#sorry for being almost completely missing in action recently :(

[elizabethshaw]

#doctor who #dwedit #dw gifs #my gifs #bill potts #twelfth doctor #them <3 #hello again everyone!! #sorry for being almost completely missing in action recently :( #it's been a pretty busy few months and i've just recently moved country so. not a lot of time for gifmaking and/or tumblr unfortunately! #can't guarantee how much/consistently i'll be around for the foreseeable future but anyway. hope you're all doing well!! :)

[cupidjyu]

pay attention to me! pt 2

(98 line) what if you’re not paying attention to them ??!

genre: cuddling, lap-sittting? fake arguments, fluff ofc! notes: im back!! i think it’s my goal to start posting more! so, if you guys have any ideas im always open :D anyways, please enjoy!! ly :) word count: 1k

juyeon

you recently have been picking up random hobbies out of complete boredom. though, you do end up ditching them a week later. this week’s new hobby is knitting. you had gotten the hang of it after a bit so you were now sitting on the couch, practicing your new skill, your tongue poked out of your mouth slightly. you can hear juyeon shuffling next to you, knowing he’s just watching shows on his phone. 

but then your knitting was paused when you felt him wrap his hands around your waist. he lifts you up and brings you into his lap. he’s a strong person after all. startled and confused, you stare up at him. after a while, you snuggled into his hold, though you never continued your knitting.

it’s quiet.

“continue your knitting,” he mumbled.

you nodded and continued. but then you stopped again.

“what’s this for then?” you eyed how you were literally sitting on his lap, his arm wrapped over your body protectively. there’s no response so you turn to face him and he’s staring back down at you with red ears.

“just missed you,” he whispered, so quietly you almost missed it.

you giggled. 

“you missed me?” you reached your hand up to his cheek and pinched it. he only blushed more at your actions, clearing his throat and looking away. you stared at him, teasingly. "so?"

"why're you making me repeat it?" he looked down at you with red ears. you only stared at him with expectant eyes. he sighed. "yes! i missed you. you just kept on doing your own thing and i want to hug you."

"oh, my juyeon," you smiled, pulling him into a kiss. "you're so cute."

kevin

“so i was thinking…”

you didn’t look up from petting your pet cat. she was just being so, so cute today that you couldn’t resist her. but you were still listening to kevin ramble about his favorite types of music. you always loved the topics that he talked about. 

but then you heard his words stop. 

“excuse me.”

you stop petting the cat. you look up at him only to see him staring down at you with narrowed eyes and furrowed eyebrows.

“huh?”

he huffed. 

“were you not paying attention to me this whole time? for a cat?”

you reeled back in shock. “no, no! sorry kev, i promise i was listening.” you had to hold back the giggle threatening to leave you because you always thought that he’s cute when grumpy.

he rolled his eyes, turning his back to you and crossing his arms. “sure, whatever.”

“c’monnnn…” you got up from the bed and approach him with a mischievous smile. then, you wrap your arms around his whole body, pulling him into a tight-back hug.

“you’re so annoying,” he muttered, though he still melted into your hold. you could even see his smile growing.

"you're smiling."

"am not."

"are too."

he turned around and looked at you with a grumpy expression.

"i'm not."

"sure." you leaned up and pressed a quick kiss to your cheek. after, you led him to the bed to lie with you and even play with the cat together.

chanhee

“what do you think?”

you were busy, reading over your essay over and over in fear you missed any part of it. you were just on your last paragraph, so determined to finish it early so that the two of you could go on a date.

but then you heard a particularly loud huff of breath.

you looked up and widened your eyes at the sight of him just standing there with a (cute) pout. he had his arms crossed as he looked at you expectantly.

“can you repeat that?” you smiled sheepishly.

“i was asking,” you could see his cheeks turn pink slightly as he shifted shyly on his feet. “what do you think?” he looked down at his own outfit.

you grinned. he was dressed quite differently, though it still fit his style. he just looked so… cuddly and cute that you just wanted to hug him tightly.

“you look amazing!” your hands formed into a heart, pointing it towards him.

“should’ve said that earlier,” he grumbled, though you could spot the smile growing on his lips.

“sorry,” you apologized, feeling guilty.

he waved you off, “it’s okay.”

and in a flash, he’s on top of you, tackling you into a cuddle. he pecked kisses all over your face, hugging your whole body tightly. 

“ack, chanhee.” you giggled.

“can’t you take a break from work?” he pressed a quick kiss to your cheek.

"i'm almost done." you turned back to your laptop.

"hurry," he whined. you sat back up to continue typing. you felt your heart warm when you felt him snuggle into your side, watching you work.

changmin

oh, the show was just getting so good. you were practically on the edge of your seat, watching as the main character slowly walks down the dark hallway. you weren’t always one for scary shows, but this was one that changmin had suggested and you actually liked it. plus the room lights are off, adding to the scary atmosphere.

the thing is, you didn’t notice him sitting next to you, trying to ask you a question.

“y/n. y/n.”

the character is almost going to open the door… and…

but then you’re completely startled by changmin’s loud scream. it’s so, so high-pitched and scary. you immediately got thrown into a panic as you practically scramble into his lap. you wrapped your arms around his neck and hid in his shoulder.

after a few moments, he pulled away and looked down at you with an adoring smile.

“am i your prince? you came straight for me.”

you punched his shoulder, feeling your face heat up quickly. 

“why would you scare me like that?”

he’s silent for a moment, thinking of the right answer. but then he shrugged.

“i want attention.” he smirked. he leaned down and gave you a soft kiss. then he tightened his hold on you and pulled you into a warm hug.

"it's scary though."

"okay, sorry," he laughed. "but, pay attention to me please?"

"you're the one who recommended this show!"

#the boyz reactions #the boyz fluff #the boyz imagines #juyeon x reader #juyeon fluff #kevin moon x reader #kevin moon fluff #chanhee x reader #chanhee fluff #changmin fluff #changmin x reader #imagines 💞

[thepharmac1st]

A/n: this is one of my most recent works during my shadowban.

Movie night

kinktober day 4 (I missed the other three)

Summary: Steve invites his boyfriend to watch a movie together with him, away from the party he's throwing to spend a little alone time with him.

Those under sixteen and or use shelher or she/they pronouns DNI.

SoftTop!Steve Harrington x Bottom!Male reader

A/n: I haven't written in a while so this is really bad but I want to get a day in for kinktober.

Steve really knew how to throw a party, but their wasn't a point in coming it you barley knew anyone. You weren't much of a social butterfly and people didn't seem to like you personality. It was a wonder that Steve fell for you sometimes, considering your differences.

But you wished sometimes he could accept that you didn't like being around other people as much as he did.

You needed a escape and you found yourself making your way to Steve’s room to hide until someone almost died doing some dumb shit while drunk so they gotta stop the party.

When making your way up the stares you swore you could hear someone behind you, but you decided to ignore it. You nearly screamed when you felt a hand wrap around your waist, pulling your body close to theres, a hand finding it’s way over your mouth before you can. "Sorry, did I scare you?" The voice behind you whisper into you ear.

You looked back at Steve, a grin plastered on his face that slowly turned sheepish when your eyebrows furrowed. He removed his hand from your mouth and went down to kiss you, which you tried to pull away from but you were too late. His tongue slid against yours, rubbing against eachother as Steve made a effort to make you feel hot.

Your hands found its way to his face and you quickly broke the kiss, panting heavily.

“Too much already?” He asked, diving back for another kiss which you rejected again, this time succeeding.

“Steve were near people..” You mumbled, eyes darting around for anyone in view who might have seen your heated kiss.

“Yeah, I know I know,” he said licking his lips, “I just haven’t seen you since the party started and I missed you.” He gave you a genuine smile this time, but his hands went up your shirt.

“How about me and you,” he started, hands now gripping at your flesh, “Go ditch this party for a while and spend some time with me, maybe watch a movie.

“I don’t know, wouldn’t it be weird if ‘King Steve’ left his own party to go be alone with his ‘best friend’,” you said quirking a eyebrow.

His head dropped onto your shoulder, inhaling your scent. “I could give less of a shit, he said, tongue flat against your neck as he licked upward, giving it a small kiss before his body parted from yours.

His hand wrapped around your wrist as he led you to his bedroom, locking the door behind him.

You were pushed to the bed in second, your dick already starting to press against your jeans at the thought of him inside of you and you were praying he decided not to tease you tonight.

But your thoughts were completely wrong as he joined you and grabbed the television remote, turning on the tv. The moment you sat up straight he went straight to cuddle you, squeezing you tightly.

Though you knew he was trying his best to seem like his actions were pure, you could feel his coco pressing against your ass and you knew you were gonna be sore later.

Part two

#steve harrington #Steve Harrington x male reader smut #Steve Harrington x male reader #x male reader #x male reader smut #x top steve Harrington #x bottom male reader #x bottom reader

[crimson-calligraphyx]

A/N: this chapter is a bit of a filler. sorry 😬

As I stood against the barricade, surrounded by hundreds of other people, my body was buzzing with anticipation of seeing the guys perform—or maybe it was the bass of the speakers playing music during intermission, I don't know. Either way, I was excited for this moment.

It dawned on me that after three-plus years of knowing the guys, this is the first time that I would be seeing them play somewhere other than when they practiced at home, which was just ludicrous. Noah didn't seem bothered by it, though, having never asked why I hadn't gone to any of their shows.

The lights suddenly go out and the crowd erupts as Folio makes his way across the back of the stage. He stands behind his drum set, waving his sticks and shouting, trying his best to hype up the crowd. He sits as Jolly saunters out to the right of the stage, stopping short and scanning the sea of people. He holds his hands out at waist height, palms up, folding his fingers to his palms, beckoning the crowd to cheer. And they do.

Everyone was already riled up as Nicholas took the left side of the stage, and yet the room still got louder the second Noah stepped onto the stage, front and center. He grips the mic on the stand with both hands, his eyes shut as the opening beat to their recently dropped single “THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND” vibrates through the building.

I was entranced by him more so than usual, feeling his words, feeling their music encase me as it filled the room. He sang so angelically and moved with such grace as the glow of the stage lights danced off his toned arms, drawing me in. The man in front of me was perfect in every way, shape, and form—at this very moment, I almost couldn’t believe that he was my husband.

We locked eyes as he crouched on the risers and leaned towards the crowd, the words coming out of his mouth causing heat to rise to my cheeks.

I miss the way you say my name The way you bend, the way you break Your makeup running down your face The way you fuck, the way you taste

He smirks as he says them and flashes me a wink, then crosses to the other side of the stage to carry on with his performance. I’m left with a tingle settling low in my stomach, being reminded of the way he held me against those tiled walls and fucked me senseless not even two hours ago. I’m left with the burning desire of doing it again, and again, and again—fuck, the way this man had this type of effect on me by simply looking at me was absurd.

“Oh my God, did you see that?! He winked at me!” The girl next to me started gushing to her friend, and I couldn’t help the snort that came out of me, paired with a shake of my head—if only she knew. I let her have her moment of screaming her head off, knowing that I'm the one who gets to go home to him. I'm his, and he made that abundantly clear with not only his actions but the ring on my finger.

I soaked in the performance as it went on, completely blown away by how he was able to manipulate the crowd. He was comfortable and confident in every move he made, and it was very evident by the smile he had on his face, just enjoying the moment for what it was. I loved seeing him like this; he's come a long way, and I was so very proud of him.

And I made that clear when I went back to the green room after the show, practically throwing myself on Noah. He was drenched in sweat, but it didn't stop me from wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him in for a kiss. I felt his lips curl into a smile, hearing the chuckle emanate from his throat as he embraced me.

"I take it you enjoyed the show?" he asks, his chocolate eyes glimmering as he gazed at me. "I loved it. You guys were amazing—I'm so proud of you, so proud of the guys." I grinned at him, "Y'all worked so hard to be where you are now, and it's paid off. Did you hear the way the crowd screamed over you guys?" He chuckles bashfully, rubbing my back with gratitude. "Thank you, love. Couldn't have done it without all your support," he presses a kiss to my forehead, releasing his hold on me as the guys funneled into the room.

I congratulated them all, hugging them one by one and telling them how great they were. They all waved it off as nothing spectacular, except for Folio who flaunted about 'crushing it' with a flex of his arms. I rolled my eyes and pushed him on the shoulder playfully, laughing at him lightly.

When the guys decided to hit the showers, I took the time to order us pizza, knowing they were most likely starving. I grabbed a bottle of water and sunk into one of the couches with a huff, relieved I was able to sit. Even though I didn't do much, I still found myself exhausted, and my feet were killing me. I definitely should have worn something other than Vans, but it is what it is.

"Hey," Bryan plopped down next to me, holding his camera screen out towards me. "Look at this picture I got." I sat up, carefully taking his camera from him to get a better view of what he was showing me. At first, my eyes zeroed in on Noah, holding the mic with his gloved hand as he beamed down at the crowd. I grinned at how overjoyed he looked, just happy to see him happy, but as I scrutinized the photo further, I saw what he was smiling down at.

It was me.

Bryan had captured this picture at just the right angle where you could not only see Noah's smile but mine as well. It made my heart swell seeing that the expression of pure joy on his face was because of me. There was a whole sea of people before him, but he still had his attention on me. And even though I've seen that same look from him in person a million times before, it was such a surreal moment to see it captured on film. The look we gave each other was that of adoration, anyone could see that—even the blind.

"This is a great photo Bryan, thank you for showing me," I tell him, turning my attention to him with a smile plastered on my face. "It's what I do," he chuckles and bumps his shoulder into mine playfully, then brings his camera back into his possession. "I'll send you a digital copy when I can." I grinned at him in thanks.

Bryan and I later took the time to pack away whatever was left here in the green room, and by the time the guys got back from showering, the pizza had arrived. And just like I had assumed, they flocked right over to it and chowed down with appreciative smiles on their faces and beers in hand. When everyone's bellies were full, including my own, we headed to the bus where the guys took their time interacting with the fans. I went right onto the bus and sprawled out on the couch to relax until they came back onboard.

I had dozed off; the next thing that I knew, there was about 150 pounds of muscle and stupidity on top of me. "Folio, what the fuck?" I wheezed as he pushed the air straight out of my lungs, sitting on my torso. He leaned against the back of the couch, arms folded behind his head and legs up on the coffee table as he let out an exaggerated sigh. "Get off of me," I groaned, trying to lift my hips to shove him off. "Man, this couch is lumpy as fuck," he jokes, finally looking over at me. "Oh, hey Liv. Didn't see you there."

I huffed and stopped fighting his weight, accepting that this was what I had to deal with now. I heard the rest of the boys step onto the bus and turned my head towards them, silently begging them to get Folio off of me. Nicholas laughed with a shake of his head and kept walking towards the bunks. "Thanks for the help, dick!" I called out to him, and he replied with a sarcastic 'you're welcome'. I rolled my eyes, annoyed.

I thought for sure Jolly would have helped as he walked by, but he only stopped briefly with a smirk on his face. He then heads to the mini fridge and returns with a beer for Folio, making him settle even further on top of me as he leisurely sipped at his drink. "You guys suck," I grumbled. Jolly snorted, "I'm sorry, Oliv. I had to." He then holds his hand out towards Folio, which took me by surprise when he accepted it and stood up.

I sat up quickly when I saw Noah make his way over to me with a smirk on his face. "Oh, no, not happening," I chuckled. I just knew he was thinking about doing the same thing. He laughs, sitting down next to me and threw his arm around my shoulders, pulling me against his chest. "I'll be on top of you later," he murmurs, amusement heavy in his tone, and kisses the top of my head. I smacked his chest lightly and chuckled, "That's enough out of you." "Yes, ma'am." He rubs my shoulder as I leaned further into him.

The night continued with them nearly getting into fistfights over Mario Kart, which resulted in me stepping in occasionally when one of them would throw a hissy fit and stomp away.

Of course, with me being sober while they were all tipsy, I smoked their asses with a proud smile on my face, laughing when they'd whine and tell me I was cheating. Eventually, they walked away one by one, grabbing yet another drink and a slice of cold pizza to eat in defeat. I teased them, calling them sore losers before grabbing a slice of my own to eat with them. I debated on snagging a beer for myself, but thought better of it.

What started as us having a second dinner quickly turned into the guys making bets on who could eat a slice and chug a beer the fastest. I shook my head at them and laughed when they literally threw money down, and took a seat on the couch, watching the madness unfold. These guys could turn anything into a competition.

Noah, Nicholas, and Jolly were all $100 poorer, and Folio was $300 richer having beaten the rest of them in their silly contest. I was enjoying the entertainment they were providing until Folio made his way over to me and pulled me off the couch, handing me a beer. I froze, staring at the Modelo in my hand. I could feel the apprehension creep in with each second that passed, my mind flip-flopping between whether or not I should ruin the few weeks of sobriety that I had. I wanted so badly to crack it open and join in on the fun, but I couldn't—I had to do better for Noah, for myself.

With a shake of my head, I politely gave it back to him. "Thanks, but I'm good," I tell him, tacking on a fake smile. "Oh, come on Liv. Have some fun with us!" He opens the beer practically in my face, once again shoving it into my hands. "Seriously, Nick, I'm good," I barked.

Apprehension was slowly turning into anger. I took a deep breath and tried to calm down by telling myself it was just a drunken stupor; he wouldn't do this if he wasn't drinking as much as he had been.

"Don't be such a party pooper, Liv—" "Fuck off, Folio," I snapped, aggressively shoving the can against his chest, sending its contents all over him. "I told you I'm good." With that, I stormed off the bus to head back to the hotel that Noah booked for us earlier.

I didn't make it very far; Noah ran after me, grabbing my shoulder gently to stop me. I huffed and turned around, burying my face into his chest while he wrapped his arms around me. "I'm sorry Folio did that," he says quietly, rubbing my back. "That was completely uncalled for. Are you okay?" Trying my best to calm myself, I took a deep breath and nodded against his chest, tears of frustration burning my eyes. I could hear the blood rushing in my ears from the anger still coursing through my veins.

"Can we go back to the hotel?" I muttered into his shirt after a few minutes of silence. "Of course, love." He kisses me on the top of my head, "Let's go." I picked my head up and kissed him on his chin, a soft smile curling on his lips. He takes my hand in his and gives it a reassuring squeeze, guiding me back to the hotel.

When we got back to our room, I immediately stripped out of my clothes, leaving just the shirt on to sleep in. He chuckles when I burrow into the blankets and stood by the bed, extending his hand. "What?" I furrowed my brows. "You didn't take your makeup off or brush your teeth." I rolled my eyes, "I don't care. I just wanna go to sleep, Noah." He sighs, taking my hands in his and pulling me into a sitting position. "Come on, I'll do it for you." I whined as he stood me up, but giggled shortly after when he spun me around and wrapped his arms around me, waddling us to the bathroom.

He effortlessly hoists me up by my hips, setting me on the counter before grabbing a makeup wipe. He gripped my chin gently to hold my head still as he began wiping my face clean, and I couldn't help but grin at the foolishness of the situation. When he was finished, he pressed his lips to my forehead and put me back down on the floor.

"You're too much," I chuckled, making my way back to the bed. He followed suit, immediately pulling me against him when we got under the covers. "Nothing is ever too much for you, Liv. Remember that." I sighed, throwing my leg over his side to get as close as I could. "Sometimes I just feel like I'm too much for you. Wouldn't it just... be so much easier to not have an alcoholic as a wife?" My voice quivers. "Olivia, why would you say something like that?" He says sternly, sounding offended.

The tears started to prickle in my eyes again, and I felt ashamed for who I was. I shoved my face into the crook of his neck, hiding so he wouldn't see the emotion on my face. "You wouldn't have to deal with my outbursts or any of the other shit I've done to you over the years." My throat was burning, trying not to cry. "I'm sorry for throwing the beer at Nick," I whimpered. "Look at me." I shake my head 'no', only for him to bring my face into his view. "You do not have to apologize for that, okay? He stepped out of line, and I'm going to have a conversation with him about it." I sniffled. "Does he...understand?" He sighed, "He does, he just got carried away."

I didn't know what else to say, but the shame I felt only continued to build. It was embarrassing knowing that everyone on that bus was aware of my addiction. How I reacted tonight was embarrassing. I can only imagine how embarrassing it must be for Noah to be married to me.

I didn't even realize I was crying until Noah brushed his thumbs under my eyes, hushing me, telling me there was no reason for me to be crying. I couldn't stop though, and kept apologizing about nothing specific—I kept spewing the words 'I'm sorry' over and over and over again.

"Olivia, stop. What are you so sorry about?" His voice was riddled with concern. "For being me," I whispered through my hysterics. I watched his face fall, his eyes darkening with sorrow. "Stop that," he shakes his head in bewilderment. "That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard you say. Why would be sorry for that, Olivia?" "I-I could be so much better than this, Noah. I could still be 3 years sober or even better than that. I could just, I don't know, not be an alcoholic," I scoffed at myself.

"Enough," he says sternly, repositioning so he could look down at me. He takes my face in his hands, his dark eyes staring intently into mine. "You don't understand just how incredible you are. You went through emotional abuse, you went through losing your father, you went through dropping everything and moving across the country with me, and you even started your own business. And on top of all that, you stayed sober." "But then I fucked it all up—" "Shh," he runs his thumbs delicately across the apples of my cheeks, soothing me. "Recovery isn’t linear, Liv. We've been through this. You. Are. Incredible," he reiterates, kissing me between each word. "And I am so fucking proud of you."

"I love you so much," I sputtered through a sob, tears spilling from my eyes as his words sunk in. "I don't know what I did to deserve you." "You were you," he smiles down at me and brushes my bangs back, kissing my forehead. "And I love you for being you."

|Chapter 10|

#fanfic #fan fiction #noah sebastian #bad omens #bad omens band #fanfic writing #romance #sequel

[chloe-skywalker]

No Plans - Billy Hargrove

Part 2

(2/3)

Billy x Fem!reader Harrington

Warnings: none (I don’t think)

Word count: 2,602

Summary: Billy ask’s his father to go over to Y/n’s for Christmas Day. Susan asks that Y/n comes to theirs for Christmas Eve in exchange. Neil makes it that or no he can’t go. So Y/n goe’s to the Hargroves for Christmas Eve.

Authors Note: Next Christmas Day 2023 Its Christmas at Y/n’s! (3 parter over the course of 3 years)

P.s ~ Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! And others!

Masterlist

Stranger Things Masterlist

Holiday Masterlist

Part 1 (2021) ~ Part 3 (2023)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

“So are you guys excited for Christmas break?” Susan asked as the small dysfunctional family sat around the table to eat dinner. Something they had recently started doing, per Susan’s suggestion. To make them bond more as a family.

“Yes.” Max answered as she put food on her plate just to end the silence.

“I actually have something to ask about Christmas.” Billy spoke up knowing now was possibly the best time to ask. Susan could possibly help persuade his father to say ‘yes’.

“Go on.” Neil narrowed his eyes towards his son. Waiting for him to ask whatever he wanted to ask.

“Y/n’s parents have invited me to spend Christmas day with them at their house. I was wondering if it’d be okay with you, I’d accept.” Billy explained nervously, not looking his father in the eyes. He just focused on grabbing food like Max.

“Well, we’ll miss you but I would think it’d be okay.” Susan spoke up after moments of just silence. Susan smiled, she liked Y/n and the effect the girl had on Billy. She made him happy, calm and seemed to distract her step-son from his fathers actions. “How about since your going to Y/n’s for Christmas day she come’s over here for Christmas Eve?”

Susan would love to have Y/n over for Christmas Eve, but since she basically gave Billy the okay before his father said anything she wanted to put a suggestion out there.

“That sounds like a great idea Honey.” Neil smiled over towards his wife. Looking over to his son an idea of his own popped into his head so he looked to Billy with almost a smug look. “Let’s make it a deal. You can go to your girlfriends for Christmas Day as long as you both spend Christmas Eve here. If she doesn’t then you can’t.”

Billy nodded to show he understood. “Yes sir.”

Now he had to ask and tell Y/n. Hopefully she’d be okay with coming to his, but he wouldn’t blame her if she said no. His house wasn’t the most welcoming.

^     ^     ^

“Done.” Y/n stated looking completely serious at him. When Billy told her his father’s conditions for him spending Christmas with her Y/n answered without a second thought.

“Y/n-”

Y/n shook her head when he spoke her name, already knowing he was going to try and change her mind. He never liked her being anywhere near his father. “No, Billy. I said done. Done deal, I’ll gladly go over to your house for Christmas Eve.”

Billy’s corners of his mouth twitched upward at the lengths she would go for him. “You don’t have to.”

He knows his house isn’t the best environment. It’s stressful and you're always on edge waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“If it means you can come over for Christmas Day then yes. I do. One night your family won’t change my mind about you.” Y/n cupped his hand between both of hers, adding pressure to reassure him. Y/n has been with Billy long enough to know that he feared his father would drive her away. But that was never gonna happen.

“I’m sorry. In advance.” Billy apologized for what he was sure was gonna be a very awkward Christmas Eve.

“Don’t be.” Y/n shook her head. Y/n never put the actions of others on someone else's shoulders. Y/n loved Billy for him and his fathers horrible actions or words will never change that.

^     ^     ^

“You're actually going to his house?!” Steve’s eyes were bulging out of his skull upon having heard of his sister's plans. The Hargrove/Mayfeild home was not the friendliest place from what he’s overheard Max say.

Y/n was in the middle of picking out her shoes and jewelry when her brother barged into her room having heard the news.

“Yes, it’s the only way he could come over here for tomorrow. His dad’s a dick.” She mumbled under her breath, but honestly Y/n didn’t care if he heard her. Neils ultimatum was just to try and ruin Billy’s plans to come over to hers for the holiday. “We’re not staying the night. We’re coming back here after.”

Steve knew there was no changing her mind and he did understand why it was important to her to have Billy over tomorrow. Steve sighed before saying. “Be careful.”

Y/n smiled at Steve and his brotherly protectiveness. “I will.”

Not long after Y/n and Steve’s conversation ended the doorbell rang and since nobody in their family was arriving this early it could only be Billy.

“Hey. You look beautiful.” Billy smiled looking Y/n up and down once the door opened. She was wearing a beautiful red velvet dress, which conveniently matched his shirt.

“Thank you. You ready?” Y/n blushed, smiling at his compliment.

“Yeah.” Billy nodded, reaching out for Y/n’s hand. They were halfway down the driveway when Steve decided with a huff that Billy was different around Y/n. His sister was making Billy Hargrove a better person.

“Hey!” Steve called out just as Billy had closed the passenger door. Billy turned to look at Steve with a furrowed brow, had he already done something wrong in Steve’s eye’s? He opened and closed the door for Y/n, he was being a gentleman. Hell he didn’t suck face with her the second she opened the door so. . . “Look after her.”

Billy nodded at Steve to assure him he would. Steve wasn’t the only one worried about tonight. Billy never knew what would set his father off and he never wanted Y/n around when that happened.

“Are you ready for tonight?” Y/n asked once they got on the road. She knew he was probably nervous, he never liked having her in his house.

“Nope.” Billy shook his head in one strict nod.

“Too late.” Y/n let out an amused breath. She reached for his hand nearest to her, luckily it wasn’t the hand he had on the steering wheel. That was normally always his left. Y/n squeezed his hand tightly to calm some of his stress, something she was sure she was gonna have to do a bit of tonight. “It’ll be ok.”

Billy let out a deep breath, squeezing her hand back. “I hope so.”

The drive felt faster than normal to Bilyy as within seconds it felt like he was parking in front of the dreaded residence.

As they got out of the car the young couple walked up the pathway to the small house hand in hand.

The door was opened by Susan who was dressed up in a green Christmas dress that had Christmas characters printed on it.

“Merry Christmas Mrs. Hargrove.” Y/n smiled politely at Max’s mom who was smiling back at the two teenagers.

“Merry Christmas Y/n, and please call me Susan.” The older woman stepped aside to let them in.

Billy would never understand how Y/n could be so nice and polite to people’s faces.

“Thank you for inviting me.” Y/n nodded as they walked further into the home. At least it looked more like a home because of the Christmas decorations, which she was sure was all Susan.

“Oh you're always welcome sweetheart.” Susan liked on the rare occasions Y/n came over. Billy seemed a little more relaxed when around the y/h/c-ed girl.

“Hey Max.” Y/n greeted as the young red head ran over to her, wrapping her arms around her torso. Y/n hugged her back.

“Hey Y/n.” Max greeted back, enjoying the moment before pulling away. She loved Steve’s sister/ Billy’s girlfriend. Y/n treated her like a sister, and Max loved it. “Thanks for coming, and Merry Christmas.”

Max was glad Y/n accepted to spend Christmas Eve with them. Max was going to spend the later time of tomorrow with the party, she was glad Billy was going to spend it with his girlfriend. Neither of them wanted to be in that house any longer than they had to.

“It’s not a problem. Merry Christmas too.” Y/n smiled at her. Y/n liked Max, she was the sister she never got.

“Billy.” Max rolled her eyes as she greeted him as well. Since they were in ear shot of their parents.

“Runt.” Billy said quietly back so his father and Susan wouldn’t hear him.

“It’s Christmas, can you two be social?” Y/n cut in looking between the step siblings with pleading eyes.

Max and Billy narrowed their eyes at each other but both could agree between them like this that they’d be sival for Y/n’s sake. “Fine.” They both agreed at the sametime.

“Thank you.” She said smiling at both of them before the 3 headed into the main room.

Not long after Dinner was ready so they all sat around the small table. It was a little uncomfortable at first with a lot of tension in the air. The food wasn’t horrible, it was actually pretty good. Small talk was made during dinner. Under the table Y/n and Billy’s hands were clapsed together. Y/n was aware of the scrutinizing gaze from Neil Hargrove, but she chose to ignore it.

After dinner Y/n helped Susan and Max clean up, and Billy stayed to help since he didn’t want to be alone with his father. Or have Y/n alone in this house.

Once they finished all of them moved into the living room sitting around on the floor were Max, Billy, and Y/n. Y/n had been pulled down to sit between Billy’s legs by Billy who smirked at her as innocently as he could. Susan and Neil were sitting on the small couch looking over them.

Susan announced they could open their presents and Y/n was excited to see what the two could have gotten. Max started digging out gifts from underneath the tree.

Y/n was trying to keep Billy from tickling her sides when she heard Max speak.

“And here you go Y/n.” Max handed her a wrapped present that indeed had her on the tag hanging from the ribbon tied around it.

Y/n looked up towards Susan and Neil with a surprised and shocked expression. “Oh you didn’t have to get me anything.”

Susan waved her hand in a dismissing notion with a bright smile. “Nonsense.”

“Thank you.” Y/n smiled, thanking them before opening it.

Billy leaned his head down to whisper in her ear. “You don’t have to like or keep it.”

Y/n knew he didn’t want her to feel obligated to do anything. But in all honesty the Y/n really did like gift. It was beautiful. Turning her head to the side she answered. “I do like it.”

“I have a gift for you to open tomorrow.” Billy told her as he unwrapped one of his gifts, arms still around her torso as she leaned against his chest.

“I have a gift for you to.” Y/n smiled, turning her head to look at him, she couldn’t wait to see him open his present.

After presents were opened Y/n and Billy stayed around for awhile, for Maxes sake Y/n told him. As they walked to the door after saying goodbye to Max, Susan and Neil followed them. Which Y/n could see added tension to Billy’s shoulders.

“Thank you for a fun Christmas Eve Mr & Mrs Hargrove.” Y/n stated politely with a well rehearsed smile. Billy knew it but no one else did, besides maybe Steve. But Y/n truthfully thought it wasn’t a bad night. The food was good, Neil was social for the most part, the conversations weren’t bad. But knowing how Neil normally treated Billy, that irked Y/n beyond belief. Billy knew that.

“Your welcome honey.” Susan was happy to have had her over and that she seemed to enjoy the evening.

“Hope your family doesn’t regret having him over for the holiday.” Neil said with a condescending smile on his face.

“We won’t.” Y/n stated with a strong tone in her voice. Making it clear that Billy’s presence was welcome in her home with her family.

“We’ll see.” Neil narrowed his eyes for a quick second before they went back to normal.

“Let’s go.” Billy spoke softly, handing Y/n her jacket. He didn��t want to seem brazen and give his father any reason to say he suddenly couldn’t go.

“Goodnight.” Y/n said as they left out the front door. Once they were in the camaro and on the road, Y/n turned to Billy and scoffed. “Your dads a dick.”

Billy let out an amused laugh, wondering how long she had been waiting to say that for. Billy smiled over at her. “Thanks for going tonight.”

Y/n smiled back at him. “My pleasure.”

“Oh it will be.” He winked at her, flashing a smirk in her direction.

Soon enough they arrived back to the Harrington household, a spot had been saved for Billy in the driveway. Once they got out and walked to the front door upon opening it 3 kids rushed towards them screaming.

“Y/N!!!!”

“Hey guys!” Y/n kneeled down embracing all of them at once. Billy watched as he closed the door.

“Who’s that?” The kids asked, pointing at the mullet haired boy behind their cousin.

“That's my boyfriend, Billy.” Y/n told them as she glanced back at Billy for a second.

“Hi Billy.” The kids smiled at him and waved.

Billy replied awkwardly, not used to children being so joyful about his presence. “Hello.”

The two boys and girl turned their attention back to Y/n before telling her. “Y/n, we’re in our jammies.”

Y/n nodded letting out a laugh. “Yeah I can see that.”

One of the boy’s crossed their arms and pouted his lip before saying. “We have to go to bed soon.”

It was obvious to any one over the age of 10 that the kids were pouting about having to go to bed soon. It made Billy chuckled deeply.

“That’s the only way Santa will come.” Y/n told them with such a kind and enthusiastic voice. Billy admired it, how she was with children. It made him start to think. Which it in turn made him zone out for a bit.

“Really?!” They all said at the same time super excited.

“Yeah.” Y/n nodded encouragingly, hoping they’d believe for as long as possible. “So go get ready for bed, ok?”

With that said they ran off, Y/n laughed watching them run off. When Y/n stood back up to full height and turned to face her boyfriend she noticed that he was fully focused on her.

“What?” She asked slightly nervously at what about her was getting this attention.

“You were cute with them.” Billy said, pulling her into him. He smirks with mischief in his eyes. “You’d make a sexy mom.”

Billy never saw himself with kids but hot damn did  that scene before him change his mind.

“Oh really?” Y/n looked up at him through her lashes with bright red cheeks, and it wasn’t from the cold weather.

“Hmmm Hmmm.” He hummed, leaning in to kiss her.

Before Billy could get to heated with the kiss, they are around her family after all. Y/n pulled back with a warm smile on her lips. “Well we should go to bed to. Tomorrows a long, fun day.”

#x reader #y/n #imagine #imagines #holiday imagine #holiday imagines #billy hargrove x harrington!reader #billy hargrove x harrington reader #billy hargrove #billy hargrove x reader #billy hargrove imagine #billy hargrove imagines #Stranger things imagine #stranger things imagines #netflix #stranger things #christmas #christmas eve #christmas day #christmas imagine #christmas imagines #neil hargrove #susan mayfield #max mayfield #steve harrington

[memphisnovels]

Evermore

Chapter 27. The final curtain

Previous chapter

Masterlist

Completely back on my bullshit <3

Sorry in advance... Thank you for reading <33

pairing: Pietro Maximoff x OFC

warnings: Beauracracy, angst, mentions of PTSD, supportive + protective Pietro, Nadia has grown but she's still Nadia <3

Pietro had been keeping a watchful eye on me, scarcely letting me out of his sight. I wasn’t sure what he was more afraid of, me doing something reckless or having another episode. Whatever the case, he remained stuck to me like glue.

When Secretary Ross came in his unmarked SUV, I wasn’t surprised. It had only been a matter of time before the bureaucrats arrived. I sat patiently in the conference room, in anticipation of what was to come. The silence was almost madness-inducing. Thick in the air, even when I was joined by Steve and Tony. I stared straight ahead as the former sat across the table from me, looking directly at me.

“Kid…” Before he had the chance to continue Ross was entering and greeting us with all the usual formality and diplomacy of a government man. It was a conscious effort not to roll my eyes. I tapped my fingers against the table, purposely ignoring the looks that both Steve and Tony were sending me. Ross discussed whatever it was men like him busied themselves with and I waited for the other shoe to drop.

“You did well in Amsterdam, Agent Pimenova. That could have been quite the mess.”

I ignored his words. “Let’s cut to the chase. I am in trouble, yes?”

Tony sighed exasperatedly, presumably at my lack of tact. Ross placed both his hands on the table, clasping them together and exhaling deeply. “This is a rather complicated matter, as I’m sure you’re aware.” I raised an eyebrow at him. “You assaulted a government agent, well… to put it plainly you beat the crap out of a member of my staff.”  I nodded, moving my hands beneath the table, and tapping the pad of my index finger against the cool metal of my chair. “You are a very valued member of the Avengers organization, as well as a hero to this country… However, this latest outburst speaks to a lack of control which is frankly unacceptable.” He unclasped his briefcase, placing two booklets onto the glass table between us. “Of course, this is nothing personal and less than ideal, however, disciplinary action must be taken to ensure that there are no repeats of this incident.”

My finger stopped tapping.

Steve spoke up then. “Secretary Ross, with all due respect, I don’t believe that’s necessary. What happened was unfortunate, but this is the first incident and Nadia regrets her actions.”

“I understand this, Captain, yet your assurance will not be enough in this case.”

“This case? What case is the decision being based on?”

My fingers tightened around the metal of the chair as Ross went on. “Is it true that Miss Pimenova was recently removed from an assignment due to her… current condition?” I closed my eyes for a long moment.

“That was completely unrelated, what happened with your guy was a single indiscretion and she’s a first-time offender, there’s no need to make this bigger than it is.” Tony attempted to reason. I simply remained silent. There was nothing to say, not when I knew Ross’s mind was made up the moment I’d looked him in the eyes.

I barely heard the rest of the conversation, bits and pieces made it though. “Out of control… dangerous… where she was raised...  Anna Prentiss.”

I watched a new sheet of snowfall over the thick blanket that was already smothering the once-green patch just outside the window of the sitting room. A chill had set into the air in the room but still, I sat, goosebumps prickling at my arms as I watched the corners of the window glaze over with frost.

“There you are! We’ve been looking all over for you.” Natasha exclaimed, dropping into the armchair next to me, flanked by Pietro who wore an expectant look as he pulled up a chair to sit before me. I glanced between the two of them with slightly furrowed eyebrows.

“Why?”

They gave each other a look that seemed to be a combination of disbelief and confusion. “We want to know what Ross wanted, obviously.”

I looked passed Pietro, back out the window. “I attacked that other guy who works for him, I’m in the shit house.”

There was silence for a long moment. “Okay… so what does that mean?” Pietro asked. I met his eyes and part of me hoped he could read it in my expression, so I didn’t have to keep talking about it. Maybe he really could. His eyes narrowed slightly, jaw tightening. “What did he say?”

I grit my teeth for a moment, swallowing hard and steeling myself. “I’m going away for a while… Just until I can get my head straight.”

“What the fuck?!” I didn’t even flinch at Natasha’s outburst, unsurprised by her reaction.

“He believes that given my particular… skillset and history, it would be best that they take preventative measures to ensure nothing worse happens.”

“That is completely ridiculous!” Pietro stood abruptly. “They can’t do this… This is unacceptable, someone has to say something! This is just completely-”

Pietro’s words were cut short by my interjection. “I agreed.”

He turned his frantic gaze on me, mouth hanging open. Natasha’s shoulders dropped a little and she remained silent. There was no bewildered gaze on her features. No confusion.

Pietro shook his head. “Anyone would have reacted negatively to being startled like that when they were upset.”

“Not anyone did… I did, Pietro.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Me; the assassin who was raised in the Red Room; the Russian spy.” He opened his mouth to disagree, but I beat him to it. “It would have been worse, had Anna not appealed to them. I got off lightly.”

“So, what, that’s it?” I shrugged. “Nadia, this is bullshit.”

“Yes, it is but this is what’s happening.”

He shook his head, but it was Natasha who spoke next. “Where are they taking you?”

My stomach churned. “I’m not allowed to tell you.” I glanced at the silver-haired man before me. His eyes hadn’t strayed from me for even a second. I wasn’t sure he’d even been blinking. “Either of you.”

He shook his head again. “This is bullshit!” It seemed to be the only thing he could muster.

“Anna will be there and someone Ross has hired as well to make sure there is no bias.”

Nat placed a hand on my shoulder, letting it linger for a moment before she left the room. “How long?” Pietro was at the window now, hands braced on the ledge, back hunched.

“As long as it takes for me to be better.”

“So basically, until they say so?”

I drew in a sharp breath. “Please stop.”  His head dropped between his shoulders at the sound of my voice, I heard it too; the defeat; the exhaustion. “I did a bad thing and so maybe the consequences do not fit the crime, but they are the consequences. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone; all I know is that I’m here now and I don’t want to spend the time before I go being angry.”

He exhaled deeply before standing to his full height and turning to face me. “When are they making you leave?” His voice sounded different. Like he was forcing the words out.

“The day after Christmas.”

He nodded, eyebrows knitting together, fists clenched at his sides. “6 days, how generous.” My eyes were stinging slightly but I wasn’t entirely sure why. It was becoming a little hard to breathe evenly. When I saw the gleaming line that he was attempting to blink away I felt even worse. I didn’t want him to feel bad, about this or anything else.

“You’ll be gone just after me anyway, that’s a whole month where you’ll be too busy to notice I’m gone anyway.”

“I’ll notice.”

I rolled my eyes playfully. “You won’t even be here.”

“Neither will you.”

It was my turn to shake my head. “Jesus, I’m coming back, it’s not a death sentence.”

“Just let me be upset, Nadia.” He moved a little closer to me, a very brief moment of amusement passing over his expression.

The stinging in my eyes was becoming hard to ignore. I blinked again and again to make it go away, but my eyes seemed to have other ideas. “I don’t want you to be upset.”

“Why not?”

“Because I-” My throat felt like it was closing over, and I wasn’t entirely sure what I had been about to say to him. My eyebrows furrowed slightly, and I attempted to swallow the lump in my throat. “I just don’t.”

He smiled but it was tinged with dejection. He brushed a strand of hair from my eyes, tucking it behind my ear. “You know sometimes I think about what it would be like if we’d met under different circumstances.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “What? Like if you and your sister weren’t trying to wage war on the Avengers?”

He rolled his eyes a smile tugged at his lips. “No smartass, like if we weren’t who we are. If we were normal people, no enhancements, no Red Room, just you and me.” His thumb rubbed over my cheek as a small tear streamed down his cheek. “I don’t know, sometimes it’s just nice to think about what it would’ve been like if we got to have that.”

I hadn’t thought about that before. The thought might have crossed my mind, fleetingly of how much easier everything in my life would be if I wasn’t, well, me. However, I’d never let myself linger on the thought too long. Perhaps, I was worried I’d get lost in it.

…

Natasha braced her gloved hands against the punches I threw, I could feel her gaze on me. “I’m not running away,” I spoke between jabs.

“Of course not, and I would never suggest you do… it’s just you have other options, you know that.” The smile on her face was teasing but I could tell by the look in her eyes that there was a pocket of truth beneath the joke.

I rolled my eyes with no real malice. “These are the consequences of my actions; I’m going to face them.”

“They’re bullshit consequences, Nads, Pietro was right about that.”

Her and Pietro had certainly not been the only ones to voice this opinion, the days had been filled with people telling me how unfair it was and prodding me to fight back against the man. “He was. He was right, but I’m not, haven’t been for a while now.” I swiped the beads of sweat from my forehead. “You know I was good at my job when we were in the Red Room, I was good because even if I couldn’t trust other people, I could trust myself, trust my mind. If I can’t even trust that, where does that leave me?”

She shrugged half-heartedly. “You could always trust us.”

I didn’t respond right away, unsure what to say, the truth I knew seemed too difficult to vocalize. So, I deflected. “Do you think I’m making the wrong decision?”

“Only you can decide that.”

I scoffed. “Nice diplomatic answer. What’s the real one.”

“I don’t think there is a right answer. Just what’s right for you and I can’t tell you that.” She was serious then. “There is one thing I can tell you though.” I narrowed my eyes slightly, gesturing for her to continue. “You need to talk to Tony before you go.” She didn’t even entertain my protesting, continuing before the words could even leave my open mouth. “You don’t know how long you’ll be gone; you’re going to regret leaving things where they are.”

“You sound sure,” I spoke facetiously, throwing an especially hard hit against her padded hand.

She rolled her eyes at my antics. “I am sure because I know you and as much as you hate to admit it you care about him. That’s why it hurts so much that he went behind your back.”

I shook my head, giving her an indignant look but not disagreeing. We sat side by side when we’d finished our set, me hunched over as I unwrapped my hands and stretched my tense muscles. I wondered if I’d be allowed to train during this ‘disciplinary’ period. The thought frightened me a little, I’d always trained, always had the chance to spar, or exercise in some capacity. I wasn’t sure what I’d do if that was no longer an option. The thought of dormant muscles and idle hands had my spine straightening and my muscles tightening.  It was all I could think about as I neared the door to the training room, that menial concern began what could only be described as a spiral of others that held much more weight. How long would this go on? What exactly did my discipline entail? How would they measure if I was well enough to return? My heart rate picked up and the moment I became aware of it the worse it got.

“You weren’t that good at your job in the Red Room.” I glanced at her over my shoulder, grateful for the momentary distraction. I raised a solitary eyebrow.  Her lips curved upward. “I mean in the traditional sense of you got the job done, quick and clean, yeah you were good, the best actually… but there was a part of the job you could never do.”

“What’s that?”

She took a sip of her water. “Not care. Our sole objective was to complete the mission, take out the target, no guilt, no remorse. That part you never quite mastered.” There was silence between us for a long moment. Nat’s voice was the last thing I heard before I walked out the door. “Talk to Tony.”

I’d get Christmas, so at least there was that. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was about this Christmas that felt so different. I supposed it was the first time that I’d be spending Christmas with people like this, most other years I was on assignment, usually at my own request. Anna and I would always exchange gifts, but it was usually many months after the fact. It occurred to me as I watched Wanda thread sparkly tinsel through the branches, I’d never seen a tree being decorated like this. I had seen Christmas trees before but never witnessed the sparkly decorations being pulled from a box and hung. I glanced over my shoulder at Pietro to find him already looking. There was a furrow between his eyebrows that had persisted for days, I wished it would go away. His shoulders sagged slightly, and he didn’t need to speak to communicate what he was thinking.

I leaned my head back against his shoulder, momentary surprise appearing on his expression at the action. “I think it would be boring,” I said. Both his eyebrows rose in this sweet, unassuming way that almost made me sad because I’d miss that look. “If we weren’t who we are. Or if we’d met under different circumstances.”

“Boring?”

“Too easy, this has been fun.” I smiled up at him teasingly. “I could’ve done without Ultron and all that but…” He breathed a laugh, his fingers moving to rest on my side, pinky grazing the sliver of skin revealed by my sweater riding up. My muscles eased slightly, the tension in my shoulders melting out as the warmth of his chest seeped into me. “Nothing this good ever comes easily.”

His smile grew, eyes softening somehow. “That’s very sweet.”

“God, I can’t believe I just said something like that. When did I get so soft.”

I felt his lips graze my ear, his finger smoothing over my bare skin. “It’s just because you’re unbelievably hot on me.” I elbowed him in the chest, invoking a pained laugh from the man. When his laughter subsided, he let his hand encase my cheek, stroking it with his thumb. His eyes drew an invisible path over my face, I wondered if he was memorizing my features. Did he worry he’d forget what I looked like? I felt a smile tug at my lips, even though I wasn’t entirely sure why. There was something inexplicable in Pietro’s gaze. Something tender and difficult to read. “Inima mea îți aparține.” That’s what he said to me and then he kissed me, and I almost forgot that I didn’t speak Sokovian. The meaning of the words seemed to seep into my skin even if I didn’t understand them.

I asked him what it meant.

He just smiled again. “I’ll tell you when you get back.”

There it was again in his eyes, a glint of something I couldn’t quite decipher but something that made me exceedingly nervous.

The days seemed to be passing quickly now and that terrified me. The closer it got the more I felt I wasn’t ready. Two days before I was set to leave, I decided to address some of my unfinished business.

I gripped my book tightly between my fingers as I shoved the door to the sitting room open. Tony’s gaze shifted to me; surprise evident on his face. “Make no mistake, I am still mad at you, but to prove I can take the moral high ground I will be civil before I leave. So, we are going to sit in this room, and you are not going to speak lest I feel yet another reason to want to ring your neck, but we will be in each other’s company and that is all. Civility, no?” I dropped down into one of the armchairs with a flourish before cracking the book open and beginning to settle in.

The silence was heavy, tense with the words that Tony, evidently, wanted to speak. In the end, it lasted no more than 15 minutes.

“Pepper and I are on a break, she’s not my biggest fan at the moment, maybe the two of you could start a club or something... I guess I don’t really blame her. We’d been fighting a lot, as you know, because I’m no good at this whole conversation thing, but I figure since you’re pretending I don’t exist this isn’t actually a conversation so who better to practice with.” I didn’t look at him as he spoke, not so much as even acknowledging that I’d heard him. “You were right when you said that not talking about painful things does not make them hurt any less.” I flipped that page of the book, forcing my eyes to scan over the words on the page, attempting to engrain them in my mind, to ignore the words he was speaking. “I think I mentioned that there was someone in my life a long time ago… She’s gone. Well, there’s a little more to it than that. She meant a lot to me, more than I realized was humanly possible. I was such an asshole to her; I mean, you think I suck I can only imagine how she felt.” It took me a while to realize I’d been rereading the same sentence over and over. “I was a teenager and like most, I could be a complete prick when I wanted to. It was my fault… What happened to her.”

I sighed, finally closing the book, but still refused to look at him. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“It is.” He sounded different then. Less… Tony. There was a sullenness to his tone that I was sure I’d never heard there before, or perhaps I had heard it; once, when he was in the hallway with Rhoadey on his birthday. “I was supposed to be looking after her.”

I looked at him then. He looked tired. “Your mother?”

He met my gaze, eyebrows furrowed like mine. “No. I mean, yeah my mom died as well but that’s now what I’m talking about.”

I remembered hearing about Tony’s parents’ death, it was in my nature to do my homework on the people I work with, or I suppose less my nature, more my training. I’d always assumed he was referring to his mother, that was who I thought he had meant the first time we’d spoken about this in the lab. I had no idea what he was talking about now. “So, who?”

He swallowed thickly, clasping his hands together in his lap. His out-of-character behavior was making me slightly uneasy. Silence sat heavy between us for a long while, when he finally broke it, I was almost startled. “I had a sister.” He paused again. “A little sister. She was… just… everything, to everyone. I was usually the one who looked after her when our parents went out, there was never much point leaving her with a nanny, she was far too smart for that. I think for a while I pretended to mind, but I didn’t, not really. Honestly, I loved being around her. It didn’t feel like babysitting my kid sister because the truth is she was my best friend.” The more he told me the more his voice thinned, it was as though he was physically struggling to get the words out. “At some point, I must have decided that it was a little pathetic to enjoy the company of a child when I was a teenager who could be… I don’t know, partying, I guess. So, I decided it was time to do something for myself. To show my parents and everyone else how grown up I was.” His eyes were gleaming, and it occurred to me that I’d never seen Tony Stark cry before. Though, I supposed he wasn’t now either, not really. He inhaled sharply, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment before standing up and walking across the room to stand before the window. “I was supposed to be there. Our parents left me in charge like normal, I was supposed to be looking after her and I left. I walked out the front door and left.” He slid his glasses off, cleaning them gently with a tissue he’d plucked from the box on the side table. They were back on before he spoke again. “By the time I came back our home was surrounded by caution tape and there were police officers and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents-” He gestured around the room, “everywhere.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. So, I nodded and did my best. “I didn’t know that.”

“No. Not many people do.” He shrugged, not meeting my eyes. “Well, there you have it. The one thing I can’t talk about.”

“Tony…”

“I’m sorry… sorry if what I did seemed underhanded and sorry that you felt betrayed by me, but I’m not sorry for what I did.” His words had me raising an eyebrow. “You don’t know when to quit, you just can’t stop, even when it means putting yourself in harm’s way. We have that in common. That is why I don’t regret making the call I did, and I know Rogers feels the same.”

I looked ahead of us again, not responding to his words but not leaving the room either.

The snow was especially heavy on Christmas day, so heavy I wondered if perhaps it would trap us in the compound and I’d get to stay, if only for a few more days. It was a nice thought, but then the nightmares had been worse than ever, and my nerves were fraying from the constant images that taunted me. I knew it wouldn’t be a solution, not really. I didn’t want to know how much worse it would get if I stayed, not really. The cold nipped at my skin as I gazed over Pietro’s sleeping form, the room was still dark, pale light slipping in around the curtains allowing me to see his features. His chest rose and fell ever so slightly, the calmness to the movement assuring me he was still fast asleep. I felt a warm tear stream down my cheek, and I had to turn away from him so I felt as though I could breathe again. My chest was tight when I turned back, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek and adjusting the bow that sat atop the gift I’d left on the pillow beside his. Underneath is sat an envelope, the only thing written on it a solitary ‘P’. There wasn’t really any feeling ready or surety that this was right, but I knew it was time. I approached the door on silent feet, stealing one last glance at his sleeping form before slipping out of the room. On the other side of the wall lay my black duffel, already packed and ready for me. The compound seemed different at this time of the morning, still mostly dark and almost completely silent. The only thing I could hear was the thump of my heart and the thoughts rattling around my head. I tightened my coat around myself as I reached the exit, stopping just before the threshold. A deep and, truthfully, slightly shaky breath left me as my shoulders drew together slightly.

“If you’re about to give me a lecture you might as well save your breath. I’m not going to change my mind, Natasha.”

A quiet breath, almost a laugh. “I know.” She paused momentarily. “He’ll be devastated.”

I shut my eyes tightly, feeling like I couldn’t breathe again. “He wasn’t going to give up… He thinks he’s slick, but I perfected the fake acceptance con, it wasn’t over.”

“Nadia.”

“He would have gotten himself into trouble as well and I won’t let him do that, not for me. He will be okay.” Silence again. Another tear fell down my cheek. “Just promise me that you won’t let him come after me. You have to promise me that you’ll keep him out of it.”

When she spoke again it barely sounded like her at all, her voice was quiet and heavy. “Okay… I’ll do that, if and only if you promise me that you’ll look after yourself.”

I gripped the door handle. Squeezing my eyes shut and breathing deeply for a second. If it was this hard now I knew I was making the right call in bowing out before the rest of the awful goodbyes. Not goodbyes; see you soon. That’s what Wanda had said. “I promise.” I glanced back over my shoulder, the first time I’d looked at her during our conversation. Her hair was a little messy, as though she’d just woken up and I could see a line of silver glimmering along her waterline. It was unbearable to see the expression on her face. I swallowed heavily, grip tightening further on the cold metal. “See you soon.” Her lips downturned and I forced myself to turn back to the door, forced myself to walk through it out into the bitter cold.

A black SUV awaited me, stark against the blanket of white that covered the ground. The car ride to the airstrip was silent save for the government agent’s initial greeting and the barely audible hum of the radio.

To keep myself anchored to reality, somewhat sane I thought of the letter I’d written to Pietro, I’d gone over it so many times that I was sure the contents were etched in my brain permanently, even if I tried I’d likely never rid myself fully of it.

‘Dear Pietro,

Hi. I don’t know why I’m saying hi I’ve already said Dear Pietro but I’ve written it now so what does it really matter, I guess.

If you’re reading this, I’m already gone. It’s shitty I know.

Sorry.

I knew that you would not have given up so easily, you would have put up a fight and tried to stop me from going again. You would have told me we could figure all of this out together and that we’d deal with it together. Goodbyes are fucking awful as it is, and I didn’t a fight to be the note we left on.

Now you’re probably saying that’s bullshit and maybe it is.

The truth is if I had to look you in the eyes, I’m not sure I would have left. My head is a jumbled mess right now and I’m barely functioning anymore, so I don’t think I’d have had the fight in me to go against you.

That might be weak and selfish, but it is the truth. I’m not good at communicating what I’m feeling and I’m fucking awful at goodbyes.

So, this is what I leave you.

I’m sorry.

Inima mea îți aparține

P.S. If that means something bad, sorry but you did that to yourself.’

#pietro maximoff x ofc #pietro marvel #aaron taylor johnson #pietro maximoff fanfiction #aaron taylor johnson smut #marvel avengers #pietro maximoff #marvel fanfiction #atj smut #avengers fanfiction #aaron taylor johnson fanfiction #avengers smut #aaron taylor johnson x reader #marvel smut #pietro maximoff x reader #pietro maximoff smut

[everygame]

Atlantis No Nazo

Developed/Published by: Sunsoft Released: 17/04/1986 Completed: 01/02/2024 Completion: Finished it via the quickest route.

Everything changed for gaming in September 1985 with the release of Super Mario Bros. in Japan. The design hegemony of Xevious and The Tower of Druaga was no longer the only game in town, and now Japanese designers needed to do more than just make power-ups invisible or hide progression behind obscure actions (though they’ll still do that, even Nintendo just have.)

But Super Mario Bros., what’s the key feature that you can rip off to make sure your game is a success? Is it tight action? No, not that, I mean the original Super Mario Bros. isn’t that tight. Oh, I’ve got it!

It’s warps. Warp zones. Get as many of those in your game as possible and you’re sorted.

I joke, but this does seem to have been the mindset of Japanese game designers as soon as they were tasked with making the “next Super Mario Bros.” with 1986 seeing releases like Atlantis No Nazo, Mighty Bomb Jack, Milon’s Secret Castle and more, all of which make warping around a key feature. What’s interesting is how little research into warp zones as a game feature exists online. Being able to “skip” levels has existed since Atari’s “SkillStep” system with Tempest–does that count as a warp, or does a warp need to be found during gameplay? With what I have to hand here I seem forced to conclude that Super Mario Bros. was actually the first to do it–but I’m not sure if I’m fully convinced.

Anyway, hot out the gates in spring 1986 Sunsoft release (in their own words) “The Game That Surpassed Super Mario” Atlantis No Nazo, which translates as “The Mystery of Atlantis.” (Lotta mystery in April ‘86, I guess.) Featuring 100 levels that are explicitly called “zones” the player takes the role of Wynn, an amateur adventurer/casino developer (I assume) who heads to rescue his missing master from the recently re-emerged island of Atlantis with nothing but an infinite supply of dynamite that causes tiny, crappy explosions (slowly) and a weird floaty jump with next to no air control.

The first thing you’re going to notice about Atlantis No Nazo is it… well, it’s immediately crappy. The controls aren’t great, the graphics are weak even for the era (and never, at any point, feel “Atlantean”) and the level design has you bumping your head off the ceiling from literally the second level. I mean the second level–sorry, zone–is so immediately bad I wasn’t sure it was possible to complete–a monotonous trudge through what seems to be a loop of the same area avoiding snails that take an age to kill. When I finally saw that there is a door in it to the next zone, I was almost surprised.

The second thing you learn about Atlantis No Nazo is that unlike Super Mario Bros. you can’t just play it beginning to end. You quickly begin warping around, and if you’re just trying to beat it by playing as much of it as possible, to enjoy all that lovely ~content~ you are not playing it correctly at all. The goal of Atlantis No Nazo is to play as little of it as possible. You’re trying to find the most efficient way to the end of the game by learning which door gets you where and hoping each time it’s “really far through the game.”

The lessons of The Tower of Druaga remain vital here, because the quickest way through the game is to find all the hidden warps and doors. Throw yourself into the right pit? That’s a warp. Throw a bomb at the right place? That’s a warp. Kill yourself in the right position? You better believe that’s a warp.

Something like The Tower of Druaga has a kind of predictability, admittedly. You have to chew through the entire thing in order, so you know at X level, you need to do Y stupid thing. With Atlantis No Nazo… I almost pity the people who had to map this out, seven lives and no continues at a time. With a hundred levels and countless warps back and forward, any map of the game is a hilarious spaghetti, and there are so many amusingly cruel twists, like levels with no light (so you need to make sure you hit a level where you can get a lamp power-up from first) and levels that just throw you unavoidably to your death over and over–which I really want to believe are inspired by Jet Set Willy’s “Entrance to Hades” but probably aren’t.

As with The Tower of Druaga, I can’t really imagine anyone trying to brute force this game on their own, not least because the final level seems basically impossible without an invincibility power-up that requires you get to the end in one life. I’m sure at the time everyone just bought a guidebook, and once you have one to hand the game goes from “baffling spaghetti” to “execute your plan perfectly.”

The funny thing is, I had quite a bit of fun trying to do that. Don’t get me wrong. The controls are bad. But I became interested in trying to get the “smart bomb” power-up which requires playing level 2 literally perfectly, and I got into it. Of course, I found it hard because I hadn’t realised you could run past the snails when they were under their shells, but I still enjoyed the challenge, and then using that practice to get to the end of the game in one life via the path that takes less than ten levels… it was like signing up for one of those courses where you get to be a racecar driver for a day, but it’s actually a “be a speedrunner for a day” course. You’re never actually going to be a speedrunner, but it feels like you are, for a bit.

So, you know, I enjoyed Atlantis No Nazo once I “got” what you’re supposed to do with it (learn how to play it and then follow a guide book). I don’t think that’s actually… good, but it’s something!

Will I ever play it again? If this was an arcade game, now I know the path I’d definitely try and do it to show off. At home, I’m good.

Final Thought: Atlantis No Nazo is legendary enough to be the challenge in the first “real” episode of Game Center CX, and it was rather pleasant to give the episode a rewatch after finishing the game. You really shouldn’t bother playing this, but you should watch the episode, if you can find it!

Support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi! You can pick up a digital copy of exp. 2600, a zine featuring all-exclusive writing at my shop, or join as a supporter at just $1 a month and get articles like this a week early.

#gaming #video games #games #txt #text #review #nintendo #nintendo switch #atlantis no nazo #kusoge #famicom #nes #1986 #sunsoft

[mixelation]

here's 3.2k words from my weird AU where itachi is team seven's jounin sensei

This AU is weird because it's Sakura and Kakashi from another AU transmigrated into an AU of the AU. In AU Prime, Kizashi died saving Kakashi's life and asked Kakashi to look out for Sakura, eventually leading to Sakura becoming Kakashi's apprentice and moving in with him. In the AU of the AU, AU Prime Sakura and Kakashi transmigrate into an AU where Minato survives and the Uchiha massacre is committed by a ~mysterious missing-nin~, leaving only Sasuke and Itachi alive.

Itachi is Team 7's jounin sensei. This scene is their first real day training, and Sasuke & Naruto have no idea this Sakura is not the one they grew up going to school with.

YES it's complicated LEAVE ME ALONE i started it in 2020 when the whole world was super weird

xXx

Itachi’s plan for their first day as a team had been for them to jump right into taking missions. The manual on new genin teams suggested taking a couple weeks to let the students get used to working with each other, but they were all in the same Academy class and presumably had been working together on assignments for years. Itachi didn’t see why they couldn’t figure out weeding a garden together, or whatever the easiest of the D-ranks were. 

Sakura has made him completely change his plans. This new Sakura doesn’t match his expectations based on her file at all, and so he can’t imagine her being the same girl as the one Naruto and Sasuke know. 

He arrives twenty minutes early to their meeting place, an old and impossibly broad Hashirama tree along the banks of the Naka River. Sasuke shows up ten minutes later, eyeing Itachi warily. 

“Good morning, Sasuke,” Itachi says. “I appreciate your prompt arrival.”

“See, this is why I don’t want to move in with you,” Sasuke gripes. “You’d make me show up everywhere way too early.”

Itachi eyes him for a few minutes. Sasuke doesn’t make eye contact or try to make small talk, but he does lean his back against the tree trunk immediately next to Itachi. It’s not a rejection. 

“What do you think of your teammates?” Itachi asks. 

Sasuke doesn’t answer immediately. “Naruto’s Naruto,” he says finally. “He’s fine.”

“And Sakura?” 

Sasuke pulls a face which might be pained or might just be confused. Yes, Itachi decides, they’ll have to take a few days for teambuilding after all. 

Naruto arrives at exactly 8:00 AM, coming in at a run so fast he’s barely able to stop himself from running into the tree. 

“Whoa!” he cries, his arms windmilling. “Good morning, everyone! Where’s Sakura-chan?”

It is, in both Naruto and Sasuke’s opinion, very unusual for Sakura to be late. At around the ten minute mark of her lateness, Naruto starts shuffling anxiously and wonders out loud if maybe something happened to her. 

Itachi has a strong suspicion of what has happened to Sakura. 

She eventually shows up at 8:17, also sprinting in at top speed. She comes to a halt much more gracefully than Naruto, although she’s panting heavily. There’s a shopping bag swinging at her side. She looks incredibly frazzled. 

“Sorry I’m late,” she pants out once she’s caught her breath enough to talk. “I– my mentor–”

Itachi eyes her with deep judgment. Sakura’s face gains a thousand yard stare. 

“He made breakfast for you,” she finishes, and holds up the shopping bag. 

The unimpressed look on Sasuke’s face is almost comical. Naruto is immediately at Sakura’s side, leaning over to peer into the bag. 

“Wow, nice!” He says. “Sakura-chan, what do you mean by a mentor?”

Sakura shoots Itachi a look that is clearly a plea for help. He considers leaving her to figure out explaining her own life, but he does think it is a responsible action for a genin to call on a higher ranking shinobi to help them cover up a highly classified secret. 

“Sakura has recently been taken on as an apprentice by Hatake Kakashi,” Itachi says mildly, straightening up from his slouch and signaling the genin to follow him. “You may remember him at our meeting yesterday.”

Naruto’s face scrunches up and he eyes the bag of food with doubt. “Kakashi made us… breakfast…?”

“Eat it at your own risk,” Sakura deadpans. 

Itachi leads them to the training ground he booked this morning, which is one of the smaller ones. It’s mostly an open field with smattering of trees along the back fence. A handful of training dummies are also set up. 

“This morning you will be sparring with each other,” Itachi says. “Pay attention to your new teammates’ strengths and weaknesses, because in the afternoon you will be sparring me in pairs and then as a team of three. The goal is for you to understand where your teammates need to be covered and where you should rely on them.”

The three genin nod in understanding. Naruto is currently eating an incredibly lopsided onigiri from Sakura’s bag. 

“Sakura,” Itachi says, and Sakura straightens to attention immediately. “Waiting for breakfast is not an excuse for tardiness. You’ll be running laps while Naruto and Sasuke spar first.”

Sakura makes a face, but she doesn’t argue with him. Naruto, however, does. 

“That’s not fair,” he pipes up immediately. “Kakashi-san is a super hardass ANBU guy. Someone like Sakura-chan wouldn’t be able to say no to him, even if he was just making the world’s saltiest onigiri.”

Sakura’s nose wrinkles. “Naruto…” 

“Keep talking back to me,” Itachi tells him, “and you’ll be running twice as many laps.”

“It’s fine,” Sakura assures Naruto, stripping her mission pack that likely contains her lunch and spare water off her back. “I need to work on my conditioning anyway.”

Her expression is extremely longsuffering, even as she jogs off towards the edge of the field. 

Naruto looka like he would absolutely keep talking back to Itachi, even at the cost of running laps for the rest of his life, but Sasuke elbows him in the ribs. 

“What are the parameters of the spar?” Sasuke asks. 

Itachi tilts his head. “What are the usual parameters of your Academy spars?”

The Academy bars ninjutsu not taught in class from their practice spars, probably because Academy teachers both often have to referee many spars at once, and because teachers are not necessarily qualified to assist with clan jutsu. It creates a large disparity between students with active shinobi families to train them and those that don’t upon graduation, but that’s why genin get sorted into teams and are assigned elite teachers of their own. 

The Academy spars also almost always happen in very controlled environments. He knows they occasionally do exercises in the trees surrounding Konoha because ANBU always gets informed to modify their patrol routes accordingly, but most spars happen under conditions that don’t allow students to show off how they might use a unique terrain. This particular training field is not a good place to test any such skills, but Itachi is already making plans for new exercises they can do for the rest of the week. 

Then maybe they can start taking missions. 

“The first to five points wins,” Itachi says, bumping the number of points up from the usual three the academy uses. “Use whatever techniques and weapons you want.”

Naruto perks up immediately. “Any?” he says. “Even my super special homemade tags?”

“Yes,” Itachi agrees. “I will interfere if things get out of hand, so don’t hold back.”

Itachi agrees without having the slightest idea what Naruto’s “super special homemade tags” are, but both he and Sasuke learn quickly enough. Naruto opens the spar by jumping back and chucking a tagged kunai at Sasuke, who breathes a fireball at it. The tag explodes into orange smoke and glitter. 

Itachi has to body flicker away to avoid being hit by glitter. Sasuke shrieks. Out of the corner of his eye, Itachi notes Sakura slow down her run slightly to boggle the sight. 

The explosion does no harm to Sasuke besides covering him in glitter, and is instead a cover for Naruto to make several shadow clones. Sasuke hisses with annoyance as they pop out of the smoke and glitter cloud one after another, although Sasuke successfully parries every one as he inches further and further out of the smoke cloud.

Best in his class, Itachi thinks proudly, then squishes the thought down. He can play favorites with Sasuke when he’s off duty. 

Sasuke eventually scores the first point by finally putting enough distance between him and the mass of Naruto clones to use the Phoenix Flower Jutsu, raining down tiny fireballs on the small army of Naruto. Itachi has to grab Naruto’s actual body to prevent him getting hit. 

“Point to Sasuke,” he declares. Naruto groans but otherwise seems unbothered. 

Not even winded, Itachi notes as Naruto moves back into their starting position. Sasuke’s chest is heaving. 

With some effort, Sasuke scores the next two points as well, but Naruto has clearly inherited his mother’s legendary stamina. While Sasuke slows down and has to use fewer ninjutsu, Naruto just keeps creating shadow clones and tossing around exploding tags that create everything from a smokescreen to a shower of thumbtacks. Naruto makes the next three points. 

This is probably why the academy stops at three, Itachi thinks, watching Sasuke stagger around. Most genin simply cannot handle going longer. Oh well. 

Sasuke seems to catch a second wind when Naruto makes a fourth point. Sasuke has always been terrified of failure, and with the threat of losing if he lets Naruto get another hit in, Sasuke’s tactics turn vicious. 

After a hard fight, Sasuke wins the next two points. He goes down to one knee the minute the words are out of Itachi’s mouth, eyeing Naruto incredulously. 

“What are you made out of, Naruto?” Sasuke asks, accepting a water bottle from Itachi.

“Uh,” Naruto answers, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. “Good fight?”

“Whatever,” Sasuke answers, draining the bottle. “It’s not like fighting Sakura will be hard.”

“Does that mean you want to go first?” Naruto asks, fidgeting nervously. “Sensei, I don’t want to hit Sakura-chan…”

“I’m sure Sakura won’t mind hitting you first, then,” Itachi answers.  

Sasuke rolls his eyes. “Sure, I can go if you’re too chicken, Naruto.”

Sakura eventually notices they’re finished and jogs over to them. Her hair has gotten frizzy from sweat and the growing humidity of the day, and her face is red from exertion. When she comes to a stop in front of them, she has to take a few gulping breaths before she can talk. 

“Okay,” she says. “I think– sensei, can I have a water break?”

Itachi agrees, and Sakura shovels an onirgiri into her mouth and then drains a bottle of water.

“Naruto, you’re up,” Itachi decides. “Sasuke’s overworked himself.”

“Hey,” Sasuke complains, head whipping around. “She’s overworked too–”

“Sakura has not wasted any chakra, and you have,” Itachi cuts him off. 

Naruto seems distinctly nervous about the prospect of hurting Sakura. There had been a sticky note on his file about him likely having a crush on her, a note from their Academy sensei to warn Itachi about that dynamic. Even knowing this, Itachi doesn’t completely understand what the conflict here is. 

Sakura slides into a fight-ready stance. It’s an Academy basic and not one Itachi has seen Kakashi use. Interesting. 

“Begin,” Itachi calls. 

Naruto hesitates. Sakura leaps forward and aims a kick at his head. She’s rather slow, even for a beginning genin– if Itachi had to guess, an effect of her being tired from running immediately before this, and her body not being the one Kakashi has trained. 

That, or Kakashi is a truly bad teacher. Itachi supposes that’s always a possibility. 

Naruto ducks under her foot easily, then rolls away from her kicking backwards as she lands. He yelps as he rolls, having been forced down onto ground previously covered by thumbtacks by his own work. 

The momentum of Sakura’s kick brings her back around to face Naruto, and he yelps again as she bombards him with punches. Naruto gets his hands up fast enough to block every one. 

“You’re not fighting back!” she yells in frustration a few moments later, fists still flying. 

“Don’t wanna!” Naruto replies. 

If she keeps going like this, he won’t have to. Sakura is indeed demonstrating competence in taijutsu beyond what her file would indicate, but she’s not fast or strong enough to land any hits that matter, and she’ll eventually tire herself out without him having to lift a finger. 

“Fine,” Sakura snarls back, then outright tackles Naruto to the ground. They grapple for about fifteen seconds before Sakura gets a kunai under his chin. Naruto freezes. 

“Point to Sakura,” Itachi calls. Seated next to him on the ground, Sasuke snorts derisively. 

“She’s not stupid, Naruto,” Sasuke calls as they get back into their starting positions. “If you don’t find back, she’ll slaughter you.”

Naruto pouts. When Itachi calls for them to begin, he leaps back and tosses one of his tagged kunai into the air. It’s a slow, unenthusiastic toss upwards rather than at her, and Sakura follows it with an unimpressed look in her eyes. 

When the kunai starts to fall, Sakura substitutes out with it. Naruto yells with shock when Sakura is suddenly coming at him from above with kunai in both hands. This time, he fails to dodge, and Sakura finally pulls out an advanced taijutsu move Itachi has actually seen Kakashi do. She pins him. 

“Point to Sakura,” Itachi calls. 

“I didn’t know you could substitute with moving objects,” Sasuke says as her teammates move back into position, Naruto looking slightly spooked. 

“It is significantly more difficult,” Itachi replies, eyes still on the fight. Naruto still seems reluctant to fight Sakura hand-to-hand, but this time he tries tossing multiple kunai at her. Sakura gets behind him by substituting with one of the tacks on the ground, and Naruto screams with surprise again. “So is substituting with very small objects. She must have practiced a lot.”

Itachi then has to flash step away to prevent Sakura from slicing Naruto Achilles’ tendon. 

“Point to Sakura,” Itachi declares. 

Naruto still hesitates for round four, and Itachi has to intervene in Sakura nearly stabbing Naruto in the face. 

“Fight back!” Sakura shrieks with frustration from Itachi’s arms. “I am not going to be ignored by everyone anymore!”

Naruto, looking vaguely haunted, does attempt to fight her more seriously on the next round, hurling himself forward to finally try hand-to-hand. Itachi does think Sakura’s overall technique is superior to Naruto’s, but it’s not so much better as to make up for Naruto higher strength, stamina, and speed. Sakura struggles for a bit, and then uses a brief opening to form the hand seals for substitution and vanishes. She does not reappear. 

Naruto nearly trips over himself at her sudden disappearance. He goes very still, eyes darting around the training field. 

“Where’d she go?” Sasuke wonders. Then after a beat, he smirks with realization. 

“Sakura-chan?” Naruto calls out, palming a kunai. “You won’t surprise me again, you know!”

Sakura waits for Naruto to creep far enough away from her hiding spot before undoing her transformation. Naruto whirls around immediately. 

“Aw, man!” he cries, but she’s gone through the hand signs for a genjutsu before he has time to counter attack, then immediately retransforms into a thumbtack. Naruto staggers back, looking slightly dazed. His eyes roam around the training ground. They finally settle on Itachi and Sasuke. 

“Hey, guys!” he waves. “What’re you doing over there? Sibling bonding time?”

“...what?” Sasuke replies. Naruto trots up to them. 

“Sakura made him forget about her,” Itachi murmurs. Sasuke gives him a baffled look as Naruto starts babbling about how cool he thinks Sasuke’s fire jutsu will be when it’s aimed at people who aren’t Naruto. 

The drawback of this genjutsu is that it breaks down when the target sees the thing they’ve forgotten about. Itachi lets Naruto ramble to Sasuke and then get out his lunch and start eating. If he were feeling generous, he’d let Sakura have this point. If this were a real fight, Naruto being distracted for this long would give Sakura lots of time to sneak away or counterattack. 

But Itachi is rarely generous. He wants Sakura to prove she can carry out the next step of this genjutsu.

Sasuke keeps sending him meaningful looks. It’s been at least twenty minutes. The transformation jutsu is not chakra-heavy, but Sakura is also only a genin. She won’t be able to hold it much longer. 

Several minutes later, Sakura detransforms and hurls one of Naruto’s dropped tagged kunai at them. 

“No–!” Sasuke yelps, grabbing for Itachi’s arm. He’s still completely covered in glitter. Itachi indulgently lets him piggyback on his flash step to get out of range. 

Naruto is not so lucky. The tag explodes into some type of foul-smelling slime all over him and his lunch. 

“SAKURA-CHAN!” Naruto screeches in betrayal. Green slime drips from his hair.

“Ew!” Sakura replies. “You really tried to hit me with that?”

Naruto drops his lunch and runs at her, slime flying from his arms as he goes. Sakura yelps and starts backing up as quickly as she can, hurling shuriken as she goes. 

“Ew, ew, ew!” she yells. “Naruto, don’t you dare–”

Naruto flings slime at her. Sakura’s resulting scream sounds genuinely terrified, even as she dodges. 

“I guess Sakura’s still Sakura,” Sasuke observes, picking at glitter stuck to his face, “even if she’s way better than I thought…”

Sakura eventually gets her wits together enough to try a new genjutsu on Naruto. Her hand signs are less practiced, but genjutsu has been Naruto’s biggest weakness from the get go. She gets him to stumble and slow down, then aims a kunai at his head. 

Itachi knocks it out of the way with his own kunai. 

“Winning point to Sakura,” he declares. 

“That was really embarrassing,” Sasuke tells Naruto once he’s out of the genjutsu. “You didn’t even use your clones.”

Sakura scowls. Naruto looks only a little ashamed. Despite it only being day one of their formal training, Itachi can sense the beginning of conflict bubbling in his team already, but he doesn’t know how to stop it. 

“Your turn, Sasuke,” Itachi says. 

Sasuke stays true to his own advice and opens his fight with a fireball. Sakura puts a grim look on her face, and then substitutes herself with Sasuke. 

“Point to Sakura,” Itachi says once he’s rescued his brother from his own fireball. Sasuke’s heart is pounding with shock under Itachi’s arm.

“Wha–” Sasuke starts, sounding visibly shaken. “How–?”

“There are ways to prevent that from happening,” Itachi informs him. “We’ll talk about it another day so you can learn.” His eyes drift over to Sakura. “And so you can recognize when that would be a bad idea.”

Sakura and Sasuke have both already run themselves ragged, and so the next few rounds are low on ninjutsu and mostly involve them circling each other and going in for carefully calculated taijutsu or kunai strikes. They’re more even than Itachi would have guessed under these circumstances, and he thinks Kakashi must have been very good at running Sakura to the point of exhaustion and then making her push through. 

He wonders how they’d fare against each other if both were fighting fresh. He’ll have to let them go first tomorrow. 

(He wonders what Sakura would do if Naruto had been more serious in his fight against her. He’s not sure how to solve that one.)

Sasuke eventually wins his five points, but it’s a long, slow fight, during which Naruto finishes off the onigiri from Kakashi. 

Itachi allows them to break for lunch. Sakura insists Naruto stay ten meters away from her at all times. 

“You’re smelly,” she sniffs. 

“You did this to me, you know!” Naruto complains, although he does shuffle back a few steps.

“Sensei,” Sakura says, turning to him, “can you let Naruto go home for a shower?”

“Ninja can rarely break for showers,” Itachi replies. 

Sakura purses her lips. “Ninja should take advantage of moments of peace when they can,” she counters. 

“You need to learn to work with your teammates even when they’re at their worst,” Itachi replies. 

Sakura clicks her tongue but drops the matter. 

“What is that… goo?” Sasuke asks Naruto warily. 

Naruto perks up. “It’s my own special recipe! My dad can summon these frogs, see, so I was thinking about mucus…”

#i'm still ironing out what i want the character dynamics to be but just writing it out help lmao #the adventures of beans and dog man and also itachi #<- click tag for other posts on this AU #my writing

[bellysoupset]

SOUP!!!!!!!

HI HI HI HI I CANT EXPLAIN HOW HAPPY I AM THAT YOURE BACK!!! oh my goodness i was literally typing this when i saw that you asked where i’ve been💀 i’ve been reading fics as you post them (i don’t have notifs on but i check your blog for updates on a regular basis LMAO) but life shtuff has only now died down enough for me to actually write/comment on things!! gosh i’m so excited you’re back!! in the LEAST pressure-y way, it’s almost embarrassing how slowly days went by as i was waiting for you to start posting again LOL like at one point i was telling myself “okay she said 20 days, it’s probably been at least a week”. it had been literally 3 days 💀 HAHAHAHWH

ANYWAYS

AHHHHHH MY BABIES MY BABIES!!!!! i don’t remember what the last thing i talked about on here was but WOW these last fics have made me cry and laugh and blush sooo many different times!! wen finding out was CRAZY and i literally sobbed w her bc the way everything played out was so unfortunate but also so realistic and raw and i had so many mixed feelings about everything!!!! and then wen isolating and bella checking on her!! and wen trying to push her away and then admitting that she felt so lonely GOD THAT WAS DEVASTATING but then bella being so supportive and comforting AGHHHH my girlsss <3333

and then omg the fic after that one??? i was SO surprised that wen forgave vin? and that they’re trying long distance??? i’m so fucking excited and happy abt that but god i’m sure it’ll be hard 😭 but YAY I KNEW THEY LOVED EACH OTHER TOO MUCH TO GIVE UP LIKE THAT ♥️

side note, luke being so depressed and struggling so much to adapt to his meds is so sad but so realistic too :,) i’m glad you’re making this a part of the plot!! but my man is def off his meds already lol im interested to see where this goes!! and also i LOVE how well jon and leo are doing <3 despite everything going on, they’re in their happy era fr <3

and now i’m sorry but the sick vin fic?????????? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, IT WAS EVERYTHING I NEEDED AND MORE‼️ first off, leo talking to him and being so real but also like calling him out like that??? while still being super supportive??? and the way he described wen was so accurate and so him-coded??? and then AHHHHH i’ve ALWAYS loved vin and bell’s friendship, i’ve genuinely always thought it was super adorable and i wanted more of them, so this fic was gold 🤭 a trope that ALWAYS gets me is when someone is ANGRY at someone they love and ofc being bitchy and sassy until they realise said someone is very much Unwell (it’s especially good if they’re so sick that they’re really out of it), and when they realise how sick they are they IMMEDIATELY switch from mad to concerned + caretaker mode!!!! so yeah you can imagine this whole fic had me on my knees 🤭 obsessed w how protective of luke bell is, and how protective of vin wen is, but also how both girls just jumped straight into action when he was clearly not feeling good <333 and then vin realising wen was using her dr. voice, and then the pure ANGST at the end when he sobs and they just hug and the “god i’m gonna fucking miss you” SOB SOB SOB SOB 😭😭😭🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽

bell sick and luke taking care of her was also AMAZINGGGG🫶🏽 i always love when my girls get whumped <3333 omg and AHHHH luke and vin finally talking abt shtuff🥹 the “nothing to forgive” 😭 luke knowing he’ll get sick AND holding him closer??? GOSH THE BROTP MAN !!!!!

and oh my goodness i just read the most recent fic with the new OC!!!! this is so exciting and cool and i love his vibes ahhhh <3 i love how nonchalant max seems abt shtuff and im so so excited to see where things go!! i hope vin and him become friends but also i feel like there’s gonna be some tension and weird banter going on between them at least at first hehehe

ANYWAYS

your writing is fucking incredible and whenever i see a new post from your blog it genuinely lights up my day <3 i am completely in love with all your characters and the depth and intricacies behind each of them ♥️ i’m so thankful your blog exists🫶🏽 also, i saw you were really struggling for a while and i just wanted to check in and see if you were doing better? you’re so loved and talented and appreciated and you deserve all the peace and love and happiness in the world!!! i hope things are going well/better!

i can’t wait to read more of what you write! i’m super excited about this new character and about reading more stories abt your lovely OCs <3

YOU’RE AMAZING THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING AND KEEP SLAYING!!!

🦦

Soup found DEAD from love cardiac arrest outside of Miami beach.

🦦!!!!! Honestly I don't even wanna post your comments, I just wanna stare at them for hours 🙈🙈

Don't worry about catching up on fics, they'll be here when life slows down!! I know very well how sad it is that we must Adult ™.

I am SO HAPPY you liked the Wendy/Vince developments!! In my head you're like THE Wendy/Vin supporter, so every time I write something with them I'm like "uhmmm wonder what 🦦 is gonna think??"

Caretaker who's pissed and then switches to comfort is also one of my favorite tropes, I looooove the spiciness of guilt thrown in!

Take care babe 💛💛

#lovely correspondence #🦦 anon #gonna go cry now bye

[bettathanyou]

brain frothing I need a cedric fic rn before I simply perish-

Hi cupnoodle! I'm working on your other request, it's about halfway done and I'm gonna get it done today. I'm also soooo sorry for the horrendous cliffhanger from the babysitter fic, I've been swamped w personal projects and Mental IllnessTM but for SURE!!! I'm gonna finish it I promise. I'm just gonna write a short one here so u don't perish from Cedric withdrawal (and comfort me cuz I'm going through it rn)

CedricXFem!Reader,

Comfort Fic <3

As title suggests, this is a comfort Fic with implied mentions of mental health issues, insomnia, blood/minor gore(?)/ Injury warning and cptsd. Just Cedric being so worried about u and trying to make you feel better. I'm sorry if the quality of this fic is iffy

Today, along with the rest of your shitty week, was just not going your way. As a servant in the castle, of course days are usually busy and a little hectic. Normally, you're able to navigate the highs and lows effectively enough, and whatever storms you can't weather you can always lean on your friends or partner, Cedric.

Well, that would be the case if King Roland didn't decide to throw a very last minute ball that was only a week away. The rigorous work coupled with no adequate time to prepare left you completely devoid of energy; so visiting friends seemed like a daunting task.

You also knew that whenever a ball was scheduled, Cedric was equally if not more busy than you preparing for a magic show. You usually give him his space to work in peace in these situations, but you find yourself yearning to just see his handsome face.

However, something inside you recently has kept you from reaching out to him.

You sigh deeply, rubbing your temples to try and ease the brain fog thickening in your mind. Multiple restless nights along with work related stress has your mind wandering to dark but familiar places.

Whenever you find yourself overwhelmed, bad memories and feelings always pop up more often than usual. You sigh again, willfully ignoring the tightening of your throat and the way your eyes felt sore from holding back tears.

As more dark thoughts churn in the forefront of your mind, you feel your actions going into autopilot. Turning dumbly to your task at hand, you lift the bulky box of decorations from the floor.

Because the box was so big, your field of vision was greatly reduced; coupled with you not paying attention, you missed the last step on the stairs back to the main castle.

You felt your heart drop as your body crumpled to the floor. The box quickly followed suit, the crashing sound of breaking glass activating your nervous system. You hear blood rush to your ears, and before you could stop it a sob escaped from your lips.

You weren't sure how much time passes, but eventually you will yourself to get up. Propping your hand off the floor, you begin to push off when a searing pain rips through your palm.

You cried out, yanking your hand back to your chest. Your eyes flick to your hand, dark red already trickling down in steady waves to your forearm. You see a piece of crystal embedded in your flesh, along with a nasty looking gash ripping across your palm.

You curse loudly, internally criticizing yourself for forgetting the broken glass on the floor. Even though the pain was growing in volume, you almost feel relief in a way- at least with this pain, your head finally feels clear.

With that clarity, you realize you need to get this wound dressed immediately. You scoot away from the hazardous material on the floor, using the stairs as leverage to get your body off the ground.

You suddenly hear Violet's familiar voice from the nearby corridor, and your body stiffens. You suddenly feel exposed, and wish to whatever forces above that they won't turn the corner to find you in the state you're in.

Your answers fell on deaf ears as Violet came rushing to your side, her eyes wide with confusion and shock.

"What happened, dear??" Violet exclaimed, taking in the mess before her.

"I missed a step on the stairs...." You croaked, cringing at how hoarse you sounded. You pray Violet wouldn't catch it, but she was never one to miss small details. Tearing her eyes from the ruined decorations, she takes you in with a worried look.

"Oh, are you alri-" Violet's words got caught in her throat, eyes bulging at the blood seeping from you. Her skin blanched, and you quickly tucked your hand out of sight in shame.

You stand there awkwardly, shame and guilt quickly traversing your body. You don't look Violet in the eyes, unable to witness her reaction anymore.

"I-I'll fe-f-fetch a doctor, right away!" The maid squeaks, already turning away from you to rush off. You didn't even have time to protest before she disappeared as quickly as she had come.

You stare in disbelief, and for some reason the interaction left you feeling angry. The pain from your palm swelled in time with your anger, making your skin buzz. Your breathing started to hitch as you attempted to take in a deep breath to calm down.

Feeling fed up with waiting, you find your body moving of its own accord. Wrapping your oozing hand in your skirts, you briskly walk to the destination you have in mind.

Cedric's workshop.

As you neared your destination, your body lost its furious pace; now replaced by a lingering feeling of dread. You knew Cedric wouldn't react well to you being hurt, and knowing this didn't make you feel any less anxious.

The dangerous thoughts clouding you earlier flicker in the depths of your brain again, in between worrying about Cedric's reaction. You blink rapidly to try and regain your focus, trudging up the sorcerer's staircase you've walked a million times.

Using the last ounce of courage you had, you timidly knocked on Cedric's door.

A moment of silence passes before you hear the familiar footsteps. Your heart leaped in your throat as his door cracked open, his angular face peeking out from the wooden frame.

Upon seeing you, his eyes immediately lit up. You can't help but crack a small smile at his happiness.

"Y/n! I was just thinking of you, darling!" Cedric purred as he opened the door. Within moments you tuck your injury closer to your side, thankful he still hasn't noticed.

You chuckle in response, trying not to sound too nervous.

"Really? ...All pure, innocent thoughts I hope?" You chirp back, tucking yourself against the wall to help conceal your hand from Cedric.

You looked up at his rose-tinted cheeks, and you let out a genuine chuckle this time.

Seeing your amused smirk, Cedric decided this time to be bold in his response. Before you could tease him further, he closed the gap and pressed his body against you.

As Cedric leaned in to connect his lips to yours, a flash of icy pain runs up your arm and into your elbow, sending shooting waves of agony throughout your body. You cried out loudly, instinctively shoving Cedric away from you.

With your arm now out in the open, there was nowhere left to hide. Cedric looks at you hurt and confused, but before you open your mouth his eyes drift on the source of your distress.

His eyebrows shot up immediately, worry lines etching onto his forehead. His golden eyes grew dark with fear, and you see his hands start to tremble. His mouth hangs open in shock, and while he's still processing you grab your opportunity to explain yourself.

"Okay, I know it looks bad, but- I just need to borrow some of your things to dress it. I'll be quick about it too, and then I'll be out of your way. Promise."

Your words feel more like a plea rather than a promise, and your body tenses in preparation of Cedric's answer.

Your eyes lock with his bright amber ones as Cedric stays eerily silent. You didn't expect such a... non-reaction, and that unnerved you moreso. You see multiple emotions whirl across his features; bewilderment, concern, shock. All in succession.

What surprised you the most, however, was the rising look of anger darkening his face.

"You'll be out the way?" Cedric echoed, his head tilted in exasperation.

"I... Well, yeah... You're busy right now, so-" You start, feeling yourself shrink with each passing word. Your words quickly died on your tongue as the storm brewing within Cedric's eyes grew.

He suddenly turns away from you sharply, almost making you flinch. Taking his wand from his robe, drawers magically flew open with a loud creak. Potions, a few bottles of herbs, and tightly bound cloth assemble midair and hover just above his head.

You hear the sorcerer muttering to himself, presumably double and triple checking to make sure he grabbed the correct ingredients.

Even though he was doing exactly as you asked, you can't help but feel a little... Hurt. . Even though logically you knew Cedric wasn't really mad at you, his upsetting stare carved a hole in your heart. You really didn't want to bother Cedric, and already felt bad for interrupting thus far with such a gruesome sight.

Insecurity writhed in your gut like a beastly thing, and you feel the urge to bolt back to the hallway you came from to wait for the doctor.

However, Cedric turned back to you before you could seriously consider the notion. His face was less pissed than before, now replaced with a furrowed brow of concentration.

"Alright, sit." Cedric commanded, placing down his things with a flick of the wand.

"What?" You question, your mind snapping back to reality.

Cedric sighed, placing his gloved hands on your shoulders.

"I need you to sit." Gently but firmly guiding your body to his work chair, he pushes you down into the seat. It begins to dawn on you that Cedric plans to treat your hand himself, contradictory to your plans.

You felt your heart warm at the gesture, and you bit your cheek to keep from grinning too hard. You feel just a touch lighter than before, and you say a silent prayer of thanks for Cedric's kindness.

However, you're quickly reminded Cedric was still upset with your wording, and it poisons your previous happiness.

You squirm a little in Cedric's seat as he preps himself. Taking off his leather gloves, he ferociously washes his arms in soap and hot water. You try not to linger on the curves of his hands and arms for too long, but in the end you end up staring anyways.

Sanitization complete, he sits and turns to you. You wordlessly offer your injured hand, and he in turn accepts it into his own. His hand was still hot from the water, and you exhaled in relief from the contact.

Cedric hums as he inspects the damage, the wheels turning in the back of his eyes. With his silent inspection done, his amber eyes flick upwards to you.

"This is quite the nasty one, love. I'm afraid I can't do anything until I get the glass out. And it must come out immediately." Cedric proclaimed, grabbing a delicate pair of large forceps that cheekily glistened in the afternoon sun.

The glare seemed to mock you, and for the first time today you feel fear for what would become of your hand.

"Right." You nod meekly, unsure of how to answer. Even though you train your face to be neutral, Cedric knows that it's a thinly veiled facade. He gives you a gentle apologetic smile, leaning to give you a soft kiss on your forehead.

"Not to worry though; in that cabinet below you there's something to dull the pain." Cedric nodded in the direction he was talking about.

"I suggest taking it liberally before I do anything further." Cedric eyes you with a slightly mischievous grin, and you return his smile with a confused yet slightly amused one yourself.

Cautiously opening the drawer, you find a bottle of spirits waiting for you.

"Booze?" You scoff wildly, a laugh bubbling up from your chest. You whip your head towards Cedric as he joins in with your laughter.

"I promise, it's the fastest acting remedy I have at the moment!" Cedric gushed, trying his best to keep a straight face.

"I'm actually lucky enough to not need to keep healing magicks around the castle." He added more somberly, his laughter dying down. His eyes cast downwards to your hand again, a pained expression on his face.

"I'm sorry." You offer a weak apology, gesturing to your injury. You're again reminded of your position as an intruder in Cedric's work flow. You sigh inwardly, feeling uncomfortable.

"What do you need to apologize for?" Cedric cooed, shaking his head.

"I.. I don't know." You confess, thinking back to what got you in this mess at all. If only you weren't so clumsy. If only your head wasn't your worst enemy, enmeshing you into a dangerous trap whenever you feel stressed. If only you'd reach out to Cedric this time around, instead of trying to shoulder everything alone. But none of what came to mind seemed to satisfy what you felt most sorry for at all- because all of it was true, and all of it was you.

Your fault.

"...For just, being me I suppose." You finished, your voice noticeably cracking. Your throat begins to tighten up, and your eyes stung with a familiar pain.

"Y/N-" Cedric starts, but you quickly reach for the bottle in the cabinet as an excuse to move your face away before the tears begin to fall. With blurred vision, you swipe the alcohol from its resting spot and try in a vain attempt to open it one handed.

"Let me help," Cedric reached towards you, muttering a short spell to release the cap to the bottle. You sighed in resignation, staring at the stone floor as you try to regain your composure.

"Thank you, Cedric." You speak softly.

You force your eyes to meet his, hoping that he could see that you weren't just thanking him for opening the bottle. You and Cedric lock eyes for a moment, and a beat of silence passes.

Cedric breaks the tension with a bittersweet smile. "You know, I wish I could comfort you with more than words at the moment. But sadly, I'm sterile." He groaned comically, hanging his hand while he held his arms up in mock defeat.

You snicker, holding up the hefty liquor bottle in response. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter if I end up forgetting today ever happened."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." Cedric looks at you pointedly, tutting in disapproval.

"Right, of course. How could I forget?" You ask sarcastically, moreso talking to yourself more than Cedric. Before the bottle touches your lips, however, you feel a hand wrap around your wrist.

You stop, shooting Cedric a puzzled look.

"I'm glad you came to me when you needed help." Cedric held your gaze boldly, his eyes aflame with a passion that made your heart skip a beat.

"And even if you do end up forgetting today... I don't ever want you to forget how much I care for you. You're never "in my way", no matter how busy I look." Cedric shakes his head, and for a moment you feel like a scolded child. You look away from the sorcerer in shame, fidgeting in place.

Seeing you cast your eyes away, his hand gently leaves your wrist and settles against your cheek. Cedric's fingers and thumb coax your head back up to look him in the eyes again.

"I know you struggle with feeling otherwise- but you don't need to apologize for it, either. We all struggle with something; what matters is how we can get the help we need to overcome it. Alright?"

Cedric finished gently, his hand leaving your face too soon for your liking. You stare in silent awe at his proclamation, and then feel a swell of pride at how far he's come to be able to say that with confidence.

With your heart ready to burst and your eyes already misting over, you eagerly nod in approval of his words.

"Yes, I think I can drink to that." You squeezed out, lifting the bottle in a toast to Cedric. His eyes twinkle with love in response, a smile creeping along his cheeks.

You down as much as you could in one sitting, the fiery liquid scalding your throat. You bite back coughs as you give one last chug, setting the concoction down in haste.

"I'm... ready." You slur, your body immediately feeling heavy.

"Right; let's get to work then." Cedric nodded, grabbing the forceps on his work table with a slight hesitation.

-----------------------------------------------

After about an hour of minor surgery, a few more swigs of alcohol, and a very distressed Violet storming Cedric's door to hunt you down (according to her, you left quite the horrific blood trail) you were thoroughly cleaned up and your hand was neatly bandaged.

While you were no longer incapacitated by your injury, you were just as helpless from being drunk during the procedure. Cedric had asked if you would rather see a doctor a couple of times, but honestly him taking care of you was the more appealing option.

Plus, the pain wasn't the only reason you needed a couple more drinks- this week was shit, and this was the first time you felt yourself loosen up.

"Alright, let's get you some fluids that isn't alcoholic in nature." Cedric chuckled, but you pouted as you relinquished the bottle to him.

"Oh, don't make that face at me. You've lost enough blood as it is without the alcohol thinning it." Cedric chided, mixing together fresh water with an herbal solution at his couldron.

You huff in response, laying your head lazily on the work table beside you. Your watch Cedric's face as he mixes together the solution meant for you, his brows burrowed and his lips purses in concentration. His white bangs hung slightly in his eyes, creating a dreamy curtain of silver as they catcyh the sun's rays.

Your cheeks already felt warm from being intoxicated, but now they burned like hot coals. Acting on a whim, you quietly get up from your chair to sneak behind Cedric. You knew he easily gets absorbed in his work, so even in your clumsy drunken state he hadn't realized your presence.

You slink to his side, your fingers eagerly reaching to touch his hair. Your fingertips brushed against the silky strands, catching Cedric's attention.

"Oh!" Cedric exclaimed, head raised in alarm at your sudden appearance.

"Haha, caught ya..!" You laughed, your body swaying dangerously in your delirium.

Cedric grabbed your waist, trying to steady you. You leaned in closer to him for support, your forehead resting comfortably into his chest.

"My, it seems you did..." Cedric murmured into your hair, gently stroking it. You hum in contentment, relishing the moment. He pulls you closer into a full embrace, and you return it swiftly.

"It seems like I have you now though, hm?" Cedric laughs lowly in your ear, and immediately you realize you've fallen perfectly into his trap.

"Damn..." You curse under your breath.

"So, what will you do with me?" You try to keep your face neutral, but you make sure to put in an extra flirtatious lilt to your voice.

You look up from your eyelashes to meet Cedric's face, and all he gives you in response is a raised eyebrow.

"Well, for starters... Make you drink this tea." Cedric thrust the cup into your face, and with a sigh you drink the beverage.

You wince at the intense bitter taste, and immediately you feel a little more sober. Reluctantly, you soldier on until it's all gone.

"Excellent. Now, to put you to bed." Cedric chirps, and before you can even process a flirty reply the sorcerer puts a finger to your lips.

"And no, not like that. So don't get any ideas." Cedric said sternly.

You chuckle, but say nothing in reply.

Cedric gently helps you to his bed, easing you down carefully and making sure your injury isn't being pressured.

You slowly get comfortable, sighing into the pillows as you inhale Cedric's scent.

"Would you like to drift off naturally, or would you like a sleep spell?" Cedric asked, already covering you with a blanket.

"Sleep spell... Please." You peek up at Cedric, taking in a final look of his eyes, his hair, his face, everything.

"All right." Cedric spoke softly, leaning in to give you a quick kiss on the lips. As his lips left yours, he uttered the spell you requested.

You feel the pull of sleep tug at your eyelids instantly, and you relax more into the fine down mattress. Cedric lingers by your side, watching to make sure the spell was taking effect. Seeing your eyes grow heavy, he whispers goodnight as he rises to return to his workshop.

Before you slip into unconsciousness, your last waking thought was how much you adored your sensational sorcerer.

[oddballwriter]

can we get something about Tim being comforted by his partner? we all know he needs it sometimes :(♡ just lots of fluff and anything you'd like to add! thank you, no rush and take your time; mwah!

More Important Than Anything

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Summary: Tim goes through a lot and sometimes he can't handle it. So he always tends to come to you for a sense of comfort and stability. Being his rock is a lot too sometimes, but to you, it's worth it.

Warnings: mentions of distress, injuries that happened in canon, yelling and shouting, behaviors that imply being moments from a panic attack, and the mention of punching a hole in a wall. Spoilers for entry 59.

Author’s Snip: I loved this request sooooo much. Also sorry for not writing, I haven't been in a writing mood recently. Also this is mostly hurt comfort but there's some fluff to it a bit.  

Notes: This takes place right after Jay and Tim's fight in entry 59 and also mentions the part where Alex breaks _____'s knee in a previous entry, which currently evades me rn. Cencoring because of spoilers even though I'm sure you all have seen the entire series at this point. 

I’ll shut up now. Enjoy!

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You would never call your boyfriend a handful. You would never call him something taxing. You would have something strike you dead if you ever even whispered it to yourself. Tim was a man with his own 'issues' that he's been dealt to live with, and you would never use that as a way to shame him.

But when he goes missing for days without any sign where he is or what he was doing, you'd get worried sick. You knew he was a very private man, but you had faith that if he ever ran off he'd either tell you or ask you to come with. Your fright only got worse when he showed up at your door step after having been gone for weeks with a busted knee and crutches, looking like he saw the gates of hell. You didn't ask any questions and just rushed him inside, and even when you did ask he said he just woke up in his car like that.

You didn't talk much about that day after that. You just let him stay with you till he felt like he was over staying his welcome. Which he wasn't, you would have let him stay till he was completely okay.

But whenever he did leave, you worried about him coming back to you in an even worse state. That's why when you heard a knock at your door in the dead of night you had that vision loom over you till you opened it.

It was in fact Tim, thankfully not physically beaten, but he looked very distressed. Something he used to do when his condition was at it's worse and he needed someone to be there to ground him and make sure he didn't hurt himself. But this was different. He just looked genuinely upset about something. You moved aside to let him in which he quickly did without saying a word.

"Is everything okay?" you muttered out. "No," Tim bursted out. "No! Everything's not okay! I just- It's just..." Tim exclaimed out but couldn't find the right words to describe what was wrong, like his feelings were flying everywhere and he hadn't properly collected them. His body language kept changing back and forth from that of a person who wanted to curl up and cry to a person who wanted to scream and punch holes in the walls, and neither of them stuck around to lock on either action.

"What happened?" you asked in a hushed tone and carefully walking towards him, like if too harsh of a voice or fast of a movement would spook him and make him worse. "Too much happened!" he shouted. You flinched at the volume of his voice. You knew he wasn't shouting at you. He was distressed and caught in between too many strong emotions and he doesn't know how to hold them still. You knew that. But you had never seen him this full of anger before. Upon recovering from the misplaced tone, you cautiously placed your hand on his upper arm. "Tim. What happened?" you repeated.

In that moment, Tim seemed to just come crumbling down. He practically latched onto you, almost making you fall down, and had just started to spill out so many things. You couldn't keep up with all of it, he was talking too fast. What you managed to take in was him talking about his condition coming back in full force after it had seemingly gone away, then side tracking talking about when he came to you that day with that busted knee and how terrified you looked for him, and something about a channel, an old acquaintance, and then his medical documents and something about a guy named Jay. All the while you had lead him to your couch so that he wouldn't fall to the floor as his body crumbled. Once he was done, he had practically sunk the two of you into the couch completely and he held onto you like you were the only thing still keeping his wits together. And he shook like one of those terrified little dogs.

You just held him. You held him as tight as you could and consoled him. That's all you could do. All you could do was just rub up and down his back and mutter "It's okay." and "I'm here." into his hair while Tim himself just shook and seemed on the boarder of crying.

"I'm not crazy, right?" Tim asked very suddenly. Before you could ask "What?" out of confusion, he looked up at you. "I'm not crazy, right? You don't think I'm a psychopath or anything?" he asked. He looked like he was frazzled, like his last wits will be spent and he'd ball and hyperventilate if you didn't answer in time. "No," you answered quickly.

"No. No, Tim. I don't think you're crazy. Not at all." you responded and you carefully held his face in your hands. "You aren't a psychopath and you're not crazy. You just... have a lot going on." you explained. "You have a lot of things going on and you don't fully understand it." .

"I don't know what's wrong with me," he trembled out. "I just want to be normal. Why does this have to happen to me?" Tim cried. You went back to holding him tightly and ran you hand through his hair. You muttered "I know." and the past phrases of "It's okay." "I'm here." as you kissed which ever part of his head you could reach and gently shushing as he wept.

You don't know how long you stayed there holding, muttering to, and kissing him, but at some point you stopped for a moment and realize that he had fallen asleep, probably having weeped himself into exhaustion. Even then you didn't stop holding him. You just did your best to position the two of you so you could lay on the couch and let yourself fall asleep. The bed that you were originally about to fall asleep in before he came didn't matter anymore. Tim was far more important than that. Tim is more important than just about everything in your book.

#slenderverse #marble hornets #mh tim #tim wright #slenderverse x reader #marble hornets x reader #mh tim x reader #hurt comfort

[riku-writings]

ADMIRATION

Pairing: Mitsuya Takashi x Fem! Reader

Summary: Reader likes to fantasize about The Home Economics Club Leader's Hands.

Warnings: Smut with a smol plot, Fingering.

A/n: I am not really sorry about this ꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡,,, inspired by that one megumi oneshot in wattpad that i read ages ago. . .((edited hundred times since i just realized now that some of the smut parts were messed up even though i checked it multiple times,,, I'm sorry for the confusion i hope i got the order right ಠ,_｣ಠ)

Wc; 2k

It started with just an innocent admiration of him being a charming dude, that's all. The guy's a good student, an overall husband material with his sewing and cooking skills. He was heaven sent with his overall visual ( dyed hair, piercings and his eyebrow slits). Everyone knows he's a delinquent because of that Pehyan dude who would fight with Yasuda-San just to excuse mitsuya out of the club. Despite his delinquent bg, Mitsuya was respectful and patient. Making every girl and boy swoon over him.

A bad boy with a soft hubby side. Best of both worlds they would say.

You were part of it. The Home Economics Club, they were lying if the whole club wasn't a simping club for the one and only Mitsuya Takashi. It was only yasuda and you who took the club for extra credits. The others well, you could say they were there to see him. Eitherway everyone was cooperative and hardworking.

Not only were you with him in that club. You were his classmate. Even better, his seatmate. You always get a view of his charming side profile.

You find yourself just staring at his features, from his long lashes to his pointed nose, down to his lips. Sometimes his tongue would dart out, out of pure concentration. (You noticed this whenever you try and get his attention to check your work in the club)

Your eyes always latching itself down to his hands. Not that you're a complete freak but you appreciate it. Like if someone asked you what body part attract you the most. You would definitely answer, hands.

His hands were the prettiest especially when its enclosed with those rings that has a cross engrave on it. It was veiny, fingers elongated and a bit bony. Nails cleanly cut. His wrist always had a silver bracelet on it. You don't know why was that attractive.

You had an unpopular opinion that it was soft to touch. You wonder if your thoughts were true. You can feel yourself blush at the thought of him just holding your hand.

You can't help it but you just stare at them with pure admiration. Due to this, you noticed how he liked twirling a pen around his middle and index finger. Fascinated, you tried it once, though you failed. You not knowing he was looking at your failed attempts. Grinning.

"y/n are you listening?" A voice called pulling you out of your own embarassing thoughts. You look up at the owner of the hands you've been staring at for a while now.

"U-uhm yes?"

"Tell me how did you end up with this then?" Mitsuya raises his brow, your messed up fabric lifted up by him. The girls around you giggled at your clumsy behaviour. You retrieved it. "Ehm, I'm sorry leader can you explain it again?"

"Alright, listen this time dummy" He says with a teasing grin, ruffling your hair gently. He sat next to you. Using the seam ripper to remove your mistakes. You just stared at his fingers pointing at where you should redo it.

You wondered how he would shove it in your mo—

You mentally slapped yourself. As you crossed your legs together at the sudden image that came over your mind. "You okay? y/n?" Mitsuya stared at you noticing how you pressed your thighs together. "Hmhm" You responded.

"Leader! can you check this?" Another called out for mitsuya. He stood up and pats your shoulder.

"alright, I'll leave it to you then" He smiled.

The next days you tried to scold your mind for having intrusive thoughts of Mitsuya and his hands. Unfortunately, your mind developed a sudden kink with it. Making every imaginary situation more. . . . lewd.

"Hey Y/n! Hold up your hand" Your classmate suddenly called you lifting his hand towards yours. You knew exactly what he was trying to do, since he's been busy tryna do that with the other girls this morning. "Eh? I don't want to." You replied.

"Bet if mitsuya did it, y/n would do it!" Another classmate of yours shouted from the back. You raised your middle finger, continuing on cramming your homework.

"Leader~ Can you do that for us~" The boys teasingly called mitsuya. Who was back from his lunch raising an eyebrow at them. Hands pocketed "Do what?"

"We're just comparing hand sizes" They shrugged lifting up their hands. "Y/n won't let us~~"

"Eh? Stop bothering y/n." Mitsuya say in his deep voice his feet landing a hit on their butts, before proceeding to you. The men in the back groaned.

Bending to meet your gaze. He grinned "Now you owe me, work on your missed templates with me later" The lilac haired boy reminded. You just rolled your eyes on him mocking a tongue out. He chuckled. "And I thought you just saved me, leader."

You stayed with him in the club room. Doing your templates beside him. Him just handstitching a bunny like doll. The room slowly darkening as the sun sets. He turned on a lamp beside his table. Slowly the other girls started to leave the club room, waving their goodbye's to Mitsuya.

"Hmmmm you've been spacing out lately, are you okay?" He coughed softly referring to your messed up works recently. Eyes going to you.

"Me? spacing out?" You acted dumb, you scoffed in a fake manner. Brushing your hair with your fingers to shake off your stiffening state.

Not meeting any of his gaze, you just continued to sketch.

Did he figure it out? Did he catch me staring at his hands? Nah I need to stop overthinking.

"Alright then." Silence invaded the whole club room again. Your eyes roamed around realizing the rest of the girls left already leaving you two alone.

"Hold your hand up." Mitsuya suddenly commanded. Eyes going to him, you raised your brow. "I wanna know— our hand difference." He explained raising his hand infront of you. Placing his doll down the table.

"You know the boys in our class are just a bunch of perverts right?" Speaking like a fucking hypocrite, your actions didn't match up with your words. Almost instinctively, you faced him holding them up. He pressed his against yours.

Your insides melt at this gesture. Your theory confirmed that he has actually, soft hands.

"You have cute small hands" His lips curled up, slowly his fingers intertwined with yours, locking it with his. "Well yours rough" You lied, cheeks burning as you looked at your connected hands. "Is that so?"

Abruptly, mitsuya pulled you close to him. Making your other hand rest on top of his shoulder. His face centimeters away yours. Lips almost brushing.

"So is this what they're trying to do with you?" He asks in a low voice his eyes piercing through you. Craning his neck, curious.

"Yeah. . . " You broke eye contact. "Good thing I stopped them." He chuckled, eyes closing. He leaned back. Patting your head.

Funnily, that interaction with him didn't stop your thoughts. Actually it made your whole dirty secret worse. Just seeing him tapping his fingers on his lips as his chin rested on his palm. Made your mind run thoughts about the things his hands would do to you.

You leaned back looking around the morning peace in the clubroom. You were always the first one to go here. Since it's more quiet that way.

You closed your eyes craning your neck side to side. Loosening up a bit.

What would his fingers feel wrapped around your neck— no. no.

You shifted on your seat, pressing your thighs together. Mentally slapping yourself.

Changing your attention, your sight caught your pen. Picking it up you tried to do that cool trick again. Trying to twirl it around in between your middle and index finger.

"Ohhh you're trying to do it again?" Mitsuya popped out of nowhere. You jolted a bit, making him laugh. You clearly didn't see him coming in.

He hovered behind you, his chest pressed on your back as he rested his hand on your desk right beside yours. He leaned in observing your half-done project. "Again?" You asked head turning towards his face.

"Well I saw you trying to do this"

He pulled his other hand up grabbing your pen, his fingers did it in ease. "no need to brag leader-san" You tell him grabbing your pen back. "Looks like you're gonna stay with me again later" Mitsuya mentioned pointing at your work.

After classes you proceeded to your clubroom already, knowing you're gonna take so long with your project. Though you were greeted by yasuda leaving you with her tasks because apparently she also had friday plans like the others. The others always had friday plans that it would leave you, yasuda and mitsuya with the work.

"It's okay yasuda-san! I promise to clean up and remind leader to lock the door!" You assured her, she then finally nodded. "Fine fine— Also don't let that slimy delinquent distract leader" She added, you nodded giving her a big thumbs up, she then waved her hands leaving you all alone with the mess of excess papers and fabric from this morning.

You tied your hair as you clean up the place before doing your own project. You actually sat on the front desk as you look around feeling satisfied. Finally continuing your hand stitch. (You gave up after breaking 3 needles into half with your machine.)

You stay seated on the front desk, comfortably doing your own project. Humming a few songs here in there. The door then slid open.

"I'm guessing yasuda san has plans?" Mitsuya came in seeing you on his desk. "yup" You nodded eyes focused on your stitch. Sudden fingers gripped your knees.

"You should stop manspreading in that skirt" He scolded you pushing your knees together. You shivered at his touch against your skin. Due to this sudden awareness of his hand still gripping your lower thighs— you accidentally pricked your finger on a needle.

"Ouch." You hissed as you saw your finger starts to ooze out blood. "You're so clumsy" Mitsuya clicked his tongue removing the cloth on your hands bringing it down to the side. He grabbed your hand and started sucking on your finger.

"U-uhm" You widened your eyes as you saw the sight of mitsuya sucking your index finger. You blushed profusely at this. "Eh? I- I — you didn't have to do that" He finally let go of your finger.

"I don't have bandages on me—plus that always does the trick" He says wiping it. You just nodded looking around. "Tsk what is it that got you distracted again hm?" He questions furrowing his brows he leaned closer to you. He layed his hands on the table, locking you in.

"Ugh you really want me to say it huh?" You groaned. He craned his neck to the side. Waiting for you to continue. "Okay— I may have a small admiration towards your hands. . ."

"Admiration?"

"Well it was honestly innocent at first until it got all dirty and as much as I wanted to get it out of my head you suddenly do things to me"

"And what was my hands doing?"

"Mitsuya . . "

"No dove tell me" He said as the choice of endearment shoot straight to your core. Making you shift on your seat.

"hm shoving it in my mou—"

Mitsuya shoved his middle and index finger inside your mouth. Your cheeks burn at the sudden action. His other hand held your waist, holding you closer. "You like this?" He asked with hooded eyes. Your tongue twirled around his finger, he slowly discarded them letting out a popping sound as it came out of your lips. Feeling your chest warmed up down to your lower belly.

"Is this why you're so distracted lately? because you're too busy thinking about my hands?" He then held your chin with his fingers as he hummed. Lips inching closer to yours. You just nodded feeling feverish. "Do you want me to kiss you?"

Once again you nodded. You can feel the growing lust underneath your skirt. Pressing your thighs together to relief the heat. Mitsuya following the movement. His eyes went back to pierce through yours.

"Say please" He smugly commanded. You pouted.

He taps your lips. Wetting it with your own spit.

"Please kiss me."

Mitsuya leaned in to claim your lips, you lightly gasped as his lips finally touch yours. Closing your eyes, you melt into his kiss. He smirked at his before his hand on your waist went up to your hair tie, pulling it to let your hair flow against your shoulders.

He then licked your lips, instinctively you opened your mouth allowing him to enter his warm wet muscle inside. You whimpered at this, feeling your feverish state get warmer. Spreading all over your body. He caressed your cheek as he kissed you deeper. His other hand caressing your side, slightly brushing up against your chest. You hummed against his lips.

Biting onto your bottom lip he licked it. Before leaning back, placing a soft kiss on yours before taking in your whole panting visual.

"Do you want me to touch you, dove?" He questions, his thumb now pressing onto your bottom lip. His left hand went down on your thighs, softly pinching them.

"Please touch me, takashi"

With that his fingers indulged inside the band of your damp underwear. "Hm you're so wet, princess" He hummed letting his finger brushed up against your folds. You squirmed under his touch, your pussy clenching around nothing.

"Is this what you're thinking about in class?" He whispered next to your ear, placing a hot kiss on your cheek. You nodded, biting onto your red lips. As his middle finger continued to slide so easily with your wet slick. Up and down teasing both of your sensitive clit and your pleading hole.

You then felt the pad of his fingers teasing circles on your entrance, you looked at him with glossed eyes. He licked his lips seeing you practically begging for it.

His other hand held the back of your knees spreading your legs to gain more access. You leaned back supporting your weight with your hands.

Letting your skirt ride up, He bit his lips as he saw your ruined flimsy panties with his hand in it. You just looked at him with a pout wanting his fingers to penetrate your hole. "Please" You plead him trying to grind into his hand. Without caution he plunged his two fingers in your heat.

You bit back a moan. "Don't hold back now, dove." He said with a smug as he felt your hole clench around his fingers. "I-I can't takashi" You say feeling little under him. He chuckled at your pouting lips before placing a kiss on them. "Acting shy now huh"

Mitsuya curled his fingers inside making you squirm. "Don't move." He warned before pounding his hand into your writhing pussy. His long fingers hitting your soft spot almost immediately. You moaned letting your forehead clash itself against his. "You're taking my fingers so well baby. So noisy" He said referring to the slick slapping sounds of your wet pussy. You blushed at this ashamed on how you were making a mess on his hands.

"Aa you're so lewd— bet you've touched yourself multiple times thinking about this" He said adding another finger in your hole easily. You sobbed at the sudden feeling of fullnes inside "Hmm too much"

"Too much? you're a good girl you can take it" He says kissing your cheek once agaib. He thrusted his three fingers into your hole curling it up to feel your spongey walls clenching into him tighter.

"Mmn t-takashi—k-kiss" You mumbled feeling yourself itching up to your own orgasm.

"You want a kiss baby hm?" He hummed as his thrusts got harder and faster. Knuckles deep, the tip of his fingers hitting your sensitive spot. You purred nodding, He kissed your lips deeply making your moans muffled. You felt hot inside you as you panted trying to comprehend everything that he was doing to you. With that you felt your orgasm continue to build up. Your head leaned back breaking off his kiss, grinding back into his hand. Mitsuya felt yourself tighten continuing to hit on your sweet spot. Your own wetness beginning to drip down.

His thumb finally taking notice of your abandoned nub. He played with it. You squirmed as you feel it burn against his thumb.

"'m close" You squeak biting onto your lips. "Go on baby cum on my fingers" He said littering kisses on your neck, hands pounding into you harshly. With those words and his thumb rubbing your sensitive clit. Your thighs started to fidget. You closing your eyes shut as you panted.

You came onto his fingers. You let out a whiny moan as His fingers slowly ride out your high.

"Good girl" He said pulling his fingers out your panties. Your eyes opened seeing him cleaning his fingers clean with his tongue. He smirked as you lolled your tongue out. He placed his fingers on your tongue, letting you lick and suck them clean.

"You look so pretty like that, dove" He say as you finished pulling his fingers out popping out of your lips. He held your waist with his arms, moving you closer again. Leaning in to kiss you softly this time on your forehead. "How was that?"

"Better than what I imagined actually"

"C'mon it looks like we have friday plans too" Mitsuya said kissing your lips. Bringing you down the table. You smiled.

#mitsuya smut #tokyo revengers #tokyorev x reader #tokyo manji gang #takashi mitsuya #mitsuya x reader #mitsuya takashi #mitsuya x y/n #mitsuya headcanons #tokrev mitsuya

[rayofsunas]

s/o has a mental/nervous breakdown.

A/n: hello everyone! I hope your day is going alright, and that you’re doing well 🥰 I recently hit 300+ folllwers, like Sunday morning, and omg, that was the best thing to wake up too 🥺❤️ thank you those new and old for following and taking a chance with my account and sometimes trashy works 🙃 I’m gonna make a longer post at some point saying my thanks and discuss what I plan to do to celebrate 300 followers. It would really mean a lot to me if you guys chimed in if you have any ideas, after all, this is a thanks to you and I want you all to be involved! also, if you saw my recent rambles about how a draft was deleted, it’s referring to this post... what I had written got deleted TWICE in the span of FIVE MINUTES. gosh I was so pissed, I almost screamed. mobile tumblr is not it 😔 but here we are. I hope you like this. I tried to write this three times.... 🤡 also, since I am not a doctor or anything, I put a link to possible symptoms/what a “mental breakdown” is, that’s in the warnings, just click the link, it helped with my accuracy. 

Summary: s/o has a mental/nervous breakdown.

Parings: Xiao/Reader, Scaramouche/Reader, Albedo/Reader, Childe/Reader (all fem reader)

Warnings: angst, mental breakdown (panic attacks, stress, anxiety, ptsd, hallucinations, insomnia) fluff, swearing, mentions of death, mentions of injury

Word count: 3.5k (whew after tumblr DELETING this draft twice here we are folks ;-;)

requested by @mintyhuening​ 

​

Xiao

he knew you weren’t okay at all

Xiao knew the moment you locked yourself in your house

at first he thought maybe you were just temporarily feeling this way, but as the weeks passed and you hadn’t come out, he decided maybe not

coming from someone who enjoyed silence and solitude he could understand the distancing part, but it had been weeks, and even he needed socialization, so why hadn’t you come out?

you spoke to him through the door a few times, letting him know you were alright

he didn’t believe that though, sure you were alive, but not alright, he was mainly checking for confirmation to see if you were still alive while he thought of a good way to approach the situation

he didn’t want to invade your privacy, but he also hated the fact that you wouldn’t come out, not even to see him

it was lonely without you, he concluded

even for someone who enjoy solitude 

you were a careful creature, but never this careful and cautious...

were humans always like this?

eventually, he couldn’t stand it, and did find other ways to get into your house

he grew antsy after pacing outside your door for days

he found you huddled in your bed, a heap of pillows and blankets surrounding you

you were shocked to see him when he’d sat down on the foot of the bed, causing it to dip significantly 

“How did you get in?” You snapped once you saw who it was. 

“I have my ways.” He said raspily. With a huff of annoyance, you were back to facing the wall, away from the Adepti. 

“It’s dark in here.” He announced matter a factly, looking around the nearly pitch-black room, windows and doors covered by sheets and hefty duty curtains. “It’s how I like it.”

“It’s not healthy.”

“I don’t care, go away.”

Xiao was starting to grow impatient surprisingly, he truly just wanted to help, why couldn't you see that?

“Being passive is not going to help the situation, please tell me what’s wrong.”

“Nothing, I’m just tired.”

He worried. If he said the wrong, would you push him away even further? If he said the right thing, would you even care? Did you want help?

Xiao moved closer to you, hand going to touch your leg, although it was underneath the blankets, you felt it and did have to admit the affection was comforting.

“Don’t do this to yourself,” Xiao said. “Your friends miss you, I miss you as well.”

Maybe if you weren’t cooped up here anymore, you would start to come around. The room and house all together were very stuffy, dark, and depressing, he despised it.

“It’s beautiful outside, come with me,” he'd whispered. “At least if you don’t want to be around people, could you allow me to take you to a secluded area?”

“The fresh air will do you good.”

You were thinking about it, you had to of been if you still cared. 

“Fine, mother.” He watched with hope in his eyes as you slowly rose from the bed, and began

The outside world was very very bright at first, enough to induce a headache. But you became used to it the more you were out.

Xiao stayed true to his word like you knew he would unless you wouldn’t have come. You were taken to a very secluded area, there wasn’t even a path or road to it, just green luscious grass, and crystal core everywhere, beautiful blue and orange ones; Anemo and Geo respectively. You weren’t sure where you were, somewhere between Mondstadt and Liyue, you assumed. 

The fresh air did wonders, Xiao had noticed. You seemed to open up. Telling him a little of the problem. You had told him about how life was just stressful right now, you hadn’t taken any commissions in weeks, spoken to any of your friends Mondstadt, hence why they had come to him, accusing him of kidnapping and brainwashing you. He was offended, nonetheless let them know that wasn’t the case. 

The ever so secluded Xiao would take you out more, slowly introducing you to crowds of people, and would still take you on daily walks to that secret place you now called your special spot.

It would take a while, he knew that, and you wouldn’t be comfortable doing everything that others around you did, maybe not for a while. He could respect that, as long as you allowed him to help and encourage you.

Scaramouche

being a harbinger was HARD, Scaramouche knew that, even if he didn’t admit it

admitting it was challenging, could lead to always being doubted or seen as incompetent. therefore, no one mentions how hard it is

he had been off doing his duties when he got news that you had lashed out at a few lower rank fatui on your team, resulting in you being called in to meet with The Tsaritsa... let's just say she went easy on you because you were one of her highest ranking soldiers, if not, she would've severely punished you

you were forced back to your sleeping quarters immediately to calm down, told to stay put until you could stop “lashing out like a child” as she had put it

you weren’t one to argue against The Tsaritsa, everyone knew that was common rule... so you walked back as calmly as you could without snapping at anyone else

when Scaramouche had heard how you acted, he was annoyed

the always so calm and calculated Y/n, lashing out at her fellow members? he couldn’t help but be annoyed, despite it being completely out of character of you

he had finished his duties relatively quick, wondering why you were acting so out of character 

when he got back, he found you in your sleeping quarters, pacing in front of the large windows near the furthest end of your room

you were still wearing your typical combat gear, though your hair disheveled and body language looking extremely anxious, he hoped it was not yours...

“What did you do this time?” Had asked the violet-eyed man, carelessly throwing his hat on your bed, lean arms folding across his chest.

No response. 

“Excuse me, I believe I asked you a question.”

A loud irritable huff.

“Be quiet for once in your life, Scaramouche.” You hissed, anxiously biting at your nails. “Sorry- I’m just trying to calm down, but my heart can’t stop racing.”

Scaramouche wasn’t the most in-touch person with his feelings, and out of all the harbingers, he was one of the more difficult ones to deal with.

Surprisingly, he had shut up, despite finding it difficult to hold his malicious comment back.  

“What’s wrong?” Your lover asked, more softly this time. 

“My mission today was... hard. I know you said it’s important for missions to just be a one and done; no hard feelings. And you know I’ve always been that way. But this one was different.” His eyebrows furrowed, his forehead creasing in annoyance. 

“I can’t help but think about what they did.” 

“Did you get what you went for? I heard you sought after information regarding that Knight, Aether.”

“Yes, but-”

“I’d call that a successful mission,” He stared intensely, casually moving to sit on the comfort of your bed. Of course, he wouldn’t take this seriously. “Any casualties?”

“None of our men, but-”

“I don’t see the problem.”

“There were children, three little children, and those idiots just slaughtered them.”

“Ah... I see.”

Despite stating he understood, he really couldn’t sympathize with what you were saying. Those children were enemies as long as they worked against The Tsaritsa. 

Your voice suddenly cut through the silence, staring directly into his eyes, “What if those were our children?”

“They weren’t.” Your eyes rolled at his comment. 

“But what if!” He rolled his eyes, mocking your previous action. 

“But they weren’t.” He mocked for a second time.  

“You’re not helping, Scaramouche!”

“You’ll never understand, unless you see what I saw,” He knew you were right to some degree, but even then would he feel bad? A mission was a mission after all.

“They were begging me to protect them, and the youngest, she would not let go of my arm and then the next thing I knew, they were dead.” You continued, left hand going to grip your right, he assumed to show him where and how the said girl had gripped you. You were still shaking, this time being closer, he noticed how bad it was. 

“They were pleading, I told them I would try my best, and then-” He had long ago stood, making himself present in front of you. His warm hands had grabbed your shaking ones harshly, ceasing the trembling momentarily. 

“Please, be quiet,” The sixth harbinger snipped. “I don’t like seeing you upset.” Although it sounded harsh, he was trying his best to make it sound how he felt, even if those feelings were minuscule towards this specific topic. 

“Although, I don’t agree with you about this particular concern of yours- I will do whatever you need to help you.”

Albedo

now, he may just be an alchemist, but trust me, Albedo sees the signs before anyone, he has some sort of familiarity with them due to his incessant reading

and it may have taken him longer to see the signs because of how busy he was, but he saw them

he was no fool to the likes of insomnia, in fact he knew it very well, often staying up very late into the night and morning, sometimes for days at a time

he was cooped up in his lab and it wasn’t as if his body wasn’t tired, cause hell he was, there was just s much more to learn and discover, his brain WOULD not stop, 

Albedo hadn’t known how long this had been going on for, but he was seeing signs now

ngl, he didn’t notice that you hadn’t been sleeping properly until one night he decided to accompany you in bed earlier than usual (It was three a.m, yikes), and found that you were awake still

you were lying still on your side of the bed, and if it hadn’t been for the fact that he reached over to kiss your cheek, only to see your eyes open, he would’ve assumed you were alright and asleep

“You’re awake?” The ashy-blonde man asked, sliding into bed next to you. 

“Can’t sleep.” You shrugged nonchalantly, scooting closer to him, seeking his warmth and comfort. 

“You should’ve come to get me, I would’ve come to bed earlier with you.”

“It’s alright, I peeked in to see if you were still alive,” You joked, he chuckled. “You seemed very busy.”

“Yes, but, I thought I told you to remind me when you need attention, I often get sidetracked and enamored with my work.”

“It’s quite alright, Albedo. As long as you’re sleeping.”

He hummed, whispering tired words of adoration in your ear. That carried on for a while, as long as talking about the day's work and whatnot, until you eventually questioned, “Can I play with your hair?” The gesture was sweet, and that did sound amazing right about now since he was on the brink of sleep, but just needed that little push. But weren’t you tired?

“Aren’t you tired?”

You sat up, climbing behind Albedo, gently placing his head in your lap. “I’ll go after you.” A soft smile adorned your beautiful face. “You need sleep, you stay up for Archon knows how long.”

He selfishly allowed his eyes to close and waited for sleep to accompany him while you began untangling his two braids and ponytail. You played with and braided his hair until he’d fallen asleep as you said. You stayed up the rest of the morning though.

Eventually, probably out of boredom, you fell asleep for an hour or two around five a.m. Though, unfortunately, you were back up before six. You busied yourself while Albedo slept, starting with cleaning his lab. Albedo often did not like people touching his books, paperwork, and findings, but after instructing you how to properly take care of his stuff, he welcomed your help with open arms, seeing as though his lab was ALWAYS in shambles from not having enough time to take care of things himself.

Albedo surprisingly woke up around nine, wavy hair surrounding him like a lion, you chuckled to yourself at the sight. “How did you sleep?”

“Alright, considering my sleep schedule is nonexistent a lot of the time.” You nodded, bumping shoulders teasingly. “How about you?” 

“Okay,” You said, immediately changing the subject. “I woke up early, so I cleaned your lab, I hope it’s to your likings, Kreideprinz.” You teased, bowing at the waist.

The alchemist waved you off, with a smile. “We’ll see about your organizational skills after you eat.” 

How had he known?

“You haven’t eaten yet, have you?” Albedo asked, heading in the direction of the kitchen.

“That obvious.” You wondered trailing after him. 

“You always wait for me, darling.”

- 

“You look exhausted.” Albedo’s concerned voice cut in through the smooth Mondstadt breeze. You had been so distracted with the discovery in front of you, you hadn’t realized your boyfriend was staring directly at you. “When was the last time you slept?” He glanced back down at the discovery, still listening, but if you didn’t speak soon he’d be lost in his world again.

“A day or two, but-” Albedo probably got whiplash from how hard he’d snapped his head to face you, but now he was staring at you with features reading nothing but shock, cerulean eyes blown wide.

“I think your bad sleeping schedule is contagious.” You joked, trying to make the situation lighter-hearted. He didn’t laugh. 

Albedo was more serious this time, proving it when he faced you completely. “What’s been going on?” His voice was soft, but he was extremely worried. 

Nervousness built up in his lover's body. “Nothing! I just-” You sighed. Might as well tell him the truth, he’d coerce the answer from you no matter what it took. “It’s been harder to sleep after my injury from that ruin guard. When it hit me, I banged my head against the concrete, and ever since I guess it’s been hard to sleep.” 

“You could've told me sooner. I would have stopped everything and anything for you.” Yes, that was true, that was the problem though. You didn’t want to be coddled like a baby

“I know, I’m not sure why I didn’t... Naturally, I don’t want to worry you.”

He moved closer to you so he could cradle your face in his hands. “You can always tell me anything you know that.”

“I understand that. You’re a busy man so-”

“From this moment on, my work will be dedicated to finding a cure for you.”

You panicked, not wanting to stop his work for the likes of what you were dealing with. “What? Wait no-”

“You can’t stop me, darling. You take precedence over everything.”

Albedo made it his goal to do whatever possible to help you. Whether it be spending days in his lab making concoctions in hopes of creating something that could safely aid you with sleep. Or he’s in the libraries, reading all the books on the wellness and health of humans. He’s already on top of it the minute you expressed your concerns. In the meantime, he’s going to make sure he goes to bed with you much earlier, and won’t go until you do, to ensure you’re resting.

We love sweet caretaker Albedo.

(I understand insomnia can have other causes, not just a mental or nervous breakdown, but it’s kind of implied when reader hurt her head that she’s not well.)

Childe

Childe is simply not going to know your not well, he just won’t, it’s not that he doesn’t care, it’s more so the fact that he has a hard time paying attention to anything other than his missions and duties, he does not want to slow down

you have to show signs or tell him to realize

he decided to take a break though, seeing as he did promise you dinner tonight. he told you it would be his treat, since he did have a bunch of Mora lying around that he simply had no other use for

he figured a nice dinner and trip to one of the nicer cities with more to offer would be nice, he would buy you anything you desired

it was nearing the time for dinner though, and the reservations had already been made, so when he was left waiting, let's just say he was irked...

if you didn’t want to show up, you would’ve told him, so maybe you forgot? he concluded that couldn’t be it

the last time he’d brought it up, two days ago, you had been so excited you couldn’t sit still nor stop talking about it

asking a few people around town if you had been spotted anywhere, some said you had wandered off to Luhua Pool, something about there being a myth about special healing properties within the water

now he was even more confused

one, you NEVER went to Luhua Pool, there was never a need to do so

two, special healing properties? why would you need that? were you hurt in his absence?

you were his family, and he loved his family more than anything, so if something was wrong, he’d do whatever it took to help you

he traveled from Snezhnaya to Luhua Pool in record speed

he did find you eventually, the sun was setting, but thanks to the glowing water he could make your form out easily

you were hunched over, in what looked like to be some simple greenish cloth dress, he couldn’t see what you were doing, and called out your name

no answer

“Hey, what’re you doing here?” The orange-haired teen asked, crouching down beside his lover to see what was wrong.

“Cleaning.” You had said. That’s when his dull blue eyes traveled to what you were doing, watching with a confused stare as you scrubbed at what seemed to be clean hands.

“Hmm, I see...” He couldn’t tell if this was a prank or not, you usually played along with his teasing nature. “Are you ready for dinner?”

“Was that really today?” Your head lifted, leaving your hands to momentarily hanging in the air, water droplets dripping off into the pool.

Okay... so you did forget it seemed, which did shock him seeing as though you were over the moon, less than seventy-two hours ago.

“Uh, yeah, did you really forget? That’s unlike you! I’ve learned women don’t forget anything.” He teased, hand going to his chin. You hummed, turning back to do whatever it was you had been previously.

The harbinger frowned. “Do you still want to go? We can make it if we’re fast.” You sounded like a robot, much like a ruin guard, he concluded. 

“I’m sorry, not today, I’m dirty...”

Childe couldn’t help but chuckle, “Dirty? Sweetheart, you’re cleaner than most people I’ve seen, what’re you on about-” 

“The blood, it’s stained my hands, can’t you see?” Even after holding your hands to show him, he saw nothing resembling blood. 

“Are you playing games with me? Sure, it would’ve been funny any other day, not today though-” 

“You don’t believe me?” You sounded hurt, but whatever was going on, he wouldn’t feed into these... false hallucinations. “The townspeople said the same thing, they called me crazy...” You scrubbed even harder at your hands, letting out a frustrated huff. 

“I don’t see anything, I’m really sorry,” He said gently, reaching into the water to grasp your warm hands in his, “But if you continue to do that...I will see the blood.”

Childe was not sure what was going on, maybe some sort of PTSD? Although, he wasn’t sure where it could’ve come from... you’re not a harbinger or fatui, or anyone that is engaged in battle, etc. so it didn’t make sense. Unless something happened that decided to resurface now. 

He immediately took you home, hand in his to keep you from further scratching your hands. On the journey, you often asked, “Why are you even touching me? There’s a lot of blood.” 

He didn’t want to have to feed into whatever was going on, worried he’d damage you somehow, and he didn’t want to make you sound crazy, so instead he said, “Because I love you.”

When you both arrived home, he’d immediately laid you in bed, saying you appeared tired before going to search for a doctor.

Child will see every and all doctors in Teyvat and will pay whatever amount necessary to figure out what’s wrong, that’s for sure. Doesn’t take orders from the harbingers (not like he was anyways) and opts to stay close to you at all times. 

He decided to keep his teasing to a minimum, though he found that sometimes things slipped out accidentally, he’d do anything in his power to help you.

1.18.21, rayofsunas 

#rayofsunas #genshin impact #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact imagines #scaramouche #scaramouche x reader #albedo #albedo x reader #childe #childe x reader #tartagalia #xiao #xiao x reader

[midgardianweasley]

I‘d love to see you write an angsty fanfic with Natasha x reader (male or female is up to you) with a bad ending of your choice.

No pressure of course ✨

as requested Violet!! I hope it's okay<3

How could you do this to me?

Natasha Romanoff x fem!reader

Summary: Natasha hasn’t been around recently and Y/N’s been really missing her company, but that changes when some CCTV footage is discovered.

Warnings: Cheating, swearing.

Word Count: 3.6k

there was an attempted proof read, but sorry in advance if i've missed anything!!

message/ask to be added to the taglist<3

Requests are open!

You weren’t surprised when you woke up to an empty bed once again, the space beside you missing a red-head assassin. You’d grown used to the sight of bedsheets spread lazily on your side of the bed, almost completely thrown off of the edge. It wasn’t unusual, however, the feeling of disappointment that lingered in your chest every morning never eased with time.

‘I’m just off to train, baby.’

‘I need to go and see Fury about this next mission, you go back to sleep’

‘I forgot to debrief the team last night, so we need to have a meeting this morning instead.’

‘Off to get some breakfast, my love. I’ll save you some eggs.’

Those were the typical reasons you received whenever you questioned where she was going in such a hurry in the mornings. You knew she was busy, of course you did. But, you missed the mornings when she’d pull you back into her chest, refusing to let you leave until you gave her a few kisses, which never ended up just being kisses, but you always gave in either way.

Now that you think of it, you can’t remember the last time she held you. Not properly. She used to hold you in a death grip, so tight that you could almost feel her heartbeat in your own chest. Nowadays, you were lucky to get more than a few taps on the back, it felt like you were being congratulated for something.

You’d always brushed it off, thinking that you must’ve been selfish for wanting so much of her attention, you had to be more understanding of how demanding her job is. It wasn’t like you never tried, you did, everyday. It would just be nice to feel her love for you a little more, even if it was just a quick peck before she left in the mornings.

“Hey Wan’, Hey Vis” You smiled at the pair as they stood at the kitchen counter, cracking eggs and buttering some toast. They loved cooking together, Wanda always told you how cute it was when Vision was trying to learn, especially after his fiasco with the Paprika.

“Hi Y/N, want something to eat?” Wanda handed you some toast, which you took gratefully, slowly munching on it.

Vision looked up as though to engage in conversation, when he then looked around in confusion. “Where’s Ms. Romanoff?”. You shrugged.

“I’m not sure, I think she’s training, I’ve not heard from her yet.”

You were looking at Vision, but it was near impossible to miss the sympathetic look Wanda was giving you. She knew about how you’d been feeling with Natasha not being around so much, she had tried to help, to hint to Nat that you’d been feeling a bit neglected for a while now, but she hadn’t gotten very far.

“Nat, nat, I just think that maybe you should spend a little more time with Y/N” It was obvious the assassin wasn’t listening to her, shrugging it off and trying to walk past the witch, only to have a hand pressed on her chest to push her backwards.

“Wanda, I need to go, I'm running late.”

“you’re always running somewhere. I'm sure Fury, or Tony or whoever you’re in such a rush to see, can wait. You haven’t seen your girlfriend in forever.”

“I saw her last night.”

“Crawling into bed in the early hours of the morning and sleeping next to her, isn’t seeing her, Nat.”

Her words fell on deaf ears as she watched her friend turn around and walk the other way. She could’ve used her powers to stop her, she didn’t see a point though. She wasn’t listening, and she couldn’t force her to.

“It's fine though, honestly! I can hang out with you guys today if you’re not busy?”

the couple shared a look of awkwardness before looking back towards you.

“Actually, we were going to go into town and do some sightseeing. You’re welcome to join us though!” She smiled, not wanting you to be alone, which you were grateful for, but you couldn’t intrude.

“No no, don’t worry! I think I've got something Tony wanted me to check out in the Lab, now that I think about it.” You didn’t. “You guys have fun though! take pictures!” You winked, knowing full well that your best friend didn’t believe you, she hesitated before nodding her head in agreement and beginning to walk off with Vision in tow.

__________________

An hour or so went by, you still hadn’t seen Natasha at all, or anyone, really. They all seemed to have disappeared to do their own thing, leaving you to find yours. So, you found yourself wandering into your lab, where you found Tony observing the screens with an endless amount of data changing every couple of seconds. You never really understood how he made sense of it all so quickly, but you’d always been intrigued nonetheless.

He must’ve sensed someone was there, as he broke away from his train of thought and glanced over towards you, fully acknowledging how your shoulders were slumped and your eyes lacked your usual sparkle. Tony alway had a soft spot for you, he’d known you for years, taking on a role similar to a father’s. Seeing you look so defeated recently, it’d hurt him a little more than he cared to admit.

Gesturing for you to come in with a gentle smile before moving and adjusting various chunks of metal on the table in the centre of the lab.

“Ah ah!” He tapped the bridge of his nose

“You can’t be serious! Tony I-”

“Nope”

“I’m a grown woman!” You laughed in disbelief at his

“Yes, you are, and I do not plan on taking said grown woman to medical because she got a shot of electricity through her eyeball. Put them on.”

You rolled your eyes, picking up a pair of the obnoxiously large lab goggles and put them over your face. He really took being a ‘father figure’ too seriously sometimes. With your goggles on, you took yourself over to where he stood, hoping to help him out somehow and keep yourself occupied.

You watched him move around blueprints on the screen above. “So, whatcha working on?”

“Well, remember that last mission we went on? How that ended?”

“Well, considering I had to get bullets removed for the last two hours, I’d say I remember pretty well.”

His face cringed slightly “Yeah, that’s the one. I’m basically just trying to layer the suits more, but keep the weight to a minimum so that there’s more protection, but the speed and mobility is almost, if not, the same.” He pondered, mind wandering off again to try and figure out how he could make this work.

Suddenly springing to action, he started assembling some pieces together, chucking some aside and reaching for different tools he required.

Looking towards you, he tilted his head “Can you pass me the-”

His sentence was interrupted. “Hey Tony, hey-” Banner. You didn’t mind Bruce, he was always quite quiet and polite most of the time, a little awkward, but, when you have a literal Hulk inside of you, it’s probably the least of your concerns.

You waved at the Avenger. “Hi Bruce” You gave him a friendly smile, for it to be returned with an awkward gaze, which he tried to quickly shove off.

“Yeah, uh, hi, Y/N. W-what brings you here?”

“Oh, no particular reason, I wanted something to do so I thought I'd come down, just pay a visit.” He nodded, acknowledging your words but appearing a little on edge, almost.

“Hey, you okay?” You asked “You look a little pale?”

“Yeah, yeah n-no I'm fine, just a-a bit tired.” He stuttered before suddenly directing his attention towards the man standing beside you. “How’s it coming along, Ton’?”

“Not bad, I have a wonderful assistant to help me out.” he nudged you playfully.

“Haha, yeah. She’s great. Anyways, you seem to have a good hold on things, so, I’ll leave you to it and come back later.”

Neither of you had managed to get a word out before Banner had walked out and was already out of sight. You turned to face Tony again.

“Was that- did you find that weird at all?”

“I find most of the people in this compound weird.”

It was a serious question, but you couldn’t help but let out a laugh at the millionaire’s response.

“I do pride myself on it.”

“As you should. You’re the weirdest one.”

“Hey!” You slapped his arm. “Rude!”

“I’m kidding! Now, pass me that screwdriver, goggles.”

Chuckling, you threw him the screwdriver and zoned out thinking about Bruce’s weird behaviour. While Tony was right, the majority of us are weird. You couldn’t stop thinking about how unusual it was, even for him. You put it to the back of your mind though, focusing back on what the man beside you was working on. You’re sure it’s fine.

________________________

You thought you were going crazy. First you had Nat, who was disappearing every chance she got, Then you had Bruce who couldn’t look you in the eye and when you finally believed it couldn’t get any weirder, you picked up on some strange vibes from Steve.

“Oh finally! I was beginning to think no one else actually lives here.” You approached Steve who seemed to be walking and talking with Bruce, both taking a step back when they looked towards you.

“Hey Y/N, we were just-”

“We were just about to go and have a shower. Training.” Steve cut in, earning himself a glare and a shake of the head from the scientist beside him, subtle, so you hadn’t noticed, otherwise you would’ve questioned it.

“Oh? You were training too, Bruce?”

“Well, I-” He glanced at Steve. “Yeah. Yeah, I, uh, wanted to get some combat down, just in case I needed it.”

“Considering our last mission, I think we all should.” the super soldier quickly added, sending you an enthusiastic smile, which you had returned. You went to speak again, possibly inquiring as to whether or not they knew where your girlfriend was, but you hadn't had the chance as the pair of them quickly rushed off, muttering something about catching you later, leaving you on your own, once again.

What the hell was going on?

_____________________

Feeling defeated, you trudged your way into your bedroom, just wanting to shower, get into bed and sleep, and hope for some form of normality.

What you hadn’t expected, was to walk in and see the back of a familiar figure sporting the black suit she practically lived in, tying her hair into a low bun and beginning to change into some more comfortable clothes.

You were dating, so it wasn’t new to see Nat changing, but you still thought it would be decent to make her aware of your presence. The small “ahem” was enough to make her spin round and flash you a smile, her pearly white teeth on show.

“Hi babe, i’m just changing for bed. You okay?”

The words felt so unfamiliar to you, having not heard them in what felt like forever. Still, you decided to humour it.

“Yeah, yeah I'm okay. A bit of a weird day is all.”

She laughed, returning to laying out her clothes. “Well, we are surrounded by some weird people.”

“That’s what Tony said.”

There was an atmosphere in the air that you couldn’t quite pinpoint. It had always felt comfortable with Natasha, you would describe her company as being like a safety blanket, enveloping you with warmth and a sense of security. This felt different. It didn’t feel familiar anymore, it was like you were face to face with a stranger and the more you looked at her, the more it upset you.

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” Natasha put her palms on your cheeks, bringing your Y/E/C eyes to meet her emerald ones in the process. You hadn’t realised that tears had fallen until the pad of her thumbs gently brushed them away.

“I just, it sounds so stupid.”

“Tell me.”

You let out a sigh, eyes beginning to dart around the room. “It just feels like I’ve never seen you, I don’t remember the last time we’ve spoken and it’s, it’s been lonely.” Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion at your response, lips falling into a frown, but you were quick to speak again.

“It hasn’t just been you though, I understand that work gets in the way, but, it felt like some members of the team were acting differently around me.”

“Really? Like who?”

“Well, I mean, Bruce could barely bring himself to say anything more than a sentence to me and I tried to speak to Steve just before I came here and he rushed off like his life depended on it. I don’t know, maybe I’m just being a bit paranoid.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing, Detka, I wouldn’t worry about it.” She whispered, hands pulling you forward with ease to bring your lips together. You smiled at the contact, you’d missed it.

You were so caught up in it, that you hadn’t noticed you were the only one smiling.

It wasn’t long before the both of you were interrupted by an electronic voice in the room.

“Miss Romanoff, Miss Y/L/N.” It was F.R.I.D.A.Y. “Mr Stark is asking for you both in the conference room.”

“Alright, thanks F.R.I.D.A.Y., we’re on our way.” Your girlfriend replied, rushing away from the kiss and leading you to the door.

Why was everyone in such a rush today?

_______________________

“So, I was messing around with some things in the lab, and I think I've found a solution to our suit issue. It’s still a work in progress because I'll need to tweak some things and then tailor them blah blah blah, but I thought I'd show you guys the latest. JARVIS?”

“Bringing up footage 182.”

While you waited for the video to be up and running, you took note of everyone sitting around you. For the most part, they looked tired, though you don’t blame them, it was pretty late.

Shuffling to your left, you held Natasha’s hand in yours, sending her a loving gaze before resting your head on her shoulder, just content that she was close by. She sat a little straighter at the action, careful not to push you off of her, but not entirely relaxing either.

The large tv screen lit up, a view from the corner of the lab came into sight where you could see Tony installing different wires and pieces of loose metal into the suit, watching it light up as he did so. He was in the middle of explaining what he was doing as the recording went on, when the screen suddenly turned to static, black and white lines taking over the screen.

“JARVIS?”

“Minor technical issue, working on it, Mr Stark.”

You caught Wanda’s eye across the table, a playful smirk plastered onto her face at the mishap, watching the billionaire get stressed over a television. You couldn’t help but laugh at the words flying from his mouth as he started hitting the remote, as if he was someone who didn’t understand technology.

It wasn’t long before an image appeared back on the screen, however, this wasn’t the same recording. This is from the gym. It focused on one of the square mats in the middle of the room where two people were sparring. One of which, you immediately recognised as Natasha.

The other person definitely wasn’t a girl, their hair was short and muscles so big you were worried that one slice would be the end. It zoomed in a little, and from the blonde hair and dark blue outfit, you pieced together who it was.

“Oooh, Black Widow and the SuperSoldier, one vs one. Now this should be interesting.” A previously tired looking Sam clapped his hands and leaned forward, now fully invested in the scene in front of him.

You turned to Nat, who now looked a little paler than she did before.

“You look like you’ve just seen a ghost, don’t tell me, you lost this spar?” You joked, expecting her to join in and tease you back. Instead, her face displayed an emotion you weren’t entirely sure of.

Before you could question it, you noticed the room fall silent. Not even a breath could be heard in the room. Your head turned slowly, meeting a mixture of shocked and sympathetic faces. And that was when you saw it.

Nat had kissed Steve, and he didn’t stop her.

If you weren't aware of your heartbeat before, you couldn’t be now, for it felt like it had completely stopped. Your jaw fell as your eyes filled with tears, only worsening the longer you saw the two of them on the screen. It was only turned off when a third person walked into view, not needing to ponder on who it could be, you immediately faced guilty stares. Three of them.

“You- you kissed-” You stuttered, incapable of forming a sentence towards your teammate. “And, you knew?” Your voice broke, tears now beginning to find their way down your cheeks for the second time as Bruce couldn’t bring himself to answer you.

You swiftly rose out of your seat, attempting to keep yourself composed until you could be alone.

“Baby-” Natasha murmured, trying to take hold of your hand, which you snatched back before she could lay a finger on it.

“Don’t.”

“Please-”

“Leave me alone.” You spat, speed walking out of what now felt like an overcrowded room.

You didn’t hear it, you’d left too early, but if you had stayed, you would’ve heard the team give Nat and Steve the scolding of their lives, mainly from Wanda and Tony, telling them how disappointed they were in them both. How they’d be lucky if you were to forgive them for what they did.

________________________

You don’t know how long you’d been sitting on your shared bed for. It could’ve been an hour, it could’ve been a couple of minutes. All you knew, was that you couldn’t stay in this room much longer, looking at the picture frames and the shared wardrobe, it just felt painful.

So, you walked over to your wardrobe and gathered every item of your clothing into your arms, lacking any care for if there were hangers or labels in the way, and chucked them on the bed and started to chuck it all into a suitcase intended for holidays but, you don’t see that happening anytime soon.

The sound of sniffles and rustling was all you could hear in the room, so much so that it was suffocating, and it didn’t help when you heard the door creak open.

“What are you doing?” A voice squeaked. Natasha stood beside the door, fidgeting with her fingers as she anxiously bounced from one foot to the other. You didn’t even bother to look up in her direction, focusing solely on getting out of there as soon as you could.

“Baby, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened, I didn’t mean it.” You scoffed at her attempt at an explanation. “I love you.”

That’s what made you whip your head to see her red and puffy eyes, if this was any other situation, you would’ve rushed over and engulfed her in a hug, tell her that everything would be okay and you’re there for her. Now? All you felt was anger.

“If you loved me, you wouldn’t have kissed him.”

“I didn’t know-”

You stood up straight, almost laughing at her choice of words. “You didn’t know? Bullshit. I’m pretty fucking sure everyone is aware when they kiss someone. Did you know when you were kissing me then? Or did you not know that either?”

“I wasn’t thinking.”

“I don’t think I care.”

She tries to step closer to you, only for you to take one back, holding your hand out, indicating for her to stop.

“No. no, you know what Nat, you don’t get to do this. You don’t get to treat me like a stranger for weeks, like I'm sharing a bed with someone I don’t know, for you to then kiss someone else and expect me to forgive you. You have no idea how I've felt these past weeks, blaming myself and thinking I was selfish for wanting your time. It’s funny, really.”

She looked away from you, regret taking over her features, both of you now having tear stains covering your rosy red cheeks.

You broke the silence once again. “Was that the first time?”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“Y/N-” She pleaded

“Answer the question, Natasha.” You spoke through gritted teeth.

Silence returned to the four walls.

“Get out.”

“No, no, we-” She stepped forward, only to halt herself when she realised what she was doing.

“There is no ‘we’. We’re done. I’ll have my stuff moved back into my room by tonight, though I'm sure it won’t make much of a difference to you.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“Whatever.”

She walked out of the room, hesitating slightly, wondering if it’s worth staying and trying to figure out whatever this is. She shook her head to herself, knowing she’d fucked up. There wasn’t a fight anymore. It was done.

Collapsing on the bed, the feeling washed over you again as the finality of it all set in. You didn’t stop though. You packed your clothes, your perfumes, all of your loose hair ties and left the room with only one thought on your mind.

Natasha won’t even notice the difference.

Taglist: @natashas-favourite-knives @wandaromanova

#Natasha romanoff #Natasha romanoff x reader #Natasha x reader #Natasha romanoff x Y/N #Natasha romanova #Natasha x fem!reader #Natasha romanoff angst #Natasha angst #Black widow #Black widow x reader #Marvel #Natasha romanoff imagine #Natasha romanoff oneshot #Natasha romanoff fanfiction #Natasha romanoff smut #Natasha romanoff fluff #Natasha romanoff x fem!reader

[criminalmindzjunkie]

Love Sick

Masterlist

Summary: A story about how Spencer’s worst decision ever somehow ends up being his best.

A/N: Happy Valentine’s Day, my loves! This fic is loosely based on a request I got about Spencer faking an illness to keep the reader from going on a date.

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader

Content Warning: swearing

Word Count: 4k

Spencer has done a terrible, awful thing.

He wants to argue that he doesn’t know what came over him, but that would be untrue and he’s already met today’s quota on little white lies. Spencer knows exactly what possessed him to call you up at seven thirty on a Saturday night, and it wasn’t so that the two of you could discuss the weather or the recent upward trend in the stock market. Spencer’s spontaneous (panicked) phone call to you was a brazen attempt to abate the green-eyed monster that had been whispering dreadful things in his ear for the better part of a week.

To put it simply; Spencer is jealous, and he’s dealing with it rather poorly.

So poorly that he’s resorted to sabotage.

As he sits on his couch and worries at a hole in the bottom of his designated lounging sweatshirt, Spencer attempts to justify his actions. His tiny fib won’t hurt anyone . . . except, perhaps, one annoyingly perfect and stupidly handsome veterinarian. But Spencer can live with that. Potentially scorning an animal care specialist isn’t the thing that has his stomach in knots. That, he can live with. Spencer doesn’t even have pets, so there’s no longterm consequences as far as the vet is concerned. The notion of lying to you, on the other hand? 

Spencer is positively sick with nerves.

He’s not sure why. Spencer’s gotten rather good at lying to you. Several months of pining for you from across the hallway of your shared apartment complex has turned him into quite the master of deceit, after all. He was a sucker from the moment he opened his door and lay his eyes on you, arms outstretched and wielding a plate of homemade sweets. The cookies were lovely, but the breathtaking smile on your face is what really did him in.

Since that first day, Spencer’s gone out of his way to ensure that he’s on the receiving end of that smile as often as possible. His efforts are never in vain; for reasons unbeknownst to him, you seem to enjoy spending time with him just as much as he did you. This mutual fondness results in most of Spencer’s off days being spent in your company. Spencer was certain that, with time, he would work up the nerve to ask you out on a date. He’s halfway to convincing himself that you might even say yes when your cat makes the unfortunate decision to steal a brownie from your plate and gulp the whole thing down.

Enter, aforementioned veterinarian.

The sound of your door opening from across the hall has Spencer breaking out into a cold sweat. His hand is halfway to his forehead, ready to wipe away the perspiration when he pauses. His body’s anxious reaction might just help him sell his story. Yes, Spencer thinks, this is a good thing. Authenticity, and all that.

Several soft footsteps are muffled by the door that separates him from you, and then his doorknob jiggles as you struggle to fit your key into the lock. A jolt of adrenaline surges through Spencer and in the blink of an eye he’s on his feet and sprinting to his bathroom in the name of authenticity. If he wants to keep up this ridiculous façade, and he really, really does, Spencer is prepared to fake it until he makes it. The alternative is far too mortifying. Failure is not an option.

Spencer cringes when he lifts his eyes to meet his reflection. He’s been told more than once that he’s an absolutely terrible liar, and the wide, guilty eyes that stare back at him confirm this. All it will take is one look at him and you’ll know something’s amiss. Perhaps it isn’t too late for Spencer to come clean. It would be embarrassing, yeah, but no less embarrassing than it would be an hour from now when you call him on his shit. But then again, there is always the possibility that you will get angry with him and leave, and Spencer isn’t willing to risk you walking away from him. Not tonight.

Spencer barely has the time to splash some cold water on his face and dive to the bathroom floor before you’re pushing open the door to his apartment and calling out his name. His brain, the part that isn’t rendered useless in his panicked state, reminds him of just how many germs can be found on the average bathroom floor. It’s enough to make him pause, but only for a moment. He takes a deep breath before slumping over against the toilet.

Showtime.

“M’ in here,” Spencer calls out in his croakiest voice. It comes out exactly as he intended, all rough and pitiful. Maybe he can pull this off, after all.

The soft pitter patter of your bare feet makes his heart rate increase exponentially. Spencer steels himself, recites a reassuring mantra in his head. I can do this; I can do this.

Spencer’s poor, overworked heart gets a much-needed rest when you step into the doorway. In fact, he’s almost certain it stops completely at the sight of you in a tiny red dress. A tiny red dress that leaves very little to the imagination. Spencer can’t even see past his mounting panic to enjoy the way you look. That damn red dress serves as a brutal reminder of why he’s sitting in his bathroom floor, clutching his toilet bowl and damn near drowning in a nervous sweat.

The thing is, Spencer hadn’t intended on sabotaging your date with the vet. He had every intention of staying in, wallowing in his sorrows and waiting up for you. Spencer even said this to Derek, who was kind enough to call him and remind him of how big of a jackass he was. Spencer didn’t need the reminder. He was well aware.

But then Derek said something that made Spencer’s blood run cold.

“And what exactly do you plan to do if she doesn’t come home?”

So, really, it’s Derek’s fault that Spencer promptly ended the call and dialed your number. It’s also Derek’s fault that Spencer is about to give the most convincing performance of his entire fucking life.

“I’m sorry I called you, but I didn’t know what else to do. I just feel so awful.” And he does feel awful, just not in the way you think.

You’re quick to close the distance between the two of you, dropping to your knees and brushing stray pieces of hair away from Spencer’s clammy forehead. His skin sings where your hand grazes it. If he didn’t have a fever before, he will if you don’t stop touching him.

“Don’t ever apologize, Spence. I wish you’d have called me sooner,” you murmur. Warm, concerned eyes drag across Spencer’s bedraggled appearance. “How long have you been feeling sick?”

Spencer gulps. “A few hours, I guess. I ate my leftovers from last night for lunch. Maybe that’s what’s wrong.”Lies, lies, lies!

Your brow furrows. “That’s strange. I ate mine, too, and I feel fine.”

Spencer doesn’t really have an argument for that, so he fakes a pained groan and rests his head against his arm. He closes his eyes and prays the intro to theater class he took in high school will pay off.

You must deem his act convincing enough because you press a soft kiss to the top of his hair and stand. Spencer hears the sound of a cabinet opening, followed by the sound of running water.

The tender touch of your hand on his shoulder has him raising his head and looking up at you, inquisitive. You place a cold washrag to his forehead, and Spencer melts into the touch. It feels heavenly against his hot skin.

“Do you think you could manage to take a shower?” you prompt, earning a feeble nod from Spencer. He doesn’t even have to fake the way he trembles as you run the damp cloth down his neck. “I think I have some broccoli and cheddar soup at my apartment. I’ll go change and grab it while you shower.”

Elation spreads through Spencer, pouring from his heart until it reaches the very tips of his extremities. He can’t believe his scheme hasn’t blown up in his face already.

With the help of your outstretched hand, Spencer rises to his feet and braces himself against the shower door. You make no move to remove your hand from his, and that gives him the courage to ask his next question.

“What about your date?”

You shrug and an easy smile spreads across your face. Spencer feels faint. He blames it on his imaginary illness.  

“Don’t worry about that. The only thing I’m concerned with right now is taking care of you.”

Spencer bites down hard on the flesh of his cheek to keep a smug grin at bay. This is a victory he’ll have to celebrate at a later date.

--

Spencer enters his living room, freshly showered and donned in clean pajamas, to the sound of your voice speaking quietly into your cellphone. He halts just before he enters his kitchen, straining to catch a snippet of your conversation. As he leans closer to the sound of your voice, Spencer halfheartedly chastises himself. First, he deceives you, now he’s resorting to eavesdropping. Rock, meet bottom.

He’s just about to wrench himself away and retreat to the couch, when:

“I really am sorry about cancelling, especially on such short notice.” A short stretch of silence follows. “Next Saturday? Oh. Um, yeah, I’ll let you know, okay?”

Spencer is very much like a popped balloon; the earlier feelings of elation leave him in a harsh gust. Next Saturday? He barely managed to derail this Saturday’s date! No way he could get away with it a second time.

In the midst of his inner turmoil, Spencer misses you exchanging goodbyes with the vet before collecting Spencer’s bowl of soup. He’s still standing there, absolutely crestfallen, when you round the corner. You nearly collide with his chest, narrowly avoiding it by skidding to a halt in front of him. Your eyes run up his frame, assessing him, until they rest on his face.

“You scared me, Spence,” you chuckle. You cock your head to the side. Spencer imagines his expression is none dissimilar to that of a disgruntled frog. “You feeling okay? You’re not going to puke again, are you?”

Honestly, he might. The idea of you rescheduling your date with the vet is about as vomit inducing as it gets.

“I’m fine,” Spencer says on an exhale. Funnily, it’s probably the biggest lie he’s told all day. “The shower helped.”

His delivery is flat, but you don’t seem to mind. You smile up at him, relieved, and Spencer’s chest aches.

“I was thinking you and I could watch a movie?” you offer, and Spencer nods his assent. He can’t fathom turning you down. Not when you’re wearing an old sweatshirt you stole from his closet and a pair of fuzzy socks with little hearts on them. The ache intensifies.

“What are we watching?”

You plop down on the couch and look at him expectantly. He follows in suit, settling in beside you.

“I was thinking that you could choose,” you murmur as you place the bowl in his hands. Spencer shoots a teasing smile your way as he raises the spoon to his mouth.

“You mean, you’re actually going to let me pick the movie? I should get sick more often.”

His cheek earns him an exaggerated roll of your eyes.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” you mutter. “You always pick the movie.” 

He can count on one hand the amount of times he’s gotten to pick the movie.

Spencer is about to launch into an impassioned rebuttal when the feeling of your fingers scratching against his scalp renders him speechless. His eyes dart to your face as you concentrate on scrolling through the TV guide, seemingly unaware of the effect the simple act has on him. Meanwhile, Spencer’s brain is short-circuiting.

You begin to read off a list of potential movies to him, but Spencer barely hears you. He’s practically purring as you twirl his curls around lithe fingers, his eyes threatening to flutter closed as an intense feeling of euphoria washes over him. Maybe it’s because he’s touch starved, or maybe it’s because it’s been so long since someone just looked after him. Whatever it is, Spencer embraces it wholeheartedly.

“-heard it’s pretty good. So, what do you say, Spence?”

Spencer pulls himself back to the present, blinking lazily at you. You’re looking at him, expectant, and Spencer’s eyes flit to the TV. His eyes skim its contents, reading briefly about a movie in which some family moves into a haunted house.

His face breaks out into a grin and he nods, because Spencer’s known you long enough to recognize that watching a horror movie usually results in you pressed tightly to his side and clinging to his hand. He also knows that nine times out of ten, you choose to watch a horror movie over anything else. No wonder he always lets you choose.

And sure enough, not even ten minutes in, Spencer is ditching his bowl of soup and pulling you into his arms. Once you’ve draped a blanket around the two of you settled in, you glance up at him.

“How are you feeling, Spence?”

Spencer responds by saying that he’s suddenly feeling much better. 

Spencer Reid - 1, Veterinarian – 0

--

Spencer’s not sure at which point he fell asleep. All he knows is that he certainly does not remember sprawling out across your body, nor does he remember tucking his head into the crook of your neck. But this is how he finds himself when the sun begins to pour in through his windows the next morning, and Spencer can’t bring himself to care about how he came to be there.

Spencer guesstimates that it’s no later than seven in the morning. You’re still fast asleep underneath him, your chest rising and falling rhythmically with every breath. It’s early, and it’s Sunday, and Spencer can’t think of a single reason to wake you. Instead, he snuggles in closer, because he’d be a fool not to enjoy this while it lasts.

Unfortunately, the shrill sound of Spencer’s ringing phone shatters the serenity. He prays that it won’t disturb you, that you’ll remain oblivious and continue to sleep, but that hope is shattered when you begin to shift underneath him. Spencer makes quick work of peeling himself off of you before dashing to his kitchen and snatching his phone off the table.

He’s prepared to verbally assault whoever has the audacity to defile the sanctity of lazy Sunday mornings when a quick peek into the living room finds you still fast asleep on his sofa. He smiles, soft and fond, before pressing the accept button and bringing the phone to his ear.

“Hello?”

“I was beginning to wonder if you were still alive.” Spencer’s smile transforms into a grimace. Apparently, Derek Morgan doesn’t believe in lie-ins. “I was preparing myself for a rescue mission.”

“It’s seven in the morning. I was asleep.”

Derek lets out a low whistle. “Who pissed in your Cheerios, Pretty Boy?”

“You, when you decided that it was acceptable to ring me before eight,” Spencer whisper shouts. He knows that he’s being touchy, to say the least, but who can blame him? Five minutes ago, he was cuddling with the most beautiful girl he’s ever had the privilege to lay eyes on. Now, he’s shooting the breeze with a colleague. Obviously, Spencer would prefer the former to the latter.

“Jesus, kid. I’m going to take a wild guess and say that girl of yours didn’t make it home, after all. You okay?”

The guilty feeling returns and Spencer cringes. “Uh, define ‘okay.’”

Derek curses on the other end of the line. “I’m sorry, kid. Try not to beat yourself up about it, okay? There’s plenty of fish in the sea, you’ve just gotta put yourself out there. How’s this; you and me will go out next weekend and bar hop. I’ll teach you some Derek Morgan tricks of the trade. Soon enough, you’ll have forgotten all about her.”

“I don’t know, that might be hard.” Spencer scratches the back of his neck. “She’s asleep on my couch right now.”

A long stretch of silence comes from the other end of the line, and Spencer thinks for a moment that the call dropped. Unfortunately, he isn’t that lucky. A booming laugh erupts from the speaker and makes him jump out of his skin.

“My man!” Derek laughs, incredulous. “I didn’t think you had it in you, I’ll be honest.”

“It’s not what you think-”

“How did you manage that? Did the Good Doctor make a grand romantic gesture? Damn, I really hate that I missed that.”

“No, there were no gestures. And it’s not-”

Derek cuts him off. Again. “How’d she take the news? I’m assuming she took it well, if she stayed the night.”

“I didn’t tell her anything!” Spencer spits out, frustrated. “I… I told her I was sick. She came over to take care of me, and we fell asleep on the couch.”

Spencer’s proclamation is met with another long silence.

“So, you sabotaged the date?”

Spencer winces. “I did not sabotage it. I just… manipulated the situation a little.”

“Oh, you certainly did,” Derek chuckles. “How did you pull that off? I’ve seen you try to lie. That shit is laughable.”

Spencer opens his mouth to defend himself, but the pitter patter of socked feet approaching him from behind has his mouth running dry.

“Yeah, Spencer. How did you pull that off?”

Spencer had been correct in his earlier assumptions. The inevitable moment in which you called him out on his shit has arrived, and it’s every bit as mortifying as he expected. So mortifying that he can practically feel the blood drain from his face. And the thing is that he knows he deserves whatever you’re about to throw his way… it’s just that the thought of you being angry with him kind of makes him want to cry. And that would only add to the mortification.

He turns around slowly, his body rigid, until he’s met with the adorably rumpled vision of you with your arms crossed and your hair sticking up in all directions.

Spencer’s never seen anything quite so mesmerizing, and it hurts because he knows he’s ruined everything. He’ll never get to watch another scary movie with you tucked neatly against his side, or wake up in your arms again. He’ll never get to kiss you.

And the worst of all; Spencer will never get to tell you how he really feels. It’s a crying shame, because he thinks he could have been really good at loving you.

“Hey, Derek, I gotta go.”

Spencer presses the end call button and immerses himself in what has to be the most awkward stand-off of all time. You stand there, arms crossed, head cocked to the side with one hip jutted out. Spencer isn’t sure how you manage to look intimidating and endearing at the same time. He supposes the fuzzy socks are to blame.

Minutes pass, but they feel like hours. Spencer is approximately three seconds away from dropping to his knees and groveling when you finally speak.

“You sabotaged my date.”

Spencer lets out a strangled laugh. Perhaps humor is the way to go? It couldn’t hurt to try. In his opinion, the situation couldn’t possibly get any worse. “I think sabotage is a strong word. I prefer the term obstruct.”

You let loose a laugh of your own, but this one holds no humor. “And I prefer keeping the company of people who don’t lie to me.” Okay, maybe it can get worse.

Spencer visibly deflates. It was a stupid idea. He’s never been a funny guy.

“I am so, so, so incredibly sorry.” Sorry for lying to you, that is. Spencer isn’t in the least bit apologetic for ruining your date. Given the chance, he’d do it again - in a more tactful way, of course. Preferably, in such a way that didn’t involve him laying in his bathroom floor. 

Spencer attempts to take a step forward, only to be rooted to the spot when you fix him with a look. He’s not funny but he is smart – smart enough to know better than to push it. 

“Why did you do it?”

Spencer was really hoping you wouldn’t ask that.

“I-I…”

Apparently, an eidetic memory doesn’t stand a chance when it comes to confrontations involving pretty girls. One quirk of an immaculately plucked eyebrow and Spencer loses the ability to recall a single word of the English language. It’s tragic, really.

“Spit it out, Spencer.”

“I didn’t want you to go on the date.” It’s like ripping off a band aid, the way the words tumble from his lips. It’s painless at first, but then the sting sets in when he realizes what he’s done. 

Your lack of reaction doesn’t help. Your face remains passive, as if he didn’t just offer himself to you on a silver platter. Spencer squirms uncomfortably.

“Why didn’t you want me to go on the date?”

God, this is excruciating. You’re clearly out for blood, and the twinkle in your eye shows just how much you’re enjoying this. Spencer would have never taken you for a sadist.

“Because…” Spencer trails off and allows his eyes to drift closed. If he’s going to do this, he’s going to do it his way. With his eyes closed, because he can’t bear the thought of looking you in the eye when you reject him. “B-Because I like you. A lot.”

Spencer hasn’t had a lot of practice at being wrong. In fact, he’s spent the majority of his life being right. It seems the universe is making up for that now, because he can’t seem to get a single goddamn thing right today.

You laugh at him. You actually laugh in his face. Mortified doesn’t even begin to cover it. 

“You like me.” It isn’t a question.

Spencer keeps his eyes shut tight.

“Y-Yeah.”

You know how they say if you take away one of a person’s senses, all of the others are heightened? Spencer couldn’t disagree more. In the midst of his despair, he’s completely unaware that you’ve crossed the room and are now standing directly in front of him until you speak again.

“Well, that’s rather unfortunate,” you sigh. Spencer inhales a sharp breath when he realizes you’re close enough to touch. Still, he keeps his eyes closed.

“Uh, why is that?”

Spencer nearly jumps out of his skin when your hand reaches up and caresses the side of his jaw.

“Because, Spencer,” you murmur, silky and sweet. “I was hoping you just might love me.”

Spencer’s eyes fly open and he’s greeted by a lazy, contented smile. It’s similar to the one that greeted him when he opened his front door on that very first day, but it’s better somehow. Later reflection will determine that it’s better because it’s the kind of smile reserved just for him. And that’s all he’s ever wanted, really.

“W-What?”

“You heard me.” You tilt your head up and rest your palm on Spencer’s chest. His heartbeat is erratic, thundering hard against his ribcage. He’d surely be embarrassed if he wasn’t about to faint from shock. “Do you love me, Spencer Reid?”

Spencer doesn’t even have to think twice.

“More than anything.”

“Good.” Your thumb brushes across the apple of his cheek, eliciting a full body shudder. “I was beginning to think you would never catch up.”

Spencer must be hallucinating. That, or this is all a dream and any second now his alarm is going to go off. He subtly pinches himself on the thigh to test the theory. You can imagine his surprise when nothing changes. He doesn’t wake up in a pile of his own drool, and now the skin on his thigh stings.

“You . . . You like me, too?”

You shake your head. “No, Spencer. I love you, too. Why do you think I bake you cookies and spend all of my free time in your apartment?”

“Because my couch is better than yours?” Spencer deadpans.

“I mean, that certainly doesn’t hurt. But it’s not the only reason.”

“What about the vet?” It must be his guilty conscious talking, because Spencer cannot conjure up any other reason he has for asking such a moronic question. He, personally, could not care less about the vet. Full offense intended.

“Cameron is a nice guy, sure,” you trail off. Spencer doesn’t miss the way your eyes drift down to his lips before returning to his eyes. “But he’s not really my type.”

“And what is your type, exactly?” A giddy grin finds its way to Spencer’s face. He’s notorious for being chronically clueless, but even the master of imperception himself can see where this is going. 

You snort, and it’s adorable. “Liars, apparently.”

It’s impossible to determine who moves first, but that doesn’t really matter. What does matter is the end result of Spencer’s lips colliding with yours. It’s earth-shatteringly lovely; slow and sweet and tentative. There’s no rushing, no frantic fumbling of hands. Just the reverent drag of your lips against his, warm and intoxicating. 

Spencer eventually regains the use of his limbs and when he does, he’s snaking one arm around your waist as the other entangles itself in your wonderfully unruly hair. 

You sigh a happy sigh against his lips and Spencer’s heart soars. In a completely unforeseen turn of events, the possibility of more lazy Sunday mornings is now back on the table. Thank God he’s better at lying than he gave himself credit for. 

God, and Derek Morgan’s meddling ass. 

-

-

-

#spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x you #spencer reid self insert #spencer reid #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid fanfiction #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds fanfiction #spencer x reader #spencer reid fluff

[damnredthing]

Trailer tsunami

With all the character trailers in the recent days, I am sure a lot of fans are super hyped up now. I’ve already seen a bunch of screencaps, gifs, videos, tweets and whatnot. So, I try to approach the trailers a bit differently and just point out what I noticed after I watched them for the second and third time. Plus some thoughts about Pike in the end. My observations are in no specific order, they just follow my scatterbrained pattern.

Caution: Long post (no wonder after so many trailers!)

Uniform chatter – continued

The male skant is back. If you are very observant, you might have noticed a guy wearing a skant during the wedding scene in Pike’s promo trailer:

Where is waldo?

(I brightened the pic up a bit so you can see it better)

You actually don’t even have to ruin your eyes to find a guy in a skant. I think Chief Kyle (played by André Dae Kim) is wearing one in the Hemmer promo trailer:

There seems to be a variant for the male version, with black shoulder accents (which are missing on the female ones and also on the male one from the wedding scene). 

Looks like the shoulder accents go all the way down the upper arm for the male version. Or maybe it’s also a onesie (see blelow). Also, seems Kyle is an Ensign (no stripes and no cadet badge).

Cadet uniform gives me serious Star Trek Online vibes:

This looks almost like the default uniform in STO.

New tactical vest now shows divisions. In Discovery, the tactical vest was black for everyone, in SNW the tactical vest has an armor plating in the color matching the division of the wearer. So Pike’s is gold while La’an’s in red:

Gotte love me some Pike in action…

Away team combat armor. Apparently an away team expecting trouble doesn’t just beam down with an armored tactical vest. A light full body armor completes the combat gear. It looks water resistant, seems to be a tight fit and comes with a very cool Starfleet badge on the upper arm (cosplayers will be so busy):

I am not sure if this armor is capable of producing a space helmet.

The EV suits seem to look differently:

They also come in the divisional colors, but they seem more shiny and they have the Starfleet logo on top of the plate. At least in La’an’s case.

Uhura’s EV suit somehow doesn’t show the logo.

While Hemmer’s does. BTW, I like the detail of Hemmer wearing the hood. We do know that Andorian/Aenar’s tentacles regrow, but why risking them being cut off by activating the helmet if you can avoid it? 

Interestingly, Spock’s EV suit is all black:

Or the lighting is just so unwelcoming to the color blue…

Away team jacket. I am not sure what the rules are for the away team to wear armor or just the jacket. Maybe they wear the jacket if they do not expect (that much) trouble. Whatever the reason, I absolutely love the jackets. They also seem to be adaptable depending on the weather. They either come as a normal jacket:

Or they are more suitable for cold/rainy weather and come with an attached hood:

The awesome patch is also on the jacket.

This jacket definitely deserves more observation. When zipped up, you can see some V-pattern on the chest:

I also love the scarfs that work so well with the overall outfit:

And snow goggles…

Captain’s quarters

We actually get to see quite a bit of the Captain’s quarters. 

Pike’s quarters are HUGE! And he has a chimney??? On a starship? How does that even work? Also… Pike actually looks tired here.

Yep, it is a chimney!

Such huge quarters… looks like a megasuite!

Kitchen in the Captain’s quarters!

Big kitchen!

Chapel’s onesie. It’s neither a skant nor a jacket and pants. Chapel is actually wearing a onesie:

And she rocks it!

Pike channels his inner Elvis.

Or Johnny Bravo… (I’m sorry Anson!).

Everything is new on the Enterprise?

Pike’s crew seems to be partly renewed. La’an and M’Benga introduce themselves to Pike, while Pike welcomes Uhura and Chapel aboard the ship (sorry, I have no screencaps for that).

Also, we see the Enterprise leaving spacedock:

I’m not sure if they are repairing the damages from the season 2 finale of Discovery when the Enterprise looked like this:

They also showed in Discovery how the Enterprise was repaired. So maybe this is another visit to the spacedock.

Either way, with Enterprise being out of commission for repairs/refitting it would also match Pike’s timeout/vacation and allowing him to channel his inner Santa (sorry again, Anson!).

Additional badge for Ortegas.

I am not sure what it is, but at one point in her trailer Lt. Ortegas is wearing an additional badge above the normal Starfleet badge:

Patient’s name

The patient’s name is Rukiya. According to IMDB, Rukiya will show up for at least 3 episodes in season 1. Interesting!

Pike pondering his fate

The first teaser with Pike hiding in the back of beyond already hinted at his inner fight. What does knowing your fate do to you? In Discovery he seemed fine in the season 2 finale. Granted, with the fight against Control there wasn’t much time to think about his own fate. But later when Spock returned to the bridge all shaved and in uniform, Pike seemed happy to see him and he looked fine.

However, this doesn’t mean he is doing fine all the time. I can speak from experience. You can still function and even appear to other people completely like your normal self, while in truth you are deeply troubled inside.

I often hear critics about the new Star Trek shows, how giving all characters a troubled background is “lazy writing”. For Pike it all makes sense though. “Through the Valley of Shadows” IMO is one of the most important episodes of all Star Trek because it defines what Pike is all about. It adds to the explanation why he became one of the most decorated Star Fleet officers and even has a medal of valor named after him. But if you show such an episode, it should also be clear to the audience that such a fate cannot have no effect on the person.

I like that the writers let Pike question himself. He is apparently unsure what to do with this firm knowledge of his fate (which in part he misinterprets, but I’ll get to that in a bit). Will he take bigger risks? Or will it makes him hesitant? We’ll have to wait and find out.

The fact that he consults Spock is also interesting. It pays into their close friendship as it is revealed later in the TOS episodes “The Menagerie”. Spock is risking his life and career for Pike. There must be a reason why he feels so close to Pike. So, Pike telling Spock about his fate makes sense. But maybe this wasn’t so voluntarily. We already know of 2 people on board who are able to read minds, Spock himself and also the Aenar Hemmer. Or maybe Spock confronted Pike after he acted not his usual self or risked himself unnecessarily. We don’t know yet.

Will Pike keep this knowledge throughout the entire show? Or could we see another “Requiem for Methuselah” in SNW?

There is a problem with Pike knowing his fate. If he knows his fate, he knows he cannot die before that moment of his vision comes. That could lead him to risk his life way too often even to the point where he unintentionally also risks the ship and crew.

This leads me to his partly misinterpreted vision. He says he knows exactly how and when his life is going to end. I am not sure how exactly he concludes the “when”. All he knows is that he’ll be a fleet captain and he’ll be on a cadet vessel. But he does not know when he’ll be promoted and he does not know when he’ll be on that vessel.

We already know that the accident will not end his life. However, for him there is no way of knowing that because the time crystal didn’t show him what is going to happen after the accident. His conclusion that his life is ending makes sense for him. He does know what the explosion was. He does know that his initial injuries were just some burns. And he does know that he later becomes defaced and wheelchair bound with lung support. So it makes totally sense for him to believe he was poisoned by delta radiation and his body is going to deteriorate even further to the point until all his organs will fail and he’ll die.

From his point of view he knows he’ll die. That makes a huge difference to knowing that you’ll be disabled. What are you going to do with your life in the here and now if you know in maybe 10 years tops you’ll be dead? Do you still allow yourself to fall in love with someone (or admit your love to say... Vina), knowing your partner will grieve for you? Do you still have life goals? Do you still allow yourself to enjoy things, knowing it’s possibly the last time you’re doing it or you’re simply questioning the sense?

I actually hope for another Requiem for Methuselah; I wouldn’t want to see Pike fighting his inner demons throughout the entire show. But that is just my humble opinion.

And congrats if you read thus far. You are more patient than I am. :P

#Strange New Worlds #SNW #Trailers #Christopher Pike #Captain Pike #Anson Mount #Uhura #Spock #Hemmer #Nurse Chapel #Enterprise #NCC 1701 #just my observations