#o my most dear and darling professor what the FUCK am i doing

[rruralroy]

The only actual gay adult I know is my l English professor and I literally. I literally have the means and have been encouraged by said man to text him if I need anything. But oh boy howdy bud I sure am needing a lot more than either one of us was expecting rn

#i love my parents!! but every time i talk to them i get a stress headache because it is getting harder to pretend to be their daughter!!!! #i need to come out but i absolutely cannot but i must!!! #o my most dear and darling professor what the FUCK am i doing

[inexplicifics]

Recs list - unfinished works

Alright, there are so many marvelous people writing amazing fic in this fandom, time for Inex to do another recs list. This time I’m doing unfinished works from my subscriptions - go and give the authors some love!

(when you just can’t seem) to shake the weight of living, by WingedQuill. This has the most amazing premise: Geralt, and all witchers, are cursed so that they cannot choose to leave the Path. High-quality angst and hurt/comfort.

A Beginners Guide to Exploiting the Kaedweni Tax Code for Fun and Profit, by Heronfem. I cannot do this fic justice. It is a glorious modern Continent Lambert/Aiden AU, with such magnificent worldbuilding and relationship building and character building that I simply can’t articulate how much I love it.

Meet Death Sitting series, by bomberqueen17. Are any of you not reading this? The intricate plotting! The amazing angst! The beautiful character interactions! The oh-gods-please-communicate jitters of the most recent section!

Build me up, buttercup, by pukner. This is a post-mountain fic, with professor Jaskier taking in Yen and Ciri and giving them sanctuary at Oxenfurt. I am on tenterhooks to see where it goes next, and the character interactions and the voices of the characters are absolutely top-notch.

Burning in the Longest Night, by GreenBird. Extremely nontraditional A/B/O, and I really really want Lambert and Eskel to get past the hurt and into the comfort (and smut, let’s be real) but in the meantime the worldbuilding and angst are just delicious.

Cold as Desert Starlight, by Mare_Criseum. Amazing broken beautiful Viper witchers coping after the fall of Gorthur Gvaed; absolutely delightful OCs and some high-quality worldbuilding.

Endless Forms Most Beautiful, by ilisidi. Post-mountain fic, with very very good Geralt angst and Eskel the best sweet supportive friend (and future beloved), and Ciri the surprisingly perceptive Child of Surprise. Also some very good angst, and I have high hopes of comfort to come.

Fire & powder series, by violaceum_vitellina_viridis. You’re all reading this one, too, right? Jaskier and witchers and found family and amazing intricate plotting, and really good character interactions that deal with people fucking up and having to repair that relationship. Also delicious smut.

How many the sheep may be, by randomlyimagine. Wolf!Geralt who only sometimes has his mind but always knows that Jaskier is pack, and Jaskier who would like to know why there’s a wolf following him around.

Missed you, Wolf, by spectralbeef. Eskel comes to find Geralt down in Toussaint, and emotions...happen. I love the relationship in this one; they know each other so well, and love each other so deeply.

Nights without sleep and days that burn, by ruffboi. Prince Julian gets given the last remaining Wolves, and promptly starts figuring out how to free them and himself. The character dynamics are so good in this! I love seeing Jaskier grow into himself. The OCs are also delightful!

Piece Me Back Together, Dear Heart series, by rawrkinjd. Gods, the angst and hurt/comfort and worldbuilding and amazing smut and beautiful relationship development and...this is just stunningly good all through.

Return to Oxenfurt, by vands38. Really gorgeous Geralt/Jaskier...slow burn isn’t the right word, since they don’t exactly keep their hands off each other, but slow intimacy burn, perhaps. Also smitten!Geralt is fucking adorable, and Valda is a treasure.

Selachimorpha series, by minutiae. The witchers are all shark-merpeople. Yes, you read that correctly. This is glorious crack, and beautifully done.

Sing me awake, by burrfication. I have no idea what the resolution of this mystery is but I am on tenterhooks waiting for it, and in the meantime I am definitely enjoying the modern Continent worldbuilding and Geralt being very, very confused, poor man.

Time Stops for No Witcher series, by round_robin. Reincarnated Jaskier on the modern Continent is found by his witchers, and events unspool beautifully from there. Gorgeously written - it’s robin, of course it’s lovely - and I am very eager for the promised third section!

Witcher marriage traditions, and other lies, by burrfication. Geralt and Jaskier have to pretend to be married, and oh gods Jaskier is so painfully bad at noticing how in love Geralt is. There’s also very good worldbuilding and some charming OCs, but I’m over here biting my nails for Jaskier finally fucking noticing already, please for the love of gods.

Witchering Pays but Botany Doesn’t series, by Superstition_hockey. These are glorious, beautifully written crack, with a modern Continent Geralt who does botany videos in his spare time between witchering. Hilarious and gorgeous.

...There are so many more, but that’s enough to be starting with, I think. Go and enjoy the amazing fics, my darlings!

#the witcher #fic recs

[johannstutt413]

(requested by anonymous)

The Doctor and Ceylon left the office together, her arm locked with his cordially as he walked her to her dorm. “You know what I find fascinating, Ceylon?” He asked not long after leaving the office.

“What would that be, Doctor?”

“Since you and Schwarz arrived here,” he continued, “I haven’t seen you together often. Is there a reason for that?”

She nodded. “We’ve decided it’s best to spend time with others in our respective fields - after all, there are several other Oripathy scholars working at Rhodes Island for me to learn from, and Schwarz has both her new duties to attend to and other mercenaries that understand her troubles better than I ever will. Besides, as much as I love h-having her by my side, it’s not healthy for two people to spend every waking moment together.”

“Oh, of course. I was just curious because I’ve been working on organizing a couples’ retreat for those Operators who have a special someone in their lives, and I was wondering if the two of you would be interested in coming along.”

“Um...when you say special someone,” Ceylon clarified, “you mean...romantically, yes?”

The Doctor nodded with a smile. “Yes, I do.”

“I...I’ll bring it up with her. Who else would be attending?”

“Well, let’s see.” He counted each pair on his fingers. “There’s MountainPass-”

She made a small noise at the mention. “I’m sorry?”

“Oh, they’re just some names I came up with for each couple. Kind of like team names, which will help with some of the activities. Courier and Cliffheart, Skadi and Spectre [WhaleShark], Silverash and Siege [Lovers Leo], Provence and Scavenger [Mousecapade], Flamebringer and Perfumer [Rose Thorns], Matterhorn and Vulcan [Get the Horns] - they’re all confirmed, and I have one or two I still need to check in with. You have another week or two to get back to me.”

“I will ask her tonight,” Ceylon confirmed. After a moment’s pause, she asked, “What’s your name for us?”

The Doctor smirked. “Siesta’s Salvation.”

-

Schwarz came home that evening to find Ceylon pacing back and forth, deep in contemplation. “Lady Ceylon? Something’s clearly bothering you.”

“Schwarz, the Doctor invited us to an event, and before I say yes to his invitation...there’s something we need to talk about.”

“We should talk over tea.” The sniper went to the stove, grabbed the kettle, and filled it under the faucet. “Beyond this point, you had a good day?”

Ceylon sat at one end of their dining table and worked to calm herself down. “Oh, yes, just lovely. I was in the lab most of the day, testing one of the new decrystallization mechanisms, and we actually saw some reversion today, which is more than promising.”

“Decrystallization...so getting rid of the scars?”

“Exactly.” She stirred a spoon around their sugar dish. “We can get it to deconvert epithelial cells, but anything beyond that is proving more troublesome. Still, it’s definitely progress. What about you? Anything interesting?”

Schwarz shrugged. “Scavenger mentioned going on a couples’ retreat with Provence in a few months. She asked me if we were planning on going, and- Ceylon, what’s wrong?”

“That was the event I mentioned earlier.”

“Oh.” She left the kettle to boil and sat down at the table, moving the second chair to be closer to her lady. “What was your question?”

Ceylon took a deep breath before extending a hand in Schwarz’ direction. “Schwarz, what are we, exactly?”

“As in, what’s our relationship?”

“Exactly.” She sighed. “The Doctor seems to think we’re romantically involved, and no doubt Scavenger and several others do as well, but we’ve never...We haven’t done anything that would suggest that, as far as I know.”

Schwarz thought about that for a moment. “Well, there was that one night at the bar where you said, and I quote, ‘I’ll never love anyone the way I love my darling Schwarz.’ That might have something to do with it.”

“But it’s not like we’ve kissed...right?”

“In public? No.” Her almost-eidetic memory of her time with Ceylon played back in her mind. “But then again...Do you remember the month after you came back from university, and you asked if I had any experience because a few of your friends asked you about yours?”

Ceylon’s eyes burst open. “Oh! There was that, I suppose. I haven’t told anyone about it, though.”

“Neither have I.”

“So that couldn’t be it...” She frowned as the kettle began to whistle. “I’ll get that.”

Schwarz got up from the table at the same time. “No, my lady, I started the pot, so I’ll get it.”

“But you’ve been on your feet all day. I’ll take care of it.”

“Lady Ceylon, please-”

“Schwarz, I’ve got it-”

“Ceylon.”

“What?”

The sniper hadn’t moved to get the still-whistling kettle, which gave Ceylon her chance to do so. “I think that may play a part in this idea they have of us.”

“Hmm?” She brought the kettle back to the table. “What do you mean? Your tea bags, dear.”

“Thank you. From what I’ve heard from Scavenger and a few of the other Operators, bickering like we just did is a sign that two people are very close, and since some of them aren’t familiar with our story, they might assume we’re together because of things like that.”

The lightbulb went off in her mind. “Okay, that makes sense. The Doctor was just saying today that he was surprised he didn’t see us together more often, though, so how would he know about that?”

“Ceylon, the Doctor has a hundred ways of collecting information about his people.” She poured her first cup, watching the water darken with a satisfied smile. “It would surprise me more to know that he didn’t know about that part of our relationship.”

“That explains why people think of us that way, but that doesn’t answer the question yet - what do we say we are? Are we...a couple?” The professor poured her milk into the cup while in a second, smaller cup, she let her tea bags and sugar steep.

Schwarz watched her ward with a look reserved for her alone. “I’d say we weren’t while we lived with your father, certainly.”

“You’re being rather coy about this.” Ceylon re-extended her free hand as she removed the tea bags, satisfied with the color. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

“...I told Scavenger I planned on going on the retreat with you.”

Her eyes leapt to Schwarz. “You did?”

“I did.” She took a deep breath. “Lady Ceylon, since you came of age, there’s been this unspoken tension between us, like the surface of a lake; every now again, like that kiss when you came home from university, where that tension was broken one way or another, but most of the time, we’ve kept from making waves for the sake of not losing what we have. After the Festival a few months ago, I realized that was a...well, in plain language, a stupid way of handling things.”

“When were you planning on saying something to me? I mean, you were going to tell me at some point, right?”

Schwarz held her gaze, but her eyes wavered. “My lady, I worry that it will simply hurt you to know just how heartless I truly am.”

“You think I don’t know what your past has done to you?” Water was gathering in the corner of her eyes, but nevertheless, Ceylon was unfazed. “I’ve traced your scars with my eyes before, and while I admit, I don’t know how that feels, I know there’s something left in your heart. After all, without that, how could you...how could you love me at all?”

“I...I don’t know.” Nevertheless, she took hold of the hand in front of her, squeezing it softly.

The professor blinked, freeing the forming tears to fall down her cheeks. “Schwarz, you helped me realize what it means to love someone. Not that filler romance trash that my peers gossiped on and on about at university, where what you did mattered more than the feeling behind it, but the real thing. I’ve never had to pick up a weapon to defend you - for one thing, I’m no good with them, and you’re more than capable of defending yourself in a fight - but I fought night after night against the guys and girls who I attended class with who saw me as an easy mark, trying to convince them there was more to love than they’d discovered with nothing more than my memories of you to rebut their idiotic arguments. But then, that kiss, it- it solidified for me that it was you, it would have to be you and no one else, because no one else could ever love me more completely than you.”

“La- Ceylon...” Schwarz own eyes, for the first time she could remember since her parents’ deaths, began to tear up as well. “I don’t deserve you.”

“And I’ve never given a solitary fuck if you thought you did.”

She couldn’t help but laugh just a little. “I haven’t heard you say that in a while.”

“Oh, bother it all,” Ceylon gasped, rolling her eyes. “Just kiss me already, darling.”

“As my lady wishes.” Schwarz stood from her chair, let go of her hand to embrace her, and did as she was asked.

-

Early the next morning, the Doctor was greeted by Ceylon as usual, but something was unusual about her appearance. “Good morning, Ceylon. Is everything alright at home?”

“Oh, just splendid,” she beamed back at him. “We’ll be attending your retreat, Doctor.”

“That’s great! With the two of you, I should be able to get a package deal on the resort reservation.”

Ceylon nodded with a smile. “Good. Schwarz also asked that, if you couldn’t afford the honeymoon suite, that we be allowed to pay the difference for it.”

“Honeymoon suite...” His eyes lit up. “You mean-”

“We had the most insightful conversation yesterday. Hopefully we can talk about it some at the retreat.” She winked at him.

The Doctor cheered. “I’m glad I could help. Honestly, you’re the only person I’ve ever seen her smile with, so it seemed a little odd that you two wouldn’t be together.”

“She’s been with me since I was a child, Doctor,” Ceylon shrugged. “I’d say it’s more unusual that we have become a couple, considering.”

“Well, to each their own. I’ll get to work on that honeymoon suite for you.”

“Thank you.”

“Oh, one other thing.” He handed her a paper. “This came in overnight. You might need to have another talk with Schwarz tonight.”

Ceylon’s eyes narrowed as she read it. “...Perhaps our neighbors should do themselves a favor and invest in a strong pair of earplugs if they’re so concerned.”

#arknights #ceylon (arknights) #schwarz (arknights) #there's clear mention of their relationship being like sisters #however #i think we've seen enough anime to know where that goes... #and considering the wording in Ceylon's archives leans more in this direction #it likely depends on which of the two you ask and how #arknights fic

[oliivverwood]

my youth was yours

draco/harry + reconnecting at work for @shealwaysreads

--

Draco was by no means old.

Yes, he was hitting dirty thirty next year and yes, he was a homebody and preferred a nice night in with a good book and a glass of Muggle Pinot Grigio, but he was not old.

Which is why when his mother sent her letter, he threw it in the fire immediately.

'Draco, darling,

How are you? How is Hogwarts? I hope the first day goes well. Tell me about the students when you meet them. I heard there was a new DADA professor as well--do tell me about them.

I am well. The Manor is cold, sometimes, with your father passed and you away teaching, but you know that. I'll be fine.

Speaking of warmth, darling, isn't it about time you began to settle down? Find a lovely young gentleman? You forget that you are aging dear; soon all the good ones will be taken!

I jest, love, but it's something to keep in mind. Reply to me soon, humour your poor old mother.'

Draco loved his mother. He did. But she was meddling, now.

It had bothered him all through the big first night, and he ended up being late to the Great Feast and the first year sorting. He was so flustered, by being so late, that he hadn't realised who was sitting in where Terence, the flying instructor, sat normally. Draco nudged Neville, who was on his other side.

"Didn't miss much, did I?" He asked frantically, running a hand through his hair and cursing himself. He probably looked like a relatable and unintimidating professor. He'd have to make it up by assigning the first years some tough homework

"Wood and Flint's kid sorted Slytherin. I can imagine the row they'll have over that." He chuckled.

The sorting finished just then, and McGonagall began the second part of her speech.

"Now, we have more people then just students to welcome." McGonagall said warmly. "Our new Defense Against the Dark Arts, former Senior Auror, now Professor Harry Potter, will be joining us for the forseaable future."

The figure next to Draco, who he'd completely not noticed the entire seven minutes he'd been there, stood up awkwardly, while the students clapped and cheered. He watched on as Potter sat back down, a vague look of horror stuck on his face. How had he not noticed Harry Potter sitting next to him? The Draco he had been during his school years would be embarrassed.

"Alright, Malfoy?" Potter asked cheerfully, as if their past never happened, as if they didn't fight on opposite sides of the war, as if they were friends. It was a new start. Potter was offering a fresh start, he realised.

"Alright, Potter." Draco answered, cursing at how faint he sounded.

--

He was able to avoid seeing Harry Potter for the most part. The weeks were long and busy, filled with the most loathsome students and essay grading. It was only at meals that Draco had to interact with Potter, who'd insistently been sitting next to him every day and starting conversation.

It was about the most redundant things--how his mother was, howclasses were going, who was his brightest student (Pansy and Hermione's daughter, obviously). And Draco was only obliged to answer. And question him back.

He was disgusted to realise that he'd grown fond of Potter's company, the same way Neville had grown on him.

Neville was a bit different. They'd been offered jobs fresh out of school--Draco had no right to think of Neville as something that had grown on him. He was evil.

(When Draco tried this line on Neville, the Herbology professor laughed so hard that his pumpkin juice came out of his nose. He was finally wiping away tears after five minutes of intensive cackling)

Anyways. Potter.

Potter had grown well. He was filled out and strong from auror training, naturally tan and still had those green fucking eyes. As if eyes were allowed to be so vibrant. So bright. A fucking travesty.

As the weeks went on, Draco found himself feeling the same way about Potter that he'd felt when he was in fourth year.

Ah.

Well.

That wasn't good.

"Fare well, Verona." Draco groaned into his pillow, to the amusement of Neville. They sat in his room, Neville pretending to comfort Draco.

"You're so daft." Neville said fondly, reading an essay and then crossly scribbling something on the page. Draco winced for the student. Neville was a generous grader, so cross-scribbling probably meant a Dreadful.

"How am I being daft!" Draco grumbled. "It's always Potter. Everywhere I go. And he's fit."

"You are daft." Neville said, finally putting his quill down. "Do you think he just sits next to you at mealtimes for the kick? As if he didn't obsess over you all of sixth year? He's interested in you, muppet. You two have always been tied up."

Draco paused a moment, shocked, before spluttering unattractively.

--

The next day, Draco steeled himself.

He had fought in a war. He had mastered the Elder Wand.

He could ask Harry Potter out to dinner.

Coincidentally enough, on his way to the DADA professor's classroom, he turned the corner in the hallway and collided painfully with the Saviour himself.

"Oh fuck." Draco blurted, his filthy mouth becoming a force of habit. Potter let out a surprised bark of laughter, and then suddenly blushed.

"Sorry, sorry! I was actually looking for you." Potter dusted off Draco's shoulders and straightened his cloak for him, leaving Draco feeling very blushy and slightly grumpy.

"Well, I was looking for you." Draco said haughtily. "But then I was walking and some heathen so rudely collided into me when I was rounding the corner--"

"Want to get dinner sometime?" Harry blurted, interrupting Draco's grumpy monologue and sending them both into a state of awkward embarrassment. Draco's mouth fell wide open, into what he was sure was a highly unattractive expression.

"I was going to you to ask the same thing." Draco said cautiously. What if it was a joke? What if Neville had let it slip, oh he'd kill-

"Really?" Harry had a goofy smile on his face, always wearing his emotions on his sleeves.

"Pick me up Saturday, seven o clock. Do not be late, I will hex you myself."

Draco couldn't remove the upward quirk in his mouth for the rest of the day.

#hp #text #drarry #harry potter #draco malfoy #slytherdornet #slytherin #my writing #ao3feed #drarrynet #drarry fic #fic #hpnet #oliivverwood #drarry squad #hpfic #drarry professors #SADIE + REQUESTS

[voidgremlin]

An Oath to hope (Chapter 7)

Chapter 7: the Tortoise’s lesson

Vastra and Jenny walked down the street after a long day at work, holding each other by the hand. They stayed silent for most of the walk home, thoughtful but most importantly dreading about the situation they accepted inside their walls. Precious walls if Vastra had anything to say. Precious walls made from the couple’s hard work, a reputation that made her liked by the police force as they helped each other in different cases. A mutual respect that was appreciated a lot. And now she gave her resources, her work to a charming man who oozed of destructive vibes. It won’t go well and she knows it, who is openly willing to go against conspiracy who obviously is forcing people to hide themselves ? This guy apparently !

Vastra didn’t know what was the weirdest the fact he showed up in her office like a madman, sleeping, eating and hiring her like it was not suspicious. Or was it the fact that presented with the possibility to change identity, he took only thirty minutes to pull off a new identity and new backstory that he handed out like nice written rapport.

Oliver Gupta, comes from Ireland lived most of his life in Australia moved there with his parents when the work asked them to, stayed until coming back there two years ago. Worked for many newspapers under different pen names (he even pulled out a list of pen names if someone asked them as well as a number of place he is visiting usually like coffee shops and library). It was an exhaustive list and it was worrying. He let them as well his address but made them promise to never show up in there or around there unless there’s a life and death scenario. Hinting that getting the obscure entity there would help their case.

“If It happens that they are following you, there’s a chance they will either try to know what you know, kidnapping you in the process and you will never go back to your life that was before. If it is the case you give them my address. You give them where I live and tell them that I am the head of the operation. Work for your liberty. Sell me out.” He demanded with a serious tone

“How do you know that ? It does sound farfetched. ” Oswin asked perking up at the sounds of danger.

“I worked for them, long enough to have access to their inner working, long enough to know that they are not kidding.”  He answered looking to the brown haired woman, who was, weirdly, smiling at the answer. A predatory grin. Vastra knew it wasn’t good news too, seeing him smiling back.

Oh gosh there’s two of them.

Oswin was a short brown haired woman with perfect eyeliner and perfect fashion choice. Clever, always sporting some clothing with red lining as for signaling, like exotic fish, the danger she is looking for or represent, Vastra wasn’t sure what it was. Oswin was only a nickname, a childhood nickname as she explained when she had her first interview with Jenny, asking to only be called as such in the office to let go of Clara Oswald and her life. It was her only requirement when she was hired.

To be honest Vastra didn’t wanted to hire anyone perfectly content with her short team, she didn’t wanted to hire anyone especially not a young widow who seemed to know no end to her daredevil manners but the burnt lady owed one of her friend a favor. That’s how she ended up babysitting this bright and weird woman. She remembers telling him that her office has no therapeutic purpose but he looked at her, pleading to help. To just look out for her.

“Please, she- she needs her space” Her white-haired friend told her. “She needs to figures it out and I cannot help. As much as I want to. I can’t help. Please be kind, do it for her sake.”

“I don’t know her. I don’t care for her. You know this.”

“You do care because you are kind.” He said looking up searching something in her eyes. She held the stare a few moments before nodding.

“If she can’t hold her own weight, I am not taking her in. I do not want any idiot in my team.”

“Thank you.”

“I do not know why you are thanking me dear, I am not taking care of her.”

He still thanked her that day, she thought her jaw grinding a molar, if there’s indeed a mess due to those two teaming up she will show up to her friend house and break his electric guitar. No fuck given.

As they reached the porch of their home, Jenny broke the silence:

“My dear, you worry too much.”

“I am not, in no way, worrying.” She answered in a sharp tone, opening the door for her love.

“You are and you are angry because those people and the things happening are out of your control. You cannot help, nor protect them.”

“Darling-.”

Jenny threw away her coat and started to take away her boots. “You are afraid of the world my dear, always had, and now there’s people you like that might get caught in it.”

“I do not care about those idiots, love, I care about you and I care about Strax once on a full moon.”

“You remember when we received the companion program e-mail ?”

“I- Yes and we decided it was too shifty to accept it.” Vastra remember this day as if it was yesterday, she was still staying at home, doing some meaningless administrative work before receiving this mail. It was so full of legal clauses, the terms of agreement asked to watch over a common friend and all she could think was why ? Why him ? Who wanted to monitor someone so badly ?

After a prompt refusal, she tried to dig and found out who this Susan Foreman was, but nothing. No record, no trace, no one. It was a ghost.

She made an agreement sound. “I am pretty sure that you see as I am seeing the potential connection between an organization that hires people to monitor others and the weird Company our friend O is babbling about.”

Vastra stayed silent taking away slowly her gloves.

“We, at the time, let it go not from a lack of trying. But there’s now proof, that this surveillance thing might be wider that what we thought, a monitoring that target two of our friends, maybe more and yet.” Jenny bite her lips, thoughtful of an alternate scenario where they would have been more in control, finding nothing. “And yet, we are gonna let someone else run wild with this.”

“It might be our only way to understand what is happening.”

“Doesn’t mean we have to like it.”

“No it does not.”

“So what’s the plan then ? Do we warn Alexa and the professor or- ?”

“The plan, I guess is we find out about this O, Ajay or whatever he is called. Find what he knows and if he is trustworthy.”

“He did said to be affiliated with the company, as much as trust can go he gets none from me.” Jenny said in a casual manner.

“I agree, let’s hope we get to know more about this before some irreparable damages is done.”

The word damage made her think about her own scarred face and the burned arm that Jenny had. She thought of the destruction, of the smoke that filled her lungs. She thought of her, Jenny always so stubborn staying with her until the firefighters arrived. With that in mind she walked toward her lovely wife, a hand on her cheek, stroking it. “Promise me you will always be safe.”

“As long as you are my love.”

It wasn’t the answer Vastra wanted, but it was what love is.

The next morning in the office, it was confirmed that the usual quietness of the office disappeared. O invested the place, he was everywhere. Several notebook out, the heavy file he showed them before, spread unto several desk as well as Oswin’s. Who was here, earlier than usual, looking at the man slouching in front of his portable computer, on the floor like a university student who forgot to do their essay.

Oswin was smiling, clearly amused, looking over the file with barely veiled interest. Not looking up, he saluted the ones arriving.

“Hello to the both of you bosses.” Waving a hand. Only Jenny deigned to answer.

“Hello to you the double O ! How long have you been working dears ?”

“I just got there Jenny, enjoying the view on this fine morning.” Oswin said, a hand to her chin. The remark just made the man snickers softly before going back to the work he was doing. “I do not know what he is up to.”

Vastra squinted, looking to the state of the office and Oswin’s disheveled hair and the new man barely closed shirt.

“Oh no.” it is worse than what she expected. Before she could rage about the sanctity of the office and how dare they meddle love affairs into her work, Jenny intervened.

“Well I do wish the lot of you a good day at work.” Dragging Vastra by the arm who whispered swears under her breath.

Ok, I might need to clarify some events, because when the Paternoster darling couple left the office leaving Oswin and Oliver alone, some stuff happened and some stuff I do mean snogging… And some secrets shared. Long story short never let those two alone for 2 hours.

As soon as the original team left, Clara let little time for O to let his guard down, the presence of Vastra being overwhelming with inquisitive stare and silent questioning, O felt like he barely avoided the most of it, wasn’t able to shake away her suspicion but it is a long term work. Like he did before, be sneaky, be kind, be charming, maybe give them coffee in the morning.

Or act like the doe-eyed woman, who lazily played with her hair looking at him with intense interest. She didn’t cared in the slightest of what the other thought of her. She owned the place, or at least her desk, she owned her space, breathed in and out at her own rhythm. The paternoster gang worked in symbiosis, it was quite obvious in fact, they bounced off each other ideas, providing sight for the other’s blind spot. He is a little thankful for Jenny’s intervention earlier in the day, helping him settle with the best end of the deal, better than he could ever dream off. But Oswin. She wasn’t part of this machinery, she was a loose end and he didn’t know why Vastra let her be there.

“How long have you been there ? In the company I mean.” She ask looking at her nails feigning disregard.

He stayed silent for a while wondering if it was simple curiosity or something more, his useless paranoia and anxiety blaring. His stomach twisted to the thought, in her eyes there is a light of acknowledgement, of understanding. He cannot be sure if it was out of goodness or control. He didn’t knew, but he had to play along, he revealed so much didn’t he ? Too tired, he should sleep more it was a box on his mental to-do list, as well as the physical to-do list.

“I stayed uh- years, five at least if not more.”

“So you worked with the shady organization for years and didn’t thought to leave ?”

“It wasn’t shady at first I mean it was always shady but when I first worked here it was… Annoying ? Boring. Was the assistant of an assistant, so low in the payroll. Didn’t even knew why they hired me. And I didn’t know most of their work.” Getting up from his sitting position, moving his arm like he was in a presentation.

“Oh boy, that must have been dreadful, you, an assistant ! I wouldn’t bet you for one.”

“And what would you bet me for ?”

“A eager professor, the kind who would make people really interested in what he says and break the hearts of how so many poor students.”

“Oh !” He looked at her with a smirk.

“That’s our names.” she says doing the motion of finger guns. “So how did you from the low end of the payroll. Get the hold of this top secret mhm- project Theta ?”

He winced at the name, grinding his teeth. He thought he would be alright with it by now but no. The name felt like a sore thumb, the project it accompanied, the idea kept haunting him at night.

“I rose up the rank, broke some hearts in the way to do so," he managed to say with a wink. "but I managed to be there. And one day, a file fell onto my desk, someone caused a lot of trouble and they needed more help. This file was a collection of experiment reports, observations reports and names.”

“How many ?”

“Too many.” He sighed.

“So what did you do with that information ?”

“Learned as much as I can, committed to memory as much names and details. What you have here.” Motioning to the heavy file “Is all of my transcriptions out of memory.”

“Is it the only copy ?”

“No. I am not that stupid but it is a very valuable file.”

She look at him then the file with cloudy eyes, thoughtful. 8 out of 10 chances that lady is part of monitors, the young man thought. Better have your enemy closer, so he proposed.

“Do you want in ?”

“What ?”

“Do you want in ? The investigation I mean. It will be probably dangerous, you will lose some sleep. But damn is it worth it.”

She looked at him, bright smile.

“I mean If there’s bloody danger. I am into it.”

#dw #doctor who fanfic #an oath to hope #hey a ship name for the master and clara #bloody messes #my stuff