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the-untamed-obsession · 3 years

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Flowers | Xiao Xingchen x Reader

Hello! Hi! Ok, if it wasn’t already obvious from how my blog looks, I love this man, therefore my second post here will be a fic of him. I’m still learning about this particular novel/show so please don’t be too harsh with him. I hope you enjoy! (I might make banners-) Sidenote: This one is kinda all over the place, there’s a lot of backstory for you and Xingchen, but I think it’s ok! Word Count: 1.2k

Summary: Ever since you met Xiao Xingchen, you’ve always given him flowers. In return, he gives you his time.

You had first met the man in white a little over two years ago, while he was passing through your rather small town. You had accidentally ran into the blind man and apologized profusely for not watching where you were going. Xiao Xingchen smiled and brushed it off, asking if you were ok instead. You had almost immediately taken a liking to his soft voice and kind heart.

You had found out that he would be staying in your little village for a few days until he was done with his work here, before moving on to the next one. Unable to stay away from him, you’d found every excuse you could to “run” into him. If you’d see him in the distance, you’d run around the buildings and try to intercept him, running into him and excitedly calling out to him pretending as if this wasn’t on purpose. Xiao Xingchen never questioned it and always greeted you happily. One odd thing that definitely captured his attention was that you always offered him a flower.

Every time you ran into him, you gave him a flower, one he would do his best to keep until it was wilted. You always described the flower to him and he would do his best to remember them, finding your odd habit rather pleasing. In return, Xiao Xingchen would give you his time, as per requested by you.

As the day he would be leaving grew closer, you tried to get him to stay through two methods. One by telling him you’d heard about some more “odd” activities recently. The other by giving him more flowers, claiming he needed to make up for the flower you’d given him. Unfortunately, Xiao Xingchen always fell for your stories and went looking the next day, coming back empty handed every time. He also always acceded and gave you the little bit of time he had.

You started feeling bad once you realized how trusting he was. The last thing you wanted to do was trick such a sweet person, realizing it was both selfish and very disrespectful to keep someone around when they might not want to be. You also didn’t want him to continuously go out to look for demons that didn’t exist, so you told him everything.

You told him about how you ran into him on purpose, how you tried to keep him here, and even apologized for lying about the demonic activities. To your surprise, Xiao Xingchen took it really well and practically laughed it off. He also added that your attempts to keep him around using the flowers were rather cute and he often stayed of his own will knowing that you were being less than truthful.

You weren’t surprised. He was extremely perceptive and you weren’t the best at lying. It was only a matter of time before Xiao Xingchen picked up on your little lies, but you were happy to hear he stayed out of his own will, knowing the truth probably the entire time.

He jokingly mentioned you should join him and you immediately perked up. Why would you skip the opportunity? So, you excitedly said you would love to go along with him, even going so far as taking his hands and vowing to make it up to him for attempting to deceive him.

You two had been together ever since. Over the course of six months, you two got closer and closer, realizing your feelings for each other. You were the first to confess, terrified he didn’t feel the same way. You’d been unable to rest due to the anxiety and the main concern was that you would have to leave him. You were pleasantly surprised to hear that he felt the same.

Xiao Xingchen was a kind and caring man, one who always looked out for you and put your needs above his own. He always made sure you had eaten, rested, and were ready to continue your journey. He never pushed you, often urging you to take breaks whenever needed. Although your adventures were scary, filled with lots of fighting and demons, you never left Xiao Xingchen’s side.

Finally, Xiao Xingchen told you about Song Lan. The story broke your heart and you couldn’t imagine how hurt and alone Xiao Xingchen had felt after the whole ordeal. To lose his eyes and to give them to his best friend, only to be separated from the same person must’ve been so painful. You neither blamed nor disliked Song Lan, even going so far as to say you’d help find the cultivator, but Xiao Xingchen profusely refused. He claimed that it was Song Lan who didn’t want to see him, therefore he’d honor his friend’s wishes.

There were many nights you wondered about tracking Song Lan down, yourself, but ultimately decided against it. Xiao Xingchen wanted to respect his friend and you wanted to respect your boyfriend, so you kept on your promise. You’d also made another one to yourself. You would do everything you could to stay by Xiao Xingchen’s side, never leaving him alone. You would even outlast him, if he so desired, so that even until his last breath, he wouldn’t be alone.

***

“Oh wow!” You smiled, running towards the grassfield. Xiao Xingchen stopped and looked towards the sound of your voice, a gentle smile playing on his lips. He could smell the flowers and already knew you’d seen something you’d liked. It had been a while since you’d been able to find and give him a flower, yet he’d missed it. That was the way you two originally interacted, so flowers held a special place in his heart. Especially the ones you’d give him.

You walked towards a beautiful white flower with pink accents that glittered under the sun and flickered in the wind. Your fingers slowly ran up the stem, gently grabbing a petal feeling the softness of it. You leaned down and breathed in its beautiful scent before deciding it’s the one you wanted. You carefully plucked it, making sure there were no thorns, then walked back to where your boyfriend patiently waited.

Your smile mirrored his as you skipped forward and stood in front of him. You slowly held the flower out to him and waited as he reached out, his hand gently brushing against the soft flower. Xiao Xingchen’s hand landed on your own before he took the flower out of your hand and held it up to his nose. His smile widened, something that made your heart flutter.

“It smells wonderful, thank you, (y/n).” At times like these, Xiao Xingchen wished he could see you and the flower. He could feel it and that was enough for him usually, but every now and then he’d wish he could see you, even if for a moment.

Xiao Xingchen had never seen you with his eyes, he’d only ever seen you with his hands when his soft fingers brushed against your features. It was something he’d never voiced, but often thought about late at night. Maybe one day, in the distant future, he’d somehow be able to see your face, even if it were for a second.

Until then, however, Xiao Xingchen was content with his life as it was. As long as you and your flowers were in it, he was happy.

#mdzs x reader #mdzs reader insert #mdzs xiao xingchen x reader #xiao xingchen x reader #xiao xingchen imagine #mdzs #mdzs imagine #the untamed x reader

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athenasbloodyspear · 3 years

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The Viper: Chapter Two

Bucky Barnes x Female Reader

Find this fic on Ao3.

This fic is 18+ for violence and eventual sexual content. Please read at your own risk.

Master list

“I know where to find her.” Nat pipes up from her spot at the table.

No one had moved since the Viper had shot out the security camera.

Tony whipped his head to look at her and scoffed. “Oh? Are you an omnipresent God who knows all? Because if Friday can’t find her, I think we’re fucked.”

“I know a place in the city where someone like her could disappear. Where I would disappear if I were her. It’s a hunch, but I have a feeling it’s where she is.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Care to enlighten us?”

“The Mist.” Nat said simply.

“Okay that just sounds fake.” Sam scoffed.

“It’s not.” Nat snapped, “It’s an underground nightclub in Brooklyn. Famously has no cameras anywhere. The name is a nod to the fact that it’s a blind spot in the city. It’s filled with people in similarly seedy professions and rich and powerful people looking for illegal fun.”

“Alrighty then. Sounds like my kinda place.” Tony rubbed his palms together. Steve just groaned.

“You’re telling me this woman would hide out in a nightclub full of people who potentially know there’s a bounty on her head?” Bruce chimed in.

“Yes. It’s highly frowned upon for outside business to interfere with the fun inside, so if anyone is hoping to make the hit they would have to wait for her to leave. Hence why I bet she waits there a long time.”

“How do you know about this place Nat?” Steve countered.

“How do you think I know about this place, Rogers?” She spat back.

“Whatever, you two. Suit up for an evening at the club and meet us all back here in an hour.” Tony interrupted before Steve could stick his foot in his mouth. “Banner, you’re excused.”

“Thank god.” Bruce sighed.

“The rest of you are going. I’m staying here to monitor cameras with Friday and see if I can scrounge up any more interesting tidbits on our new friend.”

“Great.” Bucky muttered to himself. A club. His favorite thing in the world.

Not.

After a particularly complicated series of sneaking into various clothing stores in Manhattan you’d finally stolen something acceptable to wear for your evening of fun.

You could feel the adrenaline pumping through you still. This whole thing was a massive gamble and you knew that.

At any moment it could all come crashing down. In a lot of ways.

You hadn’t been this out of control in a very long time. It was terrifying.

But you would gamble with your life if you had to. It didn’t matter to you anymore. There was only one thing that did and you would give everything for it.

So you’d continue to spiral out of control. To rely on others' choices.

You didn’t have any other options.

Bucky was relieved to discover that while this underground club was a club it at least wasn’t deafeningly loud. At least not in every section of the club.

He was horrified to discover that the “underground” descriptor wasn’t only figurative. The club space was in the basement of a non descript warehouse that screamed Hydra wannabe. Everything in the club was a shade of black. There was an upper floor, where the team was currently spread out, with many lush couches and smaller tables. It was more reminiscent of jazz bar’s he’d been to in the 40’s. The upper level had a metal railing that looked over into what could only be described as a pit. There was a large black marble bar along one wall of the lower floor and the rest was a dance floor. Or at least that’s what Nat had said, all he could see was a sea of bodies smashed together writhing. Apparently that was dancing.

Even more horrifying was the fact that there were no windows. Not a single one. And the only exit that anyone knew of was the single door they came in. It was eating his skin alive. He felt so suffocated. Trapped in a way he hadn’t felt in years.

He knew if he voiced this to Steve, he would immediately tell him to go home and the rest of them would probably be fine on their own. However, there was something keeping him here. He felt a pull towards this enigma of a woman and he needed to see her with his own eyes. Something in his gut told him she needed his help. He didn’t really know how or why, but his instincts were rarely wrong and he was tired of ignoring them.

Even if his instincts were fighting within him at the moment.

“Anything?” Nat questioned through the coms from where she sat on a sofa, pretending to chat with some diplomat from a country Bucky couldn’t think of right now.

“No one who looks like what I think I’m looking for.” Steve replied. He’d been the only one who had offered to venture downstairs surprisingly. Bucky didn’t know how he could do it.

“Sam?” Nat prompted. Sam had taken to exploring some of the strange and windy back hallways of the upper floor that lead to restrooms and stock rooms and who-knew-what-else rooms. Again, Bucky didn’t know how he willingly ventured into this creepy hell hole.

“Nada.” Sam mumbled, “Have seen lots of faces I recognize from front pages of magazines. Most in compromising positions. Gonna be hard to forget.”

“Gross.” Bucky muttered. He heard Nat’s soft laugh filter through the com. “I haven’t…” Bucky started. His thought cut off abruptly.

He was standing at a railing, looking down on the pit from an aerial view, when he saw her.

She was stunning, even though he knew she was trying to keep a low profile. It wasn’t anything in the way she looked necessarily, even though she looked amazing in her slim black velvet suit. When she shifted he noted that she wasn’t wearing a shirt underneath the blazer and he hoped that there was some sort of tape involved to keep the lapels in place on her chest. The smooth expanse of skin he could see between the jacket was nearly too much to handle already.

No, it wasn’t the outfit that made her stunning. She simply was so commanding and present that her energy was intoxicating, even from his perch a floor above. He didn’t understand how everyone around her wasn’t staring at her. He couldn’t really remember what he was supposed to do now that he was faced with her.

She was the new him, he realized. Her hair fell to her shoulders, almost a direct replica of the mop of tousled locks on his head, only darker. He noticed she didn’t look nearly as robotic in this space compared to the videos he’d seen of her.

I knew it. He thought. This is the real her.

“Care to finish that thought big guy?” Sam chuckled through the coms, snapping Bucky out of whatever trance he’d fallen into.

“I uh…” Bucky started again. “I’m lookin at her.”

He heard voices come through the coms, asking where the hell he was and where she was but he couldn’t speak.

He watched her, you, toss back a shot of some dark liquid.

As he stared, your eyes shifted up and locked with his.

Every sound in the world disappeared for him. Bucky couldn’t hear a thing but the pounding of his own heart. There was a string between the two of you that went taught as you stared at each other.

Some part of his brain registered his increasingly frustrated friends trying to get his attention through the coms but he didn’t even dare blink, let alone speak. He was convinced that if he even twitched you would disappear into the smoky haze of the room.

“I see her.” He heard suddenly through the com. Steve must have spotted you across the room from him downstairs. “I’m closing in.”

Bucky watched the corners of your mouth peel into a tiny little smirk. His dry eyes forced him to blink and when his lids opened again, you were gone.

Fuck. He thought.

“What the hell was that, Buck?” Steve snapped through the coms. “I lost her. Anyone else still see her?”

“The only way out is the front door.” Nat breathed. Everyone shifted instantly to beeline for the front. Even if you snuck out before them, Bucky knew you couldn’t have gone very far.

You careened out the front, gasping in fresh breaths of air as you peeled to the left and down the sidewalk at a quick pace. You felt grateful you’d forgone the heels for high top sneakers tonight as you needed to haul ass. Fast. You didn’t really know why you suddenly felt the need to flee. Your intention had been to attempt to speak to them inside, where you had the upper hand.

But every well laid plan had flown out the window when you’d locked eyes with the Winter Soldier. Or Bucky as he was now called.

He looked the same.

He looked different in every way possible.

It ripped a hole in your chest.

So you ran.

You paused briefly to stuff your fingers to the back of your throat, forcing the liquor you’d nervously pounded out of your stomach. You were gonna need every bit of your cunning. They were all there, and you were vulnerable out on the street now.

You were so fucking stupid.

Why had you run? Why did you run from him?

You heard the door crash open a half a block behind you.

Bucky was the first one out the door. Sam had to wind out from the back of the building, Nat had to disentangle herself from conversation and Steve had to make his way up from the bottom floor. He was at an advantage.

His instincts were telling him that he needed to be the first one to intercept you. He felt territorial about it. He didn’t know why, but something shifted while you had stared at each other. It was a glimmer, nearly lost in the recesses of his mind, but he knew you. Somehow.

When he looked to his left, he captured the image of you, curled over your knees, emptying your stomach onto the curb.

What the fuck?

“Please don’t run.” Bucky yelled. “Please I swear we don’t want to kill you.”

He watched you straighten yourself up, wiping the back of your hand across your mouth.

“That sounds exactly like something someone who wanted to kill me would say.” You chuckle.

Your voice. It’s… exactly like he imagined it.

It’s nothing like he imagined it.

Before he can process the whirlwind of emotions in his head, you’ve taken off. He bolts after you. After a few strides he hears the door blow open behind him as the rest of the team flies out of the establishment.

He has to get to you first.

You sprint as hard as you ever have. It hurts more, now that you’re fully in control. You hate it.

You love it.

It makes you furious.

You careen around corners and slip between crowds of people, trying your damnedest to throw them off their trail. Eventually you skid to a halt next to an older BMW parallel parked on a busy street, slamming your elbow into the corner of the back window, shattering the glass. You reach through the now open hole and manually unlock the drivers door, not caring that the remaining glass catches and opens your skin.

“Wait!” A voice calls across the street. It’s him. You fight the urge to cover your ears. That voice.

You scramble into the front seat, reaching under the dash to rip the wires of the starter out of the plastic covering. As you fumble with your hands you glance up, watching the Winter Soldier fling himself expertly through moving traffic towards you.

“Shit shit shit.” You mutter to yourself. You finally free the wires, ripping the ends open and tapping them together until they spark and the engine roars to life.

Thank god.

You shift into drive, rip up the E-brake and prepare to step on the gas. You glance once behind you to monitor the traffic roaring down the one way street. There’s an opening.

When you shift your body back forward to grab the wheel, he’s almost to you. His eyes are wild.

Pleading.

What are you doing?

I’m holding your hand.

Why?

I don’t know.

The pain in your chest is nearly unbearable now. You force your facial features to shift into a wide smirk and flip him off before slamming on the gas as hard as you can.

The e-brake holds the front wheels in place as the back wheels squeal on the ground, spinning the vehicle around in place until you’re facing the wrong way down the one-way.

Finally.

You punch it.

Bucky watches you tear off in the stolen car, panting for breath.

There was a moment. Just a moment where he’d seen something in your face and then a mask had locked down over your features.

He couldn’t make sense of it. The agony in your eyes when you saw him just now.

He must know you.

How?

“I lost her.” Bucky pants into the coms. “I… lost her.”

Nat and Steve came sprinting up behind Bucky, placing her hands on her knees to suck in hair.

“I’ll tail her.” Sam called. Swooping up in the skies and taking off in the direction where Bucky’s eyes were trained.

“I don’t understand.” Nat pants. “She would never have been found if she didn’t want to be.”

“Why did she run?” Steve questioned.

“I don’t know.” Bucky murmured. He couldn’t keep his eyes away from the last place he’d seen your car.

“What happened in there Bucky?” Steve turned to look at him.

“I… don’t know.” He murmured again.

“I’m gonna need more than that pal.” Steve prompted, placing his hands on his hips.

“She… She looked at me.” He choked out. Steve guffawed, dropping his head back to look at the sky. Beside him, Nat eyed him curiously. “I can’t explain it, but it felt… like I knew her. Like we were connected somehow.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean Bucky?” Steve clipped. “You just stood there while she ran.”

“Shut the fuck up Steve.” Nat snapped.

“What?” Steve turned to her then. “Don’t you think it’s a little weird that he was basically paralyzed in there?”

“No.” She snapped. “I think that there’s some deeper story here we don’t understand and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a part of it.”

Steve looked to Bucky then, a little more sobered now, and murmured. “You know her?”

“No.” Bucky said immediately. “At least, not really. But there’s something. She looked at me like…”

Like you did when I was falling from that train.

Just then Sam dropped out of the sky and landed next to them.

“She must have noticed me and ditched the car a few blocks over. Went into a subway station.” Sam sighed. “Needless to say, I lost her.”

The whole group stands together, panting staring down the street where they’d last seen you.

Bucky finally breaks his silence.

“I need to find her.”

His damned voice.

TAGLIST:

@maxsaturdayhatesnarwhals

#Bucky Barnes #bucky fic #bucky x reader #bucky x you #bucky x y/n #Bucky Barnes x female reader #bucky x Female Reader

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underatedcharactersunite · 4 years

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Howling At The Moon!

Summary; Sandor unexpectdly finds his mate, as expected she is human... Pairing; Werewolf!Sandor Clegane x Female Reader WordCount; 1, 059 Warnings. Strong Language, Slight A/B/O themes but not a lot, possessiveness ,Angst, Fluff, Slightly OC Sandor A/N - Day 2 of Spooktacular October begins. Day 1 can be read here I can write a part 2 to this if people want me too. Also part of @deansamore end of year challenge

»»————-　🎃　————-««

Sandor had a secret that endangered everything. Before you, Sandor preferred solitude, he relished in existing alone. Sanford was able to conduct himself in any manner he deemed fit. He moved and travelled freely. Sandor was a law onto himself and he preferred it that way.

However, his life invariably played brutal jokes whenever Sandor felt his life was a lesser hell than usual. As Sandor marched through Kingslanding he searched the large gathering of people. While he was unable to detect an immediate threat, he caught a peek at you. His brown eyes momentarily flashed crimson as a protective possessive growl rumbled in the back of his throat. Mate. His subconscious reiterated.

Sandor was no fool. While his parents had failed to educate him on his true self, he spent many hours reading up on the specifics of his kind. The additional information Sandor read the clearer the reasoning his parents failed to educate him became. They believed he would never locate his mate. After his accident, they promptly sold him to the Lannisters where Sandor memorized and trained to become a skilled Swordsman.

In his spare time, he educated himself on dealing with a full moon, what his crimsons eyes meant and the possibility of Sandor meeting his mate. Sandor understood the craving he would soon experience to be close to you. As you met his intense stare, you smiled his iron heart fluttered, Sandor was doomed.

Over the coming days and weeks, Sandor slowly began to approach you. As it turned out you owned a fruit and vegetable stall, everything that you were unable to sell that day, you gave away to the people who were struggling to buy food. Sandor found it adorable the way you often communicated passionately or whenever a child visited your stall attempting to purchase a piece of fruit you bestowed it to them for free. Other the other hand, whenever the two of you were in the comfort of your home, you spoke of your distaste for King Joffery. It certainly reiterated that you were meant to be his mate.

When the battle of the Blackwater crept closer like a vile illness, Sandor grew terrified. He had only just established a relationship with you, You were no highborn lady, he couldn’t kee you with the Queen Mother or lady Stark, you were utterly defenceless.

Or in his mind, you like him encountered many trials and tribulations in your life. You were skilled with a dagger and a bow and arrow, you could fight. Sandor only wished he could be the one to protect you.

“Would you relax, I am sure the mighty Lannisters will win the war against Stannis Baratheon. its obvious men will die, I just hope the Gods will spare you.” You poured Sandor another glass of wine as you began to walk away, Sandor grabbed your hand.

e God’s will have nothing to do with my survival. I am coming back to you regardless. No fucker is going to get in my way. I’ll cut every one of those bastards down. As will you, anyone comes at you, you cut them down. I don’t care if they are Lannister or Baratheon. Better yet, make sure they’re still alive and I’ll give them one hell of bloody death.” Laying a hand firmly on Sandor’s shoulder, you pressed a gentle kiss onto the burnt side of his face.

“I know what to do, the arrows and the bow you brought to me are right by the door, just-in-case.” Sandor didn’t know what to say to you, so he brought you into his lap, wrapping his large arms around you tightly.

“I won’t lose you, I won’t”

Luckily for the both of you, the two of you were indeed alive. Both of you fought valiantly as you fought for your lives. You both desired to get back to each other, but returning to each other was met with further complications. Sandor decided he had enough of Joffery’s cruelty and reign. The night the Blackwater burnt is the night the two of you began a new life.

‘Life proved to be harder for Sandor when the two of you began life on the road. He was no longer able to plan his visits around the full moon. He was suddenly making excuses about going away to collect firewood. However, you were not a clueless person, it rapidly became apparent to you something was wrong.

Refusing to force Sandor’s confession, you continued to pretend to be clueless Sandor was acting strange. It was the moment, you and Sandor encountered the Brotherhood without banners for the first time, did catch a glimpse of Sandor’s crimson eyes. With Thoros’s blade to your throat, Sandor lost every ounce of control, he unleashed the beast within as he fought against Berric Dondarrion despite the man’s enlightened blade. When the fight was over and Sandor collapsed to his knee’s he cared nothing about his surroundings, only you.

Sandor panicked when he witnessed your face shocked and void of all emotion. When Berric let both of you go despite Arya’s protest, the moment he was away from everyone, he collapsed to his knees.

“Please don’t fear me...Not you..I’ll leave if you want me too.”Observing Sandor so desperate and pleading for your approval, you crouched down yet even there he still managed to tower over you.

“I don’t want you to go anywhere, but I need you to tell me exactly what is going on.” Resting a hand on Sandor’s face, he despised how relaxed he felt almost immediately.

“This is not an easy thing to tell you...I’m...I’m a werewolf.” Sandor expected many things, the idea of you fainting, calling him a monster, a thousand questions rumbling off of your tongue like a tidal wave, but not what you were currently doing. You were in hysterics. A pure look of joy etched over your face.

“That’s brilliant, I presumed you were having an affair, until I examined everything and then realised you only ever disappeared on whenever there was a fullmoon. Not to mention how possessive and jealous you are. It all made sense”

“Wait you know.”

“Of course, I do. Now why don’t we go find somewhere to camp, I get the feeling we are not done dealing with Arya Stark just yet…”

#deansamoreendofyearchallenge #sandor clegane imagines #Sandor clegane imagine #game of thrones imagine #Game of thrones imagines #sandor clegane one shot #sandor clegane oneshot #game of thrones one shot #game of thrones oneshot #got imagines #Got imagine #got one shot #got oneshot #Spooktober 2020

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peachyydesires · 4 years

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The YTTD Cast Playing Minecraft

genre: crack / platonic relationships

warnings: n/a

bloopers: 🌳 [tba]

a/n: my good friend, alyson, and i wrote this as a collab together! she has an ao3 account that she recently started for both danganronpa and your turn to die! if you like either fandom, i 110% suggest to go check out her work/subscribe to her! she’s an amazing person so go show her some love if you can!! i recruited her a bit last minute and we spent all day yesterday writing, but this was definitely one of the most enjoyable things to write so far!

Keiji Shinogi (Aka The 1st Boomer):

❏ This man has BARELY any idea how to play Minecraft at first. Hell, he even had to get Gin to help him install it on his computer. He has to learn how to even use the basic controls, and he’s constantly asking the others what certain keys do (does he do this just to be annoying? The world may never know).

❏ Once he gets the hang of the game, things go a little bit smoother, but not completely. While he may have quickly learned all of the buttons, there’s still a lot more to Minecraft such as PVP, building, mining, the bosses, crafting, etc, and that takes him an eternity to learn (don’t even get me STARTED on the Nether and the End). Without his other friends, he’d probably be stuck in the middle of the night with zero protection or tools on him to fight the mobs that spawn.

❏ He’s mostly just there for the laughs; while he’ll try to stay out of the way from his friends, he’ll show up at the most erratic times. He’ll either immediately teleport himself to someone in the middle of fighting a group of mobs or invade someone’s house and steal their stuff just for fun.

❏ While he’s not as much of a prankster as Shin, he’ll still do some of the most random actions ever, even if it’s not to annoy others. He’ll place down a random door in the middle of a room and just leave it there, or make several holes in the ground while trying to punch some grass to clear it out. When the group is on a voice call, 90% of the call is just the others yelling at Keiji to stop planting trees on their farms.

❏ He’s not one to explore, but wherever his friends are, he is. He’ll tag along with them nearly anywhere, whether they’re doing a dangerous excursion to the End or traveling across the sea, he’ll always be tagging along. He honestly doesn’t know the point of the game, but again, he’s just there for the laughs.

Joe Tazuna (Aka The Brave One):

❏ Joe has played Minecraft before, but he doesn’t care about building a pretty mansion or planting flowers. This man will live in a tiny dirt hut and beat the game. The one thing that Joe always plans on doing whenever he starts a new world is to get a dog and name them “Sven” after he watched one of his favorite YouTuber’s playthroughs one night instead of studying. He would do anything to save his dog, even if it means sacrificing his friends’ lives.

❏ When he plays on multiplayer servers, he always insists on getting the supplies and food for everyone. It’s pretty much all he does. He isn’t afraid of caves or mobs, and he won’t hesitate to run towards a creeper to stab it repeatedly. He is, however, terrified of skeletons and endermen since they always kill him. Once, he dropped down into a cave after spotting iron on the surface, only to be ambushed by a horde of skeletons. No one came to help him.

❏ He tends to forget about his hunger level until he actually starts taking damage. The same thing goes with drowning. It doesn’t help that he’s constantly sprinting wherever he goes. Because of this, he’s constantly falling into caves, ravines, and even little holes filled with water, yet no one ever helps him get out. They usually leave him behind, or they think that he’s simply lost.

❏ His girlfriend, Ryoko, hasn’t yet tried Minecraft, despite him begging for her to play with him 24/7. Although constructing a fancy house isn’t his cup of tea, he’ll do anything to play with Ryoko. He even once asked Sara to help him practice with his Minecraft dates. He needed help with his wording of asking Ryoko if he could put his bed next to hers, so Sara volunteered to assist him.

❏ Joe’s always falling into lava as well, and he gets very frustrated when it happens. Whenever he falls, he starts screaming into his mic while on voice calls (he doesn’t curse because he’s cool like that), yet still, no one comes to help him. Sara only says “teleport to me!” but it’s always too late. Keiji once offered to help him, but Joe declined, saying he didn’t trust or like him since he’s creepy towards Sara.

Q-Taro Burgerberg (Aka A Minecraft Veteran):

❏ Besides Joe and Gin, Q-Taro surprisingly knows the most about Minecraft. He used to play it a lot when he was younger before he started getting into baseball, so he knows the basics such as crafting and mining. Despite not picking up a controller in years, he still knows all of the mechanics the game has to offer as not much has changed when it comes to the controls.

❏ What HAS changed, however, is literally everything else in the game. All of the major updates over the years have nearly changed the game completely, including the Nether, the End, the villages, even the ocean became useful. He doesn’t realize this at first until he goes into the Nether and sees that it’s completely changed (He’ll stand there for a moment, wondering why the caves haven't been updated but the Nether of all things has).

❏ He’ll have to completely relearn the game, having Gin teach him all of the new mechanics such as elytras, banners, shields, etc, and all of the new structures including ruined portals, pillager towers, shipwrecks, etc. He’s always confused on call, constantly asking what a certain block is or yelling into his mic, “Uhh, I found something!!”

❏ One thing about Q-Taro is that he loves to mine. It’s the one useful thing that hasn’t changed all too much, so he can still help out and gather ores for everyone else. Although, he has to have the best armor out of the rest of the group or he might just commit theft. When he learns about Netherite, however, he refuses to wear it; he doesn’t want to admit that diamond isn’t the best in the game anymore, although no matter how many enchantments he puts on it, his armor will never be as good as netherite.

❏ In all honesty, he forgets the majority of the information that Gin tells him. Even after all of the warnings that Gin gives him to ‘not punch everything he sees’, he still punches everything he sees. He’ll run up to something new and whisper vaguely into the mic, “I’m gonna punch it.” And before Gin can scream for him not to, he’ll give the new block or mob a nice good smack. Beehives, llamas, polar bears, and pandas are prime causes of Q-Taro’s many deaths in the game. Regarding the new mobs, he encounters hostile ones a lot. He’ll often forget to sleep (despite everyone else yelling at him to go to bed) when he’s down in the caves, and he’ll emerge from his hole at night only to see 5 different phantoms flying in the air trying to murder him.

Alice Yabusame (Aka The Sailor):

❏ Alice is a rather frustrated player. Nothing ever goes his way when he plays, and he’s constantly cursing on voice calls. His sister, Reko, sometimes kicks him from the calls to keep Kanna and Gin as innocent as possible (although they don’t really care, and Gin sometimes picks up on Alice’s bad behavior himself when he gets mad).

❏ Similar to Joe, he’s an explorer. He loves exploring the ocean (especially the water temples), but his cheerful vibe suddenly switches into a pure, satanic rage once he starts drowning. He gets too cocky sometimes, though. Once while he was looking for an End City in the End, he lost control of his Elytra and flew into the void, cursing and screaming in fury the entire way down. The same exact thing happens whenever he falls into lava and loses all of his belongings; if anyone were to make fun of him when he died, he would craft a sword and kill them without any hesitation out of pure spite.

❏ He would try building a house next to Reko to get a bit closer with her, but once, he went out mining, and when he came back, his house was on fire. He then discovered that Shin was the one who set his house ablaze, so whenever Alice sees the troller, he grabs a stone sword and attempts to kill him (since he’s poor), but Shin is almost always in creative mode, which angers him more and only causes him to scream swear words into his microphone. He begs Sara, the one who created the server, to ban him, but Sara’s excuse is always, “he’s just having fun, which is the whole point of this server.”

❏ Since his house is always being destroyed, he usually makes small bases inside of caves or mountains to avoid Shin, but somehow, the troller always finds them and burns them down or blows them up, so he’s constantly on the run from him. He also does stuff alone since he doesn’t have any friends on the server (besides Nao who sometimes gives him food and supplies).

❏ Due to having to relocate nearly every time he joins the server, he rarely keeps chests on him. He has nowhere to store the treasures that he often finds in shipwrecks, sea temples, etc so whenever he runs out of inventory space he gives his materials away as gifts to his other friends, especially to Reko. Despite always giving out free resources and ores, nearly everyone in the server finds him odd, especially when he’s quiet for one moment only to be throwing a tantrum the next on the voice calls.

Shin Tsukimi (Aka The Troller):

❏ It’s no big surprise that Shin is just as chaotic as he is in-game, if not more, than IRL. Despite being over 20, he often lurks around on the Minecraft forums, always learning new hacks and ways to troll the others in the shared server. For some reason, everyone has server operator on the server, so Shin’s able to switch between Creative and Survival as he pleases, although he rarely goes into Survival.

❏ His only goal in the server is to create mayhem and confusion rather than to actually be productive; he’s always quiet on voice calls (except when he giggles loudly while he’s blowing something up or creeping behind someone), listening in on the other conversations so he knows who he can terrorize next.

❏ Since he’s in Creative, the minute he joined the game he automatically spawned himself netherite armor and tools while everyone else was running off to go trample the forests for wood. He builds a secret hut, making sure no one else could find it (in the side of a mountain, underwater in the sand using a conduit, really anywhere he can hide). He has chests full of TnT, flint and steel, potions, mob spawn eggs, and redstone in case someone forces him into survival.

❏ He’s played a prank on nearly everyone in the server; his favorite target is Alice, as he rages the hardest and tries to murder him despite him always being in Creative. He constantly will throw down an invisibility potion and follow Alice into a cave whenever he goes on a mining trip, waiting until he’s right in front of a conveniently placed lava pool before pushing him in. He’s always heard giggling in the background during voice calls while Alice screams out strings of curses and vows of revenge, which are never followed through.

❏ Sometimes if he’s really in the mood for some chaos he’ll switch into Survival and taunt Alice on the voice call, daring him to come and catch him and murder him now that he has a health bar. This immediately catches Alice’s attention and he literally drops everything he’s about to do just to partake in the wild goose chase that Shin ends up leading him on. He gets close a couple times, but Shin always stands still for a moment before teleporting away to someone like Kanna (“Thanks Kanna!” “SHIN GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE YOU COWARD-”)

Gin Ibushi (Aka The Kid Leader):

❏ As the youngest in the group, Gin obviously is the Minecraft pro compared to everyone else. It’s one of the many games that he constantly plays when he’s not playing with his toys, and it’s a good escape outlet for him. He’s been through nearly every Minecraft update, always mastering the new skills such as flying, potion-making, and new PvP tactics as soon as the game updates.

❏ He was the original one that suggested that the rest of the group start a Minecraft server with him, although Sara was the one that managed to start it up. As soon as he spawns in, Gin’s already off doing who-knows-what to try and speedrun the game, but nearly every 10 minutes he has to stop what he’s doing and help the others out of their confusion. He doesn’t care too much about having a fancy house or not, so he usually just builds a sufficient starter house (which is actually like, 3 stories) in between his adventures.

❏ Somehow, after the first day or so, he already has the strongest armor and tools in the game: netherite. While Shin cheated and used Creative, Gin managed to find the rarest ore in the game (probably after pulling an all-nighter or two admittedly). He’s very insistent on fighting the Ender Dragon early, but everyone else is either off doing their own thing or still on iron armor and afraid of even going into the Nether despite Gin insisting he’ll ‘carry’ everyone.

❏ Gin is always the one to lead excursions off into the other dimensions. He’s very eager to finish the game (despite having done so dozens of times), and he’s always pressuring/convincing the others to go out and explore. He knows everything about the varying structures and bosses, from the Pillgar Towers to the Ocean Monuments and the Wither to the Ravager(s).

❏ Surprisingly, he does die quite a lot. Despite having played for years on end, he still makes careless mistakes even when he isn’t being trolled by Shin; he’s fallen into lava pits countless times and died to the occasional skeleton even with his netherite armor (sometimes he forgets to put it on as he leaves it on an armor stand at home so it doesn’t break). One time he was looking for a Woodland Mansion using an Elytra, following a map while flying over several different biomes at once without a second glance as he was focused on the chords displayed on the screen. When he finally realized he was about to fly right into a mountain, it was too late as he smacked right into the wall and fell to his death even after trying to put down a water bucket to save himself.

Kai Satou (Aka The Quiet Fighter):

❏ Kai hates to admit it, but he’s actually quite a fan of video games, especially Minecraft, considering he played it a bit as a kid. The moment he spawns into the map, he gets wood for a crafting table and supplies for himself, Sara, and sometimes Q-Taro. He’s usually pretty quiet on voice calls since he doesn’t really want to bother anyone, and he logs on sometimes on his own to build a fancy wood house or to get some extra supplies. Once, he logged on and saw that his house was on fire with Shin standing by it, saying taunting things in chat just to piss the loner off. Kai didn’t really care, though, since his houses don’t take him very long to build. Shin is annoyed by this, but still, he just goes after Alice instead.

❏ Similar to Joe, he’s always out hunting for food or seeds. Every time he plays, Kai starts a farm by a river, pond, or even near the ocean. Whenever someone walks on their/his own crops, Kai silently rages inside his head, but he never tells them anything.

❏ He usually goes on mining trips by himself, and he isn’t afraid of mobs or hostile surroundings. Unless Gin is off helping the others, Kai is always the first one to build a Nether portal or travel to the End.

❏ Whenever he plays, he always gets a cat or two from either the jungle or a nearby village. He likes to give them fish, and he takes his precious pets on his less-dangerous adventures. Once when he logged onto Minecraft, he saw that one of his cats was gone. He looked around until he found Shin beating his helpless bundle of joy with a stick until it died. Kai didn’t say anything to him, but he was furious on the inside. He later blew up Shin’s house with TNT after finding his hidden shack, and being an expert with laptops/computers himself, he also got Shin temporarily banned from the server, making Alice exceptionally happy.

❏ Sometimes, Kai invites Q-Taro to go on mining or exploring trips with him, and the athlete gladly accepts. Kai tells him about all the new updates that occurred over the years, even though Q-Taro never really pays attention. He’s pretty quiet whenever he talks on voice calls, so Q-Taro is always shouting for him to speak up.

Kazumi Mishima (Aka The 2nd Boomer):

❏ Mishima had never even heard of Minecraft until Nao brought it up to him one day in class. When Sara made the server for all of them to play in, he jumps into the server wearing nothing but a Steve skin, but Nao quickly helps him change it by making him a skin of his own image. Surprisingly, he got used to the controls of the game rather quickly.

❏ He wouldn’t really know what to do, and he would find Nao doing everything for him, including building his houses and getting him food and ore. He would make a lot of silly mistakes, such as mining gold with a stone pickaxe, eating raw meat, digging straight down, and ignoring fall damage. Mishima isn’t really bothered whenever a hostile mob suddenly appears either and tries to attack him.

❏ If Mishima ever stumbled upon a village, he would clap his hands in joy. He loves villagers and trading, and would even kidnap some of them via boats to experiment and test what they could do at home. Some of the others are a bit creeped out by his fascination, but Nao and Gin find it to be quite entertaining.

❏ Despite being a polite, smart teacher in person, his online persona is the exact opposite. He’s always barging into people’s homes and examining their shelters, sometimes stealing a bit of their stuff while quietly giggling on the voice call. However, he once accidentally killed one of Kanna’s parrots, and he was extremely apologetic about his mistake. He even went out in the jungle just to get her a new one despite her constantly reassuring him that it was fine.

❏ Mishima’s favorite mob would definitely be a cow. He doesn’t really understand why, but he loves their patterns and design. He refuses to kill or eat them, but he’s always on board with the idea of capturing them and bringing them home. If he ever encounters a mineshaft, he’s scurrying around the place, trying to find a name tag for his precious cows.

Kanna Kizuchi (Aka The One Who’s Scared of Everything):

❏ Even though she’s rather young, Kanna has strayed away from video games for a long time. Sure, she’s heard of Minecraft, but does that mean she’s ever played it? No. But she had watched several Minecraft playthroughs on YouTube before, so she was somewhat prepared when she spawned in with everyone else. She knew the basic controls and learned pretty quickly the other mechanics and new features the game had to offer.

❏ She thought Minecraft was a rather tranquil game, and she loved all of the details and peaceful mobs that spawned around her. She loves the flowers and trees the most, constantly picking flowers and exploring the grassland excitedly on the first day. She seems to be pretty good on her own until night comes along. After spending all day flower-picking, she doesn’t realize until she starts getting attacked by the hostile mobs that its night. She’s heard frantically screaming and panicking on the voice call before her death notice appears on screen to everyone else.

❏ After that night, Kanna is terrified of the night sequence(s). As soon as the sun starts to set over the horizon, she’s scurrying inside her house or spam-clicking her bed before she’s even allowed to sleep. Despite people like Gin always reassuring her that she has armor and a sword to defend herself with, she still refuses to go out at night no matter what. She’s also always pressuring everyone to go to bed to make sure she doesn’t have to sit through the night in her house and so that phantoms don’t spawn either (even though she’s never encountered them, she’s determined to keep it that way). She’ll be quiet one moment on the call before suddenly scolding everyone to get inside and go to bed so the server can time skip to day.

❏ Kanna doesn’t exactly realize that not every mob is either peaceful or hostile. While she isn’t like Q-Taro who’s always punching the neutral mobs, she’s still unaware of certain hostile variants such as the Killer Bunny. One day while Kanna was out picking flowers for the outside of her house, Shin got the grand idea to spawn a bunch of rabbits inside of her house along with a Killer Bunny or two that he hid in her storage room. When she came home, she was rather confused and could be heard quietly murmuring on the call, “Where did all these bunnies come from..?”. Her usual soft and melancholic whispers quickly turned to shrill shrieks as she entered her storage room to put away the flowers and the Killer Bunnies, which looked like regular rabbits to her, began attacking her. Shin obviously began bursting out laughing when his invisibility potion ran out and he was standing in the corner of Kanna’s house watching her run away from the mob(s). Although, after she began sobbing quietly on the call everyone went silent, including Shin for once (although some of her sobs were overexaggerated just so she could guilt Shin for traumatizing her) as he silently noted to never troll her again.

❏ It’s not very surprising that Kanna has at least a dozen pets. She has an entire pack of dogs (which she only managed to tame after stealing Gin’s collection of bones), several different colored cats, three parrots, two foxes, and even a panda bear she managed to kidnap using Mishima’s classic boat method. She has several rooms in her house that she built purely to keep her pets in, especially the untamable mobs like her foxes. She’s actually rather creative with her rooms, always adding in small details such as scratching posts for her cats and mini trees for her parrots. Her stable for her horses is also humongous and often mistaken for a second house when people run-up to her plot. She also somehow is an expert at coming up with names on the spot and she has a nametag on her 24/7 (admittedly, Shin always secretly restocks her name tag collection that she has in her chest since they’re rather rare and Kanna is too scared to go into dungeons herself).

Nao Egokoro (Aka The Helper):

❏ Nao has obviously played Minecraft before, and she was ecstatic when Sara announced that she would be making a server for all of them. She loves making Minecraft skins, and she made skins identical to how they really look for everyone on the server.

❏ She would totally use those Minecraft house building tutorials on YouTube and would help make houses for her friends if they were struggling. Nao would also get supplies for people (especially Alice since she pities him) out of the kindness of her heart. She really enjoys picking flowers with Kanna and getting cute pets/animals for everyone as well.

❏ However, Nao refuses to harm any animal/mob she finds. She sometimes goes on mining trips with her friends as well. Since she doesn’t want to lay a blood-thirsty finger on any of the animals, she begs Alice to go mining with her for materials since she knows he’s a good fighter, and he could fend off mobs for her as she mines. Alice obviously agrees since Nao has helped him out with Shin’s antics, and he would constantly jump up behind her to stab skeletons, zombies, creepers, and even endermen. They both left the cave even happier than before, and Alice didn’t curse once when he was mining with her.

❏ Nao invited Reko to live with her, and her friend happily agreed (Reko would do anything to move away from Alice). They would go on cute trips together, and Nao would build a stable for the horses that they found.

❏ She’s pretty nervous to play the game by herself, and she always waits until someone else is on the server with her (even Shin) before she does something a bit daring. Nao is always frightful when she has to travel to the Nether, and she has to beg people to go with her out of fear.

Sara Chidouin (Aka The “Mom” Friend):

❏ Although Gin was the one who suggested that they should make a server, Sara was the one who created it. She’s been playing Minecraft for a long time (especially with Joe) and was happy when Gin suggested the idea.

❏ Sara is technically considered the “mom” friend on the server, yet she won’t give a crap about her friends’ issues. If they fell into a hole or were being attacked by mobs, she wouldn’t help them. She would let them die with zero regrets regarding her actions, as she doesn’t think it’s that big of a deal since players can respawn.

❏ She likes to use Minecraft building tutorials, similar to Nao. She’s started to memorize building patterns, and she’s even gotten more comfortable with building in general. However, she doesn’t admit that she uses them, and she likes to flex her “skills” to the others (Shin always calls her out on this with a snicker or two, but he’s immediately silenced when Sara threatens to ban him from the server for terrorizing everyone else).

❏ Even though this has already been said, she still doesn’t give a crap about the others’ issues. Alice would always come to her and beg for Shin to be banned from the server, yet Sara would shrug it off and say that he’s having fun. Deep down, she would enjoy watching Shin torment and tease Alice, even if she was annoyed when he bothered her.

❏ Sara spends most of her time on the server with Joe, Keiji, and Nao, trying her best to avoid Kai, Alice, and Shin. She isn’t scared of doing things alone, such as mining or going to the Nether, but there is one thing that she is terrified of: zombies. She hates how much damage they can do, especially when they’re crowded together in a large horde. She has to beg her friends to kill them for her since she always fails. Joe always kills them for her and taunts her, saying that she owes him back. Keiji would accidentally hit Sara, so the two of them would just run away from the zombie. Nao, of course, wouldn’t want to hurt the zombie, so the two of them would also try their best to escape the annoying mob.

Reko Yabusame (Aka The Raider):

❏ Reko is somewhere in the middle of everyone; she used to play every now and then with Alice when they were kids, but the game has updated so much that she forgot half of the mechanics at first. As soon as she spawns in, the nostalgia hits her like a truck and everything comes rushing back to her. So while the others are stumbling around, voicing their confusion into their mics, Reko’s off along with Gin to go punch some trees down.

❏ Similar to her brother Alice, she gets easily pissed off at the game. While her rage isn’t on the same levels as him, it’s still quite strong. She’ll mutter curse words under her breath, barely audible so the kids in the call don’t hear her. The farthest she’s gone is thrown her controller across her room after falling into a lava pool in the Nether while bridging, and surprisingly it didn’t break. When it comes to her brother and his rage, she’ll often mutter, “Brb.” before leaving her room and storming into Alice’s, and often a loud slap is heard from Alice’s side with no further explanation to the others.

❏ When it comes to her brother, Reko is one of the few people who can tolerate him. She helps him at the start of the game despite her reluctant groans into the mic but ditches him as soon as Shin starts harassing him. It’s not uncommon for her to have to rescue Alice when he’s running back from mining and is being chased by a horde of mobs. She’ll leave her house with only an iron chest plate on and still somehow manage to murder all of the hostiles while Alice runs inside with half a heart. Besides Gin, she’s probably Alice’s mentor the majority of the time, always teaching him new features that he forgot like potion-making and archery. Whenever he dies (which is very often, unfortunately) she can be heard mumbling during Alice’s screams, “I told you…”

❏ Reko’s favorite part of the game is the Pillager raids. For some reason, she finds it an interesting challenge for her due to the different levels that raids can spawn in. She has several different strategies, some of which she made up at the last second. Some notable moments include dropping a block of TNT on a Ravager from her tower, spawning in a large group of Iron Golems at the start of the raid, and somehow shooting a Vex with a bow. She somehow hasn’t managed to die even once during the raids, and even Gin can’t believe her skill and sheer luck when it comes to fighting. She often tags along with him when he goes on adventures, especially when it involves the Pillagers (she finds them interesting, what can I say?). It’s no big surprise when she conquers a Wooden Mansion with ease one day while on a trip with Gin.

❏ After moving in with Nao, she got to teach her pink-haired friend a lot more about the game (especially since she was away from Alice now). She often encourages Nao to step out of her comfort zone and explore, as there’s a lot more to the game than just her house. She accompanies Nao on every mining trip (except for the few times that she chooses to go with Alice when Reko isn’t on) and even takes her out to the other dimensions. She’s always watching after Nao, always standing close to her with a netherite sword in hand to murder any mob that dare come near her. Reko even ends up teaching Nao how to defeat a raid (although she was the one carrying the entire time) and it’s not too surprising when Nao joins the excursion to the End to defeat the Ender Dragon.

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shishinoya · 4 years

Text

quiddity | Yū Nishinoya

(noun.) | the essence of something

summary | In a world where each person has their own unique way of finding their soulmates, yours is quite rare and makes it difficult for you to figure out who your significant other is. Constantly seeing images appear in your head leaves you wondering where these beautiful pictures are coming from. Little do you know, these pictures are just what leads you to the love of your life.

genre | soulmate!au, fem!reader

wordcount | 1.6k words

A small light illuminated your workspace as you tried to keep yourself awake. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to watch all those videos the day before your assignment was due. As the time ticked away and your frustration grew, you started to give up and decided to quickly finish it up. Only then did it happen. An image of a ramen cup appeared in your head. The ramen was freshly made with steam escaping the savoury meal. The street lights were dim and created a quiet and calm ambiance. You were working for quite some time and maybe it caused you to develop cravings. You brushed off the picture and jump into bed, allowing the soft bed sheets envelop your tired body. This was just the start of your peculiar encounters with these images.

The following day it happened again. You were walking to school when a picture of a small stray cat flashed in your head. Blinking several times, you tried to understand what had just occurred. Did you want to go play with some cats? Or maybe you felt guilty for not feeding that one stray 3 days ago. You questioned if this was your soulmate mark. Shaking your head in denial, you pushed away the thought as it was just a dumb idea and nothing more. But it didn’t stop the small excitement that bubbled inside of you.

The long hours of school bored you as you sighed into your notebook. You shouldn’t have agreed to take this after school class. Attempting to finish your work another image appeared into your head. A picture of a volleyball, sitting lonely on a gym court. Volleyball? You haven’t touched a volleyball since you were in middle school so why were you thinking about it now? You couldn’t figure out the reason and it only piled onto the frustration of your work. Sighing in defeat you closed your books and started packing up. A cry of your name made you jump and turn to the direction of the voice.

“(y/n)! (y/n)!” Your best friend, Yua skipped towards you as she called your name. “Today is so nice! What are you doing here?” Her once cheery and bright smile turned into a face of disgusted once she saw your scattered notebooks. “Ew. Books.”

“Maybe this is why you aren’t passing any of your classes.” You commented with a giggle.

“Who cares for school!” She threw her arms up in protest. “All that matters is memories! And~ speaking of memories, can we please go to that new restaurant today?” Begging, Yua slapped her hands together and pouted. Cleaning up the rest of your supplies, you contemplated the idea.

“Please (y/n)! You know exactly why I want to go! There’s this new taste in my mouth that I have to find out what it is! Then maybe I can figure out who my soulmate is.” Yua’s marking was unique, having the taste of the food her soulmate was eating. The fact that she knew what her marking was made you slightly jealous. You haven’t figured out what your marking was and it irritated you.

“Fine, fine. We can go.” You smiled and your best friend leaped for joy.

Satisfied with the meal you just ate, you walked home with the sunset creating gorgeous pink and purple clouds. The site left you in awe as you wanted to capture this moment and save it forever. Taking out your phone, you positioned the camera and with a swift “click”, the image was yours to keep, stored in the small device you carry around. Just then another image crossed your mind. It was a picture of the same scene but it wasn’t the same as the one you are seeing. Confused, you looked around, trying to find some sort of answer. But to your dismay, you couldn’t find anything. I just need more sleep, you thought, as you quickly walked home.

Years passed as new images popped into your head in times where you least expected. A picture of a video game you never heard of when you were showering. Images of plants as you were studying. Pictures of food when you were jogging. Each one was different but you noticed that there were more pictures of volleyball more than anything. Pictures of courts, banners, even players. You’ve never seen these players before until you noticed an orange headed boy while you were leaving class. You remembered seeing him on a court, preparing to spike a ball. You only recognized him due to the multiple images that have appeared in your mind. In an attempt to gain answers you rush to tap the boy’s shoulder.

“Um... Excuse me.” You began. “Do you play volleyball, by any chance?”

“Ah! Yes, I do!” The petite male beamed from the attention and recognition, “My name is Shōyō Hinata and I’m part of the boys volleyball club! How did you know?” Panicking about how to respond since saying that you’ve seen him in your mind from time to time would be too intrusive and strange to hear from a stranger.

“I-I overheard some students talking about it and I wanted to know if I could watch you guys practice...” Stammering, you tried your best to conjure up a believable excuse.

“Really!” The boy’s eyes sparkled with joy at the statement, “We have practice today after school. You can come to watch then! We’ll be expecting you!” You said your thanks and left, praising yourself for not messing that up. You may have just put yourself in a predicament.

School was ending soon and your nervousness was rising. You cursed at your swift mouth and making that statement to Hinata. Clutching your bag, you made your way to the gym where the team practiced. The sound of shoes scraping across the floor and the volleyball hitting the group emanated from the gym. You looked slightly through the crack of the door. Why did you agree to this?

When you opened the door, it made a noise and quickly caught the attention of several people. Your heart went from beating to pounding in a fraction of a second as you cussed at your mistake.

“You actually came!” The familiar voice exclaimed. Hinata bounced from his current position to where you were standing.

“You know her, Hinata?” A fairly tall male with a buzz cut asked. Hinata nodded.

“Yup! She came to ask if she could watch us today!” You quickly composed yourself and bowed.

“My name is (l/n), (f/n). It’s nice to meet you.” You tried your best not to choke on the amount of attention and pressure.

“I’m so glad you could make it-”

“It’s you!” Everyone’s eyes directed to the voice. A short male with black hair and a strand of blond pointed at you. “I’ve seen you before.” Blinking in surprise, you didn’t know how to react.

“I’ve seen her before too, Nishinoya. Hurry and let’s get back to practice.” Another male with an assertive glace gathered everyone. He turned to you and smiled, “I’m glad you could come to watch us practice.” You uttered a response and made your way to a spot outside of the court. The tenseness of being in an unknown environment made you uncomfortable and the feeling of someone constantly watching you didn’t ease it. Throughout the whole practice, Nishinoya kept his eyes on you. You started wondering why, as ridiculous thoughts crossed your head. Was I not polite enough in my greeting? Did I do something wrong? Is my hair weird? Question after question flooded your head and before you knew it, the practice was over. You thanked the coach and captain for letting you stay and watch and talked a bit with the players before deciding to head home.

The sun was gone and it was pretty dark when you took in a deep breath. After taking one step, you were stopped by another image that passed through your head. But this time, it was a picture of you. Your back specifically. Terrified, you spun around to be met with Nishinoya with his phone taking a picture. Another wave of panic washed over you. You opened your mouth to say something, anything that would help you understand your situation.

“So it is you.” Nishinoya confirmed.

“How- What- Who- Huh?” Your confusion made Nishinoya laugh. “Wait. Are you my soulmate?”

“Ding ding ding! That’s correct!” Noya had a dumb smirk on his face as he started walking towards you. He grabbed your hand and at the single touch, a bright flash appeared. Images, pictures, memories uncircled the two of you. You recognize each and every single one of them, whether you took them yourself or have seen them float in your head. Your mouth hung, amazed and surprised. You look back at Noya, who stared back at you. You found him. You finally found him. The amount of joy and happiness showed on your face as a smile painted itself. You couldn’t control your body anymore and hugged him. He wrapped his arms around you as the pictures continued to fly around the two of you until it stopped on one image. It was a picture of the two of you hugging, the exact moment the two of you were in.

“I found you.” A whisper escaped from your smiling lips. At the sound of your words, he hugged you tighter.

“You wanna go grab something to eat?” He cheekily held you close, so you couldn’t escape. How could you refuse? Giggling you agreed.

Along the way, you both joked about the stupid pictures the two of you have taken over the past few years.

“You know, you’re not very photogenic.” Noya mused. You lightly hit his shoulder.

“Way to kill a mood.” You laughed.

#yū nishinoya #nishinomiya #haikyuu nishinoya #noya #haikyuu noya #haikyuu!!#anime #soulmate #au #fluff #nishinoya x reader #nishinoya yuu #haikyuu x reader

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malereader-inserts · 5 years

Text

For Lost Time

Fandom: Avengers Pairing: Bruce Banner x Male!Reader Summary: There was many wrong times, right place situation. But, finally, you’ve found the right time, right place. Word Count: 1,169 Request: “Bruce Banner request! Banner trying to confess his feelings for the reader but every time he tries, he gets too nervous and turns into the other guy? But the reader still finds out eventually and it ends really fluffy. Please!” A/n: okay, but it’s so hard to find a gif of bruce. just got back in early from a night out and let me tell you, my voice is fucked from singing so loud.

Bruce was naturally a nervous guy when you first met him.

So, it was hard for you to pick up the cues that he becomes terribly nervous around you, not because you terrified him - well, to an extent, but it was more about the fact that your bright shining personality overshines him, just a bit, just a tad.

Ever since Avengers had started, he had been like a wide-eyed child looking upon some cookies. He was a mess, a pinning mess, to which his beloved best friend Tony Stark had noticed. Soon, after the fight of twenty twelve, Natasha picked up the cues of Bruce painful pining.

When the team started living in the new and fresh Avengers Towers, Bruce did everything in his might to avoid you in the corridors, if he was to pass you he would simply smile and look down until he’s rounded the corner. Sometimes, he has to breathe again as he seemingly stops when you’re around.

“You’re hopeless,” Tony commented whilst Natasha nods, agreeing.

She had leaned her arms on the light-up desks, the light radiating her fair skin as she obnoxiously sips her ice coffee whilst Bruce glares at the two. Hoping if he turns quick enough that the two wouldn't notice the furious redness flushing his cheeks.

They both noticed but seeing how embarrassed Bruce was they pretend to ignore it.

In fact, the unlikely duo decided to help their friend out. To gain some self-confidence and self-esteem, whilst Tony horribly lacks in esteem he is master of the arts on confidence. What they needed was Bruce to realise that he does have a chance with you.

But, Bruce thinks you’d never get with him.

What he doesn’t know that you have always been interested in what Robert Bruce Banner was about. You want to talk to him about multitudes of things, his life, his story of becoming the Hulk, his multiple theses, his PhDs. You want to know things about him and yet when you come to see him, he’s always magically busy.

“Is Bruce busy?” You asked once at breakfast as you noticed the doctor’s absence as Tony tries to think of an excuse for Bruce.

It was a cycle to behold. Bruce, the pining mess, and you, the oblivious fool. Feelings got thrown out the window fairly quickly as the team started training, team bonding and missions.

Bruce was much more comfortable in the labs whilst you were often found in the training room. Months of his pining went unnoticed to the point that Tony and Natasha was convinced that Bruce had gotten over it. An unspoken mutual agreement that you two were nothing more than friends.

Then, Bruce disappeared.

Just after the Ultron incident, you felt like Bruce was running away from his problem and the guilt in help creating a mistake.

That’s when Tony and Nat had noticed that maybe you liked Bruce more than you let on. There were times you would stop by at the labs to check up on the two, your eyes drifting to where Bruce would station himself.

Tony once caught you reading Bruce’s old works, Nat had caught you pausing as you passed Bruce unoccupied bedroom. You were missing the dork, and the regret ran deep in you. It had got you lying in bed thinking back on all the times where you could have asked in on dates.

Bruce’s missing presence had got you thinking about him more often. How only now you had started to pick up his nervous habits, his charming little cues for you to pick up, which you failed miserably.

You remember how his cheeks flushed red during the conversations you both shared, how his eyes always found themselves wandering, anywhere but your eyes - fearful he’d get lost within them that he’ll lose the focus of the conversation. Only now, you can remember how he plays with his hands more often when you’re next to him, glistening with sweat.

You remember how he wants to ask you a question, the question if you want to go out on a date with him and yet it gets caught in his throat. He shakes his head and averts the topic to save him from more embarrassment.

He sent you flowers in an attempt to confess his love to you, but you were oblivious and he was too shy to own up that it was him who sent it. In came the chocolate and teddy, in courtesy of Tony, but yet again he flushed red and ducked his head, avoiding any credit to your happiness.

Sometimes, when Bruce would talk to you, he had the sudden urge to confess his feelings but one smile from you, he’s melting and making a pool of uncertainty. There were attempts after attempts, you were just too blind to spot them.

God, you were an idiot.

Just like he was.

And, here you were acting as he’s dead. He’s missing, not dead (Y/n), big difference, a little spark of hope.

Tony and Nat did everything in their power to track down where Bruce had disappeared, maybe you two bringing together. Then the civil war had happened and it went to shit. Maybe you’ve lost hope, whatever it is, no one was really in the mood for anything. Everyone tried moving on.

But, in the lights of Thanos, Bruce had returned. There was no time to settle down and ask where he had been, the world was practically at war with the universe. The questioning of how come and why us?

The Avengers had failed, guilt was a factor in emotions. Steve set up a support group, Nat was trying to find her friend. Tony went to live the rest of his life whilst Thor tried destroying his own. Bruce and you were left in the middle ground. You were the only person that he could be around in his normal human form.

He’d tell you what he could remember from his adventure in Thor’s world. You two lounging about in the living room. Your arms crossed over your chest as you leaned your head upon the back of the sofa, staring at him with fond eyes.

Bruce reddens under your stare, “(Y/n)? I-”

“Go on a date with me,” You breathed, calm and inviting that Bruce almost forgets how to breathe, “I’ve had a lot to think about since you were gone and how much I was an oblivious idiot to your lovely attempts. I guess I have to make up for lost time.”

“I-” Bruce exhales, his lips turning upwards in a shy smile, still lost for words as you continue.

“If we can’t make up for what we’ve failed, I’d love to start a new beginning with by my side,” You smiles as Bruce stiff posture softens and relax.

“Then, I would love to go on a date with you, after all,” Bruce calms himself down, “you were the only thing I thought about whilst I was away.”

#bruce banner #bruce banner imagine #bruce banner x male!reader #x male reader #Avengers #avengers imagine

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kuro-gossips · 5 years

Text

Splashes of Colour

Chapter 4: Shades of Purple

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

Shortly after having a vision of his soulmate -- not the first and not the last, he is sure -- Grindelwald holds a debriefing for his subordinates. The heterochromic man commands to one them, “I want you to go to the circus now. Give my note to Credence and begin his journey.”

Nagel nods and quickly excuses himself from the room. Rosier, elegantly dressed as ever, haughtily declares in her heavy French accent, “When we’ve won, they’ll flee cities in the millions. They’ve had their time.”

“Now, now. We don’t say such things out loud. We only want freedom. Freedom to express who we truly deserve to be.” Grindelwald pacifies, a smirk curling up through his lips.

The French woman agrees, a finger positioned on her chin in contemplation, “To annihilate non-wizards.”

The Dark Lord’s eyes flash -- patience wearing thin -- when he speaks next, “Not all of them. We are not merciless, but the beast of burden will always be necessary. Rosier, if you please.”

The blue-eyed witch knows what he is referring to, even if he doesn’t explicitly say it, and retrieves the skull-shaped hookah for her Lord. Grindelwald takes a deep breath in and exhales the smoke that models itself into the Obscurus, black fog swirling with intermittent red flashes, and then resolving into an image of Credence Barebone. His acolytes vibrate with excitement, except for the wizard of Asian descent, Krall, who seems sullen at the sight.

“So, Credence Barebone. A boy nearly destroyed by the woman who raised him, yet now, he seeks the mother who bore him. He’s desperate for family, for love, and he is the key to our victory. We must make him believe that we can provide that information to him.” Grindelwald proclaims, his mismatched eyes shining with an unbridled lust for power.

Krall, a nervous tick in his dark eyebrow, says, “Well, we know where the boy is, don’t we? Why don’t we just grab him and leave?”

“No, he must come voluntarily… and he will.” The Dark wizard shakes his head in response, while explaining. His gaze returns to the suspended vapour form of Credence in the centre of the room. “The path has been laid and he is following it, according to plan. The trail that will lead him to me, along with the strange and glorious truth of who he is.”

“Why is he so important?”

“Who represents the greatest threat to our cause, Krall?”

“Albus Dumbledore, of course.”

“And if I asked you to go to Hogwarts, where he is hiding, and kill him for me, would you do it for me?” An unkind grin graces Grindelwald’s face. “Credence is the only entity alive, who can kill him.”

Krall stumbles through his rebuttal, quickly correcting himself as he catches his Lord’s stern glare, as if daring him to finish his initial train of thought, “You really think that he can kill the great-- can kill Albus Dumbledore?”

“Oh, Krall. I know he can. But will you be with us when that happens? Will you?” Grindelwald whispers, imparting a knowing look on the other man. The powerful wizard is able to discern that Krall is not completely faithful to him and to their mission because he has Seen it in the near future. Then, he addresses the rest of the room’s occupants, “Now, leave.”

In the vacant space, the blonde wizard recalls Newt’s freckled face in the subway tunnels of New York, contorted in agony from the electrical shocks he had sent at him and the distraught expression after he had learned that being too physically far from his soulmate is such a cause for concern. He can’t help but derive pleasure from the sight -- such a delicious image painted over the boy’s delicate features. He ponders many things as he takes a seat, a sinister smile on his face, looking out at the bustling streets of the French capital and enjoying a cup of tea. Grindelwald is intrigued by this so-called magical growth as a result of being in a mutual soulmate bond. Now, his next important issue to address is how to persuade the British onto his side. He knows the other has a soft spot a mile wide for magical creatures and that includes the Obscurus contained within Credence. The Dark Lord lets out a pleased hum as plans start to from in his head, soon to come to fruition.

He summons Vinda back a while later; she awaits his command, “Yes, my Lord?”

“Retrieve the Ministry’s records on Newton Scamander.” She bows at her waist and goes to complete Grindelwald’s bidding.

***

A beautiful woman, porcelain skin with hair as dark as night, is kneeling beside a trunk filled with extravagant costumes. She strokes the dark blue dress on top, the material is smooth under her touch, too similar to a snake’s skin. She knows her performance is about to begin and she knows she will hate every moment of it. However, she doesn’t have much choice at the moment. Nagini had needed a way out of Indonesia, away from human traffickers who had sought her out for prostitution or slavery. Skender may be the trash of the magical community, but the next option was far worse. So, she decided to display her ‘unique talent’ in the circus show instead.

“Nagini!” It’s the boy she has become close with over the past couple of months, Credence. His hair has thankfully grown out from that terrible haircut that he sported when she met him. He rushes towards her with an urgent whisper, steel bars separating them, “I think I know where she is.”

Credence must be referring to the identity of his birth mother and she confirms her suspicions when she reads the note he hands her, a frown forming. Regardless of her personal feelings, Nagini meets his chocolate brown eyes, sadness ever present because she knows how it is to be lost. She remains wary at the thought of this Grindelwald person who sent the note. She wonders if Credence can trust this man -- after all, she’s heard the whispers.

“We escape tonight.” He promises, hope burgeoning in his eyes for the first time since his initial meeting with Percival Graves in New York. He thinks he can find his true family and identity, and maybe then, he can stop feeling so utterly lost.

The ringmaster, Skender, appears through the tent’s flaps and angrily shouts at Credence, “Hey! I’ve told you to stay away from her, boy. Did I say you could take a break? Clean out the Kappa.”

He jerks the curtains between the two closed and scolds Nagini, telling her to get ready for her show. Credence barely contains his rage as he eyes the hanging cage, full of Firedrakes, plotting.

***

The night is clear and filled with gleaming stars as Tina Goldstein wanders through the streets of Paris. The now reinstated Auror, far from home and on a self-appointed mission, walks with an air of confidence, so unlike nine months ago in New York. Somehow, despite her elegant gait, her shoulders are still burdened with personal troubles, thoughts commiserating inside her head. Her long, black trench coat glistens in the dim light as she approaches a statue of a robed woman, gracefully posed upon a giant slab of stone, where her fellow disguised witches and wizards are disappearing into. Dark eyes dart back and forth, ensuring that the non-magical citizens aren’t watching her, and she ducks into the sculpture.

Tina arrives at the entrance of a bustling circus with several tents, the largest one in the centre. A banner is strung across that reads: ‘Circus Arcanus: Freaks and Oddities.’ Street performers line the sides of the main walkway: half-trolls displaying incredible feats of strength, a half-elf juggling knives and other dangerous objects, and a pair of albino twins spitting flames between their open mouths. There is a magnificent creature Tina has never seen before -- its long, plumed tail coiling with feline-like finesse -- staring out from behind sturdy iron bars. The Auror hears the crackling of fireworks erupting in the sky above her.

She slips into the crowd of the main tent, dark eyes intent on searching for the lost Obscurial boy. She tries her best to blend in as Skender, the circus owner, grows increasingly frustrated at his freak’s rebellious behaviour. Credence, somewhere off in the back, makes eye contact with his female friend. Noticing Nagini’s gaze, Tina follows it and finally locates Credence. She begins to move towards the boy she had failed in New York. Skender is furious as he lashes his whip at the bars, “She is forced to become…”

Tina tunes out whatever drivel the burly man is spouting, it is unimportant to her. At last, Nagini gives in and slowly morphs into the body of a snake. Before anyone can react, the large snake strikes at Skender through the bars and yells something in Parseltongue. The ringmaster collapses, bleeding from the wound in his neck. Credence, eyes dark with emotion, snaps a stick at the cage containing the Firedrakes, who soar to freedom. The fabric of the big top catches aflame, screams erupting from the crowd, people stomping and running over each other to the exit. Tina tries her best to navigate through them.

A state of panic settles over the circus as the Firedrakes wreak havoc, tearing patterns through the night sky and trailing showers of sparks. The multitude of creatures are terrified and angered. A Hippogriff is rearing back, while its handlers attempt to rein it in. Performers are scuttling to and from, packing up their belongings, house elves are shoving everything into boxes that fold in on themselves until they become small enough to carry. Tina appears with a resounding snap and flicks her wand to put out the fire. The malnourished Zouwu bursts forth from its crate and leaps away from the screaming humans, roaring out of fright, face scarred and battered. Skender dismisses the creature, knowing any attempts to capture it are futile, so he gathers his workers and boards the carriage. Tina sees Credence in the distance and calls out his name in vain. He is already too far to hear her.

Tina confronts Skender and demands whatever he knows about Credence’s objective in Paris. The man claims that he is looking for his family, and somehow that surprises Tina, despite the fact that she knew that Credence is an orphan who had been adopted by cruel and wicked Mary Lou Barebone. After the bearded male whizzes away with his merry band of freaks, she is confronted by a West African male, judging by his accent, and the two of them discuss Credence’s fate at a nearby cafe. The female Auror optimistically assumes that they’re after the Obscurial boy for the same reason: to save him.

But she is very wrong, and she finds this out the hard way when he disarms her and throws her into an underground cell, one of the walls covered in markings and notes. The brunette sighs, defeatedly, and falls into an agitated sleep.

***

Newt and Jacob successfully track Tina down to her current imprisonment, courtesy of Kama. Following the spectacle that the Zouwu makes in non-magical Paris shortly thereafter, the group of friends are forced to seek shelter in Nicolas Flamel’s house. They clamber through the doors of the empty house, the place is eerily quiet, but they get settled in nonetheless. The British wizard heads down into his case to acclimatize its newest addition, while Tina supervises the unconscious body of the Senegalese man and Jacob desperately searches for food.

He reappears a good twenty minutes later, curly mop of hair peeking through the opening and viridian eyes observing the brunette. The Muggle breaks the awkward silence with a loud grumble emitting from his stomach, a drop of sweat rolls down the side of his face as he becomes the centre of attention. Jacob laughs, sheepish, a hand coming up to wipe at his forehead. Newt fondly smiles, the bags under his eyes even more pronounced -- something Tina finally notices now that they are in decent lighting. Newt appears haggard and worn, but as she opens her mouth to speak, he interjects, “Well, I suppose we all could use some food right about now.”

The round man wants to offer his help, but the magizoologist is already out the door and by the time he turns around to talk to the American Auror, she, too, is sweeping through the hallway, muttering about needing to report to the French Ministry. Jacob throws up his arms in defeat and sits down to watch the dark-skinned man while he waits.

***

Newt knows he shouldn't have volunteered to go searching for food, seeing as he is having difficulty keeping his eyes open, but he doesn't want to stay in such a stuffy environment. Things have been tense between him and Tina, especially with the last couple of letters that were exchanged. She has been insistent in persuading him to visit New York, spouting pleasantries about missing him, and frankly, it made him uncomfortable. He fears the woman has taken a liking to him, but he cannot possibly return those feelings when his mind has been spinning out of control since his soulmate's identity was revealed. As he blearily peers at the rows of food in the small market, his green eyes glaze over and he stumbles into the shelf. He wheezes lightly, gripping his chest as he tries to catch his breath, but Newt doesn't think he can remain conscious for much longer. There is a delicate hand that rests on his shoulder in a comforting manner as someone says something in French to him, but he can neither understand the language or has the mental faculties to perform a translation spell. His eyelids slip closed and just as he is about to slump to the ground, he is faintly aware of someone propping him up, bearing the brunt of his weight.

When the magizoologist comes to, he is alone in a drawing room, laid out upon an elegant chaise and his coat is neatly folded on the side table. Newt glances around the room, evaluating the layout with a keen eye, looking for possible escape routes and objects to defend himself with. This is certainly not the first time he’s been taken without his consent and it won’t be the last -- not in his line of work. His brain stops its calculations when a fair-skinned witch with darkly coloured hair and vibrant blue eyes glides through the doors. She has a tray with tea trailing behind her in the air, a polite and somewhat cold smile graces her lips as she notes that he is awake. She presents him with a teacup, which he takes with a soft 'thank you,’ but then stares at it with apprehension. Her mouth twitches with a bit of humour.

“I assure you, Mr. Scamander, the tea is not poisoned or drugged. Although, it seems you could use a bit of a Pepperup potion.” Her English is fluent, but laced with a French intonation. Newt flushes slightly, ashamed to seen disrespectful in any manner.

“How do you--”

“You have become quite famous, no? An author who writes about magical beasts… It is not everyday one stumbles upon such a well-known person after all.” Her amusement is still apparent in her voice as she explains. In truth, it is because she has seen the files associated with him, but the man doesn’t need to know. Newt fondles the rim of the plate the teacup is on in an attempt to gather his bearings. “My name is Vinda Rosier. Just Vinda is fine though.”

He recognizes her last name, one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight pureblood families of Europe with an affinity for the Dark Arts; it instantly makes him wary, but he schools his face to not react adversely. Newt is polite if nothing else, so he says, “Then call me ‘Newt.’ No one really calls me by my full name unless I’ve done something unruly.”

“Very well… Newt.” There is a vague sense of distaste as his nickname rolls off her tongue, unused to such casual language, but it makes him grin a little. He takes a sip of the tea, Earl Grey, he pleasantly notes.

“Thank you for your help earlier. I don’t know what might have happened if I was taken by some less kind people.” The redhead confesses, grateful that Vinda seems like a reasonably decent person, and because of this, he doesn’t expect when Europe’s most wanted Dark Wizard waltzes into the room. Newt scrambles back on the sofa, dropping the teacup and desperately unsheathing his wand, but he knows he cannot possibly hold his own against Grindelwald. Vinda is fast to respond in order to prevent the cup from shattering on the ground with a Levitation charm. His body unconsciously trembles with the traumatic memories of the electricity that ran through his body in New York and his outstretched hand shakes with it, yet the opposing wizard makes no movement to attack him. Instead, the older man nonchalantly approaches and sits next to him. Green eyes anxiously meet mismatched ones for a moment, before skittering away to the small space between them. He chokes out, “W-what are you-- Are you going to kill me--”

A surprisingly warm hand encircles his raised wrist and gently lowers it down -- it’s such a drastic contrast from Newt’s last encounter with the other wizard that the touch causes him to take a sharp inhale. A thrum of soothing magic courses between their connected skin and Newt shivers pleasantly at the sensation, making a sly smile to cross the other’s lips. Grindelwald knows how much their interaction affects his soulmate; he watches as the colour returns to his cheeks, watches as the dark circles under his eyes recede slightly, watches how the fine lines smooth out across his face, watches as his breaths deepen and pupils dilate marginally. All of it is involuntary, but fascinating to witness. He, himself, can feel the hackles of energy rising within him, being in close contact with his soulmate; his magic sings beautifully in his veins.

“Now, Mr. Scamander, why would I kill my soulmate? Someone exclusively made for me?” He says slowly as if talking to a child, lips tilting upwardly ever so slightly. He brings Newt’s hand up to his mouth, laying a light peck on it, a flush rising high on the younger’s cheeks.

“Well, that’s not-- I mean, you didn’t seem to feel that way last we saw each other.” The magizoologist confesses, eyes cautiously peering into the heterochromic ones of Grindelwald. Neither of them notice when Vinda slips out of the room -- she knows her Lord needs space and peace to intricately weave his words into another’s mind.

The Dark Lord makes a sound of agreement, then proceeds to explain, “You see, I’ve looked into you after our… encounter in America. I admit I was only curious at first as to why Albus was so taken with you that he would valiantly defend you from expulsion, but then, I realized your potential, Mr. Scamander.”

Newt holds his breath and waits for the Dark wizard to continue. He doesn't dare interrupt.

“Who in this world would sacrifice so much for creatures that many deem to be beneath them and for what reason? It has been a long time since I have come across someone as dedicated as yourself to any cause. You want a better world, a world that will readily accept the wondrous nature of these beasts, but you must realize that world will not come to actualization without some sort of action, do you not?”

The magizoologist swallows audibly, managing to stay the trembling in his hands slightly, before he replies, “Perhaps, but that does not mean I would agree with the subjugation of any human being, regardless of their magical prowess.”

“Is that what they have been saying about me? Oh, how foolish.” The Dark Lord chuckles. “I do not seek tyranny over the non-magical, my boy. They are not lesser, simply of other value. I want to assimilate the magical and non-magical communities, so we can be free to be who were are, without fear of revealing ourselves and suffering the consequences of inane laws. There is no need for unnecessary bloodshed--”

Grindelwald pauses for a moment when he sees a disbelieving and affronted look flash over his soulmate’s face, “--but yes, some must perish in order for there to be change. Wouldn’t you want a world where your beasts can roam without worry of being hunted for sport or salvaged for parts? I-- no, we can make that happen.”

Newt has to break eye contact with the man because that is the only thing he truly desires. He is silent.

“Tell me, Newt, does my magic lie to you?” Grindelwald grasps his scarred hands again and it is such a contrast between unmarred hands and his own. The younger wizard lets out a small breath as he feels another pulse of magic run through their connection -- the sensation is an intense mixture of comfort, sincerity, and passion that he almost snaps his hands away immediately. The Dark Lord’s grip is firm, however. “Am I lying to you?”

The younger man has great difficulty coming up with a reply and Grindelwald knows why. It’s a feeling that reverberates deep within Newt’s chest -- something he tries desperately to ignore -- because the redhead realizes that Grindelwald is not lying; he has not lied the entire conversation. It didn’t mean that Newt could trust a word he was saying, the Dark Lord is known to twist his words, known to have a silver-tongue, capable of persuading almost anyone; he knows that he must still be vigilant.

At the same time, it is so difficult and somehow, everything feels so utterly right when he’s in Grindelwald’s presence. The blonde continues speaking -- voice hypnotic as ever -- eyes fixated on Newt’s softer face, whose gaze is still averted.

“Not to mention, what would your dear Ministry think of your soulmate being none other than Gellert Grindelwald?” Newt sneaks a glance at him. The sneer on Grindelwald’s face is filled with disgust and reality hits the magizoologist with the force of a charging Hippogriff. “Do you think they will idly stand by and let you go on your merry way? Or do you think they’ll imprison you, leave you to suffer in a cage, and then torture you? And what of your case, Mr. Scamander? They’ll use everything at their disposal against me, including you and anything you treasure.”

Green eyes widen and freeze at the cuff of his shirt, where their hands are still intertwined. He retracts his arm abruptly, stumbling to his feet -- almost growing dizzy from the vertigo -- and stutters, “No-- uh-- I can’t-- I can’t do this right now. If-- if you’ll excuse me...”

Newt grabs his coat, flings it around his shoulders, and flees the building without another word. His heart flutters because the cold, hard truth is staring at him in the face:

Grindelwald let him leave.

#grindelnewt #gellert grindelwald #newt scamander #fanfiction #fantastic beasts #fantastic beats and where to find them #fantastic beasts and where to find them #fantastic beasts fanfiction #vinda rosier #jacob kowalski #tina goldstein #fanfic #soulmate!au #soulmate!au where you see black and white until meeting them #let the angst continue #grindelnewt fanfiction #crimes of grindelwald #splashes of colour

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forever-more-never-again · 6 years

Text

Make Me Feel Something (A Natasha Request)

Requested: Anonymous

Pairing: Platonic!Bruce X Reader, Platonic!Avengers X Reader, Natasha X Reader

Word Count: 3254

Warnings: Death mentioned, depression mentioned, swearing, pain

Request: Hey! Great writing! Can you do a platonic Avengers x reader (eventually), Nat x reader (eventually), platonic Bruce x reader: R can instill varying degrees of pain with a thought (physical, mental, emotional etc) but only Bruce knows about their ability. Like Bruce, R believes that isolation/being closed off is the best way to avoid harming ppl. Maybe R’s power manifested in form of self defense when R was being hurt yrs ago but they felt like a monster afterward. Team just wants to understand.

Masterlist

You were sure there was a better way to live. But for now, this was the way you chose to survive. To prevent yourself from causing unnecessary pain and fear.

“[Y/n], where are you?” The familiar sound of your best friend’s voice made your lips quirk up in a small smile.

“Here Bruce!” You yelled out from your corner in the dark room.

Bruce Banner, otherwise known by his split personality, as Hulk. He was the only one who truly understood your need to live isolated.

Being able to inflict pain without even a thought was terrifying enough for you. The public didn’t need to know about it as well. If they did, there would no doubt be a mob of angry civilians calling for your permanent imprisonment of death.

After all, being a torture telepath was nothing to be in awe of. You could induce varying degrees of pain, whether it be physical, like making a person's leg snap in half, or mental, making a person become temporarily insane, it was not pleasant.

Bruce turned on the light switch of your cell and you had to squint as the artificial light hit your eyes for the first time in a few hours.

“How long have you been in the dark, [Y/n]?” Bruce’s voice slid into his therapy voice without thinking and you rolled your eyes as you walked up and bumped shoulders with him.

“No therapy today Doc. Come on, what’s up?”

You jumped up onto the counter that was pushed up against a brick wall of your cell and swung your legs back and forth.

Yes, you lived in a cell. You preferred it. You had met Bruce when he had first had the accident with the Gamma Rays and had helped him with coming to grips of his new reality with the Hulk in his head.

But then it was his turn to help you when your mutation reared its head after a car accident killed your entire family and left you with extraordinary abilities able to inflict pain and fear in other people.

He tried for the longest time to get you to join his group of the Avengers. But you never wanted to be in the limelight before your mutation, you had actually wanted to just be a housewife, and then with your mutation you definitely didn't want people to fear you.

But you had convinced him to move you to the Avenger tower. Now you lived underground, with none the wiser of who you were. In a cell designed by Bruce that limits your telepathic abilities.

“Well, the team is getting really antsy. They want to know why I keep disappearing. You might have to come out of hiding soon [Y/n].”

You growled low in your throat, Bruce for a moment showing fear reflected in his Hazel eyes, and you stopped immediately, face flushing in anger as you turned your face away so you didn't have to see it.

“YOu know why Bruce. You know why I can’t ever leave this place. It’s either stay in this cell or be dead. I can’t let anyone control me. What I can do….It’s not natural and its dangerous if in the wrong hands.”

Bruce sighed, running a hand down his face. You turned to look back at him, and instead of fear now, there was empathy in his eyes.

“[Y/n]...you were the one who once told me that I can’t run from who I am all my life and that I would have to learn to grow and accept the new part of me that I had become. Don't you think it's time for you to follow your own advice?”

You sulked, glaring at Bruce as he flung your words back in you face. “But Bruce..”

He interrupted you, raising a hand to cut you off, “No! No more excuses [Y/n]. You haven't hurt anyone in years. And you won't learn to control your powers unless you use them and train. So you will leave this cell tomorrow or so help me I will let the Hulk out to drag you out.”

You chuckled, trying to smother your smile with your hand to no avail. You knew it was an empty threat, Bruce would never purposely let the Hulk out. But it did make you realize that he really did care and that you needed to socialize and learn to become part of society again.

“Alright Bruce. Tomorrow I will introduce myself to your little ragtag family of supers.”

Bruce smiled as he opened the cell and let himself out, “That’s all I ask for.”

You jumped off the counter and sauntered over to your small dresser. Pulling out various outfits, You stood undecided on what would be appropriate for your first social interaction with someone other than the Nerdy Bruce Banner.

Finally, you sighed and settled on a pair of jeans and a blank black t shirt.

You stood in front of your mirror and what stared back at you was a stranger.

Your [h/c] hair was dulled and your [e/c] eyes had a haunted look in them so deep that you had to look away.

“I miss you so much.” When you had turned your face away you had inadvertently faced the wall that was shrine to the family you had lost in the accident.

Pictures filled the wall. Of family camping trips, birthdays, and just lazy days around the old house.

Tears filled your eyes as you walked up and traced a finger over the faces of people you had lost years ago.

“I miss you so much Mom...Dad...Sis.” The tears broke through the dam and fell in silent waterfalls down your cheeks as you collapsed onto your knees, face pushed against the pictures as your body shook with the force of your pain.

It was hours later when you stood back up and wiped your face.

Taking a deep breath you fell backwards onto your cot and stared up at the ceiling, counting down the time until Bruce returned.

When he did, you were ready and extremely nervous.

Your first step out of the cell in over three years. Taking a deep, fortifying breath, you went for it and stepped through the door.

“I’m proud of you [Y/n]. First step down.” Bruce smiled, wrapping a comforting arm around your waist as you began to breath frantically, rubbing your arms as you attempted to calm your thoughts and control yourself so that you didn't accidently lash out.

Bruce led the way up to the main floor lobby. Ignoring the questioning looks you got from civilians and secretaries milling around, you let Bruce guide you into an elevator.

“FRIDAY, please take us to the common room and call the group together.”

An automated females voice rang through the small box, “Of course Dr. Banner.”

You jumped at the voice, “Who's there!?” Bruce frowned, tugging you closer to him, “It’s just an AI. Tony created FRIDAY and she is hooked up to the tower. Don’t worry, she wont hurt you.”

You let out a sigh, “I’m not worried about anyone hurting me. You know that Bruce. Its the other way around.”

Bruce sighed, “I know, sweetie. But it will be okay. You need to live your life. And Staying in that cell is not good for you.”

You felt angry hot tears push against your eyes, but you closed them and pushed the emotion away, “Bruce...it would have been better to die with my family.”

Bruce looked away, knowing he wasn't going to win the argument. The same argument you and him had been having ever since you woke up in the hospital and upon learning that your entire family had been killed on impact, proceeded to cause such a huge telepathic wave of emotional pain that nearly half of the hospital staff was institutionalized from intense episodes of depression and insanity.

The elevator ride went on in silence before dinging and opening the doors to a lavish room.

You walked out in trepidation as you surveyed the gold and blue decor. Floor to ceiling windows covered an entire room and in the middle of the giant room was a couch and beanbags.

Sitting on those beanbags, was Earth’s mightiest heroes.

“Hey Bruce! Who you got there?” You recognized the voice of the millionaire playboy, Tony Stark.

He strutted over with a glass of champagne in his hands even though it was barely noon and swung an arm over Bruce’s shoulder that wasn’t hooked around your waist.

Bruce let go of you to rub the back of his neck as he flushed a slight pink at Tony’s display of affection.

“Guys, I want you to meet my friend, [Y/n].”

You scanned the room. Trying to put the names that Bruce often spoke of, the faces.

Bruce walked up and pointed as he spoke, “That’s Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, Bucky Barnes, Rhodey, Sam Wilson, and where’s Wanda and Vision and Natasha?” He asked Tony.

Tony hiccuped, “Wanda and Vision are on a recon mission and Natasha said she was going to train for a few mins.”

Bruce sighed, but gestured for you to go forth and talk to people.

Despite your fear, you tried to put on a brave face and walked over to Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes first.

“Hello...I’m [Y/n].” You waved self consciously at the two beefed up super soldiers.

Steve smiled, his blue eyes bright with warmth. “I’m Steve. Bruce spoke often of you, but I thought we would never get to meet you. It’s been years of listening to him ramble about you.”

Bucky smirked, his brown eyes flickering past you to Bruce and Tony and back to you, “Are you two ‘Just’ friends then?” He said suggestively.

At that you let out a loud laugh, “Oh hell no!” You said between gasps of laughter., “Just friends.” You affirmed, looking Bucky in the eyes intensely. “I swing for the other team.” You said, with a wink.

Poor Steve stood there with a confused look as Bucky coughed out with a laugh. “Like, the Bronx team?” He said.

That was all it took to push Bucky over the edge as he struggled for breath, falling onto the floor as the laughter caused tears to spring to his eyes.

You walked away with a smile, leaving Bucky to explain to Steve why he was laughing so hard.

You stood off the edge, watching everyone mingle, when you saw her.

She was gorgeous as she walked into the room. In a black sports bra and shorts, sweat glistening off her face and abs. Her red hair sashaying down her back as she walked past the living room and into the kitchen.

“Close your mouth you thirsty hoe.”

You turned and glared at the blond next to you who spoke, “Clint. I’m sure.” You growled.

The man smiled, his head tilting like a lab dog’s as he stuck out a hand for a shake, “Pleasure to meet you [Y/n]. I saw you thisting after Natasha there.” You turned to look through the doorway she had exited as your heart race increased, “That was Natasha?” You asked, voice slipping low as your libido took control.

Clint smirked, “Yup. You should go introduce yourself.” He shoved you in the direction of the kitchen.

Although you glared at him, you walked into the kitchen and found Natasha rifling through the fridge.

“Umm… Hi.” You mentally face palmed yourself at your articulate introduction.

Natasha spun with a water bottle in her hand, flashing a megawatt smile in your direction, “Hello. You must be [Y/n].” She unscrewed the top and you watched in awe as she took gulps from the bottle. Watching her throat work as some of the water dribbled from the corner of her mouth and slide down between the valley between her chest.

Suddenly your mouth was extremely dry and you struggled to swallow and speak as she put the bottle down and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

“Uhh.. yes,” You coughed, “That’s uhh, me. I’m friends with Bruce. But not that kind of friend!” YOu panicked as you thought of what Bucky thought being friends meant.

Natasha laughed and you swore angels were singing from the heaven as the sound trilled through the air.

“I never thought you were. Bruce is obviously over his head with Tony.”

You thought back and had to chuckle, it was obvious now that you thought about it. The amount of times Bruce trailed off mid sentence when talking about Tony, staring into space with a dreamy look in his eyes.

“So [Y/n], how did you meet Bruce? Why now are you agreeing to come to the tower?” Natasha asked, reaching up into a cupboard for an apple.

You shrugged, leaning against a counter, arms crossing, “He convinced me to come out of the cage I locked myself into.”

Natasha cocked her head, but smiled and you knew she thought you were speaking metaphorically.

Suddenly there was a scream from the main room. Natasha and you shared a look of panic as you both raced out of the kitchen.

Entering the room you were shocked to see the Hulk standing in the center of the room. He roared and the windows rattled as his fists slammed onto the ground, “Hulk Smash! Puny Human!” He screamed at Tony.

Tony was sprawled on the ground, his eyes wide as he looked up at the green man.

“Tony! What happened!?” Natasha shouted.

When Tony didn't answer, she turned to Steve.

“Bruce asked Tony out and Tony thought he was joking. Said that the day he went out with a man was the day he died!”

You groaned, putting your head in your hands.

“Tony! You absolute buffoon!” Natasha yelled.

Tony craned to look at her, “I was joking! But Hulk got pissed at me!” He turned back to Hulk who smashed a couch into bits as he huffed and snorted angrily at Tony, “Buddy, let me and Bruce talk this out, okay?” He tried to plead, raising his hands placating from his back sprawled position on the ground.

Hulk screeched and smashed his fists on either side of Bruce in anger.

“Hulk! Stop it right this instant!” You ran up and placed yourself protectively over Tony, arms crossed as you stared Hulk down.

“[Y/n][! What are you doing!?” Steve yelled out from across the room.

You didnt turn away from your glare stare down with Hulk as you responded, “I’m doing what needs to be done.”

Then you spoke to Hulk, “Don’t make me hurt you buddy. I need Bruce back before you destroy this place. Okay?”

Hulk huffed at you, “Puny human hurt puny Bruce! Hulk wants to smash him!” He roared, bringing his fists back to the ground. The tower shook with the force and Steve yelled as he and Bucky ran to grab their weapons.

Natasha inched closer, [y/n]...what are you doing?” She whispered.

You sighed, shaking your head, “I’m a mutant. I didn’t want to have to do this...but..I’m sorry. I can't control it well enough to turn it to a single person, so you will feel this too.”

“Feel wha..?” Her question trailed off and turned into an agonized scream as she fell to the ground, shaking.

Hulk struggled to stay standing, but eventually, the amount of emotional pain you were inflicting on him, caused him to stumble and collapse, slowly the green fading away to show a shaking Bruce Banner.

Abruptly you stopped the flow of pain and dropped to you knees, sobs shaking your body as you babbled, over and over again, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry!!!”

You were unaware of your surroundings as the sound of your sobs and words flowed over and engulfed you.

Eventually you were pulled out by the sensation of warm arms encircling you and a head resting on your shoulder.

Sobs slipping into hiccups, you opened your eyes enough to see red hair cascading in your line of sight.

“Nat?” You asked, your voice hoarse. “I’m so sorry!” You cried, standing up and stepping away from her, wrapping your arms around yourself, averting your gaze from her.

Belatedly, you realized that everyone else was gone from the room.

“Hey, [y/n], there’s nothing to apologize for. Bruce is thankful you stopped him before he could hurt tony. And they are talking thongs out calmly.” Natasha spoke, slowly inching closer to you, as you took just as slow of steps backwards away from her.

“How can you stand to be in the same vicinity as me!? All I do is bring pain!” You cried out, turning to run back to your cell, where you felt safe.

Before you could, you were tackled to the ground from behind.

You stared up, in shock, as Natasha straddled your waist, sitting on top of you.

She glared down at you, “You have nothing to be sorry for! I will stay beside you because you are stronger than you know, [Y/n].”

You were still in shock, and couldn’t speak. As she went on, “Everyone left after Bruce calmed down, he was going to take you back to your little ‘cell.”

You opened your mouth to speak, but she placed her hand over your mouth, “Yes, he told us about how you have been living right under our noses for years now. And all about your family and your abilities. So...no one blames you for what happened.”

You shook your head from under Natasha’s hands, your eyes filling with tears.

She let her hand up off your lips and you immediately started spilling words, “I’m so sorry. I should have died with my family. The abilities I have only bring pain. I could break every bone in your body if I wanted to with a single thought..”

Your words were cut off by Natasha’s mouth crashing onto yours.

Your eyes widened before closing as your lips worked against hers, the scent of vanilla enveloping you and bringing you peace.

You forgot about everything except for the weight of Natasha on top of you and the silk of her lips as they delved into your passion.

When she finally broke apart for air, she gazed deep into yours eyes, “You are so strong and amazing [Y/n]. No more hiding. Because I want to explore this connection we have more.”

You smiled up at her hesitantly, a hand coming off the floor to lan at her hip, “Only if you kiss me like that again.” You teased.

Natasha threw back her head with a laugh before descending on your lips once again.

You broke it apart this time, looking up at the woman on top of you, “You make me feel something more...more than pain and fear and anger and sadness.”

Her fingers swept the stray tear off your cheek before kissing the spot, “You will learn to control your abilities [Y/n]. I promise.”

You sat up, keeping Natasha on your lap, eliciting a squeal of surprise from her.

“Now, I think we need to find everyone else, before they suspect something hanky panky going on in here.” You laughed.

Natasha gave you a sly smirk, “Would that be so bad?”

You laughed, feeling freer than you had in a long time, “I guess not.”

FOREVER Taglist:

@sxph-t @littlestfangirl @rainydaysrnevergrey @not-jk-rowling @sociallyawkwardcircus-freak-hi @ayyidkeither @mcuimxgine @mythixmagic

Natasha Taglist:

@ludwigvonbaethoven @hanjiscience-slut @kitten-q-p @morbid-gaymer @honeybadgerwhodoesntcare @sunnyandtwisty @zoeyknight @kurlyafro @thewomanofwonder @5aftermidnight

Avengers Taglist:

@jadepc

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llexeh · 6 years

Text

Do You Remember Tijuana? - Steve Rogers / Tony Stark

Part 1 of “Steve Is Going to Lose His Damn Mind”

Summary: He had a sudden urge to just go to bed. Maybe he was too old and his age was finally showing. He wasn’t certain he could still blush after the super serum, but it was a blushable situation. So, yeah, he had been in the army and they were all filthy and he wasn’t actually as much of a prude of people made him out to be. But it was still a blushable situation.

He knew he should have just given Natasha her present and maybe a hug. But Steve was many things, and he thought supportive was one of them. He was right in that assumption, but at what cost?

Warnings: edible dicks, deepthroating competition, alcohol consumption

Rating: explicit

Pairings: Steve Rogers / Tony Stark, Darcy Lewis / Bruce Banner

Tags: pre-slash, crack treated seriously, slowburn, everyone is alive, wild Dr. Foster

Word count: 6087

A/N: This has been on Ao3 for ages, I’m still trying to get the whole series finished and I’m posting it on here in a desperate attempt to kick-start my fanfic productivity. You may have noticed the “crack treated seriously” tag, it’s there for a reason. This is ridiculous and ooc for the most part, but I also love it enough to share it with everyone who will read it. This has not had the loving touch of a beta, so excuse whatever mistakes I’ve missed.

The first time he was left speechless by how attractive Tony was, it felt a lot like being hit by a train. Steve didn’t have the best track record with trains. (Ha! Track record.) When he was young, he watched people get on them and never return. He dropped Bucky from one. He watched helplessly as the one he was on sped wildly through Seoul. So the first time he realised he was attracted to Tony Stark, it felt like he turned his head and all of a sudden he was standing on the railway and headlights were closing in on him, there was no time to move aside, and his breath was stolen from his lungs.

There had been hints, and even half formed thoughts when in between insults and petty arguments, Steve thought Tony was above average. Which, he thought, as he recovered from the train running him over, was complete bullshit. And not only was Tony above average, he was god damn beautiful. Steve just gave up: his mind was a mess, and he figured this was what happened when people survive train trampling. Which was no one. Except for Bucky, but that was falling off a train, and Steve just gave up again. It was pointless.

He needed a stiff drink. It was hardly the first time the need arose, and he was perfectly aware he couldn’t get drunk, but it was more the sharp pinch of the alcohol on his tongue, the soothing way it burned its way down his throat that he wanted. It was anchoring in a way few things were. Fighting was one of those things, but Natasha was terrifying, and this was her birthday party. And on top of that, Steve genuinely cared for the redhead and wanted her to have a good time. And she was terrifying. So unless she instigated some group brawl, that was not an option.

There were plenty of bottles pretty much everywhere around the large common room in the tower, but Steve also needed a dark corner to brood for a little. There was a poignant desire to lament his inability to get drunk. Because maybe if he could, he’d pass out and it would finally get quiet in his head. Like many other things that night, that wasn’t an option. So he sat down and drank scotch straight from the bottle, trying to attract as little attention as possible.

Maybe if he thought of it tactically, as if it were a mission he needed to plan. He took a deep breath and another swig from the bottle. Situation: the reality he found Tony Stark attractive. Extra information: not only did he find his fellow Avenger attractive, he was rendered speechless, mid conversation with… someone because he found him so attractive. Problem: he found Tony Stark attractive. Gosh, Steve was well happy no one could actually read his mind. They’d either pass out with the sheer stupidity that floated around, or pass out from laughing too much.

The problem wasn’t that Tony was a man, or even that he was a fellow Avenger, or that he was Howard’s son, or that he was a dick most of the time, or that even if he was remotely attracted to men, he wouldn’t go for Steve’s righteousness and stubbornness and whatever it was that annoyed him about Steve. Oh, wait. Those were the exact problems. Maybe not the Tony being a man part, because Steve always knew he was a bit not-straight. And coming back into the modern day and age, he quickly adjusted to the fact that he didn’t need to stick a label on himself. It was a stark contrast to going into a battle against the Nazis with the distinct thought that some men wear a uniform better than others.

So, tactically. Problem: Steve was currently speechless halfway through a bottle of scotch that did absolutely nothing to him (while everyone was having a blast) because he found his friend hot and there was no way anything would come of it for various reasons. There, that was the most compact way of putting it. Steve was thankful the babbling in his head didn’t translate into his reports. Solution: drink the entire bottle, put on a smile, and join the party before someone asks questions.

The train metaphor, Steve figured, came from the abruptness of the entire thing. It was all going fine. Natasha’s birthday was coming up and she made a point to not say anything about it. It was all a bit uncertain anyway – her age, her exact date of birth – all of it buried in triple classified files hidden in underground bunkers under a lake in Switzerland; or something. The intel was her birthday was on the 22nd of November, and they accepted it as such.

She didn’t plan anything, didn’t mention it at all, and Steve was fine. He’d bought her a hand carved wooden jewelry box from a thrift shop in Brooklyn months before. It reminded him of her with its intricate edges and vintage finish, and Steve was a sucker for gifting people things he thought they’d like. He was ready to wrap it up and present her with it at midnight if she was around, or for breakfast, and he was absolutely fine with it. In hindsight, he would have preferred it, if only to avoid a metaphorical train. Steve was less and less fond of trains with each passing minute.

Clint approached him at lunch a couple of days before with a smile (first sign of trouble), a notepad (signs two-to-five of trouble), a pen (!), and confetti on his shoulders. Steve nearly turned around and walked away. He might have looked young, but he was starting to think he was essentially an old man – what was that line in the film? Too old for this shit?

The short conversation went along the lines of:

“We’re throwing Tasha a party, tell your friends.”

“All of my friends live here, Clint.”

“You need to get out more, Cap.”

“Okay… Does she want a party?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“She’s gonna shoot all of us, Clint. And some of you are more prone to dying than others.”

“We’ll duck. She can’t shoot all of us at once.”

“She can if she gets a grenade launcher. The rest she’ll thigh-strangle to death.”

“It’ll be fine, Cap, you worry too much. Here, shopping list. Hide everything in your room, we can’t order online, she’ll know. Thanks!”

It turned out everyone was excited about it, so Steve went with it. He volunteered to be in her line of fire, shield up for when she reacted to the surprise. It went as well as expected: she walked into the dim room, shot at his shield, and pretended to be very surprised while wearing a cocktail dress and high heels. Her smile was bright however, and Steve found it endearing.

“Clint,” she started walking towards the marksman, “I know this is on you. Come, we’re doing tequila.”

Clint actually groaned. “Tasha, anything but that! Remember Tijuana?” He shuffled his feet towards the bar where Tony started pouring shots.

“Do you?” Natasha asked with a laugh. She turned to the people gathering at the bar. “Thank you so much for wanting to celebrate with me. Now drink!” She passed shot glasses to everyone and set the tone for her party.

Thor placed a crown on her head, naming her their queen for the night as soon as the bottle of tequila was finished. Someone put some lounge music on, and Steve was pleased to see his friends enjoying themselves as they mingled.

It was all very informal, with just the Avengers and their close friends. Vision trying to be inconspicuous in his white button down, drifting around Wanda as close as possible without clinging to her. Quicksilver speeding around the room smiling at Maria Hill in that downright shameless manner that made Fury cock his head ominously. Pepper and Maria converging to the side to complain about managing what were basically children. Bruce chatting to Jane and pretending not to be dumbstruck by Darcy’s pin-up dress and hair. Sam and Bucky to the side, chatting animatedly about sport, Steve guessed. It looked like a promising night. No trains in sight.

About two hours in, Rhodey lost to Steve at arm-wrestling for the seventh time. He was about to ask for a rematch, when Natasha asked to replace him. She sat down on the bar stool opposite him, smiling widely. On top of what Steve assumed was an actual crown, she now sported a plastic tiara adorned with large silver stars that bobbed whenever Natasha moved. Her eyes were as focused as always, but there was a subtle flush to her cheeks.

“Think you can win, Tasha?”

“I don’t know, Cap. Will you let me?” She cocked her head to the side, flirty as always. The stars on her head dangled dangerously.

Tony materialised to their side with two more shot glasses. “He’s an honest guy, Natasha. Of course he won’t let you win.” He downed his and gave the other to her.

“Not even if I ask nicely?”

Steve laughed. “I value my life. Wouldn’t want to insult you.”

She nodded. “Let’s make it interesting. I’ll bet my tiara and you can bet…” She looked around trying to find something. Her smile broadened. “Ah! You lose and I get to set you up on a date!”

“Is that still happening? Okay then.” He placed his elbow on the bar and wiggled his fingers. Natasha grabbed it and signaled Tony to count. It was more difficult than with Rhodey, Steve will give her that, but in the end he was victorious.

She graciously admitted defeat. “Fair and square. Well, ignoring the super serum and the days you spend in the gym.” She disentangled the plastic tiara and placed it on Steve’s head. “I still get to set you up on a date cause it’s my birthday and you owe me for the thing in the place,” she told him.

He laughed and gave up trying to dissuade her. He’d just have to find a way out of this one as always. “You’d think there were no more people I can say no to,” he said jokingly.

“Oh, Steve. I’m only on J. We’ve got a long way to go,” she informed him.

Tony poured her another shot and drank his from the bottle. “I’ve got an updated list of Stark employees you can use. And Friday made a folder called Operation Date on the common server to simplify your mission,” he offered.

“Excellent,” Natasha said covering Steve’s groan.

The music changed to something more familiar to Steve; Bucky stopped by his side on his way to the dance floor. “Watch this,” he told them with a shit eating grin. He quickly grabbed Darcy and pulled her close. Steve groaned again.

“I swear to god, if we have a code green I’m getting the largest electromagnet in the tri-state area and I’m hanging him in Times Square,” Tony told them.

They kept an eye on Bruce as Darcy and Bucky eased into a swing dance. He had a small smile on, wiping at his glasses absentmindedly. Without the threat of a Hulk-out (and Steve was certain Bruce had more self-control than to lose his shit over this), it was actually amusing to watch. His eyes swept Darcy’s figure up and down as she moved, looking like he was trying to convince himself of something or the other. Steve grudgingly admired Bucky’s plan, but even if it worked out fine for everyone, he was still going to get punched in the non-metal shoulder for being a dick.

Once their dance was finished, Bucky put on a show of bending over Darcy’s hand and kissing it delicately. He offered his arm and led her to where their little group was gathered. Her fingers shot out towards Tony and she wiggled them in a silent plea for alcohol. Tony indulged her with a laugh.

“Well, that’s the most physical I’ve been in ages,” she told them after a quick succession of straight-from-the-bottle tequila shots.

“That’s because you keep skipping your damn training and I get bored of looking for you,” Natasha said casually. “I’m keeping track, by the way. You owe me twelve miles and four kickboxing sessions.” Darcy just grabbed the closest vodka bottle and started chugging. “And a hundred and fifty push-ups,” the redhead continued unfazed.

Bucky leaned into Darcy in a show of support. “Think how much ass you’ll kick,” he told her.

“Yeah, no, Lover Boy. There’s no motivating me, like, ever.”

“Lover –"

“It’s from a movie,” came the voice from behind them. Bruce was standing there casually, arms crossed over his chest, his glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose.

Steve remembered watching it late one night when he couldn’t sleep. “Isn’t it with the ghost guy?”

Tony snorted and offered Bruce a glass of bourbon. “Yeah, no,” he said, repeating Darcy’s words. “On the right track though, so props.”

Bruce took the drink and sipped it slowly. Steve felt like he was caught in some odd power play between people who had more of a life than he did. He poured a shot of tequila and downed it just to adhere to their standards. Tony poured him another one.

“Imagine betting on Rogers in a drinking competition. You’d make millions!”

“You already have millions,” Darcy told him with a laugh. She pulled away from Bucky and pat his cheek. “Thanks for the dance, Footloose. I better go find Jane before she has too much to drink and decides to strip.”

Bruce choked on his drink. “Dr Foster wouldn’t…?”

“Dr Foster definitely would,” Darcy told him. “College was a weird time. Don’t ever look up her arrest record.”

When she left them Tony was already on his phone. Bruce made a vague noise, gesturing wildly with his half empty glass. After several failed attempts at words, he nodded and followed her general direction. Once he was far enough, Steve turned and punched Bucky as he promised himself he would.

“Ouch, Rogers! I’m wounded!”

“You will be if you keep this up,” Steve replied. “You have no business with these nice people, leave them alone.”

Bucky grinned. “But it’s so much fun, Stevie! Besides she looked great, and who was I going to dance with? You? You have eight left feet. You’re like a clumsy spider whenever you even think of a dance floor.” Steve punched him again in the same spot, really hoping it would bruise, at least for a couple of minutes. “You know, when you were just a scrawny kid in Brooklyn and I fought all your fights –"

“I thought you couldn’t get drunk, Buck. What is this, memory lane? You always did this and I had to listen to you for hours. Hours, Buck.”

The former assassin had the cheek to look offended. “Just because you’d have died if you drank too much…”

Tony choked on tequila and turned his back to Natasha for help. She hit between his shoulder blades a couple of times. “Thank you,” he told her. “I feel I’m watching Grumpy Old Men on cable during a storm when there’s nothing else on.”

Steve was confused and was about to ask what he was on about when drumrolls flooded the large common room. Clint’s voice could be heard over the noise, belting out Happy Birthday horribly off-key. It was Natasha’s turn to groan. Steve felt almost vindicated.

Clint was carrying a huge tray of what looked like reasonably sized jell-o dicks. Steve wasn’t sure what he was seeing, but he had a Bad Feeling about it. Not like when a villain would pop out of nowhere before breakfast and coffee, but close.

“Loaded with vodka, just like you like them” Clint told Natasha. He deposited the tray on the edge of the coffee table, turning to the people sitting on the sofas. “Hurry up, make some room.” Natasha groaned again, louder than before. Steve put on his best patronizing smile and pat her shoulder.

They walked to where Clint was standing proudly admiring his work. Steve counted fifteen identical phalluses in various colours wobbling on the tray. He had a sudden urge to just go to bed. Maybe he was too old and his age was finally showing. He wasn’t certain he could still blush after the super serum, but it was a blushable situation. So, yeah, he had been in the army and they were all filthy and he wasn’t actually as much of a prude of people made him out to be. But it was still a blushable situation. There were things he couldn’t shake despite everything he’d seen. And jelly dicks on a tray was one of them, apparently.

“Clint, why?” Natasha’s voice gave away some annoyance, but mostly humour. So at least she liked it somewhat.

“Remember when I had that bartending thing in Vegas? Well, there were a shit-ton of bachelorette parties and this was popular with the ladies.” He shimmied a little and promptly burst into laughter.

“I’m assuming they weren’t chewing them in front of the strippers,” Sam said casually.

“Not until much later, no,” Clint replied. “Deepthroat competition!” he said and Steve wasn’t even sure who groaned the loudest.

Jane took a step forward, and Darcy’s hand shot out to catch her shoulder. She tried her best withering glance, but it seemed the good Dr. Foster had gone to the dark side. Steve was proud of his reference, even if he had yet to watch Star Wars. That was a new thing he’d started doing, where he privately googled popular references just so he wouldn’t be lost in conversation. He just hadn’t gotten around to watch everything he missed being frozen, and that made the cheating thought a bit less poignant. Jane nodded at Darcy, and Darcy shook her head, so Jane nodded louder, and Darcy just sighed and took a step forward too. Steve recognized it for what it was: solidarity. He’d done enough stupid shit for Bucky to know it intimately.

“What is this deepthroating?” Thor’s voice managed to boom even when he didn’t mean it to.

In the slightly tense (and also curious) atmosphere in the room, his question seemed to make everyone burst into laughter. The god’s confused expression almost made Steve take pity on him, but Pepper was quicker.

“It’s when you suck on – ah, how to – ” Her inability to not be helpful left her stranded halfway through her sentence not really knowing how to go on. “Tony?”The scientist lifted his hands in a clear sign of not-touching-this-one-it’s-hilarious-to-watch-you-struggle. Pepper looked around some more, her cheeks starting to redden.

Maria Hill of all people chose to lean forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “Dick sucking, Thor.” She prodded a jelly dick with her finger and then looked up at the god. “But really deep.” The entire room burst into laughter again.

Thor’s face lit up and he brought his hands together as he did before a fist fight. “Ah! Of course, it makes sense now. So, a competition,” he said and Steve knew that look.

Jane giggled, Pepper touched her hand to Maria’s shoulder in a sign of gratitude, and Darcy released another long suffering sigh. Wanda stepped closer, looking like she wanted in. Pietro shuddered somewhere to his right, and said a quick “Wanda, no,” to his sister. She smiled viciously. Steve was certain he would never understand their dynamic, even though there was a part of him that envied the feeling of belonging in a symbiosis of that nature.

“Tony, remember when we –"

“Rhodey…”

“Tony…”

“Rhodey!”

“Tony!”

Natasha stepped forward and knelt by the end of the coffee table. She looked up at Tony with a smirk. “Well, it is my birthday…”

“For the love of god, we don’t even know if you were born or if you hatched from a large egg!” Tony exclaimed.

“Come on, Stark. It’s gonna be like that time we were stranded in Atlantic City. I remember you taking off your shirt and well, are we still banned there?”

“Rhodes, I made that disappear from your record, I can bring it back.”

Clint interrupted their little spat. “Okay, okay, enough. Show of hands if you wanna suck fake dicks for Natasha’s birthday. She’s obviously gonna do it so we might as well show some solidarity…”

Jane put both her hands up, Maria joined her with one. Darcy’s finger lift up. Thor put one of his hands up and the other snaked around Jane’s shoulders. Steve couldn’t even begin to think about their sex life. Mostly because it was wrong to give it that much thought, but also because he wouldn’t even know where to start. To his surprise, Bucky put his hand up.

“What?” he asked. “Remember Jacques bet me I couldn’t stick a bottle of beer down my throat? I won that one.”

Steve rolled his eyes. He didn’t actually remember. His best guess is he was agonizing in a corner about making Peggy like him. He tried not to choke on air when Tony’s hand went up following Rhodes’s. “You are going down. Literally,” he heard the scientist say. Pepper joined them as well, downing her entire champagne flute. Bruce ran his hand down his face.

“Captain?” he heard Sam ask him with a smirk.

“Oh, I’ll pass,” Steve said with a small smile. “The serum removed my gag reflex, it wouldn’t be fair.” He was happy to make his friends laugh, but he was still not going to slobber over some vodka filled jelly dicks. Even though he could. And he would probably win. Still wasn’t doing it.

After a brief rearranging, the contestants sat or kneeled around the table. Everyone moved out of the way, and Clint made sure to put some raunchy music on before getting in position. He dished out the jelly dicks on cake plates and got Vision to count to three. As soon as the word was said, they all bent their heads and went for it.

Steve took a moment to observe without looking like a pervert. Pietro had given up on his disappointment and was cheering on Wanda in typical supporting-my-twin-forever way. Wanda, for her part, kept her eyes down and opened her mouth wide to slide down on the thing. Vision seemed mildly amused by it. Steve wondered briefly how lust worked in his case, but the snort coming from Rhodey’s general direction stopped his thought. The man was trying his best not to choke on both the jelly dick and his laughter, leaning heavily into his palms on the table. Pepper wasn’t faring much better, pulling back and clutching at her chest to try and stop laughing.

Sam sat opposite Bucky, both of them staring at each other. Steve was trying to decide if it was flirting or competing, but he came up short. Fury sat on the side of an armchair, drinking whiskey from the bottle, probably lamenting how much money went into the Avengers Initiative. Steve couldn’t blame the man. His good eye was starting to lose focus, and Steve felt a slight pang of jealousy at the ability.

Thor and Jane were holding hands on the table, both of them trying to accommodate as much as possible down their throats. Jane seemed to be doing better, but it could have been the fact that she wasn’t smiling like an idiot. Thor… not so much. Darcy kept her eyes trained on Bruce. The scientist still had his small smile on, Steve was glad to see. Even if it looked vaguely pained, like he didn’t know what to do with his hands, or how to lean on the sofa better. Darcy pulled back, smirked at him, actually had the audacity to wink, and wiped at the corner of her mouth before taking most of the thing down her throat. For the first time since their competition started, Steve felt some inkling of arousal.

The whole thing was arousing in a way he supposed, but these were people he would be giving coffee to the following day when their hangovers wanted to kill them. They were the people he lived with, worked with, went to die for, trusted, and cherished. And for some reason, watching them try to deepthroat wasn’t exactly touching yourself material. Especially when half of them were at various degrees of hysterics, abandoning their task altogether in favour of laughter. Darcy was… different because Darcy was putting on a show. And Steve was many things, but not made of stone.

For some, it was a bonding experience – see Jane and Thor. For others, it was an excellent story – see Rhodey and Pepper. For others, it was blatant flirting – see Darcy and Bruce (who was cocking his head to the side; and Steve was absolutely certain that Dr. Banner was the only person in the world to watch their love interest perform a lascivious sex act and find it adorable.)

Clint pulled back to cheer on Natasha who was still going strong in the middle of them all, golden bejewelled crown crooked on her head. Steve felt proud of her determination, and also slightly turned on by the way her lips held on to the jelly.

Fury clicked his tongue from Steve’s side and it spoke volumes about how distracted Steve actually was. “Aren’t you glad you’re their leader?”

Steve nodded. “Hey, if all else fails, at least they can suck dick.”

Fury snorted in his glass. “I’m wondering who Clint used for the mould.”

“I don’t think I –”

Freight train.

Tony leaned on his elbows, bending the jelly dick so he could suck on it and also look straight ahead. His eyes seemed glued to Steve’s thighs. He figured, as a last desperate thought, that the scientist was staring at whatever was in front of him, and at the highest point he could without rolling his eyes. Steve wanted to ignore the way the man’s throat bulged as he relaxed it to accommodate the phallus. He really, really did. But he’d seen the Godfather, and there was a bit there where Michael gets hit by lightning when he falls in love and Steve had no idea why that was where his mind took him, but it damned felt like Thor unleashed his thunder god power right through his spine. Tony swallowed around the thing, and Steve would swear until the end of time that the bottle of tequila he didn’t realise he was holding most definitely didn’t shatter in his fist. He was utterly speechless. And would you look at that, he could blush.

There was a vague sound of Rhodey whooping and Natasha clapping and Bucky cursing softly and Darcy laughing and Clint patting Tony’s shoulder. It all registered in the back of his head, including the proud look Tony threw him, and Maria inviting them all to eat a bunch of dicks. Steve turned away and walked to a bottle of scotch, conversation with Fury forgotten.

He welcomed the relative quiet and solitude while he tried to command his thoughts to re-enter some sort of order. He went to run his hands through his hair and of course he’d forgotten and watched the man he was suddenly aware he was attracted to deepthroating a jell-o dick while wearing a plastic tiara. Because being frozen for seventy years wasn’t ridiculous enough. He uselessly drank some more.

The music had changed by now, and everyone swapped impressions about their competition while swaying to it. Or at least he thought they were, he didn’t care all that much. Tony was showing Natasha his throat, explaining something about it and Steve’s mind brought back the image of the bulge, and what it treacherously decided to paint as heat in Tony’s eyes. Steve really wanted to get drunk. And yes, it wasn’t his party, but he could cry if he wanted to.

Bruce sat next to him, and if Steve were to chose, the man was probably his safest bet. With his kind eyes and gentle demeanour, at least he wouldn’t get chewed for being less than subtle. Steve handed him the bottle and they shared it between them in companionable silence. When Bruce pulled a second one from seemingly nowhere, Steve nodded his thanks.

“At least I can get drunk,” Bruce offered, and Steve found himself laughing. It was useless to think people hadn’t noticed his reaction, but this, this he could deal with.

“Well, I’m not a quitter. At least there’s less for all of you to drink, and that makes me happy.”

“Vicious,” Bruce said. “Not your normal mood, but I like it.”

“She’s really into you,” Steve said, not really caring at this point. “You should ask her out –”

“Yeah, no,” he repeated her earlier words, and Steve couldn’t help but find it endearing. “I tend to kind of break things when I get out.”

“Then ask her in. At least some of us would be home, if it makes you feel better.” Steve drank some more. “Besides, she’s not the type to anger people. Unless you can Hulk out from laughing too much.”

Bruce snorted. “Never happened before. I don’t laugh much.”

“From someone who has absolutely no idea what they’re doing to someone who’s conflicted as all hell: just spend some time with her. She’s probably the second kindest person I’ve ever met.” Bruce was too polite to push. “After you, I mean. Bruce, she’d be good for you.”

The scientist turned to face him. “Okay, are you sure you can’t get drunk? Cause you’re saying some liquor-wise things right now, some of which are complete bullshit,” he laughed.

Steve joined him. “Trust me, you’d know if I were drunk.”

“Well, I’ve got a nice buzz to get me to sleep, so I’m gonna cherish it and maybe improve it.”

“Bruce –"

“Steve, don’t. We can sit here all night with me getting drunker by the minute, and you staying as sober as always, and I could be listing a thousand and one reasons why it wouldn’t work. And honestly, I’d rather have a drink with a kindred spirit and then go to bed.”

Steve was many things, but not made of stone, and not a quitter. And focusing on someone else took his mind off his own shitty thoughts. Steve was many things, and even maybe a bit selfish. “So she’s younger than you.”

Bruce nodded vehemently. “Exactly! A whole life ahead of her!”

“So choosing for her is the way to go?”

There was a pause. “Well, no. But I’m making a conscious decision to not get her caught in this even if she thinks it’s what she wants.”

“So you’re choosing for her.”

“And she’s way out of my league!”

“Right.”

“And she’s funny and kind and perky and I’m not.”

“Okay…”

“And I can’t offer her stability or a family.” Bruce drank, passed the bottle to Steve, waited, took it back, and drank some more. “Or going out clubbing!”

“Of course.”

“Stop agreeing with everything I’m saying, Steve. It’s a low tactic.”

“Absolutely.”

“And she –"

“She’s beautiful,” Steve interrupted.

“So beautiful,” Bruce agreed with shining eyes. “She has this small smile on sometimes and a frown on her left side when something doesn’t make sense. And her face lights up when she talks about something she’s interested in.”

“Mhm.”

“And she knows I prefer almond milk and makes sure to add it to all the cups of coffee she brings me.” Bruce sighed. “And in the afternoon she makes my tea for me and brings me food sometimes when she knows I’ve been to busy and forgot to eat.”

“And of course, you do nothing similar for her,” Steve told him casually. He knew the only reason Bruce was so talkative was a lethal combination of misery and alcohol.

“Well, there was that exhibit I recommended. And I save her dinner every now and then.” Bruce sighed again. “I put away all the mugs in the labs so she doesn’t have to.” There was a long pause before the scientist spoke again. For a while, Steve thought he’d fallen asleep. “Oh, I also named a star after her. I mean she’s never going to know, but it’s just one of those things –"

There was some reward in staying sober when no one else did. Steve was certain to remember the moment Darcy Lewis stepped on the steel ledge at the bottom of the bar, leaned over the tall structure, gripped Bruce’s shirt, and pulled him for a kiss. And Steve was lonely and kind of miserable so he watched them because the warmth in his chest was beautiful, and it was so much better than the loudness in his head.

When she pulled back, Bruce was dazed and very confused. He managed a weak “What?”

“I stood and listened to you go on and on about this and that and maybe I’d have walked away and processed everything and then come up with a plan. But then you mentioned the fucking star, and I swear to god Banner, you’re the worst!” Darcy told him in one breath. She looked at Steve and grabbed the bottle out of his hands with a quiet “thanks,” then poured a glass and downed it.

“I… am?” Bruce asked uncertain.

“Yes! I spent the last six months of my life trying to find a way to be close to you, and you go and do some dumb shit that I can’t even begin to understand.” She turned to Steve. “Like, how do you even name a star after someone?” Steve shrugged helplessly.

“Darcy…”

“Don’t you Darcy me! With your stupid curly hair and your glasses,” she took a deep breath when Bruce unconsciously pushed them back up on his nose, “and your rolled up sleeves, and your kindness, and your smiles! Acting like you can decide what’s best for me.” Bruce had the decency to flinch at her accusation, his face flushed at her aggressive compliments.

“I just don’t think…” he started.

“That’s the thing. For someone so fucking smart, you’re being an idiot.” She turned to Steve. “Now, you. Both this dummy and myself and kinda drunk and I need you to bear witness to all this for when he’s trying to deny it all in typical fashion.” Steve nodded solemnly, trying to hold his laughter in. Everything was surreal. His entire life was a joke. “Now, you’re gonna get up,” she said, pulling at Bruce’s hand, “and walk with me over to that massive armchair. I’m gonna climb in your lap and you’re gonna tell me every reason you have for not wanting me –"

“But I do!”

Darcy was unfazed. “And I’m gonna counter-argue with my vast debate skills – what?”

Bruce sighed and walked around the bar. He rubbed his face with both his hands and pulled Darcy in a hug. “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”

Steve really wanted to get drunk before he punched someone for being stubborn and impossible. Bruce. Before he punched Bruce and got him to Hulk out and Steve was going to stop that train of thought right there. Trains. God damn it.

“So…?”

“So I think you can do better and I’d rather not waste your time,” he finally admitted defeatedly.

“I swear to god,” Darcy said and lifted her head to kiss Bruce again. The warmth in Steve’s chest was back, and maybe he wasn’t dead inside yet. She broke their kiss again, and stayed glued to Bruce’s side as she walked them away. “Thanks, Steve, you’re the best!” she said loudly, and Steve wanted to duck. Everyone who heard her turned to look at him.

Trying to at least look normal, Steve lifted his hand to salute them and touched plastic. He forgot about the tiara again. No, seriously. His life was a joke. He gave up completely and just let his head fall forward on his forearms. The metal on his back made it clear who it was that came to comfort or confront him – he had no idea.

“So, Stevie. Should I get Stark to dance with me as well? It seems to be working tonight,” he said and Steve could hear the smugness in his voice.

He lifted his head to look his oldest, best friend in the eyes. “Fuck off, Buck.”

Next part

Masterlist

This can also be found on Ao3.

Send me opinions and thoughts and random things, ily all x

#stony #stony fanfic #tony x steve #steve rogers x tony stark #avengers fanfiction #llexeh writes #steve is going to lose his damn mind

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