#the outlaws AU is one of my favourites though

[fidgetspringer]

- Marten & Nohren -

#digital art #illustration #art #cowboys #original characters #my art #thought I might as well slap some colour on this now since i'll be away this week #i've got so many ideas floating around my head for story stuff I want to draw for these two #i've been writing them for almost a year now and i have a bunch of different AUs i'm excited to make designs for #the outlaws AU is one of my favourites though #excited to see how their designs change as i get more confident with drawing people #i'm not gonna info dump about them too much i think. I'll probably just let the story unfold trough the illustrations etc #cause idk if anyone's interested in the story stuff. i'm happy to answer if anyone asks stuff though #but the short version is that they grew up in the same town but didn't really get to know each other until later #Marten has a bad accident that leaves him bedridden for over a year while his father hides his condition out of shame #so Nohren takes a job as a hand at their ranch and figures out which room they're keeping Marten locked in #they become good friends and Nohren visits him in secret for almost two years while helping Marten regain some mobility #they take up the outlaw life after Nohren is seen with another man in town and decides he's better off getting out of dodge #Marten is torn about leaving the ranch behind but he comes along eventually #that's the very basic gist of it #they good kiddos #Marten #Nohren #Outlaws AU

[seonghwaddict]

ateez fic recs!

🧸 lilo’s notes! here is a collection of works that i loved and thought everyone should read! works marked with a bear emoji are some of my favs. i’ll be updating the list, of course. this list contains both sfw and nsfw content, minors please interact accordingly.

hongjoong

he’s kinda hot — @ohmyamor

“After a decent run with your boyfriend, you finally decide to end it when his paranoia becomes too much. Except, maybe he wasn’t crazy. And now you have demon who refuses to leave you alone.”

demon!hongjoong, fem!reader, fluff, slight angst, please see content warning before reading, suggestive

lilo’s notes! i absolutely love demon!atz aus and i can testify that this is definitely one of my favs. everything about this was absolutely fantastic and i may or may not revisit it every few weeks

you’re hongjoong’s bias — @jnginlov

“when you and your group go on idol radio to promote your latest comeback, you don’t anticipate one of the hosts to be completely enraptured by you”

idol au, fluff, gn!reader

lilo’s notes! listen… idol aus are usually not my cup of tea (though several fics on here prove that wrong), but this is absolutely one of the cutest things i’ve read.

seonghwa

new horizons — @fivestar-outlaw

“Attempting an all-nighter while playing Animal Crossing alongside your bias, you didn't expect your turnip prices to be such a high amount... nor did you expect Park Seonghwa to actually accept your offer to sell his turnips on your island.”

completed series, FLUFF, idol!hwa x nonidol!fem!reader, nsfw

lilo’s notes! EEEEEEE THIS FIC IS SO CUTEEEEEE

🧸 honest (but happy) accident — @ad0rechuu

uni student!hwa, gn!reader, fluff, slice of life

lilo’s notes! y’all are gonna get so sick of me cuz you’re gonna see multiple of zero’s fics on here. jokes aside, this is genuinely so fucking cute i was rolling around and giggling while reading it.

🧸 12:25 time of love — @jaehunnyy

kindergarten teacher!hwa, mom!reader, meet cute, fluff

lilo’s notes! imagining seonghwa in a job like that genuinely makes me so soft. whenever i’m in that Emotional mood i like to read this.

🧸 impressionism — @hwaightme

“a post-graduate student specialising in impressionism, you were a regular visitor to the many art galleries in the city. who knew that among the paintings you would encounter your favourite, timeless work of art?”

vampire!gallerist!hwa x art historian!gn!reader, fluff, soulmates

lilo’s notes! as an art history nerd, this fic is so beautiful especially when combined with a vampire au like AHHHH some of my fav things in one fic

yunho

early hours — @honeyhotteoks

“you run into him in the hallway of the hotel, it's late and you're exhausted from the concert, but he thinks you should grab a drink and you can't help but agree”

idol!yunho x nonidol!fem!reader, one night stand, nsfw, some fluff

lilo’s notes! HDJSJDJSJKF the way this had me glued to my phone and giggling should be studied.

🧸 principia and opticks — @bro-atz

“you're struggling with a specific class that's required for your major; but, luckily, your professor, professor jeong, has no problem helping you out outside of class” // “you and professor jeong yunho decided to continue your relationship secretly, only to almost get caught one day”

professor!yunho x student!reader (legal), nsfw, fluff

lilo’s notes! don’t judge me but i think professor x student (COLLEGE. LEGAL.) is such a good trope it’s always gonna have me running laps around my room.

bottle service — @bro-atz

“all yunho wants to do is fuck the bottle girl's brains out.”

big dick!yunho x small!afab!reader, nsfw

lilo’s notes! i have nothing to say for myself other than size kinks are hot. even more so when it’s related to yunho

christmas dinner — @a1sh1teruu

“it didn't just end with one dinner.”

ceo!yunho x secretary!fem!reader, fluff

lilo’s recs! THIS WAS WRITTEN FOR ME AGHHHHHHHH i love it so much i think about it at least once a week

🧸 summer nights — @honeyhotteoks

“he's your best friend and roommate, but during the heat of summer and the confinement of quarantine, you just can't seem to help yourselves.”

roommate!yunho, nsfw, fluff

lilo’s notes! i reread this yesterday and realised there’s a sequel. TRUST i will be devouring that as soon as i can

track 3: cyber sex — @highvern

whipped loser!yunho x camgirl!reader, nsfw

lilo’s notes! STOPPIJDIDJ yunho was so cute and shy in this i wanted to scream into a pillow

yeosang

🧸 lessons in intimacy — @honeyhotteoks

“you didn’t mean to actually meet the man who’s audio porn was single handedly getting you off every night, but you do”

camboy!yeo, nsfw, fluff

lilo’s notes! absolute perfection this was so sjsjjcjsjd i could feel myself slowly losing my mind

evolve — @nebulousbrainsoup

“more often than not, a life lived in Night City is carefully crafted, slotted firmly between preapproved lines—or it is if you value keeping it. whispers of freedom float just beyond the city's neon lights, and it's only through a chance encounter with the most unlikely of characters that you finally start to hear them.”

biker!yeosang x fem!reader, fluff, nsfw, some angst

lilo’s notes! despite it being 12k words i gobbled it up in a single sitting which is crazy tbh, it didn’t feel that long at all and i was so invested

san

🧸 prelude in e minor — @bro-atz

“your brain tells you to focus on your education, but your heart tells you to focus on professor choi”

professor!san, CELLIST!san, nsfw, angst

lilo’s notes! back at it with the professor aus yupppp y’all know me so well. i felt so many emotions while reading this i thought i was gonna go insane.

mingi

🧸 slowly, i’m going down — @yutasbellybuttonpiercing

“mingi hates studying, but what he hates way more than that is being perceived as stupid. what mingi loves on the other hand, are pretty people getting flustered about his voice or mingi shows you exactly what he hates and loves.”

college au, tutor!reader, nsfw

lilo’s notes! not only was this written so well, but it was so fucking entertaining. mingi is just so silly in this i love it.

angel eyes — @binniesbang

“Yunho teases Mingi when he trips over his words infront of a girl, he needs a little loving to make it better:((“

coffee shop au, fluff, comfort

lilo’s notes! AHHHHHHHH sobbing crying screaming this was so cute and soft i love this mingi

🧸 untitled — @teasteeper

“kissing practice with your best friend mingi”

best friend!mingj x fem!reader, nsfw

lilo’s notes! GRRRSGHDJDJD OH MY GOD mingi you ain’t slick at all- anyways, my turn when?

wooyoung

ribbon — @wooyoungmybelovedhusband

“You just love Wooyoung's dick, and maybe you wanted to make it look pretty like it truly is.”

daddy!wooyoung, nsfw

lilo’s notes! they be fucking but somehow it’s so??? cute?? really enjoyed this one 10/10

spiderman! — @cherrysoojins

“being spider-man comes with a lot advantages, but those advantages can have their disadvantages. like jung wooyoung not being able to show up to study groups to be able to see the girl he’s crushing on big-time.”

spiderman!wooyoung, smau + written, fluff, angst, crack. ongoing(?) series, last updated: july 7th, 2023

lilo’s notes! this was actually such a cute and fun fic and i really wished there were more chapters :c

backstage rockin’ — @a1sh1teruu

“after a late night of practice with the band, and with you lounging in the background. when his friends finally left, he couldn’t keep his hands to himself any longer.”

bandmate!wooyoung, nsfw

lilo’s notes! i think this was THE fic that awakened my love for bassists, that’s how good it was. zerda’s writing always has me giggling

jung wooyoung’s superpower — @ad0rechuu

best friend!wooyoung, fluff fluff fluff

lilo’s notes! ik i’ve probably said this a lot but this is ACTUALLY one of the cutest fics i’ve ever read i adore it so much

🧸 i’m just bein’ curious — @teeskz

“in which your friend wooyoung invites you over for a movie night”

pervy best friend!woooyung, nsfw

lilo’s notes! it’s short but if i said this didnt awaken something in me, i’d be lying. i reread it this morning and that’s what made me start this rec list

jongho

🧸 adorable — @i-luvsang

frenemy!jongho, gn!reader one bed trope, fluff, comedy

lilo’s notes! AHHHHH I LOVE RIA’S WRITING SO SO SO MUCH fluff by ria is genuinely so djdjdjsjd it’s got me giggling

untitled — @nateezfics

nsfw, fluff

lilo’s notes! i’m sorry but idc if they’re going at it, it’s so cute and soft?? they’re just so silly

multi

🧸 milky way — @ad0rechuu

“It’s not everyday that your friends childhood friend turns out to be the girl that you literally have a fan account for, but for Seonghwa, San and Mingi it’s become a reality. being able to get close to your bias is great! even if she does have a raging crush on someone else…”

fanboys!hwasangi x idol!reader, smau + written, fluff, angst, suggestive, slow burn. completed series, 60 chapters + 3 different endings

lilo’s notes! i will never not be grateful that this series exists. it’s funny, cute, and angsty and i absolutely love it with my whole heart. i think it’s one of the first fics i read on tumblr, so it’s really special to me + i think this was part of the reason i got close to my lovely zero

🧸 blurred lines and lies — @yuyusuyu

the synopsis is really long

best friend!yeosang x fem!reader x best friend!jongho, love triangle, romance, slice of life, angst. completed series, 10 chapters + 2 different endings

lilo’s notes! words cannot describe how i felt reading this but i think it’s comparable to going through every stage of grief possible plus more. genuinely, one of the best fics i’ve ever read

strawberry mocha — @pirateprincessblog

“your favorite café has a new barista, and he seems oddly familiar, especially when you see his hands move when he prepares your favourite beverage”

barista!camboy!wooyoung x fem!reader, ft yunho, nsfw, angst

lilo’s notes! my thought process while reading was a cycle of “oh my god” and “what the fuck” in the BEST way possible. the writing is so good i wanted to reach through the screen a smack some characters, and hug some others

clair de lune — @atzfilm

“you’ve finally gotten the chance to enter “clair de lune”, a infamous night club to see the band hiraeth. but why did you feel like their eyes only watched you?”

yandere!ot8 x fem!reader, angst, fluff, nsfw. completed series, 8 chapters.

lilo’s notes! so iconic. if you haven’t read this, you better and that’s a threat.

murphy’s law — @atzfilm

“according to murphy’s law, everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Black holes circle each other until they collide and merge, a cataclysm so fierce, sends ripples soaring through the fabric, crossing thousands of kilometers within a fraction of a second, leaving behind a wave on the space-time continuum. That’s the simplest way you can describe meeting him. And yet, even that is an understatement.”

alien!ot8, multi x fem!reader (not ot8), soulmate au, fluff, angst, nsfw, check other warnings. completed series, 5 chapters.

lilo’s notes! another iconic fic by an iconic writer, we love to see it

mists of celeste — @hongism

“Sneaking aboard the ship of a renowned space pirate may not have been the best idea, but you’ll have to make do with what fate has handed to you.”

space pirate!ateez, multiple pairings, angst, fluff, nsfw, check other warnings. ongoing series, 49 chapters + additional content

lilo’s notes! i’m pretty sure everyone on tumblr who reads atz fics has seen this one at some point and it definitely deserves its hype. this is probably one of the best, well thought-out fics i’ve ever read and i believe it can definitely be considered better than many published books

🧸 hotel california and paradise gardens — @mint-yooxgi

“You can check out any time you’d like, but you can never leave.” // “Eternity means nothing if I don’t have you.”

yandere!demon!ot8 x fem!reader, horror, fluff, angst, nsfw, check other warnings. complete fic, 42 chapters combined

lilo’s notes! yeah i reread this every few months and i’m not ashamed to admit i’m obsessed with it.

outlaw miniseries — @hongism

individual parts for each member/unit, nsfw with a side of fluff and angst. ongoing series, 4/6 chapters

lilo’s notes! hi no i won’t shut up about hongism i think ive read everything she’s published and if i didn’t want to make this list diverse i would’ve just put a link to her masterlist and called it a day. seriously, highly recommended. my fav on this is the 2ho one.

from storm to sunrise — @ad0rechuu

“you and your boyfriend yunho wake up to find your other boyfriend mingi no where to be found”

fem!reader x bfs!yuyu and mingi, fluff, mild angst

lilo’s notes! zero try not to write something i’ll fall in love challenge, go! oh no you already failed because everything by user ad0rechuu is a masterpiece

🧸 hooked — @songmingisthighs

“A freshman hookup rekindled into something new. With an incentive, of course. But what would happen if your ‘relationship’ led you somewhere you never thought would happen to you?”

ot8 x fem!reader, smau + written, college au, fluff, crack, nsfw. completed series, 91 chapters

lilo’s notes! this is also one of the first fics i read on tumblr!! it’s definitely one of my all-time favs and it’s just such a fun read

🧸 unconventional first encounters with ateez — @bluehwale

ot8 headcanon, fluff, humour

lilo’s notes! i also reread this occasionally, the humour tag really is accurate

hongwooho — @yourfatherlucifer

idols!hongjoong, wooyoung, jongho x fem!reader, nsfw

lilo’s notes! the first time i read this (and all the times after that) i was giggling and rolling around on my bed. this kind if scenario is something i’d LOVE LOVE LOVE to see more of

sway with me — @luvt0kki

“former noble turned space pirate, wooyoung was now part of one of the most revered and hunted group of pirates of the galaxy. sure he’s only known them for six months but there’s only so much you could do in a ship when you travel from one planet to the next. the ship was their home, his home… and the members of this crew were friends that he felt he was fated to meet. // but he hasn’t met one person of the crew… and he didn’t know that.”

ot8 x fem!reader, space pirate au, nsfw, fluff. ongoing series, 5/?? chapters + 1 interlude

lilo’s notes! i gobbled the posted chapters up in a single sitting and it was honestly sososo good 10/10 recommend. i can definitely see this being added to my favs as soon as it’s done!

🧸 ¡arriba! — @teeskz

“being a bookworm, you’re used to your regular schedule of simply studying, eating, oh, and the occasional sleeping. it isn’t until one night, you find yourself at the wrong place at the wrong time, and soon get swept up in one of the craziest games you’ve ever heard. in hindsight, maybe you should’ve declined. but it was only supposed to last for one night. one, dirty night.”

hongjoong, yunho, san, mingi, wooyoung x fem!reader, college au, nsfw, part of a series (“T!TS UP”)

lilo’s notes! NO YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND I WAS GAGGEDDDDDD the way i had to pause multiple times to cool off while reading this it was so hot and something i didn’t know i needed in my life until i found it

#ꔫ — › LILO’S REC LIST

[moanz111]

final round - choi san

🥊 pairing: boxer/fighter!choi san x boxing coach!gn!reader

🥊 genre: angst, fluff, strangers to lovers, dystopian au

🥊 summary: surviving in a city of outlaws has never been easy, with your days filled with emptiness and fear, and your only comfort being the weekly boxing matches in an underground club. but when you accidentally meet san, promising you a new beginning, your whole world is about to turn upside down.

🥊 featuring: biker!hwa; biker!yeosang; boxing coach/manager!wooyoung; cowboy(????)!mingi; oc!jay

🥊 wc: 5.9 k

🥊 warnings/tags: english is not my native language so there can be mistakes; descriptions of fighting/injuries/bleeding; setting is inspired by ateez's lore and the outlaw album (it's not accurate, just took some details from it, terminology can be inaccurate); use of pet names (angel); reader has an older brother; jay (reader's friend) doesn't represent any real person; there can be inaccuracies about boxing (i tried my best); mentions of guns/shooting (no one is harmed!!); repressive government; mentions of loss of family members/friends; reader is a bartender too; descriptions of kissing; lmk if i've missed something

credits for all the used graphics belong to their rightful owners!

🥊 note: happy (late) birthday to one of my favourite artists and people, sannie!

after all, i decided to post this fic even though i'm on a break lmao i feel a little bit more comfortable with posting it now and am doing better! and also i just couldn't wait to share this with you so...

i had so much fun writing this and got so inspired by ateez's album that i just had to do something about it. i'm trying a different genre this time so i hope you enjoy reading it!!

also, i'm super awkward when writing kissing scenes, help.

any form of feedback is greatly appreciated so don't be shy to reblog with your thoughts, comment or send me an ask! it really means a lot to me and keeps me motivated!

Sweat dripped down your forehead, tickling your chin and neck as you gripped tightly the ring ropes, lunging your body forward with excitement. Even though you’d never admit it out loud, the adrenaline running through your veins during the intense boxing matches you attended every weekend made you feel more alive than ever. The way the two boxers threw fierce punches at each other was not exactly abiding by the game’s rules but no one around you seemed to care or even notice. 

Living in a world where tomorrow might never come, these were the only moments you could be your most authentic self without the mask of acquiescence on. This world was sick, filled with horrors and demons, haunting you even in your dreams and watching your every step. However, this world was beautiful too, filled with secretly exchanged hopeful glances and little reasons to look up at the grey sky, praying better days would come. 

What you were doing right now - smiling, screaming, the sole act of feeling was illegal but the thrill that filled your body was something you were willing to risk your life for. You had made your decision a long time ago - the rules didn’t matter to you anymore. 

“A win for Black Serpent,” you heard the referee shout in an attempt to fight the hundreds of voices, drowning his own as the champion threw his red boxing gloves at the public. Blue and purple marks painted his features and his almost closed left eye was swollen but the triumphant grin plastered on his face told you, as usual, his injuries were not one of his problems. 

Such a show-off, you thought when your friend waved at you from the ring, flexing his biceps proudly. It wasn’t surprising to you that he won tonight’s match. During the few years you’d known Jay, you’d never seen him lose. Having been a professional competitor in the past, as he had told you when you first met, the underground club’s matches were his way to escape the harsh reality and remember the good old times. 

Plus, you’d seen the bags full of cash from bets after a successful night. After all, that was why you had become his “accomplice” or as he liked referring to you - his devil accountant. The job was simple enough and you didn’t mind the extra income - working as a bartender at the local bar came with its perks but with the money you made you could never possibly afford a place of your own, neither did it give you the comfort you could run away one day from this awful blackhole. So you gladly kept track of the bets for Jay’s matches and sometimes you even helped him train as you knew a thing or two about boxing yourself.

Tonight was no different. As you pushed your way through the crowd, collecting the bills, you saw a lot of familiar faces who greeted you warmly. At least some of them. Others - weren’t so friendly, swearing and even refusing to give you the money, overcome by anger after losing, but they knew better than to test you. No one wanted Jay’s wrath upon them. 

“I think you forgot about me, angel,” you heard a raspy voice behind you just as you were about to call it a day and go to the locker room where Jay was waiting for you. Turning around, you were, to say the least confused. The man before you wore a grey hoodie over his head, hiding his features, and matching sweatpants, looking nothing like the usual visitors of the fight club. He was tall but muscular - you could see it even though his baggy clothes left much to the imagination. His broad shoulders and confident stance told you he was much more than he led you to believe. Was he another competitor? 

Looking down at his stretched-out hand, you saw a few bills folded in his palm. A cat-like smirk formed on your lips. “Though night for you, huh?” “I don’t like voting in favour of my biggest competition,” the man laughed as you took the money, writing down the amount in your notebook. Jay was going to be pleased with tonight’s profit which meant another celebration for him and another babysitting gig for you. 

However, the stranger’s words made you wonder what exactly his intention was. If he was telling the truth, then why bother betting if Jay was his next match? With his face engulfed in shadows and mystery, his aura alone sent shivers down your spine, alarming you for danger. Taking a step away from the man, you folded your arms before your chest. “What is your deal?”

He tilted his head to one side, regarding you quietly like a predator about to chase his next prey. Closing the distance between you in a matter of seconds, he leaned down to your right ear, whispering softly, his breath hot against your neck, “You’ll find out soon, angel.”

Still in a daze after your encounter with the stranger, you watched him pull away from you, shooting you one last mischievous smirk before diving into the crowd. Shaking your head, you let out a deep sigh. 

Trouble always found its way to you.

The deafening sound of the morning alarm, signaling it was time for everyone to go to work, rang in your ears as you walked to the bar where you worked during the day. The sun was still hiding under the horizon and the sky was painted in a mix of deep blue, purple, and orange. The streets were empty without a single soul in sight except you and the black stray cat that accompanied you every day on your way. It brought you a sense of comfort - to have a small friend by your side in these lonely times of the day. 

Forming genuine connections with other human beings was almost impossible. There were many stories about heartless betrayals, travelling from person to person in this city of outlaws. Today’s friend could easily turn into tomorrow's enemy. However, right now this place was your everything and all you could do is learn how to survive. You’d heard of other faraway cities where people had it way worse than you did and were much more repressed by the titanic power of the Guardians. Sometimes you were even grateful you were surrounded by outcasts and criminals rather than a white sea of masks, pointing guns at your face. 

Here, the inhabitants had found their ways of rebelling right under the government's nose without being noticed and the bar you were currently opening was one of their favourite places to do it. You'd witnessed hundreds of pieces of intel being exchanged for contraband and hundreds of unfulfilled plans for the future dying under the dim yellow lights. Still, no one gave up. That was the only rule everyone followed wholeheartedly - better surrender and lose your life than give up your dreams and hopes and become a dead man walking.

Pushing your thoughts away, you braced yourself for yet another day during which you had to take on the role of the oblivious bartender. Your job was to keep your mouth shut and eyes closed so when you saw one of your regulars enter the building, looking suspiciously around, you almost laughed.

“Good morning, Mingi,” you greeted him leaning on the broom you were swiping the floor with to take a proper look at him. His cowboy boots and hat, the usual, now shabby, long brown coat and the chains dangling at his neck as he walked slowly towards you gave away that he was meeting someone important today. The tall and lean man oozed confidence and threat just by standing and you were glad you were on his good side. 

You'd met Mingi on your very first day as a bartender and quickly developed a soft spot for him. You weren't aware of exactly what he was doing except sitting around with you and being a menace to your boss but there were dozens of wanted posters around the city, including on the wall behind the countertop you mixed beverages on. The portrait drawing sure did him justice and you'd always been perplexed as to how the Guardians hadn't caught him yet. 

In your eyes Mingi was good-natured and considerate, always asking about your day and throwing a joke or two to make you smile but you'd seen his nasty side too. That was why when he pulled out his pistol from his holster belt and placed it on top of the bar as he sat down on his usual spot, you felt shivers run down your spine. 

“Don't worry, Y/N,” said Mingi, turning to look at you with a reassuring smile. If you got paid every time you heard him say this before destroying everything and everyone on his way, you would've been a millionaire. Sighing heavily, you walked over to him to stand behind the bar and took his pistol in your hands. Earning a surprised squeal from the man, you shook your head.

“You're the reason I'm not getting paid, cowboy. The amount of repairs we’ve made in a month is insane.”

“I'm sorry,” Mingi answered with a pout. Your boss wasn't going to be happy he came here again. You could only imagine the old man's smile as he put up these wanted posters. Hell, if he could turn in Mingi himself, he would be on cloud nine. “But be careful and don't shoot anyone.”

“You worry about yourself,” you sighed and pointed behind him. A young man was entering the bar, humming an unknown-to-you melody and carrying a bag over his shoulder. Sunglasses hid his eyes and a grin showed off his dimples. 

“You didn't tell me your friend was such a beauty, Mingi,” the man whistled, eyeing you from head to toe after he removed his glasses, placing them on top of his head. You felt heat burn up your cheeks and you found it hard to hold his intense stare. Now being able to properly look at his face, some sort of recognition passed through your mind but you couldn't wrap your head around where you'd seen him before. 

As the newcomer sat down next to Mingi, you couldn't stifle your laugh this time. They reminded you of a comedic duo from the comic books you used to read as a child, now long gone and turned into ashes, with the newcomer dressed casually in a black and white shirt, the fabric flowing around his body and a few buttons undone, showing his collarbones, and Mingi in his “official” attire with a serious look on his face and furrowed brows. 

“Don't even think of laying a finger on Y/N, Wooyoung,” warned Mingi as your friend took out a white envelope from his coat’s pockets, handing it to the other man. A silent look, holding thousands of words, was exchanged by them before Wooyoung swiftly hid it under his shirt. “We can talk comfortably here. They won't say anything.”

“My lips are sealed,” you made a motion as if you locked them with a key and threw it in Wooyoung’s direction, earning a loud laugh from him.

“I like them. We should recruit them.”

“Absolutely no,” Mingi sternly refused, scolding both of you with a  glance. “Let's talk business now.”

Mindlessly washing the shot glasses and polishing them, you listened to the two men’s conversation, pretending none of what they said was surely granting them a death sentence. The images they described with pretty words and empty promises filled your heart with longing for a distant land where everything you'd ever dreamt of was real. 

Where there existed other sounds - other than your heartbeat and the screeching alarm.

Where you could look up at the sky and see the stars - not the brown clouds of dust and pain.

Where emotions like sorrow and fear were replaced by joy and comfort. 

So you listened and listened until you'd memorised every single sentence, hoping to dream of this new world tonight.

“The others will call for us soon. We just need to wait for a sign,” said Wooyoung, getting up from his seat and stretching his limbs. “San has a match tomorrow so if- no…when he wins, we'll have enough money for the next mission.” 

A match?

A lightbulb lit up at the back of your mind as your memories took you to last night’s events. The stranger's words made much more sense than before and you were pretty sure you'd seen Wooyoung, lurking in the shadows and grinning after Jay’s final victorious blow. Keeping this information to yourself, you remained silent even when Wooyoung gave you a knowing look. 

“His opponent is pretty tough and so is his coach…,” he trailed off, playing with his silver earrings, shimmering under the first morning rays. 

“Good luck then. I'll see you in a week,” Mingi answered, shaking his accomplice’s hand as he too got up to leave. Glancing at you, he placed a few bills on the counter, way too many than needed. “For the special service today.”

“You don't have to-”

“And a bet for Black Serpent.”

“Jerk,” whined Wooyoung, rolling his eyes and earning another warning look from Mingi to whom you returned the pistol you took earlier. “I look forward to our little dance tomorrow, Y/N.”

Giving you a playful wink, Wooyoung took his bag and trailed after Mingi who was already striding to the exit, talking about manners and social norms which you found amusing.

At least, he didn't vandalise property today.

“The underdog vs. the big champion, huh,” Jay hummed as he traced his finger over his opponent's name on the list, placed at the fight club’s entrance. The match was only a few hours away and unable to sleep from excitement, you'd dragged your friend to the ring to practice some extra time. You didn't know what kind of fighter San was but better be prepared than sorry later. The rumors about him going around in the underground club didn’t give you much information either - some said he was ruthless and vicious, others - just a showoff. One thing was sure though - he had an incredible win rate with his name at the top of the rank list at least once a month. 

“Isn't it a bit cocky to call yourself the big champion,” you teased Jay as you pushed him inside the locker room so he could change into his practice clothes. You noticed one other locker was closed and were curious who else would've come here at that time of the day. Only champions and their coaches were allowed in when there wasn't a match. 

“I know my worth, Y/N,” Jay sighed while rolling bandages over his wounded knuckles. The bruises from his last match were still visible on his body and you wondered if they ever healed. You also mentally noted he had cut his hair down to a buzzcut again. He was serious about tonight then. Not that you expected anything different. San was the only person who could challenge him for his title. “I'm not a loser.” 

“Sure, now get up. We have a lot of work to do.”

“Jay, cover-up,” you shouted while monitoring your friend’s warm-up match, feeling your nerves slowly getting to you. You weren't exactly surprised when you found out the other fighter in the club and Jay’s opponent was the stranger you’d met the other night and of course, Wooyoung was his cornerman and manager. 

San’s presence turned coaching Jay into a challenge, unlike any other time. His movements were practiced and calculated, his punches swift and precise. The white tank top he was wearing revealed his toned body and well-defined muscles and made you stare more than to your liking. His sharp features and handsome face mixed with his professionalism were a weapon San used well on the ring since you could see Jay was intimidated probably for the first time. Wooyoung’s annoyingly proud smile didn't help either.

Blood was dripping down San’s chin from a cut, gifted to him by Jay after one of his blows, and sweat formed on his forehead as he counterattacked, delivering a strong punch on your friend's face. Their match resembled a passionate and intimate dance that you weren't supposed to witness. Their pride and skills were on the line. 

“Parry, Jay,” you once again yelled and seconds later the final bell rang, putting an end to their spar before your friend could react, taking a painful hook from San. Getting up from your chair, you went up to the ring and handed Jay a water bottle which he splashed on his face with a groan. You praised yourself for taking your first aid kit before leaving your apartment. If he was so beaten up right now, you didn't want to imagine what both of them were going to look like by the end of the night.

“You sure know a lot about boxing, Y/N,” San said, breathing heavily as he took his gloves off, throwing them at Wooyoung. It was the first time he addressed you directly today and you were taken by surprise when he jumped off the ring, coming closer to you. His face was glistening and his brown eyes were burning with passion you'd never seen before. Sure, Jay enjoyed fighting but you knew it wasn't the same as it used to be for him. San, however, had the eagerness to learn and win as a newbie even though his skills made you believe he was as good as a coach. Maybe even better than most. “Where did you learn?”

“Let's say I'm very observant,” you answered quietly, trying to avert his attention away from you and the topic. Still, the sting in your heart, forming as memories flooded your mind reminded you of the past you were so willing to escape from. You could still smell the distinctive scent of your brother’s gloves. The thrill that came with each victory. The pain that filled your being after leaving your past life behind without looking back. What had even happened with your family and friends? Were they alive? Were they safe?

“I'd call this more than just “being observant”,” Wooyoung joined the conversation, pulling you out of your thoughts. He put his arm around your shoulders, squeezing them tightly and you whined. “We hit the jackpot, San.”

“What do you mean?” 

“We have an offer for you, Y/N.”

The next few months after the official match between San and Jay passed in a daze for you. Someone had to pinch you. Hard.

Wooyoung, you’d realised, was a gambling addict. There wasn't any other logical explanation behind his behaviour. Whatever you did or said, he turned into a bet out of which only one of you could emerge as a winner.

So just like that, after that practice match, he and San had made a proposal that was too difficult to decline and simple enough to follow. If San won, you'd coach him for his next matches and join their small group of outlaws. As they told you - they needed someone competent on their side. If Jay won, you'd go on your way and forget about it. Not that this was possible. 

You would've lied if you’d said you had been surprised when San delivered the final victorious blow that night. Secretly, you had hoped for this turn of events not much to your friend’s liking. While you were patching up his wounded and bleeding face, whispering comforting words, your betraying heart was accelerating with your mind plagued by thoughts of San. 

Today was no different. As you watched San practice his kicks on a punching bag in the fight club, you caught yourself blushing at one of his particularly precise deliveries. Boxing is my thing, I guess, you thought when he halted his movements to drink some water and pulled his tank top over his head, showing off his toned body.

Moments like this were routine for you at this point - just both of you sitting in silence, only his heavy breathing audible - him practicing and you observing. San’s progress was outstanding and this left you jobless - he didn’t need your directions anymore that much. You didn't feel the need to fill the space with small talk or pointless conversations when you were with him and thought of him as someone who had always been part of your life.

Intimidating at first glance, San was, in reality, the kindest person you had ever met. He cared deeply about the people he loved, always making sure to put them first above everything else. He was also thoughtful and considerate - attentive to everyone’s needs and was always there when you needed him the most. San brought you comfort unlike anyone else and you told him things you hadn't even dared before. Your relationship was progressing fast - with a lot of skipped steps, blurring the line between friends and lovers but you didn't mind. Labels weren't needed for you to feel what you did towards him. Not when you had so few opportunities to be together.

You two often daydreamed about this new world he and his friends liked talking about. He wanted to stop fighting - hurting people was what he hated doing the most but their group needed the money desperately. There was no other choice for him but to sacrifice himself every day. San, instead, wanted to build a home for his loved ones and create a safe space for them where they could be together and where he could protect them.

“You can't protect everyone, San”, you had told him the day he shared his plans with you while both of you were sitting on the cold floor of the locker room, shoulder to shoulder. His proximity had your head spinning and you found it hard to focus on his words. San held your hands, tracing circles mindlessly on them, before bringing them to his lips.

“I have to do what I can, though. I can't just give up on any of you,” he had answered, whispering into your skin, goosebumps forming all over your body. Before that, you hadn't considered yourself that important to him and his words made your heart skip a few beats. 

“I know what it feels like…,” The lump in your throat and the painful memories of your family had tears forming in your eyes that you tried blinking away. No point in crying when you didn't have the power to change the past. San brought his big hands to your face, cupping your cheeks, forcing you to look at him, and you tried pulling away. The pity and guilt in his eyes were something you wanted to erase forever. 

“You can't just run away from your demons, Y/N. Sometimes you have to face them.”

So you had wept in his arms, telling him your life's story for the first time and he had brushed every fear, doubt, and pain away with his soft touches and gentle gaze. 

You had grown up in the Outlaw City’s outskirts, in a restricted area where the Guardians’ influence and presence weren't as noticeable. The people were happy - you remembered seeing children playing freely, people reading and drawing and creating with all their might without being disturbed. 

Your parents were ordinary people, working ordinary jobs and living an ordinary life. You and your older brother, however, were nothing like them. The fighting rebellious spirit was something you had no idea who passed down to both of you but you were grateful to whoever ancestor was responsible for it. 

You two always found ways to get into trouble - from stealing a guitar from one of the contraband gangs in the city to compose silly songs to your brother learning how to box only to enter underground tournaments to earn some extra income for your family. He had learned from the older kids a trick or two and you had made it your life's purpose to follow him around until he taught you too. 

You missed those days dearly. The mornings when you would spar together under the blazing sun for hours. The nights when you would go to the restricted area of the city to fight and then run back home with the money you'd made before someone else took it from you. Every day was a game of survival, but you were happy. You had your brother - your only pillar in this dark world.

Until one day everything changed. 

That day, the Guardians had come in groups to your city, taking every child or adult in their way, destroying every last piece of safety. You remembered your last moments with your family before they took them away. Your brother screaming at you to run, your father fighting the white-dressed Guardian, and your mother crying in fear. You had tried saving them but to no avail. At least, you didn't know if they had survived and there was no one you could ask. Five years had passed since. 

You found your new home in Outlaw City where everyone was a runaway like you and where no one would ask where you'd come from. Your only resolve was to pray that your family was safe and sound and that one day you would find them. This time you were more prepared than ever, you were ready to protect them at the price of anything. So as San wiped away your tears with his thumbs, you felt the heavy burden of your past lift itself from your shoulders. 

“I hate myself for leaving them every day, San,” you confess with a shaky voice, trying to calm yourself down. 

“The only thing you could do is survive, angel,” he whispered, putting his hands on your shoulders, and squeezing them. Looking at his bruised face, you reminded yourself that everyone here carried their own scars - both visible and invisible, and your heart hurt even more. “It was the same for me. I had to leave my family behind when I came here so I found a new one. Not that it’ll ever stop hurting any less. All eight of us are the same at heart. We all want the same thing.”

A new world to come, you thought and smiled, thinking of Mingi’s passionate speech from the last time you saw him at the bar. He had told you all about their plans and wanted you to be part of them. To join their found family. 

Now, returning to reality, you regarded San curiously and a little afraid as he came to stand in front of your chair, leaning down to place a kiss on top of your head. Blushing at the affection in his eyes, you cleared your throat, searching for the right words. A week had passed since this moment and none of you had said anything about it so you couldn't help but feel flustered at his every word and action towards you.

“How was I today, coach?” San chuckled, gently tracing the sides of your face with his fingertips, rough from the endless fighting. 

“Could be better,” you gave him your usual response, San grinning and showing his dimples. 

“I have to work harder. But maybe if you stared less...”

“And maybe if you paid less attention to me...”

“That's impossible,” San concluded, crouching down, placing his palms on top of your thighs, and you ran your hands through his messy dark locks. With glinting eyes, he excitedly added, “After tonight’s match some of the boys and I will have a meeting. They want you to come.”

“They?”

“I,” the seriousness in his voice made you let out a laugh and your stomach tightened with anticipation. You had only met Mingi and Wooyoung before with the rest of the boys surrounded by a mist of mystery, with only having heard stories about them. The fact that San was letting you get closer to the people he cherished the most didn't help your fluttering heart either.

“Can't wait.”

San had dragged you out of the fight club and drove you to your apartment to freshen up before meeting the boys with his old van that, who knew how, still functioned. As he had told you while focused on the bumpy road ahead, the vehicle had turned into, both a prison and a temporary home for him and Wooyoung while they were on the run from the Guardians. Guilt washed over you when San described all of their sleepless nights, fighting the demons following them right behind even in their dreams while you were hiding between the four walls of the safety of your home. Mingi’s wanted posters, his constant cautiousness, and the silver pistol always attached to his hip made so much more sense now. 

Unfortunately, the Guardians had taken notice of them way too early into their secret operations against the government, and now as you were sitting in front of the boys - their features, illuminated by the dim lighting of the storage house you were in, your heart filled with hurt. In the few hours, you got to know Yeosang and Seonghwa, speeding through the highways every night in search of valuable intel and doing all they could to survive another day, your admiration grew with every next moment spent with them. 

Sitting on one of your favourite fluffy blankets on the floor in a circle, eating an improvised dinner consisting of cold chicken nuggets provided by Yeosang, you felt more at home than ever. Mingi and Wooyoung’s silly bickering and friendly teasing, Seonghwa’s warm welcome, Yeosang’s kind smile, and San’s calming presence next to you, filled you with joy, and for the first time in a while, you forgot about the outside world.

“It’s a pity the others couldn’t come today,” said Seonghwa with a sigh as he passed on to you the chocolate bar all of you were sharing. You hadn’t seen one in ages, nor tasted it. Yeosang had just shrugged indifferently earlier at your genuine surprise, telling you he could get one inside the city for you anytime you craved it. 

So now playing with the piece in your mouth, letting the sweetness tickle your taste buds, you hummed in agreement. The rest of the group had to stay undercover for a little longer before joining you. “They would’ve loved to meet you, Y/N.”

“They will,” San joined, squeezing your hand and rubbing his thumb over it. Turning your head to look at him, you were met with his dark eyes, shimmering with a glow as if hundreds of stars were in them. You slowly found yourself being pulled by the gravity of his gaze, unable to look away. 

“Now, can you two not do this,” whined Wooyoung, earning a playful slap on his thigh from Seonghwa, followed by Mingi and Yeosang’s laughs. “I have to put up with you every day at the club. I’m going to start vomiting rainbows soon.”

“Get a life, Woo,” said Mingi, winking at you. Usually, you could fight back and tease Wooyoung but tonight, embarrassment washed over you after his words. “Leave the lovebirds alone.”

Just then, still holding your hand firmly, San pulled you up gently so now both of you were standing. “Then let’s get out of here.”

The distant hooting of owls, coming deep from the woods, the light chilly late-night breeze, carrying the smell of pines, and San’s warm touch against your skin engulfed your senses, making your head spin. With your eyes closed, all you could do was trust the man as he guided you through the darkness around you. 

“Can I open my eyes,” you asked once again with your previous attempts to get a positive answer out of him being unsuccessful. His deep chuckle vibrated through your body, his hand letting go of yours. Longing for his touch again, you reached forward for him but only brushed through the air. 

“I’ve got you, angel,” San’s raspy voice now came from behind you and you felt him put his hands on your shoulders. “You can open them now.”

The view before your eyes made you tear up and a lump formed in your throat, every word you wanted to utter getting caught up in it. The little fireflies, swinging around in a slow dance around you, their comforting glow, reminding you of those you used to catch in the hot summer nights in front of your childhood house with your brother, the vast field you were standing in the middle of, and the tickling in your legs from the overgrown grass were all images and sensations you thought you’d never see or feel again for the rest of your life.

“How did you find this place,” you whispered, too afraid someone would take this moment away from you. 

“It’s my special place. I think the Guardians have forgotten about it,” said softly San, moving to stand in front of you with a warm smile on his face. “Now I can finally share it with someone else.”

“Do you come here often?”

“Yes, whenever I need to clear my head,” he trailed off, laughing. “And some time away from Wooyoung. The van can be suffocating as much as I enjoy living with him.”

You wondered if this beautiful place was next on the Guardian’s list for destruction. If you’d be able to come back ever again. If it too would disappear with every trace you’d left.

“You’re frowning again,” San’s voice pulled you out of your trance, making you focus on him instead. His face was almost indiscernible in the night, but his eyes and the silver chain, shining around his neck, were illuminated by the moonlight. “You do this often.”

“I guess I’m not used to things like this.” Genuine in a world full of lies. “I feel like you’ll disappear.”

Taking a step closer to you, San put a finger under your chin, your eyes finding his once again. The electrifying feeling of his touch made you dizzy. Now, you could hear his steady heartbeat, with yours drumming in your ears. “I’ll never leave you, angel.”

The moment his lips found yours, enveloping them in a soft kiss, you lost all of your senses and surrendered yourself to him. At first, his touch was gentle as if San was afraid he would hurt you, but once your hands found his neck, your fingers toying with his hair, he got more desperate for you. His own trailed slowly down the sides of your body, wrapping them around your waist and pulling you closer to him. Already out of breath, you felt a fire ignite in your soul that only San could put out. 

He left your lips only to place a few shy kisses down your neck, your heart picking up its rate, slamming against your ribcage. Leaving you gasping and wanting more, San pulled away seconds later, the love and adoration you saw in his eyes making you lose your bearings completely. Cupping your cheeks and bringing his face closer, he rubbed your nose gently with his before placing a kiss on your forehead. 

“The final round is coming soon, Y/N,” he murmured when you closed the distance between you, hugging him around his waist and burrowing your face at the crook of his neck. You took in his scent - woody and musky, hypnotizing you. “We’ll see the new world together.”

Even if that was just an empty promise and even if this new world never came to life, you didn’t care.

All you needed was San there with you - everything else was bearable.

final round, © moanz111

please do not modify, copy, repost, or translate.

#final round - moanz111 #ateez imagines #ateez oneshot #ateez scenarios #ateez fic #ateez fanfic #san x y/n #san x reader #san x you #ateez au #ateez fluff #ateez angst #san fluff #san angst

[sukis-artchive]

@pbmonstaa Happy Halloween! (My drawing tablet broke, so I had to improvise with finger painting😭) I hope you like it!

(I was very happy that you said you liked cute fall outfits it was a lot of fun looking for inspiration!)

There's two versions:

(It might be a bit hard to read, but in the second image the text behind Sun says "Happy Hallo Ween")

I didn't think this was enough, so i wrote you a little mischief/fluff of @castercassette 's cowboy au :3 (1,910 words)

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"Holler 'cause ya don't need us"

"SON OF A GUN!" You holler from the back of a horse. You were in quite the predicament, as this wasn't your horse.

You hoped 'Heaven to Betsy' that this would be the last time you'll be strapped to the back of someone else's horse and dragged around the county. Specifically these guys' horse. As it gallops out of town, you can't help but try to struggle out of the rope.

"Shhh Darlin' this is all in good fun!" The inflection and twang in his voice quickly alerting you of who your abductors were, as if you weren't already sure.

"C'mon Poppet! I thought ya'd wanna spend more time with your bounties!" The other one said smugly.

"Like I'd wanna hang out with some low life, outlaw, shit grinned-" you started rattling off insults, still writhering in your lasso prison.

"Language Sugarcube!" Sun warbled happily. You groaned. Who woulda thought that a feared criminal would draw the line at swearing? These two were truly something else.

Moon finally seemed to notice your fruitless attempts of getting free. Your hands bound behind your back, making this escape essentially impossible. "Don'tcha ever give up hun'?"

Sun then cuts in "We're gonna return ya back to yer post in one piece, don't you worry 'bout a thing."

They had rangled you in a surprise attack, while you were walking in the middle of town. Your own town. You don't believe for second that your return will be anymore respectable, even with the promise of returning unharmed.

"You blitherin' buffoons! Lemme' down! I got a town to take care of!" You argue. Even walking back from this distance on your own two feet would be less embarrassing than them taking you home.

"Aww Sheriff, we just wanted to celebrate Hallows' with ya!" Sun exclaims, lamenting dramatically. Moon takes the reigns as they swap places on the horse. Sun is now infront of you, using his new spot to adjust your hat. He grabs your cheeks with one hand, pulling you in closer. "We'd love to celebrate with our favourite Sheriff! Dont'cha want a bit of a vacation? It's a holiday after all!"

"I'm the only Sheriff! And I dont want nothin' to do with yer 'celebrations'." You don't want to be an accessory to their shenanigans. Especially on Halloween. A night known for tricks and deceit, even among the sweet treats.

"Oh but we had such big plans for it! It's quite rude to not accept an invitation." He hums, finnicking with the ends of the rope. Tying a nice bow, over the knot that kept you restraint.

"Hey- stop that!" You grunt, still trying to get free.

"No-can-do pardner." Moon claimed.

It takes another hour to get to their destination. A deserted farmland filled with corn and hay. Great. Hopefully they don't dump you here to find your way back, after you told them to let you go. You were too busy arguing to pay attention to where you were headed. Though you were grateful that you were no longer getting jostled around. It was quite a bumpy ride, and you were still slightly dizzy at the newfound stillness.

Then you unceremoniously 'get the boot', as sun literally kicks you off the horse. Laughing all the while. Sure it's wasn't a hard kick, only enough force to push you off. But you hit the ground with a thud, and can't help but let out a yelp at the sudden impact. This was going to be a long night, if they keep their antics up.

"Motherfucker" You grumble to yourself.

"Gettup Nightingale. We've got a lot of stuff planned." Moon shouts into the field, proving you were alone. No deputy to save you now.

Sun scoops you up in his arms, and plops you down on your feet. Dusting off your vest, and readjusting your hat again.

"Wouldya just stop already?" You mutter loudly, they turn to stare at you. Moon walks towards you, bending down. Only to pick you up by the spurs of your boots, and dangling you upsidedown. You can't fathom why they find this so enjoyable. Sun snags your hat before it hits the ground, placing it atop his own.

"You better give that back vermin!" You snarl jokingly, there is no bite behind your bark. You knew they were just having some fun. Maybe loosening up would do you some good, you've been very stressed lately.

They seem to pick up on this, deciding to place you down. Nicely this time, and ask "Honeydew, there ain't no 'vermin' in sight?" Moon says cockily.

"I think you might wanna check the barn though!" Sun adds on, with a mischievous grin. Pointing to a rundown barn over the corn stalks. It looked depressing to say the least. Majority of the wood missing from the sides, what was left was discoloured and weathered. It's a miracle this thing is even standing. Definetly infested with some kind of vermin.

"If yer scared of a little rodent, you coulda just told me." You jested, making fun of them for 'running to their lil' ol' sheriff for help'. But you continue to follow, as they lead you towards the dilapidated barn. They seem to have decided wading right through the corn was their best option.... were they planning on getting you lost in the field?

"Where are we goin'?" You query, suspicious of the boys.

They both giggle, before Moon scoffed. "The barn, where else? You ain't the sharpest tool in the shed anymore, aren't ya Sheriff?" Sun continues his laughing fit. Before strangely dashing off, their cackling growing louder.

"What in tarnation-HEY GET BACK HERE! YOU STILL HAVE MY HAT!" You howled, jumping into the thick mass of shucks before you.

Your arms were still bound, yet the rope has loosened significantly. You sprint through the corn chasing their maniacal laughter. This goes on for 15 minutes, until you are surrounded by complete silence. Panting you frantically look around, starting to go in circles. You knew you shouldn't have humoured them!

"Shit" You hiss between gasping breaths.

"Language" a voice behind you sings, you turn to see suns face through the crops. "Aww shucks, you found me. A-maze-ing detective skills Sheriff" He continues laughing at the horrible puns. "You've got me smiling from ear to-" You tense, readying to pounce for your hat.

"AH MOTHERFUC-" "BOO!"

Moon leaps out, causing you to jump. You swear these bastards were going to be the death of you.

"Well well, look who's scared now? Shaking in your boots Sheriff? I thought ya didn't fear 'vermin'?" He drawled. "You look like yer soul has left yer body, just a husk now huh?" Oh not him too! Sun giggles.

"Oh I'm sure stalk-ing wasn't the best idea, we've terrified the mighty protector of Fazed Bear." Sun taunts.

"Stop with the puns ya unruly outlaws!" You fail to swipe your hat back. "Did you get us all lost or was that yer plan all along?"

They look to eachother, neither opting to answer. Instead they pull back some of the corn stalks, and the barn comes into view. You chased them all the way to the other side. These smart sons of bitches.

"Well I'll be darned." You murmured, now that you can see it closer you notice the faint orange light illuminating the inside. You stumbled out of the field, walking into the barn, the boys slinking in behind you.

It's sure not organized. Hay bales and pumpkins strewn haphazardly. But the warmth it fills you with is unremarkable, it's so cozy. Blankets are piled around, with jackolanterns acting as the only light source. Barrels of cider, filling the air with a delicious apple and cinnamon scent. You move to sit on one of the quilts.

"Do ya like it Darlin'?" Sun asks hopefully, though you don't miss the touch of nervousness in his breath. Moon placing a hand on his shoulder, as he fidgets with your hat.

"It's amazing boys." You gasp. They really wanted to just have fun with you. Maybe you can take a break. Just for tonight.

"Glad ya do sugar." Moon exclaimed turning to grab a nearby pumpkin. You soon realize the design carved into it looks like your face. Sun finally puts your hat down, perching it on top of the jackolantern.

You sigh, the only chance of you getting it back now is once the gord starts to rot.

You are finally set free from the lasso, as Sun unties it. Moon hands you a flask of the liquid gold, you take a swig. Through the corner of your eye you notice Sun holding what appears to be a clothing hanger, behind him. Then a realization hits you, oh no. OH NO. You are not sticking around for this. Almost wanting to, as the cider distraction actually tastes delightful. You immediately try to make a bolt for it, but Moon catches you by your shirt collar. Tugging you back, causing you to gag.

"Hol'up their pardner. We just wanna play a lil' game." He remarked, snickering at what was to come.

Once they were done with you, you could barely recognize yourself. A frilly dress was put on top of your regular clothes. And it fit like a glove. You had fought tooth and nail while they were getting it on you, and you were too exhausted to make an effort to tear it off. Oh well.

The dress made you look like Dorothy from the wizard of Oz. If only you had the red shoes to match. Ironically, you really wished you could just tap your heels and say you 'wish to go home' right now.

And just as you thought all hope was lost, you were scooped you again by one of the boys. Still screeching at them to put you down, after the way the first 'rodeo' had turned south. You nearly fell asleep during the ride to Fazed Bear. Only awaking fully once you were dropped into a water trough in the center of town. You knew some sort of shenanigans was coming, you shouldn't have let yourself fall asleep. Fucking outlaws.

"SHIT-" you yowl, as the cold water cascades around you.

"Language Sheriff, ya wouldn't want the towns kids pickin' up on that wouldya?" Moon remarks, Sun returning back to his giggle fit.

You reach up to fix your hat, which didnt feel right. Then you notice your pumpkin has been place in the middle of town square for all to see, adorning not only your trusty hat but also your badge. Huh, what's on your head? Oh shit, they put you in a fucking bonnet. How mortifying.

"Don'tcha think yall have gotten a lil' too gutsy lately? Waltzing straight into town?" You say soppily.

"Says the one who's goin' apple bobbin' in a horse trough. Sorry to disappoint Darlin' but yer not gonna find any apples in there." Sun chuckled.

You surprisingly grin. It grows, spreading from ear to ear. And a loud full belly laugh escapes your mouth. Your chest shakes with the effort. Aww your boys did all this just for you. Sure it was a bit much, and you could of done without all the tricks. But this Hallows eve has truly been a treat. You had completely forgotten about your duties, in favour of 'hanging out' with your favourite outlaws. Maybe you really did need a break from being Sheriff after all.

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I hope you like it! Happy Halloween! (PS I love your art)

#fnaf dca #fnaf sun #fnaf moon #fnaf daycare attendant #happy halloween #dcah2023 #secret skeleton #my art

[faithdeans]

western au fic recs part 1

i have loads of these but i've decided to re-read them all before reccomending them. idk how many parts there will be of this but probably at least another 2 and one for ficlets! anyway hiii have fun and pls let me know how you find them!!! i also left comments because idk how to shut up!

Vagabonds by chevrolangels [89k]

Dean is a sheriff in a tiny town in Colorado, restless and unsatisfied with his life. It's not like what he's read about in the dime novels since he was little, capturing dangerous outlaws and being the last word of the law. More like tossing the town drunk in a cell to sober up when they get a little too rowdy. But Dean's chance comes when a thief rolls through their town. He pursues the thief, which puts him right into the path of Emmanuel, a notorious outlaw. When he is captured by the outlaw and his gang to be held for ransom, Dean starts off on a journey he could have never envisioned, and learns that perhaps there's more to Emmanuel than meets the eye.

i reread this the other day and if you didn't already see my posts let me say i lost my damn mind all over again. the pacing and characterisation in this fic are perfect. it's a delicious slowburn, the action is amazing, and also as someone who has a hard time handling angst, this fic is the perfect level for me. the end makes me cry because i never wanna finish it. the stories of the side-characters are just as enthralling as dean and cas. i could read a million one-shots based on this fic. i'd probably say it's my favourite fic, period.

The Shawnee Trail by emmbrancsxx0 [166k]

In 1887, Dean Winchester and Castiel Novak lead a peaceful life in Lawrence, Kansas. Dean and Sam are stagecoach messengers for Wells, Fargo and Castiel is the town doctor. When Castiel's patient, Kelly Kline, knocks on their door one night about to give birth, she asks for the Winchesters and Castiel's help in protecting her son against one of the west's most notorious outlaws. To fulfill that promise, the men set out on a journey full of shootouts, trouble with the law, gambling, and an important discovery: Dean and Castiel really need to define the nature of their relationship.

okay to everyone asking which fic i was talking about when i posted "fics that make you pace around your room at midnight while sobbing", i was talking about this. this fic felt like a movie, it felt like i was living it, like i was riding with them. the storytelling is unbelievably vivid. i was hanging on to the "angst with a happy ending" tag for dear life. this fic is a rollercoaster of an adventure and a wonderfully moving ode to the western genre. it's truly one of those fics where you finish it and you can't believe this is supernatural fanfic and not a critically acclaimed piece of literature.

Lonesome Rider by onwardorange [67k]

Dean Winchester, better known as the “Lonesome Rider” throughout the Wild West, spends his days galavanting from town to town, drinking, dancing, and flirting his way into people’s beds. He’s got no responsibilities and no direction in life; it’s just him, his beloved horse, Baby, and the open road. And that’s just the way Dean likes it𑁋or so he tells himself. That is, until the day Sam falls deathly ill. When nothing is able to cure him, Dean makes a desperate deal to save Sam’s life that puts his own on the line. Enter Castiel Novak, a small town preacher in possession of the Colt, a gun rumored to be able to kill just about anything as well as the one thing that could save Dean’s life. When the gun is stolen by a gang of infamous outlaws, Dean and Castiel must travel across the West together to get it back, though what they discover between themselves along the way may turn out to be more powerful than the Colt itself.

this fic was so sweet and full of heart that it actually left me breathless in places. the way dean and cas bickering was written was so s spot on. hurt/comfort that will blow your cock and balls straight off. and the pining!!!! oh the pining!!! something about this story is like a warm hug and i just didn't wanna put it down. also the constellation scene and certain recurring themes to do with it. *dies*

#worm.rec

[daenystheedreamer]

What do daenys' kids do after her death? I love the bolton mother in law idea. Babe truly is living in a torture labyrinth

KISSES okay cwinge oc children below ^_^ i realise not everyone knows every detail of my insane au so ill make another post that explains the starkgaryen situationship a bit 😭 for you my special sweetling anon

so they were all raised by their evil stoic stark father to never gaf about anything except Respect and Honour. Women die this is their battle their war we honour their sacrifice but we do NOT end the cycle. because the cycle is tradition. look at all the thousands of bodies in the crypt none of THEM complained. so the kids are a little weird. also daenys died in 77AC when the eldest was 11 and the youngest was a couple months old so that also influenced them a lil bit ^_^ in order its serena, alarra, alaric, brandon, berena, edderion, cregan, sara, torrhen. too-long rundown:

SERENA 66AC the eldest :3 she is to daenys what daenys was to viserys ie a special child to project all your insane trauma on. has the targ colouring and a seer :) daenys+cregard betrothed her to lord blackwood; cregard because he wanted relations with the vale and daenys because she wanted her in a decent marriage and the blackwood guy is chill enough. after daenys dies cregard assigns her eldest daughter surrogate mother of the children. she prophesises her death and knows if she marries lord blackwood it will somehow kill her, but she's so tired of being a mother to her siblings that she chooses to accept this. and it makes her feel close to her mother.... she dies of apparent suicide and her husband then marries shiera strong (viserra's daughter) its a whole fckn thing cos shiera posioned her, and serena felt a call by the old gods to drown herself in the gods eye. and whether this was poison-induced or actual dream is ambiguous... anyway serena has one daughter, agnes blackwood, who ends up becoming an outlaw cos she considers herself her father's heir and not shiera's children. she has a weird relationship with viserra's daughter jeyne wayn, takes shiera's bracken-by-marriage sister hostage for a while, then gets hunted down by the Kingsguard and House Strong for that. yay^_^

ARRA 67AC stillbirth :(

ALARRA 68AC she is wilful and rides horses and a stark through and through... she's cregards favourite daughter (since she's so son-like..) but she's super mad about how he treated daenys so they have a troubled relationship. he wants to marry her into the umbers/glovers/karstarks or smthn but alarra decides to join the court of king's landing cos she's like idk might be fun. but the real reason is that she wants to understand her mother more :) cregard basically banned all talk of daenys after her death. she marries a celtigar and goes on adventures and has two daughters, Daenys and Jaenara. however to her it was like. she did that because she wanted to understand her mother. she's friends with princess daenerys :) has the most normal life out of all the kids. is a dragonrider, but dies of a dragonriding-related incident

ALARIC 68AC cregard's eldest. he is betrothed from birth to an arryn (the daughter of vaella daughter of aenys + rodrik arryn). he and alarra are twins but cregard likes alarra more and thinks alaric is prissy and a momma's boy. he would say alarra stole alaric's manhood in the womb alaric went emo after daenys died and does stark repression refusing to think about her. dies only like a year after his father idk how yet something related to his father though. he has a daughter, aregelle stark, who despite being alaric's daughter and heir is usurped by her uncle :3 also aregelle has targ colouring

BRANDON 72AC daddy's favourite son. frat boy jock. got all the worst stark and targ genes. has a silver streak in his hair and very light purple eyes. usurped his niece aregelle. despite being very targ he HATES the targs he's super gung-ho about the north. thinks his mother was a dumb woman. marries an umber but no kids with her, has a few bastards. the northerners love him :3 dies only a few years after alaric/becoming lord though. dies on a hunt after getting attacked by a wolf. might have survived but he was immunocompromised from several STDs. rip dickhead 🙏 also possiblly aregelle warged that wolf and killed him owo

BERENA 72AC brandon's twin sister. yes daenys had two sets of twins and cregard made her go to term both times god he sucks. berena is cool :) thought alarra was so cool and ruled her siblings with an iron fist. thinks brandon is a dickhead. doesnt really remember her mother. cregard marries her off to the old lord of runestone which she HATES cos he's a old hag (middle aged) but she likes leadership. is the sexy widow of runestone after lord royce's death and later on she remarries to lord arryn, vaella's eldest son, and becomes lady of the vale :)

EDDERION 73AC yes cregard made daenys have a pregnancy to term after having two sets of twins. EVIL MAN. he always clung to daenys as a child but as an adult he doesnt remember his mother well. remembers her being ill and thinks his birth made her sick :( gave him a complex. for ages as a kid he refused to believe she was dead and that she would come home soon. he goes with serena to the riverlands to foster with the blackwoods and becomes a knight, lives in king's landing for a time with alarra and at white harbour with sara. he though aregelle should rule but didnt want to fracture his family any more than it already had. was agnes' biggest advocate in regards to succession so shiera has him offed RIP ser ned 🫡

CREGAN 74AC he doesn't remember his mother, mostly flashes. has silver hair and grey eyes. middle child syndrome mostly ignored by his father. marries a dustin girl. becomes lord after alaric, brandon and edd all die so he's very sad. thinks aregelle is too weird to be lady of winterfell so doesn't disagree with his right to lordship. most normal daegard son, is able to fix relations with the other northern lords. very honourable. very very honourable. but not honourable enough to honour his niece's claim ofc

SARA 76AC was a year old when her mother died, was raised primarily by her older siblings and her septa. loves serena sooo much and feels betrayed when serena goes off to marry. cregard sent her off to the vale in hopes she would marry the arryn heir but she thought the eyrie was weird and didnt like her arryn cousins. she thought they were weird 😭 edd ended up taking her to white harbour which cregard begrudgingly agreed to. she married the manderly heir, they have a nice marriage :) names her daughter serena.

TORRHEN 77AC was like 6 months old or so when daenys died. again ignored by his father, raised by his siblings and maester mainly. married his childhood friend the odd wylla reed without his father's consent. really weird kid, had greendreams. cregard hated naming him after the king who knelt but daenys insisted and cregard was like fucking FINE god i give you everything huh. anyway he ended up killing his father WHOA PLOT TWIST. it was cos he HATED his father for how he treated daenys and his siblings. daenys was always a shadow over him since her never actually knew her but he spent a lot of time with weirwoods and got to know her through his weird dreams. he dies killing his father and wylla absconds to greywater watch with their newborn son. in 100AC wylla comes back to winterfell and she, the son (named torrhen:3) and aregelle run away to Beyond The Wall never to be heard from again. also they steal a dragon egg clutch that daenys had secretly hidden away in the crypts....

SECRET TRIPLETS yeah i did triplets FULL cringe ocs here. so after daenys and viserys are dragged out from the god's eye after the murder-suicide, three malformed little fetuses crawl out from daenys' rotting body. lol lmao. viserra quickly kills them them but she burns them after her makeshift autopsies cos they look like they're still twitching and hissing lol. also i deciced to name them danelle, theon and jon >:)

so thats a 'quick' rundown of the daenys stark kids ^_^ theyve all got various levels of targ and stark powers :3 theyre all so special and unique and deviantart im sowwy 😔 hope this was what you were looking for im sowwy if its not 😭 and yeah ill get another post for the daenys marriage and sexy mother in law :3 im so glad u like my silly posts <3 peace and love to you my friend

#au:omaegorverse #ask #anonymous #CRINGE ALERT CRINGE ALERT!!!! #genuinely. ily. kisses u on the hand

[theminecraftbee]

Since that anon is interested, I think I'll take this as an excuse to share some of my favourite hermit headcanons with you !

Jellie is extremely intelligent. Whether or not I think she's a normal kitty cat depends on what's plot convenient but I firmly believe that after s6 Jellie has been making sure, by force, that the Vex leave Scar alone. She has mutilated and eaten many in the last few seasons.

While I'm on the subject of Jellie, I like to think her perspective of her relationship with Scar is like that of siblings. Scar is a brother to her, one she cares for dearly, though also one with whom she gets very exasperated at times with how often he dies.

Tango, in my head, is basically a fire genasi; in dnd these are essentially part elemental, and their bodies are in part made up of their element. Whenever I picture Tango, his hair is made of fire.

Mumbo and Zed are ADHD as fuck and I will die on this hill

This one is fully taken from @martuzzio's space outlaw au, but I just love the concept of Beef being a really amazing cook. He just has The Vibes of a home cooked meal

TFC spent a period of his life in a post nuclear apocalypse America, the wasteland of Fallout 4, which is part of why shit doesn't seem to bother him at all, least of all Moon's Big; it wasn't his first apocalypse after all

Cleo is The Tallest. I just love the idea of her being 7ft tall I can't get over it it's very fun

Related to that, I just imagined her using the shorter hermits as essentially projectile weapons and the mental image of her yeeting Stress at a motherfucker while Stress grins like a gremlin while duel wielding netherite swords is one I just have to share

oooooh, these are all cool! especially love “jellie will never allow another vex near scar” and “cleo yeeting stress like a projectile”, those are fun.

#answered #scarred-but-still-smiling

[riding-palominos-every-day]

Radio Show AU questions:

What are Katherine, Mush, Specs, and Sarah's favorite shows that they produce?

What are some of Jack's favorite movies that he's reviewed or stories that he's read?

Is there a specific type of cuisine that Henry focuses on?

Is Race's show just a mixed bag of random trivia questions? What's the funniest wrong answer someone has given him?

What are Kid Blink's favorite horror movies he's reviewed? What's the funniest answer someone has ever given him during a quiz?

What types of music do Albert, Crutchie, and Kenny like to play when they DJ?

What's the weirdest thing Jojo has had to do as an intern and who asked him to do it?

I kind of figure that the younger boys still cause trouble every now and then even though they aren't supposed to. What's the most chaotic thing they've done?

Oh my goodness Emmy- /lh Okay under the cut because this will be a long one XD

Katherine likes working with the DJs, and Mush's favourite show is Kid Blink's. Specs likes Henry's show, and Sarah likes Jack's show best.

Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy has been Jack's favourite movies to review, and his favourite stories he's read on air are vintage dime novels about American outlaws.

Although the others joke Henry will eat basically anything, he's quite particular about what he eats. He likes a lot of European cuisine, mostly German, although he's he's very open to trying new things as long as they're proper cooking. The local fast-food restaurant has tries to send him samples to review, and he's sent them back with aggressively polite letters rejecting their offers.

Race's show is a mixed bag, yeah, but with a theme each segment (e.g. one day it'll be a music quiz, the next it'll be history). The funniest wrong answer he's received was to the question "who was the lead vocalist of Van Halen from '74 to '85?", a caller rung in with the answer "...Carole King?"

Kid Blink's top five best horror movies in order are: The Thing, The Fly, The Lost Boys, Alien, A Nightmare on Elm Street. The funniest response he's ever got was to the question "how would you survive a slasher?". Finch called in and answered with "be that guy in Friday the 13th II who went to the bar and then didn't show up again the rest of the film", a response that had both Blink and Mush in hysterics on air.

Albert likes playing a mix of rock and punk, Crutchie likes pop and synth, and Kenny likes new wave and jazz.

JoJo gets asked to do a lot of weird things, because the others know he'll do it (he wants to be good at his job). He was once asked to switch around everyone's advert/sponsorship tapes -by Davey nonetheless- for the simple reason of "I think it's funny to fuck with them occasionally".

Elmer brought Pierogi to the studio once. Whilst banned from the recording studio, there were a large amount of suspiciously-nibbled wires when Crutchie went in to broadcast his show.

#Blink's favourite horror movies are totally not just my top five nuh uh👀 #thank you for the ask emmy! #newsies #newsies au #newsies on airwaves #asks #second to none

[thetragicallynerdy]

for the emoji asks, if it's not too much trouble! 🙋‍♀️ ✨ ❌ 🤲 🍷 🧠 (Oluwande)

yeah yeah yeah!!! (emoji fanfic writer asks are here for anyone curious!)

🙋‍♀️ (person raising hand emoji) - Do any irl people know you write fanfic?

I have a bunch of very real online pals who I met through fanfic!! But re: brick and mortar space people, yes! Some of my family knows - my two sisters, and my parents. They don't know what fandoms I write for, or my username, and have never read my work, and basically only know I write fanfic because I kept mentioning that I had been writing but didn't ever let anyone read what I wrote XD (I write way too much smut to ever let my family find my ao3 account hahaha). My mom asks me about it sometime, and is very sweet in letting me ramble about the themes of the stories I write. I think that's it though? I am keenly aware that I come from the era of 'fanfic is super embarrassing' and have some holdovers from that, so it's not something I talk about a lot with people I know in brick and mortar space.

✨ (sparkle emoji) - Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉(winky face emoji)

Ohhhh gosh! Well - I think I write conversations well. There's a flow to conversations, and I almost always have the conversations I write play out audibly in my head - and I think I put them to page well! Or, at the very least, I enjoy them a lot haha! I also think that for someone who really enjoys writing angst, I do a decent job at writing humour when I try XD

❌ (X emoji) - What's a trope you will never write?

Pretty much anything involving pregnancy. ABO stuff is also not really my jam writing-wise. Whump wise, captive/pet whumpee type whump stuff is something I absolutely won't touch. There's many other common whump tropes that I won't write, but they don't all need to be listed XD

🤲 (palms up together emoji) - Would you please share a snippet of a wip?

Yeah!!!!!! This comes from an old west AU in which Oluwande is a farmer, and Jim is the outlaw who stumbles onto his farm while injured.

--

"You know, this would be easier if I could just carry you," Oluwande says. There's worry threaded through his voice - but that's stupid, why would he be worried about them.

Jim closes their eyes, tries to stop the world from spinning quite so much. It just gets worse, and they can already feel their grip on his shirt beginning to slip.

"Fucking fine," they slur. "Just - fuckin' do it."

Oluwande wastes no time at all. He ducks, hooks one arm under their knees, the other under their shoulders, hefting them easily into his arms. Their head lolls against his shoulder, face nearly tucked into the softness of his neck. He's strong, and warm, and soft, and - he feels safe. God, that's so fucking stupid of them.

"Alright," Oluwande murmurs. "I've got you."

🍷 - Do you drink and write?

I do not! I actually don't really drink in general - I've got a brain injury, and brain injuries and alcohol tend not to mix well lol. I like alcohol, but only have a drink once every few months or so. That said, I think it would be very fun to write while drunk and see what I write XD (it would probably be angst or smut, lets be real. Probably both together XD)

🧠 (Oluwande) (brain emoji) - Pick a character, and I'll tell you my favorite headcanon for them.

Okay one of my absolute favourite Oluwande headcanons is that he's got a lot of siblings. He's just got such great vibes for it, y'know? Like he feels like the sort of guy who has a bunch of sisters and maybe a few brothers too, and grew up taking care of and being taken care of by siblings. He's got good 'big healthy family' energy, and I adore it. And I really really hope that we get to know more about his backstory next season!!! I wanna know all the things!!

Thanks so much for the asks!!!

#ask game #fanfic writer asks #emoji asks #thank you these were so fun!! #your-local-charlatan #about me #rambling

[naivesilver]

pinocchio/lampwick for the 'if they had a kid' meme (from whatever AU/in whatever capacity works for you) 💗

Wow, somehow I was suspecting you would send an ask like this, wonder how that came to pass ashkhskahah jk jk, thank you 💝

If They Had A Kid Meme

So listen, I know you likely expect me to use a version of them from one of our 367452785468 AUs, but I already gave your AU bitches a baby there is this thing that has been boiling in the back of my head for like a year now and I'd really like to put it in words, so behold - Descendants!verse Pinocchio & Lampwick (and related offspring)

Because listen, the Descendants might have a canon biological child of Pinocchio already, a boy named Pin, but I won't condone it. One, it's a dumb name, two, I can't let them negate my favorite Pinocchio ship ever, three...listen, they can't all have children of their body that look exactly like them. I will suspend my disbelief with everything but Pinocchio-focused matters.

And mostly, look, the movies have this pretty bullshit division where villains and their kids are relegated on this crappy island and everyone else gets the rest of the world, and I think it would be very funny if Lampwick, despite not being exactly a good guy, took a look at that situation, went "uh no thanks I'm done with weird islands" and BOOKED it out of there out of a) sheer force of will b) intercession from his newly reformed boyfriend. And then they adopt a young daughter, because I firmly believe they would make great girl dads, and that is why y'all are here, isn't it?

Name: Amelia (means "hard-working" but also "maid from the forest", so it's two jokes at the price of one)

Gender: Female

General Appearance: Rounded face and features, dark and curly hair, dark eyes

Personality: A spirited, active little girl

Special Talents: Well, she's pretty young still (which makes sense if you consider that her parents were actual children during their story, so their daughter would have to be years and years younger than the kids of the various princesses and knights), so there is still time for her to grow into her eventual abilities. Pinocchio's teaching her to whittle, though, and she can already whistle a lot better than him.

Who they like better: It's pretty 50/50, tbh. She goes to Lampwick when she wants to play some rougher games/needs to coax someone into getting her out of trouble, but Pinocchio is a source of daily comfort and stability when she's upset. No favourites here.

Who they take after more: Tragically for everyone in the premises, Lampwick. She was laughing at his jokes as soon as she learned how to speak, which should have been a dead giveaway.

Personal Headcanon: Her grandfather would spoil her rotten and you can't convince me of the opposite

Face Claim: Josie O'Brien in Outlaw King

#bewilderedmoth #ask meme #descendants #pinocchio #pinocchwick #lampwickcore #if freenklin sees that name I'm done for #but I'm right I'll take no criticism only compliments

[jayofolympus-writes]

For the fic writing asks:

7, 17, 41?

7. Any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of?

I'm really proud of the worldbuilding I did for the Trial of the Veil au, with the different schools each having their own version of the ritual. I haven't had a chance to write each school's version, but I definitely have plans for them

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

I have considered writing it myself, but I know for a fact I do not have the skill to pull it off, though I really would love to see mythology AUs based in Celtic or Norse mythology. Where's my Táin Bó AU? Where's my Völsunga Saga AU?

41. Link a fic that made you think, “Wow, I want to write like that.”

The one that's stuck in my head right now is Jason Todd: The Not-So-Outlaw. It's one of my absolute favourite fics and I can't recommend it highly enough.

#writing ask game #jay answers

[intrepidacious]

last updated: May 2nd, 2023

comments, likes and reblogs are all much appreciated!! if you see me interacting in the comments, it'll be under my main @itistimeforusalltodecidewhoweare. you can also find me on ao3! 💛

to get notified when i update, follow my library blog @intrepidacious-fics

☆ all fics are ordered oldest to newest in each category ☆

each fic comes with its own warnings, but i’m just gonna go ahead and put a general language warning on all of them. i have a potty mouth and i won’t apologise for it.

please note that my blog is rated 18+, minors dni or you will be blocked <3

♡ personal favourite

☆ series

time after time (ongoing) ♡ After what starts out as a fairly normal mission, you find yourself stuck in a time loop. Which would already be bad enough in itself if it didn’t also mean having to watch Bucky die over and over again.

☆ one shots

insomnia It’s 5am, and for some reason, you just can’t fall asleep.

first date, last night ♡ You were supposed to go on a date tonight, but Bucky just had to interfere. It doesn't make any sense, either. It's not like there's anything going on between the two of you. (40s!Bucky)

baby, it's bad out there Your best friend Kate has always been good at attracting trouble and this time, it’s starting to become your problem, too. Then again, what’s Christmas in New York City without meet-cutes and gunfire?

not even a little The problem of living with Bucky is that he makes it impossible not to fall in love with him. Even though you could list several hundred reasons why it's a bad idea. And you have. (Roommates!AU)

heal me, baby Your friendship starts with you cleaning up his wounds and Bucky paying to get the blood stains out of your couch. Something else starts, too.

set me free ♡ Once upon a time, a soldier fell from a train. Thankfully, this time, he is found by gentle hands, and a beautiful voice keeps him safe from the cold. (Little Mermaid retelling)

blind roads "I'm James Bucky Barnes. This is my charming fiancée. We rob banks." (or, the Bonnie and Clyde AU literally no one asked for.)

every dream gone After the events of Winter Soldier, Bucky slowly realizes just how much he lost after his fall. (pure unadulterated angst)

almost believing You and Bucky aren't exactly on speaking terms at the moment. That doesn't mean you're getting out of having to pretend to be married for a mission.

a million summers Something shifts between you and Bucky when he comes back home from college.

☆ drabbles and blurbs

no plan b (a blind roads what if)

homecoming (a every dream gone what if)

☆ one shots

moving on ♡ He gets caught up in the lines and the streak of sunshine on your skin, until you catch him staring and raise a questioning eyebrow, so he looks away, reluctantly, unable to hide the small grin that appears on his face.

brooklyn, thursday night It’s the third Thanksgiving after the Blip, and you’ve become a habit Steve’s unable to shake.

☆ drabbles and blurbs

rewritten (outlaw!steve)

light, my love

palpable echo (a brooklyn, thursday night what if)

☆ one shots

caught up in you | chris beck x reader When Chris takes you on a nightly drive, he still has a few surprises in store for you.

lavender's blue | jefferson x reader If there was one thing Jefferson could always rely upon, it was that you didn’t much care for sense.

☆ drabbles and blurbs

occupy my brain & come on down | ransom drysdale x f!reader

☆ various fun things

headcanons masterlist

moodboard masterlist

seven sentence sundays drabbles

#navigation #masterlist #intrepidacious

[wistfulcynic]

The Outlaw Killian Jones (and the legend Emma Swan)

SUMMARY: Emma Swan is a schoolteacher, respectable and respected in the small town of Haven, Wyoming. She does her job and minds her business, but she has a secret. One that brings meaning to her dull life and excitement to her restless soul. One that she knows could end at any moment. 

Killian Jones is a man with a powerful enemy and nothing to lose. He’s prepared to sacrifice every bit of that nothing for the sake of his revenge. 

Or, at least, he was. 

-

I am THRILLED to be here, kicking off the @cshistfic​ Historical Fics event! I’ve always loved reading romances set in the past and Westerns are a long-time favourite. Given how deeply entrenched the Western genre is in American culture, it’s funny to think about how a) most of it was made up for dime novels and, later, radio and television shows and movies, and b) the actual historical period that we call the Old West only lasted roughly thirty years—from the post-Civil War westward expansion under the Homestead Act to around the turn of the 20th century. This fic is set right around the end of that time—late 1890s to early 1900s—in the waning moments of the open range and the “lawless” frontier and the start of the modern era with its trains and barbed wire and cars and world wars. I’ve tried to capture a bit of that sense of transition in the story, mostly with the way it ends. 

Huge thanks to @shireness-says​​ for coming up with and running this event, and to @thisonesatellite​​ for Just Being Her. 

Words: 4.9k Rating: T Tags: Western AU, historical, outlaw Killian, schoolteacher Emma, all the historical detail, I did so much research for this 

on AO3

-

The Outlaw Killian Jones (and the legend Emma Swan): 

The hour was late, afternoon edging into evening in the town of Haven, Wyoming. ‘Town’ as a designation flattered it, this tiny settlement tucked back against craggy and striated formations of rock and nestled amongst ragged brush, being, as it was, scarcely more than a handful of rough-hewn cabins, a church, a general store, a blacksmith and livery stable, a saloon with its attendant whorehouse, and a school. 

The store and the smithy did the town’s most active business; unsurprisingly, seeing as they were the only examples of either within the radius of a good fifty miles. The residents—those who lived within the town’s scant limits—were certainly insufficient in their numbers to support either one, but the owners of those ranches that lay outside the town, they and their ranch hands, their wives, and their daughters, frequented both with pleasing regularity. 

The general store doubled, as such establishments generally did, as a post office, in which capacity it served as the sole tenuous link between this stark western land and the fashionable cities of the east. The Sears and Roebuck catalogue and that of Montgomery Ward, both prominently displayed beside the till, were tattered and well-thumbed, and the monthly mail delivery never came without piles of brown-wrapped parcels containing the latest in fashion and technology from the wider world—hints at the wonders promised by the new century. 

Very little of this prosperity touched the actual residents of Haven. The lives they lived were hard ones, scratched from unforgiving soil, but they were good folk, honest and hard-working. They lived simply and piously and for the most part happily. They tended their gardens and their livestock, read their Bibles, loved their children, and whenever possible sent those children to school. 

The Haven school, a single room with two windows, one on either side, and a disproportionate bell-tower on the roof—both this tower and the bell it contained were gifts from a local rancher, who considered them a better use of his money than blackboards or books—was located well away from the town’s main street. It had no fireplace, only a tiny, smoky, potbellied stove, and in the warmer months no breeze blew through the unglazed windows. The pupils sat on simple benches and copied their lessons onto slates that sold at the general store for rather more than their parents could comfortably afford; lessons their teacher laid out for them on a thickly-whitewashed wall with a piece of charcoal, the dust of which stained her fingers and her clothing, and embedded itself beneath her nails so deeply there were times she felt she’d never be free of it. 

This teacher’s name, the one she used, was Miss Emma Swan. A solitary and self-contained woman of about twenty-six, far too pretty for a schoolteacher most said, and if pressed these same would likely agree that teaching was not what folks might refer to as her calling. Though none could deny that she did her best and was kind to the children—a thing not always guaranteed from schoolmarms—she exuded such a restless air, an impatience with the tedium of her job and the pace of life in Haven which she did not trouble to conceal, that it was a subject of great curiosity amongst the residents why she continued to stay there. 

“I have my reasons,” she would say, whenever anyone dared to broach the subject, “and those reasons are my own.” There it was and there it would remain as far as Emma was concerned, and as the townsfolk knew her to be a courteous woman but one who never minced her words when riled, they declined to press the issue. 

By the time Miss Emma Swan had finished up in the schoolroom on this particular late afternoon, the floor swept and the board cleaned and lessons all prepared for the following day, the sun was already slipping behind the craggy rocks at her back and casting upon the town a peculiar sort of distended twilight—shrouded in shadows beneath a glaring blue sky. As she made her way the short distance between the schoolhouse and her own cabin—or rather, the schoolteacher’s cabin, perhaps the most compelling perk of her job—a brisk breeze ruffled the hem of her skirt and the few flyaway hairs that had escaped her tidy Gibson bun. The night would likely be another chilly one, and Emma wondered absently if she had enough wood left to leave the fire high for an extra hour or two or if she should resign herself now to another cold, dark evening spent alone. 

The cabin where she lived, she and sixty years of schoolteachers before her, was small and rough like most in Haven and comprised only two rooms: a small bedroom to the rear and a larger space at the front used equally for sitting, cooking, and dining. In this front room was both a fireplace and stove, the latter surprisingly modern and another gift from a different rancher, to the previous teacher. Near this stove sat a small wooden table and two matching chairs; a soft and generous armchair had pride of place before the fire. 

The bedroom was by far Emma’s preferred room. The walls in it were painted, in a pale and soothing blue, and on one of them a charming watercolour of forget-me-nots was hung. There was a white wardrobe with a mirrored door, a washstand and a vanity table, and a large bed with a sturdy iron frame. The curtains on the single window were of dotted swiss that Emma had sewn herself, and in the morning when she opened them she was greeted by the colours of the dawn. 

Emma removed her buttoned boots the moment she was through the door; they pinched her toes and she disliked wearing them indoors. She replaced them with a well-worn pair of carpet slippers then headed for the bedroom, there to change out of her school clothes and into the more comfortable, loose wrap dress she preferred at home. When she entered the room she had already undone most of the buttons on her high-collared blouse and so made straight for the wardrobe, without so much as a glance at the bed. 

The mirror on the wardrobe door as it swung open flashed the brief reflection of a face, just as Emma heard the sound of a chair leg scrape against the bare wood floor. She gasped and spun around, eyes wide and one hand pressed against her chest. 

There could be no question that the man currently in occupation of her vanity chair, sprawled in it with an air as casual as it was deceptive, was one who had followed quite a different path of life than that afforded to the residents of Haven. His untidy hair and the thick scruff on his jaw might not be especially remarkable out in this still-wild corner of Wyoming, but the narrow cut of his coat and the embroidery on the waistcoat beneath it, the silver chain of his pocket-watch and the ostentatious knot of his tie marked him as a man who knew his way around a gambling table for both good or ill and could likely acquit himself equally well in both scenarios. A man who dealt with the hardships of life by shooting rather than working his way out of them—as the gleaming six-shooter currently pointed straight at Emma would most certainly attest. 

Emma forced herself to breathe, slow and steady. Her heart was pounding. The man greeted her with a brusque nod, and cocked the hammer on his revolver. 

“Don’t let me interrupt you, love,” he drawled, in an accent that suited this town less even than his clothes or his gun. “By all means, keep going.” 

Emma swallowed hard and with trembling fingers undid the remainder of her buttons. Her blouse hung open to reveal the hooks of the corset underneath. 

The man gave his gun a menacing wave. “All the way now, there’s a good lass.” 

She shrugged off the blouse and let it fall to the floor. 

“And the skirt.” 

She unhooked her grey wool skirt and released it to pool around her ankles. 

His voice rasped. “Take down your hair.” 

Emma shivered.

Three pins and two combs held her hair in place. She removed them, dropped them into the pile of clothing at her feet; the bun tumbled down and over her shoulder. 

“Shake your head.” 

She did, vigorously. The bun unraveled further and strands of silky blonde fell across her face. 

He swallowed audibly. “Now the rest.” 

Emma hesitated, fingers hovering over the hooks on her corset. She wore nothing beneath it but a combination made of thin cotton lawn.

The man raised his gun and growled, “All of it.” 

She tossed her head back, jutted her chin out high in defiance. Her belly churned with a dark thrill of anticipation as she unhooked the corset and flung it away. He chuckled, low and rough. Emma fumbled with the buttons on her combination as he uncocked his gun and set it aside, then undid the belt designed to hold it. His eyes locked with hers as he stood, pale blue and profoundly tired, eyes that had seen far too much. 

She finished with the buttons but left the combination on, parted to reveal a thin strip of pale skin. Her heart thundered as he approached, her breaths short and heaving. He swaggered up and stopped in front of her, close enough that she could smell the dust and sweat on him, so close she had to tilt her head again to see his face. His hand slipped beneath her shift to curl around her waist, fingers rough on her soft skin. 

“I—” Emma gasped as he pulled her closer, flush against him. His voice was a rumbling growl in her ear.

“You what, love?” 

“I was expecting you yesterday!” she snapped, and then she kissed him. 

-

“Gold is dead.” 

Emma’s head shot up from where it had been resting on the bare and hairy chest of Killian Jones. The most notorious outlaw in three states, or so the Wanted posters would have folks believe. Train robber, bank robber, high-stakes gambler—but only the trains and banks and gambling dens controlled by one particular man. A man in whose side Killian Jones had been an exceptionally troublesome thorn for near to six years. A man whose wife Jones stood accused of murdering. A man who was, it seemed, now dead himself. 

Emma stared down at his face, at the sharp definition of his cheekbones and lines of strain around his eyes. Such heavy burdens he’d been carrying for as long as she’d known him, but now, despite the exhaustion writ plain on his face he seemed lighter. Relieved, in some intangible way. 

“He is?” she gasped. 

“Aye.” Killian nodded, grimly satisfied. “Shot him right through the place where his heart should be. That’s why I was late.” 

“Oh, Killian.” It wouldn’t do to feel happy about a murder, even that of a wicked man, but Emma found that she too was grimly satisfied. “You did it.” 

“Aye, it’s done. And now I have a price on my head so high I’d turn myself in if I could, and special team of bounty hunters hired by Gold’s son to bring me to him, dead or alive.” 

“Oh.” Her fingers flexed on his chest and his tightened where they curled around her hip. “What—what will you do?” 

“Leave the country.” He spoke as though the answer were obvious, and Emma supposed it was. “I’ve no choice.” 

“Will you go back to England?” 

“No. There’s nothing left for me there.” He paused and his hand slid up her back to tangle absently in her hair. “I was thinking South America. Argentina.” 

“Argentina?” 

“Aye. Land’s selling down there for cheap and I’ve enough saved to buy myself a ranch. I’ve never tried ranching before so it’ll probably be an utter failure, but the idea’s crawled into my head and made itself a nest there, so I think that’s what I’ll do.” 

Emma slipped from his arms and out of bed. She could feel his eyes on her as she took her house dress from the wardrobe and wrapped it around herself, as she tied it at her waist with jerky movements. 

“You must be hungry,” she said. 

“I could eat.” 

“Stew?” 

“Perfect.” 

In the front room Emma piled wood on the embers in her stove and coaxed a fire to life beneath the pot of stew she’d left on the hob. She swept the ashes from the fireplace, arranged the logs and the kindling, then struck a flint to light it. She could hear Killian in the bedroom washing and dressing in the spare clothes she kept on hand for him, and by the time she sensed his presence behind her the larger logs were catching nicely and the hearty aroma of stew had begun to waft in from the stove. 

“Shouldn’t be too long before it’s ready,” she told him without turning around. “There’s cornbread too. It’s a few days old, but—” 

“Emma.” 

“—it should still be good if you dunk it in the stew.” 

“Emma, love.” Killian’s voice was soft, full of the tenderness he showed only to her. “Talk to me.” 

“About what?” 

It wasn’t as though she hadn’t known this day would come, this one or another very like it. She understood the dangers of the life he lived, out on the edges of society, pursued by an influential man with a terrible grudge, and she’d done all she could to make her peace with it. Killian could have died any number of times in the three years of their acquaintance; she had always been aware that every time she bid him farewell might be the last. 

And now she knew for certain that it would be. Nothing had changed. 

She heard him pull out one of the dining chairs and sit down in it, and though she kept her back to him she he knew he would be leaning his elbow on the table and running a hand over his face. She could picture the gesture in her mind’s eye with perfect clarity, so often had she seen him do it before, and her heart hurt because she knew he only did this when he was deeply troubled. 

“Emma, you know—you know why I spent so long trying to kill Gold,” he said roughly. 

“For Milah.” Her voice hardly broke on the name. “To avenge her.” 

“Yes. That bastard hunted her like an animal, shot her right in front of me then framed me for the crime, and all because she couldn’t bear to spend another moment as his wife. He took her life rather than allow her to live it free from him, because he couldn’t countenance her finding happiness with another man. And I swore to her as she lay dying that I would make him pay for that.” 

“Because you love her.” 

“I did.” In the silence of the cabin, she could hear the rasp of his scruff against his palm. “I did.” 

Emma had been watching the fire, now dancing merrily in the hearth, and it took a beat or two for his words to register. When they did her heart gave a shuddering thump and she spun round to gape at him. “Did?” she repeated. 

Killian’s lip quirked and humour flared briefly in his eyes before they became solemn again, and heartrendingly soft. “It’s a funny thing, revenge,” he remarked. “It begins as a simple quest for justice but so easily descends into obsession—almost before a man knows what’s come over him, it’s all he’s got left to live for. That’s how it was for me, for years. Until…” 

He trailed off and Emma found she was holding her breath. “Until?” she prompted.

He looked up at her. “Until I met you.” 

She inhaled sharply as their eyes met, his own warm and such a brilliant blue, full of an emotion to which she didn’t dare give a name. “I kept after Gold because of my vow to Milah, yes, but also because I had to, because it was him or me. His life or mine. When that bullet pierced his chest and I saw him fall, I realised that it wasn’t about Milah for me anymore and it hadn’t been, not for a long time. I was fighting for my life, my right to have it and to live it in peace. That’s all I want, just peace and a simple life. And you.” 

“Me?” gasped Emma, blankly and ungrammatically, as she attempted to grasp what he was saying. 

Amusement coloured the tenderness on his face, alongside a hint of exasperation. “Don’t you know, Emma?” he asked with a shake of his head. “Why do you think I kept coming back here?”

She offered a weak smile and an abashed shrug. “My cornbread?” she ventured, and he laughed. 

“I don’t know how to tell you this, darling, but your cornbread is dry. Try again.” 

Emma elected to ignore this ungentlemanly slur on her culinary skills. “Well… I suppose the town is quite secluded, good for hiding out,” she observed.  

“It is that. But that isn’t the reason, love.” 

“Isn’t it?”

“You know it isn’t.” Killian stood and moved towards her, slowly as if she were a baby faun he was apt to startle, or possibly a sleeping mountain lion. “It’s you, Emma Swan,” he said softly. “You are what I will always come back for. You are the reason my soul is hale and unconsumed by hatred. Because it wasn’t revenge I was after, in the end. It was the future I wanted with you.” 

Tears clogged Emma’s throat and pressed insistently behind her eyes. “Killian,” she choked, “I—”

“Shh.” He closed what small distance remained between them and folded her in an embrace to which she clung tightly, face pressed against his shoulder so the soft flannel of his shirt might absorb her tears. “Emma, I know I have next to nothing to offer you.” Killian stroked her hair soothingly as he spoke. “A tenuous existence in an unfamiliar country, backbreaking work that likely won’t pay off, a struggle for everything we have. I shouldn’t ask this of you. I should have the decency to walk away and let you find happiness with a better man than me.” She could hear tears in his voice now, and when she looked up she saw them glistening in his eyes. “But I won’t,” he continued gruffly. “I can’t, because I am a selfish bastard and I love you. I love you so much, Emma.” His voice broke. “So much. And if you could see your way clear to coming to Argentina with me, I would spend every day I have left on this earth working to make you happy.” 

A rush of joy filled Emma Swan then, joy such as she had never known before. Her tears fell freely and unheeded as she tightened her hold on the man she loved and pressed her forehead to his own. In that stance they remained for some considerable time, until Emma became aware that the silence had drawn out far too long and she must speak. There were words he needed to hear from her, crucial words, and yet Miss Emma Swan, despite being quite a competent schoolteacher in all respects including her vocabulary, had always found words failed her when in the grip of strong emotion. 

“Did I ever tell you I grew up on a ranch?” she blurted, then shook her head. That wasn’t what she’d wished to say.

Killian’s brow wrinkled. “You’ve mentioned it.” 

“My daddy’s place out near Casper,” Emma pressed on. “A thousand acres of cattle, mostly, and some horses.” 

“It sounds nice.” 

“It was.” She snuffled and shifted until her head was resting on his shoulder and she felt cradled in his arms. This wasn’t the speech she’d planned but now she found herself determined to give it. “I was his only child, his only family after my mama died, and he reared me all my life to take over from him,” she continued. “But then when I was nineteen he got married again, and had a son. And suddenly ranching was ‘no job for a woman,’ or so he said, and I should look into teaching instead. Or better still get married and become some man’s pretty possession. Preferably the son of a neighbouring rancher, ‘for the future of our family’s land and legacy’.” She paused, remembering, and rubbed her cheek against his shirt. “I told him to go fuck himself.” 

Killian’s laugh rumbled through the both of them. “That’s my tough lass,” he said, with a pride in his voice that warmed her, and made her desperate. 

“But you do know what I’m saying, don’t you Killian?” she persisted. “You hear what I’m telling you?” 

“What I hear is that in addition to being beautiful and brilliant and tough as old boots, you also know how to run a ranch. Which would be bloody useful I must admit, as I haven’t got the first faint clue where to start. Is that what you wanted me to understand?” 

She nodded in relief. “That’s it.”

He brushed the hair back from her face with fingers gentle as the wing of a butterfly. “And is that... all you have to say?”

She felt caught in his eyes, and like to drown in them. “There may be one more thing.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. It’s that I—I—” Emma drew a steadying breath. “I love you too, Killian, and of course I’ll go to Argentina with you.” A smile broke across his face, that rare and brilliant smile of his that set her heart to soaring and broke the dam that held her words in check. “I’d go anywhere with you,” she declared, laughing as he squeezed her tight. “To the moon. To hell itself, and then back out again.” 

“Let’s hope that won’t be necessary.” 

He leaned down to her and she swayed up to him and their lips met in a kiss that sang of love and of hope and of a most solemn promise, if something of a dramatic one. He dipped her back and kissed her until she was dizzy and overcome with laughter, and then swung her up again and into a dance. 

Emma put her head on his shoulder and leaned into him as they danced to music they alone could hear, all around the cabin with the aroma of stew in the air and hope for the future in their hearts. 

-

The disappearance of Miss Emma Swan, schoolteacher and respected resident, shook the town of Haven, Wyoming as nothing had before. Even the escape and subsequent stampede down Main Street of Mr Murchison’s pigs had caused less consternation, since, as the residents all agreed, for that at least there was an explanation. A rusty gate hinge, investigation later revealed, had been the culprit behind the Spectacular Pig Hullabaloo of 1893, whereas Miss Swan had simply vanished, with no explanation given or obvious method of egress. She owned no horse and had not boarded the stage; no one matching her description had been observed at the train station in Casper or anywhere else that a woman alone on foot might reasonably have been expected to turn up. She had taken nothing with her save some clothes and a few books and left nothing behind but a brief letter hastily scrawled on a scrap of paper—her resignation from her position as schoolteacher effective immediately, and a recommendation for her replacement. 

Haven residents were thoroughly baffled, and for many months afterwards the Fantastical Vanishing of Miss Emma Swan was the number one topic of conversation amongst them. Theories were dismantled nearly as quickly as they had been constructed, replaced by newer and ever more fanciful speculations, and each resident had his or her own pet notion as to how and why the trick was done. Rarely had they felt so stimulated or enjoyed themselves so thoroughly, however time, as it inevitably does, soon began quite noticeably to pass, and the town’s attention moved on to other happenings. For although new events in such a quiet place may never again be as deliciously sensational as the mystery of the vanished schoolmarm, they do possess the not insignificant advantage of being new.  

And thus Emma Swan passed into Haven legend. 

Some years later, on the eve of her wedding, Miss Mary Margaret Blanchard—soon to be Mrs David Nolan—sat at the very table where Miss Swan’s letter had been left and composed a letter of her own, to an old friend she’d first met at the State Normal School of Colorado. In her letter Miss Blanchard informed her friend of the imminent blessed day and thanked her for the recommendation that had not only brought Miss Blanchard many years of enjoyable work as schoolteacher to Haven’s children but also led, in that roundabout way life sometimes takes, to her current state of blissful happiness. 

This letter travelled by mail coach from the Haven general store—where Miss Blanchard posted it to the care of a P.O. Box in San Francisco—to the main post office in Casper. From there it went via train to Cheyenne, where it was loaded onto the mail car of the Union Pacific Railway and thence made its journey to the west coast. In San Francisco its fortunes underwent a curious change, for it was redirected by a clerk there, in accordance with instructions, and placed back on the Union Pacific, headed this time for Denver. From Denver it voyaged onwards to Kansas City, then Chicago, and finally to New York, where it abandoned train travel forever in favour of a steam ship bound for Buenos Aires. 

Upon arrival at port it was placed in the charge of a courier who carried it along with a scant handful of others over the rough roads of the Argentinian coast to Puerto Santa Cruz and then inland, where it finally, many months after its departure, came to rest at a tiny, dusty outpost in southern Patagonia. And it was from this inauspicious locale that the letter was collected, at long last, by its intended recipient—a woman none of the residents of Haven nor indeed the erstwhile Miss Blanchard herself would be likely to recognise as Emma Swan. 

The clothes she wore were utilitarian in design and plain in colour, liberally coated in fine brown dust. Her pale hair hung loose and wavy down her back, and her face beneath her wide-brimmed hat was tanned and marked around the eyes with the fine lines characteristic of those who spend a good deal of time squinting into bright sunlight. But these were superficial changes. The woman who collected the well-travelled letter and rode with it back to her ranch, who sat at the table in her kitchen and read it with a wide smile and sincere pleasure at the news from her friend—this woman was happy, as Emma Swan had surely never been. It was a happiness born of deep contentment and the satisfaction of a life lived on one’s own terms. And it was the happiness of a woman who is loved. 

Emma was reading the letter a fourth time when the sound of boots on the porch alerted her to Killian’s arrival; she looked up just as he came through the door with a smile on her lips the like of which neither Mrs Nolan nor any other in Haven could ever imagine her smiling. 

Killian hung his hat on a hook and met its brilliance with a smile of his own. “What are you thinking about, love, that has you so radiant?” he inquired. 

“A letter from Mary Margaret.” Emma indicated the sheet of paper in her hand. “She’s getting married. Is married now, I suppose.” 

“To a fellow worthy of her, I hope?” 

“A rancher, but not one of the arrogant ones,” Emma replied. “I think he is. Worthy of her, I mean. I think they’ll be happy.” 

“That’s good news indeed.” 

“It is.” She set the letter aside and went over to him, tucked her head beneath his chin as he enfolded her in his arms. “But that’s not why I’m radiant, as you say.” 

“I say it only because it’s true, darling.” 

“It’s because I’m happy,” said Emma softly. She nuzzled her nose against his neck; he smelled of sweat and dust and horses. “For Mary Margaret, of course, but also for me. It struck me just now, reading her letter, how happy I am. I’m so happy, Killian.” 

His arms around her tightened and she felt him stroke her hair, and when he spoke his voice was gruff. “No regrets then, about abandoning everything you’ve ever known to live out your days on the lam with me?” 

“Nope.” Emma pulled back just enough to look up at him, to caress his cheek with her fingertips and press her forehead to his. “No regrets at all.” 

-

Historical Note: Emma in this fic is based loosely on a woman named Etta Place. Very little is known about her, but she is thought to have been romantically involved with Harry Longabaugh, a.k.a. the Sundance Kid, and to have accompanied him and Butch Cassidy to South America. However, verifiable details about her are scarce—even her real name is uncertain—and only one photograph of her remains. Some believe she may have been a prostitute but in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid the writer chose to make her a teacher instead, and honestly I have always found that such a compelling tale. A “proper” schoolteacher having a secret affair with an outlaw, then running away with him to another continent? The romance, am I right? 

And thus the inspiration for this story. 

-

@ohmightydevviepuu​ @thisonesatellite​ @katie-dub​ @kmomof4​ @killianjones-twopointoh​ @mariakov81​ @stahlop​ @optomisticgirl​ @spartanguard​ @shireness-says​ @snowbellewells​ 

#cs fic #cs ff #cs ff au #cshistfic #captain swan #western au #historical fic #historical romance #Emma is a teacher #killian is an outlaw #many many historical details #like so many #i make no apologies for this #it's more of a warning #the outlaw Killian Jones (and the legend Emma Swan) #profdanglaisstuff

[bi-robins-club]

a list of all my dc wips:

(id appreciate any asks about these! maybe hopefully it will increase my motivation to finish them)

Rejected Batgirls AU

Fed up with the Bats for the last time, Steph decides to strike out on her own as Spoiler again. Funnily enough she's not even the only wannabe Batgirl that was struck down in the making and choose to hit the streets with a separate identity. In which Spoiler and Misfit team up to hit the streets of Gotham and cause general chaos and mischief.

Batgirl Jason AU

Jason hasn't had a lot of positive male role models in his life but he's known a lot of kick ass women. That's primarily the reason why he asks Bruce (and Barbara!) if he could be the new Batgirl instead of the new Robin. This works out great in the end because Dick isn't pissed that Robin got replaced without his permission and is instead thrilled to have a baby brother and there's also still an unfilled opening when Jason realizes the weird stalker kid with the camera is his rich neighbor.

supervillains love their kids as much as you do, assholes

the unofficial sequel to a mother's love. in which i explore different villains relationships with their kids and completely change the dynamics.

villains im planning on writing: cheshire & lian, lex & kon, slade & his brood, jason & his many villainous moms (the plot to a mother's love if you haven't read it), talia & damian

every family has a black sheep (and most of them end up on the same team?)

in which artemis is the jason of the wonderfam and forcibly reintroduced to being a member of the family when all she wants to do is stay on her deserted island with the rest of her team. bizarro is the only one that doesnt laugh at her and for that? hes her favourite, no questions asked

i honestly just wanted to see yara flor interact with jason and artemis.

momhood and dadtemis

jason liked to say he took the outcasts (generation outlaws) into protective custody when he took them away from lex. clara likes to say he kidnapped them. shes full of shit though, she's always the first one to fight sasha over who gets to sit at jasons side on movie nights.

jason wasnt robin au

a series centering around jason being someone else's sidekick and just having badass moms

red hoodie au

in which clara, sasha, devour (devan) and dna (dani) are deaged to toddlers and jason is suddenly the single father of four (not that he wasnt before but there was a reason he adopted teens, damnit!)

outlaw zombie au

no powers au

jason got sent to some rich kid boarding school when he beat the shit out of some kid bullying tim. because of his background, the media cracked down and it was the lightest punishment bruce could get away with.

it was supposed to be a year min with no contact but then the apocalypse fucked everything up.

stuck in a boarding school in northern California woods, the outlaws band together to survive the zombie apocalypse

fixing the outlaws au

where i take the great idea that scott l*bell had and then i dont fuck it up like he did and instead make a great outlaws team

red hood is more than just a bat

in which i explore jasons relationships with those outside of the batfamily.

dead robins drabble

the first time jason meets spoiler, she sprains her hand against his helmet, screeching like a banshee about how he tried to kill tim

the first time jason meets stephanie, she pokes his pec and loudly complains about how his tits are bigger than hers

jason knight au

in which sheila haywood wasnt jasons biological mom but natalia knight was

#jason todd #red hood #rhato #roy harper #artemis of bana mighdall #kori anders #bizarro #rose wilson #red hood and the outlaws #dc #yara flor #batman #dick grayson #tim drake #damian wayne #stephanie brown #cassandra cain #barbara gordon #jayroy #charlie gage radcliffe #spoiler #misfit #robin #nightwing #batgirl

[intothewickedwood]

becky! hi!! can you pls do 001 for ouat, 003 for regina and 002 for any ship from ouat that you'd like :) *hugs*

Thank you so much, lovely! <3 *gives biggest hug back*

001 OUAT

Favorite character: Alice Jones! Loml. I relate to her so much. An actual cinnamon cupcake.

Least Favorite character: Okay, I’m gonna look through every character and choose instead of just guessing. You know, I think it’s Alphonse Frankenstein (a.k.a Viktor and Gerhardt’S dad). He’s just terrible, doesn’t give anyone a chance to speak and just hates Viktor for no discernible reason. I’m not for violence but Gerhardt probably just wanted to get a word in edgeways.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Oooh! This is a fun quezzie! 

1. Snowing

Perfect babies. I love them more than words can say. They are so perfect for one another and they make my heart swell every time they’re together.

2. Curious Archer

This ship means so much to me. They helped me finally come to terms with my sexuality and they are just such a wonderful couple. Have I expressed how much I love how supportive Robin is?! The way they look at each other. The way Robin became a better person with accidental help from Alice. I just love them. They belong together.

3. Hooking Utensil

They’re just so cute. They’re so flirtatious and are always helping eachother out. They just had so much potential and I need all the fics and I just want Wish Hook, Tiana and Alice to be a family because she’s so good to Alice and I need AUs where they raise her together and I cry.

4. Gremma

Forever my otp for Emma. They just had so much potential and he was the first person she opened up to in a romantic sense after a long while. She was lonely for so long and she let herself reveal her caring side with him. He meant so much to her because of that and she wore his shoelace around her wrist for a long time after his death, which says so much and their kiss broke through his cursed persona, which surely makes them true love. I wish they’d explained that. Would it have worked if Emma kissed Mary Margaret on the forehead? We’ll never know.

5. Frozen Swan

More on my thoughts on this pairing further down! But also, remember that true love’s hand hold?

Character I find most attractive: Mary Margaret and David

Character I would marry: Okay, probably Mary Margaret most of all! Especially s1 Mary Margaret but I also want to marry David and Alice Jones! And Kathryn! And Jefferson! And Anna! And Robin Mills! And Elsa! And, okay I’m gonna have a lot of weddings to plan.

Character I would be best friends with: Alice Jones or Anna. I need an uplifting, quirky friend. 

a random thought: I really want to figure out all of the characters ages by the start of the curse and end of the show. 

An unpopular opinion: I really like s7 and I know a lot of people don’t. It’s my 3rd favourite season because I think it introduces some great characters, like Alice Jones, an older Robin Mills and Princess Tiana. 

My Canon OTP: Snowing

My Non-canon OTP: Hooking Utensil

Most Badass Character: I’mma go with Emma. She’s like the epitome of a badass.

Most Epic Villain: Zelena, for me! Loved every moment of her in s3 and she quickly became my favourite character before Alice came along. She was just deliciously wicked and funny. 

Pairing I am not a fan of: Captain Swon, Outlaw Queeen, Rumbellle. They’re just not for me. Though the first used to be. And lol, I was just looking up ouat ships and found out the ship for August x Baelfire is called Firewood xD. I’m not opposed to that ship, however!

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Emma and original Hook after s5. I just felt they became totally different characters dedicated only to eachother without room for anyone else. Emma, in particular, became unrecognisable. I missed her meaningful interactions with her family. I missed her old personality. 

Favourite Friendship: Mary Margaret and Emma in s1. They were such good friends who could confide anything in each other and always gave each other great advice. And Emma saying she can’t lose her family even before they knew they were in 1x17 kills me everytime. She was willing to do anything for her best friend. They were like sisters.

Character I most identify with: Alice Jones We’re both pretty eccentric, mentally ill, autistic (I headcanon her to be) and not straight haha! I try to see the positive side of things nowadays like her and I have my own odd way of doing things. Who wants to be normal, anyway?

Character I wish I could be: Hmm. Good question. I’d like to have magic, so I guess Alice because she can just wish for anything and it’s hers. I wouldn’t mind being Snow or Charming so I could be married to one of them but I’d hate to break them up.

003 Regina Mills

How I feel about this character: I like her. Her and I went through a rocky patch in s5 and early s6 because I just found her hypocrisy when it came to Zelena to be too much, but she regained my favour in s7 and I can look past it now. She scared the crap out of me in s1, ngl. But I love that about her. I think she’s a great villain with a sympathetic backstory. Though her difficulty in self-reflecting frustrated me at times, I’ve learned to see it as part of what makes her character so unique and complex and I’m glad she grew in that respect in s6. Regina’s cool.

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Dr. Facilier, Kathryn, Daniel, Maleficent and, you know, I’m getting into Swan Queen recently since I’m following a lot of blogs that post about them, including yours Renee! Thank you for dragging me down the SQ rabbit hole with you xD!

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: I would say Wicked Queen but I want to go for something different than my penultimate answer. I love the relationship with Cora and Regina. I am such a sucker for toxic mother-daughter relationships and there’s is like the epitomy of that. It’s so intriguing to watch Cora manipulate, control and influence her. And after everything Regina still loves her mother. Such a great dynamic!

My unpopular opinion about this character: I guess it’s that I’m not a fan of 0Q at all and I never really did like them together. I just felt Regina had to change her whole persona when around him but at least she went back to herself when he wasn’t around. I wish that was the same for Emma with her bf.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I kinda wished she had taken responsibilities for her actions earlier but I guess the reward for waiting wouldn’t have been as satisfying. I also wish the serum!queen was more intimidating in s6. I was hoping to be as scared of her as I was in s1, but ah well.

Favorite friendship for this character: I love her dynamic with Zelena. I love how it started in s3 with them hating eachother and I love how it evolved, even though I did find it difficult in s5 and early s6. But they were such a delight in later s5, later s6 and s7. They came so far.

My crossover ship: Freaking Bellatrix Lestrange is the only one that comes to mind. Regina feels difficult to pair. But I have no doubt they’d create devastating chaos together and Bellatrix would be as obsessed with her as she was with Voldemort.

002 Any Ship from Ouat

Oooh! I feel so powerful right now! I’m gonna go with Frozen Swan!

When I started shipping them: In 4x02 when Emma is freezing and Elsa is grasping her hands and panicking for her. Just watch the way Elsa holds onto her. That sh*t’s gay and I love it.

My thoughts: I’ve recently been looking at a lot of crack ouat s4 posts and I am living for gay Elsa pining over Emma. I wish those posts were canon however wild they may be.

What makes me happy about them: I love how their friendship developed. She is arguably the best friend Emma ever had, not afraid to show affection for her (because she’s in love with her lbr) and helped Emma accept herself when no one else could. Elsa needs a girlfriend and Emma and her are a great pairing. The way Elsa looks at her. I just die. And the fact that they both struggled to control their magic.

What makes me sad about them: That they never got together and Elsa never got to be explicitly gay. Please, it’s all I want in life! It probably wasn’t the writer’s intention but my God, the subtext is so freaking strong. 

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: None.

Things I look for in fanfic: I haven’t read a Frozen Swan fanfic in a while but I need Elsa battling with her sexuality because her parents forced her to supress her gay feelings. Love triangles are good, with Elsa pining and Emma eventually realising that Elsa is her soulmate after her magic goes out of control. Elsa pining is a good and painful thing.

My wishlist: I wish their was never ending crack posts of the frozen arc. I just can’t get enough. I wish I realised how much I need to get back into reading Frozen Swan (if anyone knows any canon divergent where Elsa longs for Emma please send me recs! There will be so many cookies!). I wish Elsa was in the show much longer. The Frozen characters were just so good and I needed so much more of them.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: For Emma I would be happy with Graham, August, Baelfire or Jefferson. For Elsa. Hmm, some lucky lady. Elsa x Ruby would be cute. They could help each other control the ‘monster’ within. Frozen Wolf is cool. I can also see Robin Mills, actually, when I think about it, when Robin is older like she is in s7 and we make them the same age, of course. Robin’s good at calming people down. 

My happily ever after for them: Emma would have to leave Hook for Elsa in s4 and they wouldn’t have to go to freaking camelot in s5. Let them go to Arendelle instead! They’d eventually get married, raise Henry together and have joint custody with Regina and they can have a magical daughter that’s super powerful and has both their magic. She’d need their help controlling it but she’d get nothing but support from them and her brother. She can be called Ruth or Gerda, but I prefer Ruth.

Thank you again for all the wonderful quezzies!

#ouat #once upon a time #alice jones #curious archer #regina mills #snowing #gremma #frozen swan #robin mills #ouat tilly #ouat margot #mary margaret blanchard #david nolan #snow white #prince charming #the evil queen #evil queen #princess tiana #elsa #queen elsa #ouat elsa #princess anna #ouat anna #ask game #ask #asks #emmaswcns

[superherotiger]

Born Anew From Dust and Blood (Outlaw Irondad AU)

Hello everyone! I’ve been obsessing over this idea for the past week after seeing an old artwork of mine, and couldn’t stop until I had it finished, so please enjoy this completely random Western AU oneshot that I made with my favourite father-son team hah! Also please beware the tags below before you start to read :) Stay safe and please like/reblog/comment if you enjoyed! Your support means the world to me! (And big thanks to Grey who read over it for me as I wrote!)

(Trigger Warning: Skip Westcott, implied sexual assault of a minor, violence and murder)

Ao3 Link

~~~~~~~~~~

“Not another step.”

Warm, brown eyes grew wide at the unfamiliar voice, turning ever so slowly to face the speaker as the sound of a gun locking into place echoed through the stable like thunder. The boy froze on instinct, visibly shaking with terror as his gaze levelled another set of brown eyes, though these ones were steely and worn down with age. Blood red rays from the sunset poured over the stalls and horses, and though the intruder’s dark suit blended perfectly into the shadows, his face was anything but a secret. The boy’s eyes grew impossibly wider.

“You’re… you’re the Iron Bandit,” the stable boy breathed, half in awe and half in terror, which was entirely reasonable considering said outlaw was still aiming a gun to his chest with a calculating glare.

But seeming to find no danger in the scruffy, wild-haired child who couldn’t be older than twelve, the outlaw lowered his gun and leant back into the stack of hay he had found himself resting against for the past hour. He’d planned to take one of the horses and rendezvous back with his crew, the infamous Avengers, but that’s the thing about bank robberies. They tended to end in shootouts, which usually ended in a situation like this.

“Oh my god… you’re- you’re bleeding,” the boy suddenly stuttered as he realised the deep crimson blood that had pooled onto the stable floor beneath the outlaw’s leg.

The Iron Bandit huffed, dropping his head back against the hay as another wave of exhaustion rolled over him. “That’s usually what bullets do,” he muttered sarcastically.

“Oh jeez, can- can I do something?” the boy asked rapidly, surprising the outlaw with the genuine concern etched into his features as he shifted from foot to foot. Anxious to help, but unsure if he should get any closer to one of the most notorious criminals in the state.

Unsure what to do with a reaction that wasn’t outright fear or hatred though, the Bandit just rolled his eyes and said “Stop talkin’ so loudly for a start kid. I’m trying not to get caught if that’s alright with you.”

“Oh, right! S-Sorry,” the boy stammered out, wringing his hands together in the most endearing display of sheepishness that the Bandit had ever seen. “Are… um, are you okay sir?”

“Just swell, as you can see,” the Bandit said with a dramatic sweep of his hand.

The boy’s cheeks tinged red as he dug his heel into the soil, saying “Sorry… I, uh, I’ve never talked to a real cowboy before…”

“Does that mean you’ve talked to fake cowboys before?” the Bandit joked, feeling his lips twitch upward when the boy let out an amused snort.

“You’re funny.”

“I try,” the Bandit mused.

“Are you sure I can’t help?” he asked again, the terror from before replaced with worry that the Bandit hadn’t even seen in his own crew’s eyes for many years.

“Yeah kid, I’m fine,” the Bandit assured. He didn’t say how the wound felt like a wildfire in his nerves, or how the amount of blood that was already seeping into the hay was probably fatal. He didn’t say that he wanted to fall asleep right there and never wake up.

No, the Bandit just mustered a smile and stifled the pain, because this was only a kid. A kind, innocent kid. And while he might be an outlaw, the Iron Bandit was no monster.

And maybe, just maybe, this boy saw that too, because after hesitantly stepping forward until he could crouch beside the man, his face grew somber with understanding and, more surprisingly, grief. Loss haunted the depths of his once youthful eyes, and the Bandit recognised a familiarity in his posture as he assessed the gnarly bullet wound, like he had seen it before… like he had been in this very position sometime in his past.

Curiosity overruled his usual wariness, and the Bandit found himself just watching silently as the stable boy stared down at the wound, an endearing little crease in his brow as he got lost in thought. And when the boy stood up and offered out his little, dusty hand, saying “I can help sir, I wanna help,” the Bandit didn’t find himself fighting, as he so often did these days. Instead he listened- listened to a stable boy of all people, and actually accepted his help. Actually hobbled up to his feet with the boy supporting his wounded side as they shuffled into a nearby shed, which the outlaw quickly realised must have been the boy’s sleeping quarters as he collapsed against the stiff, rickety bed.

“Christ, a boulder would be better than this,” the Bandit muttered.

“It’s not so bad when you get used to it,” the boy chuckled as he pulled out some spare rags from a chest and tied them around the Bandit’s leg, staunching the blood flow as best as possible.

The Bandit wasn’t sure why he let him do it exactly. He told himself it was because of the blood loss, that he’d just been too weary to fight it, but it was undeniable that the Bandit felt a strike of fondness for the kid who had offered nothing but kindness to a hardened criminal like himself. Such gentleness, and generosity, and selflessness was hard to come by these days, and the Bandit wasn’t going to let it be destroyed, at least not by his hand.

“You got a name kid?”

The boy glanced up in surprise, fine curls of hair framing his bright smile as he answered, “Peter, sir.”

And offering a genuine smile of his own, the Bandit said “Thanks Pete... And you can call me Tony. Sir makes me feel like a prick.”

The brief moment of surprise that crossed Peter’s expression at the name was replaced with a bout of laughter by the end, and Tony couldn’t help but soften at the boy whose eyes shimmered like the stars that littered the sky outside. When the chuckles had fallen back into a comfortable silence and Peter had brought over a damp rag for them each, the two began to wipe away the blood that stained their hands, Tony’s carved with scars and blisters while Peter’s were calloused from relentless hours of labour.

“So, how’d you end up in this pit kid?” the man eventually asked, quickly wishing he hadn’t when he noticed Peter’s jaw clench in response.

“Family died,” the boy answered softly, shrugging away the weight of his statement as if it were a mere turn of weather. “The mines took my Pa, and my Ma and Aunt got new- um… new…?”

“Pneumonia?” Tony offered softly.

“Yeah… that,” Peter murmured, wringing his fingers together again as he added shakily, “And my uncle Ben… he… he got shot tryin’ to stop a thief.”

Realisation dawned on the outlaw like lightning piercing through a storm as he glanced down at his crudely bandaged leg, a flash of those haunted young eyes appearing across his vision, before he turned back to the boy with a sigh. One of understanding, but also of something less common… something like care.

“He a good man?” Tony asked, breaking the dreaded silence that hung in the air.

Fondness swirled into the former sorrow as Peter glanced over to the far wall and replied, “The best. He was kind, and strong… he taught me everything I know.” The weak smile that had worked onto Peter’s expression was slowly shadowed with darkness once more, scratching at his neck almost anxiously as he murmured “That’s, um… that’s how I got here, actually. I knew how to look after horses, so I was useful, I guess…”

Tony nodded slowly and swept his gaze across the shed, taking in the cramped, dreary walls and leaking roof. There were no belongings on the shelves. No pictures or toys or books or anything a normal child should have. The room was practically barren besides the rickety bed and a small chest of clothing, and Tony felt his heart sink for the boy beside him. Being an outlaw was by no means a luxurious life, but even the Iron Bandit had more than this.

Even Tony hadn’t lost as much as Peter had in his young life.

“So… who’s got you now then?” the outlaw asked carefully.

The boy tensed up in the corner of his eye, and Tony felt his suspicions spike like ice spreading through his chest.

“Mr Westcott,” Peter eventually murmured, fingers locked together to hide the fact they were shaking. “He’s… I don’t like him very much.”

“Why’s that?” Tony pressed.

“Uh, he... w-well he…” Peter floundered for a moment as he tried to find the words, but in the end, his voice just trailed away into an uncanny silence.

“He mean to you kid?” Tony asked as he eyed the boy for any injuries. The outlaw was no stranger to abuse, or what it felt like to be beaten down as a child by someone with far too much power and control over you. But the answer he ended up getting was almost worse.

“He’s… friendly,” Peter said, eyes hollow and cold with something Tony couldn’t understand. “…Too friendly…”

But before the Bandit could dwell on his ominous words for long, Peter shook his head as if trying to chase away a bad thought and turned back to the Bandit with a shaky smile. “Enough about me, what about you?” he asked with those entrancing eyes of his. “I’ve heard so many stories, and- and I know you’re part of the Avengers and all, but they don’t hold a candle to the things I’ve heard about you!”

Tony blinked, stunned at the rapid flood of words, only to soften into a smile at the pure excitement radiating out of the boy like sunshine.

“Is it true that you robbed a train singlehandedly last year?” Peter asked, voice reduced to an awed whisper.

“True as can be,” Tony chuckled.

“Will- will you tell me about it? About life out there on the run?”

And hell, how could the Iron Bandit say no to those curious, beaming eyes?

So as the moon crawled up the horizon, the little shed became filled with tales of bank heists and train robberies, of lands far and wide and the many adventures it took to see them. Peter sat beside the outlaw, completely enraptured, as he retold his most entertaining stories both with and without his fellow Avengers, lifting up the victories while leaving out the horrors. The shootouts and spilt blood they left in their wake. He got the sense that Peter had already seen enough cruelty in his life as it was.

Maybe that was what surprised the bandit most of all though; that this kid who had lost and grieved and suffered at every turn could somehow still be so innocent, so awestruck by a world that had shown him nothing but scorn. Even earlier that day when he was faced with an injured outlaw, the very same type of criminal that had stolen his uncle away from him, Peter offered him only concern and assistance. Had offered him compassion, which was more than a person like Tony deserved.

He wondered when Peter would be rewarded for his years of trials, when his kindness would finally be repaid.

And the horrifying answer returned: Not yet.

A clatter of something out in the stables had both outlaw and stable boy freezing mid sentence, Tony’s hand immediately falling over his gun while the boy jumped up to his feet in panic. No wait, not panic… dread. Like he knew what was coming and was powerless to stop it.

Acting on instinct, Tony forced himself back onto his shaky feet and hobbled towards the door, gun out of its holster and finger on the trigger in the blink of an eye. The Iron Bandit feared nothing- no one. But when Tony glanced over towards the boy still frozen in place beside the bed, his heart dropped like a stone into a deep, icy lake when he took in his petrified expression.

“It’s him…” Peter whispered, eyes wide with fear and the trembling spreading out from his hands to his entire scrawny frame. “I… I don’t want to…”

It was spoken so softly, so weakly, that Tony almost missed it. But he didn’t miss the terror that bled out of every syllable, or the tears that had begun to pool in his haunted doe eyes. Whoever this was, they were a threat to Peter. In what way, Tony wasn’t sure, but any threat to the kid would be six feet under if he had any say in the matter.

So, following his instincts, Tony shifted behind the reach of the door and listened to the heavy footsteps that approached from the other side. They were close now, and Tony always preferred the element of surprise when possible. He’d hoped that Peter would get behind him when he waved him over, but the boy remained paralysed like a deer caught in headlights, too far out of reach for the bandit to pull him over by force.

But before the urge to pull the kid behind him could take over, the door creaked open at a painstakingly slow pace, causing both Peter and Tony to become as still as statues. There was a moment of hesitation from the opposite side of the door, before it swung open enough for the intruder to step in and reveal himself unknowingly to the outlaw waiting in the shadows. It only took a heartbeat for Tony to make his assessment, seeing no weapon on the stranger’s figure but already despising his groomed, snowy hair and overconfident smirk. He smelt of rich cologne and the metallic scent of wealth, which Tony recognised from all the scummy bankers he’d robbed over the years.

But his distaste quickly shifted to a cold fury when the man stepped closer to the both with a sickening leer, making Peter flinch under his gaze.

“You’re awake,” the man observed, his voice falsely sweet.

“I… I c-couldn’t sleep,” Peter whispered as he kept his eyes trained to the floor, unaware of Tony pushing himself away from the wall with amazingly stealthy movements.

The Bandit had been in dozens of deathly situations in his life, and he knew the feeling of danger more deeply than that of comfort. But this was something different. Something cold and acidic that burnt at his very skin and churned his stomach with dread, telling him to move, to fight, to protect-

“Well,” the man crooned just before his hand ghosted over the ridge of Peter’s collar bone like the filthy monster that Tony realised he was. “I can fix that…”

A sob slipped out of Peter’s mouth, and something inside of Tony snapped at the sound of it.

Fury like nothing the outlaw had ever experienced before exploded out of his chest in a guttural roar, pouncing forward before the man could even think of laying another finger on the boy and throwing him into the opposite wall by his collar. It took all of Tony’s energy to bite back a snarl as he levelled the man’s startled blue eyes, relishing the horror that washed over his features when he recognised the outlaw’s face.

Good, Tony thought bitterly. Be scared while you still can.

“Peter,” he managed to say with an even tone, never breaking his fierce staring match with the man who began to squirm and struggle under his grasp. A quick knee to the gut was all it took to silence him though, his whimpers getting muffled into scratchy exhales as the Bandit shoved his arm against the man’s throat.

“T-Tony?” a broken voice replied, stabbing at the Bandit’s heart when he heard the cries Peter was desperately trying to suppress. But as much as it pained him to ignore it, Tony could only steel his nerves and tell himself he’d help Peter later. That there would be all the time in the world to help him when he was through with the low life before him.

“Get the horses ready,” he ordered calmly. Too calm for the expression of pure hatred the bandit had fixed on the man right now.

Thankfully, Peter didn’t object, disappearing out the door with a weary sniffle before his footsteps faded into the distance.

A beat of silence passed through the room as Tony held the man against the wall, enjoying every moment he trembled under his fists, before he asked with a sneer “Westcott, I assume?”

The man tried to speak but the pressure against his neck was too fierce to even breathe fully let alone talk. It didn’t really matter though. The strike of terror in his eyes was enough of an answer for the outlaw, and he had never taken such great pleasure in firing his gun as he had in that moment.

The scream that Westcott made when the bullet went through his stomach was one Tony hoped to remember, and finally stepping back from the wall, he watched the pitiful man crumble to his knees with a stuttering exhale. But it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough for someone as horrid as him.

So holstering his gun, Tony pulled out the iron knuckle dusters from his jacket -the very ones that had earned him the title of the Iron Bandit all those years ago- and slipped them over his hands with a final, icy glare.

“I’d say start praying,” he growled. “But ain’t nobody up there’s gonna be able to save you from me.”

~~~~~~~~~~

The air was cool and crisp as Peter gazed up at the expanse of stars above, marvelling in their beauty, in their silence, as he tried to ignore the scene he had left behind in the stables. Tremors still ran through his fingertips as he smoothed down the mane of the horse by his side -a strong stallion named Jarvis that would easily keep up with an outlaw like Tony-, and drew comfort from the memory of the Iron Bandit’s stories and laughter.

It had been the first time since Ben’s death that Peter didn’t feel weighed down by shackles of guilt and shame, and he’d wanted to hold onto that warmth for just a little while. Just a single night- that’s all he asked for.

But then Mr Westcott walked through the door, and Peter couldn’t breathe- couldn’t move, and the panic was so fierce and overwhelming that he’d forgotten about the other person hidden by the door until-

Peter was jerked from his spiralling thoughts by the sound of boots crushing dry grass, whipping around so fast it might have hurt his neck if not for the relief that flooded over him at the sight of the familiar figure.

“You’re okay,” he breathed with a smile, causing a brief flicker of amusement to cross the Bandit’s expression. He had a slight limp as he approached the stable boy -most likely from his earlier bullet wound-, but it was the blood that caked his knuckles that really caught Peter’s attention, straightening slightly as he searched the outlaw for any new injuries. The concern was purely instinctual at this point though, since he knew, deep down, that the blood didn’t belong to him. It couldn’t. He wouldn’t be standing let alone walking if he’d lost the amount of blood that now stained his dark coat.

But if Tony noticed Peter’s worried gaze he didn’t mention it, glancing past his shoulder to the midnight-black horse with a confused furrow of his brow.

“Where’s the other one?”

“Oh,” Peter murmured, recoiling slightly as he searched the man’s face for the disappointment that surely must have been there. “I… I-I didn’t realise you wanted more…”

The Bandit levelled him with a perplexed stare, but as Peter began to fidget with his still shuddering hands, realisation seemed to dawn on Tony like sunlight burning away a winter fog. “Not for me kid, for you,” he quickly clarified, causing Peter to become the confused one instead.

“Me? Why me?” he asked.

Tony smirked, asking lightly “Well would you prefer to walk instead?”

Peter could only blink up at the outlaw with wide, disbelieving eyes, the shock falling into awe, and then into excitement, and finally, a cold misery. “Why...?” he asked, voice a weak murmur. “Why would- would you help me?”

A heavy sigh escaped Tony’s mouth as he ran a thumb over his bloodied knuckles, saying sincerely “There’s nothing left for you back there kid. No life, no future in that stable… at least not one you deserve.”

Peter glanced away to the far horizon. To the hills and fields that reached further than his imagination could even fathom, and he winced at the longing that ached inside his heart. “This is the only life I’ve ever known,” he admitted wearily. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin… where to go, what to do…”

“Then join me, and I’ll help you find it,” Tony offered, his expression so serious it might have worried Peter if he hadn’t witnessed the full extent of his fury only minutes ago. “If you wanna leave at any point, then you can take your horse and go. But until then, stay with me and my crew, and no one will ever lay a finger on you again.”

The breeze swept over them and replaced the faint scent of copper with that of fresh grass and dusty soil, of nature and adventure. The call of freedom was strong, but his fear was even stronger. It was only when Peter turned back to the outlaw to see not the legendary thief or fierce, deadly criminal, but a friend… a protector who had saved him from more horrors than he could bare to voice, that the terror melted away.

“You’d do that for a nobody like me?” Peter asked as his hands began to tremble with anticipation instead of dread.

Tony’s face lifted into a smile, and after raising his hand between them and awaiting the boy’s reaction, he lowered it over Peter’s shoulder with a reassuring squeeze.

“You’re not nobody to me.”

Something bright and strong and safe bloomed inside of Peter’s chest, and he could almost feel the weight of the world lift from his young shoulders with the help of Tony’s words. Smiling up at the outlaw who he had saved and who had saved him in return, Peter shut his eyes and drew in a steady breath. The last breath taken by the broken stable boy of Westcott farm, and the first breath taken by the free and alive Peter Parker.

“Thank you,” Peter whispered as Tony helped him saddle up another horse for the journey ahead, settling on a kind mare that he affectionately named Karen. “Thank you for everything, Tony… I mean it…”

Giving the boy a warm pat on the back before they both climbed a top their steeds, Tony flashed him one last smile and gazed off towards the horizon of untold potential. Where it would lead, neither of them would know, but Tony was certain that this kid had a bright future ahead of him. And if he didn’t, then Tony would make sure to forge it for him with his very own hands.

“Come along Young Buck,” Tony called, softening at the beaming smile that Peter offered in reply. “There’s a big world out there just waiting for you to join it.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Tag list: @joyful-soul-collector @lost-lunar-wolf @lbigreyhound13 @aixabi @zanderljones @iwritedumbshit @anarinette

#tony stark #peter parker #irondad #spiderson #skip westcott #tw: child abuse #Outlaw AU #Cowboy AU #Irondad Outlaw AU #please forgive any inaccuracies I was mostly fluking it off of my limited cowboy knowledge #my writing