even if it means you get to figure out a really tricky puzzle?”

“No – wait. A puzzle?”

“I can’t believe this is going to work,” Lan Xichen muttered from behind Nie Huaisang. “I mean, I can. But also…Wangji…I love you, but you could do so much better than this.”

“Ugh,” Nie Huaisang said. “I’m so thirsty.”

“Have some Emperor’s Smile,” Lan Xichen said, offering a jar.

“Amazing,” Nie Huaisang said, accepting it and taking a swing. “I had my doubts, you know, but you’re actually good for something after all, er-ge –”

The golden bird was Nie Huaisang’s favorite.

He’d worked so hard to bring it back to his aviary – it couldn’t be forced, he knew; it would play along at first but in the end it would turn on you and bite you. It had to be coaxed with gentleness and kindness, approached indirectly so as not to spook it, convince it that you really did mean well – that you were harmless, that it had no reason to fear you. It was arrogant, too, proud of its shining feathers and ashamed of the brown plumage of its chick days, which still remained visible on its tender underbelly. Ironically, that was Nie Huaisang’s favorite part of it, the soft and gentle part; it might not be as pretty as the gold, but it felt more genuine.

Nie Huaisang smiled as he brushed the beautiful feathers, and the golden bird allowed him. He felt cherished, treasured. So what if he had to hide all the sharp parts of himself to get this close?

It was fine. He didn’t like to be sharp.

He wanted to be soft. Soft and gentle, careless and free, relaxed and without effort, good for nothing –

Wait.

No!

“It’s all junk,” Nie Huaisang hissed at the pile of burning fans, tears in his eyes. “I want my da-ge!”

“You’re all right!” Wei Wuxian exclaimed, helping pulled Nie Huaisang up.

“Huaisang-xiong,” Jiang Cheng said, looking relieved. “You’re back.”

“We have to go to the temple beyond the Goblin City,” Nie Huaisang said, teeth gritted together. “We have to. I won’t let that bastard…we’re going to go there and throw all his damned tricks right in his face!”

“Just us?” Wei Wuxian asked. “I mean, I’m awesome, Lan Zhan is fantastic, and of course Jiang Cheng is great, too, but…uh…there’s a lot of goblins in the city.”

“We’ll sneak in,” Nie Huaisang said. “He thinks he’s sidelined me entirely – he thinks I’m useless. He won’t be expecting me to get this far.”

“I can get help,” Jiang Cheng said. “I have friends.”

“…not to be rude, Jiang-xiong,” Nie Huaisang said. “But – really?”

“You know what,” Nie Huaisang said, eyeing the pile of rocks following Jiang Cheng around, each one painted with a name. One of the names was yellow. Two were in white, with forehead ribbons. “This is fine. I feel like it says something really rude about my empathy for and interest in our junior generation, or lack thereof, but you know what? I don’t care. It’s fine.”

“You saved me,” Nie Huaisang said blankly, looking at Lan Xichen, who shrugged, abashed. The remains of the mechanical temple guard were scattered all over. “Over – him?”

“Huaisang –”

“No,” Nie Huaisang said, holding up his hands. “Don’t. Don’t…I don’t want to hear you talk.”

Lan Xichen’s head dropped down and he looked at the ground. “You knew from the beginning what I was like,” he murmured. “I never tried to hide it –”

“I forgive you for being what you are,” Nie Huaisang told him, and Lan Xichen looked up at him, startled and pleased. “I forgive you for not having the backbone to stand up against Jin Guangyao for me – or for da-ge. For being willfully blind for so long, for needing someone else’s proof of his ill-intentions, for always picking him first, for never trusting me…I forgive you, even if you’d never forgive me for the same.”

He dashed away the angry tears in his eyes.

“I just wish this wasn’t a fucking metaphor.”

Nie Huaisang left the fighting to the people who knew what to do – Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng, even the rock-juniors – and went to the temple at the center of the city alone.

Some things, he knew, needed to be done alone, even if it was the type of alone when you were surrounded by other people. Even when those other people stood by his side and made him promise that if he needed them, he would only need to call. Some things…

“I want my da-ge back,” he said to the maze of stairs.

“Then go and find him,” Jin Guangyao replied, looking smug, and Nie Huaisang had to go up and down all those fucking stairs, because Jin Guangyao was nothing if not predictable with his trauma, looking all over, looking for –

Looking for pieces.

“It’s just a metaphor,” he whispered to himself, ignoring how tears were streaming down his face. “It’s just – I need to put him back together, it’s fine. I’m not too late – I’m not too late –”

Jin Guangyao held Nie Mingjue’s head in his hands, blinded and gagged and bound with talismans, pulled out of whatever oubliette he'd shoved it into to forget about what he'd done. “Beware, Huaisang,” he said, still smiling. Always smiling. “I’ve been generous up until now, but I can be cruel.”

Nie Huaisang laughed, scoffing. “Generous? What have you done for me that’s generous?”

“Everything! Everything you’ve wanted, I’ve done – I cared for you, I gave you attention, I got you out of work, doing your schoolwork for you and coming up with excuses to get you out of saber training. I gave you presents, fans and pretty clothing, and when that brute of a brother of yours tried to take them from you, I rescued you. And then I even managed your sect for you, answered all of your questions, any time you had – Huaisang, I’m exhausted trying to live up to your expectations of me. Isn’t that generous?”

Nie Huaisang bared his teeth. “Half of those are burdens that only fell on me because of you. Why should it matter to me that cleaning up your own mess and satisfying your own guilt is hard? Why should I pay such a price when all I wanted was to be your friend? When all da-ge wanted was to be your friend? How dare you, Meng Yao!”

“Huaisang…” Jin Guangyao shook his head mournfully. “Huaisang, the last step here is to say the words to break the spell. But you were never good at memorization, were you?”

Nie Huaisang bit his lip until he drew blood.

“Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered,” he said. “I have fought my way here to the temple beyond the goblin city –”

“Huaisang, stop! Look at what you’re risking here. You know how everyone loves me – do you think anyone will forgive you for taking me down, for tricking them all? You’ll be all alone!”

I already am, Nie Huaisang thought.

“My will is as strong as yours,” he said. “And my kingdom is as great…”

His voice trailed off.

“I ask for so little,” Jin Guangyao said beseechingly, convincingly, looking just like he always did, like the man who'd been their friend. “Just let me fool you, and you can have anything you want. No responsibilities, no stress, a life of your own. You can even have Lan Xichen, if that’s what you want…”

What’s the last line, Nie Huaisang thought, hating himself for being such a poor student, for cramming things into his mind without any order, for never being able to retain a single drop of it no matter how hard he tried. What is it? Why can’t I ever remember?

“It’d be so easy,” Jin Guangyao crooned. “Much easier than this. Just fear me, love me, believe me, and I’ll be your slave.”

Sharp teeth in a false smile.

Nie Huaisang shook in terror. He couldn’t – his da-ge needed him – he couldn’t be afraid, couldn’t be a coward, couldn’t be good-for-nothing – couldn’t let Jin Guangyao win – couldn’t let him –

That was it.

Nie Huaisang raised his head until his eyes met his enemy’s.

Sensing something wrong, Jin Guangyao’s eternal smile dimmed, and he began to step forward, reaching out, but it was too late.

“You have no power over me,” Nie Huaisang declared, and the world within a world collapsed.

Nie Huaisang opened his eyes.

Nie Huaisang sat in his desk in the Unclean Realm, trying to amuse himself by trying to figure out what exactly he’d eaten the night before that had given him such bizarre dreams. It was not successful, on account of him being alone.

Alone, just as he had been every night, and every day as well, since the success of his scheme at the Guanyin Temple.

Just as the dream-Jin Guangyao had threatened.

It wasn’t that Nie Huaisang regretted what he had done – the dream was clear enough about that; he’d do it all again in a heartbeat if he had to. But in the dream he’d been working alongside his former friends, with Lan Xichen betraying but then returning to him, with Wei Wuxian dragging Lan Wangji around, with stone-faced Jiang Cheng and the rather interchangeable junior squad behind him…and in his dream, in the end, they’d let him go to take his revenge, telling him that if he needed them for any reason, he could just call.

Just call, and they’d come back to him. Instead of turning from him in disgust, they’d stand by his side…

“Stupid subconscious,” Nie Huaisang mumbled to himself. “What do you expect? That I'd write to them and say ‘for no real reason at all, I find that I rather need you’?”

Silence answered him.

“Well, I do,” he said with a sigh, putting his chin on his hands. “Does that make you happy? I do need you.”

“You do?” Wei Wuxian’s voice rang out, and Nie Huaisang jumped nearly out of his skin. “Well, why didn’t you say so?”

Nie Huaisang turned, staring: it was Wei Wuxian at the door, the human version of him, and of course there was Lan Wangji right before him, and Jiang Cheng, and the (still mostly interchangeable) juniors, and – and even Lan Xichen, who Nie Huaisang was sure had gone into seclusion with no intent to leave.

“What are you doing here?” Nie Huaisang squeaked. And why hadn’t any of his sect disciples warned him?

“We just bullied our way though the door before anyone could stop us,” Wei Wuxian said cheerfully, answering the unspoken question first. “As for the rest – it turns out that I had the strangest dream the other night, really, truly bizarre, and obviously I had to tell Lan Zhan all about it, except it turned out he had a strange dream too.”

Nie Huaisang’s jaw dropped. “But –”

“I felt da-ge’s qi woven into the labyrinth,” Lan Xichen said quietly. “I thought it’d have long ago dissipated or been locked away, but – it was there, in every stone, in every turn. Every obstacle that didn’t really hurt you, every goblin that was more silly than scary…he was there. It was unmistakable.”

Nie Huaisang swallowed. The story of the labyrinth, baby-stealing wish-granting goblin king and all, had been one that Nie Mingjue had told him as a bedtime story, when he'd been a child in need of comfort; he hadn’t thought of it in years before last night. “But…why…?”

“Because Chifeng-zun has a demented sense of humor?” Jiang Cheng suggested, looking irritated.

“Jiujiu means that he hasn’t had that much fun in years, and also that you should throw a party,” Jin Ling said. “You are hosting all three of the sect leaders of all the other Great Sects. Also, why were we rocks?”

“Uh, no idea,” Nie Huaisang said. “Da-ge’s weird sense of humor, no doubt! Anyway, did you say party? I can do a party!”

He rushed out of the room, calling for his servants, calling for them to bring food and wine and tea, and as he did, he looked out of the window – a golden bird was flying away, looking hunted as if something was chasing it, and even as he watched, it crossed the borders of the Unclean Realm and suddenly dissolved into a fizzle of golden dust.

Nie Huaisang put his hand on the stone wall, and felt a familiar echo.

A very familiar echo.

“Oh,” he said, to his servants, feeling somehow simultaneously sheepish and filled with joy. “And while you’re at it, can you bring me my saber? I seem to have – misplaced it…”

#mdzs #nie huaisang #jin guangyao #lan xichen #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #lan wangji #su she #sect leader yao #sect leader ouyang #xiao xingchen #xue yang #my fic #my fics #labyrinth

325 notes · View notes