#it’s unfair i know it but i still wish i was better anyway because i’m not happy with how things are going | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thisblogisaboutabook · 5 days

Text

Mr. and Mrs. Shadowsinger

Azriel x Reader - Angst - Smut

His eyes are cold and restless, his wounds are almost healed, and she’d give half of Prythian just to change the way he feels. She knows his love’s in the Hewn City and she knows he’s going to go. But it’s not a female he’s leaving for, it’s his damned duty to the Night Court.

Warnings: sexual content, grinding, dom/sub dynamic, language, bondage, grinding, fingering, toxic couple, using intimacy as a form of persuasion

Her mate was strong but gods damn it, so was she. Perhaps that’s why by some cruel twist of fate, she was mated to the infamous Spymaster of Night Court. A male that could torture the secrets out of seasoned liaisons with even the highest of clearances. Nobody in Prythian was better at the game than him, and he wouldn’t allow anyone a moment to doubt it. “Cold”, “Calculating”, “Ruthless”, those that feared him would whisper.

“Are you fucking kidding me, Azriel?” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

His cold, stony gaze fixed on the door behind her as she pressed her body against it, blocking the exit.

Placing two palms to his leather covered chest, she shoved - perhaps she was the only one who didn’t fear him. In fact, she loved him and that was the fucking problem. She wished she didn’t, wished she could let his ass walk right out that front door and not give him a second glance. Instead she was so hopelessly devoted to him that she couldn’t fathom letting him go without a fight. The irony wasn’t lost on her that she needed him, like he needed to draw information from anyone he perceived as a threat to the Night Court. Those that respected him would call it honorable. She called it fucking insufferable.

To his credit, at the belligerent outburst of his mate, a slight tick of his jaw was the only sign of his irritation - a large hand raising to each of her shoulders.

“You just got back! This is fucking bullshit and you know it!” She huffed. She wouldn’t cry, wouldn’t let him see her weak. No, not today. Let him read the resolve in her eyes.

“I’ll be back tomorrow night.” His firm tone left no room for argument.

Too bad for him she didn’t give a damn about personal space as she made room to retaliate anyway.

“You’re not even healed! Your left wing is tattered in two places. Never mind the fact that I’ve barely seen you this past month. What the hell, Azriel? Do I not matter to you?”

His cold, restless gaze faltered for a moment. “That’s unfair, Y/N, and you know it. You matter and so does ensuring the safety of the court we live in. It’s my duty.”

She pushed a finger into his chest, emphasizing her next words. “No, Azriel, what’s unfair is the way you are walking out on me again. Fuck this court and every person in it, I only want you.” Rage seeped through her, rising to a boil beneath her heated skin. Azriel’s lips remained pressed in a firm line, a slight rustle of his wings the only show of frustration.

Lifting a scarred finger and tracing it lightly along the side of her face, he tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “You don’t mean that.”

Her brow creased at the implication. “I do and you know it. You are all I care about, you’re my fucking mate, not the people of this court, not the city of Velaris, YOU.”

Shaking his head, he remained calm, letting out an exhale. “We can’t keep doing this, Y/N. You’ve known my duties since well before we mated. You don’t see me complaining when you’re away on missions for the Valkyries.”

Oh- he struck a nerve with that. Bracing himself for the recoil he stood firm, crossing his arms in the warriors stance he and Cassian had both perfected over the years. With a cock of his head he continued, “Did I strike a nerve there? Let it out, Y/N. Let’s get this out of the way so you’re not stewing the entire time that I’m gone.”

“You are infuriating!” She howled, her power rolling off her skin in waves, Azriel’s shadows recoiled but he didn’t flinch. “You know why you don’t complain? Because you’re still fed, fucked, and fawned over every single night you’re home. Do I get the same treatment in return? No!”

“So that’s why you’re upset?” He challenged. “You need me to fill your pretty cunt? Is that it baby?”

He hit his mark with the statement. A rush of arousal barreling into him before she clamped down on their bond, rage again lining her sharp features. “I can get off well enough on my own, Azriel.” she spat, his name dripping off her lips with venom. He wanted to bite those lips, suck the venom coating right off of them.

He leaned in, centimeters away from her ear, running a thumb gently up and down her forearm. “You sure about that? You seem a bit-“ hazel eyes roved hungrily up and down her form, from the exposed flesh of the thighs her negligee did very little to cover, to the hint of areola peaking over the deep cut of lace trim, disheveled in her haste to catch him before he left the house. He closed the distance, his lips now caressed the shell of her ear. “-tense.”

“Fuck you.” She snarled.

“Oh, did I not make that clear enough?” He took her chin between his thumb and forefinger, his hazel eyes boring into the depths of her own. “That’s what I’m offering.”

“You can’t fix this with fucking! I’m going to get Rhys, now. You’re not leaving. Not this time.” She stormed to their bedroom, the curve of her ass teasing him as he followed her through the house. Throwing open the armoire door she grabbed a silk t-shirt and leggings, hurriedly putting them on over her slip. Azriel’s tall form leaned against the door frame, arms crossed, watching his angry little mate with a smirk.

“I’m not fucking joking.” She scowled. “I don’t give a shit that he’s your High Lord. You’re MY mate first. Or did you forget that?” She marched toward the doorway shifting to slide past his towering frame. Just as she thought he’d let her past he flung out an arm. “How could I forget, my love? Your fiery rage is the soothing balm warming my own forged of ice.”

She hissed as she barreled into his arm, no match against the 500 years of hard-earned, corded muscle beneath. “No you don’t.” He hauled her over his right shoulder as she kicked and beat her clenched fists against the defined muscles of his back. “Put me down!”

He smiled to himself with satisfaction at the fact that though his mate was livid as all hel with him, she still was careful to throw those fists away from the sensitive membranes of his wings.

Reaching the edge of their oversized bed and much to her dismay, Azriel cradled one hand to the nape of her neck, and looped the opposite arm beneath her ass, dropping her onto the bed, his shadows darting out to restrain her.

“This isn’t going to work!” She yelped.

He hummed, a look of pure male arrogance crossing his gorgeous features. Leaning over the edge of the bed, he braced his weight on his left arm, tracing a calloused finger down the valley between her breasts. “Is that why the sweet aroma of your need is filling every inch of this room?”

Gritting her teeth, she fought the shadows pinning her to their bed.

She loved this and he knew it. His mate was wild, untamed, only yielding within the safety of their bedroom walls.

He placed a knee between her thighs, spreading them, and placing just enough pressure against her core to earn a whimper at the friction.

“Tell me what you need, Y/N.” he demanded.

The female shook her head.

“I may be a patient male, love, but I don’t have time to wait for you. Going to need you to use your words.”

She only scowled at him and he didn’t miss the way she almost imperceptibly arched her back, raising her chest, pebbled nipples peaking from beneath her silken shirt.

“Very well.” He tsk’d, turning his back, wings flaring slightly to remind her of just how accurate the rumors about wingspan were.

He stepped outside the door frame, turning the corner when a pitiful “Wait.” came from their room.

Her scent flowed to him from their room, his cock jerking at the win, at the fact that her submission and desire for him was so evident. He waited a moment. Oh yes, he was going to make her wait for this. Spymaster duties could hold off long enough to punish his girl for her outburst, in all the ways she loved to be reprimanded. She needed the attention and her behavior was a clear sign of it.

So he sauntered back into their room, oozing with confidence as he took in the sight of his mate, defenseless in her binded state.

“Can you be good for me, baby?” He asked in a condescending manner.

She nodded her head, apology dancing in her eyes.

“Promise me, baby.” He teased. “Show me just how good you can be.”

“Yes, sir.” She spoke submissively.

Pride sparked in his chest at her changed behavior. Releasing his shadows, he looked to her with faux empathy in his eyes, seating himself at the edge of the bed. “Strip.”

She did as he requested with no argument.

“Good girl.” He cooed, patting his thigh. “Now c’mere”

He took in every inch of exposed skin as she strode toward him, avoiding eye contact in a show of deference. Very well, the subtle bounce breasts with each step was captivating his attention anyway.

His submissive girl was so fucking good for him.

She spread her legs, straddling his thigh, dropping her weight down onto it, waiting patiently for his next command.

Looking into her eyes, he whispered in a low voice that sent chills through her, his palm cupping her jaw, thumb running across her lower lip. “You’re so delicious, you know? Those pretty lips make me want to devour them until they’re puffy and red.”

He was setting the bait. The next sentence determining whether she’d be rewarded or not based on her response. “But, unforunately” Azriel let out an exasperated sigh, “I don’t have all day. Our court needs me.”

He caught the flash of violence in her eyes, the rage warring within them. But to his surprise, she didn’t react. Not one single word of resistance falling from that pretty mouth.

He placed a hand on either side of her hip, situating her center over the seam of his leathers. “I know you didn’t like that, sweet girl. But look at you, you’re being so good for me right now. You’re learning.”

She smiled coyly at the praise, biting her lip and looking up to him with fluttering eyelashes.

“You can move now, baby. Take your pleasure.”

So she did, finding that perfect angle and rhythm to bring the friction she so desperately needed to her aching core.

Her body began to tense, little moans and whimpers spilling from her lips, brows furrowing as she focused on her pleasure. “Azzie.” She whispered innocently. “Please, may I come?”

He brought a scarred hand to the back of her head. “Such good manners, baby. So proud of you.”

She beamed at the praise.

“Yes, my good girl. You may.”

A whimper fell from her lips as his thumb found the sensitive bud of her clit, moving it in those rhythms he’d long ago perfected, bringing her to the edge in no time.

She cried out his name through shattered moans, her head falling to the crook of his neck, breasts heaving against him. When her panting settled, she whispered, “Thank you.”

Opening his mouth to accept her gratitude, he was taken back by something pulling at his wrists, ankles following suit.

His mate hopped off of him, heading to the closet. “What the hell?” Azriel shouted.

“Some Spymaster you are.” She chided, eyes rolling with contempt. “When would I ever submit so easily? Think with your other head next time, Az.”

Throwing on a set of leathers that typically would have had his cock at full attention by the way they hugged her like a second layer of skin, she flashed him a vulgar gesture and left the room, leaving him pinned to their four-poster bed by his own damned shadows.

He fought against the binds but the traitorous things were having none of it.

“Y/N! Come back!” He yelled but the only response was the slamming of the front door echoing down the hall.

——————————

Hours later a disheveled Shadowsinger found himself in the Hewn City. After much convincing his shadows had finally let him free of their restraint when he promised the lecherous things their share of playtime with their favorite little mate - their mate who was absolutely going to be punished later.

He was fuming, embarrassment weighing heavily upon him like an anchor. He almost felt bad for the subject Rhys has sent him to elicit information from today. They expected it would take at least a day, if not two to work on this one. Azriel guessed a day based on the less-than-generous mood he was in.

His heavy footsteps echoed off the walls of the Hewn City dungeons as he neared the cell of his subject, shadows promising violence, an obvious attempt to win back his affections after their betrayal.

Azriel gaped as he rounded the corner to find his leather clad mate sitting in a chair outside the cell, seated in a relaxed show of dominance with one leg crossed over the other, irreverently picking at her cuticles with fucking Truth-Teller.

“What the hell?” He fumed at his mate. “Where is the prisoner?”

“Oh, him?” She flashed a wicked grin.

“He’s gone. I got the information Rhys needed.”

His brows furrowed with disbelief. There was no way. It had only been a couple of hours. “How?”

She stood, swishing her hips as she sauntered toward him, brushing her chest against his. “I have my ways. Certainly you would know that.” She flicked her gaze to his swirling shadows who quickly hid in shame. “Your shadows surely do.”

Gripping him by the front of his leathers, she pulled him into a kiss, claiming his mouth with her own. The Shadowsinger too dumbfounded to argue.

“C’mon Shadowsinger.” She quirked an eyebrow, as she looked into his eyes with challenge. “You’re mine. Now, let’s go home.”

—————————————-

A/N: you get extra credit if you know where the summary for this story came from.

General tags: @lilah-asteria

#acotar #sarah j maas #a court of thorns and roses #azriel #a court of silver flames #a court of frost and starlight #a court of mist and fury #a court of wings and ruin #azriel x reader #azriel shadowsinger #shadowsinger #Azriel smut #azriel one shot #Azriel’s mate #azriel spymaster #spymaster

308 notes · View notes

buckyownsmylife · 7 months

Text

don't - manager!henry cavill smut

The one where Henry is your much older manager, but that doesn’t stop you from falling for him.

Warnings: age gap, secret relationship, parents disapproval, smut, unprotected sex, celeb!reader

Henry’s P.O.V.

I watched her from afar, the flashing lights not nearly as blinding as she could be. She was magnificent, but not because of the designer dress or the bling that she was always scared would be too much. It was all her. Her personality, her smile, the way her eyes shined brighter than anything under the sun. And when her eyes met mine after she was done posing for the pictures, I felt like time had stopped right then and there.

I should be so lucky.

She smiled at me, and I couldn’t help but think that this was unfair. Why was I so much older than her? Why did we have to meet in these circumstances? Why had I met someone so close to perfection, only to be unable to ever have her?

Those were ridiculous questions, I knew. Questions I’d never know the answer. And while sometimes the anger of having to stand so close to paradise without being able to live in it did consume my waking thoughts and recurring nightmares, most of the time I was able to live with that knowledge.

The knowledge that at least I could be near her. Touch her. Have her the way I wanted to. Even if it wasn't exactly that. It was something, at least. It was better than nothing. Having her was better than not being near her at all.

“You ready to go?” She asked when she approached me, and I swallowed down the lump in my throat to guide her through the sea of people in the direction of our seats. She hesitated for a second, looking in the direction of the exit, but came anyway. I knew what she was thinking and feeling - I’d known her long enough, intimately enough, to know that there was nothing that she despised more than this sort of event.

“It’ll be over soon,” I reminded her, even though it wasn’t necessarily the truth, simply because I couldn’t reach out and hold her hand like I wanted to actually comfort her. “We’ll be back home in no time.” When she looked up at me, I could see in her eyes that the words had elicited the same thoughts in her as they did in me.

Home. The place where we didn’t have to hide.

Y/N’s P.O.V.

I took a deep breath when we were inside the house again and the door closed behind us, signaling the end of a long and tiring day. It felt like the first one I’d done in a long time, like I’d been deep underwater and only now was able to get back to the surface, reacquaint myself with the oxygen again.

It wasn’t all bad, I know, but it *was getting harder and harder to get through these things when I had him so close to me, but had to stop myself from reaching out and just hold his hand like I wanted to. The more in love I fell, the harder it was to remember that the world shouldn’t know about this feeling that had grown between us. It was difficult to believe that opening our relationship to outsider’s views wouldn’t simply maximize this feeling of peace that I only got when I was with him.

“Tell me the truth,” he started, and I already smiled, despite my somber mood. “Didn’t you have a good time, after all?” It had been a nice night, that remained true despite my tendency to focus on the bad. I’d even won a couple awards, and that always felt nice. Still, it hurt so much not to be able to thank him when I went up there, and I couldn’t recognize his role in my life for what it truly was - my inspiration, my love.

“Yes.” It was clear that my word hid a ‘but’. “I just wish everyone could know I’m yours.” It was then, and only then, that I turned around to meet his eyes. I don’t know what I expected to find there - probably understanding, maybe even resentment for finding himself stuck in this situation with me, but when pain was what I found in his beautiful eyes, my bottom lip started trembling.

“I owe you so much, Bear.” I’d been calling him that ever since we first started working together, when I was still a teenager with big dreams and no real understanding of how Hollywood worked. “I just wanted to be able to acknowledge that.”

He pulled me into his arms then, but instead of just holding me against his chest, like he usually did when he wanted to comfort me, his hands cradled my face and I instinctively raised to my tiptoes so he could lap into my mouth, tasting me for the first time in the evening. It felt so good to have his lips on mine again, it felt like a lifetime away when I was last able to kiss him. So I lost myself in the kiss, allowing him to take my hair out of the fancy bun so he could bury his fingers in my strands, curl them to pull me away from him and say, “You’re everything to me, darling. People knowing about it won’t change a thing. My smile is still for you and you only, just like I know yours is for me.”

My heart filled with love for the man in front of me. I let him pick me up, wrapping my legs around him as he took us to the bedroom we’d been sharing for so long, promising me that he’d “make me forget all about it.”

And that’s when I remembered why we stayed together despite the hardships. I’d live through one thousand shitty days if it meant I’d get to have him like this at night, mine and only mine.

Our lips were still fused together when he deposited me by the foot of the bed, and I felt his fingers slowly unzip my dress until he could slip it off of me. “Let’s go to bed, baby.” I’d follow him anywhere if he just kept looking at me like that.

Henry’s P.O.V.

I couldn’t stop the small smile from spreading over my face as I watched her join me in bed, her body trembling with anticipation. She was always so eager, my little angel. It only made me feel more powerful, knowing how thoroughly she enjoyed it when I took care of her.

And God, how I loved taking care of her. “You look so beautiful like this, my love,” I whispered as I cupped her face with one hand, guiding her to climb my body with the other. “You want me to fuck you?” By now she couldn’t speak, just whine. Her smaller body rubbed against my lower belly, her pussy betraying her desire as it slathered her wetness just over my stomach.

“Come here, let me give you what you need.” I easily adjusted her so she’d be hovering right over my cock before I pulled her down by her hips, a gasp escaping me as I felt her tightness slowly engulfing my hard member. Instinctively, my thumb found her nub, rubbing it in tight little circles so I could be sure she would find her pleasure before me. “Yeah, you like that, huh?” I teased when she whimpered, hips following my movement as she narrowed her eyes at me.

I raised my feet to the bed so I could have the leverage I needed to invert our positions, taking advantage of the space between her legs to stuff myself inside of her over and over again. I loved feeling her from the inside. I loved that I was the only one to have her like this, the only one who knew what made her fall apart and meet the heavens above. I’d spent the entire ceremony thinking about this moment and now that I had her, I wanted to appreciate every single sound that escaped her perfect lips.

It was bliss, having her like this, hearing her moans and being the cause for them. I knew just how to make her louder, I knew just what and how she liked it. Thinking back on how it had all started, I never expected to have the luck I now knew I possessed, being with her like this.

I came inside of her with a shudder. It was the sight of her fucked out face, her eyes hazy with bliss, and the knowledge that I was about to get her dirty with my seed that ultimately had me reaching my own orgasm.

“You’re mine, darling,” I assured her, pulling out to lay back on the bed and bring her to my chest. “I’d do anything for you.” And I knew she was aware of that. Her only response was to push away from my heartbeat to deposit a kiss on my lips - a passionate, breathtaking kiss, that left me with my eyes closed for a few seconds after we parted.

“I love you, Henry.”

Y/N’s P.O.V.

I woke up with a familiar ache between my legs, the perfect mixture of sensitive and empty that had me filling myself with two fingers only to find the remnants of last night waiting for me. My heart pounded as I considered talking to Henry about stopping taking the pill. It was something that had been in my mind for a while and never failed to make me aroused, but I still hadn’t found the courage to address it with him.

Maybe today was the day.

Deciding to take a quick shower before finding something to eat - I was always starving when I woke up, considering all the exercise Henry made me do just before falling asleep - I quickly washed my body before throwing a simple dress over it, hopping downstairs to fix the both of us breakfast before he woke up.

That was how Henry found me in the kitchen, wearing only some sweatpants, his body still deliciously wet from his own shower when he pressed it against me to give me a quick kiss on the temple.

“Hmm… Good morning, honey,” I greeted after he parted, laughing lightly when he went back to press another peck on my lips.

“Any morning with you is a great one, my love.” My heartbeat raced out of control, still not used to hearing these sorts of comments from him, even after all this time together.

The food was ready, so I turned the stove off, fully prepared to plate it for the both of us, but before I could, two hands made their way to my hips, quickly spinning me around to meet his lips once more.

“Henry!” I jokingly admonished, laughter spilling from my lips whenever he let go just to come back for another kiss again. “Baby, the food is going to get cold…” He didn’t seem to mind, too preoccupied with stealing kisses from me. I was about to give up and pull him in for a deep one when the doorbell rang, startling me into jumping away from his embrace.

“Gosh, who could it be?” The answer came sooner than expected since instead of waiting for one of us to go get the door, keys were heard and then it was being opened by the visitors, who clearly had a way of entering my house, which could only meant one thing: they were my parents.

“Oh, no.” The words escaped my lips before I could reel them in, as I considered the situation my parents would find us: Henry without a shirt on as we made breakfast for the both of us.

“Good morning!” My mom greeted us before stopping by the threshold of the kitchen, her eyes skimming the scene in front of us, just as my father did the same. “Are we interrupting something?”

That was a heavy question because the truth was a resounding yes, they were. In all of the years Henry and I had been together, my parents had never even gotten close to finding out about us - I made sure of that. But the last few months, with the paparazzi shots and inquiring fans, even they had become a bit uncomfortable about my relationship with my manager, and I couldn’t blame them for questioning when I knew what was the truth.

I was in love with a man twice my age, and there was nothing I could do about it. There was nothing that I wished to do, except keep on loving him forever and ever, until my dying days.

“Sweetheart, we came here to congratulate you on your win last night…” My mother rushed to explain, but not before sending a weird look towards Henry and I. “But also to grab that jacket that you promised to let me borrow, remember?”

I did. I also knew this was nothing but an excuse to get me out of the room, but I didn’t know how to fight back. “Please, go grab it for me,” my mother insisted, and after sending one last look to my beloved, I did exactly as she told me to, feeling a heavy weight on my chest for having left Henry behind.

Henry’s P.O.V.

“Stay, Henry.” I had tried to escape after she left, even though it was rude to leave guests unattended, but we all knew where this was headed, and it was a shit storm I was not looking forward to face. “We’d like to talk to you.”

I nodded and waited, wondering which one of the two would be the first to break the apparent calm exterior they were working so hard to maintain.

It was him.

“How could you?” Punching the island, it was a surprise that Y/N didn’t run back at the sound that she surely heard. “That’s my baby, and you took advantage of her!”

“I did no such thing,” I rushed to defend myself. “She’s an adult, she can make her own decisions. Don’t diminish her intelligence by making it seem as if she can’t.” He shook her head vehemently at that, and I knew I wouldn’t get through to him. It was his daughter we were talking about, his baby.

“Mom, dad.” It was her, and she looked pissed. So I was right, she had heard the sound of him punching the island because she didn’t even have the jacket her mother had told her to go get.

“Yes, it’s true. Henry and I are together, and there’s nothing that you can do about it.” Her parents’ mouths opened in protest, but she shut them up by holding her hand up in a gesture of patience.

“No, you need to hear this.” We all remained silent as we waited for what she had to share, and my heart sped up in anxiety at the prospect of what was to come. “I owe him everything. He knows me better than anyone else. And I can’t stand the thought of you ever doubting his character.”

While her parents rushed to apologize, all I could do was stand there and stare admiringly at the woman that I loved, the woman who had defended me so fiercely to her own parents.

Too bad I wouldn’t be able to show her my appreciation tonight.

Y/N’s P.O.V.

“Henry? What are you doing here?” I whispered-yelled at the man who was climbing onto my bed as if my parents weren’t on the room next-door.

“I can’t sleep without your body on top of mine,” he explained, and how could I be mad at that? Relaxing against my sheets, I allowed him to move so he’d glue his body against mine, but I wasn’t counting on feeling his incredible hard-on pressed against my thigh.

The rush of lust that engulfed me was instantaneous, and I turned around to capture his lips in a kiss, all while I climbed onto his body so I could rub my cunt against his clothed member.

“Are you sure?” Was all he asked, always so in sync to me that we didn’t need more than a few words to know what the other wanted, so I nodded. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to walk in the morning, but it would be worth it.

“Shh… You’ll have to be quiet, baby,” he tried to quiet me down as he slipped inside of me, and I inhaled sharply, trying to get through the first bite of pain of being stretched so throughly.

“There you go…” He silenced my cries with a kiss, and it didn’t take long for us to meet bliss together, as I laid spent on his chest.

“Are they right?” He asked suddenly, cutting through the silence of the night.

“No.” My answer was instantaneous, and I pushed myself away from his chest so I could stare into his eyes as I spoke the next few words in my mind: “No one can love me like you.”

“Do you love me?” It was my turn to be insecure, even though I knew the answer to the question, and I was reminded of it by the smile in his face.

“You’re the only one for me,” he reassured me with a deep kiss that left me breathless, and I kept my eyes closed after we parted.

“I hate the thought of not waking up next to you tomorrow,” I admitted, knowing he’d have to sneak out after I was asleep. He clutched me tighter against his chest, brushing a kiss against my forehead.

“I hope you know, I’ll never let you go.” I nodded, almost asleep when he completed, “You do know you don’t owe me anything, right?”

“It’s thanks to you I found out what love is,” I quietly explained. “I owe you everything.”

#my fics #henry cavill smut #henry cavill #smut #manager au #celeb au #henry cavill reader #henry cavill reader smut #rpf

317 notes · View notes

planetflorxa · 1 year

Text

Trash Magic

CW: Hyper-femm reader, Mommy kink, Lesbian sex, Choking, ass slapping. Spitting, Squirting, name calling just once though, scissoring, overstimulation, oral reader receiving.

a/n: ALL RACES ARE WELCOME! The picture is just for the shoes. just realized most of my fanfics and wips have have mommy kinks….That says a lot about me. I also have a dina fanfic that’s almost done it’ll probably come out s week after this on so stay tuned.

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Your friends hated it. They hated the way you always had to sit on her lap when you guys would hang out together. They hate how you two would excuse yourselves to your bedroom and all they could hear was a loud banging against the wall. They wish they would get away from it but they lived with you. They’re just happy Abby doesn’t live there because they’d never get sleep with the way you two are always touching, But they were lucky because abby was on a trip and wasn’t set to get back until a week from today. So it’ll just be you and your friends. Well that’s what they thought anyways.

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

“Draw 8” your friend casey told you. You guys were all sat around the coffee table seated on the floor playing games and drinking. “NO” you said laughing which caused your friends to laugh with you. “That’s cheating why does uno have a custom card.” You said bouncing up. “I’m gonna go get something to eat shuffle the cards and let’s play stacks” “NOO youre such a baby” Your other friend jess said “Oh well” You said scurrying to the kitchen. “Nobody told casey to cheat that was so unfair” you said as you went on your mission to go get snacks

You were in your own world looking through cabinets to something to eat so much so you didn’t hear your friends talking to someone at the door and on top of that you didn’t hear them ring the bell. “Who’s at the door guys” you said walking to the door seeing your girlfriend come into view before they could even tell you. “ABBY WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” you said running up and hugging her almost missing how your friends rolled their eyes in disgust almost. “Hi princess, I’ve missed you” She said grabbing under your ass so she can lift you up “You’re not supposed to get back for like 2 more days” You said kissing her cheek “I’m got bored and i missed you so much” “Really?” you giggled as she walked you to your couch to sit down with you on her lap facing her. You almost got lost talking to her before you remembered your friends.

“Oh sorry guys” you said getting off abbys lap much to her dismay but she still kept a hand on your thigh. “Abby how about you play cards with us” you said awkwardly looking between your friends and her. “Please do much better than going in the room” casey said “For real you guys are so loud” jess chimed in which caused abby to blush a little turning away from you guys. “Okay enough let’s just play” you and abby both took your seats around the table just like the other two.

You guys played for around 10 minutes before you realized they were straight up targeting abby. “First me now Abby what the fuck” you said throwing you cards on the table. “What are you talking about now y/n” jess said throwing his cards on the table as well. “You guys just made her draw 15” you huffed getting up “this is why customs cards are BULLSHIT well me and abby are gonna go watch a movie” you said reaching for her hand so she could stand up with you

“NO GOD PLEASE NO” casey screamed dramatically. You just ignored her “casey please stop it nothings gonna happen just a movie okay” you said grabbing abby’s hand and walking towards your room

You lied

“Ahhhh mommy fuckkkk~” you screamed on your knees back arched the side of your face pushed against the pillow so you can breathe while she used your hands for leverage to pound into you hard. “Take it princess f-fuck i know you can” she let go of your hands instead grabbing the fat of your hips pace not faltering “Do you like the way i fuck you? You like how deep mommy’s going or you want more” you couldn’t breathe she WAS fucking so deep aimed straight at your sweet spot and she knew that. You were gushing and creaming all around her and she was so hypnotized by it. She couldn’t stop herself from going faster

Before she could think she was spitting in your asshole she then start rubbing it in with her thumb before pushing it in. “a-abby it hu-” she didn’t let you finish before smacking your ass once, twice and then three each time you squealed louder and louder. She took her thumb out your ass grabbed you by your hair to bring you closer to her then switched from your hair than throat choking you as you bended backwards. “What did you call me” she said in a stern voice “I-i’m-fuck i’m sorry” you whimpered out “Okay so what’s my name” she said not letting her hand loosen on your throat or not stop the assaulting pace she had on your pussy.

“Mommy” “that’s right fuckkk~ look at how much of a good girl you are for me” she said letting you go placing her hands back on your hips. “I want you to cum all over me okay princess” “mhm” you said barely even able to keep yourself up “words baby” Abby said whist pushing herself deeper “Aahh- yes yes okay” abby’s hasn’t fucked you in what feels like forever with each drag of her dick it felt like heaven on earth. It felt like eating your favorite meal for the first time. She fucks you so good and so deep making you cream over and over again like the only think on her mind was making you cum and it was. “Mommy i’m gonna come” you said as steady as possible.

You’re voice was probably the most steady think on you right now. Your brain was just filled with you cumming, your legs and arms were shaking from the stimulation definitely not steady and plus you were sweating all over. But she listened you and heard you. She snakes her hand over to play with your clit to make you cum faster and to make it more powerful. “Fuckkkkk mommy” You moaned coming undone squirting all over her pelvis and lower torso “Shhh it’s okay princess” she said fucking you through it trying to make it last as long as possible. It sounded so disgusting the splashing of your cunt. The sound of your moans and abby’s heavy breathing everything about this moment was so erotic she couldn’t help but to keep this going.

She stepped away from you once she worked you down. She had you flip over so you were on your back and you were looking forward to the Aftercare she always seems to bring but on boy were you wrong. Abby slipped the strap off taking her underwear and shorts off rubbing the slick that accumulated from her fucking you across her throbbing cunt. She then went up to you on the bed slotting your legs in between each others placing her pussy on yours. “FUCK ABBY NO NO IM SENSITIVE PLEASE” “shut up bitch” tears starting brimming in your eyes the pleasure was so painful but you didn’t want it to go away your toes were curling as she rubbed her pussy across yours your slick making it so easy for her or slide across you.

You were cumming quicker than you wanted to but abby wasn’t gonna stop until she came so you tried your best to hold yours in. ”fuck y/n your pussy’s so warm” She moaned. You couldn’t even respond to her you just laid there and took it back arching your arms reaching out for her. You couldn’t stop the screams from comming out you wanted to cum so bad you just need her to say those words and your prayers were answered. “Fuck y/n i’m cumming” she moaned so loud and you quickly followed her. Abby’s body was twitching on top of yours she was shaking from not being able to use your body in forever if felt like it was too much almost. “Fuck princess you’re such a good girl” She said looking down at your trembling figure that was covered in sweat that gave your skin a glow. Your eyes were filled with tears as you looked up at her she wanted so much to give you a break but she couldn’t get enough.

Abby untangled your legs from each other she then placed both your legs on her shoulders. “Mommy i can’t” you said pushing her head away before she could even come into contact with your cunt. You knew deep down you couldn’t take anymore so why were you so achy down there. You wanted her to give it to you over and over and over again probably until you passed out. She licked a long stripe up from your clenching hole to your swollen clit before going in a suckling on it. “f-FUCKK ab-Mommy i’m gonna cum” you felt like a slut but the thoughts didn’t linger too long because you were cumming fast and hard but that’s doesn’t mean abby was gonna stop she wasn’t doing it for you she was just addicted to the way you tasted but she knew she had to stop though. She give you a few more licks and slurps cursing herself for not having the heart to keep going.

“How do you feel princess” she said rubbing your head and laying beside you “Tired” you mumbled “Let’s get you cleaned up then you can go to sleep okay”

“okay mommy”

#lesbian #abby anderson #tlou x reader #TLOU #Khywrites #abby anderson x reader #abby smut #mommy #tlou smut #wlw smut

658 notes · View notes

newtonsheffield · 3 months

Note

Molly…what happens when Kate sees Anthony the next day? I suspect an angsty conversation on the drive to the children’s hospital. How does Kate come to realize that Anthony wants more than just a short term, secret affair? Does she feel the same and she’s afraid to tell him because let’s face it…signing up for a royal life is in many ways a huge sacrifice and maybe she’s convinced he won’t think she’s worth it?

Oh it’s pretty tense. Mostly because they’d sort of agreed like a month or two before that night that they weren’t really seeing over people. It’s a relationship, at least in Kate’s eyes. She describes herself as Seeing Someone. when she first met Michael she didn’t feel single and she told him she wasn’t and now it feels like her and Anthony are fighting and she doesn’t know why. She hasn’t done anything. And it just… feels like it had started to with James. She’d stayed with him for years too long anyway but she’d started to realise that he didn’t actually like her. Or he did, but only enough to tolerate her. What he really liked was the attention he got from the rumours that swirled around them. The speculation of an engagement that she knew was never coming. Or rather she’d known she’d never accept. He’d never even met her parents. She hadn’t wanted him to. He’d loved the idea of being the boyfriend of a future queen much more than he’d liked her. Kate.

And maybe, no matter how different Anthony seemed from him; He was losing interest as well.

He bowed when she exited the house, the car already on the drive, “Your highness.”

“Good morning, Anthony.” He opened the car door for her to slide in and she cleared her throat as she put the screen up between the driver and herself, “Anthony could you sit in with me please? We need to review the plan.”

It was unfair of her, she knew, to force him to talk to her when he clearly wanted nothing to do with her. But she didn’t want to keep feeling like this. She’d missed him last night, when she’d gone home and taken off the stupid lingerie she’d bought with him in mind and gone to bed early, an eye mask on that made her feel no better.

Anthony inclined his head again, and slipped into the car beside her, clearing his throat as the car pulled away, “We’re scheduled for about two hours, but I know you’ll want to be-”

“I don’t want to talk about that.”

Anthony swallowed, “I’m sorry, I didn’t go home with you last night.”

Kate rolled her eyes, “I’m not mad we didn’t have sex. I’m mad because it feels like we’ve had an argument and I don’t know what the fuck I did.”

Anthony pinched the bridge of his nose and his fingers twitched beside her when she tried to lay her hand over his, “I… I don’t know. I saw you with… that Prince, Stirling. And I… I don’t know.”

Kate’s stomach dropped, “Okay, well, nothing’s going on between Michael and me.”

“But your parents wish there was.”

“He has a girlfriend in the city. That’s why he keeps coming back. He and I are friends.”

Anthony froze, “A girlfriend?”

“Yes, he has a girlfriend. And He knows that you and I…” She wasn’t sure how to categorize them. They hadn’t.

“He knows about us?”

“Yes, he doesn’t care, we’re just hanging out.”

Anthony nodded slowly, swallowing, “Well, your parents still don’t know so it doesn’t matter.”

“Is that what you want? You want me to tell them?” She was surprised how eager she was to do it. If that’s what he wanted, She was ready to start the process of him being presented as her partner. Even though she knew what it would mean. They’d be expected to marry in due course. She’d been with James for years and the official palace line had been that they were “Spending time together” Another thing he’d grown impatient with. But for Anthony she would do it.

“I don’t… know. No.”

“Because you aren’t sure about me?” It would be better to know. She’d rather know now and spend the weekend with tears rolling down her face

“Because I’m not ready for this to be over.”

The car pulled to a stop and before Kate could say anything, Anthony had thrown open the car door and was waiting for her outside.

#bodyguard au #kathony #anthony x kate #kate sharma #kate sheffield #anthony bridgerton #molly’s asks and answers

73 notes · View notes

hoodlessmads · 5 months

Text

Dark Heir spoiler thoughts:

Okay some of these are criticisms but please understand I really liked it! I liked it even more than Dark Rise. I’m just an overdramatic person and need to yell sometimes.

These don’t have any particular order, I’m just freestyling -

Reading Captive Prince years ago (and rereading since) before reading Dark Rise made me have an unfair resentment towards James for being basically the same character as Laurent but not as good and that continued here

Will is the second best character Pacat has ever made after Laurent and book 3 might push him ahead

I loved seeing Will use more and more of his evil powers

The best one being where he possesses anyone with a brand and his eyes turn black and he turns into Legion (maybe shoulda turned that off before trying to appeal to Violet…)

Finding out his mom actually was tying him to bedposts and beating him this whole time somehow shocked me because for some silly reason I believed one of the most unreliable third person subjective narrators ever, Will, that she was a nice lady just doing her best. Anyway I love this revelation because it makes such perfect sense, it’s just, “Oh. Of course.”

Violet and Cyprian are both himbos yet Violet is somehow the only character with a single brain cell left at the end of the book

Cyprian drinking from the cup makes no sense after they had a whole discussion in the first book about how drinking from the cup put the Stewards into the Dark King’s plans and made them his thralls and was the entire reason they died, a massacre which Cyprian experienced viscerally, and then he goes and drinks from the cup anyway and oops surprise Will can in fact enthrall him. Cyprian is able to fight it off but that doesn’t change the complete recklessness and out-of-character-ness of it to me.

Violet/Cyrprian is a good ship

Phillip/Visander is hilarious (in a good way)

Will/James is fine but I wish I was more compelled by them than I actually am. For being the main couple, I don’t feel like their relationship has been given the room it needed to develop organically and instead it feels like we’re falling back on physical attraction and a vague shadow of a past relationship in the old world that we didn’t get to see. It’s hard not to compare to Damen/Laurent which by contrast was developed so painstakingly.

Elizabeth is incredible

Visander sucks, actually

The whole Light kind of sucks. The Stewards, the Sun Kingdom, they were all assholes

People with black-and-white morality are truly terrible, aren’t they? And pretty much everyone is like that except for Will, James, and Violet

Sometimes I felt like that fact was really being hammered in on purpose almost as though to make James murdering like 300 people seem less bad (but it didn’t….)

But I don’t dislike James because he murdered 300 people, I actually love villains and I especially am attached to the idea of everyone being redeemable. But what I don’t like is the book telling me I should like James without giving me a good reason or the book downplaying his actions to make him seem more sympathetic. He can have murdered all the Stewards and still be compelling, we don’t need to diminish what he’s done in order for him to be likable

Also everyone in this book except like, Will and maybe Violet and James is an idiot (and I’ll excuse Elizabeth for only being ten). Someone send these characters to Psych 101, they don’t seem to understand the concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy…

Like obviously if you tell someone they’re evil over and over again for their whole lifetime they will become evil

Theory - I don’t think Violet will turn on Will. I think she’s just shell-shocked. She wasn’t really given a chance to take a stance before James Peter Panned him away. Violet knows exactly what it feels like to be told you are evil because of some past thing, and she knows Will better than any of the other characters. And she knows that morality is not black and white (Tom is her brother). She’ll definitely end up in Will’s corner by the end.

Theory - The line of the Lady and the line of the Dark King are the same bloodline and they split off later. Sarcean’s “cataclysmic night together” with the Lady was mentioned not once but twice. Pacat doesn’t waste lines. The child that the Lady had was Sarcean’s, or at least one of them.

Will better figure out how to destroy that collar quick…before they both get even more traumatized. I think that will be one of his main goals in book 3. Or I hope…otherwise it will be hard to develop the genuine romance

I sure hope Will can also figure out how to expel that shadow from Cyprian before he like… dies. Don’t do that to Violet D:

So, I’m not a huge fan of YA in general (outside of YA anime and manga which for some reason hits different). I used to like it a lot, it used to be most of what I read. I grew up reading series like Redwall, Darren Shan, Demonata, Pendragon, and so on. But I’ve grown out of the genre (I’m 27). Not every adult does - one of my best friends who is a year older than me still really enjoys YA. But because I don’t like YA, I think my enjoyment of Dark Rise/Dark Heir is influenced and my criticisms may be unfair.

But I find that with fantasy series like this, I the books really need to be longer. Or there needs to be more of them. I feel like Dark Rise has so many moving pieces, enough characters that there could be a trading card game (and there are literally collectible cards), so many different magical artifacts and magical powers, an entire magical old world beneath the semi-magical 1820s Europe world to develop, and also by the way a whole story that took place 10,000 years ago that has to be told at some point. I find myself feeling like all these different elements are being introduced and moved on from too fast and I wish they were all given more time to breathe. I think that’s part of why the relationship between Will and James feels a bit rushed to me. I don’t know if the short length of the series was Pacat’s choice or an editor’s, though. I don’t feel like Captive Prince had this issue because there were no supernatural elements, the cast was much smaller, and the plot was comparably simple so a lot of it got to be characters just talking to each other, which was great, and the world building was accomplished mainly through these interactions. The plot and world of Dark Rise is much larger in scope but the page count is the same (a little longer maybe).

So wait who is Mrs. Duval

Why did Ettore leave the Stewards anyway? Other than the obvious, which is that they suck

Where was Grace during the whole ending scene? Wasn’t she there but just not saying anything. As this total calamity befalls her only remaining friend group she finally has seen too much and just nopes out and is busy making tea in the corner or maybe popcorn

I do really like Cyprian btw in spite of thinking his moral code is shitty. Gave Violet a chance but sold Will for one corn chip… I see how it is (okay that’s not fair but you know what I mean, he has flaws)

It sounds like I’m in the majority when I say that I still don’t like Devon - I saw that theory about him being the final big bad and I’m so on that train. I think he’d make a good enough final villain. I agree there is something predatory about him and Tom. I don’t necessarily think Pacat wants us to root for them as a couple, though. There were better ways to pull that off if that was the intent.

Not to repeat myself but Phillip was such a pleasant surprise. Like who is this fruit and how did he get here

So next book, I hope (assume) we get to see the rest of the old world story filled in so we can understand where it all went wrong for Sarcean and also the exact nature of his relationship with Anharion because so far it’s been quite vague (intentionally I assume). Like….. you know….. did he agree to put on the collar?

The tricky thing about this series is that once the reader learns that Will is the Dark King, it’s hard to maintain any sort of external tension. Right? It’s hard to feel afraid of the forces of the Dark when the protagonist has total effortless control over them just by virtue of who he is. Will can literally just be like, “No, don’t” and everything’s fine. He did just this at the end of Dark Rise. I find the way Dark Heir seems to end with their “only hope of stopping the Dark army” destroyed to be pretty unconvincing. Why on earth would Sarcean create a destructible object that is the only way of controlling his own army? Of course Will should be able to control them with his will alone. If he can control Shadow Kings and make them die with his words alone, why didn’t he try yelling at the shadow army to stop trying to possess people? This doesn’t make sense to me. And if people become Returners through his magic, shouldn’t he be able to exert some control over their existence the way he does with the branded? Pacat has done a good enough job at getting us to know Sarcean (an extremely good job btw) so as to make the destroyed brand plot point unbelievable. Anyway…

Instead, the tension in Dark Heir is almost entirely internal or realized in character relationships rather than physical threats. The tension is between Will and himself, and between Will and his friends. (There are tensions between other characters but focusing on the main plot here.) The possibility that they might find out and abandon him, and the possibility that he might actually be as nasty of a guy as Sarcean was, the slim chance that he might learn something that makes him go, “You know what, I agree with my past self after all.”

Now that everyone has found out who he is, that particular source of tension has sort of evaporated, so now in book 3 Pacat has to find a way to make Will’s conflict with himself and his friends compelling enough to carry us through 450 pages (I don’t expect this will be difficult). What I see as the problems now are 1) what was Sarcean actually planning and how did he plan on getting Will (himself) to fall in line with them (this was a question in Dark Heir as well but now it’s bigger), 2) how is Will going to destroy his own (Sarcean’s) Dark artifacts so he can free James, and 3) Can he convince anyone to ever love him (oh no ouch).

If I had to rank these books at this stage I’d probably give Rise a 3.7 ish…. and Heir a 4.2. I’m holding out for Dark King to be a 5 or close. (I don’t know what the actual title will be, I’m just guessing lol.) I definitely think Dark Heir is an improvement over Dark Rise since I always thought the most interesting part of the latter by far was everything that happened once Will learns he is the Dark King at the very end.

“Are we going to talk about the magic pseudo-sex scene—“ No and I hope we never will

#dark rise #dark heir #cs pacat #dark heir spoilers #will kempen #will is the beEEeEeSsst #let me know what you think

88 notes · View notes

bronx-bomber87 · 4 months

Text

Happy Monday Lovely fandom. Not a ton in these episodes for them. Gonna combine these two. Thank you for idea D ❤️ These are my least fav of the season. Not gonna lie whenever I reach the Simone eps in a rewatch I skip around her stuff LOL Never resonated with me. So it’s funny the first ep is called Simone and I won’t really be covering her much at all. Probably be a shorter one with some crumbs. Let’s get going though shall we?

4x19 Simone/4x20 Enervo

We start off with an actual bang. John and Lucy respond to a suspicious activity call. It's near a power station in Griffith Park. They find a bomb and get out just in time but not before they’re thrown to the ground by the blast. They get thrown pretty damn far and are fairly banged up. It's insane how much damage they took even clearing the building.

Tim shows up to the scene and does a worried husband look I love. Checking in on her by doing a once over once he makes it to them. Does a silent check in as he reports it’ll take 12 hours to fix the damaged power station. The silent check in is everything. Once again it’s the little things I cherish especially in low content episodes. It's subtle but noticeable once you know it's there. Trying to contain his concern with her all banged up. It’s ok love your wifey is fine hehe

I love these two shots for quite a few reasons. One you know I love the tall/smol shots. I wish I could put into words why I love it so very much. It’s just aesthetically pleasing is one of the reasons I suppose. All I know is I’m a sucker for it. Second how in-sync they are in their movements and how they mirror one another in the second one.

Third the lack of personal space. Especially in that first gif. Theme of this season I adore so much. Always that gravitational pull of theirs. Lastly look at them. They’re gorgeous just standing next to one another. Also it is unfair Lucy is covered in dirt and soot and looks amazing still. Not fair haha

Oh right there’s a SL too LOL Not me just gawking at them haha The feds show up because this is a terrorist attack. They ask Nolan and Lucy about what they remember about the bomb. Nolan of course is no help. Smh Lucy is able to describe little better for them. FBI says they’re taking over from here. Grey fights it since John and Lucy were almost killed discovering the bomb. Garza concedes and they’re able to work together on this one.

We rejoin our ship headed towards National Guard Armory. They’ve deduced this guys real target was this. Reason he shut down the power was to gain access inside there. They’re en-route to catch him. They find out he’s already on the move and they’ve gotta catch him. Which leads us to this car chase. First off let’s note Lucy getting to drive in this intense moment. It is more common these days for them. I just love seeing Tim trust her so implicitly nowadays. That this is new normal for them. *heart clutch*

Control freak in him has eased up quite a bit with her at least. Maybe not with anyone else LOL Once again it's the little things to love. The spurts of growth. They make me happy. Anyways dude stole a friggin Humvee so taking him down will not be easy. Nolan says they need to stop this guy. No shit John...What do you think the purpose of this chase is? To have fun at a high speeds in a shop for kicks?

Sometimes the words out of his mouth floor me..and not in a good way. Tim is using his military experience in this moment. (Yum) Explains why that’s not going to be easy. He’s basically encased himself in a mini tank. Their usual pit maneuver isn’t going to work on this guy. Nolan offering up another solution. I adore the silent communication and the look. That automatic instinct to check in with each other. I'll never be over it. I love watching them in the field so very much. Just a well oiled machine. Tim is considering Nolan’s suggestion then checking in with wifey before executing it. Love it.

Tim explains their plan to Nolan while Lucy listens in. Tim advices they both hit the doors. Tells them it has to be at the same time though. To avoid the wheels at all costs. Lucy needing to know the why of course. Asks why they can’t hit the tires? Tim explains they’ll die and be a cautionary tale for future rookies LOL Gotta love Lucy questioning why they can't in the middle of a high speed chase. I'm sure she wasn't expecting that to be his answer ha.

Her comment about her mom cracks me up. Anything to prove to her mother she’s wrong and she is right about being a cop. Her first thought not being she’ll die. No it’ll be about her mother being right about her career choice. Lmao Oh Lucy Chen I love you. Also I relate to this train of thought all too well sadly. I do love her saying they’ll be disgraced together. Be more married please.

Tim doesn’t even fight her on this thought. Lucy basically saying if I’m going down you’re coming with. Tim isn’t fighting her at all. His silence is saying lead the way. They’re in this together and I love that so very much. Being a literal ride or die right now in this moment.

I love me some crumbs in a low content ep. Also only they could banter during a high pressure situation and still get the job done. I love them so much. They are successful but find out the driver isn’t their guy but a decoy. Wah Wah.

They regroup at the station after their chase. Nolan asking Lucy if she got any sleep? She then calls out Tim for getting some. Not only does she call him out but nicknames him 'Sleeping beauty.' Looking directly at him the entire time. Making sure he know she is talking about him and only him. All aboard the flirt train Nolan is an unwilling participant in the matter haha

Such blatant flirty flirts. Tim fires back a sassy reply to her jab. Just openly flirting and doing heart eyes out in the open. Ain’t no thang this season lol Shoots back not to be jealous he was allowed to sleep and she hasn’t. Lucy’s reaction is the best. That fond exasperation they’ve had all season long. So used to her husband antics at this point but has to let him know she’s annoyed at him. Damnit I love them sfm.

They end up finding his base of operations. Lucy of course breaking the case. Cause she’s brilliant finds a word he’s written down by doing an etching off a wall he used. ‘Enervo’ Garza telling them it means 'To deprive of power.' John asks Tim what the military’s first target is? I love watching Tim flex his military background again. It’s sexy af. Seriously gets me hot and bothered *fans self* Tim and Lucy cracking this case right open. You’re welcome everyone haha That’s it for this one. Low content one since it was meant to launch rookie feds. Next one has even less so this is why we’re combining them.

~~~

Side notes-Non Chenford

I do love when Nyla and Angela work together. Two bad ass woman just doing their jobs like confident BAMFS.

4x20 Enervo.

We find out he’s rented U-Haul’s and it’s going to take out the biggest roads with them. Crippling the city and killing thousands. They can't get a warrant right away to track them so everyone is in on the hunt. As always I love watching them in action in the field. That second gif their cop eyes have been activated. You can see them combing the street together. They’re so in-sync as they search the streets for one of the five U-Haul’s. I could go on and on about how much I love their work dynamic I really could. But I'll stop there ha

The trucks are divided up into states. Cause well that’s U-haul haha if you’ve ever driven one you’d know. Always got graphics or other states on them. One has already exploded unfortunately so they're down to 4 trucks that need to be found. Lucy and Tim spot ‘Florida’ and are in pursuit of it. I love how calm they look. They’re chasing down a bomb and look determined af. Like I said before well oiled machine. The gifs above represent that. They are poetry in motion in the field. What made 5x22 battle scene so epic. Was that on steroids ha

That’s kinda it for them in this one. I can add this last lovely gif of them in the field. Seeing how they move in motion together. It is impressive to see how in-sync they always are. Shared brain thing I love so much. I’m sorry there isn’t more. I mean it’s not my fault but I’m still sorry LOL

We shouldn’t hit this again. Even the light one in S5 is really good and would fill a review well so this will be the last scant ep for them. Probably won’t combine them again ha

~~~

Side notes-non chenford

Smitty reporting in he got ‘Utah’ Grey being ecstatic and saying he took back every negative thing ever said about him. Poor Smitty is all sad ‘You’ve said negative things about me?’ LMAO

Thank you as always for those who like, comment and reblog these reviews. You’re all amazing and I appreciate you more than you’ll ever know. Shall see you all in 4x21 :)

56 notes · View notes

simlit · 7 months

Text

Chosen of the Sun | | forest // forty-seven

| @amuhav

next / previous / beginning

KYRIE: You’re awake, again. TAYUIN: And you’re here watching over me, again. KYRIE: With some luck, it’ll be the last time. How are you feeling? TAYUIN: I feel… normal? I guess, as close to normal as it gets around here. KYRIE: Good. Then, it seems everything has worked accordingly. But if you feel anything is off, tell me straight away. TAYUIN: But… how? The clerics said there was nothing they could do. KYRIE: And there was nothing they could do. The how is unimportant. What matters is that you’re alive. TAYUIN: Right. Can’t have anyone dying on your watch. That’d reflect pretty poorly on you. KYRIE: Reflect poorly? Do you think so little of me? TAYUIN: It’s true, isn’t it? KYRIE: Just because I want to conduct these trials with due diligence doesn’t make my worry any less sincere. You’re not just some collective of strangers I can be indifferent towards. Even if I wanted to. Which I don’t. TAYUIN: Yeah… alright… I guess it was… unfair to say. KYRIE: You’re getting better at it. Apologizing. TAYUIN: To you, maybe… KYRIE: coughing Don’t forget you still owe someone else an apology. Someone who— despite your treatment of her— agreed to help keep you breathing through the night. TAYUIN: Oh, please don’t tell me it was her that broke the curse. Stars above, I don’t think I could bear the irony. KYRIE: No, it wasn’t her. Though, I suppose, the real answer would be no less unpalatable for you. TAYUIN: Maybe it’s better I don’t know. KYRIE: coughing TAYUIN: Are you… fine? KYRIE: Me? Why wouldn’t I be? Anyways, get some rest. Remember, anything feels wrong, send for me at once. TAYUIN: Wait. KYRIE: Hm? TAYUIN: I… What you said before… that it’ll be the last time… KYRIE: Well, I’d prefer you not getting into any more perilous situations. I do enjoy you being alive. TAYUIN: So you won’t be coming back to… Here, I mean. KYRIE: It shouldn’t be long till you recover your strength. I wouldn’t want to disturb your rest. That is, unless you are specifically asking me to do just that. TAYUIN: Don’t be ridiculous. I never said that. KYRIE: No? TAYUIN: You’re the one that said I was special. KYRIE: So that is what you’re asking. Cute. TAYUIN: I didn’t— KYRIE: I don’t mind, you know. TAYUIN: What? KYRIE: If you want me to stay, I will. If you don’t want to be alone, I’m happy to keep you company. I’m not in the business of withholding myself from you for some perceived greater good. It’s as simple as saying the words. TAYUIN: That simple? KYRIE: That simple. TAYUIN: Then… I wish you would… not go. KYRIE: Then here I shall stay.

#ts4 #ts4 screenshots #ts4 story #ts4 bachelor challenge #chosen of the sun #oc: kyrie loren #cc: tayuin eth'salin #included are my thinly and intentionally veiled SHOTS FIRED at a certain somebitch in another certain someprince's life #we won't name names #I said what- I mean Kyrie said what he said

71 notes · View notes

fangirlwriting-stories · 4 months

Text

Dam Still Holding

Summary: After patching Danny up from a nasty fight, Tucker spends the night to make sure he's okay.

Author's Note: Fun fact, I did originally write this for seasons skirmish, but then I'd realized I'd gotten away from the prompt too much for it to fit, so I'm gonna take another crack at that prompt, and you all can expect another short Danny Phantom fic sometime in the near future, but for now have this!

...

Tucker wakes with a panicked gasp, which is just unfair, honestly. Sure, he has the aversion to hospitals and medical procedures, but Danny was the one who had to have a giant gash in his chest sewn up, and Danny’s snoring away in the bed next to him.

Tucker drops his head onto his knees and takes a deep breath. Danny’s the one who got hurt, and Danny’s fine, he shouldn’t be reacting like this. But he can still feel his hands shaking as he threads the needle, and knowing that he has to steady them or he’s just going to make things worse for Danny, who’s lying unconscious in front of him. He remembers wishing that he’d told Sam no, she actually can’t go on that family vacation, he knows she’ll hate it anyway please stay here he needs her, he’s going to need her because Danny’s about to get himself torn open again in another ghost fight and Tucker can’t help with that he’s terrible at it—

Tucker takes a couple staggering deep breaths, and apparently it’s loud enough to wake Danny, because he feels a hand on his arm and a gentle voice saying “Tucker?”

Tucker lifts his head to find Danny looking at him, obvious concern on his face. As soon as he sees Tucker, his frown deepens, and he reaches over and wraps his arms around him. “Hey, I’m okay,” he murmurs.

Tucker pulls Danny in closer with a mumbled “Sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Danny says.

“No, I mean, you’re the one who got hurt,” Tucker says.

“Hey, you’ve never done this before,” Danny says. “I’m used to patching myself up.”

“That doesn’t make it better.”

Danny shrugs and gives a sad smile.

“I’m alright,” he says. “Heart still beating and everything. Well, half the time.” He gives a lopsided smile to Tucker, and succeeds in making him laugh.

“How do you do that all the time?” Tucker asks. “With the blood and the disinfectants and the needles. And I’m not even in pain.”

“I just got used to it I guess,” Danny says again. “And it doesn’t hurt as bad anymore.”

Tucker gives him a disbelieving look.

“Really,” Danny says. “The scale’s kind of… adjusted, you know?”

Unfortunately, Tucker does know. His mom talks about that sometimes, that patients with chronic pain tend to have a different pain scale, and she’ll have to give them a pain scale with qualifiers for what each number means whenever she asks how much it hurts.

The fact that one of his best friends uses a similar kind of pain scale is something Tucker has never been comfortable with.

“Did I do an okay job?” Tucker asks quietly, because if he thinks about that for too long he’ll just start shaking again.

“For the first time you’ve done it? Yeah,” Danny says. “It’s clean, you used the right stuff that I can’t phase through, and you stayed with me afterwards to make sure I was alright. Even though you’re not good with medical stuff. Thank you, Tucker. Really.”

Tucker looks Danny firmly in the eyes. “It really doesn’t hurt that badly?”

Danny winces, and Tucker knows he has him.

“I’ve had a lot worse,” Danny says. There’s a not insignificant amount of bitterness in his voice.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“Well, what would you do about it anyway? It’s not any worse than normal. I’m gonna be fine.”

Tucker sighs, and leans forward until he can pull Danny into a hug. “I know,” he mumbles. “I just hate seeing you get hurt.”

“I’m okay, Tucker.”

Another thing his mom tells him about her chronic pain patients is that they’ve gotten used to ignoring the pain most of the time. That it’s more of a background hum, but sometimes little things can set off a breakdown that seems to come out of nowhere, when they’re tired of being in pain all the time and want it all to stop and it won’t.

And sure, Tucker hates medical stuff. But he can look out for Danny. And he knows what it looks like when his best friend is close to a dam breaking moment.

But it’s also late, and they’re both tired, and Tucker has a feeling pushing Danny tonight won’t end well for anyone. He’ll just have to make sure to be there for Danny when he’s needed.

So for now, Tucker says, “Okay,” and lays back down on the bed. Danny lays down next to him, and Tucker wraps his arms around him without thinking, though being gentle of the injury on his chest. Danny wraps his arms around Tucker too, probably thinking Tucker’s asking for comfort instead of offering it. Well, maybe he’s doing a little of both.

It certainly helps him to fall asleep listening to Danny’s easy breathing and feeling the rise and fall of his chest. He hopes it helps Danny too.

#danny phantom #tucker foley #danny fenton #is their relationship platonic or romantic in this one?#who knows?#certainly not me #maybe you guys can figure it out #my fic

49 notes · View notes

roninishere · 9 months

Text

right now.

part one.

Giyuu Tomioka x female reader

Warnings: angst, in the feels, anxiety, bullying, self hate, bad grammar?

Summary: Life is incredibly unfair at times, this was one of them.

“You don’t think I can handle being a Hashira anymore..don’t you?” The way your voice cracked, really made him feel guilty.

And the worst part was, he had so much to say to you, but he just couldn’t.

Neither one of you ever left things like this, never. He regretted it the very moment you left for your mission. He knew that was probably one of the worst things he could let you think, and him not say a damn word. cause it wasn’t true.

‘Lights go down and The night is calling to me, yeah I hear voices Singing songs in the street and I know’

As if his anxiety wasn’t already always so high, it kept him laying awake in bed. And he wasn’t the only one that couldn’t sleep, little Mio would cry her little lungs out. Every night for the first week you were gone. After day four, Giyuu discovered that her sleeping on his chest after he sang her the lullaby that you use to, her chubby pale fingers wrapped around his pinky was the key.

She slept peacefully, at least that made one of them.

‘That we won't be going home For so long, for so long, but I know That I won't be on my own Yeah, I love this feeling and

Right now I wish you were here with me (oh) 'Cause right now everything is new to me (oh) You know, I can't fight the feeling And every night I feel it Right now I wish you were here with me (oh)’

Giyuus couldn’t help it but his anxiety was so bad this time around, maybe because he never failed to worry about you every time you left for a mission. He knew that you could take care of yourself, you were a Hashira after all, but something wasn’t right.

He hoped you’d complete your mission and be home soon.

Until a week turned into two weeks. No letter from you, just your crow reporting his biggest fear.

You had gone missing after your encounter with the demon.

So he searched for you, having your crow take him where you went missing. Nothing. He found nothing. It was like you vanished out of thin air. That’s what scared him.

All the worst possibilities had flooded in his mind. Not his beloved. He couldn’t lose you too. Seven days and not a trace of what could’ve happened to you.

Don’t give up. She would never on you.

‘Late-night spaces With all our friends, you and me, yeah Love these faces Just like how it used to be’

“You know, she probably just got sick of your shit and took off. I know I would with that ‘I’m not like you guys’ attitude.” Sanemi shrugged as Master called for a Hashira meeting to discuss about their missing Hashira comrade, and of course everyone was getting their lick in.

Taking shots. Giyuu never gave a shit about what they thought of him, but this wasn’t the time to being making allegations. You’d never leave him, he knew that. You’d never. They all knew that. Even if you were upset with him about your fight, you’d always come home. He and Mio were your reason for living, the reason you never gave up in this harsh world.

“I never understood what she saw in you anyways. Mr. High and mighty, must’ve said some messed up stuff.” Obanai added.

Their comments just angered Giyuu, his expression staying the same as his hand on his side balled into a fist, really? Right now?

His wife is missing, their beloved Hashira, and all they heard was that they had an argument before you left? He’s better off on his own.

Fuck he missed when you use to attend these meetings with him, threatening to fight the Wind and Serpent Pillar if he didn’t keep your husbands name out his mouth. When he had to throw you over his shoulder, and line up on the opposite side of them.

“That’s enough! This is serious, no matter what happened before she left for her mission, the situation still stands, a Hashira is still missing!” The love pillar glared at the two other pillars as she stood her ground. “Stop saying things that aren’t true! it’s not like Y/N to just go missing, especially after an encounter with a demon. Instead of bullying Tomioka-San, remember that’s his daughters mother you’re speaking of!”

Shinobu set a hand on her friends shoulder seeing she got all worked up, and was nearly in tears.

Zoning out everyone, Giyuu set towards Masters Estate once Amane came out with Mio in her arms. “Tomioka-san, still no progress?” Giyuu returned her bow as he took the toddler in his arms.

“No,” his voice was calm as the little girl gripped his index finger in her chubby fingers with the cutest burst of laughter to see her father. “Would be alright if I bring her back tomorrow afternoon?”

He hadn’t noticed the pillars stopped their bickering behind him, seeing how much the little girl in his arms looking like their missing pillar. Same eyes, same smile, and hair color. If Mio didn’t have Giyuus pale complexion and similar hair style, she would’ve been a spilt image of her mother.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for a few more days? You’ve been gone for a week, you should rest.”

He wanted to, but he couldn’t give up now “I’ll rest once I find Y/N. I made a promise, isn’t that right princess?” His dark blue ocean eyes were soft as he caress her cheek, giving it a little pinch getting a squeal out of the baby.

“I understand, then of course, bring her by tomorrow afternoon,” The masters wife waved at the little girl.

‘And we won't be going home For so long, for so long, but I know I won't be on my own On my own, I'm feeling like

“almost done princess.” It was easy for him to do his own hair, but doing it on someone else, let alone a baby, was harder. Well he just had to be very delicate. His hands were gently as he brushed her hair that was surprisingly long, already down past her shoulders. The Hashira sat on his knees behind Mio who was making cute silly faces to her father, waiting for him to see her reflection in the mirror.

When he finished putting her hair in a loose ponytail, he sighed softly before looking up in the mirror to see her sticking her tongue at him before breaking out in a giggle fit before she tried to crawl away, “and where do you think you’re going, come here silly,” he crawled over to her playfully as she let out playfully screams before he snatched her up in his arms “I gotcha!”

“D..da-ada!” Mio exclaimed causing Giyuu to freeze, did she just? She just said her first word!

He smiled so big at her of happiness before a feeling of sadness washed over him, she said her first word…and you weren’t here. You were missing her first word.

If you were here, he could see you getting all excited yet jealous that of course her daughters first word was dada! You’d pout but definitely treasure this moment with him. He never dropped his smile, not wanting to upset his daughter as he fought the fears that were building up.

I’m sorry I failed you. I’m sorry I failed to protect you. I’m so sorry. I will find you and bring you back home.

God he missed you so much, so fucking much. He felt like someone stabbed him, and was turning the blade in his stomach over and over. Like a thousand pounds were on his chest, making it so hard to fucking breathe. He felt someone had a grasp on his heart, squeezing it to see how long before its burst.

His heart was breaking every second you were away from them, every time he subconsciously thought of the worst.

After being unsuccessful the second time, he grew frustrated, but he wasn’t giving up. He made a promise to his pride and joy that he would bring you back home.

“Alright,” he stood over Mio as the little girl stood up, she had been determined for the past few days, trying over and over again, now matter how hard she fell. Definitely reminded him of you, too stubborn to stop. Slowly and steadily letting go of her hands, Giyuu walked over a few paces as she struggled to stand on her own. “Come here Mio, walk to me.”

His arms reached out for the toddler as she took a very wobbly first step, nearly falling but caught herself with her hand before pushing back up. The second step made the Hashira smile, her first steps already. The third one quickly turned into a sloppy fourth one when she crashed into Giyuus arms with a fit of giggles. Bringing her into his lap, he smothered her in face kisses “Good job princess,” he nearly folded when she reached out, tugging on his cheek.

You missed her first steps too.

Y/N, wherever you are, I hope you’re safe, just hold out a little longer.

‘Lights go down and I hear you calling to me, yeah

On his third attempt, he went nine miles north of where you encountered the demon, to find ripped pieces of your haori around the area. Picking up them up, the pieces lead him to w trail where your sword laid, nearly covered in leaves.

His heart steered to swell, his hands started shaking when he bent down to pick your sword up.

Not his Y/N. Please not her.

How much more would this world take from him?

Balling his fists, his cloudy vision searched every inch of the area for you, you were close, he knew it. “Y-Y/N?!”

The more he called out your name, the more his voice broke, where were you?

Give me a sign please.

Instead he felt the presence of a demon, gripping your sword tightly in his hands. The footsteps got closer, right behind the Hashira, and once he jumped up, flipping back to attack… he froze, unable to commit as your once beautiful eyes were now large cat like ones.

No. Impossible!

He kicked you away from him, hating the twisted turn in his stomach of causing harm to you. Once he landed in his feet, they immediately buckled, his knees crashing on the leaves underneath him. His once calm expression crumpled as his bottom lip trembled. Tears welled up in his pretty blue eyes as they ran down his cheeks uncontrollably.

“N-no…p-please…no…” he begged, his voice so hoarse.

It felt like someone ripping his heart out his chest as the quiet environment echoed with his sobs.

Please, someone wake me up from this horrible nightmare.

Until reality hit him that this was REAL. Tomioka, Y/N, the love of his life, his beloved, the mother of his daughter…

A demon.

The loud nasty snarls escaped your lips made him wince as you bolted to him, ready to attack.

I can’t do it, I-I can’t, he told himself.

Getting to his feet, he once again dodged your attacks with tears down his pale cheeks “Y/N! Snap out of it! P-please! You know who I am!” He cried out as he tried to regain you back, regain his wife.

Even though you should’ve been faster and stronger than him, despite his emotions, he easily blocked your sloppy movements coming to conclusion that you haven’t fed on anyone, yet. And you wouldn’t, especially if he had anything to do with it. Remembering him, he had to get you to remember, remember your life over your desire for human flesh and blood.

“I-it’s me! G-giyuu, your husban-nd!” Tossing the swords to the side, he wouldn’t attack you, he refused. He couldn’t hurt you. He sniffled, wiping his face as he side stepped to avoid you “r-remember the day we-e first kissed? It-t was under the fireworks-s, you were so beautiful-l in that orange k-kimono. I-it was fall,” he held back a sob as you growled like a beast in the shadows “come-e back to me Y/N, f-fight it!”

Fireworks? Kiss? You in an orange kimono? Oh when you felt those butterflies in your tummy? When you thought you were pass out from how overwhelming feeling of love and desire you felt for him? That day? You remember that day! You had just turned eighteen that fall.

Seeing your eyes widen and halt for a moment, he kept going even when you went for a hit “M-Mio! H-how hard you cried when you held her in you-ur arms, y-you said she was a-as beautiful a-as a cherry B-blossom even though she l-looks just like you…Y-you c-call her your precious c-cherry blossom.”

Mio. My precious cherry blossom. My blessing. My baby girl.

Tears built up in your eyes as frustration was new to you, so lost, so hungry. So thirsty. Just a taste…

No! I can’t, my Mio, my Giyuu I just want to hold and kiss my family. I want my life back. Fight it Y/N! You’re not hungry nor thirsty, you’re not hungry nor thirsty. You’re not a monster. Remember Nezuko, there’s hope, hope, you don’t have to be a killer. You’re not a killer. You can still be you, and still protect.

You’re not hungry nor thirsty.

Those sobs filled your eyes as you felt it tug in the pit of your stomach, make it stop. You’re not hungry or thirsty.

‘Ensure you feed. If you feed, it’ll make the pain stop.’ That unfamiliar voice repeated itself in your head, and just when you thought you had complete and utter control, you didn’t.

Your mouth was watering, you were hungry and thirsty.

Not expecting the quick snap, the hashira did his best to avoid, but not before you go scratched up Giyuu pretty good. Jumping back, he felt pain on the left side of his cheek and neck, blood trickling down slowly. Lifting his head up, his hair moved to the side exposing the damage you had done.

Mild cuts on his left cheek and neck…

The first time you saw Giyuu with scratches on his face…the two of you had been on your third mission together when he pushed you out of the way to take nails to his face from a demon. You…you had felt so guilty…because you weren’t…paying attention? Ah yes.

Second time was when he came home from a mission…he got marked up when a child was caught in the crossfire of an attack. He..didn’t go to see Shinobu…he came straight home, the incident scared him half to death, thinking of you and your unborn baby…

Except this time around, you were the cause of it.

You hurt him.

You. A demon. Hurt your husband.

Stopping in your tracks, your hands shook as your balled them in fists, digging your nails in your palms as your heavy breathing sounded almost like it hurt, it was ragged and shallow. Your eyes switched from hunger to full of fear as you’re backed away from your husband.

Flooding of all the good memories in your life flashed through your head; running away from an abusive family to join the corps, your friends, meeting Giyuu, falling in love, getting married, becoming an hashira, and having be blessed with the most beautiful baby girl.

Mio. Giyuu. They are you family Y/N REMEMBER THAT! Your everything!

Backing up into a tree, your hands shook as you blocked out that desire to feed “I-I-…” that burned sensation was fighting you, but you refused for it to win. No!

“You breathe life into my existence, making every moment worth living…” your eyes flickered over at the Water Hashira when your heart fluttered at those oddly familiar words. Meeting your sad gaze, his monotone explained “you’ve told..me that since we’ve met.”

Of course you did. He and Mio were your breathe of fresh air, the reason you chose to live in this fucked up world. Overwhelming pit of sadness returned, engulfing you as you broke down in tears, crying out in pain, crying out how sorry you were. How sorry you were for failing, for being weak.

😭 I hope you enjoyed! I really tried with this one, and very much enjoyed writing it! I promise they’ll will be more parts! SPECIAL SHOUT-OUT TO @unofficialmuilover FOR THE HELP AND BASICALLY HAND HOLDING ME THROUGH WRITING THIS 🫶🏼💙 LOVE YOU GUYS! 🫶🏼

Going to bed 🫶🏼 my stubborn ass wanted to finish this and I got muster in the morning 😭

#demon slayer #demon slayer x reader #demon slayer giyuu #kimetsu giyuu #giyuu x you #kny giyuu #giyuu x y/n #giyuu tomioka #kimetsu no yaiba

50 notes · View notes

cookies-over-yonder · 4 months

Text

masked weakling

Erica spots Taylor getting bullied at school, and she decides to do something about it.

ao3

It’s another regular day in the life of Erica Drippins. Student council duties, cheer practice, upholding status, just generally being perfect, the whole deal.

And she’s wandering the hall during lunch when she hears a commotion.

Filtering through the sea of students, she spots Taylor face to face with Jared Jorts, known bully.

“You better leave me alone ‘cause I could kick your ass!” Taylor shouts.

“Oh yeah?” Suddenly, Jared is holding Taylor’s cane up and out of his reach, and shoving Taylor against the locker loud enough for a bang that echoes throughout the hall. Taylor yelps, and then bites his lip. “You can’t even fucking walk, old man.”

“ Hey! ”

Erica makes her way to them and presses an index finger to Jared’s chest. “Leave him alone and give that back!”

Jared scoffs, but he lets go of Taylor and throws his cane at him, hitting his torso. Taylor winces in pain before picking it up off the floor, panting.

“Thanks,” he says, barely meeting her gaze. His eyes are glassy, and there’s a slight tremble to his voice.

“No problem. Are… are you okay?”

The bell rings.

Time for class.

And as the hustle and bustle of students floods the hallway even more than before, Taylor is gone.

He did not look okay.

And, well, with the hall passes she has for every class, it’s impossible for her to get in trouble for skipping.

So she decides to look.

Once class has started, the halls are rather empty, and it’s easier to search.

It takes a while, but eventually she reaches a far corner of the school littered with abandoned classrooms and a disgusting bathroom.

And she hears a shuddering breath.

And then a sob.

“Taylor?”

The crying stops. Erica suspects he’s holding his breath from how quickly he went silent.

She turns the corner, and he’s there. Curled up and shaking on the floor beneath the steps.

“I wanted to make sure you were okay,” she says, scooting to sit under the steps across from him.

Taylor’s arms are holding his head and keeping it pressed into his knees. He seems to finally let go of his breath, because Erica hears shallow breathing again. “I’m fine—”

He cuts himself off with a sob, shaking harder. He’s got his hair in his fists, and from the way he’s pulling at it, his scalp must be stinging.

“I’m not gonna pretend that I know you and how you work, but you don’t look fine. That guy back there is an idiot, and he doesn’t know what he’s talking about—”

Taylor lifts his head up and meets her eyes.

His face is red and blotchy, and bits of hair are stuck to his face, and his breathing is far too unsteady.

“Why—why do you care?”

“Because you didn’t deserve to be treated like that. It was cruel and unfair.”

“‘S fine,” he mumbles, averting his gaze from her eyes, “‘M okay now.”

“Still, he shouldn’t have—”

“He was right, anyway,” Taylor says before another sob rips through him again. He buries his face in his hands, and Erica notices the red flecks at the ends of his long nails. She hopes its not blood, but considering the way he was tearing apart his hair earlier she can’t be sure.

“Taylor…”

“I can’t—I can’t do shit,” he says between sobs. “I’m weak. I can’t… I can’t—”

Taylor whines, and his breathing gets more desperate, like he’s gasping for air.

“Taylor, hey, it’s okay—”

“You should, you ssshould go back to class,” he sputters out, strained and quiet.

“It’s fine, I’m not missing much. Can—can you take a deep breath?”

Erica really wishes she had gotten to the scene sooner. Especially now, when Taylor shakes his head with a whine, hyperventilating. She hears him just barely curse under his breath.

“Taylor, hey , can you hear me?”

He nods. “Fuck, suh…sorry… fuck —” his gasps get louder, and he continues forcing out apologies, and god, he is trembling violently.

“You don’t need to apologize. Can… can I touch you?”

Taylor nods.

She pries one of his hands away from his face and holds it. He squeezes it so hard she nearly flinches.

Rubbing the back of his hand with her thumb, she feels her own eyes getting teary.

“Breathe in,” she says, squeezing his hand.

He does so shakily, running his free hand through his hair before planting it on the floor.

“And out…”

Taylor sighs, slumping forward a little.

“Okay, in… out… in… out…”

After a few more deep breaths, Taylor’s breathing is a little more stable.

“‘M okay,” he mumbles. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to… I… I don’t know…”

“It’s okay, here,” she says, letting go of his hand in favour of wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

His head rests on her shoulder, and he’s warm. His hands felt hot, but really, his whole body is so warm. It’s not that uncommon for anxiety to cause fevers—Erica learned that the hard way—so maybe she shouldn’t think much of it.

“Look, I know that I… I don’t really… stray from the popular circles… but I can’t just sit around and let you get hurt like that.”

“Why don’t you?” Taylor mumbles into her shoulder, “I mean… isn’t it tiring? Keeping up appearances like that?”

Erica opens her mouth to reply, but then she closes it. “It doesn’t matter,” she says, “Are you feeling any better?”

“I… I… today… bad pain day…” he mumbles, “‘S why I was so off my game. Would’ve brought my crutches but…”

“But what?”

“He’s always saying things like that. I… I can’t walk without my cane though. ‘S hard.”

Erica doesn’t know what to say.

She’d always been one to, well, appease the crowd. But man, this is rough.

“I think your cane looks cool.”

“Thanks. I… I have some new stickers on it.”

“Yeah?”

“Mm,” Taylor pulls away from the hug and picks up his cane, pointing at the new stickers. “Totoro, Miku, Garfield, another Miku…” he mumbles slowly, eyes droopy.

“I didn’t know you liked Garfield.”

“Link does. He gave me that one. ‘S my favourite.”

“That’s sweet.”

“Mm… he’s probably wondering where I am. We have urology this period. Maybe I should…”

Taylor grabs the handle of his cane and starts trying to lift himself up. Erica stands up herself and offers him a hand. He takes it, and she pulls him up, but only for his knees to buckle.

“ Fuck ,” he winces as Erica catches him and helps him back to the floor. “My legs hurt so bad. Sorry. Sorry.”

“It’s okay, should I get the nurse?”

Taylor shakes his head immediately. “She doesn’t do shit.”

“Okay, uh…”

What can she do? Erica has never been the bottom on the cheer team, so she’s hardly confident in her abilities to lift another person…

“You don’t have to um, stay here with me, I’m fine now,” Taylor mumbles, running his fingernail between the tiles on the floor.

“I’m not just going to leave you stuck on the floor alone.”

“I really shouldn’t have been running,” he says, moving his hand to trace the stickers of his cane.

“Do you want me to get someone for you?” Erica asks, watching Taylor gaze at the Garfield sticker as he traces it.

“Could you maybe get Link? He’s in class so he won’t be on his phone, but I—I don’t know… you don’t have to—”

“I’ll be right back.”

Getting ahold of Link is easy. Every teacher trusts her when she says she means business, and soon enough, she’s with Link in the hallway just outside the door.

“Taylor needs you,” she says, watching his expression shift from confusion to barely contained worry.

“Is he okay? Where is he? Is he hurt? Did something happ—”

“He’s okay. He’s under the stairwell by the abandoned classrooms and the gross bathroom. He’s not injured but his pain is flaring up. He was approached by a bully toward the end of lunch and he kinda broke down afterward.”

And now they’re walking. Briskly.

“Okay. Okay. He broke down?”

“I found him crying, and then I think he kinda had a panic attack over it, but I helped him calm down.”

“Thank you,” Link says firmly, and at first she wonders why, but then she understands. They’re close.

And at last they reach the boy in question, and Link is immediately crouched down and hugging him.

Taylor hums, and then Link is lifting him up in his arms, and Taylor is whining again, though it’s more babylike than before.

Erica picks up Taylor’s cane and passes it to Link. He takes it with a smile and a nod.

“Seepy…” Taylor mumbles.

“It’s okay, you can sleep,” Link coos.

“Mmmkay…”

Taylor shuts his eyes and curls further into Link’s chest.

“I take it you both are all good now?”

“Yeah, I can take it from here. Thanks again.”

“Of course.”

Erica goes home that day with the picture of Link holding Taylor like that lasting in her mind. She doesn’t know anyone she could be that vulnerable with.

It’s not like she really can be vulnerable. Not with her status. Not with her plans.

But Taylor was with her. Maybe it was because she was the only one there.

But it was something.

And she wonders if he’d ever be as receptive to her vulnerabilities…

That’s absurd.

She doesn’t have any.

And a regular day in the life of pretty and perfect Erica Drippins comes to an end once more.

#taylerica swiffins #<- ship name #taylor swift dndads #erica drippins #lincoln li-wilson dndads #swiftli #hurt/comfort #bullying #dndads #dungeons and daddies #cookies writes and cookies wrongs #cookies fix #swagever

27 notes · View notes

loosesodamarble · 21 days

Note

Hi Erika! For your ship game, can I get your thoughts on Obanai x Mitsuri (kny), Jellal x Erza (Fairy Tail), Lumiere x Secre (BC), and if I can be a little bold (and because I’m very curious), Henry x my oc Lorelei? Also, if you haven’t gotten asked about them Nacht x Josele (but I’m sure you’ve been asked already). Please 💖 Thank you! (Sorry if that is too much 😅)

😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈

Oh Acacia, you absolutely SPOIL ME! 🥰💖

Buckle up, folks, this’ll be a long post.

…..

To start, there shall be a trend in these ships that boils down to “brooder and comforter.” One half of the couple is a bit (or maybe a lot) down on themselves and their partner is the warm embrace they need in life. The dynamic will forever and always be beautiful to me, just as much as “two pure sweethearts.”

Obanai x Mitsuri

Makes sense and 1000% compelled by it.

Obviously Obanai and Mitsuri fit that to a tee! Obanai is very clearly a broody boy and he states outright that Mitsuri saved him with her cheerfulness and smile. But it would be a massive disservice to the ship to ignore that Obanai also was Mitsuri's comforter in a way. She felt the way that he looked at her with affection whenever they were together which meant the world to her since she felt like it would be hard to love. They never judged each other and felt loved with one another and AAAAHHHHH HADKJHFLKAUHEILTHALEKTHKAEJG!

I know I've brought this up in the past but it bears repeating that I love this ship so much that I managed to work it into a college paper about depictions of (failed) romance in Japanese literature. Because, well, in a sense Obanai and Mitsuri's love wasn't successful. Let me share a bit of that essay to get my point across.

This mutual but unrecognized love is best described by the chapter title revealing Obanai’s backstory. The Japanese title is “hitsūna renjō” (悲痛な恋情) which I would translate as “a painful, miserable romance.” Mitsuri and Obanai’s feelings of self-loathing make their love a painful burden on their hearts. Even their confession is ultimately tragic, as both are in tears and on the cusp of death when their feelings come out.

Then again, the cycle of reincarnation allowed that love to continue and be acted upon. Still, this ship makes me VIBRATE with all the emotions. It's so unfair that Gotoge was able to invest me in this romance with only brief snippets and a small reassuring epilogue. And then the fandom just hammers the stake deeper into my heart. ObaMitsu. Beloved ship~!

.....

Jellal x Erza

OOOOHHHHHH! Man, it's been forever and a half since I really watched Fairy Tail but Jerza is that ship that sticks with you (and Gajevy but that wasn't the ship asked for, now was it).

So much sense is made with the ship and it'll never not compel me.

Again, Jellal is the more blatant brooder but Erza has plenty of moments of hitting low points (and it's usually over Jellal). And again, they both act as a source of hope in each other's lives. These two knew each other as kids and they made strong impressions on each other clearly. I mean, Jellal made some strong impressions on many people for a variety of not good reasons... ANYWAYS! It makes so much sense that Erza is always holding out hope for Jellal because his turn to darkness back in the day was very out of the blue so deep down in her heart, she'd know that something wasn't quite right. And even as she loves him, Erza expects Jellal to take responsibility for his actions. You talked about it yourself when discussing this ship but with Jerza, their personal feelings don't immediately mean Jella's sins/crimes can be ignored. He has to work to right them and fix himself. Jellal changes not because he's browbeaten into it but because he wants to be better for Erza. And Jellal isn't the only one changing. Erza is able to open up and let herself wish a little more because the trauma of their history is slowly being healed. Their love is such a journey. Multiple times they're pulled apart before finding each other again. And each time they meet, they heal a little more, grow a little closer.

.....

Lumiere x Secre

I won't say as much about these two as the others but I'm still a sucker for them!

In this case, Secre is the brooding soul while Lumiere is her comfort. She looked down on herself and her magic while Lumiere saw potential and inspiration. Lumiere gave Secre something to hope for and she gave him devotion. The way Secre's love endures over the centuries and she remembers to have hope from Lumiere's example is something that makes their love really special without them ever having to be in a relationship. We don't get Lumiere's perspective on Secre directly but the fact that he named his super special magic tool (the big spherical one) after her says quite a bit to me. She's important and special and helpful in Lumiere's eyes. Secre living on while Lumiere moves onto the afterlife is sad but he wishes her more happiness in a continuing future, even without him. It's an ending of separation but not of mourning and it's beautiful (even if I wish Lumiere could've stuck around).

.....

Henry x Lorelei

UwU CC x OC time~!

I actually did read the fic where they meet a bit ago. It's just in my queue for reblogging. But ooooooohhhhhhh! I CAN GUSH HERE!

So I will be real, there is one detail of the ship that doesn't make sense to me. But that's Tabata's fault for making it that even low mana people feel drained by an extended exposure to Henry's mana draining. It's just unfair that really no one but Asta can safely be around him with his curse in place. So it's not on you. You made every other aspect of the ship wonderful. Henry definitely would fall for someone as openly sweet as Lorelei and her sense of whimsy is a wonderful complement to Henry's loneliness. The way he so shyly begins to talk to her is so in character and I think adding Lorelei to Henry's backstory helps explain why he's easily able to just talk to Yami and later Asta since he now has experience meeting someone new. Lorelei's Lucky Magic seems interesting (and fits in with David's Dice Magic) and well, I think it brought luck to both her and Henry. And do I even need to say it but this ship got me hooked with one fic. It may need more time in the microwave before it finds a permanent spot in my heart but... I'm digging the vibes already.

…..

Nacht x Josele

YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

I’ve talked Nacsele before for the ask game but I’m gonna talk again!

GAAAAHHHH! The way Nacht always loved Josele and was content(?) to simply love her from afar... Josele harboring her love for Nacht when she felt he didn't love her back... It gets so messy when she's with Morgen because he truly did make her happier than words could say. But half of Josele's heart was with Nacht. And when they finally get together, after much heartache and soul searching and doubting, it's gorgeous. Nacht is so hesitant about the relationship that he doesn't even call Josele his girlfriend for a while because he still sees Josele as Morgen's love. Josele too was hesitant, not wanting to risk her happiness being destroyed again, but once she got a talking to from one of the Bulls, she embraced the chance to be with Nacht and helps him with his steps into the future.

AND I LOVE THEIR FUTURE TOGETHER! Josele never really stops mourning Morgen and the future they could've had. But she doesn't lose sight of the future she's attained with Nacht. She loves Nacht and the way he's able to forgive himself. And Nacht accepts that Josele will always have Morgen in her heart, he really wouldn't have it any other way. Nacht slowly but surely frees himself of his guilt and self-loathing to full embrace all the affection that Josele always had for him.

My ship... I love...

..........

AND I LOVED TALKING ABOUT AAAAALLLLL THESE SHIPS! AAADJHGLKHAIUHAETKJHAETUHUI!

Thanks for the chance to ramble, Acacia~!

12 notes · View notes

ghostbnuy · 2 months

Text

this is somewhere inbetween mini vent and not a vent so i’m gonna tag both of them, it’s not a huge deal (mostly cus im honestly in a good mood rn!!!) but it does kinda bother me

it’s so baffling how parents will literally just make up reasons to be mad at u

like my parents were annoyed that we hadn’t gotten out of bed but. my door was closed and- this may come as a shock to u - but i was out of bed- fully dressed - reading a book (it was very satisfying hearing them hesitate after i told them that-)

like. do you just enjoy being annoyed at ur children or something??

i’ll admit this post is coming out kinda out of annoyance because this just. keeps happening and like idk it really gets to u when ur parents kinda just decide to be mad at u for. literally no reason- i’ve just gotten used to it/desensitised at this point but that’s not rly a good thing 🥲

i have nothing against them being annoyed at me in general cus like- i know that im not perfect or anything but when you do it so often for no reason it kinda becomes a boy who cried wolf thing where i instinctively become desensitised even when its for a valid reason because ive had to put up with it even when its completely random,,,,, i wish they’d stop taking out their annoyance at me :(

and it does feel like it’s usually me cus when my younger brother does something pissy (which happens a lot ughhh) she can’t speak to him about it (because he literally just doesn’t listen or shouts a lot and is genuinely like. scary), and she can’t shout at the 9 year old so instead she takes it out on me by making up something to be annoyed about - this isn’t even just speculation she’s literally admitted it (i’m gonna be honest, even though that means she’s admitting i didn’t do anything that doesn’t make me feel any better!!!)

like aaaaaaa it just feels like a really unfair position to be in because sometimes it feels like nothing i do is enough because they just fucking. ignore it anyway so what’s the point of doing it!!! like they were annoyed at me for not helping enough around the house and i was like ok yeah yknow that’s reasonable so i started helping out - but then they were still annoyed at me??? it just felt like my effort was completely pointless so why am i even bothering if its clearly not making a difference????

#mini vent #not a vent #parents hdjchsjjdskjd

10 notes · View notes

oldshrewsburyian · 1 year

Text

I was briefly cut off from my GOT audiobook because another user had it reserved at the library, but I’m reunited with it now, and, well. Things sure are happening. I just wish they made more sense.

I know that this is a Fantasy World™, and so to some extent it is unfair to be mad at it for being inconsistent with medieval Europe, but SO MANY PEOPLE trying to make me read it or trying to convince me that it’s good or trying to convince me that I would like it have said “oh it’s based on medieval Europe!!!” that I reserve the right to be cranky about it anyway. And pumpkins have come into it again! I think what really irks me about the setting and its medievalism is that GRRM does not seem interested in showcasing its internal logic. Instead, he seems interested in forcing readers to react to its internal logic (...such as it is) with horror, disgust, and a sense of superiority.

EITHER you can have the king threaten his best friend and chief minister with shameful execution for daring to have an opinion OR you can have every single other member of the council continue to have a discussion as though this is just Tuesday. Similarly, I feel that EITHER you can choose the route of making sure that we are hyper-aware of a character’s dwarfism and the society’s ableism every! single! time! the character is introduced OR you can show the ways the character is martially competent. But you can’t do the ableist thing of highlighting how supposedly ~grotesque~ a figure is (every! single! time!) and then just switch it off when it’s convenient to the plot. Tyrion still has the best lines and I still love him.

Also I don’t think the character of Robert Baratheon makes sense. Or the character of Khal Drogo. Maybe I’ll be proved wrong, but I just don’t see it.

In attempted fairness (!), I will say that while the unimaginative and brutal misogyny of the setting is very tiring, GRRM is doing a good deal better than, uh, many male authors I have read on the Women Are Real People front. There are numerous female characters, of multiple generations, with noticeably distinctive personalities! And both their actions and their personalities matter to the plot! And the adolescent girls are brave and weird! So: surprisingly good marks on this front. So far.

#game of thrones #a medievalist does got #grrm critical #is a tag this site has #like i would buy the man a drink but also i would probably end up yelling at him #...curiously enough also true of c.s. lewis

79 notes · View notes

biffhofosho · 1 year

Text

Prisoner to Temptation | Chapter Twelve

Word Count: 8.9k

A/N: This chapter was inspired almost in its entirety by two songs. “Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak is the first, and the other shall present itself...

Cvr | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12

Hyungwon was not at breakfast again, and when Naran inquired, she was told that he had gone out for the day with no indication of when he’d be back. Her ankle had reasonably recovered, and so, with nothing else to do nor anything else to occupy her thoughts other than the prince himself, she took to circling the gardens.

Since the weather had cleared, the ground had hardened, and the princess was able to venture to places she could not before. The gardens were much smaller here than they were in Changdeokgung, and most of the leafy things in them had been rendered brittle skeletons by the heavy rains. There were, however, pretty ornaments to add enough interest—a pavilion, a pond, several benches, and statues. Still, it was times like these that Naran wished she had any respectable accomplishments rather than the “unladylike” hobbies she’d picked up in Moghulikhan. As it were, she had nothing left to pass the time, so she headed up to the servant house.

There, she found a grim-faced, middle-aged man with deep-set eyes and thin lips who looked on her as though she were a fly buzzing around his head.

“Excuse me, sir,” she said, “can you tell me where the stables are?”

The man raised a heavily-calloused hand and gestured toward the opposite end of the yard, but his dialect was heavy, and Naran had a hard time understanding him. Luckily, Hansol poked his head out a window and proclaimed, “I will take you there, Your Highness.”

Relief washed through her at the prospect of a friendly escort. She welcomed the valet at her side, and, together, the pair set off toward the gates.

“Thank you,” she said. “I was about to wander aimlessly through this place in yet another circle.”

Hansol smiled. “The language is definitely regional in many pockets here. I imagine it would be very hard for Your Highness to make out anything he was saying.”

“It’s a good thing you showed up when you did then because I might have found myself following his directions right over a cliff.”

“Now, I could never allow that, Your Highness,” he said with a grin. “I’m glad I caught you anyway. I just came from the stables as it is. I have everything in order for you.”

“You do?”

There was that wide, boyish smile of his. “Of course. It would be awfully unfair to come to such beautiful country and not see any of it.”

“This is exactly what I needed. You know me well. Thank you, Hansol.”

At this, the servant scratched the back of his head with a bit of redness highlighting his cheeks. “In truth, Your Grace, you always give me credit too liberally. It was His Highness who suggested I take you on a ride.”

“Why would the prince— With you?”

Hansol cocked his head to the side as he tried to puzzle out the princess’s meaning. “Your Grace?”

“Just talking to myself, do not mind me. Did you…” Naran began carefully, “did you see the Prince this morning?”

“I did, Your Highness.”

“Is he— Um, how did he seem to you?”

The valet sighed. “His ill humor continues, but it is much improved from yesterday morning, I can at least report. I think the hot springs may have helped lighten his mind. After all, His Highness has been overwhelmed of late. Between the wedding and the holidays and all the unannounced guests at the palace, he must be very stressed because, in all our years together, I have never seen him so burdened. It weighs on my heart.”

“Oh…” she said as her eyes drifted to the pathway.

Hansol bowed then, his face redder than before. “I am so sorry, Your Highness! I should not have said those things. It is not my place.”

“No, no, I don’t mind. You know the prince better than most anyone, I should think. I am relieved to know he has you looking out for him.”

“Besides Her Highness, of course,” the servant amended with a gentle smile.

“Yes, well, I’m glad to hear his mood is improving,” replied Naran, though she could hear how distant her voice sounded as she processed Hansol’s thoughts. “I hope it continues so. Please look after him well, Hansol.”

“Always, Your Grace.”

“And, um, I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I don’t actually know where he is today.”

“To be honest, neither do I. His Highness only told me he would be going out on business and that I should look after you. It is a shame he should plan such a beautiful getaway and then not even be able to enjoy it. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting you to arrive for another week or so, too, so his business must be urgent.”

Naran just hummed, her mind instantly reeling to thoughts of another secret meeting with another potential consort. Perhaps the last time she’d pushed him away, she’d pushed him straight into another woman’s arms, one would end his loneliness without retreating.

At length, the pair reached the stables at the back of the property. Again, these weren’t anywhere near as grand as the ones back in the capital, but the horses were treated no less royally. The stalls were clean and the beasts’ eyes were bright as they perked at the presence of potential riders. Naran missed her own stallion, but she did like the look of the proud gray mare at the head of the stable, which bobbed its head almost in its own little bow.

“May I take this one?” asked the princess, and Hansol beamed his toothiest grin.

“By all means. She’s already been fed and watered, and I’m sure she’s itching for a ride.”

“Very well, show me to the saddles and let’s head out.”

After careful selection, Naran saddled her horse and packed a bow and a quiver of arrows. What her life lacked these days was focus, and there was nothing more focusing in the world to her than archery. By the time they returned to the villa, she had hopes that she would have a renewed sense of purpose.

The princess mounted her horse and waited in the courtyard for Hansol. He followed a few minutes later, looking more like a man than his usual formal servant self. He did not cut anywhere near as dashing a figure on the horse as the prince did, but all the same, Naran did not think she’d ever seen Hansol so handsome. He was bright and alert and good-natured with an openness that, at any other time, she might have pursued. He was safe. He was simple. He was exactly the kind of string-free relationship she had always wanted.

“Where would you like to go, Your Highness?” asked the valet.

“I’d like to do a bit of target practice. Is there somewhere wide and open where we can get some speed?”

“I think I know just the place.”

Hansol guided them through the gate and down the mountain as the morning ticked by quickly. The roads were narrow and unkempt, with many potholes and washed-out sections, so progress was slower than the princess was accustomed, but once things began to level out, she noticed she was still riding alone.

“When I asked you to ride with me, Hansol, I did not mean as a shadow,” Naran admonished.

“With all due respect, Your Highness, it is my job to look after you and protect you, and I can do that much better from back here.”

She was about to joke that it was probably for the best since he could never keep up, but then she heard her husband in her head.

That is our thing.

The princess stuffed away the jibe, and as she did, a bolt of epiphany struck her. If this was how the prince endured every trip or excursion or ride his entire life, it was no wonder he felt so alone. Even surrounded by those closest to him, everyone was out of reach. Hyungwon did not have a Saran to tease and chase and confide in. He did not have a Jigme to encourage and embrace and debate. Even his would-be Magda kept him at arm’s length. Naran was comfortable on her own because she knew she could always return home to them when she needed them.

The prince only had his princess.

This is so much worse…

Naran’s palms were throbbing, and when she looked down, she realized she been wringing the reins in her grip until the leather had cut off her circulation.

“How much farther?” she called back.

Hansol gauged their surroundings and answered, “Not much, Your Grace. Maybe another ten minutes?”

Not much was a relative term, it seemed. If it was a mere ten minutes, it felt like a lifetime, but at last, they arrived at a long stretch of meadow along the river winding through the foothills. The valet wasn’t keen that they were so close to the main road that ran parallel, but Naran assured him that at least this way, they could see anyone coming. With a clear line of sight and a bow in her hand, that was one thing about which the princess never had to second-guess herself.

The grasses were still bright green here and lush from the river access, and thanks to the sturdy winds that funneled through the canyon, it kept the hoppers and flies low to the grass line. Nothing worse than a bug in the mouth when trying to square up a shot, the princess mused with a wry smile. This would do nicely enough.

Naran had Hansol select a few targets at random—fallen logs, knots in trees, and her personal favorite, a hole in an overturned old boat—and, once she’d memorized them, she did a few test runs back and forth across the meadow. There was nothing quite like the muffled clop of hooves in grass, and with the wind in her face and her eyes closed, she could almost believe she was back in Moghulikhan. The only thing she needed was her eagle on her arm.

Once Naran had leaned completely into her muscle memory, she drove her horse forward. Her bow string was pulled taut, the arrow already nocked. The first target came up quickly—a termite hole in an old tree—and she released the arrow. It just missed the hole, plunging instead into the fragile wood surrounding, but she didn’t have time to berate herself. The next target was upon her.

This time when she loosed the arrow, it flew true, right into the heart of the rotting log near the riverbank. Dimly, she heard Hansol applauding, but he stopped abruptly a second later when her next arrow plunged into the old boat to his left. She almost missed that one as well, the arrowhead clattering against the lip of the hole to send it ping-ponging into the shadows beneath the hull, but with practice, she made the next two, and when she came upon the last target—an amputated tree limb still dangling from its mother tree—Naran sank the shot confidently.

“Very well done, Your Grace!” championed Hansol as he jogged over to grab the reins.

Naran leapt down from the saddle and wiped the sweat from her brow as she doubled-over, hands on her knees.

“Are you all right?”

“Indeed. It has just been a while since I have been able to practice my archery. I fear I am rustier than I thought.”

“I have never seen a lady wield a weapon before, let alone so skillfully. I should be afraid to see you well-practiced. No wonder you were not concerned with bandits.”

Naran exhaled slowly as she stood back up on sore legs. “Ah, well, I suppose since I don't know when we will return to the palace, at least I may have plenty of time for practice.”

“They shall have to enlist you in your own Royal Guard,” Hansol joked. “Shall you ride again, Your Highness?”

“My horse needs water first,” she said as she grabbed the reins. “How about we walk to the river?”

Hansol agreed, and together, they wandered along the shoreline until they found a gently sloping bank from which the animals could drink. The princess’s ankle panged from squeezing the horse’s side for so long, but when she dipped her finger in the water, she found it far too icy to soak. Tomorrow, she would have to see about another trip to the hot springs.

With a pleasant sort of emptiness easing her soul, Naran crouched at the shoreline and stared out across the ravine. The river was as stunning as Hyungwon had painted it in her mind. Though it was late in the season, the light still frolicked across its back in white-gold flashes like a swarm of mischievous nymphs. The current shush-shush-shushed along the banks with the consistent rhythm of a metronome while a stick spun in a nearby eddy, hypnotic and languid.

It was so simple here, so peaceful, a balm to Naran’s weary heart. But one thought stormed through her mind with the destructive force of an army.

Hyungwon wanted to show me this.

The pang from her ankle was now in her chest as she considered the man she was here with instead. Hansol did not say much beside her. He observed their horses dutifully, as stalwart a servant as there ever was one.

“You are a very good sort of man, Hansol,” the princess said suddenly, and he straightened to full attention immediately.

“I live to be of service, Your Grace,” he said though he could not help his twitch of a proud smile.

“I’m not talking about your work,” Naran clarified. “I mean to say that you are a good man besides your position.”

The valet looked dumbfounded and most definitely embarrassed. “Th-thank you, Your Highness.”

“Is there a lady in your life?”

This question shocked him even further. It took him a moment to answer almost as though he had to translate it into another language, though he was fluent in both Goryeon and English. “There is not, Your Grace.”

“We keep you too busy, I suppose?”

“It’s not that…” he said gently.

“Do you get lonely, Hansol?” It was more a rhetorical question, Naran supposed. She wasn’t even sure exactly why she was asking it. No doubt, it crossed some lines, but her own desperate feelings seemed to be slipping the iron bonds of her usual self-control.

For his part, the man quietly considered her question. His lips pressed together as firmly as a seal on a vault, but when the princess did not change the subject, his duty to answer outweighed his reticence.

“Yes, sometimes. It is hard to make friends when you are the personal valet to a royal officer. His Grace is a very kind master though, as are you, Your Highness. If I may be so bold, our empire is much brighter since you became a part of it.”

Hansol’s words were very pretty and sincerely meant, but Naran felt a disconnect. In this unspoiled moment, she had everything she had ever wanted. She was independent. She was free of her royal tethers. She was in a real-life landscape painting with a handsome man at her side. She could take off in any direction if the whim struck her, and no one would be able to catch her.

And none of it felt like what she truly wanted.

“Do you like me, Hansol?”

The princess’s words were barely louder than the river current, but they seemed to echo in the canyon.

Again, the servant looked surprised, but he remained amiable as always. “Of course, Your Highness.”

“No, I mean, do you find me beautiful?”

“Of course, Your Highness,” he continued in his persistently servile tone.

Naran groaned. “I’m being serious, Hansol. You need not speak as a servant here, but as a man, and no matter what, I will not hold your answer against you. I just need to hear it? I can’t explain why.”

His eyes drifted up the princess’s frame until they met hers. This time, there was no trace of formality in his voice, and his tone had a much harder edge to it than the princess had ever experienced from him. “You are one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen.”

His praise did not make Naran feel as she thought it would—in fact, it did not make her feel much of anything at all except a flash of shame.

“Say my name,” she blurted then.

Hansol gaped at her. “What?”

“I want you to speak not my title but my name. Do you know it?”

“I—yes, Your Highness.”

“You will not get in trouble, I swear to it.”

He gaped at her as though he was already surrounded by a dozen guards all waiting for him to dare to cross such an important royal line, but the princess could not back down. She gazed at him pleadingly, and, finally, Hansol wet his lips.

Color rushed up his neck and face, and though he could not look in her eyes as he said it, he whispered shakily, “Naran…”

This time, the only thing she felt was how very wrong her name sounded on someone else’s lips. Before, when others she trusted said it, it was pleasant or comforting, yet now, somehow, it felt like it didn’t belong to her anymore. It had become a precious thing, locked away, and only very few people held the key.

Swiftly, her mind flipped the page to another name, and just as strangely, this one felt like it belonged to her.

Hyungwon.

All Naran could think about now was that the prince was out there somewhere all alone, and she needed to get back to him as soon as she could. What if he’d come back to the villa and she wasn’t there? It wasn’t right. An overwhelming sort of panic surged through her veins.

“We must go back to the villa at once,” the princess said as she whipped back toward her horse.

“I—” stuttered a frantic Hansol. A moment later, he was bent in half for a bow as he practically shouted, “Your Highness, please forgive me.”

His words rang through the mountains, and Naran was furious with herself for making the man suffer so.

“Hansol, please. Please rise,” she said. Slowly, the valet rose, terror etched in his face, and once she caught his gaze, she bowed to him. His eyes widened further as he took in the princess lowering to a servant. “I’m sorry to have unnerved you. It was my mistake, and I should not have imposed upon you like that. You have absolutely nothing to apologize for. We need never speak of this again, for it is already forgotten so long as you can forgive me.”

“Of course, Your Highness,” he said with his hand over his heart, and things felt in their order again. “But is everything all right then if we must hurry from here?”

“I can’t explain it, but we must get back as soon as we can. I need to be there.”

Hansol looked to the well-watered horses and nodded. “Then there is no better timing. We can head straight back.”

Gratefully, Naran mounted her horse as the valet did his, and they headed back to the road at a sturdy gallop. Things felt so much longer on the ride back. Every second the princess remained away intensified the sickly dread inside, that if she didn’t beat her husband back, something might break that could never be repaired. The longer everything took up the mountain, the deeper the putrescent claws dug into her gut. Her horse was doing all the work, but Naran was the one who felt like gasping for air through teary eyes.

They made it back to the villa by early afternoon, and when she found that the prince had not yet returned, her relief almost immediately transformed into worry. Because she didn’t know where he had gone, she also didn’t know when he’d be back, which meant she didn’t know if something worse had happened. Hansol did not seem concerned as of yet, but she wondered if the servant’s well-trained expression belied how he also felt as he worked the yard in front of the staff house. Still, she’d asked too much of him today to further upset him, so she kept her anxieties mostly to herself. She could not, however, conceal her pacing.

All evening, Naran waited in the courtyard, zipping back and forth until her ankle had begun to throb, but she couldn’t risk leaving. At some point, one of the servants had brought her some food, and though she ate to keep from feeling hunger nerves, she had no appetite.

At last, as twilight blackened the forest canopy, the gates opened, and Naran straightened her robe and unwound the tie in her hair to feather her tresses over her shoulders. In rode Hyungwon on the back of a white horse, looking every bit the great lord he was. She rocked on her heels at the edge of the courtyard, but if the prince saw her, he made no acknowledgement.

Once he’d handed off his horse to Hansol, the prince headed straight for the men’s quarters, and the princess hissed. By now, her ankle felt almost twice its size, and running felt impossible though she forced it anyway. She couldn’t risk another lockout.

“My prince!” she shouted as she shuffled behind him. “My prince! Ah!”

Naran wobbled and caught the wall to stabilize herself, but at least it grabbed Hyungwon’s attention. He turned at last to face her with a look of bewilderment and maybe, she hoped, concern on his face.

“What are you doing out here, Princess? Your face is flushed, and you look ill. You should go back to your room and lie down.”

She shook her head. “I can’t. I need to speak with you.”

The prince stared at her, his elegant face completely blank.

“I did not see you come back with an escort,” she blurted.

Hyungwon was just as blunt in his answer. “That would be because I did not take one.”

“What do you mean riding about without a guard?” Naran scolded. “If there are bandits in the northern mountains, surely, there must be some here. You could have been hurt! Where did you have to go that was so important that you would risk your safety?”

“I know these mountains very well, Princess. I’ve been playing in them my whole life,” he assured as he breezed past her toward his room.

“Wait a minute!” she protested as she stumbled after his strong gait. “I was worried! You were gone so long and then you came back alone, and yet you still tell me nothing. Can you not at least tell me where you went?”

“Away.”

The lone word bit into her heart like a cobra.

Naran blinked, stunned, and it took her a moment to collect herself. “That’s hardly an answer, sir. If you were just going on a ride, I could have joined you.”

At this, Hyungwon pulled up to a sudden stop, his back straight as an arrow. He did not look back at her as he said, “Then that would have defeated the point.”

“Which is?”

But he did not answer nor did he turn to her.

Naran stumbled along the wall, out of breath and in pain as she worked hard to stay close to her husband. Her hand clutched her chest as she steadied her breath. “Will you do this again tomorrow?”

“Perhaps.”

“And the day after? And the day after?”

“I can’t answer that.”

They reached the prince’s room then, and he blew inside, his hanbok snapping behind him. Hyungwon did not close the door in her face though it felt like he had, and Naran slumped against the frame. He lit a candle, and the butterscotch flame warmed the shadows. His room looked nearly identical to hers—definitely more upscale than the others in the wing yet still cozy and humble but, most of all, intimate. It was so inviting, yet she could feel invisible hands trying to shove her from it.

“I don’t want to play the stud horse tonight, Princess,” griped the prince as he tossed his belt across the room.

“I’m not here about heirs.” Naran could feel the tremor in her throat that always preceded her tears, and when her voice escaped again, it was a near whimper. “Why did you make me come here if you were just going to leave me all alone?”

Hyungwon turned then, and his face was as cold as the moon yet just as luminous. “It’s what you wanted. And I did not leave you alone. Hansol is here. Did he not keep you company today?”

“We went out for a ride, yes.”

“I’m glad he was here to look after you then,” the prince said stiffly.

“He told me you arranged it,” she ventured, and at once, a look of frustration crossed her husband’s face.

“That disobedient—”

“Don’t be cross with him, please? He only wanted to give you credit for your consideration of me.”

Hyungwon sighed and deflated all at once. “As the lady wishes.”

“Why would you do that?” Naran whispered. “Why would you push Hansol and I together?”

“You said you were comfortable with him.”

“I am. He’s a loyal friend, and I value him. That’s all, my prince, I swear it, yet you keep insinuating I like him as more than that. Why?”

Hyungwon held his breath, his chest high and tight as he looked far, far away from her. Softly, he said, “Because if I have to lose you to anybody, it may as well be someone I trust.”

Naran took a step into his room. Then, another and another. She closed the door behind her, and at its soft swish into place, her husband looked to her at last. This time when their eyes met, she felt it—the thing she’d been missing in the meadow today, the very same thing she’d been missing with everyone else since she’d arrived in Goryeo.

Naran felt a connection.

“I don’t want to lose you at all,” she confessed.

“You can’t just say things like that and expect me to take them seriously, Naran. You’re hot, you’re cold. You like me, you never want to see me again. I can’t trust anything you say to me.”

“That was before.”

“Before what? Before Champa? Before you had another reason to never forgive me for this marriage?”

“I know I said that, but something’s changed. I’ve changed.”

Hyungwon rolled his eyes. “One trip to some hot springs doesn’t change a heart bound and determined to turn against another.”

Naran hung her head. Her throat felt like it was closing up. Panic spiked her heart and flooded her mind as everything fell apart around her.

“I hate how much my fear and resentment has hurt you, but I’m not bitter anymore,” she said, “and I’m not scared of anything but being without you. I know my heart now, and it’s open if you’ll have it.”

“Until someone else fills it…” grumbled Hyungwon.

“My prince—”

“You cut me, Naran. You cut me to the bone. I’m hemorrhaging beside you, and still, I try to hide the bloodshed so I don’t look more pathetic in your eyes than I already do.”

He swallowed hard and took a step toward her.

“If you ever risked getting close enough, you would see the way my heart beats for you,” he continued raggedly. Hyungwon yanked aside the collar of his hanbok and bared his throat. He tapped the side of his neck and snarled, “See? Pathetic.”

There, Naran could see it plain even in the candlelight—the throb of pale flesh above the red river of longing coursing through him.

She kissed him there suddenly. His skin was hot and peppered with salt. It was intoxicating, so she placed a second kiss beside her first and then several more to trace the wake of her destruction all the way to his mouth.

Hyungwon stared at her tawny lips, transfixed. His own were throbbing, too, as they flushed fuller than she’d ever seen on any man. Under her scrutiny, they quivered and then blotted themselves against each other as the pale fled from the fresh deluge of rose that flooded them now.

Her eyes flicked to his.

Another breath.

Two.

“Hyungwon,” she murmured.

His lips parted in surprise. Naran molded her body to his, and on reflex, his hands rested at her hips, feather light and ready to flee at her slightest flinch.

But, this time, the princess held fast to her prince.

“Kiss me.”

In a split second, the space between them evaporated. Frantically, her husband’s fists knotted in the folds of her silks as he crushed her hips to his, but as their gazes entwined, his fingers unwound to knead tenderly at her back.

Hyungwon’s face loomed over hers, his features dark except for the brightness of his eyes. In a voice trembling with barely restrained hope, he begged, “Don’t leave me.”

“Don’t let me go,” she returned, and then Naran pushed up on her toes and brushed her mouth over his.

Hyungwon went rigid, almost as though he assumed the whole thing was a mistake or a mirage, so Naran pressed more urgently against him. She bathed his lips in little kisses, every corner, every swell, every recess. It was only when her tongue risked a taste of that caramel freckle on his bottom lip that the prince roared to life.

He kissed her fiercely, the kind of kiss that made her feel like kindling at the mercy of the first strike of a match. One hand wound her long hair twice around his fist. He tugged once, and needles of pleasure and pain pricked along her scalp.

“Say it again,” he commanded.

Even if he hadn’t asked, his name would have come tumbling from her lips, for Naran could never hold it back again.

“Hyungwon…”

This time, his lips clashed with hers as he drove them back, back, back until she slammed into the wall with an “oomph” devoured by his mouth. Something clattered to the floor beside them.

“I dream of you,” he rasped into her ear as he rocked his strengthening hardness against her thigh. “Every night. How do I know I’m not dreaming now?”

He placed a kiss under the overhang of her jaw as his breath fanned fire across her skin, and her nails scratched across his scalp in hopes that if he felt her, he would believe her.

“I’m here, Hyungwon. I’m with you.”

“Ah,” he groaned as his brow, then his eyes, met hers, “that’s doing such funny things to my head. It sounds so good on your lips. It’s all I’ve ever wanted. You, Naran. You’re all I’ve wanted. Every day. Always.”

The princess brought her hands up to frame her husband’s face. She stroked the tender skin at his cheeks and smiled. “I want you, too, Hyungwon.”

A snarl curled those beautiful lips, and the hands at her back shifted to the back of her thighs as he lifted her up and pinioned her against the wall. Naran’s legs wrapped around him as another reminder that this wasn’t a dream, and yet, they held on to one another like it was. While she had a stranglehold around his waist, his body ground almost painfully against hers, so hard that the wall creaked behind them. Even being this close did not feel close enough. There wasn’t a swath of skin her hands didn’t paw, not a feature of his body her eyes didn’t commit to memory. She needed all of him as quickly as she could have him. Soft could come later. For now, they were desperate for one another.

Their mouths still connected, they exchanged heavy breaths as their desire ramped up exponentially. His tongue grazed hers, and sparks showered behind her eyes. Her fingers raked through his hair as her own tongue risked a taste of his mouth next. Naran was unprepared for the way her husband’s moan vibrated through their new intimate connection, and it made her aware of just how empty other parts of her were now.

“Hyungwon, I—ah, I need you right now.”

His grunt was the only warning she got. It was a quick pivot from the wall to his bed, and the next thing Naran knew, she’d been dropped on it.

“Everything off this time,” he ordered. “I want to see all of you.”

Thanks to the humble country wardrobe, the princess shed her clothes in record time, and as she laid there prone and totally bare, she was treated to the sight of Hyungwon removing the last barrier between them. He whisked his undershirt over his head, and time seemed to stop. This was different than seeing his body at the hot springs. There, they still had pretenses between them, but no longer. This time, when Naran took in her husband’s body, she saw it as hers.

Knotted shoulders supported sturdy biceps and veiny forearms. His chest was smooth and taut where it transitioned into sinewy abs and, finally, robust thighs she had the urge to bite. Beautiful as Hyungwon was, it was hard to look at anything other than his rigid manhood as he slowly stroked himself to the sight of his wife splayed for him on his bed.

Naran sat up on her elbows as she watched him keenly, borderline hypnotized by the way his tip glistened in the candlelight. She wet her lips and forced her eyes up to his.

“Please, Hyungwon, fill me.”

“Open your legs all the way, darling,” he asked.

Her knees parted eagerly to expose her center, and the prince sighed.

“So pretty…”

He was frozen in his admiration of her, so Naran took hold of his manhood and led him to her core. A drunken smile painted across the prince’s face as he watched his wife nestle his cockhead in her greedy entrance.

They looked up at the same time. Their eyes locked and then their lips. As Hyungwon’s tongue pushed into her mouth, his shaft pushed into her heat, and they sucked in each other’s blissful sighs.

Naran drove both hands into her husband’s hair and fastened him to her as she kissed him through his first shallow thrusts. Every time with him had been something new and special, but this was altogether different. It wasn’t just their bodies that had joined but their hearts. She felt so much more than the acute ripples of euphoria in her veins. She felt cherished, worshipped—special.

“Oh, Hyungwon…” Naran whined as her head tipped back. Her mouth hung open, spilling incoherent nonsense with every stroke as one hand gripped her shoulder to still her against his every eager penetration.

Her husband’s voice was thick and gravelly, drenched in sin as he confessed, “I missed this. I missed you, darling. I missed the way you take me just like this. So right.”

“So… right…” Naran huffed between thrusts.

“I could do this all night.”

“Mmm,” she purred as words became harder and harder to form.

“But you want to come undone for me, don’t you, my darling?”

“Yes Hyungwon, yes!”

“Why?” he pressed, and all of a sudden, his hips stilled as his arms wrapped around her sagging shoulders.

Naran’s eyes opened at once, her wild gaze trained solely on the prince. Her panicked voice cut the thick air. “You stopped! Don’t stop, please!”

She clawed at his biceps as she tried to jerk her hips to meet his instead, but she had no leverage—Hyungwon saw to that. She was helpless in her husband’s arms.

“Tell me why I should give in to you again, Naran.”

The princess whined as her core begged, and even though she felt his manhood twitching anxiously within her, the prince was resolute.

She found what was left of her voice to answer, “Because I want only you, Hyungwon. I need only you!”

With a ragged exhale, he kissed her briefly before taking her bottom lip between his teeth to suckle it. He drove faster into her fluttering walls then, and Naran’s hand braced once more against the bed to keep upright. Gluttonous moans heralded the first inklings of the princess’s downfall, which prompted the prince’s thumb to her stiffening pearl. Her every nerve responded to his will. It was laughable how little control she had over anything when it came to her husband, let alone her own body. It was his. She was his. How could she have ever convinced herself otherwise?

Every thrust stirred something in the depths of her belly that threatened to be so cataclysmic that it scared her, but even if she wanted to run from such a powerful ending, she couldn’t. With his hand at the back of her neck, Hyungwon pushed in so deeply their foreheads touched. Hot, racing breaths collided in a supernova of passion that showered like stardust over her sweaty skin. There were words on their lips, but their mouths were too slack from panting to form them, so their eyes spoke instead.

Want you.

Need you.

Let go.

Naran shook from head to toe as her release hurtled through her. Her eyes winched so tightly shut that she saw white. When everything unclenched, she collapsed to the bed, and her husband followed on top of her. Hyungwon engulfed her with his lanky frame though she was still too foggy-headed from her climax to see him clearly.

His hands clasped her face as his chest flattened against hers in a sticky kiss. He kept his thrusts shallow and slow, but it was just as the princess needed. She was overwhelmed by him already, especially the pendulous way he brushed his lips across hers in between each tangle of their tongues. It was as if he feared once he pulled away, he might never get the chance to kiss her again, but Naran would never let that happen now. She was too addicted, too hopeless.

Gradually, sensation came back to her body, starting with the intense shiver of her overstimulated core around Hyungwon’s member. He sighed against her neck, kissed her, and then marked her fresh. Naran whimpered as everything within her felt the need to pull back from another relentless onslaught of pleasure. When her squirming got the best of her usually patient husband, his hands cuffed her wrists above her head as his lips captured hers.

“Going somewhere?” he teased between kisses.

“Feels too good. I can’t take it.”

“Of course you can, princess.”

Her hands jerked in his grip, but Hyungwon held firm. His mouth remained tender just as his strokes remained fluid. His consumption of her was so sweet and sensual that Naran felt a tear escape down her cheek, but her husband didn’t seem to notice. His lips were too busy bathing her jaw and neck and mouth in more kisses.

“Why did I ever think I could share you?” he murmured. “I can't. I'm too greedy. Be mine. Only be mine. Don’t look at anyone else the way you look at me. Let only me inside you. Crave only my love.”

“Yes, I’m yours,” Naran moaned out. “Only yours, Hyungwon. Only want me, too.”

“I do,” he whispered, “I do.”

The prince savored his wife's walls with languid thrusts that left no part of her unexplored. Whenever she would jolt or arch, he would make note of it and return the very next stroke with dutiful intention. Slowly but surely though, he was falling apart.

Naran knew her husband’s tells now. It wasn’t just the way his pace quickened or his grip tightened. It was the way his voice rasped a little higher and a little more ragged, the seductive song of a desperate man. Hyungwon's needs stoked hers, and the sweatier their bodies became, the easier it was to slip his bonds and wrap him up in her own restraints.

The princess clung to him, his face in her hands and her knees clasping his waist before her ankles locked into the small of his back. Naran kissed him sloppily now, unfocused and far too breathy to convey any emotion other than lust, but she couldn't bear any part of her not touching him.

Still, primal urges outweighed the need for extra intimacy, and Hyungwon pressed her thighs flat against the mattress so he had unrestricted access to rut into her. He thrust animalistically now, the friction sending her head digging back into the mattress while a silent scream ripped from her chest when his cock shifted just right inside of her heat.

His arms gave out with the effort, his body crashing against her as he grunted and whined. Even more enticingly, his lips had found a home at her ear, so his pathetic whimpering came through with mesmerizing clarity. Naran didn’t think she’d ever again hear a sound so beautiful.

As if to prove her wrong, a second later, Hyungwon unleashed into her walls with a hiccuping sob of pleasure that brought gooseflesh to the princess’s skin. He wrapped her in his arms and buried his face in her throat as he poured his essence into her with emphatic thumps of his hips against hers, each one alluring in its waning desperation to fill her to her brim. Her hand gripped his sweaty hair and crushed his face to her neck as she lost control of her body. Drowned in her husband, Naran followed his climax with a shuddering one of her own that milked him of the last of his strength.

Minutes passed. Hyungwon deflated completely atop her, his body smothering her though it was welcome. With nothing left inside her now but her husband’s cock and the rawest emotions, the princess hummed.

“I’m so happy right now,” the prince whispered. If his mouth hadn’t been by her ear, she might not have heard him.

Naran answered him with a soothing, idle scratch of his back as she breathed a newer, somehow sweeter air.

They laid like that for some time, sticky and glued to one another since both were too reluctant to let go. Eventually, Hyungwon kissed her cheek.

“Did I make you feel good, princess?” he asked.

“You made me feel beautiful,” Naran mewled as he suddenly pushed in, and though his length was softening now, it felt deeper than she’d ever had him. She scraped little hills down his back, but he stayed there, secured to her so intimately that it plumbed shimmering beads from the depths of her heart down her cheeks.

Hyungwon lifted at last and dried her tears with his thumbs. “You are beautiful. There is no one more beautiful, my Naran. There never will be.”

This time when she heard such words, it was like she felt everything the world had to offer all at once. It was overpowering yet perfect. She had so many things she wanted to say, but they were gummed up within her. Even when she tried to force them out, all that came was a tragic, empty puff of breath, but instead of beating herself up for it, she forgave herself. There was time enough to put a label to the cocktail of intense feelings that swirled within her. For now, the princess cupped her husband’s face and guided his gaze to hers. His cheeks filled her hands, round and warm and soft as fresh dough, and her thumbs were only too happy to stroke their breadth.

Hyungwon looked at her so adoringly that something in the princess’s chest twisted. He pecked the tip of her nose then before he lowered his mouth back to hers and kissed her with just a little brush of his tongue for reassurance. This kiss wasn’t about urgent passion anymore but about uniting two otherwise lost souls.

When the prince pulled out at last, the couple unleashed guttural groans in tandem, Naran’s growing more intense as the rush of Hyungwon’s arousal forced her legs to clamp shut. He was quick to grab the first piece of clothing on the floor and mop it up as she murmured a thank you. When he was done, he tucked a pillow under her head, covered them with a blanket, and settled back in beside her.

Naran laid there looking up, her hands stacked over her heart as her whole body floated. She felt lighter than air, but so, too, was there a heavy lump in her chest, not bitter cold like iron but brilliant and conductive like pure gold. She was incandescent. She was happy. Tears slipped once more from the corners of her eyes and splattered on her pillow. She wasn’t even sure where they were coming from considering the only thing she could feel right now was joy, but she also couldn’t stop them.

She thought of Saran then, how the girl had worried about ending up with someone who could not kiss with passion or skill, and Naran understood how wise her sister could truly be. In Hyungwon’s kiss, there was desire, there was desperation. In Hyungwon’s kiss, there was their entire future.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked suddenly.

“My sister,” the princess laughed sheepishly.

Hyungwon rolled onto his side and propped his head on his arm so he could gape at her. “Really? After all that, you’re thinking of your sister?”

Naran laughed again. “Just that she tried to tell me to trust my feelings for you, and I brushed it aside figuring it for a foolish girl’s teenage fantasy, but that girl is perhaps much cleverer than I. She will make one hell of a mighty queen one day.”

The prince hummed with an odd little smile on his face. “I knew I loved Saran for a reason. She has always been on my side.”

“That she has.”

“I shall write her a very long thank you one of these days.”

“We have all the free time in the world at the moment, you know.”

“So you think.” It was her husband’s turn to laugh. “I shall be keeping you very busy this week.”

A smile slowly lit up Naran’s face as she eyed the naked man next to her. “Is that so?”

“It is very so.”

The princess exhaled contentedly and flopped over so she could drape an arm across Hyungwon’s waist and tuck her head onto his shoulder. She skated her fingers along his skin while he returned the favor, each one teasing prickles from the other.

“Thank you,” Naran said suddenly, and Hyungwon’s hand stilled on her back.

“For what?”

“For bringing us here.”

The subtle warmth of his hand penetrated her back straight to her heart. She felt his cheek on the crown of her head while the boom of his heart echoed strongly under her ear.

“You asked me once if I would sing for you,” Hyungwon started slowly.

“Mm,” she murmured, “yes. Something you wrote.”

“I—”

Naran felt his chest flare with a captured breath, and she opened her eyes to peer up at him. The prince was staring at the ceiling, his eyes sweeping the darkness for something—permission, maybe, or courage. When at last he exhaled, his whole body seemed to sink into the mattress.

“I wrote something for you today.”

“Is that where you went?”

Hyungwon nodded. “I’ve been upside-down since we left Namgyeong, and I thought if I pushed you away, I could get my feet back under me, but after yesterday—after spending that time with you at the hot springs—I was coming undone all over again. Writing helps me make sense of things, so I went to the river and put words to the page, but I wonder if I should share it now. I don’t think I ever intended you to hear it.”

“Of course, I want to hear it,” she insisted.

“I fear it might make you uncomfortable.”

“Hyungwon?” said Naran firmly. “I want to hear it, no matter what. No more keeping things from each other. Please?”

She hugged him tighter as she propped her chin against his chest to give him her keen attention. Her husband ran a big hand through her hair, and with a spasm in her heart as she read his shifting gaze, she felt all his vulnerability.

“Please share it with me,” she urged.

“Very well.”

Hyungwon settled back into his pillow, but his tenacious grip around her belied his calm appearance. He cleared his throat, hummed a little to find his range, and Naran felt her body rise as he filled his lungs with breath.

His gravelly voice cascaded over her, torrid and throaty and strained with visceral emotion.

When her husband had finished, Naran realized she was crying in earnest through embarrassing sniffles. Fat tears puddled on his chest, and she hurried to wipe them away as she mumbled apology after apology.

“Misty night

The half-clouded breath fills my lungs and

I'm still alone

Our breathing dims more and more

I uncontrol it every day

I cross this crimson-tinged river

I change my clothes, my hair, my face, my name

I'm begging you for mercy

Please let me out of this place

Mercy

At the end of darkness, I pray

I want your mercy.”

Hyungwon grabbed her hand and tugged enough to draw her attention back to his face. “Don’t cry, little star.”

“How can I not? The way I’ve made you feel— I’m so ashamed, and I’m so sorry. After all you’ve done to show yourself to me—”

But as he interlaced their fingers, he shook his head emphatically. “I could have just told you, too, instead of leaving you to interpret me.”

“I wouldn’t have believed you anyway. I wasn’t ready to. Please forgive me.”

“I’ll forgive you if you forgive me, and that way, we can start our marriage as it should have rightfully started.”

Naran sniffled again as she caught her breath once more. “No more contracts?”

“I never want to hear the word ever again,” Hyungwon said disdainfully.

They exchanged smiles and another soft kiss, which was a silent contract of its own, though neither wanted to point that out. Instead, Naran settled back against his chest and let her eyes shutter.

Hyungwon hummed as his hands resumed caressing her back. “You asked me once what I desire. Do you remember?”

In an instant, the princess was warped back to the gardens at Sygnak where she had stood beside her soon-to-be-husband though her heart had been leagues away.

“I do. You told me you wanted peace.”

“This, yes. Exactly this. You are my peace, little star. It's what I feel here,” he said taking her hand and putting it over his heart, “when I'm with you. So if you don’t mind, I’d like to stay with you. Always.”

“Always…”

Hyungwon pulled back so he could study her face. He stroked his thumb over her eyebrow, and Naran melted into his caress.

“So, what is it you want, my darling?”

The princess felt her eyes growing misty again as her answer welled in her chest. “I want to deserve you.”

Hyungwon looked at her, stunned. “What are you talking about? Of course you do.”

“I don’t know,” the princess mumbled, feeling shyer than ever. “I just— I’ve hurt you so—”

He kissed her then, this time with a soul-shifting thoroughness that left her feeling more naked than she already was, but when he came up for air, he draped his body over hers in a possessive cuddle that made her feel like she was swaddled in a dozen blankets. He was so warm and encompassing and present that the last of her worries faded away.

“I don’t care about any of that anymore. It was all worth it because we deserve one another,” he said with finality.

Naran had nothing more to say, she was so overcome. Instead, she pushed up, and though his lips puckered in anticipation, she kissed his eyelids and then the corner of his eyes, too, before nuzzling her cheek against his.

“So you’re staying tonight?” asked Hyungwon.

“Mm-hm,” she answered. “I’d rather not be apart from you either.”

“I can't promise I'll keep my hands to myself all night.”

“I hope you don't,” she returned with a lip bite.

“Hey,” Hyungwon chided as he used his thumb to pry it free from her teeth. “That’s my lip. I’m the only one allowed to bite it.”

Sparing but a few moments to freshen up for bed, they were back in each other’s arms under the blankets as the autumn chill pressed in through the villa walls. The prince’s body conformed to the princess’s like a royal seal. She felt the tickle of his fingers over her belly as he drew her deeper into his embrace so their bare skin melded together warm and inviting while their eyelids drooped. With her last conscious thought, Naran realized that, for all her relentless running, she’d ended up exactly where she was always meant to be.

A/N: In all honesty, I would sell what’s left of my soul to hear Hyungwon sing “Mercy” to me in his bed, that way I’d have a taste of heaven before I went straight to hell lol. Final full chap bursting with delicious denouement next week, beloveds. <3

#monsta x smut #multichapter #hyungwon smut #royal au #arranged marriage #romance #slow burn #bodice ripper #prisoner to temptation

39 notes · View notes