#this was supposed to be about ALL the crew but the bond these three have is important to me so let's leave it like this | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

woniverse-writes · 6 months

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"Moth to a Flame (part 7)"

Bada Lee x Reader

part 6 ⟵ part 7 ⟶ part 8

series masterlist

summary: y/n l/n is the youngest team member of Jam Republic, competing in the second season of Street Woman Fighter. she’s got the sweetest smile and the most vibrant personality, but she also may or may not be the biggest hothead on the show when it comes to defending her teammates. apparently that’s attractive to Bada Lee.

word count: 9k

warnings: swearing, minor angst if you could even call it that, tbh this doesn't feel like my best work so i'm sorry, not proofread, nothing I write is a reflection of anyone's true character and is a work of total fiction

After Deep n Dap had been defeated by Wolf’Lo, There were a few days between the elimination and when the crews were supposed to gather again to learn the group choreography for the trailer. In that time Jam Republic had been booked and busy- they had a long-awaited team dinner, went to some dance classes, and even taught some of their own.

Y/n specifically took a class with Harimu at 1 Million, that happened to to be taught by Redy. the three hung out before heading to the studio, grabbing lunch and bonding over dance and being the youngest members of their crews.

“So how’re things among the other Jam girls? Are you all getting accustomed to things here?” Redy asked after taking a sip from her mimosa

“They’re all doing great- as I explained earlier, it wasn’t really hard for me to get re-situated, but I was actually really nervous for them at first…” y/n explained briefly, causing both 1 Million dancers to tilt their heads and furrow their brows

“Aww, why? Because of the language barrier or just being in a different country?” the older of the two questioned again

“A bit of both- I knew the language would be hard for them since it took me years of studying to even be able to speak and understand it somewhat fluently, but I felt okay enough to be able to translate for them… I was mostly worried about how we’d be perceived by Korean netizens I guess, since we’re such a diverse team…” The youngest dancer played with her straw once she finished her sentence, a bit shy to admit her original concerns for her team. The other two nodded sympathetically

“Well, have you made any other close friends?” Harimu finally chimes back in, wanting to avoid the deeper conversation that she felt was about to arise

“You and Lusher seem pretty close- Tatter too!” Redy exclaimed, having remembered the girls’ reactions to Y/n, as well as how easily the blonde got along with her during the rank mission. Y/n smiled softly and was about to confirm their friendship before the other 1 Million dancer snorted and began talking again

“Now that you say that I can’t help but be curious about what’s been going on between you and Bada” she teased out of curiosity, not noticing how quickly the younger dancer’s face dropped. Y/n didn’t say anything at first, taking another sip from her drink, causing the two to look up from their own over at her.

“...there’s nothing going on between me and Bada… we aren’t even friends…” Y/n softly tells them, leaving both of them shocked

“Woah- what??? Did something happen?? Just a couple of weeks ago you two were all over each other!” Harimu loudly explicated, earning a smack to the arm from her teammate

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to Y/n, we understand… I especially understand that Bada isn’t the greatest at communicating so…” Redy comforted the girl, but y/n just chuckled a bit sadly before sighing

“It’s okay, I don’t mind explaining it to you guys…” She told her two friends and then did just that. Y/n explained how she and Bada became close quickly, how they hung out as just the two of them on multiple occasions, leaving out the parts where things got a bit too intimate, but it wasn’t hard to fill in the blanks. Then how things went south as soon as the pressure was on for the mega crew mission. By the end of the retelling, y/n’s mouth felt dry and she couldn’t help the feeling of shame that arose once again at the remembrance of how childish and immature she had acted.

“Wow… I didn’t think it was gonna be that bad…” Harimu mumbled, reaching over to take a sip from Redy’s mimosa, causing the other to fumble to try and stop her before immediately giving up to pay attention to their friend

“I’m so sorry you had to experience that Y/n… you didn’t deserve that.” Redy reached across the table to hold Y/n’s hand, the younger looking up to meet her eyes before pursing her lips

“I mean… I kinda did… maybe not all of it, but at least most of it-”

“No way- I wouldn’t even say you deserved a quarter of it” the younger 1 Million dancer cut her friend off, not liking how self-deprecating she was sounding, causing her teammate to nod and hum

“Harimu’s right- sure you said some things you shouldn’t have and you may have started the argument, but if Bada had been so mature herself, you two probably would’ve been able to get out of that fight with your relationship still intact.” the oldest of the three intelligently remarked, causing her teammate to hum and nod while Y/n just sighed

“I can’t believe you two haven’t talked at all since then…”

“Redy she doesn’t even wanna look at me or acknowledge my existence when we’re in the same room, I wouldn’t be able to get close to her even if I did wanna talk to her…” Y/n pouted and leaned against her hand. They all sat in silence for a moment until Harimu sat up straight with a gasp

“Have you tried getting her attention? Like- maybe you don’t have to be the one that talks first!” she exclaimed with wide eyes, leaving the other two with very confused expressions. She sighed dramatically and continued with her idea

“What if you try to make her jealous??” Y/n gave a deadpan expression in response as Redy rolled her eyes and mumbled an ‘oh my god’ under her breath

“Girl- I already told you we weren’t… a thing… so how would that even work?” the youngest questioned exasperatedly

“And I already told you how I don’t believe that for a second, BUT- “ Redy snorted as she couldn’t help but agree with her teammate since they’d all seen how Bada and Y/n looked at each other

“We do what every dancer does when they’re trying to make someone jealous- a duet…” Harimu finished explaining and the others just sat there, waiting for her to explain in further detail, which caused her to huff before doing so

“Y/n, you can do a duet with one of us that has a lot of partner work, and touching and it’ll be like- spicy- ya know??? And it’ll make Bada jealous!” the middle dancer finally finished explaining

“It’s not a terrible idea…” Redy chimed in apprehensive, not wanting to upset her friend, but also agreeing with how well it could work. The two 1 Million dancers waited to hear what the youngest had to say, leaving Y/n sighing

“It’s not a bad idea, but the only way it’d work was if Bada actually still cared…” she mumbled sadly and pouted into the hand that she was leaning on

“Well, there’s only one way to find out!”

The three finished their lunch and headed over to 1 Million Dance Studio for Redy’s class. Afterward, they stuck around and began choreographing a duet for Y/n and Redy

“Oooh, you know what would make this even better??” Harimu excitedly inquired, leaving her friends a bit worried once they saw the mischievous look in her eyes

“Oh god… what?” Y/n whined, throwing her head back

“If you used a song she’s already choreographed too- perhaps a song that no one knows she’s choreographed to yet…” The younger 1 Million dancer raised her eyebrows up and down, yet the other two stood confused. Harimu sighs once again before pressing play on the music she picked. “Psycho” by Baekhyun started playing and Redy burst out laughing

“We can’t- that’d be so mean!” the youngest of the three expressed more of her concerns out loud

“No it wouldn’t- Bada doesn’t own this song. And plus, we could always say something nice about how she was the one who reminded us of this song… nobody else knows the reason we’re doing this besides us Y/n, so it’ll only seem mean to you… and maybe her but she deserves it!” Redy defended, assuring Y/n that there wouldn’t be any repercussions from the public

“Exactly- the mega crew missions won’t air for a while, so people probably won’t even connect the two anyway!” Harimu chimed in, throwing an arm around Y/n’s shoulder, causing her to let out a sigh

“Alright… let’s do it-” she gave in and the other two cheered and jumped with joy, excited to choreograph the piece and cause some chaos. They worked on the piece for hours before filming it. Redy decided she’d be the one to post it, just in case it did cause some drama then it wouldn’t totally be pinned on Y/n. The three girls finished their hang-out sesh and went their separate ways.

When Y/n had settled into her apartment her phone lit up with a notification from Instagram, letting her know she was tagged in a post. She clicked on it to see the video of her and Redy’s choreography, where the older dancer had captioned it ‘been obsessed with this song lately- thanks @badalee_!’ with a bunch of black, white, and pink emojis. Y/n reposted the video to her story and made sure to leave a comment before turning off her phone and getting in the shower.

Meanwhile, team Bebe was out having dinner when Bada’s phone pinged with a notification. Unlocking it, she opened Instagram to see that Redy had tagged her in a video- a video that had her heart clenching the second she processed what it was, or rather who it was.

Tatter had also opened Instagram while they were waiting for their food to arrive and saw the same video as the first thing on her feed. She turned to Bada immediately and showed her the video but ended up bursting out laughing when she saw the same thing already pulled up on the older girl’s phone.

“I really don’t see what’s funny about this…” the leader mumbled sourly, while her teammate continued to die of laughter. The others sat confused until Lusher reached over to take Tatter’s phone which she had dropped on the table. The sub-leader tried to stifle her own laughter once she saw the video and read the caption, before sliding the phone back over to the blonde.

“You guys seriously aren’t annoyed by this? They took our song!” Bada childishly whined, causing Tatter to laugh even harder while the younger members started asking what was going on. The eldest tossed her phone gently in the middle of the table for everyone to see the video, and while a couple were confused the other couldn’t help but laugh as well.

“Oh no Bada- they took your song. We didn’t mess with Y/n… this is targeting you…” Lusher smirked as she took a long sip from her drink, causing the leader to scoff

“Seriously? You really think this is specifically targeting me? And why would Redy do that… especially since me and her are good now-”

“So you think this was Y/n’s idea?” CheChe questioned with a raised brow

“Of course! She’s obviously still out to get me with her immature antics…” the leader dramatically pouted and crossed her arms. To her teammates, she looked like a spoiled child who just got told they did something wrong for the first time. This caused most of the members to either scoff or burst out laughing

“Well you were the one who took it as an attack in the first place- maybe they genuinely just wanted to dance to the song…” Kyma chimed in, shrugging her shoulder, causing the leader to groan and throw her head back against the booth they were all in. She glanced back at her phone to see that Harimu commented on the video- something about how she was glad to be a part of the process. Then the leader clicked on the girl’s story to see she had reposted the video as well, complimenting her teammate but also making some flirty comments about Y/n. almost as if she could read Bada’s mind Lusher spoke up

“Y/n does look really good though… I’d get on that apology Bada or else you might lose your chance…” Lusher whispered the second half of her statement, teasing her team leader with a smirk, knowing how the dance was actually affecting her.

‘great now I have to worry about my own teammate AND these two stealing my girl…’

______________

After the short break they had gotten from filming, all the remaining crew’s returned for the filming of the season teaser video. Y/n had been gradually getting back to her old self after the mega crew mission had ended, feeling much less stress after completing it and having survived the elimination. The poor girl is still absolutely destroyed and guilt-ridden by the entire situation that occurred between her and Bada but is slowly finding it easier to ignore her presence. At this point, it’s been almost another full week since the elimination- meaning it’s been about two weeks since the two had last spoken to each other.

All the teams gathered in the main filming area after going through the hair and makeup process like usual, but it felt different to Bada. As soon as she laid her eyes on Y/n it was honestly like the Bebe leader had an epiphany.

“Woah… I fucked up…” she mumbled to herself, noticing how Y/n’s eyes didn’t sparkle anymore and how she was rather calm. The young girl had always been a bit chaotic and energetic when it came to filming, so what was wrong? This wasn’t a mission, so there was no need to stress- so what could've possibly been weighing Y/n down? And that was when Bada realized, that she was weighing her down…

“Goddamn- it’s about time you noticed…” Tatter mumbled in return, sighing once she noticed her leader’s sad puppy eyes and lips slightly parted in shock. For the rest of the shoot Bada is putting on her best stage face because her feelings are not correlating at all with what she’s supposed to be portraying.

When they aren’t filming or there’s a break, Bada can only focus on how pretty and sad y/n looks. She doesn’t look sad all the time, but the older girl noticed that whenever she was by herself her mind seemed to always drift somewhere sad. Her smile fades (even though it hadn’t reached her eyes in the first place) and the younger girl suddenly looks so much older with how sunken her eyes are- had she been sleeping? Was she not eating enough? A million questions were racing through Bada’s mind and she tried to keep them pushed down for now, seeing as how she knew the second she started thinking, she knew she wouldn’t stop

Bada knew she was part of the reason why the jam republic dancer was like this, but she couldn’t bring herself to talk to her. So she did what she thought was the next best thing- talk to her leader. She tried to start off with a small conversation between herself and Kirsten to get a feel for the Jam leader’s attitude toward her, which worked in her favor seeing as the other had seemed pretty chill about talking with her. The rest of Jam Republic on the other hand (minus Y/n) observed with questionable glances as Bada laughed and joked with Kirstne like usual.

“Now what the actual fuck is her problem…” Ling commented out of absolute rage and distaste for whatever was going on a few meters away from them

“She better not be trying to pull some stupid shit, cuz I don’t play when it comes to Y/n…” Emma mumbled glaring at the Bebe leader along with the rest of her team. Latrice huffed out a laugh and turned to look at her

“You would sacrifice Y/n to a cult if it meant you got a good laugh out of it…” the sub-leader of Jam Republic commented with a little joking smirk, causing the other members to ease up a little bit and crack some light smiles

“Well yes- I would, but that doesn’t mean anyone else is allowed to!” Emma retorted, sticking up her nose dramatically. Y/n was luckily off getting her hair fixed with Redy and Yoonji, seeing as they all had these little crystals glued in their hair, and a few had fallen out during the first few runs. The Jam Republic members were just glad she wasn’t present to see the interaction, knowing their youngest member would either burst into tears and spiral into a mental breakdown, or spontaneously combust into a ball of flames and go on a rampage. Either way- it would not have been an easy situation to deal with.

Yet the Jammies’ relief is short-lived as they took their second break. Y/n came bounding over after doing a short segment with all the youngest members of each team, a bright smile on her face as her members awaited her return. They had all monitored the performance with smiles of adoration, hyping up their baby the whole time. They praised her and pinched her cheeks, teasing Y/n affectionately until Bada walked by.

“You ready for the leaders’ shot?” she questioned with a hand on Kirsten’s shoulder. The Jam Republic leader turned her attention away from her youngest member briefly to give a polite nod and smile. Bada jerked her head in the direction of where they were heading to film, signaling for the younger leader to follow her in that direction. The two began walking off before Kirsten turned back around to wave to her members, leaving the Jam Republic members in shock

“What was that…” Y/n watched with sad confused puppy eyes and her jaw slightly dropped as the two leaders walked away to go film. The other members stood behind her, tense as they tried to read the young girl’s emotions. Y/n felt her heart rate pick up and her breath quickens, feeling the pressure that usually paired with tears start to build up. She swallowed thickly and pushed down the feeling before turning around to face her members with a forced smile. They all could tell right away and just gave her looks of sympathy, causing her smile to slowly drop as she sighed.

After the leaders did their portion of the shoot, Bada and Kirsten walked back over to the pink team laughing over whatever conversation they were having. They stopped once they reached the other members, standing directly in front of Y/n. poor girl just stared up at Bada with those heartbroken puppy dog eyes, and god Bada knew it. She felt Y/n’s stare burning holes into the side of her head, using every ounce of control in her body not to glance over and clearly see her watery eyes and quivering lip. She knew that if she were to fully look at the younger girl right now, she’d be faced with not only a heartbroken puppy, but an angry pack of wolves behind her, and to be completely honest she hadn’t achieved that level of bravery yet.

Bada Lee knew what she was doing. She knew that by acting normal with Kirsten, she’d be getting Y/n’s attention. She knew it’d hurt the younger girl, but that wasn’t her intention this time. The Bebe leader wanted to slowly weave her way back into Y/n’s life, and knew the easiest place to start was by making sure she was on good terms with her team leader, that way she had a mediator (even though Lusher had been playing mediator already, Bada didn’t trust that she wasn’t also trying to get with Y/n).

Y/n doesn’t even realize the conversation has ended and she’s just sitting there pathetically watching as Bada walks away. Ling sighs and pats her head, while the others sadly watch their baby wither away again.

“You okay bunny?” Kirsten asked softly, sitting down next to her and bumping their shoulders together. Y/n just pursed her lips and sighed before closing her eyes and nodding. On the other side where team Bebe has gathered, they also had watched the entire situation, or rather how distraught the youngest Jam Republic members looked during the whole thing.

“You are just so cruel…” Lusher expressed lowly when Bada got within earshot, shaking her head in disbelief as she clenched her jaw. The leader’s eyes went wide as she scoffed

“What?? How?? I’m trying to make things better-” The sub-leader sighed deeply and closed her eyes, genuinely exhausted by her friend’s poor relationship choices

“By forcing yourself into her life and then totally ignoring?? Yeah that seems to be working really well…” she ended up responding quickly, pinching the bridge of her nose as she lost her patience

“Ya know if I couldn’t practically see the tears streaming down her face from over here, I’d say you did a pretty good job!” Tatter snarkily commented with a cocky sarcastic smirk. Bada was really starting to resent her choices in teammates right now… but she knew they were right.

They went back to shooting, finishing the individual teams and small group chat before taking a longer break for dinner. As everyone was gathering back afterward to wrap up the shoot with all the full cast shots, the main monitor lit up. The music video for “Maria” by Hwasa began playing as the song blasted over the speakers. Hwasa enters the stage and everyone begins screaming. Ling and Y/n are gripping onto each other, absolutely shell-shocked at her appearance. The song continues to play as everyone does the choreography with her, the two Jam Republic members living their best lives while their members sit with confused yet excited smiles.

The song ends and Hwasa introduces herself along with the mission. Everyone of course goes wild for the opportunity to choreograph a routine for her, and of course just to be in her presence. The song they’ll be choreographing to is played, and once again the room is filled with screams and cheers expressing how much they all love it. Everyone was already coming up with ideas, but Jam Republic practically had their entire choreo prepared in an instant, as Y/n sat taking in the beat and engraining the feeling into her body and mind

When it ends everyone starts talking about how Lia Kim and Bada were at an advantage since they do this for a living, some mentioning Redlic as well. Y/n became another hot topic and top competitor for this mission seeing as she’s done many recreational choreographies to kpop songs that have gone viral and sometimes even become more popular than the original. When the bonus is announced that they have to come up with a challenge portion to receive extra points that lowkey pisses y/n off. She wasn’t a fan of the idea, thinking it made the part seem too forced and could easily end up making the choreography look cheap or cheesy.

After the idol finishes relaying the mission, she wishes everyone good luck as they wrap up filming and head right into preparing for the challenge. Jam Republic quickly jots down some ideas and gets a feel for the moves as Y/n tests out the choreo she had in mind when she first heard the song earlier. When the crew reconvened the next day for a full practice, their first order of business was figuring out who was going to represent Hwasa.

"I would love to be the center just as much as anyone else, but I feel like whoever can pull off the idol persona best should do it…" the leader smiles and looks in y/n's direction as she pauses her explanation

"so I think we should put it up to a vote!" so all six members made their pick, which ended up being pretty useless since it resulted in a three-way tie between Kirsten, Ling, and Y/n

"I personally think Y/n would be our best bet since she has a lot of experience performing kpop stages" Ling smiled and patted her younger teammate on the knee as she expressed her desire for the youngest member to take the part

"I also would really like to see Y/n as the center… something just tells me she'd bring us good luck" Kirsten smiles motherly at the youngest who is currently hiding her face in her hands not to let anyone see the smile and blush on her face. So they all collectively agree to have y/n be the center and she's just so happy, cheesing away. She could already imagine the baby noises the editing team was putting over the clips of her trying to contain her excited reaction. After that decision was made, they immediately got to work on choreography. Things were going well enough to the point where the members felt comfortable taking a break around lunchtime. Y/n checked her phone while she drank her water, seeing a text from Harimu

1 Mil Mu: ‘Hey babes! Who’s your team’s Hwasa?’

Y/n: ‘What if I told you it was me…🫣’

1 Mil Mu: ‘I’d say thank god cuz I need someone to come buy heels with me for this😭’

Y/n: ‘Wait- are you hwasa too???’

1 Mil Mu: ‘Yes ma’am😚’

Y/n: ‘AHHHH SHUT UP- we’re gonna eat so hard, I’m so excited’

The news that she’d be going up against Harimu as Hwasa gave Y/n a bit of an adrenaline rush, knowing how perfectly the 1 Million dancer fit the role. She felt as if she’d have to work even harder now, but it made her excited instead of nervous. Y/n has actually gotten back to her normal self for the most part, genuinely excited about this challenge and seeing how everyone else would portray Hwasa’s image.

The next day before practice Y/n and Harimu have a little girls’ morning, going out for breakfast and then doing some shopping. They made sure to try on plenty of options for heels, not too worried about the look of them right now, but rather just needed something to practice in. The two ended up getting two pairs each, a simple yet secure heel that stopped right about the ankle, and then another pair of thigh-high heeled boots to really give the Hwasa feel.

The next day was when everyone would be showcasing what they had so far for choreography, y/n wanted to look as clean and presentable as possible, choosing to wear her thigh-high boots with some booty shorts and an oversized jersey. She hadn’t worn the shoes to the practice, carrying them in her back while she opted for some plain sneakers in the meantime. All teams walk in and Y/n is hyped to the max- until she realizes that Jam Republic is seated right next to Bebe…

Luckily for everyone involved, the youngest Jam Republic member is too excited about the challenge to worry about Bada right now. She was totally focused on showing her best performance and enjoying everyone else’s. She started off excitedly watching Mannequeen then becoming easily disappointed by how sloppy it got. She was very curious to see what wolf’Lo would come up with though, seeing as their style is classic hip hop- a style y/n hadn’t particularly been a fan of. Yet, watching Mini got her hype. She couldn’t contain her impressed reaction at the pink-haired girl’s vibe, loving the slight change wolf’lo had made in their typical genre of dance.

Bebe was the fourth group to go and Y/n was conflicted, to say the least. To be completely honest- that’s how most of Jam Republic felt, seeing as they were excited to see what the team produced, but they were nervous for their poor youngest member’s heart.

Bada begins a short speech, explaining the concept they were going for as the other members practiced behind her. Lusher and Tatter turned around behind Bada and looked to Y/n giving her a cheesy smile and thumbs up, before immediately going back to practicing. Y/n couldn’t help but smile and giggle at how dedicated her friends were, but she also couldn’t help as the smile stayed when her attention shifted back to the leader nervously smiling and fidgeting with the microphone in her hands as she wrapped up her speech.

The music starts and Y/n’s small smile immediately shifts into an impressed expression at one of the first moves. Bada gives a cool look as she holds up a hand sign signaling the title of street woman fighter, causing everyone to cheer lightly at the reference

“That was cool…” Y/n mumbled, playfully pouting and scrunching her nose as she tried to hide her impressed smile, causing her members to look at her with wide eyes at first before giggling and ruffling her hair. The chorus arrives and Y/n’s jaw just drops- the girl is so beyond impressed. She’s trying to process whether it’s actually good or if it’s just Bada, but then she watches everyone else and realizes it’s really just that good.

Then Bada struts off to the side for her own little part, doing a hip roll as she covers her eyes, sending the audience into a frenzy- especially Y/n who lets out a small scream and suddenly doesn’t know where to look or what to do with her hands. Ultimately she realized what that reaction must have looked like and just hung her head in her hands as Audrey patted her on the back and tried her hardest not to burst out laughing.

Y/n sat there astonished, watching through her fingers as she continued to hide behind her hands. Bebe finishes their choreography and y/n is trying so hard to contain her excitement, she just hides her face in her hands again and screams out loud. This is gonna be such a rough mission for her…

Lady Bounce went after Bebe and while they looked like they were having a lot of fun, there wasn’t anything super impressive about their routine. Next up was 1 Million and Y/n stood up screaming as loud as she could, so beyond hyped to see her besties perform. Harimu eats up her Hwasa role, as expected and everyone loves the routine, including Hwasa. Finally, after everyone else had gone, it was Jam Republic’s turn.

“Our youngest treasure, miss y/n will be playing Hwasa” Kirsten smiled as she announced their group’s center, causing everyone to absolutely lose their shit. Many dancers had already suspected it once they saw her walk out with the thigh-high boots and everyone else in regular sneakers, but it was still exciting to have the confirmation.

Everyone’s excitement rose as the music began, loving how Y/n completely transformed into a different person whenever she was performing. It started off smooth, but as Kirsten threw her head back for a specific move, her hat fell off. Luckily since Jam Republic is such a well-prepared group, Y/n caught it with ease and tossed it off to the side like it was all part of the routine, causing everyone to react in shock at her quick reflexes.

The crew continued dancing as if it were nothing, having a blast and feeding off of the other teams’ reactions. Bebe especially was hyping Y/n up, even Bada couldn’t contain her excitement. Yet, the leader did keep looking back and forth between 1 Million’s youngest two dancers as well as her own sub-leader, trying to gauge their reaction to Y/n as well.

After a brief moment of observing the others’ reactions, Bada once again became entranced by Jam Republic’s center. Her expressions and movement quality truly made for a captivating performance, even though it was just an interim check. The crew finished their routine and Lusher stood up immediately clapping and screaming as loud as she could, cheering for the team as a whole but also making specific calls out to Y/n

“Y/N YOU’RE SO SEXY” she cupped her hands over her mouth as she screamed out to her friend, causing the leader to slow her claps and glare at her. Bada was really starting to question Lusher’s intentions- even though the girl hadn’t been acting any different than usual. It was all simply Bada’s insecurities.

_________

The next few days passed in a flash as the crews continued to improve their routines and develop their concepts. When it came time to watch each performance everyone gathered in their respective monitoring rooms. Mannequeen was the first to go, and as the screen lit up with their performance all the dancers got excited that the mission was officially starting.

“Okay… she’s kinda eating right now” y/n playfully pouted as Redlic devoured the routine. Jam Republic fangirled over them and how sick their outfits were, but by the end they weren’t entirely sold on the routine as a whole.

“It was really good, but I wish they had a bit more energy- or at least were more consistent with it” Latrice commented and the rest of them agreed. Wolf’Lo’s performance was next and once again, the pink team anticipated the final product. Jam Republic was impressed with how they were able to keep their classic hip-hop style while incorporating elements of K-pop

“Everyone is so good I’m gonna scream” was the first thing y/n said after the performance. Yet after recognizing Wolf’Lo’s efforts, they discussed how there was a lack of harmony between the “artist” and the dancers

After Wolf’Lo it was Bebe’s turn to present their routine, and Y/n was losing her mind. This girl was freaking out- hyperventilating and pacing, but out of excitement and anticipation. Audrey, Ling laughed at her, the elder even bringing out her phone to record the girl hopping around like an excited cat, while Emma smirked teasingly and side-eyed her.

“I’m so nervous-”

“Love, this isn’t even our routine…” Kirsten laughed softly at her dramatic youngest member, glad that she was able to enjoy the blue team’s performances again without crying. The second the music started, Y/n was seated, her eyes trained on the monitor before them. She screamed and cheered throughout the routine, and as the song began to approach the slower part she got more excited

“oh I’m so excited to see what they did for this part-” and the second Bada was down on the floor, Y/n honestly thought she was having a heart attack. It only got worse for her as the music picked back up and the Bebe leader looked over her shoulder, grinning charismatically at the camera while she grabbed her ass and shrugged like it was nothing.

Y/n’s jaw stayed dropped after she let out a surprised screech. Ling and Audrey also let out similar noises, while the latter reached over at the same time as Emma to cover Y/n’s eyes, knowing how she’d be having a mental breakdown if she kept watching. The performance ended and Y/n sat there in silence with her jaw still dropped to the floor

“I think I’m having a crisis…”

The next team to perform after Bebe was Lady Bounce, which was good but not too memorable. 1 Million followed with an insane performance. The second Harimu’s silhouette was shown, Y/n gasps. The routine starts and she’s clapping and cheering, as well as the rest of her team, all of them excited for what was about to happen. Throughout the entire performance, she’s squealing and screaming because her bestie is eating everyone up (side note: Y/n has so many besties, and the audience loves that for her). The routine ends and every single team is blown away. Jam Republic unanimously agrees that 1 Million has shown the best performance so far, with Y/n enthusiastically agreeing

“Not bebe?” Emma teases and to be completely honest, Y/n didn’t think it was funny

“No. 1 million was by far the best I’ve seen so far- it was flawless” And the members felt kinda bad for teasing her because they could see her become a bit more reserved and serious after that, sinking into her seat on the couch with her arms crossed over her chest.

After that, it’s finally Jam Republic’s turn, as the final team to present their piece. The music begins and Y/n struts out from behind her members with the cuntiest game face out of all the contestants so far, and everyone goes feral. Her hair, her expression, her confidence, and especially her outfit had them all in shambles. All of 1 Million, but specifically Redy and Harimu were gassing her up before she even started dancing, the crew thinking of ways to convince her to join them after the show.

“Can we just combine teams already?” “Or at least take Y/n onto our team??” Mannequeen was asking each other questions like this, also plotting how they could continue working with Jam Republic

“That’s my girlfriend!” Lusher cheers and Bada just about breaks her neck- she looks like she’s going to cry at first until she realizes the younger dancer was just joking. She really almost just gave the leader a heart attack, and now Bada felt her face heat up at how embarrassing that reaction was…

They reach the part of the choreography where the other members bend over, and Y/n squats down in between them as she opens and closes her legs, and once again no one is safe. Not a single monitoring room was quiet as the youngest Jam Republic dancer dropped low into the position and flawlessly executed the choreography along with the presentation of facial expressions.

Team Bebe was not discreet at all as they all freaked out and simultaneously turned to face their leader, who was already hiding her dropped jaw behind her hands. Bada bit her fist as Y/n got down on the floor with the rest of the Jam Republic members and began to arch her back up and down in a sort of crawling motion. The move was so simple, but effective as it showcased the sexy vibe of the song.

Jam Republic finishes off strong with the final chorus into the ending pose, and it was safe to say they left everyone astonished. The camera captured the final group pose before zooming in on each member of the crew, leaving Y/n for last. When she appeared on the monitor everyone lost it at how her siren eyes and seductive expression turned into a somewhat playful puppy-like reaction as her eyes widened and she stuck her tongue out, continuing to fan herself but in a cuter manner than before.

“OHHHH ENDING FAIRY LET’S GOOOOO” Harimu cheers with her full chest as her friend appears on the screen

“HOW IS Y/N THE YOUNGEST????” Buckey commented out of absolute shock and astonishment after seeing the girl’s performance

“SHE’S BARELY AN ADULT HOW DOES SHE KNOWN HOW TO DO THAT” Mini screamed, throwing her hands up in the air

“I’ve been an adult for a while and i still don’t know how to do that…” Halo mumbled after her teammate’s inquiry, causing the rest of the crew to laugh and agree

“Ya- they need to put the baby to bed. Don’t let her do that!” Biggy teased, pouting and whining playfully as her members agreed with faux pouts

“She really wanted people to stop babying her I guess…” Tatter calmly stated as she leaned back into the couch with her arms crossed, smirking as she kept her eyes trained on the monitor. The team snickered as Bada slowly turned her head toward the blonde with a deadpan expression, unimpressed with her jab.

Once every team had gone and finished presenting their routines, it was time to get changed and wrap up for the day. Each crew left their monitoring room to head back to their designated hideout spaces and decompress after the events of the day, and await the results of the winning team. Jam Republic was full of giggles and confidence after their successful performance as they bounced down the hallway.

"ya, y/n…" the small girl whipped around with wide, somewhat fearful eyes and it lowkey made Bada's heart hurt to see her react that way

"yes?" she tried to speak steadily and confidently, but bit her lip and shrunk into herself a little, trying not to outwardly cringe, when she realized how meek and anxious she sounded. The tall girl across from her sighed and softened her gaze, seeing how unnerved y/n was.

"you did a good job." Bada confidently said as her team was about to walk past Jam Republic, shocking everyone on both teams (including herself). Y/n's lips parted and everyone watched as it quivered slightly and her eyes began to get red.

"ah no, no don't start crying…" the older leader tried to remain serious and civil, keeping the distance between them. The younger dancer bit her lip again and took shaky breaths as she frantically nodded her head while wiping away tears. Bada sighed again before taking a few quick strides over to her, not caring about the audience of both their teams. She placed a gentle hand on top of the shorter girl's head, gently ruffling her hair.

"ayyye don't cry" This time Bada tried to be more gentle and took the approach of some friendly teasing in hopes of at least getting a smile out of her, but it only made things worse as y/n looked up at her with a huge frown and teary eyes. She really was trying her hardest to stop crying, but nothing was working. Poor Y/n was just so happy to have Bada back at this moment. The look just about finished off what was left of Bada's heart. Any part of her that hadn't been touched by guilt yet was now overthrown by it. She felt her own eyes begin to sting a little as the pressure built up but didn't allow for any tears to form.

"Y/n-ah don't cryyyyy" Bada whispered softly as she gently reached to hold her face in both hands, wiping away the endless tears. This caused the younger girl to fully burst into tears and attempt to hang her head as much as she could in Bada's hold, but as soon as the tears increased the older girl was pulling y/n into her chest, hugging her as if she had no plans on ever letting go. Bada closed her eyes trying to keep her own tears at bay.

The other members of both teams just stood clumped together off to the side, absolutely baffled by what was happening. A majority, if not all of them had dropped jaws or dumbfounded expressions. Lusher had to cover her mouth after letting out a squeak of excitement when Bada put her hand on Y/n’s head. It was a small moment, but a huge step for both girls.

“You did amazing, so don’t cry anymore, okay?” Bada whispered after pulling back from the hug, leaning down slightly so their faces were the same level. Y/n nodded and sniffled, wiping away her tears and finally pulling herself together.

“Thank you- you too…” she gave a watery smile as she hiccuped and the two giggled slightly over the situation. The older dancer smiled sadly and nodded before heading back over to her team. As they began to walk off Tatter turned around

“Congratulations Jam Republic- you all were fantastic- WE LOVE YOU!!!” the blonde screamed enthusiastically making a giant heart over her head with her arms, causing the rest of her team to follow and also share their love and praise for the team. The pink crew just smiled brightly and laughed, before shyly mirroring their reaction. After both crews went their separate ways and made it back to their hideouts, Y/n stood in the middle of the room as her teammates settled in.

“What’s up, Bunny?” Audrey asked, with a worried expression as she saw Y/n’s confused but teary eyes. The girl looked up and burst into tears again on the spot. All the members were shocked at the sudden outburst and ran to comfort her.

“She said I did good…” the girl bawled as her members hugged her. They all tensed for a short moment before bursting into a fit of giggles at how cute and sentimental their baby was. She eventually calms down, reducing her sobs to sniffles and soft hiccups. About 45 minutes to an hour passes before the staff is letting everyone know that a winner has been decided. 1 Million receive the 100 points benefit that came with being the group chosen by Hwasa, meaning their choreography will be performed and used for the music video.

The following day, everyone begins preparing for the music video. All the other crews learn 1 Million’s choreography and practice it in preparation for the shoot which would be happening the day after. When everyone gathered to get into hair and makeup for the video it felt fun. Not stressful, or competitive, just fun- and all the dancers were truly grateful for that.

Each crew had been given a portion of the song where they were able to perform a bit of their own choreography, highlighting their efforts as a whole production. They were able to tie up the shoot within just one day of filming, giving all the crews an extra day of rest before having to officially start working on their final mission before the finale.

y/n had been walking toward the set’s dancer lounge to grab a few snacks when she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. The girl quickly turned around and became face to face, or rather face to chest, with the dancer she still wasn’t on the best terms with.

“Hey…” Bada whispered once she made eye contact with the smaller girl, removing her hand quickly as she realized it was still resting on her shoulder. Y/n stood speechless, trying to force herself to at least utter a ‘hey’ back, but she couldn’t find the strength.

“Can we talk?” the leader continued softly, voice wavering ever-so-slightly, but not enough for anyone to notice. To Y/n, Bada seemed confident and relaxed as her soft eyes peered down at her. It should’ve been comforting not seeing any signs of her being tense or upset, but the question alone made the younger dancer tear up, already feeling heavily emotional.

“Uh… yeah… yeah, of course” Y/n spoke meekly, not being able to hold eye contact for more than a couple of seconds at a time as she stood in front of the other girl. Bada glanced over at Kirsten and nodded, giving her a nervous tight-lipped smile as the younger leader gave her a gentle look of encouragement paired with two thumbs up.

The two walked in silence for a bit as they separated themselves from the majority of people, finding a less occupied area to chat. Once they arrived at a moderately secluded area and Bada stopped walking she turned to the younger dancer who stood stiffly with her arms crossed and shoulders tensed.

“So… how have you been?” Y/n starts shyly, trying not to seem too uncomfortable but internally cringing once she realizes how formal she sounds. Bada tried to suppress her frown, hating how awkward things had become, but then again, it all made sense.

“Well… uhm… I’m not doing terrible haha…” she tried to joke around while still being honest, but quickly realized none of her small-talk humor was going to get a laugh out of the other girl

“I actually haven’t been doing great since we last… talked…” she continued, becoming a bit more serious with her tone

“I’ve been thinking a lot- actually all I’ve done is think… about the things I said, about why I acted the way I did, about how to approach you, about how I should’ve done this sooner, and especially about you…” Bada rambled off all of what’s been occupying her brain recently

“All I do is think about you…” she breathed out, causing the other girl’s own breath to catch in her throat as her eyes widened slightly. Y/n bit her lip looking at the floor and blinked rapidly trying to avoid the stinging feeling in her eyes that was already beginning.

“I’m so sorry Y/n.” Bada whispered, starting to feel her throat tighten. The younger clenched her teeth and closed her eyes tightly as a singular tear slid down her cheek, before sniffling and looking back up to meet the tall girl’s gaze.

“That’s all I needed to hear…” she whispered with a sad smile, causing Bada to smile softly for a moment before furrowing her brows slightly

“But you deserve so much more than a simple apology-” the leader spoke seriously, still being conscience of her tone so as to not get too worked up

“It’s okay- I really don’t think I do… I said some terrible things too-” the younger sighed as she spoke

“Well of course, but that doesn’t mean what I said was okay… that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be trying my hardest to make up for the thing I said and how poorly I treated you…”

“We’re both equally at fault here-” Y/n was nearly cut off by the persistent dancer

“Well, I wouldn’t say equally… I definitely don’t think you were as cruel as I was… not like it’s a contest or anything but I think the impact this argument had on both of us was mostly my fault… especially since the things I said were aimed to hurt you…” Bada tried not to seem pushy, not wanting to cause another argument, but she was set on getting her point across

“I mean… I kinda deserved it-” Y/n chuckled humorlessly as she looked at her shoes, kicking the ground. Bada’s jaw dropped in absolute shock at how the girl honestly thought she was meant to hear such awful things directed toward her

“No, you didn’t, stop saying that! No one deserves to be talked to like that and I feel absolutely disgusted with myself for saying the things I said… I am SO so sorry y/n” The leader spoke up, voice raising slightly with urgency, desperate to get her sincerity across. The younger dancer struggled to find words momentarily, wanting to say ‘it’s okay’, but realizing that it in fact wasn’t okay at all

“...I accept your apology, Bada, I promise…” Y/n clearly stated after a few moments of thought

“Thank you…” Bada sighed, shoulders relaxing slightly

“I’m sorry too… I was acting immature and childish, and it was really all just because I was hurt by your decision- a decision that I understood had to be made…” and it was true- the girl really did understand why her team was chosen, but that didn’t mean it hurt any less

“Y/n’s you don’t need to apologize-” At Bada’s words it was now Y/n’s turn to be shocked. Even if the girl wasn’t as harsh, she surely was responsible for her own thoughts and actions.

“Of course I do… I need to apologize just as much as you do- for christ’s sake I was the one who caused the whole argument…” She started seriously with furrowed brows, but then her face softened as she continued

“I’m sorry for not trusting you… and for acting like a child-”

“You weren’t acting like a child, you were acting like someone who was under a lot of stress and that’s completely understandable-” Bada cut her off, already feeling the guilt arise again at the memory of how she’d called the younger girl childish and immature

“But I could have handled it so much better-”

“As could I, but we both saw how that actually turned out…” Bada finished with a light teasing smirk, causing Y/n to crack a bit of a smile herself before sighing again and biting her lip as tears filled her eyes

“I also shouldn’t have pushed you to talk about something you weren’t ready to talk about… so for that, I’m also sorry” the Bebe Leader added to her apology, gazing at Y/n with a soft heartfelt look. The younger was staring at the floor again as she sniffled before speaking

“I’m so sorry Bada-” Y/n whimpered as another onslaught of tears began falling. The older girl gently pulled her into a hug, wrapping her arms around the shorter girl’s shoulders and leaning her chin on top of Y/n’s head.

“Shhh… We’ve both apologized and talked it out- let’s grow from it and move past it now, okay?” the tall girl whispered against the younger’s head, running her hand over the other’s hair, smoothing it down softly

“We should probably work on not talking over each other too…” Y/n mumbled against her chest, feeling the light rumble of laughter as Bada chuckled. Noether had realized the leader had started crying as well until she sniffled and reached up to wipe away her tears without even realizing it.

“There are a lot of things we can work on together- good and bad…” Bada leaned back slightly to look down at the girl, who lifted her head to meet the taller girl’s gaze.

“Yeah… together…” Y/n whispered breathlessly with a relieved smile. The tall dancer couldn’t stop the grin from spreading on her face as she was finally able to stare into Y/n’s sparkling eyes again.

taglist (closed): @tinybada @angel-hyuckie @violetinferno @jesuschrist2006 @1luvkarina @uwulyn @justandloyal2961 @deadgirlwalking3 @squidvoldyvoid @vivzyo @ouhaika @jksjx @ocyeanicc @marianamartinsthings @jxrdxnh @luvjanexx @lorenztired @khjssss @heavenlycloud @loisje123 @starchasermyloves @zhivaxo @grinnwolph @notyourd0lly @stinkbvgs @nermandiiiii-blog @arujee @idontknownemore @thatgayinsomniac @fruitr0llup @cgriffin9797-blog @woooooya @kaaylvst @ssc7514 @astoreea @linda-botello @kpopgirl-97 @erikook @misszoldyc @sammisregrets @jysai @moonsvrse @froufrousnowman @amararosesblog @tikitsune @aestrelle19 @laaaasanielzz @randomhoex @tswisal1 @unpretty-reader @charlesswife @stella222

#moth to a flame #street woman fighter 2 #bada lee #bada lee x reader #street woman fighter x reader #bada x reader #swf2 x reader #swf2

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bemusedlybespectacled · 4 months

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Question: I enjoyed s1 OF OFMD, but for various reasons I never actually got around to watching s2 (pick up most of the plot from tumblr tho). What exactly went wrong in s2 that got so many people upset?

Oh, boy. Very long rant incoming.

So, for context, S2 had a significantly smaller budget, which necessitated moving the filming location to union-unfriendly New Zealand, reducing the number of actors/number of appearances of established actors, and cutting down the number of episodes from 10 to 8. In a show where each episode is only about half an hour long, that last one alone was enough to seriously hamper any character development or plot. I am very comfortable putting the vast majority of the blame on HBO because of these financial decisions.

The short version is that Jenkins et. al. needed to address and build on the problems left hanging in S1 while also getting the characters to the end of their character trajectories in case there was no S3 while also leaving room for additional episodes in case there was a S3, in a grand total of four hours, and failed.

The long version is that there were a bunch of what I'd consider small problems in isolation that came together and exploded in the S2 finale.

The reduced cast necessitated breaking up the crew (ex: having Swede marry Jackie and stay on land with her, so they don't need to pay Nat Faxon for all eight episodes) and not spending as much time on their relationships as S1 did.

The reduced time meant that the entire season was rushed (in contrast to S1, which takes place over at least several weeks if not months, most of S2 takes place in roughly five days), leading both to a lot of telling rather than showing (because they don't have time to show you), including vital character and relationship development.

This includes:

Having the Kraken half of the crew beat Ed to death after months of being abused by him – abuse that is clearly shown to have given them PTSD and a well-justified fear and hatred of him – only for them to be okay with him two in-universe days later;

On that note, having Stede dismiss the crew's concerns about Ed because he loves him and also we only have three more episodes left to fit in everything so we need to get over it really fast, even though Stede is supposed to be well-meaning and caring (even if he's not good at it all the time);

Resolving the issue of Stede abandoning Ed in one day, then having them "go slowly" in their relationship for two days and then have some spur-of-the-moment sex, and then the next afternoon have them break up over their diverging career aspirations, and then the day after that resolve that problem and retire on land while the rest of the crew sails off into the sunset;

Stede becoming a fantastic pirate captain over the course of one day, becoming wildly popular in the piracy world two days later, and then deciding the day after that to never be a captain again because he is retiring with Ed;

Having Ed and Stede decide to retire together as what is implied to be the end point of their relationship arc, when none of Stede's issues from S1, like his poor self-esteem, have been so much as mentioned by anyone, implying that he's either magically gotten over them or they don't matter all that much, actually, even though they were the catalyst for basically everything he did in S1;

Ed having two separate character crises – "I am an unlovable person" and "I want to do something with my life other than piracy" – not spending a lot of time on either one, having moments that clearly indicate he is still working on both problems and they have not been resolved, and then apparently having them both be resolved in the final episode despite nothing occurring to actually make that happen, and in regards to the latter, despite the story actively undermining it by repeatedly showing he can't do anything other than piracy;

Related to the above, Ed ending the series as allegedly being loved by the crew as a family (thus solving Crisis #1) despite this never actually being shown, demonstrated, or even fucking alluded to onscreen. If anything, it shows the exact opposite.

This last point is especially galling to me because of what is probably the most divisive issue in the fandom right now: killing off Izzy Hands after giving him seven episodes of character development.

The show begins with the Kraken crew clearly trying to use the skills they learned as part of Stede's crew to cope with their incredibly shitty situation and care for each other, which includes Izzy. Izzy, on his end, tries to protect the crew and speak up for them, which results in him being repeatedly hurt (both implicitly, as Ed at one point says "that's another toe" in response to Izzy advocating for the crew and we later see he's missing more than one toe already, and explicitly, as Ed shoots him in the fucking leg in front of the crew when he stands up for them).

This camaraderie is shown again and again and again. Frenchie, Jim, and Archie take care of Izzy while his leg is infected, at risk to their own lives. Izzy's misery over losing his leg is what unites the PTSD-ridden Kraken crew and the well-meaning-but-ignorant-of-PTSD marooned crew, who are initially at odds, to make him a new prosthetic leg. Izzy gives Lucius advice about forgiving Ed. Izzy is introduced to drag and opens up enough to sing at a crew party, and the whole crew is having fun together while Ed and Stede are in their cabin having sex for the first time. Izzy gives Stede pirate captain lessons and bonds with him when Ed leaves him. Izzy provokes the season's villain into focusing on him and then gives a big speech about how piracy is about belonging to something, giving the rest of the crew time to try to escape.

Recall that Season 1 had some pretty well-established universe rules, one of which was that it runs on Muppet physics/magical realism. People can jump off yardarms, hit the side on the way down, and be perfectly fine. People can get stabbed in the liver and it's totally okay because it's probably not that important, and even can stay pinned to a mast all night that way with only mild discomfort. Buttons can talk to birds and see long distances without a spyglass and put hexes on people. Good people can be hurt (Stede is stabbed repeatedly), bad people can die (the Badmintons, Geraldo), but no one we care about is ever killed.

This is repeated in Season 2: Ed is beaten into a coma with a cannonball and wakes up like Sleeping Beauty after a spirit journey, with no injuries to his face or body. Buttons turns into a seagull after spending an episode doing a magic ritual and is never seen again (because they couldn't keep paying Ewen Bremner due to the budget cuts). Jackie microdoses her husbands with poison to build up their immunity, so that she can later pull a Dread Pirate Westley and poison the British with shared drinks.

So: in the finale, the villain of the season is taken hostage by the pirates (for reasons? unclear how that fits in the plan), happens to have a gun on him (no one checked??), shoots Izzy on the right side and then leaves with no repercussions. The entire crew stands around silently doing nothing while Ed cries over Izzy and tells him that he's his only family.

And Izzy fucking Hands, the guy who just spent eight episodes bonding with and protecting everyone, uses his last words to reassure Ed that him becoming Blackbeard/the Kraken was Izzy's fault and that the crew is Ed's family and they all love him. No one else says anything to Izzy or tries to comfort him or help him in any way.

I repeat: in a show predicated on the idea that bullies and bigots die stupid deaths while queer people and POC are basically magic, a show that was praised for being kind to queer people by not making them worry about their faves suffering or dying, a show founded on the strength of the relationships between the characters, the guy who went through a season-long arc of learning to embrace his pirate found family and his own queerness is shot for stupid reasons on the side we're told isn't important and dies while everyone just stands there. His last words are about the whole crew loving Ed when the only person that the whole crew has loved all season is him.

Anyway, never mind all that, let's cut to Lucius and Pete getting married and Stede and Ed retiring!

Complicating all this is that people who liked Izzy (or even said anything insufficiently mean about Izzy) were harassed for months in between seasons with insults, slurs, and actual fucking death threats. Izzy's growth was kind of a vindication for liking him: it meant that, despite all the harassment, we were right to like him and care about him as a character. Even people who didn't like him initially started to like him during Season 2.

And then he dies, and now there's a bunch of people saying that Izzy fans are big whiny babies who can't handle fictional death, and actually his death was so meaningful and beautiful and the only logical end to his arc, and it can't be bad writing because people die in real life all the time, and also he admitted he fed Ed's darkness so actually he was a terrible person all along anyway and they were right to hate him (and his fans)!

So, yeah, there are a lot of reasons why it's so hated, and I'm probably only addressing the problems of the pro-Izzy people (from what I can tell, BlackBonnet shippers who don't like Izzy think Ed and Stede's relationship is fine and dandy, but I'm sure that there are other criticisms they have that I have not addressed). I'm not even addressing the issues with Jim and Oluwande's relationship this season (and whooo boy are there issues).

It wasn't a universally bad season. There were episodes I really loved and still do. But the finale was a train wreck, and because it was a train wreck, a lot of people are looking back at what happened before the wreck and realizing that, oh, the train lost its brakes and steering because of the budget cuts and the engineers kept throwing fuel in the engine to make it go faster, and huh, now that I think of it, that part earlier in the trip was really wobbly but I didn't pay much attention to it at the time because I was sure the engineers had everything covered.

#ofmd critical #our flag means death #writing #izzy hands #ofmd meta #askbox #personal

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bucknastysbabe · 1 year

Text

The Handler ★ 2001 ★ I think, therefore I am

Rating: Explicit:

Tags: TW!!! HTP, Bucky being abused by strike team, manipulative relationship, Stockholm aspects/soldier is truly incapable of consent, Hydra!reader, handler!reader, sub!bucky, prostate milking, caretaking, touch starveddddd, Bucky has a Bad Thought.

A/N: Working on bigger stuff and needed a break so threw this up and goin to attempt some asks

You had the mission debrief typed out and printed for your meeting with Pierce. Every time the asset was utilized he requested a personal meeting with you. They usually were short and blunt, sometimes he’d needle you for any shortcomings but you held strong.

Getting up and stretching, your back clicked from sitting at this wretched desk all day. You’d go change and hit the gym made for the Strike boys. Emphasis on boys. You hated the childish mongrels, often catcalling or making dirty remarks about your precious star.

There were other women, but few and far between with this level of clearance. You clicked down long gray hallways toward the locker rooms. Somewhere to the left is where they held your boy. He was in cryo recuperating. You had sucked him off in your chair last time before sending the asset onwards.

Scanning your card you entered the desolate woman’s lockers. You tried to keep your thoughts from returning to swollen pink lips and teary blue eyes, chanting commander over and over and over. Changing into a black sweatsuit you grabbed a small towel and headed to the training room/gym.

Your mouth twisted in horror at the sight surrounding the ‘pen’ as they liked to call it. Where agents could spar with each-other. Your precious boy was once again bloodied and bruised up, fighting off three of the men. Rumlow howled while waving cash, “Last one standing gets his ass!” The others laughed and hooted.

The asset was animalistic, eyes wide and nostrils flared. He was likely confused being so soon ripped out of cryo with no chair, no mission. He grabbed a man’s head and started bashing it into the padding of the ground, the other two realizing then Soldier was in fight mode.

You barked, “Soldat! Soldier!”

He was still slamming the guys head into a bloody pulp, snarling and wild. Rumlow shouted, “Get back get back, I have the stick! Fuck!” You hopped over the railing and advanced on Rumlow, “You stupid fucking pig! He’s not a goddamn toy! This documentation is going to be a nightmare.”

The soldier wiped his bloody titanium on his thigh, slowly looking up at you and Rumlow. The young and arrogant leader scoffed, “Just a bit of fun, didn’t know he was going to go psycho!” You waved your hands in anger, eyes flickering down to the stun baton in Brock’s hand. You seethed quietly, stumbling over your English in anger, “You put in chair first! Blyat.”

“I see it as a good way to get the weak ones out. It’s called bonding you stone cold commie bitch.”

You clenched your fists and swallowed back another angry tirade.

“Get the fuck out of my sight and get a goddamn crew out here Rumlow. That’s an order.”

He scoffed again and swaggered off, leaving you with your boy and the remains of some shit stain of an agent. He looked up at you with deceptively wide eyes, face splattered with blood. In that soft tone of his he uttered, “They told me to fight.”

Carding your fingers through blood-tacked hair you agreed, “They did. Weren’t supposed to but they did. You did what was asked. Come on, follow me.” You knew there were cameras and microphones all over this gym so you kept the pet names to a minimum.

It was a chore having to pull out the listening devices in your office weekly.

Soldat followed along, arms clasped in front, breathing heavily. You’d get him washed in the woman’s showers. Not the damn hose they usually sprayed your baby with. You stated, “Even if it seems real, don’t kill another agent. That looks bad on you and therefore me, okay? You want me to be your handler, yes?”

He nodded, “Only you. Order noted.”

Once inside the lockers you configured the clearance up a notch for security reasons. Brock knew to let you deal with him, no matter how jealous the prick was. Your pretty boy was only clad in his cryo suit, a tight black thing constraining his huge muscles. “Turn sweetheart,” you said.

You unzipped him, frowning at his mottled back and hips. “Soldier, maintenance check.” He stepped out of the rest of the suit while listing off.

“Total functions at 80%. Mentally, confusion and fear are interfering with typical functions. Physically, contusions and bruises, fifth metacarpal fracture, superior labial frenulum tear.”

You sat him down and kneeled between his thighs, sliding your thumb across the torn piece that swelled his upper lip up. The asset grunted but remained still. You hissed, “They do not get it. A bunch of silly boys. I’m sorry they woke you up for this nonsense.”

“I did not mean to kill Agent 0447 I thought the objective was to eliminate until one was left.”

He looked so sad. They’d still give your baby a hard time for this. You caressed a bruised cheek and cooed, “Rumlow should know better. Perfect soldier like you deserves better than shoddy unplanned orders.”

“Yes commander,” he said, so quietly. You hated how despondent the soldier had been lately. He needed maintenance but all they had was the chair, nothing for the human locked inside the weapon.

That’s what Soldat was created to be though. The fist of Hydra. He was a powerful weapon. You were growing weak. Vasily would chide you for this. You couldn’t make yourself care at the moment.

“You need to wash. I’ll help you,” you said.

All of the stalls were furnished with soaps, brushes, and towels. You stripped down yourself, quick and ungainly. Going to the furthest stall you turned on the water, hot as can be for him. The asset liked to be warm and rarely had the chance.

You stepped in and beckoned, “C’mon then precious star, need to get you cleaned up.” He padded over, seeming to melt under the hot spray with a sigh. There wasn’t much room for the two of you, his bulk taking up the space. He wouldn’t have to do a thing.

You first grabbed a scrub brush and asked for the arm, gently getting the encrusted blood out of the grooves. Soldat shifted a bit, clenching his jaw tight. You thought the arm was a work of art, he hated it with a passion without even uttering the words.

“Good boy,” you murmured.

Next came the shampoo, you moving soldat to the tiny built in bench. He ogled your body, fingertips twitching to touch. Your boy’s cock, hanging heavy between his thighs was beginning to plump up.

You shampooed his dark hair, washing out the blood, grease, and sweat. He moaned low in his chest, enjoying the gentle scratching of your nails. You rambled, “Can’t believe they gave that young asshole clearance to even breathe near you. I’m sorry sweet baby.”

You scratched at his lower scalp, earning a hiss when you scraped over a bad bruise. You apologized quickly and moved him back under the shower spray, rinsing the suds out. Next was the soap and towel, you methodically washing every part of him as gentle as possible.

You’d get his privates last.

Coming up from his feet and shins rubbed a hand down the soldier’s flank. He was trembling and whining under his breath, turned on by all the good touch. You breathed, “Almost there precious star, be good, you’ll get a reward.”

“I- I don’t deserve one,” he moaned.

Furrowing your brow you cursed in Russian before snapping, “You did nothing wrong. You didn’t know. Look at you now, being so good for commander. Hush.”

You rinsed the towel and soaped it up again, getting his swollen cock and balls soapy. Soldat whimpered and braced his clacking left arm on the wall. “Soon, soon precious.” You moved the rag around the scrub from taint to his tailbone, earning another warbled cry.

You turned him under the spray and placed your hands on huge pectorals, praising, “All done. My sweet boy. I’m giving you the chance for a reward, but that’s up to you.” He shivered again when you placed a soft kiss on his sternum.

The soldier seemed to be weighing his options, jaw clicking, puffy lip poked further out. His cock was leaking and almost purple. Your baby begged, “Please, anything Commander. I’ll do better next time.”

“You did fine, get a towel and lean against the bench.” He knew what you meant, placing a pillow for his bruised knees. They were already healing but the best deserved the best. You padded to your locker to get a comb. Your hair was short right now so the asset would get a nice brush.

He was almost purring as you combed through dark locks, working through knots fine and gentle. With the aid of some hair oil. It hung in loose waves now, gorgeous just like him. You cooed, “Beautiful boy. No one could make a face that pretty if they tried.” He shivered and eyed you over a thick shoulder.

 Using the oil from earlier you slicked up your fingers and his asshole, sliding around the twitching pucker. Baby was eager for it, bending and spreading out for you. He whimpered in broken languages under his breath, droplets on pale skin shining under the bright white light.

You breached him with two of your slim fingers, easing your way inside his tight channel. The brunette’s breathing was tight and short. Your other hand slid down his back, commanding him to relax some. “I’ve got you, любовь, I’ve got you.” You didn’t mean for the Russian to slip and mentally chided yourself— getting too lost in the job.

Your fingers slid deeper, probing for his prostate. The strained gasp and glob of pre hitting the tile notified you’d found the organ. You massaged it in deep strokes, pressing your thumb on his taint to really milk your baby. The asset gripped at the metal bench, digging indents already. He whimpered softly, head tossing back and forth.

“Mhm, don’t think about a damn thing. Focus on my fingers, how your commander is proud, how good it feels. Been a while since I really milked you good hm Soldier?”

He was making a mess all over the floor, cock streaming rivers of pent up seed. He eyed you in the reflection of the walls, looking wrecked. You pressed a kiss to his tailbone, staying at your lethargic pace. It would be intense but you needed your star to relax.

You spotted a string of drool leaving swollen lips, the soldier’s intense eyes gone lax and hazy. He writhed on your fingers, mewling like a whore. The supersoldier strung out a moan, “T-thank youuuu, thank youuu.” Tears joined his cum on the floor.

You smiled, comforting him by pressing your heat and tits against his back. Now nuzzled near his thick neck you purred, “Of course. Such a perfect soldier. Hydra’s greatest creation. Oh commander adores you so much sweet star.”

He sniffled and whined harder, hitching sobs wracking his frame. You whispered, “C’mon precious boy, my good boy, get it all out and you can get some sleep Hm? Don’t have to worry about those pigs.”

He nodded jerkily, whining a weak, “For you commander, yesyes!”

You dug harder into his prostate, milking it quicker, massaging from the outside just as frantic. The weapon began to fell apart with choppy sobs, cock pulsing and twitching before unloading onto the floor. You awed at the amount, cooing more praise.

He’d worked out two more big loads before whimpering, “T-thank you, oh, oh, yes commander, yes thank you.” Which was code for I’m done. He couldn’t comprehend disobeying direct orders, especially from you. You planted little kisses along his wet cheeks, playing with those dark waves before sitting back and cleaning yourself off, wiping the floor down.

He stayed put, panting and spent. You sat for a couple of minutes, rubbing his upper back. In a reluctant whisper you said, “C’mon soldier, time to get dressed and back to Cryo. You’ll feel a lot better now.” He nodded blearily, shaking too hard to put it on. You took over, helping your star into the tight suit, brushing back wild locks.

“Pretty boy. Let’s go.”

You stuffed the ruined towel in your belongings, intending to retrieve it later. You felt his presence locking in on you during the slow walk to the chamber. You knew he wanted to ask a question.

“Speak soldat.”

“If I’m the greatest creation then why do they treat me like that?,” he asked, face devoid of emotion. You stopped in your tracks, growing stiff. You weren’t prepared for this. This is why the chair was important, awful as it was.”

In a measured voice you said, “Because they’re untrained ignorant bastards who abuse power that they wish they could have. I will speak with the director on this treatment. Go on now, sleep well dear star.”

He frowned but stepped into the chamber, hands clasped at his back. You watched through the small window, mouth pinched. Pierce was going to smell the weakness on you and strike like the snake he was. Then two more heads would take your place.

#dead dove: do not eat #bucky barnes x reader #winter soldier x reader #htp #hydra!reader #bucky barnes smut #dom reader #sub!bucky

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immediatebreakfast · 3 months

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I love how Renfield is the oldest (59) and Mina is very likely the living youngest, and yet they bond so well. (It reminds me how well Mina befriended the 99 year old Mr Swales that he sought her company and felt care for her.) It probably contributed that Jack may have experience with interacting with "madmen" and studying, Mina had lived with and loved a "madman".

It's truly incredible how a simple conversation between an old man in physical cell, and a young woman in a mental cell put such a dent in the Count's plans that he had to flee to Transylvania once it was clear that nothing would stop the crew.

Even if the repercutions were huge in the narrative, in between the horror and the action it was just a visit (probably the first visit that Renfield had in a long time) to talk.

Reading again the entry I noticed how hostile Renfield is towards Mina at first,

"You're not the girl the doctor wanted to marry, are you? You can't be, you know, for she's dead." - R.M. Renfield, september 30.

and even with everything one can say about sexism, and the building infantilization of Mina, let's remember that this is the first time Renfield meets someone that is specifically associated with Jack. Renfield's remarked abuser in both authority, and personhood in general. Also by probably being informed by Dracula himself that both Mina and Jonathan are the key players in this continuous attacks against his plans in England, on top of just almost correctly assuming that Mina must share the same opinion towards the mentally ill that society has.

Three strikes against Mina that she switfly defeats by treating Renfield like the person he is, and talking to him in a normal manner. After taking care of her beloved Jonathan, and being at Lucy's side most of her life Mina is aware of how the Other is viewed. Maybe as she saw Renfield, Mina thought of a worse reality where the man on the bed was her Jonathan in Budapest, maybe she saw how Seward reacted to Renfield's words, and realized what was actually layed out in the room. Or maybe Mina just saw an old man in need of an ear, and she just listened.

This is the first time that Renfield puts a face on a victim of the Count's games, he puts a voice on the young victim whose life is going to violently end in what he thought was supposed to be eternal bliss. Lucy is a distant dream for Renfield, the revenge against these people who dared to put up a fight against this old ancient evil that goes beyond all of their years combined.

Renfield never knew Lucy, but he knows Mina now.

Renfield sees the young Mina Harker, entering life with her equal young husband in hand, and trying to solve the murder of what he knows now was her best friend, and he reflects. He reflects on everything he has done, on what has passed, and what he can do tomorrow.

Mr. Renfield asked if he might see me. Poor man, he was very gentle, and when I came away he kissed my hand and bade God bless me. Some way it affected me much; I am crying when I think of him. This is a new weakness, of which I must be careful. Jonathan would be miserable if he knew I had been crying. - Mina Harker, october 2.

And the man is devastated to see how he is helping orchestrate the murder of another young lady to please the Count. He becomes desperate to leave (a request that is denied by both Seward, and Van Helsing), so the Count can't have access to the inside of the asylum. It doesn't matter if he looks like a coward by the time's literary standards because if the only way to at least save that young lady is by acting like one? Then Renfield might as well do it, he has nothing to lose sans his life.

I think that the key difference between Mina, and Jack when it comes to Renfield is empathy, and the ability to simply treat the other person with the same humanity you should be treated.

Jack may have studied, and climbed until he got to be the head of an asylum, but his own biases, mental problems, and ableism blurred the lines between patient and doctor so hard that he made Renfield's life a boring hell. From when their dynamic was introduced, to Renfield's death, the narrative dictated how Seward was putting both into a deep spiral in which, not even with Renfield's manipulations, none of them were going to come out in victory.

In contrast, Mina has cared for Jonathan without any restrain, and has lived in service of what the situation demands of her at all times. She knows, as a young victorian lady, how to balance herself without trying to compete, or win the other person in the room with her. Mina only needed to genuinely talk to Renfield to break his heart because she gave him the respect, and honestly she expects for herself when talking.

#I will always mourn the mountain of potential that was the character of R.M. Renfield #That old man was truly on the best wave lenght in the book #Why kill the only character that could serve as a counter point to Van Helsing after establishing a connection with Mina?#This was from last year by the way #dracula daily #dracula #r.m. renfield #renfield #mina harker #mina murray

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silvervioletvalentine · 1 year

Text

Red is the colour of love

Pairing: Sebastian vettel X Violet (fem teammate OC!)

Word count: 6k

Warnings? Idiots in love . Arguments. Fluff. Small angst . Like tiniest bit I suppose . Just cuteness.

As Sebastian stood in front of yet another reporter after celebrating his win , he couldn't stop his eyes from flickering over to his right where his teammate was also getting grilled further down.

He could hear her loud laughter and sarcastic resorts from where he was stood , barely able to hold back his amused grin at the thought of the poor bloke that had been Saddled with interviewing her .

She was an absolute she devil. She never gave straight answers and most of the time she would just run circles around them or blatantly lie to their face until they gave up and left her alone . She was a journalists worst nightmare , and that was on her good days.

Kevin, the man interviewing him , caught sight of where his attention was wandering off to and gave him a knowing smile . It being no secret to anyone to just how much the new teammates had bonded recently .

The crew on the grid had been worried about how they were going to get the two to bond once they had announced that their newest driver was a twenty three year old woman who was already well known in f2 for causing quite a bit of drama and stirrup wherever she went .

She hasn't gotten along well with her last teammate , neither willing to let the other one pass in order to win the race . Resulting in them crashing into each other at more than one occasion , something that she had been given a stern talking about as soon as she arrived to Ferrari .

She was known as being a loud mouthed , obnoxious maniac who wasn't afraid of anything . Definitely not afraid of putting grown men almost twice her age into their place either . Sebastian had been quick to find out .

He had been a little worried about being around her , he had to admit . I mean what did they have in common beside driving? I mean , she was this young woman who looked like she had stepped out of some new age magazine that liked to eat men like him for breakfast each morning . And he had made the mistake of trying to be the one in control.

But not for very long . Because not even two races into their new partnership , he had her screaming down the radio for him to move the fuck aside and let her pass through . Even though he was the main driver out of the two of them.

Which had resulted in minutes of them bickering like an old married couple before violet had finally threatened to take them both of the track if he didn't put his pride aside and let her through .

And Sebastian had known she wasn't joking either .

Having seen the dangerous and almost dirty way she liked to race from before . He had spent hours watching back how she did it and trying to understand her strategies . She was just something else completely .

And honestly, it hurt his ego a little to admit that she might have been just as good as him.

She had won that race . On her first rookie season too. He had been second on the podium behind her , just missing out by seconds . She had gotten out of her car and given him a triumphant smirk and arrogant little laugh . He hasn't expected them to get along after that.

He had been more than a little annoyed and had resigned himself to never being around her annoying self again unless he had to. Unfortunately for him , it turned out he had no choice in the matter.

Because Violet had woken up one day and simply decided that they were going to be the best of friends . Despite the fact that she liked to rile him up over the radio at every chance she got.

Sebastian had worried that it was all some part of her sick plan to win at first . To throw him off his game. He had been too scared to drink the coffee that she had thrust at him one morning with a beaming smile on her face as they walked into the paddock together for yet another meeting .

He had spent the five minutes of them walking to their meeting room in stunned silence , only able to blink at her in disbelief as she rambled on to him about how she was thinking about getting a new cat to keep her company.

He couldn't believe that same woman who had threatened to crash him off the track was the same one innocently badgering him with questions about his opinion on what type of cat she should get .

And it had only gotten worse after that . She had basically became his second skin. That was the only way to put it .

She followed him around the track and somehow had managed to get his phone number off their manager . Calling him up in the middle of the night as she slurred down the phone for him to come pick her up from some party she had gotten absolutely pissed at.

He couldn't believe it. Wondering what kind of dystopian shit he was in. Wondering if he had perhaps mistook his vitamins for drugs instead . Because what the hell was going on?

He hasn't been happy about it at first . Not wanting much to do with her after the stunt she pulled. And he had told her so. Expecting them to have a big blowout and for her to leave him alone after that.

Only once he had told her that he wanted them to be strictly professional and that he wasn't going going to be the one to pick up her drunken ass from clubs and parties , she had merely looked at him from the passenger side of his car and burst into mocking laughter .

Leaving him to steal glances at her in disapproval . "Why are you laughing? I'm being serious . No more mind games with me okay? We're not friends. And never will be." He had tried to be firm in his words , wavering a little once he saw just how amused she really was.

It was incredibly difficult to keep a straight face in front of a giggling woman who kept reaching over to poke at his cheek and pull at his hair like a naughty child would . Slapping her hand away from his nose with a exasperated sigh.

"Did you hear me?" He had snapped at her , annoyed that she just wasn't listening to him.

Violet just grinned and rolled her eyes at him. "Course I did. I just don't tend to listen to liars Seb. And I'm not playing any mind games with you. Stop being so paranoid old man." She casually throw back at him before opening to McDonald's bag that she had forced him to get her open. Pulling out a handful of fries and shoving them into her mouth.

Seb had frowned even harder "I'm not old. And what do you call this then?" He motioned between them in frustration.

"You've threatened to take me off the track and now you're in my car eating McDonalds at three o'clock in the morning!" He almost exploded. It was unbelievable!

How has she roped himself into this? He wasn’t her lap dog!

Violet just titled her head with a pretty little smile and said . "Friendship Seb. Sweet , glorious friendship." Then she picked up a fry and shoved it into his mouth.

And well, that was the end of that. They had become friends .

Well, she had left him no choice but to be her friend anyways . She really was a stubborn woman .

Kevin nodded over to Violet curiously "I must say. Everyone had been talking about the friendship that you two have now. At the start of the season , you didn't seem to like her very much." He said matter of factly.

Recalling the way Sebastian had rolled his eyes whenever her name had even been mentioned.

Clearly Bitter that a young rookie had beaten him and threatened him all in one go.

Sebastian just shrugged as he crossed his arms loosely over his chest. "Yeah I mean, i had no choice really . She just started following me around one day and hasn't left me alone since." He replied with a amused grin on his face as he peered back over at her again. Unable to help himself. She was magnetic.

Watching as she pulled her long hair out from the hair tie and shook her head about like a crazy person as she tried to tame the curls that were now pointing off in every direction. Frizzy from the heat.

She had once told him that having her hair up all the time gave her a headache and made her feel like she had an apple on-top of her head at all times .

Sebastian had jokingly suggested that she cut off her long locks and violet had looked at him like he had just told her to murder a puppy.

A little superficial that girl. Yet he still couldn’t get her out of his head.

Kevin laughed "you two do seem really close. What do you think about her missing out on the podium spot by seconds? She's been in the top three nearly every time now . Do you think the rookie luck is wearing off now?" He questioned him .

Sebastian just shook his head with a small laugh , pulling a face . "I wouldn't call it rookie luck. She's just that good , that's all. Pure talent . But you know , you can't win every race ... I'm sure that she'll pout about it for a couple of hours but she'll come back and win the next one. Just to prove everybody wrong. That's what she does." He spoke about her warmly just as she turned her head and spotted him not that far away from her .

“She's a winner." He concluded before laughing loudly again as he watched her face brighten up at the sight of him before she quickly ran over to greet him.

Throwing her arms around his shoulders from behind , pressing her cheek against the side of his as she grinned at Kevin and him brightly .

"Hey ! My ears were burning. Were you two gossiping about me ladies?" She teased them as she leant into his side , making him wrap his arm around her shoulders to pull her closer .

Ruffling her hair up and making it even more of a mess as she glared up at him and snapped her teeth at his fingers jokingly . Pinching his side through his racing suit from where he had tied it around his waist.

Sebastian hummed teasingly , his smile spreading across his face as he looked down at her . "Oh yeah sparky. We were just talking about how annoying you are." He said pushing her hair away from her sweaty face again before pulling off his headband from his hair and spinning her around to face him properly .

Violet just laughed as she let him push the headband into her hair , adjusting it behind her ears before patting her head with a grin.

"Congrats vettel. You gonna party tonight? You got any champagne left for me?" She quizzed him curiously before wiggling her eyebrows at the camera that was trained on them.

Almost bouncing on the edge of her feet from the Adrenaline that was bursting through her . It would take her hours to calm down, it always did after each race .

Sebastian scoffed at her as he gave her a flick to her forehead .

Shaking his head at her with a grimace "no champagne for you sparky . The last time I let you have it , I had to carry you home ." He then looked over at Kevin in exasperation.

"She can swing vodka like a champ , no problem. Yet for some reason champagne knocks her on her ass." He told him, honestly still mystified by it.

Violet hummed in agreement , titling her head with a slight frown. "He's right . I can handle tequila too. Only if I drink too much then I might get pregnant . So.." she trailed off with a smirk at the horrified look Sebastian was giving her .

Placing his hands on either side of her shoulders and giving her a little shake. "Yeah so she's not allowed to have tequila . We don't need a little Vi running around . That's nightmare fuel." He joked, dodging the slap she gave him.

Squinting her eyes at him playfully "hey! I'm not that bad .." at his disbelieving look , she looked away . Grinning . "Okay so no tequila..."

Kevin laughed as he looked between them in amusement . "So you missed out on the podium this time violet . Are we gonna see you on there next time?" He asked her.

Violet just pulled a face like it was obvious. "Yeah of course . Sebastian just got lucky . We were a second too late with the pit stop but .." she sighed with a slight shrug as she fiddled with the rings on her fingers .

"That won't happen again. Sebastian did amazing . I had a feeling he was going to win today . I'm glad it was a Ferrari win either way." She answered him honestly .

Sebastian felt his cheeks flush a little , letting out a small bashful laugh. "You had a feeling I would win? Are you a witch now? Should I be worried?" He joked trying to play off how warm her comment made him feel inside .

Violet just rolled her eyes with a smile as she hugged his aside again. "You should always be worried when I'm around Seb . But no, honestly .. winning is what you do and you're one of the best drivers out there . I never doubt that you're going to do a good job. I may be your teammate but I'm still your fan .." she told him truthfully . Missing the effect her words had on him.

Sebastian felt like his heart was going to escape his chest. Cheeks definitely as red as his car now.

"Ah that was -" he struggled to find the words to say, oddly emotional . "That was so sweet. I'm your biggest fan too. You'll be beside me next week on the podium yes?" He hugged her to him tightly .

Violet just laughed and nodded her head "yeah. I'll be number one this time." She told him cockily.

And just like that the moment was gone.

He shoved her away from him jokingly. Making her laugh even harder.

“Keep dreaming sweetheart. The fumes from my champagne covered body must be getting to your head!" He joked as she kicked him at his hip making him snicker .

Violet placed her hands on her hips as she looked down at her watch and twisted her lips . Looking back over at Sebastian with a sheepish look on her face .

Already knowing what she was going to ask , he groaned . "You didn't bring your car?" He guessed.

She shook her head , smiling a little. "I slept in so Angelica brought me." She mumbled .

Her assistant usually being the one that had to drag her out of bed to make sure she didn't miss the race. She had terrible time management .

Sebastian just sighed and nodded his head , still looking at her . "You want food?" He then asked as he took a step away from the cameras . Ready to make his excuses so they could leave.

Violet looked at him like he was crazy "always. Can we stop and get some pasta? I've been craving it all day." She said.

He frowned at her "I'm not buying it when I can make some at home. You want the chicken one from last time?" Both of them too in their own little bubble to notice the amused looks they were getting as they bickered over what kind of pasta they were having like an old marry couple.

They could still hear them bickering when they walked away, sebastians arm thrown over her shoulder as they shoved at each other's sides like naughty children.

"I want wine too." She said.

"Absolutely not. You're not drinking tonight." He argued back.

"Yes I am."

"No you're not . You can either have a drink and get no pasta . Or have your pasta with no drink. Which one will it be?"

A long pause then a groan.

"Fine. Pasta please."

Kevin turned to his cameraman with a grin.

"what's the bet that they'll be together by the end of the season?" He mused , more than amused by the oblivious drivers that were attached to each other like second skin.

The moment that Sebastian realised that she loved him was at yet another race .

She had won again. By a long shot because of course she had .

Even though he was happy for her , he was a little disappointed in himself for not even making it into the top three . Having crashed into the wall not even halfway through after hitting some debris on the track.

However , even though he was a little pissed off, he couldn't contain his glee as he watched the red car speed past the finishing line . Yelling In happiness as everyone around him hugged each other in celebration .

"Fuck yeah!" He laughed in amazement as he patted her engineer on his back. Both of them grinning in excitement . "I knew she'd do it."

Watching her up on the podium getting sprayed with champagne was nothing more than amazing , pride filling him as he watched her squeal and cover her eyes from the booze . Laughing loudly as she looked down into the sea of red below her , screaming her name .

"Violet!" He called up to her from below , her eyes instantly finding his as he beamed up at her proudly.

"Don't drink it all! I'm not carrying you home tonight!" He shouted , laughing loudly as she shot him the middle finger in response .

Bringing up his phone to take pictures of her in her rightful place , briefly glancing over at her assistant next to him who was pridefully doing the same thing.

"She's doing the parade after this?" He asked her , having planned to go straight home after watching her celebrate . He doubted he would see her much after this.

She would be surrounded by the rest of her team and the other winning drivers as they celebrated. The party was going to be one of the biggest ones yet, he was sure. And he knew how much violet liked to party , seeing as how on more than one occasion he had been the one to pick her up. Not that she ever remembered it.

He was just glad she called him to get her home safely than somebody else .

Angelica nodded her head "they'll be driven around on it for about an hour. Then there's a do at the club after. Are you going?" She asked him. Knowing that violet would want him there .

Sebastian just shook his head with a small laugh. "Absolutely not . Clubs are not my thing anymore . Make sure she enjoys herself though. Don't let her get too drunk again." He told her before wandering away to say goodbye to some of his own team as well.

Missing the way that violets eyes were searching for him in the crowd with a frown.

Not even ten minutes later and Sebastian was getting his last interview before he could leave , chatting about how disappointed he was not to win but how proud he was that violet had done so as well.

When he heard a familiar shout of his name over and over again. Looking around in confusion , he rose a brow in surprise as he caught sight of the wagon that was driving them all around the track for fans to see. It was full of drivers drinking and having fun, music blaring loudly from the speakers .

Then he saw violet leant against the railing at the back , waving her hands frantically at him to try and get his attention .

"Oh my god." He laughed loudly as he waved back at her .

Luckily the vehicle was being driven slowly enough that he could jog over and hear her better , placing his hands on his hips as his squinted up at her playfully .

"Having fun?" He called up to amused.

She pressed her hands firmly on the railing and leant further over , making his heart skip a bit in worry.

"Careful!" He shot out worriedly .

She ignored his concern and frowned at him. "Why aren't you on here? Are you not coming?" She yelled down to him . Still clutching her big bottle of champagne.

Ignoring the pats on her back she could feel as people tried to talk to her , to congratulate her again.

Sebastian shook his head with a smile "I'm too old for that. I'm gonna head home . You have fun though yes?" He shouted up to her with a smile.

But violet was having none of it. Her frown deepening as she suddenly turned and shoved her champagne bottle into a startled Charles hand , ignoring the looks she was getting as she focused instead on Sebastian. The only person she wanted to celebrate with.

"No!" She yelled shaking her head at him as he watched her push herself up on the railing with wide eyes . Quickly jogging over in worry.

"What are you doing?! Be careful you maniac!" He shouted at her.

Violet ignored the gasps and shouts of concern coming from behind her.

"I'm coming with you." She declared before jumping off the moving vehicle and onto the track below her. Making Sebastian heart jump hard in his chest.

She jogged over to him with a careless grin , jumping onto his back like she hadn't just given everybody a heart-attack .

"I don't want to party. I wanna be with you. You should have been up there with me! That was the deal remember?" She said to him as he wrapped his arms around the back of her thighs automatically .

Frowning to himself in disbelief . Unable to believe that she would rather be with him than out celebrating at the club like they usually did.

"Yeah but you won this time! Don't you want to get drunk with your friends? You'll be bored with me. I'm just gonna order some food and watch a movie or something." He said to her . Titling his head back so he could catch her eyes.

Violet just flicked the side of his head and rolled her eyes at him like he was the silly one.

"You are my friend Seb. And I don't care . Let's go!" She jumped down from his back and started jogging away . Already knowing where he had parked his car seeing as he had been the one to drive her to the grid this morning too.

Leaving Sebastian to trail after her in silence . Chewing on his lower lip in consideration as he realised that she really did prefer his company to anyone's else's .

Even though there was more fun and younger guys that would be dying for her attention .

She had chosen him.

"By the way , Ive booked for us to get massages tomorrow. I know that you're aching after crashing like that! Hopefully it will help. You're definitely okay?" She called over to him from her shoulder , glancing over his body in concern.

Making Sebastian inhale shakily as he noticed the soft and worried look on her face.

Noticing The way she stopped in her step to wait for him to catch up, taking his hand in her own without any hesitation or second thought .

Thinking nothing of it as she tucked herself into his side and waited for his response . As though it was the most natural thing in the world.

As though being by his side was as easy as breathing.

And he realised then, all at once. She loved him.

So with a small smile he just kissed the top of her head and hummed . His thoughts going haywire as his heart hammered in his chest.

She loved him. He felt it. He saw it. He breathed it in.

"Yeah I'm okay. Thank you though. What would I do without you?" He murmured half heartedly . Although it was true. He couldn't imagine his life without her in it now.

How the hell hadn't he noticed this before?

She loved him. Really fucking loved him.

"You'd be incredibly bored old man. I'm the sunshine on a rainy day. The butter on your bread . The leaves to your tree-" she started dramatically declaring . Poking him in the side to make him laugh.

Sebastian just shook his head with a smile so genuine and soft that it almost stopped her in her tracks .

"You're that and more . Come on.." he steered her towards his car . Feeling a wave of contentment and satisfaction wash over him as she slid into her seat with a smile. "We've got a movie to watch."

And he had his own feelings to sort through too.

Denial had never been his shade after all.

Fucking hell.

It was a Saturday when violet realised that Sebastian loved her.

Having spent months battling and wavering with her own feelings for her teammate , she had finally given up hope and decided that the best thing she could do was move on.

Sebastian was an amazing man. He was smart , funny and so incredibly talented . So way out of her league .

She stood no chance .

So she had let one of her friends set her up on a date with one of her friends from work. Still not feeling a hundred percent up to it , but knowing that she needed to get over herself and get over Sebastian before she got her heart broken without him even knowing about it.

So with a tight black dress on and heels strapped to her feet , she stood in front of her mirror in the hallway as she tried to perfect her hair .

Smirking smugly at herself once she saw just how good she looked . She really had outdone herself this time. She just hoped her date wasn't going to be a complete bore.

She didn't have much hope though but she had to try something.

She couldn't keep pining over Sebastian forever . That wasn't helpful at all.

But it was just her luck that as she was about to leave , someone knocked loudly on her door making her flinch in surprise . Worrying that her friend had stupidly gave her date her address , she swung open the door and fought back a groan .

Of course . Who else could it be at this time?

She could only blink back at a shocked looking Sebastian as he raked his eyes over her tiny dress and done up face in clear amazement.

His lips parting in a silent breath yet no words came out as he just continued to gape at her in disbelief .

"I didn't know you were coming. I haven't missed anything have I?" She worriedly muttered . Having had her phone on silent since she woke up.

Sebastian silently shook his head . Clearly his throat as he finally met her eyes , his cheeks flushing red. Clearly flustered by her.

Fucking hell. He thought weakly to himself. What gave her the right to be so fucking beautiful?

"Er no. No- you-" he inhaled deeply as he tried to gather his words .

Every rehearsed line he had spent all night thinking up suddenly forgotten as he looked down at the beautiful woman in front of him. Speechless.

"Why do you look like this?" He blurted out inelegantly. Cringing at how rude it sounded.

Violet frowned back at him in confusion . "Why do I look like this? I don't know. I was born with this face Seb.." she muttered as she picked up her small clutch bag from the table behind Her . Knowing she was going to be late if she didn't get a hurry on.

He seemed to come to a realisation then. His face dropping as he narrowed his eyes at her unhappily.

"You're going on a date." He stated blandly .

Swallowing down the feeling of sick that rose in the back of his throat at the thought of her with another man for the night.

Violet nodded her head with a small smile , wandering back into her apartment to grab her phone before she forgot it. Hearing Sebastian follow her in and close the door behind him.

"Yeah. With one of my friends , friends. Apparently he's a footballer.." she muttered as she shoved her phone into her purse . Looking back over her shoulder to see a scowling Sebastian stood in her doorway with his arms crossed tightly over his chest.

"Absolutely not." He suddenly ground out. Shaking his head at her with a humourless little smile tugging at his mouth.

“No way." Was all he could repeat . No way in hell.

Violet looked back at him like he was insane . He felt like she was driving him to it .

"What? What do you mean no? You can't tell me no! What is wrong with you?" She shot back at him confused and more than annoyed by his interruption when she was finally deciding to move on.

Sebastian just clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. His eyes not leaving hers as he glared back at her in frustration .

The right words that he had planned to say were no longer there.

"I mean no you're not. This is terrible timing." He muttered more to himself than violet as he ran a hand over his eyes In pure disbelief .

He should have told her sooner . He thought to himself miserably. Maybe then she wouldn't be looking like a supermodel about to go on a date with a fucking footballer.

Jesus Christ.

Violet looked offended, felt it too. "terrible timing?! This happens to be Great timing actually! I can't stay single forever seb. I'm going to become a virgin again at this rate!" She exclaimed wondering what the hell was the matter with him and why he looked so pissed off.

Sebastian's scowl only deepened if it was possible .

"So you're planning on sleeping with him?! Violet!" He inhaled deeply trying not to have a breakdown. Wondering how the hell he was going to get her to listen to him. And what the hell he was even going to say.

She rolled her eyes at him in annoyance . "Yes I plan on getting laid . Since when do you act like such a prude seb? What the hell is going on?!” She shouted at him.

Finally Losing her patience with him. He may have a cute face and eyes that made her want to melt into a puddle on the floor , but god did he piss her off sometimes!

Sebastian had never been very graceful. So instead of the beautiful speech he had planned to give her , the carefully thought out declaration of love that he had spent all night rehearsing.

That all went to shit. Because of course it did. Why did he expect anything else?

Instead he ended up pointing his finger at her and shouting like a idiot . "you are not going to fuck another man when I am in love with you , you daft woman! What is wrong with you! Are you trying to tear my heart out?!" Eyes wild and upset as he looked down at her. Heart pounding in his chest.

Violet gasped sharply , mouth dropping open in shock. What?

Then the anger came over her like a tidal wave . All this time … all this time she had spent pining over him and he had loved her all along?!

Not even a second later she lifted her hand and threw her clutch bag straight at him.

“You bastard! How was I supposed to know?! I've been flirting with you since the moment we've met and you've not said anything!" Then she picked up a pillow from her couch and threw that at him as well.

As he dodged the flying decorative pillows coming his way, he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"No you haven't! You've only been joking around with me! I wasn't going to embarrass myself for your entertainment!" He shouted back at her . Grabbing one of the pillows that had hit off his head and throwing it back at her with force.

It bounced off her shoulder and onto the floor. Only making her angrier as she picked up a magazine from the table and began to roll it up in her hands .

"Joking?! Joking?! You've got to be the one fucking joking Sebastian! The only way I could have it any more obvious would have been to shove my tongue down your throat!" She screamed at him before jumping over the couch and starting to hit him all over his body with her rolled up magazine .

Much like she had seen her mother do to her father whenever he had pissed her off. Which was often.

She guess the apple didn't fall far from the fucked up tree after all.

"Ow! You-" he ducked to avoid a blow to the head. Grabbing her arms to spin her around and pin her to the back of the couch. "Crazy woman! Why didn't you just do that! I thought you were just being nice!"

Unfortunately or maybe fortunately for him, he missed his intended mark and instead accidentally pushing her over the top of the couch . Ultimately bringing him down with her as he landed on top of her with a startled shout.

Bracing his arms on either side of her head so he didn’t crush her as they both panted loudly trying to catch their breath back from their impromptu explosion .

Violet was glaring up at him in pure disbelief "that would have been assault! Oh hey Sebastian , how was your day and bam-!" She stuck out her tongue at him "wanna taste my lips?!" She smacked him over the head one last time for good measure.

Sebastian just snorted as he looked down at her pouted lips below him. Arching a brow at her slowly . Eyes scanning her flushed and pissed off face beneath him.

She was even hotter when she was angry. He mused , infatuated.

"Not if I wanted you to.”He mumbled to her before a sheepish smile suddenly grew on his face.

Pushing a strand of her messy hair way from her eyes from their fall, he pursed his lips to try and contain his growing glee as he realised what this meant.

"You love me." He stated slowly , proudly . Smugly . Making her roll her eyes at his tone as he leant down to nudge his nose against hers gently .

Locking her legs around his waist , she pinched his side making him flinch. Snickering at the look on her face .

Adorable.

"And you love me. Big deal." She looked off to the side with a pout. Pulling her legs tighter around his hips so his body crashed down on top of her with a loud ‘ooof'.

He laughed breathlessly at her stubbornness , kissing her cheek gently . Before slowly kissing down to her neck and behind her ear . Kissing any piece of soft skin that he could reach.

"It is a big deal ." He hummed against her throat as he began to kiss his way up to her chin . With only one target in mind.

Violet refused to give him a reaction. Merely raising a eyebrow at him , lips pursed stubbornly.

Sebastian just peered down at her in amusement , grinning widely as he pulled down her chin to part her lips. Skimming his mouth against her own gently , not yet kissing her.

"I love you." He whispered .

“And I'm sorry for not telling you sooner. Not kiss me back." He demanded quietly. Pinching her side to make her laugh.

Rolling her eyes , she couldn't stop the grin from spreading across her face as she finally gave in and closed the gap like she had wanted to the whole time .

Kissing him like he would be the last man she ever kissed .

And If Sebastian had his own way, he would be.

"Asshole." She murmured against his lips in vague amusement .

Exhaling shakily as he buried his face in her neck and traced her tender skin with his tongue.

“You owe me a date." She muttered to him seriously , eyes falling shut in bliss .

He smiled against her chest as he pushed down her dress smoothly .

“I owe you more than one. Out First date will be breakfast in the morning but for now ..." he grinned slyly as he found her bra hook and quickly snapped it open before she could even blink.

"I have another way to apologise .."

#Sebastian vettel imagine #Sebastian vettel #f1 imagine #formula one imagine #Charles leclerc #Sebastian vettel x reader #Ferrari imagine #f1 fic #Charles leclerc imagine

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cautuscoralcoast · 4 months

Text

Pluton — 3 You

Portgas D. Ace x reader

Synopsis - In which Ace recounts his life story and relation to you

Tw. Mentions of suicide

✾❊❃✾❊❃✾❊❃✾❊❃✾❊❃✾❊❃✾❊❃✾❊❃✾

There was once a time he wanted to die.

He felt undeserving to live. He saw how everyone would look at him; as if his existence was a sin.

"A demon child" was what some would call him. He would be chased out, attacked, all because he was the child of the pirate king.

Then he got a family. A foster mother who was kind of neglectful yet still managed to show her mother. A "grandfather" who he only saw occasionally. He also has two brothers; three brothers bound not by blood but familial love. They'd talk about dreams and the future; they wanted to be pirates of their own crew. They were the only reason he was able to love himself. But then one of them died, and there was only his younger brother and him.

Eventually, he left his home to start his life of piracy. He remembers his brother waving goodbye and the vice admiral shouting at him in anger. Not long after, he found himself stranded on an island. There, he found the Mera Mera no mi and the very first member of his crew. He remembers telling the masked man about his goal of taking down the yonko; he remembers being called crazy. He remembers getting off the island and the spade pirates forming. Eventually, more people joined his crew, all wanting to him grow.

He remembers when that Fishman called dangerous and that he'll fight instead of Whitebeard. He remembers the fight lasting for days. He remembers Whitebeard intervening and taking him on in a fight. He remembers waking up and trying to kill Whitebeard to save his crew. He remembers accepting Whitebeard as his father and Whitebeard accepting him as a son.

He remembers when he first met you. Anxious and stressed; you flinched when he came in the infirmary. You gave him a look of annoyance as he called out for Tate. He remembers seeing you standing in front of Whitebeard as you trembled in anger talking about Pluton. He also remembers you yelling at him for calling Pluton "some ship."

The stars. They looked like gold woven into the sky above. He remembers how the moon shined down on you two. He remembers asking for your name in which you said you didn't have one.

"Hey dreamer!"

"Huh? 'Dreamer?' " You furrowed your brows as you looked at him. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

He sat down next to you as he peered over at your book. "Just that you dream a lot about ships and dragons!"

"And you dream rather loudly."

"Yea- What?"

"The amount of times I woke from hearing you snore or yelling in the middle of the night is terrifying."

"Ah! Sorry..."

He remembers not thinking much about you; small, rude, naive, and perhaps obsessive for that ship. You were just another guest on the ship. He never thought you would want to stay, then again, he never thought he stay up so late into the night: watching the stars dance in the obsidian sea.

"A— Ace?!"

He remembers when he first fell asleep in front of you: He was dining with you when he fell over. He remembers laughing at you when he awoke. Seeing you so flustered and confused was a look he'll keep with him for as long as he possibly remembered.

"So, you were worried 'bout me?"

"Shut up."

He doesn't know you too well. He doesn't know your name, favorite food or color, what your background was, nothing. You also didn't know much about him either; just that he has a brother and adopted by Whitebeard. You two never confided about either's past: He didn't like talking about it, and you had nothing to talk about.

But that was fine with him, and so were you. There were no words that could describe the bond between you two. You had nothing in common with him. You disliked his hobbies, hated his recklessness, despised the foods he liked; and he hated the say you spoke, loathed your passiveness, and absolutely despised the look of annoyance you would give him.

But none of that mattered: not when you and him had the stars to tie you together. There were no words needed to understand each other; no language, look, writing, painting, nothing that could explain it.

He didn't know when it began: When his feelings for you began to change.

You weren't the type person he'd see himself with. You were difficult to handle. You lacked basic knowledge about the world. You didn't know how to properly take care of anything. You were far too off put by the crew to even talk to. You were far too brash to get along with. You didn't even like him in the first week. All he knew then was that he hoped you leave soon.

"Allow me to treat that for you."

He was confused by your tone: It was softer than usual, smooth and gentle. Not to say you're never kind, you are, it's just that you looked worried.

"Ms. Tate taught me how to tend to injuries like this. It won't kill you, but it's best to ignore anything as minor as this."

It wasn't even anything serious. A struggle between marines in which he and a few from the seconded division were injured: a battle in which he won.

"I'll be fine—"

"You were shot."

"It grazed my ar--"

"And what if it was something more? You have that logia fruit, and yet you still find a way to get hurt."

You tightened the bandage around his arm as you looked away from his eyes. You held discontent in your eyes. He felt himself hold his breath as he saw you.

"And I'll be fine nightlight!" He placed his hat on your head as he let out a chuckle. "I'll try to be more careful from now on, but I can't promise that this won't happen again."

After this interaction, he began to notice little things about your behavior. You became much more vocal than you used to be. You told him more about your thoughts and observations. He noticed how you began to soften up around the crew. Often seeing you and Thatch in the kitchen trying to teach you how to cook.

"I made this applesauce for you!"

"Applesauce, huh?"

"Do you not like it?"

"No, no, I just swore I saw you and Thatch making cake."

"....."

You didn't want to talk about it. Though the smell of burnt metal explained it for him.

You began to grow more emotional as time went by. You were so focused on Pluton that you ignored everything around you, including yourself. You held little depth in personality; you didn't know yourself at all to have one. And so when he saw you so expressive for the first time, he got flustered.

"Ace?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you... love someone?"

As soon as he heard this, flames flared up from his skin as he hastily turned to you. He never thought he would ever hear you ask this. "Love as in 'will you be mine' or as 'I love you like a brother?' "

"Any type of love."

"Well.... I can for sure say that I love my younger brother, definitely pops, and the rest of the crew, but I can't say I really loved 'loved' anyone."

It's true. He loves everyone on this ship. He lives his younger brother, pops, the crew, and just everyone. But has really fallen in love? Maybe Isuka, but their life choices prevented them from ever being together, and they just never really clicked.

" 'loved anyone' ? But you said that you love your brother and the others? Didn't you?"

Ace chuckled softly as he took off his hat and placed it on your head. "I love them all that I'll die for them if I have to. But I never met anyone who I can really connect to; like to love so much that can't bear being apart from, ya' know?"

He gazed at the Sunset as he let go of your head to rest on the ship's railing. He felt heart calming down as the conversation was over. He didn't think he could ever handle you.

"I suppose."

He heard you mumble and looked over at you. You rest your arms on the railing as you hid your face in them. Your face blushing and a glare at the ocean. You looked so cute he couldn't help but feel red himself.

How could he not love you?

And how could he lie to you? He knew what island you were talking about. A dragon and king: People in damnation and in suffering. He knew because he was there and so was one of the other captains and he lied.

"Ace?"

"Yes?"

"I think I love you,"

It was a pleasant feeling; he always wished to hold you as he did now. Wishing to cradle you in his arms as he tells you stories about the sea. Wishing to hear you tell him your new discoveries and stories you heard from the crew.

"...I love you too,"

He held you close to his chest as you struggled to keep your eyes open. You were losing blood quickly, and it would be another hour before the Moby Dick arrived on land. You'll be dead before then.

"Ace?"

"I'm here,"

"I—my......name..."

"Stop. Take it easy, okay?"

He ran his hand through your hair as he tried to keep himself from breaking down.

"No matter what happens, I'll be here, you hear?"

#one piece #one piece x reader #portgas d ace x reader #portgas d ace #Pluton #ace is down for reader but not as bad #i wrote most of this half asleep #this is part of series fam #pls read the rest of the other chapters #😢

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blacklegsanjiii · 3 months

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Ooh what if sanji grew up with asl brothers somehow? like the orbit couldnt keep a kid around and dropped him off on goa and he ended up cooking for a bunch of feral boys who teach him that brothers dont always have to hurt

I have a lot of thoughts about ASL+Sanji. A lot. (There's so much under the cut, so much)

Sanji who's dropped off in Foosha and is just, jumpy and frightened and runs at every breath towards him. I feel like Makino would tell Luffy about him and when Luffy's first few approaches don't work he tells Ace and Sabo. Sanji who is staring at these three feral gremlins who keep showing up at his hiding spot and trying to talk to him and Luffy who keeps asking about his eyebrows and Ace and Sabo hitting Luffy making Sanji flinch and cower from them.

Sabo would probably be the first one to Sanji warms up to. Both coming from nobile families that hate them. Sabo could recognize the way Sanji holds himself from a mile away so they bond and then Luffy would be next probably. Especially if Sanji has started cooking for them.

Ace would probably be last because he has the hardest to form trust with and Sanji is still skittish and jumpy and he flinches all the time. Ace can't even raise his hand for a high five without Sanji flinching. One night when it's just them Ace asks Sanji if he's a monster and Sanji says no, he knows monsters, was almost killed by monsters and Ace is blinking at Sanji who says that all with so quietly and with so much hurt. Sanji is small and quiet and the best behaved out of the four of them but over time he becomes just as feral.

When Sabo "dies" the three of them are heartbroken and Ace and Luffy go to the extremes of over protectiveness for a while. Ace sets off on his little boat to become a pirate and Sanji is working under Makino who makes him set sail with Luffy because of his dream of the All Blue(effectively making Sanji the first crewmate which Luffy is so glad is his cook and his brother). I feel from there things progress normally, they pick Zoro and Nami, fight Buggy, pick up Usopp and destroy the Baratie.

I don't think anyone would notice that Sanji and Luffy are brothers and then in Alabasta when Ace is visiting Ace is talking with everyone Ace just drops the bomb that the three of them are brothers. Zoro is like trying to wring Luffy's neck and Nami and Usopp are yelling at the top of their lungs as Vivi, Karoo, Chopper and Ace watch. Then Luffy drops the bomb that Sanji broke his back on the last island and Ace is yelling at Sanji for not taking care of himself better and Sanji is yelling back about the avalanche and everything and Ace is just watching with such a pained expression on his face. He thanks the crew for taking care of his little brothers and apologizes for the handful that they are.

Things progress normally until Marineford where Sanji and Luffy manage to show up to save Ace. Like this is all going, they can't find their crew, their brother is going to be executed for being born. Sanji takes this way too personally because of what his birth father did and well if he couldn't give himself up at Thriller Bark for Luffy he will give himself up for Ace and Luffy fuck this admiral. Sanji throws his leg into the lava punch and it still hits Ace but it doesn't kill him.

Law suddenly has three brothers, all of which have been hit with fucking lava, the blond is losing a leg, the one that was supposed to be executed is losing his back tattoo and the one who punched a celestial dragon like a week ago has liquefied organs and the Red Force is following them after Marineford has been sunk???? Is that the fucking White Beard fleet??? Law is the theater for 56 hours before being able to hand these fucking idiots off and hopes he never sees them again.

Shanks and Marco are looking at their respective brat/brother/son/person and the third one with tilted heads and Ace and Luffy keep trying to climb into Sanji's head which makes Marco snap at them for, Luffy especially because of you know, liquefied organs. Ace and Luffy keep crying because Sanji lost a fucking leg for them and Shanks asks Marco if he knew there was another one and Marco says he thought the blond one was supposed to be dead.

Skipping to Dressrosa Ace and Luffy meet Sabo who is there to help on behalf of the revolutionary army and Sabo is pointing at both of them and they're both pointing at him. Sabo asks where Sanji is and if he's alive and Luffy is like "yeah, he just fired on Big Mom's ship, traffy sent him to Zou because Mingo hurt him but he's fine!" And Ace is like "Sanji's fine, he has a metal leg now but-" and that makes Sabo hit both of them with his pipe and yell at them for not telling him anything even though he didn't have his memories and Ace and Luffy yell back at him for being dead.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk

#asl trio #asl brothers #monkey d. luffy #portgas d ace #asl+s #black leg sanji #fire fist ace #vinsmoke sanji #strawhat luffy #revolutionary sabo #one piece sabo #they needed another blond to even them out #their dumb #amputee!sanji #cuz why not #fight me #answers

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mattress-ing · 7 months

Text

Little notes app drabble about Gryffon, contains spoilers up to episode 92 electrodon.

(Pasted directly from notes app, here be grammar mistakes)

Gryffon waits for the mutiny

He’s certain these captains can’t be all that in control of their ship, not when their crew consists of an semi-conscious man, a robot with a people pleasing problem, and a small boy. In fact, he’s sure the only reason a mutiny hasn’t happened is the fact that none of the crew looks like they could fight the captains.

He’d take the 3 v 1 if he still had something else to do, but with grimm gone he’s fine with playing their game of pirates. The kids don’t seem half bad, and they’re going to pay him, so he supposed patience will do for now.

Gryffon thinks Alphonse might be the best option for backup if they are ever going to do that mutiny. Of course, with the metal man’s ever growing confidence -a good look on him- he’s going to have to offer up something he would want in return for the betrayal. And he’s struggling to think of what he would want.

He clears his throat, resting on the railing awkwardly as Alphonse steers, “so, are you happy here?”

He should bite his own tongue off. That would help.

Alphonse either doesn’t recognize the awkwardness of the question, or doesn’t want to comment on it. “I am content. Navigation does not fill me with dopamine, but nor does it bore me.”

“Good, uh that’s good.” Gryffon spins the barrel on his arm, its a nervous tic, but no one has caught on to that fact seeing as it’s also incredibly intimidating. “Is there something that would, uh, fill you with dopamine?”

Alphonse goes still in the way Gryffon has learned means he’s thinking hard. “I enjoy building. Creation is-“ his voice goes a little staticky and Gryffon makes a note to ask him later what that means he’s feeling. Later though, when they’re actually friends, if that happens, “creation is special.”

“Cool.” Gryffon walks off, feeling like maybe he’s walked into more of a vulnerable conversation than he’d been expecting.

Despite the strength the kid possesses, his second choice for a mutiny is the man that does more sleeping than talking.

He doesn’t mean to spend his time watching him, but he has a hard time getting a read on him when he’s sleeping so any time he’s up and walking around he finds himself attentive.

He’s never swabbed the deck for so long before, as the man sits at the front of the boat and just stares off into the distance.

He’s been slowly putting together that he can’t use his arms, something he feels uniquely awkward about.

It’s clear the experience is new and jarring to the stranger, and part of gryffon wants to bring up the subject of his own arm, maybe try and give him a little of the hope that is missing in his gaze. He’s noticed that the man doesn’t ask for help with anything, gritting his teeth and making it work however he can. He’s more independent than gryffon had been and that fact alone makes him wary, clearly he doesn’t need help, he doesn’t need gryffons awkward attempts at comfort. They don’t even know each other.

“I know I’m comatose most of the time, but if you stare at me I’m going to notice.” The man speaking startled gryffon so hard he drops the mop.

“Sorry.” He would blush in embarrassment if he could. “Didn’t mean to… stare.”

The man shrugs and turns back to looking at the ocean, “I’m Drey.”

“Gryffon.” Gryffon says. He’s itching to talk more but can’t find a line of dialogue to open with.

“Chip isn’t usually like this.” Drey sounds like he’s trying to reassure him. “The kid’s been through a lot recently. He’s probably having a harder time keeping it together.”

Gryffon grunts in acknowledgement and shifts awkwardly, “the other captains handle him well. He’s lucky he has them.”

He thinks he sees Drey smile, “Yeah, they’ve got a tight bond the three of them. And the way chip works? I wouldn’t be surprised if he feels that same loyalty for everyone on this ship.”

Well. That would make a mutiny awkward.

“Is that smart?” Gryffon asks.

Drey turns and looks at him, eyes narrowed in the sun but perceptive nonetheless. After a moment he grins, “maybe, maybe not. But I don’t think they’ve picked wrong yet. They have a knack for finding the loyal ones.”

Gryffon chuckles, “you haven’t heard the mutiny I’m planning?”

Drey laughs and leans back to lie on the deck, “if you’re thinking of asking me to join I’ll have to disappoint. I probably owe those kids my life, and I’m just as stupidly loyal as chip is.”

Gryffon grins. “I figured.”

He approaches Drey later when the man’s stomach rumbling is loud enough for him to hear. He can tell he doesn’t want to cook, and he’s starting to think his skinny frame is due to exhaustion, more than metabolism.

“Mind giving me a hand.” Gryffon says. Immediately he thinks he should take a dive overboard because fuck that was the wrong choice of words.

Drey takes it in stride, raising an eyebrow and shrugging his shoulders, “I’m not using ‘em. “

“Poor choice of words.” Gryffon finds his apology easily accepted as Drey follows him into the cabin area. “I’ve been trying to cook for Alphonse. Introduce him to new flavors, to kind of… help with self discovery. Stuff he likes and doesn’t like.”

The more he explains it the more he wants to hide from dreys gaze. He doesn’t hide from his soft and cuddly nature, but acknowledging it is always hard.

“He’s been telling me everything tastes fine. Which is good but has me wondering if I’m fucking it up somehow.” Dreys stomach growls again and gryffon can’t pretend not to hear it. “And you, sound a little hungry yourself.”

Drey nods. “I could use some grub.”

Gryffon turns to start cooking, trying to reset the vibe of the room.

Drey clears his throat. “You haven’t brought up the arms.”

Gryffon shrugs but doesn’t deny his curiosity. “No one gets that injured without a story they don’t want to relive.” He lifts his prosthetic a little, “speaking from experience.”

When Drey doesn’t say anything and he doesn’t have the clarity of looking at him to see how he’s reacting, he adds, “and I’m not great at talking about it. Figured I’d offend you.”

Drey grunts. “Well, if it helps, I don’t remember how it happened. Everything that happened in the BLOCK is all mushed together in my head.”

“You were in prison?” Gryffon shakes his head, “fuck. So that’s what they do to prisoners, huh?”

There’s a sigh from behind him, “I think I may have been a special case. Family issues.”

Right. He’s a Ferin too.

“Family reunions must be exciting.”

Drey laughs, and gryffon feels like he’s somehow won social interaction. “I wouldn’t know. My invitation always gets lost.”

The boy is surprisingly eager to mutiny. Gryffon thinks part of it is his lack of understanding about what a mutiny is.

He’s a good kid though, due in part to the captains, but there’s something else about him. He carries himself like he’s used to toughing it out.

It’s part of the reason he accepts the role of lemonade stand security. He remembers being a cub, before everything had gone to shit. There had been summers where kids his age would roll out beverage stands for coppers, just to buy a few sweets or a new toy. Ollie doesn’t look like he’s done that before, and gryffon thinks Drey might be right. Maybe he is one of the loyal ones, hed just never had a place to put it before.

Gryffon wants to kill the captains. Not a mutiny, a murder. Three of them.

It won’t help, not when Jay is working overtime on bringing the shell that used to be Alphonse back to life and killing her would mean he’s gone for much longer. Not when chip speaks so earnestly about getting him back. Or when Gillion stays sleepless, steering and staring at the horizon like all he can think about is what went wrong.

Not when it’s probably his fault for getting too fucking high and leaving his friends to fend for themselves.

“We’ll get him back.” Drey kicks his shin. It’s his new form of expressing affection, as gryffon has learned. It doesn’t help, it just makes gryffon think about how he deserves to actually be kicked.

Gryffon decides mutiny can take a backseat to the harder task; keeping his crew together.

#jrwi riptide #jrwi spoilers #jrwi gryffon

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total-drama-brainrot · 2 months

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out of the three (four? if you wanna include ridonculous race) noah appeared in, which one do you think noah could have won if he cared about the competition

hot take; none of them.

he did care about the competition (at least somewhat) in the first season and it was objectively his worst. in island, he was too blinded by his own hubris to consider the fact that he was, for all intents and purposes, isolating himself in a socially driven competition. he was standoffish and rude, which would've been fine if he hadn't outright directed negative attention to himself with his comments AND refusal to participate in the dodgeball challenge, and he offered little in terms of both teamwork and team utility anyway. so being voted out early was a given, and a much needed wake-up call for him.

he didn't compete in season 2, but if he did i doubt he'd make it to the finale. i'd like to say he'd make it pretty far into action- both because action has a lot more technology and media references, which noah could play to his advantage as both an established nerd and a canonical hacker (though these aspects of him are mostly delegated to his biographies/interviews outsode of the show itself), and because we know he does learn from his mistakes in season 1 so he'd try to be a better teammate (like he does in season 3). but i truly and honestly don't think he'd stand a chance against powerhouses like courtney and duncan, or have even a smidge of beth and owen's in-competiton social game/likability, so he'd eventually be voted out.

and in season 3, as much as i disagree with the amazons winning the challenge, getting rid of noah there and then was the right play from a narrative standpoint. because, at the end of the day, he's a filler character. he doesn't have any engaging plotlines of his own to warrant keeping him around, and his only real use from a writing standpoint is to make snide comments and witty one-liners; when the remaining cast all have at least one subplot going for them, and you need to 'thin the herd', you get rid of the deadweight characters first.

by world tour, i believe he's only competing for the sake of it, and he doesn't really care about winning or losing; if anything i'd say he only went along with the celebrity manhunt bus chase because he was supposed to stay with chris/the total drama crew, and since he was fired from being chris' assistant he didn't have anything better to do (he's always been a passive character, so going along with the crowd for curiosities sake is very much something he would do).

but if he did care?

i think he'd make it to early merge. a noah who cares about the competition would try to take down alejandro for the sake of his own survivability (after all, how long is it going to be until team victory is gone and alejandro turns on his own teammates as his next targets?) thus making himself plot relevant enough to keep around- maybe even allying himself with heather to do so. but alejandro, whilst not as smart as noah, is far more savvy and capable than him, and their 'rivalry' would end in noah being voted out.

or maybe he'd embrace his villain-coding (watch island again and tell me he isn't villain-coded. he does a "mwu-ha-ha" laugh and says "excellent." he's so campy bond antagonist coded in island) and ally himself with alejandro to garuntee his survivability, helping him weed out the competition as a right-hand man. eventually, alejandro would discard noah- either because noah would refuse to help him eliminate owen, or because they'd make their way far enough into the competition that noah becomes less of an ally and more of a threat and have him eliminated accordingly. because noah might be the villain, but alejandro's the archvillain.

that, and i think the finalists of each season are already the best picks from their rosters. i wouldn't change any of them to give one sarcastic twink the chance of winning.

(i haven't seen ridonculous race but i'm fairly certain caring about the competition is part of his character arc in it? he comes in guns blasing and then gets sidetracked by being smitten with emma, at least that's my understanding of it. so nothing would change there.)

#listen i love noah but he doesn't deserve a win #this loser only takes Ls sorry i don't make the rules (yes i do)#total drama #td noah #ophe's hot takes #character analysis #replies #typed this on my phone so sorry for any grammar/spelling errors 😥

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thenovelartist · 7 months

Text

Life After Destruction - Chapter 1 - Honkai: Star Rail fanfiction

Took me long enough to get this out. It had like seven rewrites...

Anyway! Here's the romantic DanStelle fic I wanted paired with the "fixing the vidyadhara offspring problem" trope. ;) Enjoy.

Next Chapter>

It was insane how many things had changed in four short years.

For one, Stelle had coerced Dan Heng to marry her. Admittedly, he’d seemed pretty willing to do so, but she knew it was all strategic planning on her part. And by strategic, she meant she tricked him into participating in a wedding custom on a planet they explored. Nevertheless, they had been going strong for almost three years, and Stelle couldn’t be happier.

The second massive change was actually so recent that Stelle could barely wrap her head around it: Nanook had fallen. Somehow. By the power of friendship and the stellaron inside of her. One that had almost killed her.

She was still learning to cope with that near-death experience. Far from her first, but certainly her most terrifying and painful.

However, it had hurt more than just her. The Astral Express crew at large had been extra clingy to her ever since, each in their own way. Everyone who’d heard of the incident was still sending her mountains of get-well gifts, and those she’d formed closer bonds with still frequently checked in on her.

Then there was Dan Heng, who rarely let her out of his sight. Which was fine by her. Things had been different between them ever since she’d been released from the hospital, so having him there all the time reminded her that he was still her husband and he still cared.

Today, they were once again attached at the hip, having both been invited to a certain young vidyadhara's house.

Oh, that was the third thing that Stelle supposed was different: she’d had the pleasure of watching several of her companions grow up. Hook and Clara were already mature for their age, but it was an honor to watch both of them grow into young ladies in their own right. And Bailu, despite being a vidyadhara that aged differently, had done her fair share of growing up as well.

“How are you feeling?” Bailu asked Stelle upon inviting her guests into her home. “I know a doctor has given you an ‘all-clear’, but I won’t believe it for myself unless I look you over.”

“Bailu,” Dan Heng warned, a tired edge to his voice. “She’s had many check-ups by many different people all wanting the same thing.”

“I don’t mind,” Stelle responded. “Bailu’s probably won’t be as invasive, anyway.”

Dan Heng quirked a brow at her. “Only if you are certain.”

She nodded. “Besides, I know you’re plenty concerned about me, too.”

Dan Heng glanced away, confirming what she knew already. After all, she had basically exploded before his eyes, and of course that would have left an impact on her husband, especially considering how deeply attached he was to her. Again, it was moments like this she clung to, trying to remind herself her husband still cared because there were times it felt like he didn’t and—

“Then this way, please!” In an instant, Bailu grabbed Stelle’s hand and began dragging her to a nearby room.

Successfully saved from her haunting thoughts, Stelle stumbled after Bailu.

Once inside the small examination room, Bailu had Stelle sit down on the cot. “Big Brother Dan Heng already told me everything that happened,” she said, beginning to examine Stelle. “But I’d just like to confirm everything.”

“It’s fine,” Stelle assured. While it was true she was growing tired of being poked and prodded by doctors, there were a few she’d make an exception for. Namely Natasha and Bailu. And that was because they were less “doctoring her” and more “confirming she was okay”. For her friends’ sake, Stelle could cope with their check-ups.

Dan Heng did slip into the room after them at some point. There were times she felt as though he was more concerned with her health than she was, and she could only hope that would fade the more time went on. After all, it wasn't like she didn't know why; she'd been at death's door for a while, which had clearly terrified him. So while she submitted to all these check-ups for her friends' sake, she hoped that Dan Heng would get the message she was fine. Maybe things would go back to normal then.

Unfortunately, no such luck so far. Maybe Bailu's words would have an effect on him.

“Seems like you’re okay,” Bailu said, her eyes drifting down to Stelle’s chest. “But I can see scarring on your chest sticking out of your shirt collar. I’m assuming that’s from the stellaron bursting?”

Stelle nodded. “I got stitched up well enough, but my guess is that it’s going to scar really badly.” She then forced a smile. “Though, it’s a small price to pay for the safety of the galaxy, right?”

Bailu didn’t look convinced, her still youthful face scrunched in thought. “Let me do a little research. I’ll find a way to heal the scarring. I promise.”

At that, Stelle’s smile turned real. “Don’t worry over it that much,” she said, ruffling Bailu’s hair.

Bailu’s expression scrunched even further as she gently swatted Stelle’s hand away. “I’m not a child.”

“I still consider you my little sister.”

“Hmmf!”

Stelle chuckled. “I’m sorry, do I owe you a treat as an apology?”

“You owe me a treat as an apology for making me worried that you almost died!” she cried, crossing her arms in front of her like a petulant child. The glassy tears forming in Bailu’s eyes reminded Stelle that she was just one more person who was worried about her.

“It’s okay,” Stelle said, trying to ignore the throbbing in her chest. Though she still didn't know whether it was because she was sad she caused one more person to worry about her or phantom pains from her injury. “I’m fine.”

Bailu rubbed her red-rimmed eyes and dabbed her nose with the back of her sleeve.

Unsure what else to do, Stelle opened her arms.

And Bailu instantly lunged at her.

“I’ll treat you, but only this once,” Bailu said, her voice warbly with tears as she clung tightly to Stelle.

“I’ll happily accept.”

~~~

Three days later, Dan Heng and Stelle had come back to Bailu’s residence at the young vidyadhara’s request. Normally, Dan Heng would be preparing to scold the younger girl for likely staying up too late in her studies, but not this time. Not when it was for Stelle.

Logically, he knew the scar on Stelle’s chest was superficial. Furthermore, he knew it was fresh and therefore would slowly—very slowly—fade with time. But whenever Stelle would bare her chest, all he could see was the sprawling, red-purple spiderweb carved into her skin.

That moment she burst before his eyes would forever haunt him.

But enough of him. He knew that moment would haunt her, too. The way she would study herself in the mirror, fingers running over her scar with a dead look in her eyes, was not anything he ever enjoyed witnessing. So anything that would make that scar heal quicker, fade sooner, was welcomed by him.

And to show his thanks, he and Stelle brought a goodwill offering.

“Hey, you’re here!” Bailu enthusiastically greeted. “Come in, come in! I finished it last night.”

“Thank you, Bailu,” Stelle responded, stepping through the threshold.

Dan Heng followed, closing the door behind him.

“There are healing creams I’ve made for scars before,” Bailu began explaining as she wove through the house to a back room, one laden with the heavy scent of herbs, minerals, and other various substances she used in her medications. “But they don’t work on larger ones all that well. So I had to go back to the books and found an outworlder medication that, when combined with some of our remedies, stimulates the regeneration of cells. It’s one of the stronger topical medications I’ve managed to produce.”

Ignoring the main table in the middle of the room that was littered with medication vials, each one wrapped with a little note, Bailu headed over to a little red table off to the side and grabbed a small jar from there. “Doctors orders: apply a small amount once every day. Only about as much that will fit on your finger.”

“Yes, Dragon Lady,” Stelle said, taking the jar from the girl.

She pouted. “You know it irritates me when you address me so formally,” she huffed.

“I know,” Stelle said with a wink as she patted Bailu’s head. “Little sister.”

At that, Bailu broke into a smile. “That’s better. Hey, why don’t you go try it now? That way, I can examine you for any immediate side effects.”

“Sounds fair.”

“Bathroom is there,” Bailu said, pointing off towards the side. “I’ll go make some tea, and we can chat a bit. Maybe Dan Heng can go grab some snacks,” she said with a mischievous smirk.

Amused, he raised the bag he was carrying. “We already brought some.”

“Ohhhh!” she excitedly cried. “Perfect! Why don’t you go put those on the table in the tea room? I’ll join you shortly.”

Dan Heng gave her a nod.

As Bailu headed off, Stelle followed suit, but not before giving Dan Heng a gentle pat on the shoulder. I’ll be back, her smile seemed to say.

Before she could disappear completely, Dan Heng took hold of her hand, pressing a light kiss to the back of it before she slipped away.

He relished the smile that appeared on her face as a result.

When Dan Heng arrived in the tea room, he took a moment to arrange the snacks they’d brought from the Astral Express on the table. Stelle had done her best to cook some of them, hence their… rustically charming appearance. The rest, though, were pre-packaged snacks, stolen from the stash that March 7th added to every time they visited somewhere. Bailu would undoubtedly find them enjoyable.

“I have tea!” she piped up upon entering the room pushing a tea cart. “Ohhhh! Those look good!”

“Stelle thought you’d like all of these.”

She nodded enthusiastically, her twin braids bouncing as she did. “I’m sure! Stelle has the best taste in snacks.”

He couldn’t help but smile in response. “By the way, thank you for helping Stelle. Though, you look to have been very busy.”

“A doctor’s work never stops,” she lamented as she set the teacups on the table. “But before you go worrying about me, I have an assistant who makes those remedies now. The only ones I’ve been working on are the ones on the red table. And that’s because those are the new ones.”

“New medications?”

Bailu nodded proudly. “Yes. A doctor’s research is never done, either. There are always ways to make things better to help our patients.”

“True. I just hope you find time to rest. You can help no one if you don’t care for yourself.”

“I’m managing a good balance,” she insisted as she plopped down in the seat across from Dan Heng.

“I hope you mean you’re not living off of snacks,” Stelle piped up, making a reappearance.

“I’m not! I swear! I have a cook who ensures it,” Bailu tacked on with a grumble.

“Good.” Smiling, Stelle took a seat next to Dan Heng. “Then you can eat anything here without my teasing.”

At the way Bailu’s cheeks puffed in offense, Dan Heng stifled a chuckle.

Only after Bailu finished pouring tea for them did Dan Heng start up conversation again. “Out of curiosity, what other experimental medications are you working on?”

“It’s nothing I would consider groundbreaking." Bailu held a hand up to count things off on her fingers. “There’s your healing cream, for starters. A supplement for helping children improve from sickness faster. My research on mara-struck never stops. Oh! And a fertility treatment for partners of opposite species.”

Stelle quirked a brow. “Does that make a difference? Opposing species, that is.”

Bailu nodded. “More often than not, people tend to date within their own kind. However, it’s been noted that those in inter-species relationships tend to struggle with bearing children, if they can at all. From my research, some species combinations are completely incompatible breeding partners.”

“You wish to change that?” Dan Heng questioned.

“Of course. There is no reason there shouldn’t be breeding between them. Offspring take on most traits from either one parent or another, essentially fitting back into one of the two species anyway, so it’s not like there’s going to be any disappearance of species or anything. I haven’t found any examples of some perfect mesh between the two.

“However…” Bailu continued sheepishly. “I will admit the research I’m going off of is… inherently flawed due to the amount of knowledge I can acquire on the subject. There really isn't that much information on inter-species fertility, and finding couples to research is proving to be a little more difficult than anticipated.”

Dan Heng hummed in understanding. It was true that, at least on the Luofu, species did not inter-marry that often despite the species all being willing to work together. He believed it to be a matter of pride above all else. Maybe that was why his marriage to Stelle was met with disdain and disapproval from a good portion of the vidyadhara that did still accept him. There was no amount of public renown or intergalactic achievements she could hold to make them change their minds.

It made Bailu, who’d accepted the news of their marriage with no small amount of joy and well-wishes, stand out considerably.

“That’s very like you, Bailu,” Stelle commented with a smile.

“Well, I can’t just leave them when they need help,” Bailu insisted in between bites of her snack. “They’ve been trying for twenty years. Unsuccessfully.”

“They’ll be happy to have hope.”

Dan Heng gave a silent nod in agreement.

Bailu didn’t look convinced. “Yeah, but hopefully it will work and, well… not make them sick in the process.”

“Why do you say that?” Dan Heng inquired.

Hesitantly, Bailu tapped her fingers against the table, her cheeks now tinted pink. “Well… er, one of the ingredients is known to be a strong aphrodisiac. There are cases where people have abused this ingredient in order to make ‘love potions’, so to speak. So while it’s regulated, it’s not too highly documented. I’m walking a fine line of adding enough of the ingredient to make the fertility components powerful enough while trying to limit it so as to avoid causing a problem.” At that last bit, her cheeks flared red.

Dan Heng couldn’t help but smile at her innocence. “You should start on the low end and inform them of the potential risks and side effects of your experimental medicine.”

“Of course, I will. That’s the duty of a doctor. I’m not cruel,” Bailu insisted. “But… I just want it to work the first time, you know?”

“We could try it,” Stelle piped up.

Which caused Dan Heng to choke.

Bailu herself seemed to be confused. “Why? It’s not like you need a fertility treatment since vidyadhara can’t breed.”

“If it’s just the strength of the aphrodisiac component you’re concerned about, then I don’t see an issue.”

“Stelle,” Dan Heng warned under his breath.

“What’s wrong?” she inquired, her brow quirking upwards. “I don’t see a reason why not.”

Bailu’s eyes lit up as she gasped. “Would you? I’d forever be in your debt!”

Flustered, Dan Heng felt his cheeks flush with heat as his heart started hammering uncomfortably inside his chest. “Er… well.” Looking over at his wife, he cleared his throat. “Can we talk privately?”

“I’ll leave!” Bailu practically leapt from her spot. “I’ll go sort through all my notes and research in my office in the meantime. Come get me when you’re done!” And with that, she disappeared.

Dan Heng turned to Stelle, who had already turned towards him. “So," he began. "What is going through your mind to volunteer such a thing?”

“Don’t you want to help Bailu?”

“It’s medication, Stelle. This isn’t just helping her run errands or the like.”

By now, she'd glanced away, wringing her hands together awkwardly. “I know.”

He swallowed, suddenly feeling nervous as an inkling came to mind. “This… by any chance, wouldn’t happen to be because of the aphrodisiac, would it?”

The brief moment Stelle tensed told him all he needed to know.

“Does this have to do with sex?”

Stelle opened her mouth to speak, but words seemed to catch in her throat as she sighed between her teeth. “I mean… yeah, kinda,” she finally admitted.

It was his turn to look away, rubbing his jaw uncomfortably. It was true they hadn’t been intimate in months, since Stelle had been severely injured and in recovery for so long. But she hadn’t been herself for a while, either, so he didn’t want to initiate something she didn’t seem like she was up for. Or was that not the case?

Maybe what he really needed was to have an actual conversation with his wife. While Bailu's house might not be the right place to talk things out, a talk was long overdue. “Are you… upset that we haven’t been intimate since the war?” he asked, turning back to her.

“Well… yes, but it’s more like… ” Stelle pursed her lips as she struggled to find the words.

But what really killed him was the way she wouldn’t look at him. Suddenly, he felt inadequate, as though he was a failure of a husband. Sure, everything had changed with that last battle, including how their marriage functioned. The problem was he didn’t know how to fix it. Part of him hoped things would work themselves out; another part of him realized that they simply had to settle into a new normal, which would take time. But what if there was something he'd missed?

“You treat me differently,” she spoke up, finally meeting his gaze. “You… It’s like you’re always around, but there’s a distance between us. You don’t… hold me anymore. Like you're scared of me. And you always look at my chest with this expression I can’t quite figure out.” At that, her gloved hand clenched her shirt front. “Is the scar that ugly?”

His eyes widened, his mouth growing dry.

“It’s not like I can help it!” she cried when he failed to fill the silence between them. “I didn’t ask for this stellaron inside me. And I can’t help the fact that it did what it did, but it had to, to defeat Nanook. And I know it must have taken a toll on you to watch that, so I haven’t brought it up because I don’t want to put more pressure on you, but does it make you… uncomfortable?”

… What?

Here she was, bearing a scar that was evidence of her near death, and she was worried about if it bothered him? “No,” he answered, reaching out to grab her shoulders. Her eyes widened at his touch, as though she hadn't expected it, which hurt him more than he thought it would. “The scar only bothers me because of what it represents. I watched you explode in that fight. I’d thought I’d lost you, and I’ve never felt so terrified in my life. Yes, the scar reminds me of that time, but the fact you’re still alive is all that matters to me.”

Her mouth formed a little ‘oh’ shape as she gradually absorbed his words.

“But you…” he continued, guilt welling up in him with each passing second. “It always seemed you were distressed by it, so I didn't want to bring attention to it."

"Me?"

He nodded. "You get a faraway look in your eye when you see it, but you brush everything off by saying you're fine, so I didn't want to push. I don't..." He grit his teeth, huffing in frustration. "I'm not good at this. I know you said you don’t want to bother me, but I want you to lean on me. I just don’t know what you need so I can't... I can't fix anything for you. And I know you're tired of people making a fuss over you, so I didn't want to do that, either, but I am your husband. I love you, so I just want to care for you."

Her surprise lingered a moment longer before being overtaken by a soft expression. "Dan Heng."

The sound of his name rolling off her lips was a comfort he didn't know he needed. And when she reached up to grab his wrists, pulling them from her shoulders, he held on to her hands tight.

"I..." She chuckled bitterly. "Now I feel stupid."

"Don't," he instantly countered. "You were the one who went through so much. Me not knowing how to help isn't your fault."

“But you did help me,” she said, giving his hands a squeeze. “All the time. You were always by my side, bringing me whatever I needed and carrying me around when I had just gotten released from the med ward. Part of me feels bad for leaning on you so much.”

“Never feel that way,” he said, clinging tightly to her hands and leaning closer. “Ever.”

The way Stelle pursed her lips told him that his words weren’t enough to take that weight off her shoulders. “I’m your partner, too,” she countered.

“And? You were injured.”

“But I’m fine now. I even got the all-clear from the doctors at Herta’s Space Station to start trailblazing again.”

“You were told to take it slow and not do anything more than light exploration.”

“Okay, but light exploration still means I’m fine. So can you stop being my bodyguard and start being my husband again?”

Dan Hen’s brow furrowed in confusion. “When did I ever stop?”

“Since I woke up in the med ward,” Stelle answered. “Is it because you still see me as fragile?”

“I know you’re not.”

“Is it because of what happened when I was unconscious?”

A mixture of dread and embarrassment suddenly bubbled up in his gut. “What are you talking about?”

“Welt told me everything that happened when I was out.”

Oh… that. And here he’d hoped Stelle would never find out. “What exactly do you know?”

She gave him an abashed grimace. “That Welt and March had to physically restrain you when the doctors said I might not make it. And that you literally wouldn’t leave your self-imposed post at my door until Himeko forced you, and it was only because the doctors begged her to.”

He grit his teeth. So she really did know everything.

“Ever since I woke up," she continued, "you’ve been protective, and I know it’s just you were just worried about me. That’s just who you are, and I love that about you, but I was hoping you’d realize I was fine and go back to normal. I… I’m sorry I made you worry so much about me, but I’m okay now. So, can I just have my husband back?"

Before Dan Heng could answer, it hit him that her eyes were growing glassy. Stelle wasn’t the kind of woman to grow emotional, so her impassioned plea hit him doubly hard.

“I thought I was being your husband,” he said. “But I’m sorry you felt like I wasn’t.”

That’s when she moved, throwing her arms around his neck and just holding on.

He guided them to stand from their seats, allowing him to pull her flush against him and just hold her. No, embrace her. He’d held her many times since she’d been released from the med ward, but not like this. The image of her possibly dying before his eyes, hooked up to numerous medical machines to keep her alive, had haunted him so badly.

But she was here now. Alive and well. And what she needed was for him to stop treating her so delicately. So while there was that image that haunted him, he would have to get past it for her sake.

And considering he'd do anything for her, he could manage to do that.

He squeezed her tighter. “Sorry,” he whispered once again.

“It’s okay,” she responded just as quietly. And as she took in a shaky breath, he realized she was on the verge of tears. “Sorry for doubting you.”

Unsure how else to respond, he simply pressed a long kiss into her hair at her temple as he started rubbing long, soothing strokes on her back.

She, in turn, melted into him, her face nuzzling deeper against his shoulder.

Aeons, he didn’t realize how desperately he missed this.

They stood like that for a while, her quiet sniffles paired with a growing damp spot on his shirt. And he just held her, his own eyes feeling a little overly watery as well.

But as they calmed down, Dan Heng slowly came back to reality, and reality was they were still in Bailu’s tea room. With Bailu still waiting in a different room for an answer.

“Are you okay now?” he asked.

She nodded into his shoulder.

“Because as much as I enjoy this, there is a different topic we have to discuss.”

Stelle pushed away from him, but her hands didn’t leave his shoulders. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“Is the reason you wanted the aphrodisiac because you wanted to close the distance between us?”

She nodded. “I wanted back the man who… you know, used to slam me up against a wall or two instead of treating me like I would break.”

He sighed, a muddle of messy emotions swirling like a storm inside of him now. “I’d… think it best to take it easy.”

That storm of emotions only got worse when she seemed disappointed at the prospect.

“But,” he continued, taking a pause to clear his throat. “If I promise you we can make love tonight, will that be a good enough start for you?”

A little grin paired with the red dusting on her cheeks. “I would like that.”

“So, we can say no to Bailu?”

She hummed. “I mean… we wouldn’t have to use it tonight.”

Oh no. He forgot he was arguing with Stelle, a woman who didn't give up easily once she set her mind to things. One of her many charms... and drawbacks.

“And it is for helping Bailu.”

“In the grand scheme of things, there is little help we can give her. She did her best as a doctor to make the medication safe, and she will have to explain the side effects to her patients regardless.”

She sighed. “I guess so…”

He did not like where this conversation was going. “And you still want it.”

She squirmed under his touch.

It was his turn to heave a sigh. “Stelle.”

“Dan Heng.”

After a moment’s stare off, she relented first. “Alright, fine. If you don’t want to, I won’t force you. But, you better keep your promise to spend time together tonight. I… miss you.”

Those last three words were spoken quietly, but Dan Heng caught the intensity in them anyway. He cradled her cheek. “I miss you, too.”

Although her cheeks turned pink, her expression brightened at that.

And then, to reward her—and because he hadn’t done so in too long—he kissed her. Not just a light peck, but indulged her in a firm, genuine kiss.

She gave a little whine of protest when he pulled away, but part of his hazy mind reminded him a certain young vidyadhara was still waiting for them. “We need to go give Bailu an answer,” he whispered to her.

Although she sighed, she did pull away. “You’re right.”

Hence, after untangling themselves, they headed towards Bailu’s office. Stelle reached for Dan Heng’s hand, holding onto it tightly.

Glancing down at her, he caught her shooting him a smile, one that seemed relaxed and genuinely happy for the first time in a while. He didn’t realize how badly he’d been longing for such a sight.

Dan Heng knocked on the door to Bailu’s office, garnering a quick reply. With permission, he opened the door.

“You two took a while,” she pointedly commented.

“Sorry,” Stelle apologized. “There were… other things we needed to discuss as well.”

“It all pertained to the offer,” Dan Heng cut in before Bailu could ask if it was necessary.

“Huh, well, okay.” With that, Bailu stood from her seat. “So, what’s the verdict?”

“Actually,” Stelle began, “we decided—”

“To ask about the risks,” Dan Heng finished for her.

She glanced up at him, her brow quirked up in confusion.

Which was understandable. Part of him still didn’t want to, as he deemed it unnecessary. But when Stelle had grabbed hold of his hand, walking close to him even if for only a short distance, he realized that it would mean a lot to her if he caved. And considering she had just voiced her worry about him pushing her away and being distant, he decided that maybe it would be more beneficial to indulge her here. To prove that he still wanted her, even if it meant going along with her half-thought-out schemes.

“So you’ll do it?” Bailu asked, eyes lighting up. “It really would help me soooo much.”

Dan Heng glanced over to Stelle, who looked up at him with bemusement yet still gave his hand an affectionate squeeze.

Yes, he decided. This was the right choice.

#honkai star rail #honkai fanfic #danstelle #hsr bailu #romantic fluff

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aces-fav-husband · 1 year

Text

Straw Hat Pirates Halloween/Autumn Headcanons!

Tags: SFW, GN! reader, can be read as platonic or romantic (minus Chopper’s part, which is purely platonic), literally just what the title says.

Warnings: None!

A/N: Happy Halloween! I think I wrote a lot more for Franky and Robin than I did for anyone else, but please enjoy my silly little headcanons. <3

Luffy

This boy loves everything about Halloween. It’s easily his favorite time of the year.

Him, Sabo, and Ace would work on their costumes for days on end, using whatever they could scavenge up in Grey Terminal, Dadan’s shack, and random shit they found in the woods.

Absolutely went as Shanks at least once.

Makino would always insist on making costumes for the three of them, but would always get turned down. This was something the brothers bonded (and competed) over and they wanted to do it without help.

If she finds their costumes, though, she will do her best to touch up their shoddy stitching while they were away.

Luffy, Ace, and Sabo have definitely tried to trick-or-treat in High Town to get the best candy. It’s the perfect time to sneak in- no one would question a couple of little kids running around in masks and shitty costumes, right? It’s just part of the spooky Halloween aesthetic, isn’t it?

Yeah, they stood out like sore thumbs among all the store-bought, clean, not-spooky costumes.

Luffy still makes his own costumes every year, and he has the weirdest and most poorly-made costumes you’ve ever seen. He puts in a ton of effort, though. Every costume is made with his own blood, sweat, and tears, and he takes a lot of pride in them.

“What are you supposed to be, Luffy?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

It isn’t. He’s supposed to be a vampire, but looks more like a starved, mangy gorilla.

He throws a mandatory costume party on the Thousand Sunny every Halloween. There is no getting out of it. If you try to get out of it, Luffy will whine your ears off until you agree and then drag you back to his room so you can help him with his costume.

He still sucks at sewing.

Help him make his costume and he will love you forever. He’ll try to help you with your costume in return, of course.

If you bought a costume, he’ll try to “upgrade” it. How he thought werewolf fur would be an upgrade to what was supposed to be an angel costume, you had no idea. It’s the thought that counts, I guess.

He also eats all the candy and sweets Sanji prepares. Sanji has to prepare extra batches in secret just so you and the rest of the crew can eat.

Knocks himself out pretty quickly, though. He parties hard and crashes even harder after all that sugar. Will fall asleep on you and get clingy.

I feel like his favorite Halloween treat would be caramel apples, especially if Sanji goes the extra mile to make them Halloween-themed. A caramel apple that looks like meat on the bone, completed with some “scary” blood (red food dye), is something he will go insane for.

Zoro

Zoro also loves Halloween, but for all the wrong reasons.

Any holiday used as an excuse to drink sake, and Halloween is no exception. This man gets absolutely plastered during Luffy’s party.

You will have to pry the bottle of sake out of his cold, dead hands after his liver fails.

Chopper is so concerned. Please babysit Zoro so he doesn’t actually die.

This mf cannot be trusted around kids during Halloween. If the Sunny is docked at some random island, he’ll find a way to sneak off (probably intending to buy more sake) and end up terrorizing the trick-or-treaters. Will scare the shit out of them and laugh.

Will scare the shit out of you and laugh.

No one is safe, except for Chopper (unless he’s really drunk).

Tells super shitty scary stories.

For the love of god, don’t let Zoro leave the ship. You will not be able to find him for the rest of the night. Don’t let him go alone, at least.

If you go with him, good luck.

If there’s some sort of haunted house close by, you guys will end up going in there.

Huge plus if you scare easily. He feels strong and dependable when you cling onto him. And he’ll poke fun at you for getting startled by the jump scares.

If you don’t scare easily, then you can both make fun of the shitty jump scares.

Zoro puts in no effort when it comes to his costume. Either buys a really shitty mask from the store or goes crazy with the fake blood. Sometimes both.

Always incorporates his swords into his costumes, too.

“What are you, Zoro?”

“A zombie swordsman.”

“All you did was put fake blood on your old clothes, though.”

“And?”

Compare him to a used menstrual product and he’ll kill you. Possibly already got into a fight with Sanji over that.

He’s probably one of the last people awake, even if he is extremely drunk. You’ll have to drag him to bed while he mutters nonsense.

His hangover the next day is horrible. He will not be able to do anything. Either tries to sleep it off or complains about it endlessly. He wants you to stay with him in both circumstances.

Zoro isn’t a big fan of sweets, so I don’t think he has a favorite Halloween treat.

Nami

Nami loves all things autumn, Halloween included! Just not the scary shit.

Hay rides, corn mazes, pumpkin patches, apple orchards, fall festivals- she loves it all (except for carving pumpkins because they smell like ass). If she gets the chance to go to any of those, she will take it and drag you along with her.

Will also drag you along with her when she goes shopping. Although that activity isn’t a fall-exclusive one, she still loves it. Will try to get you to buy a matching outfit.

Also makes Sanji get pumpkin spice as soon as it starts being sold again. In a modern AU, she would get that Starbucks pumpkin spice shit all the time.

She loves baking. Bakes an excessive amount of pies and cookies and pumpkin breads (just another reason for Luffy to love autumn).

Bellemere absolutely went all out during Halloween/autumn for Nami and Nojiko (to the best of her ability), so October is a super nostalgic and a slightly melancholy time for her. Especially since she couldn’t celebrate for a long time because of Arlong.

She wants to spend as much time with you and the rest of the crew as she can and go all out with decorations. Will absolutely talk about old memories of hers if you give her the chance.

But onto the actual Halloween headcanons.

Nami would take you to go costume shopping with her, but would buy it behind your back and keep her costume a secret up until the night of Luffy’s party. Her and Usopp would try to do a group costume theme, likely dragging you and Chopper into it while they’re at it.

Either works perfectly or everyone’s theme ideas are too different, so you scrap the plan.

You know that one quote from Mean Girls?

“In Girl World, Halloween is the one day a year when a girl can dress up like a total slut and no other girls can say anything else about it."

This 100% applies to Nami. She will pull out the sluttiest costume you’ve ever seen.

Like… you’ve seen lingerie that covers more skin.

“Is this supposed to be your costume..?”

“Obviously. I’m a cat- didn’t you see the ears?”

She’s just wearing lingerie with a cat ear headband.

Loves Luffy’s mandatory costume party. She’s the one that decorates for it, helps Sanji with the food, and plans out all the activities. She wants everyone to have as much fun as possible, so there are lots of party games and themed sweets.

Will get into a drinking competition with Zoro if you and the crew place bets on them. She’d do it for some extra cash.

Will get fucked up and you’ll have to send her to bed early, but she’ll have no regrets (if she won). All smiles and happy that she got to spend the night with the people she loves.

I feel like her favorite Halloween treat would be fruit flavored gummies, but her favorite fall treat would be peach and berry cobbler. She also hates candy corn.

Usopp

Similar to Nami, Usopp loves autumn and all the festivities that come with it, but he lowkey hates Halloween.

Like, he enjoys the pumpkin carvings and the costume making, but he hates all the scary stuff that comes with a holiday like Halloween. Haunted houses? Spooky decor? Monsters? No thank you. He could barely handle Brook.

A victim of Zoro’s scares. </3

Will get upset with you if you purposefully scare him or set him up to be scared. Be nice to him please.

Swamps himself with personal projects for October. You’re always invited to hang out with him in his workshop as he distracts himself with his creations (and hides from Zoro).

Make sure you drag him out every now and then to do non-spooky activities. I suggest a petting zoo or some sort of farm. Maybe a nice hike to take in the beautiful scenery.

Absolutely loves bonfires and making s’mores. Just don’t tell any scary stories, okay? His heart can’t handle that.

He also loves autumn candles, cinnamon brooms, and scented pinecones. Him and his workshop smell so goddamn good.

This man is the king of carving/painting pumpkins. He makes the coolest designs every year and he has a lot of pride in that. He wins any competition having to do with aesthetics. He always harvests the seeds for Sanji to roast.

He makes the autumn decorations for Nami. Wreathes, cute scarecrows, little paper leaves to string up around the Sunny- that kind of stuff.

Also this man totally crochets and knits shit for you and everyone else on the crew. Expect a sweater when it starts getting cold.

Him and Robin work together to make Chopper’s costume. With the two of them collaborating, they make literal art for the reindeer. Will make you a costume if you ask.

Obviously makes his own costume. He’ll go as less scary versions of classic monsters or heroes from whatever comic books he finds in the New World. Asks for your input when he hits mental roadblocks.

“Hey (Name), do you think my costume would look better if I added this to it?”

Shows up fashionably late to Luffy’s party. Which is completely intentional and not because he started questioning some of his design choices for his costume and had to make some last minute changes.

Spends a lot of the night eating and dancing.

Is super proud of himself when he wins a game and gets smug about it.

He knocks himself out pretty early, but not as early as Chopper. Wakes up glad that Halloween is finally over and still feels some residual pride after winning.

Usopp’s favorite Halloween treats are pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. He’s festive like that. Keeps a jar of them in his workshop so he can snack while he works.

Sanji

Sanji did not give a shit about Halloween for the longest time. He couldn’t really celebrate it with his family (“you’re above that”) or on the Baratie, so Halloween was just another day for him.

That is, until he found out about slutty costumes.

Now he goes crazy for Halloween every year.

Other than that, he doesn’t really have any interest in the holiday.

He is, however, very interested in the farmers markets that always pop up at this time.

He’ll invite you to go with him and help him pick out the best seasonal ingredients.

Corn, apples, potatoes, squashes, sweet potatoes, eggplants. Also snags some spices so he can make a pumpkin spice blend for Nami.

Like this mf gets everything. You struggle to keep up with him as he explains what dishes he’s going to make with all the produce.

Would also go apple/berry picking with you. He finds the ripest, sweetest fruits ever.

Him and Nami exchange new dessert recipes all the time.

The kitchen has seasonal decorations, but nothing flammable and nothing close to the stove/oven. (Luffy tried to hang one of Usopp’s wreaths above the stove and almost caused a fire.)

Doesn’t really give a shit about his own costume, but he always looks really good in whatever he picks.

He goes for simple costumes that don’t heavily alter his appearance. Think butlers, vampires, devils, cowboys, etc.

He does buy a ton of accessories for his costumes, though.

“Do you really need this for your costume?”

Yes he does.

Spends all day working on the food for Luffy’s party, with the help of Nami and you. Super spent at the end of it, but very proud and happy.

Makes the food Halloween themed and tries to give it some nutritional value.

He also makes actual food and snacks and not just desserts/candies.

Sanji definitely wasn’t the biggest fan of the Halloween party at first, but it very quickly grew on him (totally not because of the sexy costumes).

Absolutely shits on Zoro for the insane amount of fake blood he uses on his costume. Zoro shits on him for picking a boring costume.

He has a ton of fun at the party though.

Doesn’t get as wasted as Zoro, but does drink.

Drunk Sanji is super funny tbh. Cracks some really funny jokes and manages to tell some really good stories.

Is complete ass at some of the games, but he doesn’t care. He can have fun without winning.

Another person who goes to sleep kinda early.

Sanji’s favorite Halloween treat would be chocolate covered pretzels, maybe peanut brittle. He loves the combination of salty and sweet. I also feel like he would enjoy black licorice.

Chopper

Chopper had never heard of Halloween. Well, he’s heard of it, but never really knew what it was.

Whenever he and Dr. Kureha traveled around Drum to help people in October, it was all the children talked about.

Dr. Kureha would always brush him off when he asked about it, saying that it wasn’t anything he should preoccupy himself with (she didn’t want him to get hurt again).

But once that he’s with the Straw Hats and they explain the concept to him? He goes fucking crazy for it now.

Not for the horror aspect of it, but he adores the costumes and the trick-or-treating.

This mf also goes crazy for fall festivals.

When you finally stop at an island that has a fall festival, Chopper practically drags you off the Sunny to go.

Agua frescas, funnel cakes, donuts, cookies, fried chocolate bars, huge ice cream cones, cotton candy, milkshakes, etc. He loves all the shit that you can eat/drink there as long as it’s sweet.

Ends up getting a bad stomach ache though.

Gets kinda frustrated and sad when he struggles to win any prizes.

You have to explain to him that the games at the festival aren’t meant for you to win and he gets mad at the people running the games for scamming.

You finally win (or steal) a massive stuffed animal for him and he loves it. He shows it off to everyone when you finally get back to the Sunny.

He is in awe of the color of the leaves. They’re just so pretty and he’s never seen anything like it.

He likes stepping on the super crunchy ones.

That gives you the idea to make a massive pile of leaves for him to play in.

He loves it. Makes leaf-angels, throws leaves everywhere, buries himself.

He invites you to play with him and you both have a blast.

He never has to worry about his costume, since Robin and Usopp always make it for him.

His costumes are always adorable, even if he’s supposed to be a monster or something spooky.

“Your costume is so cute, Chopper! Are you a bat?”

“It’s supposed to be scary!”

Him and Luffy party so hard on Halloween night.

Eats almost as much candy as Luffy and passes out in a similar way.

Dances with you and plays as many games as he can before the sugar crash takes him out.

You have to carry him back to his bed before he falls asleep on the floor. He has a smile on his face and thanks you for making everything extra fun.

Chopper’s favorite Halloween candy would be candy corn and those pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies.

Robin

As a kid, Robin used to love Halloween and go all out for it.

All the archeologists would decorate the library inside the Tree of Knowledge with things like fake spider webs, paper ghosts, and small pumpkins to make it fun for Robin.

She always had the cutest costumes. She would dress up as her favorite book characters or archeologists she looked up to.

She wanted to stay inside and continue studying, but the professors managed to convince her to go outside and be a kid.

Would share her candy with Professor Clover and everyone else and end up passing out at the library.

She has not celebrated Halloween once since the fall of Ohara.

Not because she didn’t want to, but because she couldn’t. She either couldn’t go out without fear of being recognized or whoever she was working under at the time wouldn’t let her.

Fast forward and she’s with you and the Straw Hats. She’s finally able to celebrate it again and she is lowkey excited.

Reads scary stories and gothic novels all October to get herself into the spooky mood.

She’ll invite you to sit next to her by the campfire as she tells everyone the most horrific scary story you have ever heard. Usopp dies inside.

Her morbid sense of humor really comes out at this time of the year, which is occasionally directed towards Brook.

If there’s a haunted house/hay ride, scary maze, escape room, or anything else like that, Robin will going and will be taking you with her.

Chuckles if you get scared and tries to warn you when there’s an upcoming jumpscare (she can see them coming from a mile away).

Out of all of the scary activities, escape rooms are her favorite. The majority of the time she can figure them out easily, but once every blue moon, there’s an escape room that requires more effort than usual.

Always let’s you help out with the puzzles. Escape rooms are really boring if only one person is doing all the work. She wants it to be fun for both of you, not just her.

Bonus points if you both are actively being chased/hunted while in the escape room. The added tension is so exciting for her, even if it isn’t particularly scary.

She would also love petting zoos. Her favorite animals are the goats. They’re just so goofy and she can’t help but love them.

Robin makes her own costumes and they are always beautiful.

Definitely goes for a classic gothic vampire for her first Halloween with you and the Straw Hats.

Goes the extra mile with accessories.

“Wow, Robin, your costume is gorgeous! I love the fake bone jewelry.”

“Thank you, but these are real.”

You can’t tell if she’s serious or if it’s her sense of humor.

In a modern AU, she would try to get you, Franky, and Chopper to all go as the Addams Family. Chopper is Pugsley and you and Franky have to fight over who’s going to be Gomez and Wednesday. Robin serves cunt as Morticia.

She’s always the first one to show up for the Halloween party.

Wins quite a few of the party games that Nami set up, much to Usopp’s chagrin. She lets him win a few to boost his ego.

Takes you to dance with her when Brook plays slower songs, listening to you talk about whatever you’ve been up to leading up to the party.

Drinks a lot of red wine, but doesn’t get plastered like Nami and Zoro. Looks elegant as hell while she’s drinking in her costume.

She’s the last one to go to bed. If you stay up with her, she’ll tell you a little about her past Halloweens and forgotten traditions.

Robin’s favorite Halloween treat is sour gummy worms. She loves sour candies and the fact that they resemble worms makes them perfect for Halloween.

Franky

Franky fucking loves Halloween. Always has, always will. If Halloween has 1,000,000 fans, Franky is one of them. If Halloween has 1,000 fans, Franky is one of them. If Halloween has 1 fan, it’s Franky.

Loved going Trick-or-Treating with Tom, Kokoro, and Iceburg. Halloween was something they all loved and they celebrated it with gusto.

He still competed with Iceburg, though. Who had the better costume? Who got the most candy? Who could finish their work in time to go Trick-or-Treating?

Iceburg usually took that last one.

But the sentiment carried over after Tom’s death and Franky grew up.

The Halloween parties that the Franky Family would throw were insane. Nobody outside of the Family was invited, but tons of people turn up anyway.

Like, Franky knows how to throw a party. Tons of food, booze, and cola were present, along with good company. These guys would go crazy for hours.

No one in Water 7 gets sleep on Halloween because the Family will be blasting music into the early hours of the morning.

He is always so hyped for Luffy’s Halloween party. He will talk your ears off about all his plans for October and the party.

He loves going apple picking. There’s something so very therapeutic about being in the orchard and finding the best apples with you.

He makes his own homemade cider with the apples you both picked, which is pretty damn good.

He’s also a sucker for cookouts. Sanji usually handles all the cooking, but Franky will be on the grill. Don’t argue with him.

It isn’t on par with what Sanji makes, but he puts his heart into those hotdogs and burgers.

Makes a really good steak, too. Once again, not Sanji-levels of good, but the man knows his way around a grill.

Would go into shock if you asked him for a well done steak. Why would you do that to a perfectly good piece of meat?!

Always helps to set up for the bonfires.

Makes the most s’mores. He always sets the marshmallows on fire, though. He claims that charred marshmallows are the best.

You can hear the crispness of the poor mallow as he bites into it. That mf is fossilized.

Builds animatronics for the party and they are the coolest things ever. They look so realistic and scary and they’re amazing.

Modern AU Franky would recreate FNAF as per Luffy’s request. The Bite of ‘87 will happen.

Franky also makes his own costumes.

Well, he makes the accessories. He has to buy the clothing part of it. It’s not that he can’t sew- he can -it’s just that he sucks at making clothes.

He prefers to go as traditional monsters like Frankenstein, werewolves, ghosts, etc.

He also will put on Halloween makeup. Will gladly let you apply it for him if you’re good with makeup.

One of the only times he will put on pants is if he’s wearing a costume. Even then, he tries to think of ways to still achieve the look he’s going for without wearing them.

He loves matching/themed costumes. If you match with him, it’ll make his year. He gets so happy and excited.

“We look super good, (Name)!”

Goes so hard during Luffy’s party. He has been looking forward to it for weeks and he is not afraid to let the world know that.

He drinks a ton of his homemade cider and cracks a bunch of jokes.

Loves everything about the party. He wants to do everything he possibly can.

He’s the first to start dancing and convinces you and your crewmates to get out onto the dance floor with him.

He’s really good at dancing tbh. Dancing with him is a blast.

Gets wiped out after a while and has to sit down and recharge with a cola. There’s a 50/50 chance that he will end up falling asleep before he can get to the cola.

Franky doesn’t really have a favorite Halloween treat, but he loves anything homemade. He destroys all of Nami and Sanji’s baked goods. If you make him something, he will gladly eat it and tell you it was super delicious.

Brook

Brook feels pretty neutral about Halloween. He hasn’t celebrated it since he was a kid and doesn’t have much interest in celebrating it now (unless partying is involved).

His favorite part about this Halloween is that no one bats an eye at him being a skeleton. And that he gets to make 10x more skeleton jokes than usual.

(And the sexy costumes.)

He loves autumn, though! His first autumn outside of the Florian Triangle makes him really emotional.

Gets pretty melancholy when he thinks about how much of his life that he missed, but is very grateful to be alive in that moment.

If you really like Halloween, he will gladly participate in Halloween activities with you.

He’s not a huge fan of haunted houses or corn mazes.

He has gone to haunted houses with you before and he ends up scaring the actors when they realize he’s a real skeleton.

He has to turn down multiple job offers.

He really likes pumpkin patches and fall festivals, though!

They’re so lively and colorful and they make him feel happy to be alive. Especially seeing how excited the other people (and you) are to be there.

Speaking of colorful, he loves going on nature walks and taking in the color of the leaves changing. He’ll collect any leaves that he thinks are especially pretty and show them to you.

Being out in the wild with all the natural beauty inspires him.

He writes multiple songs while he’s out there. The majority of them are rock and roll, but there are some more classical songs mixed in there.

You’re the first one to listen to all his new songs.

He’ll whip out his old fiddle and play hauntingly beautiful music, then switch to his guitar and put on a Soul King performance.

He also loves walking around and looking at all the Halloween decorations with you. Brook loves seeing people be passionate about things, even if it’s something he doesn’t have much interest in.

When it comes to costumes, he usually just buys something related to the dead/undead.

Ghosts, zombies, the Headless Horseman- that kinda stuff.

You could throw a white sheet over him and recreate that one Spongebob Halloween special.

BUT, if he finds a really good silicone mask that looks mostly human, he will wear it for shits and giggles.

“I’m just bones underneath! Yohohohoho!”

Thinks that it’s peak humor.

He always parties hard and Luffy’s Halloween party is no exception.

He’ll bust out the new rock songs he wrote earlier that month and preform them for everyone.

Drinks a lot of booze and gets wasted.

Also gets a lot more vulgar.

But he keeps the mood lighthearted and cracks just as many jokes as Franky.

At some point does stand up comedy when he gets drunk enough.

It’s not bad.

Ends off the night with one final song before heading to bed.

Brook would say that his favorite Halloween treat is candy bones, but it’s really anything with peanut butter.

Jinbe

Jinbe is also really neutral about Halloween.

It isn’t really celebrated by anyone in the Fishman District, excluding a few young children who were fascinated by human culture.

It is celebrated in Ryugu, though.

When he first returned to Fishman Island, he was asked to participate in some of the Halloween activities.

He gave out either the best or the worst candy and didn’t dress up for it.

He doesn’t know what the point of Halloween is.

Doesn’t really get the appeal of the horror aspect of it, either. Why would you intentionally scare yourself?

He’ll still go with you to haunted houses and listen to you talk about anything horror-related, of course.

He prefers the Trick-or-Treating and costume aspects of the holiday. It’s kinda strange but cute.

Since this is his first time celebrating Halloween with you and the Straw Hats, you have to explain a few of the traditions to him.

In exchange, he shares some of the Fishman Island traditions with you.

Pumpkin carving/painting becomes a favorite activity of his quickly. Not only is it fun, but he likes the idea behind it.

He likes the outdoor activities, like picking out pumpkins at the pumpkin patch and bonfires.

Jinbe tells the best bonfire stories ever. They aren’t scary (that’s Robin’s job), but they are super entertaining and funny.

He sets a few marshmallows on fire, but not intentionally. Eventually he gets the hang of it and roasts golden brown marshmallows every time.

He gives them to you, Chopper, and Luffy since he isn’t the biggest on sweets.

He also likes going to the fall festival with everyone.

He goes on a few of the rides with you, but they aren’t his favorite things in the world. He prefers the games.

He is godly at carnival games. There isn’t a game that he can’t win.

When it comes to costumes, Jinbe doesn’t put much effort into them.

He usually just throws something together with whatever’s in his closet.

Doesn’t overdo it with accessories either.

Tbh he doesn’t know what he’s going for, he’s just throwing shit on that’s vaguely Halloween-esque.

“What are you, Jinbe?”

It’s whatever you think it is. You gotta use your imagination.

He participates in all the party activities, but he spends most of his time drinking with Zoro and talking to you about life.

He will start dancing once Franky gets on the floor. He’s a good dancer tbh.

He participates in a few of the games and activities at your request, but usually sits out.

Wins any card games.

He makes sure everyone is where they’re supposed to be and alive before he goes to his room.

Thanks you for a fun night before he goes to sleep.

Jinbe’s favorite Halloween treat isn’t much of a “treat”- it’s pumpkin soup. He likes how smooth it is and loves the taste of pumpkin.

351 notes · View notes

ghosts778 · 2 months

Text

The Consort and The Warlord Ch1

Summary: Megatron uses the All Spark to gain access to Cybertron and demands a peace treaty. An Autobot Consort is offered and Optimus is chosen. A Bonding Ceremony takes place and now Optimus has three vorn to figure out exactly what Megatron wants to do with Cybertron.

Pairing: Optimus Prime x Megatron

Continuity: Animated

Status: Ongoing

"Optimus Prime, then."

"Yes, Optimus Prime."

"I don't see any other bot that we can use."

"He is the only Prime with these… qualifications."

"Then we are in an agreement; Optimus Prime will be Bonded with Megatron in order to bring peace between the Autobots and Decepticons."

Applause erupted in the room of the Autobot Council as the agreement was made. In the back corner, standing behind the Magnus who had been oddly quiet during the entire exchange, another Prime smirked.

It took a decavorn and three high priority space bridge jumps for Optimus and his team of repair bots to finally return to Cybertron. They had been far off in space, fixing a jammed bridge when word of Megatron finding the All Spark reached them. A massive announcement had been made through the Cybertron news cast that was sent throughout all of Autobot space. Surprisingly, the Warlord hadn’t declared war but instead demanded a conference with the Council and a peace treaty had been signed. Though the details of it have yet to be made public.

When Optimus got the direct orders to return to Cybertron, he was surprised. He was confused, but expected that all Primes regardless of standings would have to be on Cybertron if the Decepticons and Autobots were finally making peace. Or what he had hoped would be peace. Though Optimus wasn't sure how peaceful warframes could truly be, he knew for a fact that several Autobots wouldn't be happy with them walking on the same streets. And many civilians would be terrified to leave their homes as well.

But these thoughts were none of Optimus' business. He was a lowly Prime who didn't deserve his title and he was just going for formalities. At least that was what he thought until Cliffjumper told him that his team was to dock directly at Fortress Maximus and not the outer ports of Iacon. It was even stranger when Sentinel Prime was the one who met them at the private port and told his crew to stay on their tiny repair ship and that only Optimus was to come with him.

Optimus recognized that gleeful tone in his ex-friends voice. Sentinel should've been pissed and berating Optimus for returning to Cybertron just because the Decepticons were there. Instead it felt like the mech knew something he didn’t. Something he could hold over Optimus' helm.

Sentinel was surpsingly quiet but Optimus never missed the glances back at him and that slag eating smirk he wanted so badly to hit. But he clenched his servos and kept his helm down instead. He knew the path they were taking. He'd taken it twice before, when he'd been made a Prime, and when he'd lost it all.

They were going to Ultra Magnus' office.

Mechs and femmes alike were hustling around them, carrying data pads, talking to others over a communication device or carrying boxes of who knows what. Drones were nearly stepped on in the rush and one could barely think with the noise. Usually this part of Fortress Maximus was quiet and Optimus would have found it concerning if he hadn't known that Decepticons had actively made peace with them less than a vorn ago. Albeit blackmailing them with the All Spark, but making peace nonetheless.

Sentinel stopped outside of the Magnus' office and pressed the bell. Clearing his intake, Sentinel spoke in the same self-confident tone he always had.

"Ultra Magnus, sir. It is Sentinel Prime. I have brought Optimus as requested."

Optimus said nothing about his lack of a title and instead focused on how he was supposed to face the mech he admired and who had once had so much expectations for Optimus. Their last meeting had been one of pure disappointment and Optimus wasn't sure he could take seeing another expression like that on Ultra Magnus’ faceplate. The door came in with a gruff 'enter' and Sentinel let Optimus step in before him.

The Magnus office was just as Optimus remembered; bare minimum decor with a large and plain desk, several bookshelves and cabinets and a strewn of data pads everywhere. A young mech that Optimus did not recognize was working at a smaller desk, frantically going through some data pads. Ultra Magnus sat at his desk, his optics focused on his own data pad, his face scrunched in the frown he wore so often. Clearly the matter with Decepticons had him busy as could be, so why had he called for Optimus?

As the door shut behind him, Optimus stopped next to one of the seats that were set before the desk. They were empty as usual but Optimus didn't dare take a seat without permission. It was rude to sit before the Magnus, especially if you were one of his Primes. Behind him, Optimus could hear Sentinel settle against the far wall by the door. After several kliks, Ultra Magnus put his data pad down with a deep ex-vent and looked up at Optimus. There was a deep tiredness in his optics and something else Optimus couldn't explain. Ultra Magnus supported his helm on his folded servos, elbow joints propped onto the desk. He let out a smaller ex-vent and finally spoke.

"Optimus Prime, I am glad to see that you arrived here safely. Unfortunately we have no time for pleasantries. As you know, Megatron has agreed to a peace treaty with us and we are currently working with the Decepticons on how to integrate the warframes into our society." Ultra Magnus spoke swiftly and clearly, not caring about the secretary mech who was clearly too busy to care. "There was one part of the treaty that was decided as… a good faith measure."

Ultra Magnus paused and Optimus felt like his optics were looking him up and down. Tracing every part of his frame, but never making optic contact, and it made him want to squirm. But he stood still like he'd been taught and waited for the larger mech to finish.

"In order to show that Autobots and Decepticons can live together, a Bonding Ceremony will be held between the two factions." Ultra Magnus seemed to hesitate as he spoke. "Between Megatron and you."

Optimus became stiff as he heard what Ultra Magnus stated. His optics wide, he stared at the mech, his leader and the Autobot he respected more than anyone else. He was joking, right? A prank that Sentinel was pulling on him, right? That was why the mech was so giddy, Sentinel sucked at keeping quiet about such things. But no, Ultra Magnus would never go along with it and joking was far outside the Autobot leader's personality.

"Sir, may I speak?" Optimus asked, feeling his tanks sink.

"Speak." Ultra Magnus stated.

"Why am I the one being bonded off to Megatron?" Optimus asked, clearly flustered.

Ultra Magnus stood now and stepped out from behind his desk. He went to the wide windows behind him and looked out at Iacon below. He didn't turn around as he answered the Prime.

"The Bonding with Megatron is meant to, on the surface, be a show of good faith that our two factions can live together in peace. In truth it is meant to get us a bot close to him and his faction and figure out exactly what Megatron plans to do now that he’s on Cybertron." Ultra Magnus says. "I intend for you to simply make him trust you enough so that you can relay everything they do to us."

"You want me to be a spy?" Optimus questioned. "I have no training for that! I have no training for any of this! Wouldn’t Longarm Prime be more qualified?"

"Longarm Prime is known as a member of our spy division, his cover would be blown instantly." Ultra Magnus turned around and finally looked Optimus in the optic. "And anybot less than a Prime would be too much of an insult."

Optimus clenched his servos and glanced away. "Then wouldn't a Prime of my status be just as insulting?" He asked softly. He had been kicked out of the academy and given a lowly position as a repair ship crew leader. He clearly would be an insult to the Warlord.

"Nothing Megatron needs to know." Ultra Magnus stated. "We sent your file to Megatron, though edited to hide your… blemishes. To him you are a top of your class Prime who earned your title before graduation and have been off planet on a special mission that no one knows about."

Special mission? Like clearing asteroids from space bridges was such a secret! How could Ultra Magnus attempt to lie to the leader of the Decepticons of all mechs. What if he got caught and his true file was found? He'd been offline in an instant!

"How am I supposed to get in contact with you without them tapping into the communications?" Optimus asked. Having no training for spy work, he also didn't have the mods for it.

"Three vorn." Ultra Magnus stated, stepping towards Optimus. "After three vorn, you and Megatron will return to Iacon for a meeting with the Council that has already been scheduled. You are to give me the information then. As well as details on anything else that Megatron does."

Optimus looks up at his leader with confusion. What else would Megatron do? Ultra Magnus looked down at Optimus and placed his servo on one of his shoulder pauldrons.

"Megatron is a savage mech and I cannot expect you to be treated well. If you can get proof of him assaulting you, or proof of him neglecting you, he'd be breaking the Bonding Laws. You can then get the Bonds severed and return to Iacon safely." Ultra Magnus squeezed his servo and Optimus tensed under the gaze of his leader. "You just have to endure everything for three vorns. You should be capable of that."

This wasn't a question. This was an order. One Optimus couldn't back out of. Three vorn. He'd be at the mercy of Megatron and the Devepticons for three vorns and if he survived that, he'd also have to find out what they were planning to do on Cybertron. How disappointed would Ultra Magnus be if he barely crawled back from the Decepticons with nothing to offer. Or worse, what if he got sent back? Offlining would be better than that!

"What about my team?" Optimus asked.

"They will be going with you." Ultra Magnus stated easily. Optimus let his helm snap to his leader in shock. "It is part of your story. Ratchet is the medic on your team and the two others are young cadets you are personally training. They are to join you because the council refused to send you in alone."

Optimus couldn't even argue with that. It made sense and he hated it. Hated how he had put his new teammates in so much danger because of him. How they'd be at the mercy of the Decepticons because his past had made it impossible to say no to Ultra Magnus.

"Understood."

It was all he could say. He had to accept that this was his fate and he'd dragged them into it. The least he could do was make a plan of escape for them if things got dicey. He would be obligated to stay due to the Bonding Laws but his team wasn't. They could run if they wanted. He just had to make sure they wouldn't get caught.

"Good, I expected nothing less from you." Ultra Magnus stated. He returned to his desk and picked up another datapad. "The ceremony will be held tomorrow. Everything has been prepared for you and tomorrow you will be painted and escorted to it."

"So soon?" Optimus asked. He had thought he'd get at least a few cycles to come to terms with all of this.

"Both the Council and Decepticons are eager for this to be done. Especially since the Temple of Primus will be officiating the ceremony." Ultra Magnus stated. "You do not need to prepare anything, simply be ready when Hadeen rises."

Optimus nodded but he was certain that Ultra Magnus did not notice him. The mech was currently engrossed in another datapad and the discussion was over. He could hear Sentinel move to take him back to his ship but there was still something chewing away at his wires.

"Ultra Magnus, sir." Optimus stated, ignoring the grab on his shoulder pauldron by Sentinel. "What happens if the Decepticons decide to start a war?"

Ultra Magnus did look up this time but only briefly. "That is something already considered but there is no need for you to know our plans."

With those sharp words, Optimus was dragged out of the office and pushed to walk down the halls by Sentinel. Bots around him continued their work, not even giving him a glance or time of day. Behind him, Sentinel finally went off.

"How perfect isn't it?" The mech stated. "A wash out like you being forced to bond with the Slag Maker himself. You'll be lucky if you make it even one vorn."

"You would find this funny." Optimus scolded. He stopped and turned to the mech he once trusted his back to.

Sentinel got in his face instantly, anger written all over him. "What's that supposed to mean?" He gritted his denta.

"You always found fun in others' misery." Optimus stated.

"Oh I think this situation is great! You'll be the berthwarmer for the most dangerous mech in the universe!" Sentinel chided.

"Want to change places?" Optimus snapped back.

"Like slag!" Sentinel spat. "I would be bonded already if someone hadn't gotten her offlined!"

"Elita didn't like you like that." Optimus muttered.

This earned him a punch to the faceplate, hard enough to knock him over. A punch he might have deserved but the stomp on his chassis he knew was too much. Optimus gritted his denta and pushed the Sentinel off of him.

"Isn't it a bad idea to injure the future bonded of Megatron?" Optimus snapped as he stood.

This caused the egotistical mech to step back and look away. "You know your way back to your ship!" Sentinel snapped. "Get back on your own and don't you dare run!"

The mech scurried off and Optimus began to wipe himself off. He was a bit dirty and his cheek plating hurt but that was it. Sentinel had never been able to throw a punch, relying on his weapons over physical strength. Optimus rubbed his cheek plate with the back of his servo and walked back to the ship at a steady pace. He wasn't sure if he wanted to delay telling his team, or to get this cycle over with. He did know that he wanted to recharge. Probably the last peaceful recharge he'd get in a long while too.

When Optimus made it back to his ship, he was instantly bombarded by Bumblebee and Bulkhead who clearly seemed worried. He hadn't been gone long but a quick glance at the port guards and he realized that Bumblebee at least had tried to escape. The small yellow bot was a bit dented and scuffed but nothing serious, thankfully.

"Bossbot, what happened?" Bumblebee shouted as he was herded into the main deck area. Bulkhead was behind him, pushing him gently.

"Yeah, no one will tell us why we can't leave!" The large green bot was clearly more worried than mad. Unlike his smaller friend.

"Give the kid some space and let him speak." Ratchet chided them. The old war medic sat in his chair, arms crosses over his chassis. Even Prowl was standing to the side, clearly wanting to know what was happening.

Optimus let out an ex-vent and put his servos up. "Alright, sit down and I'll explain what Ultra Magnus told me."

"You're getting bonded to Megatron!? The Megatron? Rip out your spark and eat it Megatron?" Bumblebee shouted. "And we have to go with you!?"

To say that the small bot was freaking out was an understatement. Though Optimus honestly couldn't blame him. It was terrifying enough to think of being in the same room as Megatron, but being bonded to him and forced to live amongst the Decepticons, that was way outside anyone's comfort zone. Bulkhead did his best to calm his friend down but his glances at Optimus did not go unnoticed. He was obviously hoping for some word of reassurance from his leader that everything was going to be OK.

"Why does Ultra Magnus need to send all of us with you?" Ratchet scoffed, leaning back against the seat. He seemed the least bit shocked by the entire situation but was clearly annoyed.

"The Council may have… edited my file to make me look like a pristine Prime and not a wash out." Optimus said. He was looking at the floor, digits tangled together as he was ready for them to yell at him. They had every right to yell at him, this was all his fault.

"Won't you be in trouble if Megatron finds out?" Bulkhead asked, clearly concerned.

"Wouldn't he ask for a different partner? Then Bossbot will be free!" Bumblebee said enthusiastically. "Why not tell him they lied?"

"Because Megatron would send Optimus' helm back to Ultra Magnus as a warning for what happens if you try to deceive a Decepticon." Ratchet snapped. "Are you trying to get the kid killed?"

Bumblebee went silent with that and slumped behind Bulkhead. Prowl, who had been quiet the entire time, finally stepped forward.

"I took note that I wasn't mentioned." He stated.

Optimus looked away sheepishly. "I may have.. lost the report I was supposed to send to Longarm Prime about picking you up and having you join my team." He said quickly.

Prowl seemed shocked by this. They had picked him up several stellarcycles ago when he was stuck on an asteroid. Prowl had been adamant about not being reported to Cybertron about his presence but Optimus had insisted. It had caused several arguments between the two but in the end, Optimus just couldn't bring himself to do it. Now he was glad he hadn't.

"Ultra Magnus and the Council don't know we have Prowl." Optimus said.

"What difference does that make?" Bumblevee asked.

"It means he can stay behind and gather information." Optimus looked Prowl in the optic. The ninjabot seemed hesitant but crossed his arms over his chest.

"Why do you need information?" Prowl asked.

"We're being thrown straight into the cyberhounds den without any warning or information. I've been told to bond with Megatron tomorrow without even meeting him and then all of us are being shipped off to wherever they are staying." Optimus began. "I don't even know if the Decepticons have a city they are occupying or if they are staying on their ships. It's like no one wants to tell us anything."

"Not a surprise." Ratchet scoffed. "It's just like the Council to send us in blindly."

Optimus bit his derma. He couldn't argue with that. "I asked Ultra Magnus what his plan would be if the Decepticons decided to start a war. He told me the plan was not something I didn’t need to know."

"Meaning it's a plan only a select few are privy to." Prowl stated, finally getting why Optimus had requested his help. "I should have no issues getting that. One of my Master’s students was scouted by the Elite Guard, I can start with him."

Optimis nodded at Prowl, glad that the mech was willing to help out. The others still didn't look too sure about this entire situation so Optimus tried to put on a confident smile, even if he knew he was bluffing.

"I know that this is probably the worst case situation for us, and I know it's my fault." Optimus began. "But if Ultra Magnus is right, all we have to do is endure it for three vorn. Then we should be free."

"Will three vorn even be enough time?" Bulkhead asked.

"Yeah, who knows what Megatron will do to you in that amount of time." Bumblebee said. "And what about us?"

"If things get bad, I want you three to run." Optimus states seriously. "The ship is coming with us, if you guys can make a plan to escape, I'm sure you can get away safely. I'm going to be bound by the Bounding Laws, I can't just abandon my position but if I can get the proof needed to Ultra Magnus, I can get it canceled."

"So survive for three vorn and get out." Ratcget said. "I'd think it'd be easy if you weren't bonding Megatron himself."

Optimus agreed with that.

Hadeen rose far too early and Optimus felt like he hadn't recharged nearly enough. Ratchet had cleaned him up the night before and offered him a stasis injection but he didn't want to over sleep. He just hoped that as he exited the ship, he didn't look as tired as he felt.

He almost wept in joy when Longarm Prime stood patiently outside the ship instead of Sentinel. The preparations for a Bonding Ceremony took most of a cycle and he hadn't wanted to deal with Sentinel’s berating all throughout it. Though he had never known the older Prime personally, all of their conversations had been pleasant. The bot was comforting to be around.

"Good morning, Optimus Prime." Longarm stated, a soft smile on his features. Optimus saluted him and was gestured to follow. "I know that a lot is going to happen today and there is a lot to do so please tell me if anything needs to be repeated."

Optimus gives him a quick ‘yes’ as he is led down a different hallway and to a side elevator far out of view of everyone else. He had never known it was there until the doors opened in the wall. Inside, Longarm continued to speak.

"The Bonding Ceremony will be held as Hadeen starts to set. This was requested by Megatron though a priest from the Temple of Primus will be officiating the ceremony." He stated, watching the doors.

"I thought the Temple of Primus went into hiding during the war." Optimussaid. He had wanted to ask Ultra Magnus when he spoke of them the day before but had been unable to.

"They did, technically. Off the record, they were unhappy with the Autobots for having taken the All Spark off world and refused to aid them at the time." Longarm explained. "Since Megatron has brought it back and agreed to return the All Spark to the temple, the priests are on his side and are eager for the ceremony. You could say that one of the main reasons for this bonding is so that the Council can get back into favor with the Temple of Primus."

The doors opened and Optimus followed behind Longarm’s quick pace. He didn't look around, not really concerned about where he was or who was looking at him. The Temple of Primus were an old faction, founded long before the Decepticons andAutobots. Before the war, they were peaceful and well liked and rumored to be protecting the All Spark as well as the Matrix of Leadership, the only two relics said to be connected directly to Primus. And in order to protect them, they were said to have fierce warriors who, despite not being warframes, could easily defeat them. Or so said rumors, most of this was lost with time as the faction vanished during the war and not many bothered to learn about them. Even Optimus only knew of them because he happened upon a datapad once in the academy.

As his thoughts wandered, Optimus found himself entering what looks like a high end guest room. It was mostly empty except for two mechs and the appropriate furnishings. The door locked behind them and Optimus felt a sense of dread.

"We will now prepare you for the ceremony." Longarm stated. "You will be cleaned and then repainted. I will go over the ceremony procedures as this happens. We must get done no later than mid evening."

The two mechs nodded and Optimus realized that they were detailers. Based on their own well polished armor and neutral expressions, most likely the private detailers for someone rich like a Council member of their family. Well out of budget for Optimus and making him feel extremely awkward. Longarm took a seat on the couch after signaling for the two mechs to start.

The smaller of the two approached him first, optics roving him up and down before pointing a finger to a closed door. "Absolutely filthy." He snapped. "First you wash. Use the dense solvent and clean up all of your scratches and dents. You need to be buffed and patched up and all of that asteroid dust needs to be removed."

He snapped his fingers and his companion picked Optimus up and carried him to the washroom with ease. Optimus began to panic when he realized that they intended to help him wash. "I can clean myself!" He shouted but the smaller mech ignored him.

"That will take too long, leave it to my assistant." The mech said.

The larger mech certainly knew what he was doing and Optimus was treated carefully. The bath was heavenly and the scent of the solvent was something he'd never had the luxury of using. Every tiny scratch and pebble in his joints was taken care of and he honestly felt like he was being spoiled. Now he knew why Elita used to save up her shanix for a spa day.

Optimus was suddenly thrust from his thoughts as the larger mech picked him up once more and carried him out to the main room. The detailer and Longarm were chatting like old friends and the former seemed very satisfied with his assistant's work. Optimus was much cleaner and refreshed, no oil smell or grit in his joints and gears and even his windows had been scrubbed.

"Beautiful, now we can get these bonding paints onto you!" The small detailer practically cooed as Optimus sat down in a chair. He took out some colors and a tool that Optimus had seen before. A quick test and the mech easily went to work.

Bonding paints were special on Cybertron. Both partners would paint their frames white and a special shade of blue that was only allowed for this ceremony. No bots were allowed to wear the color regularly and only a few detailers were even allowed to possess it. This made the ceremony expensive and most lower class bots were forced to use unofficial blues which were often frowned upon. Optimus never thought he'd be able to wear this blue color. Though he also never thought he'd be bonding with Megatron either.

"Optimus Prime, I will be going over the ceremony with you as they paint, is that alright." Longarm asked. He had moved to sit closer to Optimus but stayed out of the way of the detailer who was focusing on coating most of his frame in a base color. A small sting could be felt as it touched his plating but it wasn't as painful as a medical solvent.

"Of course." Optimus said, wanting to hold as still as possible for the entire process.

"Good, the first thing you should know is that you are to remain silent throughout the entire ceremony. The only mech allowed to speak is the priest. Neither you nor Megatron may say a single word until you are on his ship." Longarm stated. Optimus tried to ignore the last part.

"The ceremony will take place in the crystal gardens of Fortress Maximus at the ceremony platform. Only three bots from each faction, minus the two bonding and the priest are allowed in the area of the platform. A small distance away, the remaining guests will be behind a barrier and the ceremony will be broadcasted throughout all of Cybertron for everyone to see." Longarm said. "The Elite Guard will be making sure no one tries to break the barrier and the Council will be watching from a balcony above the platform. They do not want to be in servos reach of the Decepticons."

Optimus chose to ignore the slight disdain in Longarm’s voice as his helm was moved. He chose to shut off his optics as the detailer continued his work. Without any prompting, the other Prime continued.

"You and Megatron will enter the platform at opposite sides. A chime will let you know when to begin. You will walk towards each other and meet in the middle, facing the other." Optimus twitched his audial fin, earning a sharp look from the detailer that he could feel. "The Bonding Ceremony has three parts. The sharing of energy cubes, the exchanging of gifts and the kiss on the back of each other's servo."

"I haven't prepared a gift!" Optimus said, opening his optics. He felt a bit panicked over that. Longarm Prime smiled and pointed to a table against the far wall.

"We have it already prepared for you." The mech said.

Optimus stared in awe at the large bouquet of crystal flora. They were clear and blue, delicate and sparkled even in the artificial light of the room. The bouquet was massive and held together by an organic wrapping with fine lace and a ribbon of a similar blue to the bonding paint. It was beautiful, it was expensive and it was clearly taken from the garden of a Council member who Optimus couldn't help but wonder which one will be pissed about it ending up in Decepticon’s servos.

"It's beautiful." Optimus finally stated when he realized that he had been staring.

Longarm let out a small chuckle and returned back to the matter at hand. "The ceremony will end when the priest states that you have both completed all three parts. You will be returning to the Nemesis along with Megatron and his mechs."

"What about my team?" Optimus asked.

Longarm glanced at his chronometer before answering. "They should have already been escorted to the Decepticon ship and settled there. When the ceremony begins, they will be escorted to it and then back to the ship once it is over." Longarm explained.

Optimus wasn't sure if he should be glad that they are being so thorough or worried. It was if the Council was stating that they had no way of getting out of the situation. Optimus looked down at his servos. One was painted the bonding blue, a lighter shade than his standard coloring and reality was hitting him. He was going to be bonding with Megatron in front of all of Cybertron.

Longarm seemed to notice his anxiety and reached out to pat him but a quick glare from the detailer had the Prime retracting his arm. "Are you nervous?" He asked instead

"I can't say I’m not." Optimus stated honestly. "But I think it's because all of Cybertron will be looking at me and I don't like being the center of attention."

This got the detailer and his assistant to laugh and Longarm Prime seemed to smile quite fondly. As if it was better for Optimus to be nervous about the onlookers instead of the bonding with Megatron. The older Prime stood up and came in front of Optimus.

"You don't have to say anything, in fact you cannot say anything." Longarm reminded him. "You lose a fifty percent chance of messing up when you don't have to speak."

"For some reason that is comforting." Optimus chuckled. "Thank you."

Longarm nodded and stepped back as the two detailers continued their work.

They had cut it close but by mid evening, Optimus was ready. He stood in front of the mirror and looked himself over and Optimus oddly felt happy. His red and silver paint had been covered with a white and his blue paint and yellow decals were now the softer blue of the bonding paint. He almost looked like a lighter version of Ultra Magnus but quickly shoved that thought to the back of his processor. Instead he wondered if Megatron would also be changing his paints or if the Decepticon’s had a different custom for bonding ceremonies.

Longarm Prime handed Optimus the bouquet and Optimus couldn't help but look it over as the crystal flora clicked together. He had heard that they were very fragile and he didn't want to shatter them before he could even present them.

"Store this in your subspace and bring it out when they are to be presented. But do not subspace the gift you get from Megatron." Longarm Prime instructed him. "You are to carry the gift through the rest of the ceremony and back to his ship."

Optimus nodded, again discouraged at the thought of going to the Decepticon’s berth. Would he really be assaulted on his bonding night? Would he really have to survive abuse for three vorn? Or would he be ignored and neglected, never even looked at? He honestly hoped for the latter.

Longarm Prime led Optimus to an open room with large glass walls and ceilings. Hadeen was beginning to set, slashing blues and purples across the sky. He could hear the sounds of bots talking but he couldn't make anything out. Longarm Prime had left him by the door that led to the ceremony platform in the garden. He had taken his place and now Optimus had to wait for the chime to signal the beginning of the ceremony.

A silence fell, heavy and sudden and an emptiness filled Optimus. He was alone. There were hundreds of thousands of bots all out there but he was as alone as the silence they all brought. He swallowed a lump in his intake and his audial fins flickered at even the tiniest of sounds.

The chime sounded like a roar of thunder as it echoed through the open garden and through every wire and coding deep in Optimus’ core. It should've sounded beautiful but it just caused Optimus to jump forward and he sincerely hoped that no one saw him trip over the door entrance.

The crystal garden was a gorgeous garden filled with clear and frosty crystals that stood taller than the Magnus and as small as an energy cube. They were meticulously cultivated and taken care of. Several pathways wound between them to a large opened space in the center. A gazebo usually sat here, a favorite dining place for the Council. Now the gazebo was gone and the area lifted up to create a stage used to honor Primes and Magnus alike. Optimus had earned his rank of Prime here and now he was bonding the very mech he had once sworn an oath to defeat that day. There truly was so much irony to it all.

A quick glance showed Ultra Magnus standing with Sentinel and Longarm to his sides. They were all well polished and while Sentinel jeered, Ultra Magnus refused to meet his optic. Behind them, a barrier was keeping civillian bots or lower ranked workers from entering the garden completely. Keeping them right at the entrance and Optimus could feel all of their optics on him.

He could not see Megatron until they were both partially up the steps. The larger mech had made it to the top first. And by larger, Optimus meant huge. Megatron towered above Optimus who was already considered a tall mech for a civilian frame. He had always known Megatron had been huge, he'd fought against his program at the academy plenty of times, but having the real and solid mech in front of him was different.

Megatron gave off raw power and solid strength that Optimus had to do everything he could to not step back. Megatron had not painted himself the white and blue bonding colors. His gunmetal gray main was polished and buffed to perfection and bright red stones decorated his frame. They were tastefully adorned across his chassis and helm, large and deep in color. His derma was tight in a frown but as he stared down at Optimus who refused to not meet his stare; he swore he saw Megatron’s optics soften. And despite standing this close to his enemy, Optimus still only felt anxious about the fact that all of Cybertron could see him.

Someone cleared his intake and a mech that Optimus could only think of as the priest of Primus stepped forward. Though he stood taller than Optimus, he was still dwarfed by Megatron. His armor was stripped of anything excessive, painted white with red marks on his faceplate. They looked to be symbols for something, but Optimus wasn't sure. The priest held up his servos and despite his decrepit appearance, his voice was loud and strong.

"Dear Primus, today I offer you the ceremony of your two children. Today they bond in your name and we ask that you give your blessing. They will prove their devotion, thoughts and love to you as Hadeen sinks on the horizon." The priest began. Optimus could barely understand what was being said. "First you must show your devotion!"

Another priest with a similar decrepit frame but different markings came beside the first with a tray of two energy cubes. Instead of the usual pink, these were very pale, diluted energon that was often used for offerings. Each cube had the exact same amount and the priest handed one to each of them. "You will now drink some of the energon but must save some for your to be Bonded. Once you finish your drink, switch cubes and drink what your intended left for you."

This was the only part of the ceremony that Optimus really knew about. Apparently the amount shared prophesied how a bonding would turn out. More selfish bots would share less and more submissive would make sure there was plenty left. He remembered over hearing about how a femme intended to break her bonding and how she should never have gone through with the ceremony knowing her Bonded had drank nearly all of the offering. Apparently he was a very greedy mech.

Optimus took the energon and with a nod from the priest, began to drink. It was much sweeter than what Optimus expected and part of him wanted to down it in one go. He stopped himself however and lowered it from his derma with still half left. Giving them a quick look, he offered his cube to Megatron who took it and placed his own in Optimus' much smaller servos. To his surprise, Megatron had left him half as well. He quickly finished the last of the enegon and returned the cube to the priest. As the second priest took away the cubes, the first one began to speak again.

"Next we will present one's thoughts for the other. Present the gift you wish to offer!"

Optimus quickly pulled out the bouquet of crystal flora from his subspace. Now in his arms, he realized just how large it was and that it was appropriately sized to offer to a warframe. Someone had put at least some thought into this gift. With curiosity, Optimus peeked at the gift that Megatron had presented him and almost missed the slight surprise in the Warlord's expression. In his arms was a very thin metal fixture on a base. At the top, a massive stone of a similar red as Megatron’s decorative stones grew in a jagged and natural way. As they exchanged gifts, Optimus couldn't help but stare in wonder at the sparkling gem. As he held it close, he noted that his stone had a bit of a purple hue to it, matching more with Megatron’s accented colors instead of his optics.

The priest cleared his intake to draw Optimus' attention away from the gift and he apologized silently for getting distracted. Behind him he swore he heard a snort from Sentinel and his audial fins flicked in annoyance. The priest simply smiled, seemingly quite pleased with their offerings and proceeded to the last part of the ceremony.

“Now present your love for one another!” His voice boomed.

Megatron held out his servos, one open servo and the other down. Optimus carefully placed his servo on the open one and took Megatron’s offered servo. Their height difference made it awkward but they were able to kiss the back of each other's servos successfully. Letting go, Optimus hoped that his flushing cheeks could not be seen under his new paint. The act of kissing one's hand was always considered the most romantic way of showing one's affection. The priest continued despite Optimus’ inner turmoil.

"Hadeen has vanished and with it, the night sky of Cybertron blesses this bonding. Megatron of Kaon, Optimus Prime of Iacon, I declare you Bonded." The priest stated. "With this, the ceremony is over."

Cheers erupted and Optimus flinched at the sudden noise from those around him. He snapped his derma shut and looked up at Megatron who was still holding the bouquet carefully. The larger mech offered the crook of his arm for Optimus to take and he did. They left the platform and the crowds behind and Optimus took one last glance behind him, but Ultra Magnus was already gone.

Despite his much faster stride, Megatron did his best to not rush Optimus or cause him to stumble. Optimus was grateful because it seemed the older mech was eager to return to his ship. Optimus tanks dropped as he remembered what usually came after bonding. It wasn't something he was ready for and he became so hung up on his thoughts that he didn't even notice that he had entered the Nemesis. Nor did he notice Megatron dismissing the mechs with him and being steered into a large habsuite. It wasn't until he heard the door lock and Megatron let out a large ex-vent that he finally snapped out of the daze.

Slowly turning to Megatron, Optimus found him carefully placing the bouquet into what looked like an energon cube. The Warlord turned to Optimus who unconsciously gripped his pretty rock harder.

"You are allowed to speak." Megatron reminded him. His voice was deep and rough and sounded nothing like it had in old war videos. Optimus nearly flinched at the words nodding quickly, though he still didn't speak. "You may place your gift on the table."

Megatron pointed to a rounded table between several large sitting chairs. Optimus carefully placed it down, trying not to think about how a single chair for Megatron could probably fit at least three of him. As he turned around, Megatron had gotten much closer, well within arms reach and it took all of Optimus strength to not step back.

"I do not know what your Council has told you but I will make this clear now, I have no intention of touching you without your permission." Megatron declared. "We will speak more tomorrow, it is late and I am certain you want to recharge. There is a washroom to clean the ceremony paint off attached to the berthroom."

Megatron pointed to the door and Optimus took a few steps towards it before glancing back at Megatron. The large mech did not seem intent on following him, his servos carefully removing the stones magnetized to his plating.

"Thank you." Optimus managed to say before disappearing into the berthroom.

#fanfiction #fanfic #optimus x megatron #the consort and the warlord #megatron #optimus prime

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