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#velvet hammer management
rockinshots · 1 year
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Davey Havok of AFI and band were on 🔥 last night at Fox Theater in Oakland.
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imasoftieforbarb · 7 months
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i love the little fic u made of my request and you asked if the readers would like a part 2 AND IM SORRY IF IM BEING TO DELUSIONAL BUT
IF YOU HAVE TIME AND WANT TO OFC COULD U DO THE PART 2, I LOVE YOUR WORK SM I MEAN IT 😭⁉️
HERE COMES PART 2‼️
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We’re gonna get into the movie stuff now
John Dory comes to check out Mount Rageous
As he makes his way through the ventilation he hears crying- but it doesn’t sound like Floyd so he moves on (a bit guiltily)
Once he finds Floyd (and lands face first on the dresser)
John Dory groaned as he pulled himself off the floor in a hurry “Yo! Floyd!”
Floyd looked up from his lap as his eyes widened “John dory? I cant believe it!” Floyd pressed his hands against the wall of his prison “I never thought I’d see any of my brothers again”
John Dory smiled before pressing his hand up to the glass in confidence
“Don’t worry bro I’m gonna get you out of here”
“No! You need to get out of here!” Floyd said urgently “you don’t understand- Velvet and Veneer are giant, pop obsessed succubi with NO talent and they’ve been stealing mine and Y/n’s- it’s only a matter of time now until they come back for more!”
John Dory thought to himself “Y/n? Like our old manager and childhood best friend Y/n? But- why did they take her?”
Floyd sighed to himself, misplaced guilt eating at him a bit “when you guys left, she followed me and after a bit we ended up confessing-“
“I KNEW YOU HAD FEELINGS FOR HER-“
“Shhhhhhh!” Floyd shushed his brother, though he couldn’t deny the smile on his face- he had missed this
“So she’s here?” John Dory said looking around, “I don’t see her anywhere!”
“She got taken by Velvet- as like a personal back up! I don’t know where she is- but if shes having her talent drained she won’t last as long, she isn’t a trained singer JD! I’m worried”
“Don’t worry bro- I’ll get both of you out-!”
JD tried many tricks to try and crack the prison his brother was in but to no luck
“It’s made out of diamond- and there’s only one thing that’s strong enough to shatter diamond” Floyd hoped his brother got the clue-
“A diamond shattering diamond hammer! Where do we get one of those?”
It went way over his head
“No, the only thing strong enough to shatter diamond is the perfect family harmony” Floyd said giving his brother a look of humour
“Of course! The prefect family harmony!”
Floyd nodded looking at his brother with tired but hopeful eyes until-
“Our voices sound like GARBAGE! We need more TROLL!”
“Run John Dory- save yourself” Floyd urged, not wanting to get his brother captured
John Dory nodded, grappling back to the vent and shouting that he’d be back with the rest of the family
During the rescue mission you’re nowhere to be found
Floyd’s theory is correct and you are drained far to quickly-
You turn into a crystal troll just before the rage dome show
Velvet decides to put you in her pocket like a little good luck charm
The perfect family harmony works and shatters the diamond perfectly
Floyd thinking of you as he sings the last line
“Just let me take you to a better place!”
When he wakes up from his crystal form and has a moment with his brothers he looks around and doesn’t see you anywhere
“John Dory, where’s Y/n?”
Everybody starts looking around not being able to see you
Not even Crimp knows where you are
“Velvet! Where’s the other troll? The one you took as a backup?” Veneer said, after confessing that they were frauds
“Oh her? She drained far to fast so I gave her another use” velvet stated- pulling you out of her pocket “she’s my little good luck charm- though she didn’t work so she’s useless to me now”
Floyd gasped, tears finally spilling over as he takes in your completely crystallised form in shock
“No… Nononono”
Veneer snatches you off velvet and hands you to the group of trolls on the floor with remorse
“Y/n? Come on- this cant be happening!”
Floyd brings you into a hug- sobbing as he realises there’s no hope for you
You, though crystallised, can hear everything around you
You try to open your eyes but they’re so heavy
“You can’t do this to me- not after everything we’ve been through together, it’s my fault” Floyd stated through his tears “I just want you back.”
Everyone looks down in sadness, shedding their own tears as they mourn with Floyd
Then
The darkness starts to fade from your vision as you blink a few times
You raise your hand to his face, startling him
“You’re so silly”
you say weakly, watching his eyes tear up again- this time from happiness and disbelief
“You never lost me in the first place”
He brings you into a kiss- putting all of his emotions into it
The crowd cheers as they realise you’re alive and as velvet and veneer are taken away in cuffs
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craisinsensation1029 · 3 months
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You Better Tr(eat) Her Right
Kento Nanami & Kishibe
saw a Kishibe and Nanami art by Yuana and it made me bite a wall. im a TsudaKen slut so ig thats also fitting :p
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fem reader, smut, established relationship w Kishibe, voyeurism, cunnilingus, praise kink
1.3k
MDNI
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The soft material of the velvet couch sinks softly beneath your weight as you squirm slightly.
The stubble on Kishibe’s cheeks drag along your skin as his lips suck on the most sensitive part of your neck. The prickling sensation is nothing compared to the pleasure his suckling provides, the perfect amount of pressure applied as he nips at the column of your throat, one of his large hands kneading a nipple between his fingers. 
“K-Kis—“ you start to moan out, craning your neck to give him more access. 
“Don’t be rude, baby.” His voice is muffled against your neck as his tongue licks a stripe from the base up to your earlobe. His breath tickles the shell of your ear as he speaks again, “We have a guest, don’t make him feel unwanted now.”
The guest in question is the younger blond man between your legs, the palms of his large hands finding their home on the top of your thighs. Much like your lover his hands are rough, callouses contrasting the softness of the skin he’s grazing.
“Go on, Kento,” Kishibe encourages, breaking his attention away from your neck to urge the younger man’s face closer to your heat. Kishibe’s hand finds home on the back of Nanami’s neck as his nose brushes against your clit that’s bared to him, making your breath hitch. “I promised her that you would be a good time.” You feel your heart hammering in your chest as Nanami nods, his tongue darting out experimentally lapping at your slit. 
His warm tongue against one of your most sensitive parts makes you writhe as your mind starts to wander to a place far off from reality, a plane where pleasure is the only thing that exists. Kishibe though, is pretty positive it can feel even better for now. “Don’t be all shy now,” Kishibe chastises, forcing Nanami’s head even closer to your cunt. “Eat her pussy like you mean it.”
“Fuck,” Nanami moans, palms squeezing the tops of your thighs tighter as your scent invades his nostrils, your taste beginning to ease the ache of his desire. 
Kishibe is a prideful man, you see. He isn’t shy to boast about his strength, his wisdom, his most prized possessions. And you—his perfect, pretty little girlfriend and the treasure between your thighs always is incredibly important. So of course when he asked Nanami if he wanted to taste, he found himself agreeing, knowing that Kishibe wouldn’t settle for less than the best.
“O-oh,” you moan softly. Nanami really was being too conservative before, but as he moans against you and lets his tongue explore every inch of your slit, he realizes that he shouldn’t have tried to hold back in the first place. He sees why Kishibe can never shut up about your cunt.
“That’s it,” Kishibe praises, feeling much more satisfaction when he hears consecutive moans escaping your lips. He’d be damned if he shared with someone that wasn’t going to shower your heavenly pussy with the attention it deserves. 
His palm moves from the back of Nanami’s neck to your inner knee, coaxing it open more as Nanami continues letting his tongue lave over you; slow licks as his tongue flattens completely against your slit, fast licks as he lets the warm muscle dip shallowly into your hole. “That feels good, doesn’t it baby?” But the answer is obvious from the way your back is arching off the back of the couch, from the way his hand is the only thing keeping your legs open.
“S-So good,” you manage to say through bated breaths, body trembling with the utmost arousal.
“Tell him.”
“A-Ah,” you breathe out, your hand taking the spot where Kishibe’s just were, urging Nanami’s head even closer to you as your hips begin to gyrate. “K-Kento that’s s’good.”
“Good girl, fuck his face just like that.” Kishibe looks down at Nanami as his tongue continues to work at you. Nanami truly does resemble a man starved, his eyes closed as his face stays buried between your thighs, the motion of his pleasing movements seeming like the most autonomous thing he has done. “Taste good, doesn’t she?”
“Mhm.” Nanami shameless moans against your cunt, uncaring of his struggle to breathe as he continues to lasciviously please with with his tongue. “So fucking sweet.” His other hand moves to to push your other knee outward, your cunt completely at his mercy as he continues to letting his tongue explore every inch of your cunt, wanting the taste to be forever engrained in his mind. The movement of your hips against his face fuels him further as he starts to feel your little hole quiver. “Fuck, she’s so sensitive,” he murmurs, every single one of your pants and moans making his cock confined in his slacks throb.
“Ain’t she?” Kishibe slings his arm around your shoulder, using the palm of his hand to make you look at him. It’s hard to even keep your eyes open, but the sight only makes Kishibe smile. Your glazed over expression is one he can’t really see in full when he’s pleasing you himself, and fuck is it an erotic sight. “Kento,” he says, eyes still on you while yours are fluttering shut. “Suck her clit.”
Nanami doesn’t bother to reply, silently doing as instructed as he closes his mouth around your clit, sucking the engorged bud into his mouth. Your hips writhe as your teeth sink into your bottom lip. Stifled moans aren’t what Kishibe is interested in hearing however as he frees your lip, running his thumb across it. “Come on baby, you’re better than that,” he coos, still watching you struggle to keep your eyes open, your body vibrating with pleasure. Yet, he continues his taunts. “What did I say before?” he tsks. “If it feels good, tell him.”
Your eyes widen, though its hard to discern if its from the electrifying sensation of Nanami’s warm mouth sucking on your clit like its a never ending piece of candy or from Kishibe’s insistence of you praising another man in front of him, but it doesn’t matter. He always gets what he wants. So of course his own cock throbs when you cry out, “K-Kento, fuuuuuuck.”
Nanami releases the bud from his lips to lick a stripe up your heat before sucking your clit into his mouth again, one hand rubbing over his cock as bottom half of his face gets drenched in your essence. “K-Kento, fuck, ‘M s-s’close”.
“That’s better, baby.” Kishibe leans in, pressing a rough kiss to your lips, content with swallowing your moans this time around as he lets his tongue barge into your mouth. The lingering taste of beer and nicotine parades across your tastebuds as your eyes fall shut, the bliss of two tongues dancing over different parts of your body, making their claim brings you close and closer to the edge.
Your legs shake almost violently as the coil in your stomach begins to rapidly unwind. It’s like a freight train hitting you, Kishibe’s tongue bullying your mouth as Nanami’s does the same to your cunt. “Fuck,” Kishibe groans against your mouth only pulling away enough to ensure that his words are audible. “Gonna come on his face aren’t you?”
“God, ye-yes,” you whine, hips still moving with a mind of their own, legs stretched open beyond what you truly think your flexibility is capable of. “K-Kento, gonna come, go—"
To your surprise, two fingers quickly plunge into you and curl against your g-spot, literally pulling your orgasm out of you. A long strong of moans leaves your lips as your back arches again, your walls spasming around Nanami’s digits as he begins to lick your cum. “So sweet,” Nanami murmurs, squeezing his cock through its confines once more. 
“Tight too,” Kishibe chuckles, watching as Nanami doesn’t miss a single drop of you. “But you’re about to find out.”
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bettyfrommars · 1 year
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I'm on Fire//older!biker!Eddie Munson x artist!fem!Reader//90's au//Part 8
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🚨18+Only, smut, oral (f receiving), fingering, angst, biker!Eddie, biker!Steve, sexual innuendos, alcohol consumption, mention of financial troubles, falling in love, heartache, talk of commitment, talk of monogamy, casual sex, implied cheating, sex with someone other than reader, betrayal, having a stalker, biker gang, swearing, exotic dancers, reader wears dress and heels, reader wears red lipstick. Word count: 9.5k
Summary: In part 8, you start your new job as a cocktail server at the Velvet Hammer, and a few new characters are introduced. You and Eddie are officially falling for each other, while Eddie recalls a relationship from his past that left him shattered. A jealous ex-lover continues to try and rip the two of you apart, and this time, she might have succeeded. 90's playlist here
Series Masterlist
A/N: I'm not sure if it's that time of the month or what, but I cried twice while writing this🙃and not during the parts you might think. Rest assured that biker!Eddie and Reader are endgame. I love being in this world with y'all, and I always look forward to hearing from you! xoxox
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I'm on Fire//Part 8: From Here to Eternity
Day 3 of not hearing from Eddie, and you found yourself staring off into space, trying to calculate what could have possibly gone wrong. The idea that this was the kind of man that he was, that he would just ghost you without a word made your stomach sick. You thought you had developed better radar than that. You’d been listening to way too much Fiona Apple over the past 12 hours, but nevertheless---it was Thursday and you had to get ready for your first shift at your new job.
Shana, the hiring manager at the Velvet Hammer, let you know the dress code and a few ideas for what you should wear. It had to be skimpy and sexy and classy all at once, and at first you worried you might need to go shopping, but then Katie pulled this black latex halter top dress with a zipper down the front out of nowhere, and it didn’t fit her, so she assumed it belonged to her ex. Sure, it was not your signature style, but it gave you a certain Femme Fatale air of confidence that you hadn’t possessed before you put it on. Some of the servers got all decked out in creative makeup and wigs, but you decided to tackle your first day with caution.
You went over and checked the message machine in the living room again on your way out, just in case a call came through in the past 20 minutes that you miraculously did not hear, but the digital red number blinked a big, fat “0”.
Training at the Velvet Hammer was only about an hour long, and you met Jackie, the cocktail server you would be shadowing that night. She raised her eyebrow and gave you a bored look as she chewed her gum, hooking one of her long fingernails into the zipper of your latex dress to pull it down, exposing more of your skin. “That’s better,” she gave an extended wink. “We need those good tips tonight.”
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Meanwhile, Eddie spent the morning introducing the new office assistant around that he hired from a temp service, but then he had to leave to run a tow while Wayne showed her the ropes. The old man hated the suggestion that he needed help, but Eddie basically told him he had no choice. From Here to Eternity by Iron Maiden came on while he was en route back to the garage and his chest clenched, because for some reason, it made him think about you.
He never stopped thinking about you, really. But, if he kept busy with work, and drowned out the voices in his head with loud music and distractions, he could push aside the knowledge that he was already falling for you, and simultaneously come to terms with the fact that he was no good for you, and that you would be better off without him. The nights were the worst. He was back to getting only 3 or 4 hours of sleep, feeling like he had been spoiled on those occasions over the phone when he was lulled to dreamland by the sound of your sweet voice.
He knew in his gut that he was doing the wrong thing by not saying anything to you, but his denial was overshadowing his logic.
The suspension on the tow truck, or lack thereof, made him bounce as he came up onto the sidewalk lip to the driveway of the garage, and it somehow jarred his memory to the fact that your first day at the Velvet Hammer was tonight. He almost barreled right into the back of a car pulling out from one of the parking spots and had to slam on his breaks; he was becoming a hazard to everyone’s health, especially his own.
He needed to get his head on straight.
Fuck it, he needed to see you again.
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You were bummed to find out that Steve was tattooing at the shop, and not working the door that night, but the bouncer replacing him was also a biker who went by the nickname Thumper. He was stocky with big arms, a bald head, and a beard down to his chest. He called you darlin’ when he introduced himself to you.
“I’ll keep my eye on you girls,” Thumper reminded you and Jackie. “But be sure to come and get me if anyone give you any trouble.”
Tall, curvaceous Jackie rested her elbow on Thumper’s shoulder and leaned against him. “Thumper here tossed a guy out in the street for staring at me for too long once. He doesn’t play.”
“Ogling,” Thumper corrected. “The dude was ogling you, and if they’re gonna sit and get a free show to jerk off to later, they better be leaving decent tips for you ladies.”
Outside, there came the unmistakable growl of a gang of choppers coming up the street, and you excused yourself from the conversation to peek around the doorway. A group of Coffin Kings slowed down in front of the Velvet Hammer to acknowledge Thumper with a lift of their chins before speeding along to their destination, but none of them were Eddie.
The DJ played Thunder Kiss ‘65 by White Zombie an hour or so later as a purple and orange sunset blossomed over the mountains and the place started to fill up. A beautiful girl with a baby pink bob of hair got up on one of the stages with a pole and stated to work her magic while you carried a tray of drinks over to a table of four. The Velvet Hammer dancers never went completely topless, but they did strip down to tiny bikini sets that were plenty revealing, and their dance moves were seductively choreographed. The one with the pink bob had on finger-less, fishnet gloves, and a big tattoo on her thigh that you couldn’t quite make out.
You walked away as soon as you set the drinks down for the table, and Jackie snatched your arm.
“Where do you think you’re going?” She asked with a forced smile, talking without moving her lips.
You were genuinely confused, wondering if you somehow messed up on the drink order. “Um, nowhere, just--” you figured you’d get busy filling napkins and straws or something while you waited for more customers to come in.
Jackie pulled you to the side, bending close to your ear so that she wouldn’t have to shout over the music. “Part of the job is to socialize with the customers, honey, make them feel relaxed. Flirt with them, laugh at their jokes even when they are lame as hell,” she checked over her shoulder and smiled at the men at the table in question. “The more they think you’re actually interested, the bigger the tip, usually.”
You were nodding, taking the information in, wanting to do your job correctly. You’d been working in customer service in one way or another since you were a teenager, but, damn, you were horrible at faking interested or forcing conversation with guys you didn’t want to talk to. You hoped it was a skill that you could pick up from Jackie, because she was a magician at it.
You followed her back to the table so that she could introduce you to the group. It was four men, all in business suits, loosening their ties as they greeted you. They were a little older, ages ranging from 35 to 50, and the one who looked like he might be the oldest with a thick head of salt n’ pepper hair made eye contact with you and said he recognized you from somewhere.
God, the last thing you wanted was for a patron to recognize you from the gallery, that would be the worst.
“Probably from here?” You said with a lilt in your voice, trying to mask your bluff, hoping Jackie wouldn’t blurt out that it was your first day.
“No, I don’t think so,” he squinted, sitting back in his chair as he palmed his drink. “I’ve never been here before, so it couldn’t be that. But, I’m really good with faces, especially when one is as beautiful as yours.”
The forward compliment made you uncomfortable and you tucked your chin. He was a handsome older man, you couldn’t deny that. His eyes were such an intense blue, they were almost white, and you could tell from the way his shoulders fit in this suit jacket that he was in good shape and took care of himself. His friends were looking you up and down, and you could almost hear their internal lewd thoughts, but the older man—his name was John—kept polite eye contact with you as you talked. The watch he had on alone was worth at least a couple grand, and they all smelled like they were made of money.
But, none of them were Eddie, and so your banter felt particularly forced.
Thankfully, another group of customers came in and you excused yourself to follow Jackie over to the next table, wobbling for a moment in your heels before recovering quickly by bracing your hand on the back of a chair.
Later, just as John was leaving, a guy celebrating his 21st birthday had one too many tequila shots and tried to climb onto the stage, but his migration was interrupted by Thumper, who charged over to clam a big, meaty hand on his shoulder and remind him of the rules in a way that made the guys face go pale as he plopped back down into his seat.
You were standing at the bar with your back to John, but he came up behind you and touched your elbow. When you turned around to meet his gaze, he pressed some cash into your palm and said, “this is for you,” with a dimple and a wink, before heading out.
The rest of the group collectively left just as much of a tip on the table for Jackie. “A c-note tip on your first day?” She said with a shake of her head and a snort. “Sorry, but I kinda hate you right now.”
“Who was that John guy?” You whispered across the table to her as the two of you bussed the empty glasses.
“I have no idea,” Jackie shrugged. “His friends come in once in a while, but I’ve never seen that sexy DILF before. He had on a wedding ring, but most of the dudes who come in here do. It never keeps them from making a play.”
As the night progressed, there were eventually two girls dancing, one on each stage at opposite ends of the room. Jackie took her 15 minute break to go out into the alley for a smoke while you kept an eye on your tables. The dancers started a routine to Symphony of Destruction by Megadeth, and just when you had managed to get in a decent five minutes without Eddie on the brain, that song brought it all crashing back. You were at the far end of the bar, and when you glanced up to see who was coming in the front door---there he stood in the flesh, as if on cue: Edward Munson.
You blinked a few times, certain that your eyes were playing tricks on you and it was just someone who merely resembled Eddie, like a mirage appearing in the desert after you hadn’t had a sip of water in days. His muscular frame took up space in the doorway, wearing his black leather jacket, and his hair tied back to expose the two small silver hoops in his ear. He finished shaking Thumper’s hand, and then his eyes found yours, and the hint of a smile quivered on his lips. His gaze shifted around the room, taking in everyone in your vicinity, before they returned to you and hovered there.
A giddy breath hitched in your chest as you mirrored his reflexive grin, wholly unable to mask how happy you were to see him. But then, you remembered that this gorgeous dickhead is the one who selfishly left you in the wind for the past 3 days, and with a dramatic flourish of the tray in your hand, you spun on your heel to head in the other direction to check on some patrons near the stage.
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Eddie sat on his chopper with his boots planted wide on the pavement while he smoked a cigarette and stared at the red neon above the door to the Velvet Hammer. The decision to stay away had been to keep you out of Charlene’s cross hairs; to keep you from taking the brunt of this dark, underbelly of a life he had established for himself. As it turns out, staying away from you was too much torture for his raggedy old heart to bear, and that was saying a lot, considering the amount of shit he’d gone through in his life.
He indulged in long drags, sucking in his cheeks, watching people come and go out of the bar, wondering how you would react to him just popping in after days of silence. You knew he didn’t like talking on the phone, and besides---he needed to see your face. There was so much emotion a blind phone conversation could never capture; a lowering of the eyes or a worried brow. He needed to smell you, touch you, and taste your lips; he craved it in the deep corners of his cobwebbed soul.
If there was one thing about Eddie, he was patient when it came to matters of the heart. Matters of his dick were a different story, clearly, but when it came to those rare times in his life when he saw someone as a potential partner, he couldn't just dive in with reckless abandon; he wasn’t Steve. When Eddie loved someone, he handed over his entire heart: all of his loyalty, all of his trust, everything he owned---and that kind of vulnerability was not something he’d been open to feeling for what felt like an eternity.
There had been a woman who was very special to him once, years before you, and it ended with Eddie being hauled off to jail for beating the guy she was cheating on him with to a pulp. He bought a house and moved her in with him; he had a whole lifetime together with her planned in his head. But, there had been clear signs that it was never going to work, including the tiny detail that she never really loved him. Sure, she loved his image, the fact that he was in a band, the way he protected her, but he never felt like he could really be himself around her. He always felt tense and worried, like everything he did would never be enough.
He’d asked himself a million times since then what made him fall in love with her, and the most obvious answer what that he didn’t really know how love was supposed to feel at the time. His whole life, it felt like people were always leaving him, like he was always begging to be noticed and loved, and so her often cold disregard of him felt like familiar territory. Then, one day he comes home early from an overnight run with the Kings to find her taking it doggy style in their bed from this guitarist that Eddie had always considered a friend.
For months, she begged to come back, for him to forgive her, but once Eddie shuts a door, it locks forever. He knew he could never trust her again, which was the most important thing to him, and the pain of that betrayal still lingered like a permanent scar on his heart. In an effort to distract himself, he joined the Coffin Kings charter in Chicago and moved there for a year, fought in an underground bare knuckle ring, and did everything he could to numb himself. That was around the time Steve found out he was a father by way of Oliver basically being dumped at his doorstep, and Eddie realized he didn’t want to miss any more of his honorary nephew’s life.
All of the women he’d been with since then were just futile efforts to fill the void, until you.
So, what are you going to do about it, then, Munson? Just lurk out here on the street all night like a little kid at the fair who’s afraid of the big rides?
He dismounted the bike and stomped out his cigarette nub with the toe of his boot, adjusting the sleeves of his leather. Something made his defenses spike and he looked around the street to see if someone might be sitting in their car, watching him. At this point, he was almost certain that Charlene had paid someone to watch him, because for two days in a row, he’d noticed the same dark red Chevy Cavalier tailing him, staying at least one or two cars back. He didn’t see a car that fit the description parked anywhere near, but whoever it was could be anywhere, maybe even in the building across the street.
Charlene’s unhealthy obsession with him had to run it’s course eventually, she had to get bored and give up at one point. He hoped so, anyway. He couldn’t imagine her dragging this out for much longer, but he also never expected these threats from her in the first place, so he rightfully had his concerns. He thought maybe if he held out a few more weeks, she’d be off on one of her exotic vacations, and she could move on to ruining someone else’s life. But, he couldn’t wait that long to see you, to touch you. Hell, in a couple weeks you might not even want him anymore, and it was a risk he wasn’t willing to take.
There was a chance you might not want him now. There was a chance he’d already fucked everything up.
Thumper was a longtime friend, and he’d been with the Coffin Kings ever since back in the day when Wayne was a patched member. The two smacked their hands together in a signature grip as Eddie crossed the threshold onto the burgundy carpet. Inside the Velvet Hammer was buzzing with music and people and dancers wearing next to nothing on the back stages, people sitting shoulder to shoulder at the bar.
You might as well have been the only one there, though, because you were all he could see: simultaneously loving and hating the fact that you were dressed to kill. He’d never seen you in that color of lipstick before; it was a deep red and he ached to part them with his tongue.
He swore you were about to smile when your eyes met, he caught that adorable glimmer pass over your face and it made his heart still for a beat. But, then it faded just as quickly and you turned away to continue on with what you were doing, giving him the cold shoulder.
This was the first time you hadn’t rushed into his arms since this whole thing started, and it wrecked him. But, he also knew he kind of deserved it.
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Your mouth was moving and sounds were coming out, but you couldn’t remember a word you’d said to the guys at the table in the corner who were still nursing their beers. Your ears were ringing and your adrenaline was surging, flushing a hot wave over your chest. Had Eddie come there to see you? Or was he just there to casually have a drink and get turned on like everyone else?
If he wasn’t there to see you, and he planned on just coming by to hang out once in a while, you’d have to quit. There’s no way you could keep seeing him on a regular basis if this was how he chose to treat you, it would hurt too damn much, and no job was worth that. You had this overwhelming urge to run and hide somewhere, but you couldn’t duck out until Jackie came back, and so you straightened your shoulders and turned to face the music like a big girl.
And there he was: standing at the bar with both elbows hooked on the ledge behind him, boots crossed at the ankles, waiting for you. You could tell that he had just been checking out your ass because of the way his gaze flicked up to your eyes with incriminating speed. His expression was unreadable, but that was nothing new.
Reluctantly, but also, with excitement bubbling in your veins, you made your way over to him, pausing briefly as one of the other servers walked out of the hallway where the bathrooms were. Another song started up, this time it was #1 Crush by Garbage.
“Do you have a break soon?” Eddie swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry at how hot you looked in that strange zipper dress. “Or, I can come back?” His mind couldn’t help but jump straight to the fact that every single dude in the place was thinking dirty thoughts about you, and it made his back teeth clench.
He was there to see you, you thought, your heart soaring. But in almost the same second you realized that he could be there to tell you that this wasn’t working out, that he didn’t want to see you anymore, that he met someone else, that he was moving to Brazil: all of which would be awful, but then at least you could start the process of moving on instead of hanging in limbo. Moving on from Eddie…that sounded like it was easier said than done.
Just then, as your mouth was open about so answer him, Jackie came out adjusting her belt, chewing gum. “Your turn,” she said as she walked between the two of you. “Take a fifteen. Oh, hey Munson,” she added passively at the end, patting him on the arm as she continued around the bar.
-------------
At the far end of the hallway there was a heavy metal door that locked from the outside automatically when it shut, and there was a little wood wedge out in the alley to keep it open a crack. You bent down to push the wedge into place while Eddie put his hands on his hips and stared at the brick of the building across the way so that he wouldn’t get an erection at the sight of your perfect ass up in the air.
On one side of you squatted a big, metal dumpster, and on the other side were a few square crates where employees sat during their breaks, the pavement between them littered with cigarette butts. It was dark, and the only illumination came from a bulb over the door across the way and a streetlamp further down where the alley met with the sidewalk.
Eddie could tell things were different, he could tell you were upset, probably even hurt and disappointed, and he hated that he had something to do with that. All he wanted to do was put his arms around you, but your energy was telling him that you weren’t ready for that.
“I’m sorry…” He hesitated. What was he sorry for? Lots of things. “...for breaking our date and not calling.”
Your tight stomach softened, and your gaze flicked to his after not being able to make eye contact since stepping out of the building.
Eddie hooked his thumbs into his belt loops and looked down at the ground, shuffling his foot. “I had some shit to take care of and I got overwhelmed. But I should’ve said something to you.”
This was starting to be a pattern with him, but you believed that he was telling the truth. It sounded like there was a lot more to the story, but a sincere apology was worth it’s weight in gold to you. You could also tell that he was nervous to be in front of you right then, like maybe you wouldn’t forgive him.
He opened his mouth to say something else and you reached out and grabbed his hand, squeezing it, making his gaze jump to yours. “Hey, it’s okay,” you told him as he unhooked his thumb from his belt loop and took your hand. “I missed your stupid face, that’s all.”
He gave a soft snort, a sparkle returning to his eyes.
You leaned in, resting your other hand on his chest, relishing the direction this conversation had gone and how safe and whole you felt in his presence. You searched his eyes. “You need to communicate with me if this is ever going to work, okay? I don’t want you to feel like you can’t tell me things. Really, there’s nothing you could ever share with me about your life that I wouldn’t be able to handle.”
He really, really wanted to believe that was true, but the cynical part of him, the part that had learned to keep secrets as a way of life, doubted that anyone was that understanding.
“Come here,” he breathed on the curve of a smile, cupping your neck, and pulling your mouth to his. There were a few tender, sweet kisses, no tongue, and then he brushed his nose across yours a few times, lips brushing yours as he spoke. “I missed this.”
You kissed his bottom lip, and then his top lip, savoring their plump, perfect shape, before resting your head below his shoulder and wrapping your arms around him in a hug, his leather squeaking at your embrace.
You released a long, heavy breath. “I thought you came here to tell me you didn’t like me anymore.”
He kissed your temple. “I never said I liked you,” he mumbled, to which you dug your fingers into his ribs in an effort to tickle him, simultaneously trying to pull away. But, he held you tightly in place, deep chuckles rumbling in his chest. “It’s much more than that.”
At those words, you settled, smile pressed up against him, swooning so hard you felt like you were drunk.
What he had with you was special, and now, in his thirties, Eddie knew how rare this kind of chemistry was. You were the drug he wanted to be strung out on.
This...this was his, and he wouldn’t let anyone, especially Charlene, take it away from him.
--------------
There was a pep in your step when you returned to work, enough so that Jackie commented on it, giving you a side eye. “Who the hell got you off on your break?” she asked rhetorically.
Truly, your break had felt like it was over in a blink, like you and Eddie had only been standing out in the alleyway for a second before you checked your Swatch and had to scramble back inside. He asked if he could wait for you and walk you back to your car when your shift was over, and you were fine with that, but you let him know it would be another hour or so, and he didn’t seem to mind.
Eddie knew a lot of the people who worked at the Velvet Hammer. Or, more precisely, the people who worked there knew Eddie. The bartender that night was a guy who looked like Kurt Cobain and he ignored everyone else to make sure Eddie got what he wanted the second he sat down at the bar. The place was packed by then, but every chance you got, you would walk by and run your hand across Eddie’s back and give him a flirty glance over your shoulder as you schlepped drinks around.
Thumper came over and sat next to Eddie when the night got slow and had a beer with him, and the two went out front to have a smoke and chat about the good ‘ol days.
“Is that new server your old lady?” Thumper asked after a drag on his cigarette. He flicked the ashes to the sidewalk and cocked his head.
Eddie propped his foot up behind him, against the building, wallet chain hanging down his thigh, thoughtfully exhaling gray smoke into the night. “Maybe, if I don’t fuck everything up,” he coughed.
Thumper wheezed in a laughing spasm. “You still sticking it to that rich bitch, what’s her name?”
Eddie stiffened. “That’s been over for a while. Bitch got all Fatal Attraction on me,” Eddie’s vernacular took a turn when he was around the older charter members, it was second nature.
“Man, I wish I was 20 years younger,” Thumper sucked in the tuft of graying hair that was under his lip. “Those were the days.”
Eddie was eager to change the subject. “How is the fourth marriage working out for you?”
“Fifth,” Thumper corrected with a nod. “Divorced Jeanie last spring, married Lorraine a few months ago. No kids this time, I got the snip. One more baby momma would break me.”
As bleak as the conversation topic was, Eddie had an inner warmth radiating through his body, healing him, now that he knew the two of you were back in a good place. He didn’t know if a traditional wedding or kids were things that you wanted, but he saw himself making coffee for you in the morning and bringing it to you in your studio while you worked on a painting. He could see you running out the door to hug him as he dragged himself home after a long day at work. A life together with a porch swing and a view of the sunset, maybe a cat and a dog and some chickens. A big garage for his bike and whatever classic car he was working on at the time.
God, he was getting a head of himself. Did you even like dogs?
-----------
Back in the dressing room at the end of your shift, you and Jackie were both changing out of your work clothes and into something more comfortable when Jackie whipped around in only her bra and panties, startling you as you pulled your shirt on over your head.
“Hold up, you never told me you were Eddie Munson’s girl,” she hushed, giving you a sustained look of awe. “The stories I’ve heard about that cock are legendary.”
The way she sounded when she said it suggested that you should’ve been proud, but the declaration only succeeded in activating your anxiety. You tried not to think of all of the women in town he’d given orgasms to as you tied the laces on your shoes. As long as he was faithful to you, none of that other business should matter. But still, somehow it did. That reminded you, maybe it was time to lay the cards out on the table and have that monogamy talk before you got more invested than you already were.
There were still a few customers hunched over their drinks as you walked out, but the dancers were done, and you said goodbye to Jesse, the bartender, thanking him for all of his help. Jackie gave you a high five, and hugged Thumper before she headed off down the opposite side of the street, high ponytail bobbing.
You smiled up at Eddie who was standing there with his arm out, waiting for you to curl against him so he could wrap it around your shoulders.
“I thought for sure you would’ve ditched me by now,” you told him, slipping one of your hands into his back pocket.
“Nah, you’re not getting rid of me that easily,” Eddie joked, lifting his hand in a wave to Thumper as the two of you headed off down the street.
“Take care of that one,” Thumper shouted. “She’s a good girl.”
------------
“Are you?” Eddie asked as the two of you approached your car that was parked a block away.
“Am I what?” You asked, stopping to turn and gaze up into his face.
Eddie lifted his chin with a smirk, exposing the tattoo lines that peeked out of the collar of his shirt across his throat. “A good girl?”
You wet your bottom lip with the tip of your tongue and tilted your head. “Depends on who wants to know.”
He pulled took you into his arms for another kiss, eager tongues this time, moans in the back of throats, cock jumping in his jeans.
Your lips came away just enough to speak, your hand cupping his face, the stubble around his jaw prickling your palm. “What about you? Are you a good boy?”
There was a shiver of hesitation on his breath before he answered. “Only for you.”
The two of you were locked in a moment, you could’ve been on the sidewalk, you could’ve been standing on the moon---nothing mattered and you had no concept of time.
But then Eddie spoke up again. “Do you wanna get out of here? Go for a ride? I want to show you something.”
You didn’t have to be back at the Velvet Hammer until Saturday, and the thought of getting on Eddie’s bike again gave you excited goosebumps.
Eddie started opening the strap on one of the black leather saddlebags on the back of his chopper once the two of you arrived, and you stood back and watched as he pulled out a second bare bones helmet, the top shiny like the round edge of a bowling ball.
“I got this for you,” Eddie said, passing it over. “It should fit better than mine.”
You were speechless for a moment, looking down at it, touched by the thoughtful gift. “Thank you, I love it,” you whispered. He placed it on your head and adjusted the strap under your chin, diligently making sure it fit correctly.
“Is it too tight?” He asked, making sure the sides weren’t pinning your ears.
“It’s perfect,” you nodded.
He straddled the bike. “Do you remember how to get on?”
But you were already grabbing onto the back of his jacket and swinging your leg over. You’d been practicing getting on the back of Eddie’s bike in your dreams.
-------------
You clung to him as the two of you sped along in the dark, your fingertips meeting at his stomach, chest glued to his back, core locked to his tailbone. He had on a pair of clear, protective glasses to keep the bugs from blinding him, and every so often, he would reach one hand down and put it over yours as the bike wound up the hill. You’d kiss the exposed skin on the back of his neck between his hairline and the collar of his leather, and he’d squeeze your thigh.
The spot he wanted to you to was a grass ledge near a line of cherry blossom trees that overlooked the city. He pulled out a thin blanket from one of his saddlebags and stretched it out over the grass. Lights down below twinkled like stars and you took your new helmet off to get comfortable next to him.
“Yep, it’s ugly,” you joked, referring to the spectacular view.
Eddie stretched his legs out in front of him and braced himself on his hands. “I knew you’d hate it just as much as I do,” but then there was a sliver of hesitation, his foot moving back and forth as he considered if he should say it or not. “I’ve never taken anyone up here before.”
Summer was fast approaching as far as the temperature went, but the nights were still chilly, and you had a sweatshirt on, but his proximity and the tone of his voice was rapidly throwing coals on the fire in your circulatory system.
Things progressed quickly. One second, you were laughing at a joke he made, and the next---your lips were on each other, hands roaming over each other’s bodies, heat throbbing between your legs. You were trying to push his jacket off, but Eddie sat up and removed it in a flash, tossing it on the bike with a twist of his wrist.
You rutted your hips against him a few times, but you could sense the hesitancy he had for whatever reason, and you took hold of his hand to move it down to your core, enjoying the growl he let out when he latched on to the wet heat already permeating through your jeans. You clung to his neck as he unzipped them, and you wiggled your hips out so he could slide his hand in. He paused only to take his rings off of his H-E-L-L-F-I-R-E knuckles, and then his fingers dipped back down to curl inside your underwear, slipping into the gushing arousal he found there, groaning against your mouth.
His thick fingers rolled in circles over your anxious nub. “Is this mine?” He asked in a throaty whisper, pressing his forehead to yours, waiting for you to answer.
Saliva got stuck in your throat but you whimpered a yes. He starts to slip his fingers down through your folds and you quiver as he travels deeper, aching to penetrate you, but you catch his wrist, stopping him from going any further.
“I have to...to say something,” you breathed.
Eddie pulled his hand out and rested it on your thigh, and brought his face back so he could see your eyes as you blinked at him under the moonlight. “You can tell me anything, baby.”
You planted a kiss on his chin, feeling nervous for some reason when it came to setting your boundaries. “I can’t be intimate with you if you’re also doing this with other women. I need to know that we’re…” you struggled with how to word that. Demanding some large scale commitment from him might come off as getting ahead of yourself. “I need to know that you and I are something special and there’s no one else,” you paused to lick your lips, eyes lowered to the neckline of his shirt.
Nothing you said could’ve pleased Eddie more, and his attraction to you intensified ten fold in that moment. He used the crook of his finger to tilt your chin up, encouraging you to meet his eyes. “There’s no one else. There hasn’t been anyone else since the barbecue at Robin’s house.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to add, “if you’re my girl, there will never be anyone else,” but he didn’t want to come off as smothering, or make you feel uncomfortable with the intensity in which he was capable of devoting to you.
Relieved, you brushed his cheek with your thumb. “Trust and monogamy are really important to me, I need to know I can trust you,” your eyes met, searching deep, and he pulled your hand to his chest. “You’re the only one I want to be with, and I think we could---”
But Eddie’s lips found yours with a new level of need as he wholeheartedly agreed, so caught up in his growing feelings for you that he didn’t have the words to express them. He could ramble on about cars and music and bikes all day long, but when it came to feelings like this? He was struck dumb.
“I want to taste my girl,” he choked out, helping to work your jeans down with his hand as you kicked them down and off, keeping your mouth on his while your hand clutched his hair that had fallen from the tie and was loose around his shoulders.
“I want to be in your mouth, baby,” you gasped as he met your eyes and then made his way down, lifting your shirt to kiss your stomach, tongue darting out to tease your flesh, face stubble tickling.
A purr escaped his throat as his mouth found its destination and he planted kisses on the outside of your soaked underwear, down your slit, and then he peeled them to the side with his finger, darting his tongue in just enough to make you writhe.
“You can...take those off…” you breathed.
He kissed your inner thigh. “You let me take care of it,” he told you in a deep voice, as he continued on with his business.
His tongue dove in to penetrate you a few times, swallowing, groaning, “fuck, you taste so good,” his hot breath fanned against you as his cock begged for release, his hips rocking against the ground.
The need to be inside of you was overwhelming; painful, even, but he hadn’t brought any condoms with him, and he didn’t know how you would feel about being that close to him this soon in the game. The thought of getting you to cum in his mouth already had his cock leaking.
For some reason, the way he pulled your underwear to the side was turning you on even more? He sucked your clit in and flicked it with his tongue, moaning against you, and it made you arch your chest, exposing your throat to the cherry blossoms above as you cursed. He drew a few long licks along your slit, and then you felt a finger go in just as your fingers dug into the grass on either side of the blanket.
“Are you mine?” Eddie asked between sucks, sinking another finger in.
Crickets made their music all around as the soft hush of the town life below drifted up in the darkness.
“I’m-I’m all yours, baby,” you stammered, forehead clenched.
Eddie’s fingers found a rhythm, moving long and deep in fast strokes as his mouth found the perfect spot that made you hiss, “right there right there,” and he kept working until he could feel your tight walls start to clench around his fingers.
“You’re so good, baby,” you were mumbling, barely coherent now as a strangled cry escaped your lips and your hips fucked into his hand and Eddie’s pelvis fucked the ground, and your eyes started to roll back in your head.
“Eddie, Eddie, cum-cum-cumming,” you jerked as the velvet walls crashed around you, limbs popping spasmodically, whimpering his name.
Eddie pressed his mouth against your core, one hand around your thigh to pin you against his tongue so that he could drink every last drop, riding the high with you until he knew your nub would be too sensitive, and then his tongue returned to your hole a few times, moaning with pleasure at the sweet nectar of your release.
And then you were pulling him up, coaxing him into your arms, your mouth eager to find his and taste your spend on his lips. He wrapped the side of the blanket around you to keep you warm as you rolled against him, both lost in an oxytocin high, muttering words of affection to each other.
Both falling hard under the adoring pink eyes of the cherry blossoms.
------------
The next day, someone knocked on the door to the women’s restroom at the Velvet Hammer because it was locked, and Steve’s head sprang up from between the thighs of the woman he had propped up on the sink counter.
“Ocupado!” he yelled in Spanish, lips and chin glistening in the dim red light.
The woman with the short skirt shoved up around her waist and her feet planted on his shoulders whined, “Don’t stop, Stevie, I’m close,” which made Steve’s mouth lunge forward again with unbridled enthusiasm.
About a minute later, she came, while grabbing his hair and telling him no one ever made her cum that hard. She was a yoga instructor, and they’d only met up a few times so far, but he was already thinking about getting her name tattooed somewhere on his body.
As they were cleaning up, there was another knock at the door, this time it was more of an aggressive pounding, followed by the voice of Jackie, one of the servers. “Telephone call for you, Casanova!” She swatted the door a few more times with the palm of her hand.
Steve let Mary the yoga instructor go out first, and then he followed after a ten count, tucking his shirt in and slicking his hair back as he went. Mary went to the bar to wait for him. It was almost 9:30 and he was getting off early that night because there was another bouncer there, and it was slow for a Friday.
Steve ducked in behind the bar and yanked the receiver to his ear. “Yeah, this is Steve? Whadda ya want?”
It was you, and by the sound of the gentle sucking in of breath and tremor in your voice, you had been crying. Your voice was a tiny mew. “Steve? Have you seen Eddie tonight?”
At the dire tone of your voice, Steve curled into the corner of the bar and put a finger in his other ear so that he could hear you more clearly. “I haven’t, but I should put an ankle monitor on him. Are you okay? Are Oliver and the girls okay?”
You cleared your throat, about to try and explain, but then just said, “Everyone is fine. I’m sorry to bother you. I have to go,” and then you hung up on him, sobs jerking in your chest.
-----------
Earlier that same evening, Robin and Oliver came over to have a pizza night with you and Katie at your place, and then Robin and Katie cuddled in front of the TV while you and Oliver spread out at the kitchen table to make some art.
You had been messing around with some watercolor pencil sketches when they first arrived, and Oliver was mesmerized. He sat as close as he could to you and asked if he could help. You brought out a bunch of markers and crayons and brushes from your studio, and the two of you worked in silence for periods of time, just enjoying the craft. He was a creative, intelligent little boy, and the latent motherhood genes in your DNA made you feel very protective of him. Mess with you? Fine. Mess with Oliver? I will end you.
His concentration reminded you of a younger you, honestly, and a couple times he mentioned his Uncle Eddie and your heart swelled.
Speaking of Eddie---last night, after he made you cum like a banshee, you got dressed so he could take you back down the hill to your car. You called him once you got home, like he asked you to, but you hadn’t heard from him since. Fridays were always busy for him at work, never mind the rest of the shit he had to deal with, so you weren’t too worried about it. He’d probably call you later when he was in bed. There had been a palpable shift, and things were different between the two of you now. You were both on the same page, each committed to a mutual respect for each other.
By the end of the evening, when there was only a few crusts of pizza left in the box, Oliver gathered the handful of artwork he’d created on your sketchbook paper, and slid them over to you as if he was making a business deal.
“Can you sell these in your gallery?” he asked, bending one of his small fingers into the stack. “That way I can help my mom pay some bills.”
For more reasons that one, you started to tear up. You turned your head away to sniff and ran your finger under your eyes, blinking as wide as you could to keep the waterworks at bay.
“Ollie,” Robin said softly. She had just been coming up behind him when he said that, and her eyes met yours. “Things have been a bit stressful lately, but I never told him to---”
“I wish I could,” you nodded, composing yourself, turning to smile at Oliver. “These drawings are worth way too much, though, our gallery could never afford them.”
He looked thoughtfully down at the stack and shuffled them, smiling to himself, and then he pulled one out and passed hit to you. “This one is you and uncle Eddie. You can keep it.”
You were suddenly so emotional. Was your period close? Was someone cutting onions?
The picture he drew with watercolor pencils and charcoal and crayons was a tall stick figure with long, wavy dark hair holding hands with a big pink heart with arms and legs, but no hair or other defining characteristics. An orange oval with legs and a round head to represent your cat Charlie, and there were “m” shaped birds and a sun in the sky.
You thanked Oliver, swallowing back a hitch in your chest, and immediately went over to put his artwork on the fridge, wiping your wet cheeks.
-------
Robin and Oliver had been gone for 20 minutes or so, and you and Katie were wrapped up on opposite ends of the couch watching a horror movie in the dark, candles burning on the coffee table, when the doorbell rang.
It didn’t just ding once: whoever it was blasted their finger onto the button a good 6 or 7 times before they let up.
“What the hell,” you murmured, pausing the tape as you got up, prancing to the door, hoping that it might be Eddie.
You peaked through the peephole and was confused to see no one there. Your eyeball was scanning around for other signs of life when it landed on a manila envelope on the doormat.
“Where you expecting some mail?” You called to Katie, and she got so curious, she jumped up from the couch to come down the hall and see what made you ask that.
She checked the peephole to take a look at the envelope and the surrounding area. Down the street, you heard a car engine start up.
You backed up, worry creasing your brow. “Leave it. I have a bad feeling.”
Katie threw you a look over her shoulder before she unlocked the door and swiftly bent down to snatch the envelope before reeling back inside and clamping the locks down again.
“It has your name on it,” she said, handing it to you.
Sure enough, on the front was your full name in block letters, and on the other side was a sealed lip held in place by an aluminum tab.
Just then, a dark red Chevy Cavalier crept down the street without its headlights and eased onto the main road, out of sight.
-----------
Eddie was at the garage finishing up until 6, and then he had a beer with Bones, who was also a Coffin King and one of his mechanics, and then he went over to Wayne’s to help him install a new cabinet in his bathroom. He made them both some tomato soup and grilled cheese for dinner, and it got him wondering if you would like it if he made it for you.
It was getting late, and he almost called you from Wayne’s, but decided it would feel good to take his boots off and lay down first. He’d let you know the night before that you might not hear from him until late; he was determined to be a better communicator and not let you down again.
He yawned as he entered his apartment, locking the door behind him and throwing his leather on the back of the sofa.
The new answering machine that he had picked up from Radio Shack on his lunch break, and set up at your request, was blinking that he had 2 new messages, but it wasn’t something he was used to checking, so he cracked open a beer and hopped in the shower first.
------------
Once you saw what was in the envelope, denial was the first stage you jumped to.
“But, what are these?” You spread them out on the kitchen island, shock clamping down on your brain so that it refused to process the information in front of you.
They were 8x10 photos, taken with some type of high-powered camera...of Eddie. In his apartment. With two different women on separate occasions. All taken within the past couple days.
How did you know that they were taken within the last couple days? Whoever took them didn’t want to leave you with any room for doubt, and so they were holding up the front page of the paper for that day to mark each incident.
But, you knew Eddie so well, that detail would not have been necessary.
In the ones where he was in nothing but his boxers, kissing Erica in the hallway, you could see the markings from the love bite on his neck that you had accidentally given him over the weekend when he came to pick you up at the gallery.
In the second set of photos, where a tattooed redhead you didn’t recognize was behind him on the bed with her arms wrapped around him---he was in the exact same t-shirt he’d worn last night with a smudge of your red lipstick on the white collar. From when you were both under the cherry blossoms. When he promised that you could trust him and there was no one else. After you opened yourself up to him and let him take a piece of you.
“Who would do this?” Katie said in a hush, almost to herself, picking up each one to look at it closer. “Why would someone do this?”
“There must be a mistake,” you mumbled, your nervous system crashing, feeling lightheaded.
Katie swallowed and put down the photo she was holding, giving you a look that was full of sadness and concern. “How could it be a mistake, though? That is definitely Eddie.”
Feeling yourself about to lose it, you scrambled to pull all of the photos together and hurried down the hall to lock yourself in your room. Once inside, you clutched the photos to your chest and slid down the door until you were on the ground, shaking, choking on tears.
-----------
The older man with the salt n’ pepper hair and crystal blue eyes returned to the Velvet Hammer on Friday evening just to see if you were working. He had a whiskey sour at the bar and asked after you, but was told you didn’t have a shift that evening. Steve overheard the conversation he was having with the bartender and went over to him.
“She’s a friend of mine,” Steve raised an eyebrow, rolling a toothpick between his lips. “Why are you asking about her?”
John turned on his bar stool and shook Steve’s hand, white teeth brilliant against his tan skin.
��She waited on our table the other day, and, it took me a while, but I finally realized where I knew her from.” He paused to extend his hand and ask Steve if he could buy him a drink, but Steve declined.
John opened his wallet to pull a business card out. “I bought some original art from her at an outdoor market a few years ago. She’s a brilliant painter," he met Steve’s bored gaze, seemingly unaffected by the intimidation factor that he usually had on people.
He handed Steve his card. “I’d love to commission another piece from her, if she’s willing. Do you think you could have her call my office?”
Steve inspected the card, turning it over.
“I wrote my personal line on the back,” he continued. “I’m usually at work, but my secretary always knows where to find me.”
Steve knew that you’d be glad for the extra cash, so he slipped the guys card in his back pocket instead of throwing it away like he normally would.
“I didn’t catch your name?” John asked Steve.
“That’s because I never threw it,” Steve returned, introducing himself.
“Good to meet you, Steve,” he nodded sincerely. “My name is John. John Gregson.”
Steve had already read his name on the business card and was still trying to figure out why it sounded so familiar as he watched him get into a black Mercedes across the street.
----------
Eddie was in his gray sweats, drying his hair with a towel when he finally noticed the number 2 flashing on the machine. He pushed play absently as he went to sit on the bed.
The first message sounded like a strangled gasp and then a sniffle, and it made his head snap up, both hands holding onto the blue towel around his neck.
“...Eddie…” it was you, and he could tell you were in distress, and you’d been crying. He leaned forward to hover over the machine, his brow clenched. There was a stretch of time where you were struggling to speak and only managed to swallow a few times. “….why would you do this to me?” Then another pause when it sounded like you were whispering whywhywhy over and over under your breath.
You finished with, “This hurts so bad...." And then there was a click and the message abruptly stopped.
Eddie’s head was reeling, fear and worry jack-hammering in his veins.
His eyes wide and frantic, he picked up the receiver to call you, but then the second message clicked on.
The sound of Charlene’s voice spiked with amused laughter sent a dagger into his gut:
“I warned you.”
--------
Part 9
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moorishflower · 1 year
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That long lost!Addams ficlet is a delight. You KNOW Gomez would be so absurdly proud if his new great x100 uncle then managed to bag an actual eldritch terror as a partner. Wouldn't even miss a beat.
"Hob Gadling," Dream says, and Hob makes a frankly embarrassing sound -- not a shriek, nothing like that, but maybe a startled yelp -- and jerks off the side of the bed and onto the floor. Dust from beneath the bed settles immediately in his hair, and the floorboards creak alarmingly under his weight, but, after a tense and breathless moment, nothing happens. Hob exhales, and finds himself looking up between Dream's long and slender legs. He's wearing skinny jeans, Hob notes, and he can't resist the urge to grab hold of both of Dream's calves, just above the ankle, and Christ, but he's so skinny Hob can nearly get his fingers to touch.
Dream only raises an eyebrow at him. "Why do you keep the company of witches?" he asks, and Hob strokes up the length of his legs, as high as he can reach, humming softly. His heart is still hammering with excess adrenaline, and he's got to channel it somewhere. Lust for his lover (partner? boyfriend? they haven't really discussed --) is as good a cause as any.
"Hello," he says, attempting to maintain some manner of social nicety. "Good to see you, darling, how's your day been, mine's been fine --"
"Hob."
"-- I only learned that I've apparently got relatives, still," he finishes, and Dream's other eyebrow joins the first. Hob uses Dream's ankles to hoist himself further from the edge of the bed, and then picks himself up gingerly, brushing dust from his hair, his shoulders. It falls down from him in a grey cloud, and he's not able to suppress a sneeze before he says, "Loads of them. From my mam's side of the family. Apparently she had a sister."
"And you decided to visit."
"There were extenuating circumstances," Hob says, thinking of the diary, the bidding war, Gomez's unflappable enthusiasm for the esoteric. "But yes. What's this about witches?"
"Many of your relatives are. Though this explains, somewhat. How swiftly and easily you took to immortality."
Witches are real? sits on the tip of his tongue, and Hob only narrowly swallows it back. "Am I a witch?" he asks, half-fearing the answer. It'd make his drowning in the 1600s a lot less poignant, maybe. If he's been a witch this whole bloody time, if 'witch' is a thing that's somehow separate and distinct from human...
"No," Dream says, and all the tension leaves Hob's shoulders at once. He sits back down on the bed with a shuddering sigh. It's a nice bed, a four-poster with a canopy, and Gomez and Morticia had reassured him that this room did not contain anything that lived under the mattress. The sheets are heavy velvet, in deference to the cold Chicago winter, and yesterday morning he'd woken up to the sight of Wednesday Addams standing over his bed with a morningstar in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other. She had been contemplating the best way to wake him: by cutting his hair (he'd needed to explain to her that it would take time to grow back), or by caving his chest in (requiring a totally different, but no less important, conversation of its own).
"Good," he says, and Dream makes a low, thrumming noise, and straddles Hob's lap.
"You did not tell me where you were going," he murmurs, and strokes his thumbs down Hob's cheeks, catches his nail on Hob's bottom lip and pulls it down slightly to expose his teeth. "I felt you, still. In the Dreaming. But The New Inn was bereft of you."
"I didn't realize I was coming here until the second I did it," Hob admits, and Dream seems to take this in stride. "Besides. I've got no way to contact you. I sort of hoped you'd just...feel where I was."
"I did. I do. And yet. To hear it from your lips would also be...pleasing."
"You're allowed to say you're miffed, love," Hob says, and lays his hands in the cup of Dream's hips. Thin and bony and his. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you where I was going. Maybe we can figure out some way we can talk not through the Dreaming, in future. Dunno if you get cell service there."
He means it as a joke, but Dream tilts his head to the side, considering. His thumb sweeps up from Hob's lip, touches just below his eye, the firm bone of the orbit.
"I will consider it," he says, and then bends down and gently covers Hob's mouth with his own. His lips are soft, and Dream always runs closer to lukewarm than he does body temperature, but now Hob gasps because Dream's mouth, when it opens against him, is chilled. Sweet and cool as wintermint, and his tongue licking at Hob's lips is like a round of ice that thaws and melts and slowly slips inside, until Hob can drink him the way he would snowmelt, held in the cupped chalice of his tongue --
"Dios mío," comes a familiar voice at the door, and Hob frantically pulls his hands from where they had been inching over Dream's arse, and then just as frantically tries to rearrange himself so that his erection isn't immediately visible. He's not sure how he manages this last, since he feels hard enough that it could be seen from space, but if that's the cross he must bear, then so be it.
Dream, as always, is utterly unflappable, and turns to the bedroom door looking every inch a king; he's wild-haired, Hob realizes, and the skinny jeans aren't so much gone as they are flickering, like a projector caught between two slides, flipping back and forth between Dream's usual peacoat and jeans, and what Hob's become used to seeing him wear in the Dreaming, what he thinks of as Dream's robe of office, flowing like ink, black as the starless sky.
Gomez, standing in the doorway, looks between Dream and Hob, and then a wide and cheery grin nearly splits his face in half.
"Mi querido niño! You did not tell me you had a paramour! And who is this enchanting creature? Gomez Addams, my friend, at your service!"
Dream blinks slowly, and Gomez, to his credit, does not come forward with a proffered hand or, thank God, a hug. Only beams at Dream from the doorway, until Hob's increasingly eldritch lover breaks the silence at last.
"I am called Morpheus," he says, "Lord of Dreams and King of Nightmares. Shaper of Form and Prince of Stories." He inclines his head slightly, and Gomez looks as though he might faint with delight. "And lover of Hob Gadling."
"You did not tell me you were royalty," Gomez says. He strides into the bedroom, and thankfully it's Hob he's bound for, Hob's hand that he grabs. "Royalty! Why, the Addams haven't hosted a king since good old Henry!"
"Which Henry?" Hob gets out, as he's forcibly removed from the bed and dragged, almost bodily, towards the door. Gomez is strong. He keeps forgetting.
"It doesn't matter! They're all quite dead. But yours isn't! Come, my liege! Allow me to escort you and your Prince Consort on a promenade of the grounds! Have you ever been to America before, sir?"
"I am a representation of all sleeping minds, and of the dreaming subconscious of all living things," Dream says, sweeping behind them, stately and imposing. "So. Yes."
"Oh, splendid! That means I don't have to explain baseball."
"What is happening," Hob whispers, as he's manhandled out into the hall. His mind is caught somewhere on prince consort and doesn't quite want to let go of it, but he feels like that's a conversation he ought to have with Dream in private.
And Dream looks at him, smirking faintly, his starlit eyes flicking from Hob's mussed hair to his kiss-pinked lips, and down to the way that Gomez so effortlessly steers him by the shoulder out into the manor proper.
"Family," Dream says, and reaches out, and laces his fingers with Hob's.
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tinytinyblogs · 3 months
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Stray Kids Mafia Series: Felix
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In the midst of the chaos and perilous circumstances, he unexpectedly spared your life, an action he had never taken for anyone else.
⚠Mention blood and gun, mafia theme⚠
Stray kids masterlist here
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Your insights and reactions make these posts come alive. Love reblogs, comments, and all the good vibes welcome ✨
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The red velvet banquette, usually avoided like a spilled martini on a first date, beckoned with unexpected allure tonight. Tonight was rebellion against the predictable, a whispered promise of "different" scribbled on the fluorescent bar lights. You perched on its cool edge, a tentative bird testing unfamiliar branches, a kernel of hope blooming in the concrete jungle of routine. Your gaze drifted to the crystal goblet on the bar, catching the neon strobe's prismatic dance. It winked and shimmered, a tiny disco ball reflecting the kaleidoscope of your own desires for change. Was this the chance you'd whispered about in silent prayers to the night sky? Was this the crack in the dam of habit, the beckoning of a current you'd never dared to ride? Surrounded by the chaos of a frantic nightclub, panic gripped your heart as the sudden sound of gunfire shattered the air. Screams pierced the night, and people scrambled for safety, their bodies colliding as fear turned to desperation. Overwhelmed by the sheer terror of the moment, you froze, your instincts urging you to find shelter amidst the chaos. Adrenaline surged through your veins you scanned the room for a place to hide. Running seemed like a futile attempt, your legs feeling heavy and unresponsive. With trembling hands, you sought refuge in the nearest alcove, your body curling into a protective ball as the cacophony of screams and panicked footsteps echoed around you. The tremor in the floorboards was a familiar language, a whispered rhythm beneath the symphony of the city.
You knew each creak, each groan, and the precise tremor that meant hurried footsteps. Tonight, however, the rhythm stuttered, followed by a sharp intake of breath. Someone had discovered your hiding place. Heart hammering against your ribs, you squeezed your eyes shut your heart pounded in your chest, threatening to burst from its confines, as you imagined the worst-case scenario: your own life hanging by a thread in this tumultuous night. Every nerve ending hummed with anticipation, waiting for the deafening crack that would signal your end. But the expected blast never came. Instead, a tense silence stretched, punctured only by the ragged rhythm of your own breath. Curiosity wrestled with fear, urging you to peek. With agonizing slowness, you cracked open an eyelid, then the other. A gun glinted menacingly in his hand, its metallic sheen a stark contrast against the crimson stain spreading across his shirt. He emerged from the gloom like a mirage, moonlight catching the pale sheen of his skin. Blood, you realized with a jolt, marred his cheekbone, a crimson stain against the alabaster canvas. Yet, even in the throes of chaos, even with a gun clutched tight in his hand, he was breathtaking. His blonde hair, long and tousled, fell in a mullet that somehow managed to be both rebellious and strangely delicate. It framed a face sculpted with an almost arrogant perfection, jawline sharp enough to cut diamonds, eyes the color of a stormy sea. He stood frozen, a tableau of lethal grace, every line of his body taut with tension.
As your eyes met his, you flinched, expecting the worst. The man, caught off guard by your unexpected presence, almost reacted impulsively, his finger hovering dangerously close to the trigger. Your gaze, drawn by an invisible magnetism, followed the cold metal to his hand, where a finger hovered impossibly close to the trigger. Tears, salty and warm, had already carved silent tracks down your cheeks, betraying the desperate scream trapped within your chest. Your throat, constricted by a primal fear, refused to let out a sound, your voice stolen by the terror that clawed at your insides. It felt as if your very being vibrated with an unheard plea, a silent cry for help that echoed only in the hollow chambers of your heart. However, something held him back, a flicker of humanity amidst the chaos that surrounded him your presence in this atmosphere of violence seems misplaced. He could see the terror in your eyes, a reflection of his own inner turmoil. He realized, in that fleeting moment, that the violence he had been a part of had spilled beyond his control, ensnaring innocent lives in its destructive wake. Lost in a haze of terror, you opened your eyes to find the man still frozen in his tracks, his gaze locked on yours. His deep voice, surprisingly calm amidst the chaos, echoed through the room. Your lungs finally released the breath you hadn't dared to exhale, a shaky torrent that escaped in a single, shuddering sob. The gun, once aimed with chilling precision at your heart, now hung limp at his side, the tip dipping almost apologetically towards the ground. His eyes, those storm-laden depths, searched yours with a bewilderment that mirrored your own.
He pivoted away, his back stiff and unyielding, like a fortress against the tidal wave of emotions threatening to break within him. His breath escaped in a sigh, heavy and laden with frustration. Why? Why should he feel this pang of regret, this sudden urge to shield you from the chaos he himself had unleashed? Spare your life? It was laughable, almost grotesque. He, the predator, the harbinger of violence, now grappling with the unthinkable notion of mercy for his prey. The discordant symphony of the ravaged nightclub, a twisted echo of its former revelry, pierced the suffocating silence. It was a rude awakening, a stark reminder of the carnage swirling outside the bubble of his internal conflict. The sound brought him crashing back to reality, forcing him to confront the consequences of his actions and the unexpected weight of your fragile presence. "Don't move. Stay exactly where you are. I'll clear this up. Don't come out until I get you." With that, he turned and disappeared into the mayhem. You had no idea who he was, only that he was one of the men involved in the shootout, evidenced by the gun still clutched in his hand. You remained rooted to the spot, feeling like a hummingbird caught in a sudden downpour. The blonde stranger with the gun was a whirlwind of contradictions, spitting gunfire one moment, offering hesitant mercy the next. His words hung heavy in the air, tinged with an unexpected vulnerability that left you both bewildered and wary.
The incessant thrum of gunshots continued, a macabre rhythm punctuated by the occasional scream. Logic screamed at you to run, to seek refuge in the labyrinthine darkness of the club. But movement seemed to invite disaster, like a butterfly fluttering into a spider's web. So, you stayed, a statue sculpted from fear, flinching with every deafening crack, your ears aching from the sonic assault. Then, silence. It descended with the suddenness of a curtain falling, leaving behind a ringing emptiness that pressed against your eardrums. Your breath hitched, caught in your throat like a trapped bird. You strained to hear, your very being attuned to the slightest whisper of sound. It came then, a footstep. Deliberate, heavy, it echoed through the shattered silence with an eerie familiarity. It was his step, exactly the same, carrying the weight of unspoken choices and fresh bloodshed. You squeezed your eyes shut, a silent prayer forming on your lips, but he was already there, standing over you, a new crimson bloom staining his cheek. Your gaze, drawn by a morbid fascination, landed on the stark evidence of violence etched across his abdomen. The crimson bloom staining his shirt spoke of a wound severe enough to send shivers down your spine. His voice, a rumble from the depths of his chest, broke the suffocating silence. "Come out," it commanded, the gruffness barely masking the pain twisting his features.
Hesitantly, you crawled into the open, limbs stiff with fear yet propelled by a morbid curiosity. As you rose to your feet, the question on your lips tumbled out before you could think. "Are you alright?" It felt absurd, a meaningless platitude against the backdrop of his obvious injury. He remained silent, the only confirmation of your question the flickering in his stormy eyes. Yet, there was an unexpected intensity in his gaze as he studied you, dissecting your features as if searching for answers in the moonlight's dim canvas. As you stepped into the sliver of light filtering through a shattered window, your form becoming tangible, his eyes narrowed, the unspoken question in their depths mirroring your own. "Felix! Are you alright?" The name resonated through the shattered silence, carried on the panicked breaths of a group of men rushing towards him. It struck a chord within you, a name whispered in hushed tones around back alleys and murmured beneath watchful eyes. Felix. The name of the city's shadow king, the maestro of the underworld, the man woven into the very fabric of fear. His voice, a low rumble from the depths of his chest, cut through your haze of morbid introspection. "We need to get out of here." The words snagged on your attention, dragging you back from the tangled threads of your own thoughts. You met his gaze, the stormy depths catching the moonlight, and realized those words had been directed at you.
"Their men will be here any minute," he added, a grim reminder that the fragile peace of this shattered nightclub wouldn't hold forever. The echo of gunshots still danced in the air, a chilling counterpoint to the frantic whispers and hurried footsteps around you. You followed in the wake of Felix, his hulking frame and loyal shadow of men carving a path through the wreckage of the nightclub. Each step crunched on shattered glass, a discordant soundtrack to your escape. Your heart hammered against your ribs, a hummingbird trapped in a cage of nerves. Escape, in the form of the cool night air and the quiet whisper of distant streets, beckoned. Yet, leaving felt like walking off a tightrope strung over a chasm, exhilaratingly terrifying. Were you a stray caught in their spotlight, a witness they might choose to silence, or something more? His voice, roughened by smoke and violence, broke the uneasy silence. "Get in my car." Eyes the color of a brewing storm locked with yours, their depths unreadable. The fresh air that should have cleansed your lungs felt stagnant, heavy with unspoken questions and the lingering acrid tang of gunpowder. Confusion warred with a reluctant curiosity. You were nobody in this world of theirs, a fleeting wisp in the hurricane of Felix's existence. So why the lingering glance, the unexpected offer? A hesitant shake of your head came before you could fully form the words. The puzzle pieces of this encounter refused to fit, leaving you adrift in a sea of bewilderment.
A low chuckle, unexpected and almost jarring, rumbled from Felix's chest. He swiped at a smear of blood drying on his cheek, the gesture almost casual, almost… charming. "Lovely," he drawled, the pet name catching you off guard. It sent a shiver down your spine, a dissonance against the steely glint in his eyes. His smile, when it came, was like a wolf baring its fangs in moonlight, both beautiful and unnerving. "Get in the car, sweetheart. Walking away? Not the brightest idea you've ever had." The wind, a mischievous imp, danced through your unbound hair, sending strands skittering across your cheek like ticklish whispers. His words, unexpectedly melodious against the backdrop of chaos, still reverberated in your ears: "I spared your life." The warmth of his voice, a stark contrast to the icy grip of fear, lingered on your skin. But the respite was fleeting. "And it's time you paid." His gaze, sharp as a falcon's, dipped to the crimson bloom staining his abdomen. The wound, a gruesome testament to the carnage that unfolded, tugged at the fragile cord of your composure. "Treat it," he commanded, his words carrying the weight of a king's decree. "You understand, sweetheart, a hospital isn't exactly my playground." The implication hung heavy, unspoken but undeniable. Knowing his identity was your invisible collar, binding you to this twisted game. A beat of silence, then his voice shifted, the harsh edges softening like melting ice. "And," he murmured, the word almost caress, "I need to know what made me rethink my initial decision, my lovely. What prompted me to spare a fly like you?"
© Tinytinyblogs
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piratesfromspace · 1 year
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Brandy & Gingerbread (Nick 'Santa'/Reader)
Nick 'Santa Claus' (Violent Night) x fem!Reader Rated: Explicit 1.2k words
Nicomund the Red and the Tooth Fairy meet again on Christmas day. Fluff and smut ensue.
This is my Christmas gift for @gipsydangerzone 💖
Content: mention of food and alcohol, implied violence, magic healing, Santa Claus kink (is that a thing?), smut, thigh riding, Christmas fluff, fem!reader, established relationship. This happens just after the end of the movie. Look at me expanding on the lore of this Christmas masterpiece that is Violent Night.
MASTERLIST
gif by nick-offerman
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“Well, well, what do we have here? Isn’t that the Tooth Fairy herself?” The familiar gravelly voice has you shiver before you even see him.
“What are you doing here?” he continues as you swirl back to face him. Here he is. In all his glory, red velvet and white fur and the gray of his fluffy beard. Gold sparks of magic still floating around him.
“Nick! Nice to see you again! How am I doing? Fine, thanks for asking!” you answer sharply.
He seems unbothered by your sarcastic greetings.  “You know it’s actually my night, right, sweetheart?” he croons, taking a step toward you.
“Well, it happens that the kid in this house lost a tooth today, so it’s also my night. I work all year round, Nicomund, I’m not some lazy old man who manages to complain while doing shit for most of the year.” you snap back. 
“Oof, darling, no need to be so mean. You don’t want to end on my naughty list, don’t you?” He takes one step further, crossing slowly but surely the length of the living room. The place is cozy, old fireplace but modern floor, new sofa but vintage quilts. The tall christmas tree is a real one and it smells like pine and spice and sugar. Like Christmas. Fairy lights spread across the place bathe the room in a soft warm glow. Seeing him in such a decor, it feels like a freaking cheesy Holiday movie. Except you know him, know what he’s capable of, and he’s far from the lazy old man you accuse him to be. 
“Well, I don’t have time to play games Nick, so unless you’ve lost a tooth yourself, I have to go.” you don’t sound as sure of yourself as you’d like. That’s his fault, he unsettles you, makes you dream of domesticity, of chocolate and marshmallows, of cuddles in front of the fire, of all those soft other things you don’t have time to indulge in. 
“Oh sweetie, you won’t believe me, because actually I’m afraid I’ve lost a couple teeth earlier tonight.” He rasps, and behind the sirupy lull of his low voice, you notice for the first time the thin hint of pain. Now that he’s closer, you actually take the time to really look at him. There is a split on his right cheekbone, specks of dried blood on his jaw, spots of red on the white fur of his collar. His usual stupid hat is absent, and his hair hastily tied up in a bun. The tiny round glasses are nowhere to be seen. His sleeves are bunched up, showing off the dark swirls of ink under his skin, meeting the blue-black of fresh bruises. 
“Nick, what happened…?”
Flashbacks of wars long lost invade your mind. Nicomund the Red and his hammer. Bathed in blood and mud and death. The stench of it clinging to the inside of your nose for days after the battles. Ears ringing with the screams of your dying enemies for countless nights. Your own sword covered in gore. 
“Hey, you with me, sweetheart?” Nick’s hand lands on your shoulder and you’re suddenly brought back to your senses. To now, to the cozy living room and the smell of Christmas candles. He’s the one injured, yet he focuses on you. It’s not the first time. It’s been going on for millenia now.
“It’s a long story, but I’m fine.” he adds now that he has your attention. 
“What about you?” he asks, and he cups your cheek, eyes the color of iron - moody skies - scanning your face. His palm is hot, rough pads against your delicate skin. You circle his wrist and nod in reassurance. He said he was fine but you can’t miss how he flinches under your touch, a muffled groan of discomfort escaping him. 
“You’re still a bad liar, you know that, Nick? Let me see. My magic may help.”
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He sits on the sofa, large thighs slightly open and strong feet on the ground, while you’re perched on one of his legs. You had opened his jacket, and traced his naked chest in search of every cut and bruise, blue sparks at the tip of your fingers, healing them on your way. You remember doing the same thing a very long time ago, when you both did not have your magic yet. It’s intimate. Weirdly familiar. His warm body under yours strangely soothing. 
You push the jacket even lower, revealing his broad shoulders, hard muscles under the soft curves of his body. Runes and sacred symbols itched in his skin, reminding you of home. You shift on top of him to reach his back and powerful hands fly up to your waist to help you keep your balance. The heat of him warms up your core, and you find yourself not wanting to leave his embrace. 
Once you’re mainly done, you sit back, and stare at his face. His hands are still on your waist, burning where they meet the sliver of bare flesh between your top and pants. It’s unconscious, your body reacting on its own, but you ground yourself on his leg, your cunt pressing against his thigh in search of something you’ve denied yourself for too long. He notices of course - arched brow and knowing smile - and the iron of his irises melt to a deep night blue. Your fingertips ghost over the crinkle at the corner of his eyes, smooth over the silver strands of his beard, just enough time for you to gather your courage and finally take the bait of his lips. 
You press delicate kisses on his mouth, until he parts his lips. He tastes like gingerbread and brandy and it pairs surprisingly well. Nick keeps kissing you and strengthens his hold on you, brings you down on his thigh and flexes the muscle. He drinks your sudden gasp with a low chuckle. Bastard. 
“You like this, mmh? Come on, take what you need my little fairy.” he whispers in your neck, his beard tickling your skin and making you giggle softly. He repeats his move, encouraging you to find your own rhythm. Warmth builds and builds between your legs, you can feel how wet you’re becoming while you seek the delicious friction of his thigh against your swollen flesh. 
Nick is drowning you in filthy praises between two deep kisses, tongue tasting the roof of your mouth like you’re a sugary treat. Your hands are buried in his long hair, yanking him to you when he dares to leave too much space between you two. You’re close but it’s not yet enough, and you wish he would give you more, let you open his pants and really ride him. 
It’s like he can read in your mind - you don’t understand how the whole wish thing works, maybe he is - and he rises from the couch, holding you in his arms in an impressive display of strength, before he spins and lays you back down on the sofa, landing on top of you. 
“I guess you deserve a gift too sweetheart, you work so hard, it’s your turn to be taken care of.” He dips his head, kisses you once again, and there’s a devotion and a passion that wasn’t there a moment earlier. He smiles against your lips and his voice is like molten chocolate, decadent and rich: “Merry Christmas” he rasps, before sliding lower and bringing down your pants with him.
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jiminiecrickets · 11 months
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THE PARADISE PARADOX: PART II. PJM / M!READER
summary. jimin hates it when others lust after what’s his.
wc. 2.5k (nsfw under the cut)
tags. smut | dom bottom!jimin, sub top!reader, vampire!jimin, blood + blood drinking, riding, edging + begging, unprotected sex, creampie, jealousy + posessiveness (jimin)
[ part one ]  [ requested ]
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fear belongs to him. love belongs to fear, a subset of heart-hammering and bone-shattering primal instinct. thus, love belongs to him.
you belong to him.
he's the one draped on your arm, but nobody in the classically-beautiful bar mistakes it for ownership. they're all beautiful, glossy hair and paper-white teeth that shine a little too sharp when they smile. they know jimin and they know his history, and they keep their seductive touches fleeting and light, even if their red eyes trace your veins with rich, dark intent.
soon enough, you will fall, and jimin will scratch off another mark for his body count.
jimin interrupts a vampire without care for propriety, swaying towards you. "baby," he sighs, a little too high-pitched to not bring his moans to mind. "i'm hungry."
he reads the surprise as easily as anything else. he snakes his arms around your middle and props his cheek on your chest, a familiar pout adorning his primrose lips.
"oh," you manage at last. "okay. well, do you want to go—"
"no," he hums, gaze flicking up to meet the other vampire's. his smile is gloating. "i'll have you right here. i'm sure there's a booth with enough room to hold the both of us."
you glance helplessly back at the vampire you had been speaking to as jimin wraps his fingers tightly around your wrist and pulls you along, as if on a leash. the vampire rolls his eyes, turning to mutter with a blonde, and you catch a few words before you're too far away.
 —newest pet won't survive...
jimin leads you up the stairs and bodies part for him like the red sea. you meet the eyes of a young man in the arms of a taller, foreign woman, and something like understanding passes between you.
you are not the only red-blooded individual here tonight, and you are trophies.
his eyes lower first. you take home the gold medal.
like a gentleman, jimin pulls back the heavy red velvet curtain with a playful bow, letting it flow shut behind him. it feels off, heavier than most. sound struggles to break through.
he only uses one hand to push you down onto the loveseat, but it's more than enough to overwhelm you. you gulp as his eyes blaze like flames as he smiles, pink tongue dragging slowly over his fangs.
"pretty baby doesn't know who he belongs to," he coos, tracing your jaw with his fingertips. you lean into his touch and he smiles. "seeing those carrion-eaters touch you like that... you didn't even reject their advances. i'm disappointed, baby."
"peaches, wait—"
"that'll be 'sir' to you tonight, my love." his fingers drop down to tug out your buttons, shearing through them easily. your heart quickens at the display of strength and you don't dare cover your exposed torso, wide eyes trained on his.
eventually, he leans back with a hum to survey his doings. he places his hands on his hips. "much better. see? you know how to be quiet when you want to be. if only you stopped flirting with them earlier – then i wouldn't have to show them whose lips are allowed to touch yours."
he prowls on the loveseat like a predator honed in on its prey, his floral and woodsy cologne masking the scent of blood that clings to him like death to a surgeon. his thighs encase yours and he cups your cheek in his snowy palm, small and deceitfully gentle.
he tilts your head, pressing apart your shoulder and your jaw. for now, he controls himself, but you haven't a doubt in your mind that he can tear you apart like tissue paper.
he hums and makes himself comfortable on your lap, his tight leather pants stretching around his thighs and clinging to his firm calves oh-so prettily. he leans in, his clothed cock pressing against yours, and the visible bulge sends a thrill of desire through you. you reach for it.
he slaps your hand away. his nail cuts a thin red line along the base of your thumb.
"no," he nearly growls, that soft voice of his hardening like ice as he shoves your head against the backrest, licking his lips at the sight of your adam's apple bobbing with each harsh breath and gulp. he presses his thumb against it, giving it an intoxicating kiss that has your body shuddering of its own accord.
"i don't want to hurt you," he whispers against your throat, "but i will, if i must. whatever helps you remember who this body belongs to."
"it's yours," you whisper hoarsely. your hands itch to grab his slim waist and pull him against you, but the reward is not worth the risk. jimin's hips press down in a smooth roll, harder than the rest, with a forgiving smile, and you gasp as he briefly shoves the heel of his palm against your cock. your hands ball into fists on your thighs. "i'm yours! oh, fuck, jimin—"
his fangs slash into your neck. you grunt and one hand shoots up to clutch his hip but he doesn't seem to mind the breach of protocol.
jimin's fingers twist in your hair and he yanks your head to the side, moaning as the thick coppery twang of blood floods his mouth. his cock throbs against yours and the chill of his body clashes with the burn of yours, leaving a throbbing residue of aching pleasure wherever he touches.
your head spins. he takes more than usual, faster than usual, and he isn't so fussed about the delicate nature of mortals and how they can die from the shock of blood loss alone.
he has faith in you. you won't die – you're stronger than that. that's why he hunted you down in the first place.
"sir," you breathe as his cold fingers flutter along your hipbone and into your pants. he grips your cock and it jerks in his palm, leaking and eager. "please, let me see you – sorry, 'm sorry, won't do it again—"
jimin likes this side of you: face warm, pupils blown with lust, your body on display for his eyes only.
under his heavy, roaming gaze, you flush, attempting to pull your shirt over the many marks he loves to leave behind. a rosary of bruises litters your neck just below where your shirt collar sits.
he pulls your hand away, sliding his palm against yours as he pumps your cock, pulling it out of your pants. he hums appreciatively at the sight, blood pulsing from the two little pinpricks on your neck when the seal of his lips breaks, and your breath hitches. it soaks into your shirt.
at last, he draws the flat of his tongue along the length of your jugular, and the bleeding slows to a stop. he kisses the warm marks, curling the slick sweetness into his mouth with the tip of his tongue.
trapped in his fist, your cock leaks over his pretty, pale knuckles. slim and small, his hands are clear of the injuries that make a person – no bruises, no scars. he's flawless as a diamond, and yet despite the allure of perfection, it's the same thing that brings him down.
his body carries no stories. no history. no scars on the knees from childhood tumbles, no pockmarks of teenage acne.
"i love you," he whispers in your ear, and the whole world falls away. everything burns except for him – his fiery touch, his gleaming eyes. the heat of a forest blaze has never been more enticing. you lean into him.
he smiles, your blood dripping down his lips and chin. he swipes his thumb over the corner of his mouth, placing it between his lips with a moan.
jimin pushes you onto your back, turning fluidly with you. he gestures, an elegant flick of his hand, and smiles as you quietly cross your wrists above your head, compliant and tracking his every move with lust-blown pupils.
he leans down with a palm on your chest, slick and serpentine. his lips near your ear.
"good... hands stay there," he whispers, and he lifts his crimson gaze to yours.
the strength of his will snaps against yours like a magnet. yours falls to its knees.
you find that you can't lift your wrists. he's caught you – the fly in his web. your pulse throbs, rare and rabbit-hearted, and he smiles in dark satisfaction as your expression tightens. he strokes you slowly, dragging his tongue against the oozing pinpricks in your neck. he grabs your face with sharp nails and forces your chin down, smiling as you do your best to look him in the eye, lashes fluttering irregularly as the pain and pleasure clash down your spine.
he kisses you softly. his plush lips sting with the coppery twist of blood. "you have such a pretty cock, you know that?" he says gently, pumping it faster and humming as your stomach tenses under his palm. "so pretty... makes me wanna eat it right up," he giggles, scrunching his nose playfully as he shifts on your lap, tossing his platinum hair out of his eyes.
he pouts. "mm... you're so quiet now. don't be shy. you were so happy earlier, yapping away with vultures who would snap your neck in a heartbeat – are you scared, baby? are you scared of me?"
 "no," you manage to choke out, the quick, slick sound of your cock in his fist prickling a hard flush up your neck. "n-no, sir – i-i just – ah!"
he loosens his grip. "look at me when you speak to me, baby," he whispers. "don't you know it's rude not to?"
your gaze struggles its way up his exposed chest and pale neck. your jaw aches to clamp down on that pretty stretch of flesh between his neck and shoulder, to fuck him down on your cock and call yourself his.
with a smug glint in his crimson eyes, jimin lowers himself onto your cock, sucking in a soft breath of pleasure. he cups your chin in his hand, forcing your eyes to stay on him, watching him, as he slowly, painfully slowly, buries your cock inside him.
"don't come," he murmurs, and begins to bounce.
his well-loved hole clamps around your cock, wet with lube. you hadn't realised he'd prepped himself. you also hadn't realised he'd stripped off his trousers and torn your shirt and jacket entirely, and that they now puddled carelessly in the corner of the booth. your mind had been too busy swirling with the hot, instinctive, consuming desire to do whatever jimin wished of you.
he moans softly as he speeds up, knees squeezing your hips to keep you from bucking up into him. your nerves feel licked by flames and vacantly, you hear yourself gasping and groaning pathetically, begging him with slurred words and half-syllables to fuck you harder, faster, deeper...
you cry out as he wrenches your head to the side and pierces your jugular, reopening the wounds. his ass slams against your hips with the obscene sound of flesh on flesh and you screw your eyes shut as his tight hole scrapes your cock, his soft walls suffocatingly hot. he gulps down mouthful after mouthful of blood, teeth bared and chin smeared with your thick, hot blood – his claws scrape your temple, stinging and drawing beads of red that drip down the side of your face.
"they can't take care of you as i do, my heart," he hisses, his cries of bliss loud and shameless. "you're mine – mine! you'll moan like this for no one else – do you understand?"
somewhere between the expanding, white-fire throbbing of your cock and the embarrassing sounds slipping from your lips, you agree, babbling obscenities and pleas and apologies for things you can barely remember. your blood feels sticky and warm against your chest, the white shirt glued to your skin. you swallow harshly as jimin smashes his blood-slick lips against yours, panting against each other's lips as his ass clenches irregularly, hot wet walls pumping your aching cock.
"i'm yours, 'm yours, all yours—" you bite down on his shoulder, hips involuntarily chasing his heat "—please let me come, please, sir, please, 'm sorry, 'm s-sorry—!"
"is that right, baby? you're sorry? you won't flirt with worse men right in front of me?" he pants, his reddened cock slapping your stomach and dripping a pool of precum that runs, warm and dizzying, down your sides. "how do i know you're telling the truth?"
"i'm sorry – mngh – won't do it again!" you can't tell where you end and he begins. "please, wanna come, you f-feel so fucking good, i c-can't—"
jimin smiles, fangs poking out over his lower lip, and giggles breathily at your pathetic pleas. you're so silly, he coos to himself – his sweet baby, who loves him more than anything else in the world, who'd allow someone like jimin to rip out your dignity and every shred of power you once had. panting, groaning, perfect body exposed for him to bleed dry – how can he say no to something so cute?
come for me.
the words echo between your ears and your vision whites out as he moans, high and satisfied, in your ear, clamping down around your base as heavy warmth fills him up. he comes hard onto your stomach, glazing it over so prettily – as god intended.
your ears ring as you slump back, nothing but comfortable wool behind those eyes. lazily, jimin strokes your chest and shoulders, rocking his hips slowly to drag out your highs. something clicks in your subconscious and your hands fall to your sides, limp and yours to command once more.
jimin rests against your chest, warm breath puffing shallowly against your neck as he strokes the nape of your neck with slow, mindless circles. he hums, dragging his fingertips against the still-hot blood. he lifts them to his lips and swirls his tongue around them, extracting them with a wet pop.
"you're so pretty when you beg," he whispers, closing his eyes and listening to the strong and steady pumping of your heart. the myocytes, the intercalated discs, the valves – all busy at work to calm you down. if he concentrates hard enough, he feels he can isolate the faint, electric hum of nerve cells, firing constantly across the tiny gaps and zinging down the factory line. “but i can’t have others play with my toys, you understand? what if they break them?”
you mumble something that sounds almost like an 'i’m sorry', and jimin smiles as you shakily wrap your arms around his waist, burying your face in his neck.
"i believe you, baby," he whispers sweetly, kissing your jawline. "but if i see you enjoying someone else's touch once more, i won't go to the trouble of finding a curtain to hide behind again. am i clear, my heart?"
you nod rapidly, squeezing him close. he feels your pleasurable tremble and smiles to himself, stroking your hair gently.
this little game isn't so boring, after all.
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violettduchess · 10 months
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A/N: Cyran and Gilbert tied for second place in my poll. I was originally going to put them together in one headcanon but the styles were too different and it felt very disjointed, so they each get their own little fic.
Suitor: Gilbert, prompt: strawberry
An entry for Aqua and my Summer Days Sultry Nights CCC
WC: 854
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Oh how excited you are, running through the dark stone halls of Obsidian, your treasure cupped in your hands. An angel on a mission, flying on invisible wings. Up the winding staircase you go, heart hammering, breathless with anticipation at showing him your miracle.
You burst through the dark Mahogany doors of his study. He’s at his desk, black quill in hand. You can tell by his posture he’s been here for hours: the tired roundness of his shoulders, the lax lay of his left hand beside the parchment he's perusing. The sound of your entrance turns his head and the sight of you is like the warmth of a sunbeam through glass on a cold winter’s day. He sets his quill aside without a second glance, holding out his arms in invitation.
“My Häschen comes bearing gifts,” he murmurs as you slide onto his lap, hands still cupped protectively. He anchors you against his body with one arm, bowing his upper body to rest his forehead against your shoulder, breathing in your scent like it’s as essential to him as oxygen. 
“Look, Gil.” Although he could stay curled against you for eternity, he raises his head to look down at what you have brought him. Slowly you open your hands to reveal the riches you’re holding: A single, large, perfect strawberry. It still glistens from the water you washed it with, its size and ruby red color speaking volumes about the abundance of flavor it carries. He also knows the other reason you are smiling so brightly.
“It…..is from here?” You nod eagerly. You have been experimenting with gardening, working hard to try and find a way to get crops to grow in the arid Obsidian climate. How many nights has he come to bed to find you asleep, surrounded by botanical treatises and guides and lexica. Determination drove you and now you have managed to unlock the soil’s secret to provision. At least for strawberries.
“For you.” You hold it up in offering but he tilts his head. “Have you tried any yet?” Your silence confirms his suspicion. He reaches for the precious fruit, plucking it from your palm with deft fingers. “Seeing as how this is the first one, I believe the one who devoted so much time to its care should be the first to taste, oder?” 
His eye is an even richer red than the strawberry and all you can do is smile in sweet defeat, knowing he won’t take no as an answer. Your gaze never leaves him, as if you were nothing but a speck of iron drawn by magnetic force. Not even when he raises the strawberry to your lips. “Open,” he commands, although his voice is practically a purr, soft and near the edge of rough. Your lips part and he holds the fruit to them. He watches, a man hypnotized by the white of your teeth as they sink into the flushed, succulent fruit, pale red juice immediately running from the broken flesh, over the curvature of your lips, across your tongue. 
“Mmmm,” you sigh as you’re hit with the full-bodied taste of the strawberry. It’s  the sweetness of summer, of sunshine, of long days and warm nights. It’s cool wind and cooler water. Shoeless feet tickled by green grass. It's fireflies and full moons. It's bare skin and sweat. Your eyes close as you savor the sensation. Gilbert watches your face, the euphoria that has your body going lax in his arms, the way your eyelids drop, stealing your gaze away from him. Your soft exhale of pleasure. Something hot and jagged suddenly bolts through him. He doesn’t want you looking like that, sounding like that, for any reason other than him.
He takes the half-eaten strawberry and sets it on his desk, rising suddenly, with you lifted into his arms. Startled, you cling to his neck as he carries you over to the large black velvet couch. “Gil?” Ever so slowly, he lays you down on your back, his expression alight with sharp intent as he leans over you. “I will have my taste now.” 
You’re about to tell him that he left the strawberry on his desk when his body drops to press you into the softness of the sofa, his hands sliding up to hold your face as he lowers his head, his mouth capturing yours with all the swift resolve of a triumphal conqueror. He licks the leftover juice from your lips languidly, leaving not even a millimeter of them untasted. You gasp as he guides you, tilting your head so he can plunder your mouth, devouring you until he has lapped up every single essence of strawberry that lingered there. He is merciless, chasing that ghost of summer flavor until you are left breathless beneath him. 
He breaks contact for a moment to look down into your face, now painted in shades of want and yearning and red-hot desire. And he smiles, satisfaction riding the blistering current of pleasure that rushes through his body. 
Much better, he thinks. And then your hungry hands are in his hair, pulling him back to you and all thought is abandoned, much like the poor, half-eaten strawberry.
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Tagging: @aquagirl1978 @alexxavicry @queengiuliettafirstlady @rhodolitesrose @ikemen-writer @bellerose-arcana @thewitchofbooks @aria-chikage @redheadkittys @tele86 @dear-mrs-otome @firestar-otomeobsessed @curious-skybunny @rhodoliteschaos @kpop-and-otome @writingwhimsey @mxrmaid-poet @silver-dahlia @wendolrea @otomefoxystar @nightfoxqueen @myonlyjknight @queen-dahlia @aceuuuuu @scorchieart @bubblexly @joiedecombat
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BALLERINA - Chapter Fifteen (Epilogue)
A Jake Kiszka AU
Physiotherapist!Jake x Original Female Character
Previous Chapter.
Story Masterlist
A/N: Hi everyone! This is the final chapter of Iris and Jake’s story. Honestly, I never thought I'd be able to finish my very first chaptered fic, but here we are, finally. I'd like to thank everyone who enjoyed this little story. A big thank you goes to those who supported me and encouraged me throughout the writing of this fic. You know who you are😉
I really hope you like this!
Word count: 1.4K
Warnings for this chapter: angst, nerves, feelings.
_________________________________
Paris, a year later.
Those mirrors along the walls were reflecting her every move and she kept seeing mistakes that didn't even exist.
Iris had been dancing and practicing for almost ten hours now. Her muscles burned but she didn't really care. She wanted everything to be absolutely perfect.
It was getting dark outside, signaling to her that it was almost time to go home. The next day was going to be her day. The most important one in years.
She practiced a few more moves and then packed her bags and walked the short distance separating the ballet school from her flat.
Her little rented flat, right next to her sister's, was tiny, in true parisian fashion, but it was wonderful. From her small balcony she could even see the Sacré-Cœur; its pearlescent white stones were shining even brighter with the full moon.
She tried to calm her nerves by admiring the beautiful basilica from afar, but it was useless. She was so nervous she couldn't stop her hands from shaking and her heart from hammering in her throat.
The next day was going to be a big step for her. It was the day in which she was going to dance again in front of a crowd after a year and a half.
And she couldn't stop thinking about all the things that could go wrong.
After tossing and turning for a while, she managed to finally turn off her brain and rest.
~
The next day, she woke up early. After a quick breakfast, she checked if she had everything she needed in her bags and left for the Opéra Garnier.
It didn't matter how many times she saw that theatre. Every time her eyes landed on its golden statues and white columns it was like the first. Little tingles travelled down her spine every time.
She showed her badge to the security at the entrace and reached her dressing room backstage.
She placed her bags on the floor, changed into her ballet shoes and started rehearsing again, trying to stop overthinking and fighting the urge to run away from there and never come back. It took her a while to finally silence the insufferable voice in her head that kept telling her that she was going to miserably fail but, eventually, she managed to do so, drowning that insecurity under the music of her choreography.
Before she knew it, her time was up.
Looking at the clock on the wall, she realized that her turn was quickly approaching.
The buzzing of her phone startled her.
She wiped her sweaty trembling hands on her leggings and read the text she had just received.
It was from her sister. She was telling her that the theater was packed and wishing her good luck using the French word “merde” like a true Parisian.
She smiled but her heart was threatening to jump out of her chest at any moment.
She finished getting ready and, when there were only 20 minutes left before her turn, she exited her dressing room.
Her heartbeat was deafening in her ears as she walked towards the stage.
She felt like a robot.
She wasn't even paying enough attention to her surroundings the closer she got to the stage so, when a pair of cold hands wrapped around her waist and dragged her behind the heavy velvet curtains, she was positively scared.
She gasped and thrashed around to escape, but a whisper in her ear made her stop abruptly.
“Iris”
Jake.
He was there.
Tears started flowing freely down her cheeks and she immediately relaxed in his grasp.
She quickly turned around and kissed him passionately, feeling his comforting presence in every cell of her body.
He cradled her face in his hands and caressed her cheeks, tenderly wiping away her tears with his thumbs.
“You told me you couldn't make it" Iris whispered.
“I told you I wasn't sure of it. I managed to arrive last night” Jake whispered back, a little smirk of mischief on his beautiful face.
“And you didn't tell me?!” She exclaimed, incredulous.
“I didn't want to distract you with my presence. But, as soon as I got here, I kept thinking about the fact that you were so close to me and I really couldn't stop myself from needing to see you, to touch you, to kiss you.” he said truthfully, blushing slightly and lowering his gaze to the floor.
She grasped his face and kissed him like it was the first time and almost lost herself in the kiss.
“Thank you” she whispered on those plump lips that she had come to know so well.
The sharp call to the stage made them both flinch and jump.
They shared a last kiss and a look full of love, before parting with a whispered “I love you.”
The moment she reached the stage the nerves were still present but she felt a lot less upset than before.
She could still feel the warmth of his presence on her lips and fingertips and that helped her immensely.
The air was cool all around her but her heart, so full of love, burned like a pyre in the night, lighting up everything with its orange glow.
The applause of the crowd filled her with joy and energy and when, finally, the first few notes of the music echoed in the room, she felt her feet start to move on their own accord, following the lead of her ever-present passion for dancing.
Throughout the performance she only ever had eyes for him, letting his calming presence guide her mind into a state in which nothing could hurt her anymore.
She had forgiven him two weeks after she had left for Paris and had abandoned him on the curb in front of her house, on that stormy morning of June, with teary eyes and a broken heart.
She had finally come to terms with the fact that life without him was simply unbearable.
She had mulled over the whole predicament so much she had given herself so many headaches, but, eventually, she came to the conclusion that, in his shoes, she would have probably done the same to protect her sister.
She realized he hadn't even meant to fall for her. It had happened. And she was so glad she felt the same and was ready to share her life with him.
When she had called him the first time, he hadn't answered and it scared her to death.
He had called her back in the middle of the night saying that he was in surgery when she had first called and asking if she was alright. He sounded extremely worried.
They had switched to a video call almost immediately and they had cried, laughed and talked for four entire hours.
The next weekend they were finally together. They had dinner in a cute little restaurant near Montmartre and then they went straight to her flat because they couldn't keep their hands off each other any longer.
He had flown to Paris a few more times while she attended the internship there and, every time, they went to visit museums and galleries together. They were always connected in some way. Her hand on his bicep, his arm around her shoulders, their fingers brushing when they walked. It was as if one was afraid to lose the other at any given moment.
Deafening applause brought her out of her thoughts abruptly.
Everyone in the room was on their feet praising her for her beautiful piece.
But three smiles were the only ones that she had eyes for.
She couldn't stop her tears from spilling while looking at them.
Her sister was standing between a very proud Jake, who mouthed a little “I love you” and Josh, who winked at Iris when he saw she was watching him and sent her a little kiss.
Their eyes were shining and their smiles beaming with love for her.
And it was all that ever mattered.
_______________________________
Thank you for reading!❤️
Taglist: @gvfpal @sammyslappers @spark-my-nature @highladyofasgard @sparrowofthedawnsworld @jessicafg03 @doodle417 @hellowgoodbye @ejoygvf @jaketlover @jakekiszkasbabymama @objectsinspvce @indigostreakmorgan @witchofendora @myleftsock @gretavanshmeat @gretasfallingsky @giraffehippy @jennasometimesreads @katiegvf @sinarainbows @laney_gvf @themorningbirds @starcatcherchords @lipstickitty @meetingthestardust @joshskittytickler @livkiszka @twistedmelodies @ignite-my-fire @gvfmarge @writingcold @brujamagik @edgingthedarkness @gold-mines-melting @mindastreamofcolours @blacksoul-27 @jakekiszkapunchmeintheface @mapelsyrup07 @klarxtr @takenbythemadness @peaceloveunitygvf @lyndz2names @jazzyfigz @its-interesting-van-kleep @fleet-of-fiction @lvnterninthenight @jakekiszkasbuttsweat
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enam3l · 11 months
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love, lola / chapter nine pt.1 / going solo (5.7k)
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Eddie’s arrived in California, leaving you behind, to start his new life as a rockstar.
thank you for 1.2k of you kind angels!!!??? and thank you guys for your patience, life has been hectic with work and school and after the anniversary of eddie’s death (but not in this fic baby) i thought fuck it imma post what we got for chapter 9 - I hope it’ll all be worth the wait
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a/n: sex drugs and rock and roll - no fr there is graphic sex here
series masterlist / follow #enam3l love lola for instant updates / my other work / now available to read on AO3!
comment for tag list. requests open for prequel stories.
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California is too fucking hot. That is what Eddie Munson has learnt since moving. Far too hot for hair like his and definitely far too hot to stay hidden behind the safety of his leather jacket. After years of the mind numbing mundanity of Hawkins, Eddie was propelled into the fast pace L.A. mindset. Each morning for a moment his heart hammered, wondering where he was until the palm trees outside the window reminded him it definitely wasn't Indiana. The apartment the record label had set him and rest of Kraven up in was definitely not the trailer - maybe the size of every single one in the park combined.
So far, everyone had been nice; a niceness you're not usually privy to when you're known as 'The Freak'. Kraven were excited he accepted the offer and their label and manager had heralded him the hero of the hour. But a nagging part of Eddie couldn't ignore the feeling that this wasn't really his band, he was a replacement. There was a brotherhood between the bandmates long before his arrival and it's hard to ever truly assimilate with a bond like that. Regardless, he was there, escaped the confines of his small town and now living the dream of becoming a rockstar. This was always the fantasy, wasn't it?
September 2nd 1986
For the first time in his life, Eddie is sat in a real life, high tech, actual recording studio. A far cry from Gareth’s egg box insulated garage. An egg shaped chair swallows him whole which feels tediously symbolic of his time so far in California. Everything is much bigger than him. As the band and producers play him the demos they have already, with hopeful looks on their faces, he resorts to anxiously twisting the rings on his fingers. They're a tangible reminder of home. He thumbs them in order. Skull. Pig. Cross and bones. Mom's. But now there's a new edition - yours. 
It made its way onto his finger as you said your final goodbyes in the airport terminal and it hasn't left since. Between runny noses and weepy eyes, Eddie frowned as you withdrew from a hug that had already lasted several minutes (which was still not long enough). 
'I have something for you, Teddy,' you confess as you sift through your bag. 
'You already threw the party, sweetheart. Whatcha wasting money on me for?' He sighs. 
The protests were not what you wanted clearly as he's met with a silencing finger until you finally found what you were looking for. Now you chew your lip anxiously, fumbling with a little velvet pouch. 
'It's not for going away... it's - well, I gathered, this will be the first time since we met that we've not spent our birthdays together...' 
Eddie's stomach drops, he had not gathered that. 'Oh...' he murmurs.
'So, I thought I'd give you your present now. I guess. If that's okay?' 
Totally thrown, he only blinked and nodded. Taking his hand, you lay his palm out flat and shake the pouch until Eddie hears a little clinking, then feels cool metal on the skin. 
'It's the big 2-1, y'know. I wanted us to have something special. I couldn't think of anything to buy. But, I - uhhh - I could think of something to make.' 
Finally, he moves and inspects your gift closer. Two silver rings, perfectly imperfect. Carefully, he spins them round until he can finally see what the feature of them is. It causes him to gasp and you to resort to nervously stumbling over your words. 
'I was taking a silversmithing class at college and I was thinking about your rings and then I thought I could make you one. Then I thought I could make us some. Matching ones. For our birthdays. It's silly. They're not professional or anything. Y'know a little wonky. Just thought it'd be nice...'
Eddie balls his fist up, clutching the precious contents and closes his eyes to swallow up a sniffle. One ring has E for Eddie on, the other identical except for your initial. 
'Wonky? Y/N... they're perfect. This is, holy shit, this is the most amazing thing anyone has ever given me...'
The compliment makes your insides fizz. 
'Are you sure? I mean, I was gonna tidy them up more but when you were in hospital. When I went back to New York... I brought them back with me. Just incase... y'know...'
Just incase Eddie never made it to his 21st is the unspoken ending to that sentence that you both understand. Eddie takes your hands in his and squeezes. The rings shielded by your conjoined palms. 
'Thank you, sweetheart. Thank you... put it on me! Go on! Make me your little hand model m!'
As usual, Eddie's theatrics ease the tension and force you into giggles. 
Carefully, you slide the E ring over Eddie's finger. He prompts you to place it on the bare one next to where his Mom's old ring resides. Then, he takes your hand and delicately places your own ring onto the matching finger. To the rest of the people in the airport, it must've looked like the exchanging of vows between two lovers being forced apart. Really, they wouldn't have been entirely incorrect. 
‘So what do you think man?’
Eddie breaks his daze to be met with a room of hopeful eyes. 
‘Huh?’ He murmurs. 
‘The demos!’ The manager Chris encourages, ‘for the album! These are what the guys have put down so far. Love em?’
Eddie’s brain stumbles over what will be the correct thing to say. The songs bad? God no, there was a reason the bad were signed. But were they what he would do? Not really. It was clear they were angling as more commercially marketable, less niche like metal, a more digestible rock. Taylor was more Iggy than Ozzy. 
‘Yeah, yeah they’re tight,’ Eddie scrambles, praying he didn’t appear rude. 
Already though, his brain has calculated how he would rearrange each element of the songs, what lyrics he’d tweak, how he’d make it his own - but he has to remind himself that’s not why he’s here.
‘We want a single out for Christmas. Make a big splash over the festive season. Hit the talk shows, the radios. Get you boys out there. Build up the hype for a Valentine’s album release,’ Chris cheerfully continues.   
‘But don’t forget, none of these songs are finalised,’ a rough voice from the corner of the room interrupts Chris’ ambitions. 
Riz, the producer, sits like the mastermind behind the console in his swivel chair. His skin weathered and tanned, littered with scribbled tattoos not unlike Eddie’s own. Tired eyes that have seen too many young ambitious bands and their teams come in and out of his studio, are concealed by thin tinted glasses. A mane of salt and pepper curls, some formed into dreads cascade past his broad shoulders. A real old school rocker. 
‘Oh well, yes, yes of course,’ Chris fumbles, ‘plenty of room for your inputs Eddie.’ 
It’s clear Chris is entirely intimidated by Riz’s presence. His clean cut Armani suited self a direct contrast to the producer’s rough look. One is the face, the other is the real brains.
‘Speaking of, Chris, why don’t you take Taylor, Spike and Keith to lunch. Use that gold card the label bestowed upon you whilst me and Eddie get accompanied?’
Eddie shoots round to look at Riz, used to his name being called out as the signal he’s in trouble. But when he meets his eyes, they only offer warmth and a small smirk; something Eddie had yet to see him crack so far. 
‘Oh are you sure?’
‘Yeah, yeah, lots of technical things I need to adjust now Eddie is with his. Go on,’ Riz practically shoos Chris out the door. The rest of Kraven following suit, amused by their manager’s nervous babbling. 
Finally, once the door is shut and locked, Riz returns to his throne, spinning round and looking at Eddie expectantly. 
‘Well, come on then,’ he chuckles, smacking his tattooed hand against a leather chair beside him. Eddie immediately scrambles over, Sweetheart safely in her case towing behind him. There’s an awkward silence as Eddie toys with his guitar case, desperate to avoid Riz’s piercing gaze. 
Nonchalantly, Riz swings his feet up onto a nearby stool and reclines in his chair. 
‘So… you hate the songs,’ he chuckles.
Eddie finally looks up to gawp, scrambling for a response. 
‘No, I don’t, it’s not, I never said I-‘
‘It’s cool brother. You’re a metalhead. They aren’t a metal band. They’re not your first choice, no sweat.’ 
Riz, in just a few minutes of knowing each other, has called Eddie’s bluff. The tone in his voice is not anger or judgment, it’s just matter of fact with a hint of amusement. 
‘They’re not my first choice either, sound wise. I’m a lot more old school myself, personally. But, fuck, you know what, those boys got more star power than anyone else who’s been brought to me in the last two decades.’ 
Eddie nods eagerly. There’s a reason he was honoured Kraven had asked him, they were really fucking good and most surprisingly - nice. Riz eyes the boy before him, big brown soulful eyes that scream there’s a story behind them. 
‘I think you’re an old soul like me though, Munson. Let me guess… you’ve got notebooks full of lyrics in that case of yours?’
A beetroot blush flushes Eddie’s cheeks, he’s been rumbled and stutters an agreement. 
‘And I bet you’ve never shown anyone either, huh?’
Two for two. 
‘No, never. They’re all a little… personal,’ Eddie murmurs. 
‘All the best stuff is. So what you’re gonna do is get them out and show me who the musician Eddie Munson really is.’
With an eagle eye, Riz combs through the tattered pages of scrawling lyrics. Words dating back years. The afternoon flies by as Eddie demonstrates the melodies he wrote for each with Riz adding his own input. 
‘Well, Munson. I don’t think Kraven or the label know what they’ve accidentally come across with you,’ Riz scoffs. His fingers gloss over the stacks of song lyrics Eddie’s unveiled. 
‘And you better be marrying this girl you’re writing about. Ain’t heard love songs like this in a lifetime.’ 
The way Eddie nervously shrinks in on himself over his words isn’t lost on Riz, things rarely ever are. 
September 21st 1986
‘TWENTY ONE MOTHERFUCKER’ 
Raucous laughter and cheers manage to erupt over the booming club music. The fine spray of champagne, more expensive than his trailer, soaking Eddie’s curls. The women that had crowded the booth, struggle to get in the stream of booze. Liquid gold dripping from their open mouths and exposed cleavage. No, this was not the usual Munson birthday set up.
Despite attempting to keep his twenty-first birthday a secret, Eddie had been rumbled. Chris’ assistant Sammy had discovered his impending celebration after going through files. That was spilt during bedroom talk with Spike the bass player who she’d been hooking up with. Spike then mentioned a small night with the boys to Taylor and Keith to celebrate, which was overheard by manager Chris. So now due to Chris’ inability for subtlety, the boys found themselves in an exclusive WeHo club, surrounded by bottomless bottles, scantily clad girls and yes men - all courtesy of the label. Eddie was light years away from where he’d usually spend his evenings round humble drama room DnD table or with lukewarm beers in Gareth’s garage.
After three weeks of locking themselves in the studio when the sun had begun to rise, only leaving well after, the band were finally letting loose. The guys had all told Eddie their tales of L.A’s debaucherous rock’n’roll night life; the secret places where other musicians mingled, where dealers made their money and girls got the memorable nights they went looking for. But so far, he’d yet to experience it and now he was, Eddie wasn’t sure it was for him. A rainbow of pills scattered the table without discretion, he could tell they were far better quality than the shit he used to sell. Servers came with an endless supply of bottles, money no question. A far cry from the gruff, stingy bartenders at The Hideout. The clientele is a far cry as well. The girls that had flocked to their booth looked straight off a Hollywood set. One busty blonde sat on a bewildered Chris’ knee, his eyes desperately trying not to focus on the cleavage that bobbed below his chin. Spike was making it clear he and Sammy weren’t exclusive as a brunette and a redhead sat either side of him as they purred in his ear. Taylor had disappeared into the crowd, ever the life of the party, surely feeling the effects of the pills he’d let fizzle on his tongue. Out of everyone, the only person Eddie felt envious of was Keith. 
Nestled happily in the corner of the booth sat Keith and his fiancee Grace, lost in their own little world. The pair had scoffed when a girl had tried to luck with Keith, knowing hell would freeze over before he left Grace. High school sweethearts who had made it work as he’d followed the path of wannabe rockstar. She was no eager groupie or ditzy model, Grace was a lawyer; officially Kraven’s lawyer. Put together, fierce and completely soft on Keith - reminding Eddie of you. Although, they were a real couple, best friends and lovers, exactly what Eddie had failed in making the two of you. When they whispered private jokes or sleepy appeared from their bedroom, his heart panged with envy. Mind racing with questions of how they managed to make it work. Who made the first move? How did they know it was mutual? How did they know it wasn’t a mistake? All the questions he fretted over when his lips burnt with desperation to meet yours.
Eddie’s wishful gaze is interrupted by a sudden touch to his thigh. Eyes wide with confusion, his head spins round and are met with a fluttering pair staring right back at him. The stranger’s fingers tucking rogue curls behind his ear causes Eddie to freeze. A touch too intimate to receive from anyone but you or his family. 
‘Your hair is nearly as long as mine,’ the girl drawls. Long nails still trailing up his shredded jeans and now up his exposed bicep. Whether she hadn’t noticed Eddie’s bewildered look or had just chosen to ignore it, the girl pressed on.
‘The boys told me you're the new lead guitar… I think you’re definitely an upgrade, honey.’
Eddie gulps, Adam’s apple bobbing nervously. So far he had been able to avoid interacting with these legendary California girls. Throwing himself into rehearsals with the band and his own late sessions with Riz long after the rest of the guys go home. Women weren’t on his radar. Everyone dull in comparison to the shine he knows radiates off you. 
‘Urm, thanks,’ he mumbles, trying to squirm out of her grasp.
‘And he’s a little shy?’ She giggles, ‘sooo cute.’  
Eddie’s eyes, wide like saucers, scan the surroundings rapidly, desperate to escape this uncomfortable encounter. He wasn’t interest in a hook up, the thought unimaginable and he definitely didn’t want this. He’s desperate for you more than ever now, wishing for your soft touch, wishing it was your tipsy words being whispered in his ear. His birthdays weren’t for sharing with random hookups, they were always reserved for you. After being separated by your college, Eddie was giddy at the thought of getting to spend your birthdays together again. But now you were torn apart again, now even further apart. 
Finally, Eddie spots his opening. The girl leans over to the table to pour another drink, her grip on him loosening. Quickly, he darts up, hopping over everyone’s legs and abandoning the booth as the girl calls after him. Eddie’s feet seem to take him away before his mind is even sure where he wants to go. Hand’s planting on the bar top, causing an unexpecting bartender to jump, Eddie pleas,
‘Is there a phone anywhere I can use?’
The bartender nods, finger jabbing to a corridor beside the toilets. Shouting a thanks behind him, Eddie shoots off in the direction of the promised phones. 
Frantically, he punches in a number he’s known by heart for most of his life. Ringed fingers twist round the cord anxiously and the dial tone hums over the vibrations of the club’s speakers. 
Eddie’s breath hitches as the other end picks up and fumbling can be heard. 
‘H-hello?’ Your sleepy voice croaks. 
It’s the best noise he’s heard since he arrived, better than anything he’s heard in the studio. 
‘Hi,’ he whispers shyly, ‘it’s me, it’s Eddie. I’m sorry, did I wake you?’
Your giggle makes his stomach churn. 
‘I know it’s you, Eds or should I say birthday boy? No, no, it’s okay. I was already awake.’
‘Are you okay? Are you sick?’ He enquires desperately. For a moment, Eddie is sure he hears a hesitation in your voice. 
‘No, no, I - urm, you know, just one of those nights. I’m fine! It’s nice to hear your voice.’
Eddie for once is grateful for the distance that separates you for seeing the blush that spreads across his cheeks. 
‘It’s really nice to hear yours too. I’m sorry I’ve not been keeping up with the calls, it’s all just -‘
You interrupt before he falls into a spiral of apologies. 
‘Eds, it’s fine! You’re a rockstar in training, I don’t expect you to be missing all the fun to be calling me every second.’
‘But, I want to, sweetheart… I wish you were here,’ he sighs. 
‘I wish I was too… but this your adventure. This is everything you’ve ever dreamed of.’ 
Eddie desperately wants to let the alcohol coursing through his system to take ahold of his tongue and confess no, you’re everything I’ve dreamed of. But he doesn’t. Your voice chirps up again, trying to dispel the sad silence that took over the line. 
‘So, how’s your birthday? How is being 21? Are you not out and drowning in booze and those Cali girls?’ You’re chuckling but he doesn’t laugh. 
‘No, no I’m out with the guys. But, urm, no Cali girls. Definitely not.’
Eddie’s not sure if you let out a relieved sigh or it’s just wishful thinking. 
‘You’re out?! Eddie, what on earth are you calling me for!’
Your scolding tone makes him grin. He can picture perfectly how your brows are furrowed and how if you were in front of him your hands would be flailing animatedly. 
‘Cos birthdays are our thing. You’re much better than this club full of fuckin’ posers.’
‘Yeah, they are. Am I now? Are you trying to flatter me, mister?’ 
‘Always, sweetheart.’ 
The pair of you giggle down the phone. His dimpled cheeks aching from the grin you inspire. As the giggles finally subside, Eddie hears you attempt to disguise a yawn and remembers how once again distance keeps you apart. 
‘Guess I should let you get to sleep then, huh sweet?’
‘You should go and enjoy your birthday more importantly!’
Eddie huffs, knowing such a thing is impossible without your presence. 
‘I’ll try… I’ll speak to you soon, promise.’
‘Don’t worry about it, Eds. Whenever you have time!’ 
‘I’ll always have time for you. I’ll make sure I at least call you on your birthday.’
‘You better,’ you sleepily smirk, ‘it’s two days after yours, you’ve got no excuse to forget.’
‘How could I?’
Eddie rakes a hand through his curls, knowing he needs to hang up but it’s too hard to let you go. 
‘Get some sleep, sweetheart. I miss you.’
‘Goodnight Eddie, I miss you too.’ 
The line goes dead and once again the only sound filling his ears is the throbbing base. Trying to replay your words in his head, Eddie flops against the wall. Eyes closed tight as he wishes it was you he was breathing in rather than the cloud of perfume wafting from the women’s bathroom nearby.
It’s only when he can feel a presence beside him does Eddie open his eyes. A woman mirrors his position against the wall but faces him, a wicked glint in her cat-like eyes. Taken aback by her close proximity, Eddie jumps causing her to giggle at his squirming.
‘Whatcha waiting for cutie?’
Eddie continues to shuffle away, the phone your warm voice once echoed out of, now uncomfortably sticking into his back.
‘Was just… just using the phone…’ he murmurs nervously.
‘Oh?’ she cocks her head, auburn waves tumbling, ‘and here I thought you were waiting out here for some fun.’
A slender manicured finger reaches out, tugging at a bewildered Eddie’s bottom lip. He stutters as his brain scrambles for a response. Another awkward round of full frontal flirting from random girls. The thought of supermodel groupies throwing themselves at him was somewhat appealing when he was a raging hormone of a teenager. But even then, you were still in the back of his mind on a pedestal, now you live there front and centre. Eddie recoils from her touch, swatting her hand away.
‘No!’ he surprises himself with the firmness in his voice, ‘M’sorry, not looking for anything.’
The girl scoffs a ‘whatever’, rolling her eyes and flouncing off. Just as Eddie finally feels his body relax, a snigger from the corner catches his attention. A frame steps forward from the shadows. 
A man, also in his twenties, grins an infectious smile that makes Eddie feel a little giddy. Shorter than himself, but broader, tanned muscles that glistened with sweat from dancing.
‘I think she’s a little disappointed,’ the guy chuckles.
‘I really was just using the phone!’ Eddie insists.
Gradually the two move closer towards each other, Eddie drawn in by the piercing pale eyes that never leave him. Despite the corridor being much cooler than the dance floor, heat bubbled between their bodies. 
‘So… Eddie, are you definitely not looking for any kind of fun?’
October 31st 1986
Now in the depths of autumn, the madness of life had only increased. Kraven had found their sound with the addition of Eddie, days spent mastering their sound in the studio. When out of the studio, the boys sat round meeting tables listening to suits spew corporate jargon about their mastermind ideas for selling the band. That was his least favourite part, hearing his existence and passion whittled down to money making schemes. It’s also where Eddie was forced to tackle the idea of fame. Seeing his name in small print under photographs of the band, plastered in pages of music magazines about the next hot thing. Personally, he found it mortifying but Wayne insisted it was proof of him achieving his dreams, whereas you cackled down the phone at the surrealness of it all.
At the end of the day, Eddie buried himself in sheets of paper, attempting to put into words the feelings that brewed inside. Trying to heal the internal wounds the events of the year had left, whilst being a thousand miles from the people who actually understood. Vocalising the sadness he wished he didn’t feel over achieving his dreams of making it but not with his own band. Then as ever, trying to find an outlet for the love he felt for you that bubbled with fervency in your absence and 
with every stolen phone call. Then, a couple of times a week, Eddie would present his lyrics to Riz to make sense of, during after-hours at the studio. A secret project the two of them found themselves falling into outside of Kraven. That was another source of guilt, that his heart and soul weren’t invested in the band in the same way Taylor, Spike and Keith’s were. That he reserved the heartfelt work for himself, letting his real passion erupt during the late night sessions with Riz. 
Then there was another output Eddie found for his pent up frustrations about his overwhelming emotions and suffocating new lifestyle. A way to let go in a way that didn't leave him ashamed as if he had betrayed you. The guy at the club on his 21st birthday had opened up possibilities that Hawkins had limited. Small town life was oppressive, he didn’t need the rumour mill buzzing with fresh stories that the satanist Munson was also a sodomist. Whilst Taylor and Spike drowned in girls, Eddie became comfortable seeking out something else in the bars and clubs they’d frequent. It was easier, less intimate. He didn’t need to worry about coy teasing, didn’t need to exchange names and take girls home. Eddie could find release down the back of another guy's throat, quick and hot in dark corners and back allies. He was unsure if his bandmates had realised and was anxious that they’d reject him for it but that was another issue forced to the back of his mind, stored in another box overflowing with anxieties. 
Halloween was decided as a good marketing angle for the band. Their name added to the line up of hot new rock bands performing at an infamous West Hollywood Halloween party. Something thrown by a record executive’s tabloid covering daughter that had become notorious enough to be spoken about on MTV. Eddie being no stranger to a costume and outlandishness being second nature to Taylor, the pair had put themselves in charge of putting together the band’s costume. 
‘This is pretty hardcore you guys,’ Spike admitted, ‘didn’t think you’d pull it off.’
The four cramped into a backstage room at the venue, getting ready for their performance. Eddie’s tongue stuck out in concentration as he finished painting Spike’s body. All four of them were skeletons. Leather trousers and boots embellished with white paint, creating the illusion when on stage they were void of flesh. Their torsos mostly exposed aside from frankly decorative scraps of leather. Spike in long leather sleeves that covered wrist to arm and left the entirety of his chest exposed. Eddie and Keith both in tight leather waistcoats. Then Taylor, naturally, entirely topless aside from some leather wrist cuffs and mask that made him appear as a devilish gimp. All exposed skin had bones painted on top which was now Eddie’s current job. 
‘Of course we did,’ Taylor boasts, ‘you really doubted our little DnD nerd’s ability to put together a costume?’
Eddie splatters paint in the singer's direction. Even if they weren’t his friends from home, his band mates had become real friends. Their bantering is interrupted by the door opening and a fallen angel with a clipboard appearing. 
‘You guys gotta be outta here in like a minute, the band on stage are wrapping up and you’re next.’ Her sentence is finished with a pop of her bubble gum and the slam of the door.
After final adjustments to the costumes, the boys file out to the side of the stage. Eddie’s chipped black nails gripping at the neck of his guitar. The usual pre-show jitters causing his stomach to flutter. 
‘You good brother?’ Keith whispers, a reassuring firm hand bracing Eddie’s shoulder. 
‘Yeah, yeah, all cool, I mean y’know aside from usual pre-show nerves,’ he shrugs. Keith nods with understanding, spinning his sticks - a nervous tick Eddie has come to notice. 
‘Damn, you better at this fuckin rockstar shit than me. My heart feels like it’s about to fall out my god damn asshole knowing who’s in that audience!’
Quirking an eyebrow, Eddie warily responds,
‘What do you mean… who’s here?’
Keith’s eyes bulge at his bandmate’s obliviousness. 
‘Holy shit, you got no gossip rags in that little town of yours? This party is infamous. It’s some real Motley Crue as shit out there. Full of rockstars fuckin heiresses n shit! Little Miss Clipboard said mother fucking Slash is here!’
Before Eddie can even clear his now dry throat to respond, the sound system booms with the excited announcement of the MC.
‘Next up is rock’s hottest new band… Kraven!’
The cheers are muddled by the ringing in Eddie’s ears, his body seized up until Spike nudges him along. With a gulp, he steps out into the spotlight, trusty axe in one hand whilst the other spins the ring you made him. 
Dripping sweat causes the paint to bleed down Eddie’s exposed skin. Unsteady hands grab one of the bottles of whiskey thrusted upon them once the band exited the stage and merged into the party. Eddie’s ear’s still buzzed with the raucous applause and hollering that erupted once Kraven finished their set. Immediately after they were mobbed by names he’d read on the backs of cassettes he couldn’t afford in record stores. Producers, lyricists and fellow musicians, all congratulating and praising him - Eddie the freak Munson, the kid who grew up awkward, poor and unwanted. The change of pace in his life was surreal; after a lifetime of critical fails, he’s been rolling nat20s. 
A soft evening breeze provides Eddie with as much needed respite as California weather can. The surrealness of inside was getting to him. Skin sticky from sweat induced by the growing crowd of important people with his name on their tongue. His name. Eddie Munson.
‘Eddie Munson?’
It takes a moment for Eddie to realise that voice wasn’t coming from inside his head. A few feet before him, leaning against the roped barrier a guy peers with his head cock. Soft flopping quaff falling into his curious eyes. A cowboy. Blue wash denim waistcoat with nothing underneath exposing taught tanned muscles. A tanned cowboy hat pushed back so it hangs off the back of his neck.
‘Uh, yeah, yeah… can I help you?’ 
The guy shrugs, hands sliding into the back pockets of tight jeans and rocking on the balls of his cowboy boots. 
‘Nope. Just thought it was you. Saw you perform, you were great. More talented than most of these rockstars,’ he scoffs.
‘Oh, I - I don’t know about that. Thanks, I guess,’ Eddie fumbles over his words, eyes focused downwards at those damn cowboy boots.
With a chuckle the guy responds, now daring to move forward, strong hand adjusting Eddie’s waistcoat. 
‘See, you just proved me right. Most of those guys would’ve agreed and definitely wouldn’t thank me…’ 
His fingers brush over Eddie’s jittering own. 
‘Need a light for that?’
He pulls up Eddie’s hand that holds a long forgotten cigarette that remained unlit. Gulping, he nods. The mystery cowboy draws nearer, a zippo and a cigarette for himself materialising from inside the waistcoat. 
‘I’m Max by the way,’ he smiles as he takes Eddie’s cigarette and places it into his agape mouth for him.
‘I’m Eddie…’
‘I know, babe,’ Max whispers, his own cigarette in his mouth now.
The tips of both cigarettes almost kiss as the distance closes between the two men. The zippo crackles alight, the flame illuminating a pair of wide chocolate eyes staring at a charming pair of green, both sets of pupils dilated. 
‘Holy fuck, I knew you were big. Could see it on stage in that tight ass leather,’ Max groans. Metal scrapes on marble as Eddie Munson’s ringed fingers grip at a bathroom countertop as the man he met moments ago pumps his aching cock. Finally the tension built up inside him from the pressure of the evening was on the brink of dissipating. Huffs of air escape his mouth as Max drops to his knees, long tongue flicking at the drip of precum. 
‘Knew you’d taste good as well,’ he smirks.
‘God damn, shit,’ Eddie pants as warm lips caress his tip, he struggles to contain himself. His hand lunges out, grabbing at Max’s soft locks. ‘Shit, my balls, suck my fucking balls.’
Pliant, Max does as he’s told, firm balls popping into his mouth causing wild bush to prickle at his face. After a few luxurious sucks, he’s hauled back to his feet and Eddie’s previously shaking hands are nowhere to be seen as he swiftly unbuttons denim.
‘I can’t be the only one to play show and tell.’ 
Eddie smirks as he watches green eyes flicker in bliss as his fat cock is released from its denim cage. Tanned to match Max’s toned body with a pretty pink head, fair pubes trimmed neatly. A real pretty boy. 
‘No wonder you were so confident,’ Eddie chuckles, ‘knew you had that ready and loaded, huh?’
Max whimpers now he’s the one to receive relief from another’s hand. Eddie tugs his chin to force eye contact. Only a moment can they maintain contact before both men are chest to chest, jerking the other off, a mess of precum leaking between them. Open mouths and tongues flickering at each other, spit swapping. It’s dirty and hot and far too filthy for this fancy carpeted bathroom.
Pushing aside a wail of pleasure, Max uses a free hand to fumble inside his waistcoat until he brandishes a foil square. Eddie arches a brow.
‘Jesus, just, just fuck me before I cum,’ Max pleads. 
The desperation makes Eddie snigger but it’s mutual. 
Quickly, the man is bent over the counter, ass exposed as Eddie’s warm spit drips down. Groans echo as his thumb circles over Max’s tight hole, slipping in as both men’s dicks twitch in suspense.
‘P-please, fuck me,’ he grunts.
‘Alright, alright. You ready cowboy?’
Moans echo off the tiles as Eddie eases into Max’s asshole. The pair’s eyes meet in the mirror they face until he tops out and his head drops into denim. After a moment, Max begins to wriggle beneath, fucking himself on Eddie’s cock until the message is received. Eddie braces himself, fingers digging into hip bone as he begins to drag his length in and out. 
Eventually the air is thick with heat and the sound of skin on skin. Full balls slapping against each other. A ringed hand against a plush asscheek. Feral groans and whines of pleasure. So loud that no head is turned when the bathroom door bursts open.
‘What the fuck is this shit?!’ A new voice booms off the tiles.
Eddie and Max’s heads snapped round to the figure in the doorway. The pair caught, trousers round their ankles and Eddie balls deep in a stranger. The image is too incriminating to be anything other than it was. He was exposed and the sweat from the impending orgasm now runs cold. There was no hiding.
-----
damn who tf at the door? my man didnt even get to nut in the hot cowboy
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caaaatoad · 2 years
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hello there, is your day well? I come bearing a request!
A wonderful piece to my collection would be a drabble that shows Kaeya's more adorable side,,,
I don't want to put in too many details, or leave it too vague
so I'll reiterate it for clarity: Kaeya showing a more vulnerable side of himself (ex: something embarrassing/terrible happened )
I thank you for your time to read through my request,,, ^^
A/N: I love kaeya requests so much thank you for your request it really brightened my day today! <3 I hope you have an amazing day today to Anon! So sorry that it’s so late <33
KAEYA REVEALS HIS SECRETS TO YOU (Kaeya x gn!Reader)
Pairing: Kaeya x gn!Reader
Genre/format: Angst to fluff, reverse comfort (drabble)
Warnings: lots of crying, sickness, throwing up, mentions of unhealthy coping (alcohol + overworking), guilt, fear + fear of storms (thunder + lightning) and anxiety, all spoilers for Kaeya’s backstory and events, petnames: ‘darling’ and ‘my love,’ burns + injuries
Summary: Kaeya believes he is unworthy of love, especially yours.
Kaeya is a man of many layers.
If you were to describe his façade, it would be like velvet over ice. Smooth voiced and sultry tongued, he delivered his blows cold and sharp.
That is not how you would describe him, Kaeya. Kaeya, was your sweet, loving boyfriend. Loyal, and a good man. You told him those words with ease because they were the truth - and your lover looked at you as if all you said were lies.
more under the cut!
Lies so cruel, they shattered his icy walls before the velvet could unravel. A mess. Kaeya had lost all his grace, crying as if he was a sinner deemed none of it. His walls melted before you, and instead of it a weight lifted off his chest like snow clearing-way for Spring - he trembled as if he was stranded in Dragonspine. Talked as if all the snow there weighed on his lungs until the man could no longer breathe.
Your man, your lover. Kaeya. Fully clothed but stripped naked, in the kind of way that left your soul bare. You understood, Kaeya, but not enough to know why he did not believe your assurances. It was not the first night he was up late, overthinking.
It was the first he failed to make you believe he believed you.
It was the first you woke up to find Kaeya, curled up on the bathroom floor - where the thunder rolling through the crowds and the flash of lightning had failed. He flinched violently each time, nearly a convulse. Your mouth went dry, heart dropping to the pit of your stomach - rattling your body harder than any storm did the windows.
Kaeya’s breathing eventually slowed unlike the rain hammering against the rooftops, only when pelting water was the only noise coming from the sky. You hoped it was not just the muffle of his head against the toilet seat, his knees trembling against the cold, bathroom tiles. Your held his hair back, mated with the same sweat tricking down his back. The bathroom smelled of sickness.
Kaeya tried to play it off as just that. Sickness. He even laughed—if you could call it that. Croaks from a soar throat, he must had. You had no idea how he even managed the strength to talk after all of it, his throat sounded scraped raw.
You talked. Your throat did not feel much different. “Oh, Kae…” He was trembling, hard now, and kept his face so low you thought he needed to be sick again. “C’mon, love, let’s get you cleaned up.”
He had never flinched before at the endearment. It very well could be you had never used it before; it was the truth. You had paused in your attempt to move the hairs from his face, asking him if you could. He sucked a deep breath in, wavering in his throat as thunder moaned in the clouds - and swallowed, hard. Slowly, he lifted his head slightly from the toilet he was gripping onto like a lifeline.
Not his eyes. No, never his beautiful, beautiful eyes. Or should you say eye… as you removed all that was sticking to his sweaty face but his eyepatch, his soft cotton fit for sleep replaced with his usual, formal leather. Sleep not slept. He was in full favonious uniform, recognizable despite disheveled layers of belts, thick silks and even tighter leather sticking to his body who trembled as if the man was not sweating buckets.
You sighed softly, rubbing your thumb over the dark circle underneath his eye. You shifted your palm to cup his damp cheek, and he leaned into your touch. Kaeya shut his eyes, tears leaking out of the corners, and with trembling lips spewed shaky apologies.
You cooed softly, wiping his mouth with a clean towel when he finally stopped to breathe. Kaeya was reminded to breathe slow and deep by you, breathing with him, before sitting on the toilet seat as you prepped a toothbrush.
You gently tilted his chin up, his beautiful eye refused to meet yours. It was glossy under the warm, bathroom lights - and so were his tear-stained cheeks, and the beads of sweat on his brow and bottom lip.
“I-I’m sorry,” he managed. His voice was barely heard over the pelting rain, and he was still shivering as if he was caught in it.
“For not feeling well?” You asked him, your heart hurting as more tears welled up in his eye. He moaned through his teeth as thunder rolled. You had never seen the man cry before, and never expected to ever see him shed so many his eyepatch went damp. “Kaeya, you’re human. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, I promise.”
“I—I’m disgusting,” he whispered, voice cracking to a pitch when a flash of lighting, illuminating the pure, fear in his one, sole eye. As if his body was the windows rattled by the storm, his head in your shoulder and heart underneath your hand beat harder than the thunder in his chest.
You dropped the toothbrush, your own hands were trembling now at how badly he was shaking. He only held on to you tighter, crying hard into the crook of your neck. You had seen him anxious before, and in those moments - he never wanted to be touched.
You rubbed your hands up and down his back, and hummed softly. Tears pricked at your eyes, and you shut them as you buried your nose into his hair. You continued the soothing tune until his breaths slew against your neck, calm enough to cup his cheeks and finally, meeting his gorgeous eye.
“I love you, Kae,” you said, softly. “I know I’ve never said it before, but… I do. I really do.”
You ran your fingers through his hair, out of his face, and rubbed your thumb over his damp cheek.
Kaeya swallowed hard. The walls he built were torn down in the most gentlest of ways, your touch a torch melting the ice away. Warmth he did not deserve. Guilt had tightened the knots in his stomach until all he could do was drown himself in paperwork, pried his eyes open, devoured his appetite, and forced him to spew on an empty stomach he planned to fill with wine as soon as his legs would lift him off the floor.
Was planning. He did not plan for you to find him, nor did he ever plan to fall for you harder than the buckle of his knees in his attempts to stand. Guilt, and so much of it. A storm colder than his vision and the night he was given it. Colder than the look in his brother’s eyes as he drew his sword—pure fire, and somehow - it left him frozen.
Not in the way he could not move, Kaeya drew his sword in return—walls around his heart never letting anyone in again. The sword he held froze the pouring rain once it hit the steel, hardening the water hammering against the cobblestone. All the moisture in the air froze to face Diluc’s searing flames, a clash of Pyro and the Cyro of Kaeya’s earned, no—cursed Vision at his hip.
A reminder to string his words in velvety tones. Pretty lies, and ugly truths. Your loving gaze stripped his lies naked; how he truly was a spy from a hated nation, a Sinner, a liar, a traitor. How could you love a man like him? He was unworthy of love. Especially yours.
“You are so worthy of love, Kaeya,” you whispered to him. Perhaps you could not hear him over the storm. Kaeya held onto you tighter with another boom of thunder. Did he really say that last part?
“Your past does not define you,” you whispered softly. You rubbed your thumb over the back of his hand. “You have never done anything to hurt Mondstadt.”
You looked him in the eyes. “I love you so much, Kaeya.”
And Kaeya believed it.
Trembling fingers reached for the string of his eyepatch, the wet leather sliding off his face as smoothly as the tears slipping down his jaw.
Kaeya’s heart hammered harder than the rain outside, harder than the clash of the brothers’ swords, and faster than the flash of lightning illuminating the betrayal in Diluc’s eyes Kaeya caused. The man felt sick all over again, and it took everything to keep returning your gaze.
A few moments passed, as you slowly raised your hand - then retrieved it.
“May I?” You asked him.
Kaeya nodded, slowly. You smoothed a finger over his scar as he told how he got his burn. The skin was rough, he knew, and ugly - a dark, prune colour sitting like a lump on his brown skin. Swallowing the lump on his throat, his breath hitched when you pressed your lips against the skin there, a kiss softer than the flutter of crystalflies.
“Beautiful,” you whispered, rubbing your thumb underneath his exposed eye.
You helped him brush his teeth, out of his uniform, and into comfy, cotton clothes loosely fitted and suited for sleep. The storm had lulled to soft, rainfall - as you pulled the covers over your bodies intertwined by the legs - all after you made sure he slowly sipped on a glass of water.
His head rested on your chest, close to your heart. Your heartbeat his favourite sound, embraced in your familiar scent and fingers gently massaging his scalp and rubbing soothing circles into his back - sleep, came easy.
“I love you,” he said, looking into your eyes before his head fell against your chest once again.
The next morning, Kaeya awoke to your humming self cooking breakfast - delectable aromas enough to make his stomach grumble. He smiled softly.
“Kaeya,” you smiled. You grasped his hands, and squeezed them gently. “How are you feel—“
Your words were lost against his lips, as he gently brought you closer and moved in sync with yours. Never wanting to part, except for the momentary part of lips - exchanging warmth breaths as he pressed his forehead against yours.
“Thank you,” he said. He knew you loved his voice in the morning, how it slipped into a low octave. “My love.”
He smirked when you teasingly pushed him away, flustered. “Don’t go kissing me with your morning breath, Kae.”
“Hm~? I’m pretty sure you were quite fond of my lips anyways, darling.” He replied smoothly. Naturally. “And—“
You kissed him, further proving his point. You broke the kiss smiling, which told him you didn’t care.
“Thank you,” he said, as you lead him to the table to eat.
“I love you.”
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sinnertae · 2 years
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Mafia!San - 5-4-3-2-1
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Pairing: San x Hybrid!Y/N
Words: 940
Hybrid were rare species in this world. Most people believe that they have become extinct, but those people does not know about the Underground, where illegal deals were made, exist.
The most valuable transaction were happening once a year in a basement of a hotel. It was an area where no mafia boss could kill or start a fight, even if they see their's greater enemy.
The second his eyes noticed the black, velvet ears on top of your head, San knew you will be his.
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Back then everyone thought you were a balck cat, bad luck and your prices was awfully low as for a hybrid. San on the other hand noticed your round ears and way too long tail. You're a black panther and San was the only one to noticed it.
He bought you two years ago and took you to his apartment along with the cage you were lock in. He was patient with you, with all the growls and hisses as his IT guys were doing a background check on you. San learned a lot about you and your past.
You wnet through a lot of different training and you're brainwashed couple of times. When San got, you were just a feral hybrid ready to kill him the second he unlocked the cage.
He gradually got you used to his presence. For months you were locked in the same room, San's bedroom, surrounded with his scent and his scent only. One day you one of the maid entered his room to clean it up and change the sheet. Her scent reached you immediately, setting you into a panick attack. Since then nobody is allowed to enter his room.
It's been two years and still, you are the only person who can be in that room besides San. You change the bed sheets, keep his desk organized and also take care of his and your laundry. It was your safe place, his bedroom. No one could get to you, he would protect you from all the cruelty of the world before he let anyone hurt you
He did not plan on falling in love with you. He did not plan of caring for you. You just somehow slipped past the walls San has built around his heart, with those silky-smooth paws and black round ears.
Here you are, on the bedroom floor, trembling. One of his man - a newbie - ran into the room looking for his boos and thus breaking the rule number one of San's house. When the front door slammed loudly, startling you, you knew it was him. He ran up the stairs, taking two step at once.
"Babe?" San called for you, before he managed to open the bedroom door. He fell on his knees before you, taking your hands in his. "Hey, kitten. I am here." He said quickly, his heart hammering against his chest. The second he saw you tried to speak he shushed you, pulling you closer.
"I know everything. I will deal with the dumbass later. Now please focus on my voice, okay? Deep breaths, kitty." His hand was moving up and down your back as he kept your ear pressed against his chest. San gives you few more minutes but the anxiety does not seem to subsidie, he decides to try something different.
"Come on, baby. Tell me five things that you can see right now." He whispers in your ear.
"Y-your legs, floor, bed..." You stopped for a second to breathe. The tip of your tail came back to live when you tried to name two more things but your mind could not choose which one.
"Two more, kitty. Don't overthink it." San encouraged you.
"Carpet and a gun." You said suddenly, surprising him as you pressed your moisty nose against his bare arm.
Gun? What gun... Oh..
He gasped looking to the side, where he left it. The second he answered his phone and heard the you are going through a horribly strong panic attack, San has dropped everything and came. His first thought was to shoot the guy who dared to cross the doorstep of his room.
" Four things that you can touch."
"The soft carpet, hard floor, the bed and you."
"Good girl." San kissed your head, drawing a circle of your back with his palm. He could feel that you are regaining control over your body as you breathe in his scent.
"Give me three things that you can hear?"
"The rain outside. People talking downstairs, and your heartbeat." With each example, your panther ears twitch, turning in a different direction.
"Two things you can smell." San did not give you the chance to think about any of the things you just said.
"Your scent and... "You hesitate, gripping his tee tighter as you press your nose harder against his bicep. "Him."
"One thing you can feel." He says quickly, grabbing your face gently with his hands to look you in the eyes. Without second thought, you straighten up and kissed him. San leant back, pulling you with him as he kissed you softly.
"Love." You gasped, laying next to him on the floor. "Thank you."
"Don't thank me, kitten. What do you want to do? I have to deal with the moron." He growls, pulling you closer, all of a sudden feeling protective.
Love was not a foreign word in your vocabulary, neither in San's. What you two shared was love, but neither of you said these three words yet, and you were fine with it. You don't need to hear him say it, situation like this speak for themselves. 
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bettyfrommars · 1 year
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I'm on Fire//older!biker!Eddie Munson x fem!artist!Reader//90's au//Part 7
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⚠️Cautions: 18+Only pls, MDNI, eventual smut, mention of smut, mention of erection, flirting, crushing on each other, reader gets fired, alcohol consumption, jealous!Eddie, biker!Eddie, boxer!Eddie, biker!Steve, relationship drama, threats against loved ones, hints at a violent past, vindictive exes, aggression (not at reader), mention of handgun, angst, mutual pining, slow burn. Word count: 7.6k
Series Masterlist
Suddenly unemployed and in the wind, you wander into the bar where biker!Steve Harrington works the door, and new opportunities arise. Just as you and Eddie are navigating getting closer, someone from Eddie's past drops a bomb on him that he can't ignore, and he does his best to protect you from the backlash. Dirty deeds get done not so dirt cheap. I'm on Fire 90's playlist here
A/N: Nothing really, just wanted to tell those of you who have been supporting and encouraging this story how much you all mean to me, and how much I love hearing from you. Big love to my bestie for helping me put together the playlist for this series, it's all I've been listening to lately. Oh ALSO, I'm working on a smutty oneshot in honor of biker!Steve's character in this story, a little companion piece, *cumming* soon 🫦 biker!Steve oneshot here
———-
I'm on Fire Part 7: The Velvet Hammer
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Your eyes flew open early on Monday morning as dawn was barely breaking, to find that the emotions of sadness and fear were gone for the moment: they had been replaced by a white-hot anger that burned in your chest.
In a burst, you cursed, threw your covers off, and had an imaginary conversation with your ex-boss Judith, complete with shaking your fist in the air, eyebrows jutting together. She couldn’t just let you go and replace you without any warning---the whole thing was absurd. You made your coffee and went back to your room so that you could avoid Katie as she got ready for work. You weren’t mad at her; you just didn’t want to have to answer any questions or mull it over. In the state you were in, you were worried that you might snap at her for no reason.
A tiny part of you still hoped (prayed) that it was all a misunderstanding, and maybe you had some vacation days coming that you had simply slipped your mind. That small glimmer of possibility was immediately stamped out with a waffle-sole, steel toe boot when you found your other assistant Holly already behind the front desk when she hadn’t originally been scheduled to be there until noon. Her presence alone was not the final straw---it was the look on her face. The second she saw you, she blushed and got flustered, pretending to organize papers, trying overly hard to appear nonchalant.
You were hoping for Judith, that was the bitch you wanted to see, but Holly informed you with quivering hands that she had just left a half hour ago to catch a flight to Cozumel for a “rejuvenation retreat”. You could tell that being involved in any type of conflict, even passively, was making Holly’s anxiety spike.
“She told me to give you this,” Holly said, reluctantly sliding an envelope across the desk, and then in a whisper, she added, “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to be the one to--”
You did your best to shake your head and smile and told her it wasn’t her fault. You walked to the other side of the gallery to check the envelope. It was your final paycheck, along with a typed note that basically said, “Thank you for the work you’ve done, but I’ve decided to hire another manager that is a better fit for the gallery. I am longer in need of your services. Best of luck in your future endeavors. Namaste, Judith.”
It was that Namaste that had you breathing out your nose like a dragon, crumpling the note up in a tight ball, nostrils flaring. The letter wasn’t even signed; Judith probably made Holly type it.
You went to get your things out of the cubby in the back room, and while you were there, you tried Judith’s house phone just in case, but there was no answer. That cunt really had the nerve to fire you out of the blue after working there almost a year, and didn’t even have the tits to say it to your face, forcing shy little Holly take the brunt of it. You were on the verge of going full Coffin King MC on her ass.
When you came out with your wire basket full of things, you apologized to Holly for putting her in the middle of this, as you reached around to take the mason jars full of colored markers, highlighters, and pencils that were on the desk dear the typewriter. “These are mine, I bought these. Tell Judith if she has a problem, she can come find me.”
You took one last look around the gallery that you genuinely loved, asked Holly to stay in touch, and had to swallow a lump in your throat as you crossed the street to your car.
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Eddie worked a long day at the garage, running tows, fielding resumes for part-time office help, and thinking about you. There was a disturbance in the force, as they say, and he hoped to get a call from you later so that he would know that you were okay.
Instead, at around 8:30pm, he got a call from Steve. Eddie could tell by the music that he was at the Velvet Hammer, which was a well-known cocktail lounge, frequented by bankers and bikers alike, where Steve worked as a bouncer from time to time. The waitresses all wore skimpy, edgy outfits, and there was professional pole dancing and strippers offering lap dances on the weekends.
“Dude,” Steve said once Eddie picked up. “Your girl is here, just thought you’d want to know.”
Eddie had been digging around for a lighter in the drawer of his nightstand, in nothing but a pair of boxers, but at that, he froze and straightened up, his brow clenched. “What do you mean she’s there? Where? At the Velvet Hammer?” It wasn’t only the location that took him by surprise, but the fact that it was a Monday, and you weren’t one to bar hop in the middle of the week.
Steve lowered the phone while he shouted to someone, the song Low by Cracker blasting loud in the background. “Yeah, man. She was here when I came in, I don’t know, it seems like she’s having a bad day,” Steve tucked the phone into his shoulder so that he could ask someone for their ID. “There was some dude bothering her earlier, but I took care of it. I can’t watch her every second though---” Eddie cut him off, clenching the phone so tight, the knuckle of his hand went white. “Who was bothering her?”
Steve rested the phone with the long, spiral cord on his chest to talk to someone else for a second, but when he got back on the line, Eddie had hung up.
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After you walked out of the gallery for the last time, you deposited your check, and as frugal as you normally were, you took a bit of cash out to treat yourself after getting canned in such a depressing way. You hung out at a B. Dalton’s for an hour and bought a book, and then you tried on some clothes at one of your favorite shops, but nothing fit right; you felt like you were crawling out of your skin. You went home and had lunch, took care of Charlie, did some laundry while watching daytime soap operas, started feeling worse about yourself, and then decided to go down and get a paper at the coffee shop to start hunting for a new job. You didn’t want to be home when Katie got back from work; you still weren’t ready to talk about it.
Coffee and a browse through the dismal job market turned into a walk around the park, and then you just kept going for 5 or 6 blocks until you realized you were standing on the corner across from a bar called the Velvet Hammer. Wasn’t that where Steve said he worked the door every so often? The exterior was black with dark red trim, and you thought maybe you’d been there for a drink once when you first moved to town, but you couldn’t remember. The sandwich board on the sidewalk out front said “Happy Hour menu Half off appetizers 3:30-6:30” and you decided to have a bite before you made the trek back to your car.
Steve was not there when you first arrived, and you were close to missing the happy hour cut off, so you ordered some food right away, and a cocktail to wash it down. The inside was also black and red, with a big chandelier hanging from the ceiling, a long mirror behind the bar, and an old fashioned jukebox lit up in a red and blue arch in the corner. There were two empty stages at the far back, with shiny poles down the middle, and a pretty, tattooed girl in a red leather romper waited on the scattering of customers that were there.
Whereas most bars played sports on TV, the Velvet Hammer played old black and white b-horror movies, and you were absorbed in a scene from Plan 9 From Outer Space when the bartender with the shaved head and double nose piercing asked with a dimpled smile if you wanted another drink.
Candy by Iggy Pop and Kate Pierson was playing, and it had you in a mood, so you nodded to say yes, please---I would love another.
A half hour later, you said yes to another refill and ate a few pretzels, looking around to see that the bar was filling up. There were two more cocktail waitresses there and each wore less clothes than the first. The movie on the TV now was The Creeping Terror from 1964, and just as one of the actresses turned to the camera and put her hands to her head for a silent, blood-curdling scream, someone tapped your shoulder and hissed, “BOO!”, right in your ear.
You whipped around on your bar stool, relieved to find out that the marauder was Steve Harrington.
He had his Coffin King’s MC biker cut on over a white t-shirt, exposing his heavily tattooed arms and hands, dark wash Levi’s, and he had his sunglasses on even though it felt like nighttime inside the bar.
He leaned over to hook his elbow on the bar, pushing his sunglasses into his thick head of hair to address you. “What’s up, lady friend? Who are you here with?” He looked around as he asked it, as if he automatically assumed you were with Katie or Eddie, and not just drinking alone at a bar on a Monday night.
You tugged at your ear self-consciously and palmed the new drink in front of you. “Just me, I’m afraid,” you took a sip, moving the red stir straws out of the way with your nose. “I’m about to light up that jukebox, you have any requests?”
Steve slapped the bar enthusiastically. “Hell yeah, I do, hold on,” he waved the bartender down and asked them to hand him some quarters. Apparently there was a stash of coins near the cash register there to keep the music going.
He clapped 10 or 12 quarters on the table in front of you. “Maybe some STP, anything Ozzy,” he continued, giving his requests. “I’m a sucker for that Alanis Morisette chick, too, but don’t tell Eddie,” he said with a wink.
“Anything you want, really,” he kept talking as he backed up, heading to his bouncer stool at the front door. “As long as it’s not fucking lame,” and then he smiled and flipped his sunglasses back down over his eyes.
A bit later, as you made your way back from the jukebox, some guy stepped into your path, immediately invading your bubble.
“Hey, beautiful, can I buy you a drink?” He asked, and his presence took you a bit off guard because you were so deeply concentrating on the song list you just put together, your head was in another world. The guy had slicked back, inky black hair, a teardrop tattoo under his eye, and incisors that looked like fangs.
“That’s okay, thank you,” you mumbled with a half smile as you went to walk around him.
But, he slid to the side, blocking your way again. “Just one drink? I hate to see a beautiful woman drinking alone.”
From across the room, Steve shouted at the guy with the fangs—apparently he knew his name---and when the guy snapped a look in his direction, Steve sliced his hand across his throat and shook his head, warning him to back off. Without a fuss, the fang guy ducked back into the shadows, hands in his pockets, sulking to find his table without so much as another glance in your direction.
Steve could see this shit coming a mile away; you were getting relaxed, and you were alone, and that level of vulnerability never failed to bring a bad element out of the woodwork. He didn’t mind keeping an eye on you, but it was getting busy for a Monday night because of the free darts and pool, and that was when he decided to call Eddie.
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Steve was smoking a cigarette when he waved Eddie in without a word, the two exchanging a quick hand grab in passing. Eddie’s gaze landed on you immediately; sitting at the bar, face tilted up to watch the TV, and that familiar thrill of being near you again stirred in him.
“Is this seat taken?” He was already straddling the padded stool as he said it, brushing up against your body as he did so.
You could feel someone approaching in your peripheral vision, and you were bracing yourself for another unwanted advance. But, then you smelled him; that unmistakable woodsy spice with bar soap and leather undertones. You felt his presence; big and sturdy and warm. There he was, right out of a dream, in his Coffin Kings leather, just like Steve’s, but with a long sleeve black shirt pushed up to the elbows, hair back in a knot so that it wouldn’t drive him crazy on the ride over, forearms and fingers patched in tattoos. He wasn’t wearing his chunky rings, and it made you wonder if he had been in a rush to leave his place. His knuckles were crisscrossed in raised white scars, as well as one particularly angry one that went all the way down his middle finger and back of his hand.
You made sure it was him first, and then you couldn’t wait to be in his arms. He turned in his seat to face you so that your hips fit in between his wide knees, and you fell against him, rested your head in the crook of his neck, closing your eyes for a second, soaking in the secure feeling of his arms locking around you.
He squeezed you so tight, something in your back popped, and then he loosened his grip, unsure of his own strength sometimes. “You okay?” He asked, his head turning so that his lips were pressed against the back of your head.
You had both of your arms against your chest so that your hands were balled up into tiny fists in between your two bodies. “I’ve been better,” you told him, shoulders hunched.
Some of your hair caught on the stubble of his jaw as you pulled back to find his lips with yours. You exchanged a few sweet kisses, foreheads locking together as you fingered the single earring dangling from his lobe, before stepping up onto your seat again. Facing one another, you each had a forearm resting on the bar, and Eddie cupped his hand over yours, protectively.
God, he was crazy about you, Eddie thought.
He could tell that you weren’t yourself. His eyes shifted around the room, jaw muscles flexing. “Did someone in here fuck with you?”
“No, no, it wasn’t that,” you avoided his eyes and looked at his hand that was on top of yours. “I got fired today,” you said as a reflexive, helpless smile flashed across your mouth.
Eddie set his head back an inch, lips parted, searching your face. “You’re joking?”
“Nope,” you offered a little snort. “Not this time, I’m afraid.” And then you gave him the Cliff Notes version of everything that had gone one from when Jeff came over the night before till now.
Eddie rubbed his thumb across your hand as you talked. He didn’t want to smother you, but if he wasn’t touching you, he thought maybe you’d just slip away. Was he touching you too much, or not enough? Healthy forms of attachment and displays of affection were not taught to him as a child; but he was an observant fuck, and a fast learner. The vulnerable side of him was the side that always got him hurt, heart trampled on, and so every time that natural urge showed itself, he would do his best to reel it back. There was something about you, though, that made him feel comfortable enough to show his affection in a way his heart ached to do.
The bartender brought Eddie a beer and set it on a napkin. He released your hand only to take a sip of it, thinking about what you’d just shared with him, and then his hand found yours again, giving it a reassuring pulse.
“By the looks of it, I’m not even sure she’ll even give me a good reference,” For all Judith’s faults, Moon River was one of the best, though, and you had dreamed about working there ever since you read an article about in Art World magazine.
“You should’ve called me,” Eddie put his other hand on your knee. “I would’ve come and picked you and---”
“Rescued me?” You gave him a shy look. “I know you would’ve. But you were working, and I’ve been trying not to make it a reality by talking about it. I haven’t even talked to Katie today.”
Much like Eddie, you weren’t used to reaching out to people when times got tough; your default was usually to hide and/or run as far away as possible. Even though you hadn’t done anything wrong that would warrant being fired in such a hasty manner, it still made you feel embarrassed, and you weren’t sure if you were ready to peel back all of those deeper layers with him in this early stage of dating.
There was a lull in the conversation as Creep by Stone Temple Pilots played in the background, and a bad feeling planted seeds in Eddie’s gut that had him wondering if maybe he had something to do with this. Was this Charlene’s doing? She had the reach, that was for sure, but to what end? She surely didn’t think that somehow hurting you would get him back in her bed. The math was not mathing, not by Eddie’s way of thinking, anyway.
He ducked his head to try and meet your lowered gaze, his fingers intertwining with yours on the bar. “Can I take you home after this?”
You took a deep breath and finished your drink in one final gulp, the melting ice crashing against your lips. You chewed a few bits as you answered him, “that’s probably a good idea. But I can call Katie, you don’t have to---”
“I’m taking you home.” His eyes were soft, but his tone let you know that he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
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Katie came out onto the porch in a bathrobe like the concerned mother you never had as Eddie pulled the bike to the curb to let you off; you kissed him on the cheek as you dismounted. She worried that you’d been in a car accident or something by how late he was bringing you back. You had left her a note on the kitchen counter, but it said you’d only be gone an hour or two, not seven.
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The only thoughts in Eddie’s head as he made his way back to the garage were wondering how he could help make things better for you. He couldn’t muscle someone into getting your job back, but there were plenty of people who would hire you at various places if he told them to. Then there was that office assistant he needed, but he wouldn’t be able to even pay you half what the gallery did---you’d be better off getting unemployment.
The bad feeling that all of this had been because of him blossomed into a full blown knee to the stomach when he saw the unmistakable polished, cherry red of Charlene’s Porsche parked directly across from the entrance to his apartment. She was leaning against the back, elbows on the trunk, feet crossed at the ankles, grinning like Satan’s spawn as she watched him pull in.
He took a minute to calm himself down as he parked the bike, slowly dismounting, keeping his back to her as he took off his helmet. God, he did not want to deal with this shit right now. He would never physically hurt her, and she knew that, and it felt like she was really shoving that fact in his face.
Every muscle in his body was tense as he headed in her direction across the mostly empty, dark parking lot, especially those in his face and hands.
“Trouble in paradise?” She quipped, looking down at her nails, fanning them out like claws. She was in a tight, leopard print pencil skirt halter dress, and a cropped, bolero style fur coat.
First, he wanted to make sure they were both on the same page. “Are you the reason she got fired?”
Charlene crossed her arms over her chest and shrugged. “I might have convinced a handful of people to ignore Judith and never spend money in her gallery ever again unless she let that girl go, so, sure, I guess maybe I did have something to do with it.”
“You’re disgusting,” Eddie said it on a strained breath, a painful look on his face, bile rising in his throat. It was almost hard for him to look at her in that moment, he hated her so much.
“And you’re a fucking liar,” Charlene spat, jutting her chin out a few times, stabbing her finger in the air at him. “You told me you cared about me.”
Eddie had so many residual regrets for the things his dick made him do sometimes, it wasn’t even funny.
He cocked one knee out to the side. “So, you thought that by hurting her, I’d somehow get back in your bed? You’re out of your fucking mind, Charlene.”
“Baby, don’t you remember how we used to---” she pushed off the car and dove to grab his arm, but he stepped back, out of her reach.
“Don’t call me that,” he warned, cringing.
“Fine!” Judith barked showing the palms of her hands in mocking surrender. “But I miss it, I miss us. I know you do too.”
Without hesitation, Eddie shook his head, his voice a deep murmur. “I don’t miss it at all. I don’t miss us, because there never was an us.”
“You don’t mean that,” she bit, pouting, trying hard to pull a few crocodile tears to the surface of her icy hazel eyes.
“Listen,” Eddie paused to chew his top lip. He didn’t want to knowingly break anyone's heart, not even Charlene's. At one point in their fling, he could tell that her feelings for him were way more intense than his were for her, and he should’ve called it off then, but the money made him greedy and careless. “I’m sorry you got hurt in all this, okay, we had some fun while it lasted. But you have to fucking fix this, Charlene, I’m serious.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fix what? It’s done,” she scoffed. “She’ll have to get a new job, big deal. It’s not the end of the world.”
“You’ve never had to work a day in your life. You wouldn’t last a week in her shoes.”
“I’d trade lives with her in a second,” she blurted. “If it meant you’d look at me the same way you look at her.”
He puffed out a long held, heavy breath. “It’s been fun catching up. I’m going inside. You know the way out.”
If he knew that any number of words—besides lying and saying he loved her---would get you your job back, or turn back the hands of time, Eddie would’ve stood there and negotiated all night, but he knew his efforts were futile.
He was a couple steps away when she called out to him again, and this time; her tone was frigid, void of any emotion.
“You should know it’s only going to get worse for her,” she promised. Eddie stopped in his tracks, flexing his hands, but didn’t turn around, and so she continued. “I’ll make sure she’s rejected by every gallery for a hundred mile radius, and then she’ll have no choice but to move away, or stay here with you and watch her dreams die.”
One of his hands clenched into a fist, knowing that it wasn’t a bluff, trying so hard to push down the violence he felt rising in him.
“And her friend, Kathrine Clayton,” Charlene continued, letting him know the creepy detail that she had somehow ascertained your roommates full name. “I wonder how the parents in town would feel about overhearing horrible rumors involving the woman teaching their kids.”
At that Eddie turned around slow, eyes narrowing, voice booming. “What do want, Charlene? You want us to go back to fucking again, is that what it will take?” He didn’t want to touch Charlene, let alone put his cock inside of her, but he’d do it one more time if it meant she’d leave you and Katie alone. Take one for the team, as they say.
“No, not really,” She shrugged, a bored expression on her face. “I’m fucking someone new now. He’s younger than you, and he can’t get enough of me. It took me a while to find a bent cock as big as yours, but I knew I would eventually.”
This bitch is fucking crazy, Eddie swallowed, full of shame for ever getting involved with her in the first place. “What did you do, put an ad in the paper?”
“I’ll tell you what I want,” Charlene continued, ignoring his second question. “It’s very simple. I don’t want you to see her anymore, I want you to end it. I hate knowing the two of you are...falling for each other, it makes me sick. Especially when I think it could have been us.”
Eddie’s temper flared, he slammed his fist into the palm of his hand and closed in on her in two big strides, forcing her back up against the bumper. “Why can’t you get it through your fucking head that you were nothing but a warm mouth to me? I care more about her after only a few weeks than I ever did about you.”
Seemingly unaffected by those words, Charlene sighed and dropped her arms to her sides. “Well, if you care about her as much as you say you do, I encourage you to think about what I just said,” she shimmied in her high heels over the driver’s side of her Porsche, opening the door. “If you continue to see her, I’m going to ruin her life and run her out of town, and it will be all your fault, big boy.”
She waved her fingers out the window as she zoomed away from the complex. Eddie stood in the shadows and watched her go, his eyes going black, considering what she said, and realizing what he had to do as a vast and familiar emptiness grew in his chest.
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The next day, you were playing with the zipper of your hoodie, sitting at the window alcove in the kitchen, holding a pillow at your stomach, thinking about the phone call you just got from Steve.
You didn’t tell Steve you’d lost your job, but word travels fast in these friend circles. Katie must’ve told Robin, and Robin mentioned to Steve that she could get you a job at the hotel, but Steve had a better idea.
They were hiring servers at the Velvet Hammer, and apparently the bartender with the shaved head who met you the night before was also the manager, and she thought you were cute and funny and you already had an “in”. At first, you were ready to politely decline his suggestion to bring a resume by, being that you had only worked a waitress job once right out of high school, but you weren’t sure you qualified as a Velvet Hammer Girl—you didn’t even own a spiked collar.
But then he told you what the girls there made as far as income, and it gave you pause.
“The base is minimum wage,” Steve said. “But they make crazy tips, especially Thursday through Sunday. You could pocket a couple hundred bills in a night, easy.”
Sure, you’d be applying to other galleries, but that process took time. First of all, there weren’t any in the area looking for managers at the moment, but even to get your foot in the door as a receptionist would take a while. It took damn near a month and three different interviews before you got on at Moon River.
You also considered that perhaps this was a sign that the gallery world was no longer for you. Maybe it was time to get a side hustle just to pay bills, and then you could start painting again and get your portfolio up to snuff.
You told Steve how grateful you were for giving you the heads up, and he let you know the best times to bring a resume by. He also told you that the resume was basically just a formality because he had already vouched for you, but a necessity, nonetheless.
With all the drama, you almost forgot that it was Tuesday, and little cartoon hearts swam around your head when you remembered your date night with Eddie. You didn’t know where he was taking you, but he’d mentioned over the phone a few days ago that the place was new and supposedly hip. He told you to dress warm, and he’d pick you up in his Chevelle so you wouldn’t have to worry about clinging to the back of the bike in your dinner attire.
That afternoon, you were sifting through your closet for possible outfits, while simultaneously making a pile to donate to Goodwill, when the phone rang: it was Eddie.
Right away, you could tell that his tone was different; his words came out forced, like you were the last person he wanted to be talking to. You shook it off as him being distracted at work, because you could hear the other mechanics shouting in the background around the noise of electric drills and loud music.
Eddie’s eyes squeezed shut at the sound of your voice: the purpose for this phone call went against every fiber of his being. He’d been trying to convince himself that you weren’t special to him all day, but so far, it wasn’t working.
“Hey,” he stiffened, trying not to melt into a stupid grin at the way you said his name. “Something came up, and I have to cancel our thing tonight. Sorry.”
He wasn’t ready to let you go altogether, which was selfish, but he’d take it one day at a time until he could figure out a way to keep you. He had no way of knowing how much Charlene knew. He wouldn’t put it passed her to have a private investigator watching his ass 24/7. Even worse, she could’ve hired someone to watch you, and that kept him up at night.
Your heart sank, but you also understood how busy and complex his life was. “Oh, sure, Batman rides again, I get it,” you gave a little laugh, hoping to relieve any worries he had about having to cancel. You knew him well enough to know that he was a man of his word, and bailing on the date was probably the last thing he wanted to do. If only you knew the half of his anguish.
Eddie offered no retort, there was none of the flirtatious banter the two of you usually shared so effortlessly. He just cleared his throat, “anyway, that’s why I called. I have to run, talk to you later.”
You were just in the middle of saying something back when the line went to dial tone; your mouth hung open as you pulled the receiver away from your face to look at it, stunned. You blinked, turning to your cat Charlie who was stretched out on top of a pile of clean shirts on your bed. “Did he just hang up on us?” But Charlie only yawned in response.
Eddie did not, in fact, have anywhere to run to. He clicked the phone down and put his face in his dirty hands at the desk, hating himself.
-----------
Since your date got canceled, for whatever nefarious or benign reason, you decided to hike your resume over to the Velvet Hammer and introduce yourself properly to Shana, the manager with the shaved head and the fierce green eyes. She had clusters of black stars tattooed at her temples, and an anatomical heart tattoo on her bicep, right at her sleeve.
She basically hired you on the spot, but said they needed to give you a trial run for a night to shadow one of the girls to see if you could keep up the pace. She asked you to come in early for training on Thursday, and then you could start that same night if you were available. Paychecks came out every two weeks, but you’d be able to take home all of your cash tips immediately.
So, you had a job. A temporary one, to be sure, but still deeply appreciated, all the same. As much as it took a weight off of your shoulders, it also felt incredibly surreal. Also, you couldn’t help but wonder what Eddie would think.
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“Steve did what?” Eddie barked at Robin who was standing in the doorway to the office, dropping off Oliver for an hour on Wednesday. He hadn’t meant for his tone to be so gruff.
She crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame. “She needed a job while she applied at other galleries, and he got her one. I thought you’d be grateful.”
He would be grateful, maybe later, when he was done seeing red with jealousy over all of the guys, he knew who would be hitting on you at that place. What if they tried to touch you? He couldn’t even think about it, he was about to pick the desk up and throw it across the room.
Robin snorted a laugh, watching him get so flustered, he dropped the same pen three times. “Dang, you really have it bad for this one, don’t you bubba?”
It occurred to him that he should talk to Robin about what was going on, about Charlene and the threats. She had always been a solid friend who afforded him years of good advice, but there was a part of him that didn’t want to get anyone else involved. It was his mess, and he needed to clean it up, if he even could.
That night, he sat in the chair by the window in his apartment with the TV on but the volume off, listening to I Stay Away by Alice in Chains, watching the phone as it rang, forcing himself not to pick it up. It was day 2 of trying to avoid you and pull away, and he was failing miserably at being cool about it. He had to say something to you, he couldn’t just make you suffer and not know what the fuck was going on in his head; that wasn’t fair to you. But then again, none of this was. It was official, he had inadvertently dragged you down into his filth.
He turned Charlene’s words over in his head, recalling the sincerity in her face as she said them, wondering how far she would take this. He’d seen her dirty deeds in action, he knew she was formidable.
The black phone under the singular light from the lamp on his nightstand started ringing again, but it cut off halfway through, as if the person calling had changed their minds or given up. As he sat there, he remembered how you rode his thigh the other night, the whimpers coming out of your mouth, and he had to palm his growing cock over his boxers. It was disturbing how bad he wanted you.
“Fuck it,” Eddie cursed, getting to his feet so that he could go over to the phone and call you.
But, just as he picked it up to dial, it was just about to ring, and there was someone on the other line.
“Eddie? Lover?” It was Erika. “You interested in a quickie to help you sleep? I drove by and saw your light on.”
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After trying to call Eddie for the third—and decidedly final—time that night, you went out and flopped on the opposite end of the couch from Katie who was watching an episode of the show 3rd Rock from the Sun with a green beauty mask on her face.
“Still nothing?” She asked, peeling back a piece of string cheese. She knew you’d tried a couple times that night to get a hold of Eddie, and that he had canceled mysteriously on your date the night before.
“I know he’s got a lot on his plate,” you got comfortable, snuggling into the corner, ready to defend him even to yourself. “I just wish there was a way for him to let me know he’s okay. Send me an email or something. A few words, that’s all I ask.”
Your gut was telling you that something was definitely wrong, but, to be fair, you’d had your heart dragged through the mud before, and you worried that your gut was not a reliable source. You weren’t upset about the date being canceled, you didn’t even need to see him—even though that would be great----good communication was really all you asked for or needed. Your brain kept going back to the way he had been with you on Monday versus how he was with you on the phone yesterday; the two experiences were night and day. Had something happened between the time he dropped you off and the next afternoon? You checked with Robin, and you knew that Wayne was back on his feet. Maybe there had been some sticky Coffin King business that Eddie wasn’t at liberty to speak about.
You also tried to keep in mind that this whole little romance was as new as a spring daffodil, and even though you’d had a crush on him for over a month, you hadn’t progressed beyond kissing and heavy petting. Was there a chance you were reading the signals all wrong and he wasn’t as interesting in you as you thought?
Katie seemed to subliminally hear that question and answered you. “I wouldn’t worry about it, babes, the guy is nuts about you,” she turned to you and ate the rest of her cheese while there was a commercial on. “Robin said she hasn’t seen him this interested in a woman in years, and she’s known him since high school.”
“What else did Robin say?” This was helping you; this is what you needed. Why hadn’t she offered this information earlier?
She put two fingers to her mask to tap a few times, checking how tacky it felt, to know if she should wash it off yet or not. “She said that he got pretty jealous when she mentioned that you got the job at Velvet Hammer, and normally he doesn’t care what other women he’s dating do when they’re not with him.”
The silly truth was that, if Eddie told you he didn’t feel comfortable with you working there, you would’ve probably looked for something else. But, deciding to say nothing and be a ghost in the wind was not the right play to get what he wanted.
“I’m sure he’s just busy,” you announced, nodding to accentuate your point. “I’ll wait a day or two before I start freaking out.”
Katie gave you a thumbs up.
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Eddie told Erika not to call him again and practically hung up on her. It had been a while since they’d last hooked up, and if not for the incident with you at Fight Night, he would’ve all but forgotten about her.
Not twenty minutes later, shirtless in his boxers, he heard footsteps padding up the stairs to the floor of his apartment. This was particularly disturbing because it was late, and he wasn’t expecting anyone. He pulled his handgun out of its holster on the dresser and waited with it held low, standing just behind the door as the footsteps got closer.
“Who is it?” Eddie barked.
After a second of pregnant silence came the meek, “hi, it’s me. Erika.”
“Fuck my life,” Eddie hissed under his breath, holding the gun back and putting the safety on as he reached over to unlock the door and yank it open.
“I thought I just told you not to call or come over,” Eddie said, addressing her with raised eyebrows, just as he realized too late that he should’ve put a shirt on.
Erika was in a silver crop top and a pair of low-rise jeans, a pink heart dangling from her exposed belly button piercing. She was making a face and prancing back and forth a bit on each foot. “Can I please use your bathroom?”
Eddie blinked a few times, and then he scowled. “You came all the way over here in the middle of the night to use my bathroom?”
“No silly,” she giggled. “I came to see you. And to see if I left a pair of my earrings here the last time I came over.”
Eddie shook his head, slipping the gun back into its holster on his dresser with a sigh, and then shutting it in the top drawer. “I don’t have your earrings but go ahead. You know where it is.” What was he supposed to do? Make her pee out in the hallway?
He waited by the front door, standing holding it open, until he heard a flush, and then her high heels came clip-clopping back down the hall.
He pushed the door open further, holding his arm up high like an arch, making space so she could walk through. “Have a good night,” he said without meeting her eyes.
But she latched onto his chest, throwing herself against him, her lips grazing his neck, tongue lapping up to lick his earlobe. Eddie pushed her of reflexively but caught her so that she didn’t trip and fall, and now they were out in the main hallway that led to the stairs.
In perfect view of a large, street-facing window.
She was pouting, but he had her by both arms now, and he shook her a little, just enough to get her attention. “I don’t want this anymore,” his eyes were wide, searching hers. “Nod if you understand.”
But then she jutted her head forward, her lips making contact with his, her tongue flicking out dramatically.
“Fuck, STOP!” He growled pushing her away enough so that he could wipe his mouth with the back of his hand.
“But,” she gave him a coy look, adjusting her shirt. “I was thinking just one last time?”
She stole a quick side glance out the big window, but he didn’t catch it.
He composed himself, trying to imagine if he had a sister, how he’d want them to be treated in this moment, no matter how demented they were.
He took her hand in one of his and covered it with the other. “You’re a sweet girl, Erika. Go find a loyal, normal guy to care about you the way you deserve, okay? I’m not the one.”
He noticed a shift in her then, a sadness passed over her eyes; regret, maybe? Whatever it was, her appetite for him ceased and she seemed to curl into an invisible shell, shoulders sagging. She tugged her hand from his and tucked her chin, stepped forward only to hug his shoulder briefly as she went by.
“I’m so sorry, Eddie,” she said softly, pulling back to give him one last tortured look over her shoulder before she continued toward the stairs. “Please forgive me.”
Eddie stood there like a statue, hair hanging down his shoulders, hands paused in the air, wondering why the hell that had been so weird. Sure, Erika was a wild card, but showing up to use the bathroom, and then awkwardly trying to feel him up in the hallway, only to look like she was about to cry? It didn’t make any sense.
He followed a way behind her, and then made sure to put the bolt on the main door in the garage so that he wouldn’t have any more uninvited creeping visitors.
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In the building across the street from Munson’s Garage, with a perfect view of the hallway outside of Eddie’s apartment, a man with a telephoto lens was taking pictures. Snapping what sounded like a billion at a time in the darkness of the abandoned warehouse. Click click click click click.
He was finishing up, packing his camera into its case, when Erika appeared reluctantly at the top of the stairs, her expression sullen.
“Here you go, dollface,” the much older, potbellied man said to her, pinching a wad of cash between his middle and index fingers and extending it to her. “You did real good.”
Erika swallowed as she took the money, her hands cold and shaking. Sure, she was upset that Eddie didn’t like her as much as she liked him, and she hated that new girl he was talking to, but she didn’t want to see anything bad happen to him.
“I don’t like this,” she told the photographer. “I wish I’d never agreed to do it.”
“Well,” the guy said, adjusting his fedora on his head as he put the strap of his bag over his shoulder, already out of breath from the mild exertion. “Sorry to be the one to tell you this, sweetheart, but no one gives a shit.”
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Part 8
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Taglist xoxox @sidthedollface2 @leilalaufeyson02 @lilpotatobean2 @ireidsmut @kelsiegrin @nope-thanks @stylesxmunson @lofaewrites @seventhlevelofhell @corrodedcoffinsmut @whatwedontdointheshadows @kurdtbean @falling-solar-system @emxcast @bexreadstoomuch @ms1oftheboys @hellv1ra @dream-a-little-nightmare @etherealglimmer @manicmagicmayhem @micheledawn1975@aysheashea @unfocused81 @truffleshuffle12 @notsobubblybaby
P.S. for some reason, half of these aren't tagging the people they are meant for, so I'm sorry if you find this and it seems like I didn't tag you 💗 I'm grateful for each of you.
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barry-j-blupjeans · 2 years
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@taznovembercelebration - remember or forget
Dying wasn't bad it was just- sudden. One moment, Magnus was leaning over the counter to talk to Julia, who was twirling a strand of hair on her finger. Steven was behind her, rolling his eyes and putting papers away from their last order. Then, an explosion sounded from further down the street, shaking the floors and sending furniture every which way. Before Magnus could even begin to get his footing back, the ceiling of Hammer and Tongs caved in with another impact and he was dead.
It took him a second to realize, even. The massive rush of vertigo left him reeling. When he looked up, he wasn't in Hammer and Tongs anymore. In fact, he didn't even seem to be in Raven's Roost. He was kneeling in the middle of a long queue, people at his left and right. There was a black velvet rope keeping them all in order.
"Magnus," somebody said. Magnus looked up to see his next-door neighbor, who offer a hand to help him up. Magnus went to take it, still unsteady on his feet, and paused halfway up. "Magnus?"
Oh.
Ohhhh, no. No, this was bad. He wasn't supposed to- he had been- Magnus fell back down, suddenly gripped with all that he had forgotten. The velvet rope came down with him. Home, his real home, on his original planar system. The mission and the Hunger. He remembered the sound of Merle's laugh- he didn't know where Merle was. Fuck, he didn't know where anyone was. Barry, Taako, Davenport, Lup- fuck had someone found Lup yet? Had Lucretia-
Lucretia.
"Magnus!"
He had walked in on her feeding her journals to Fisher. She must have found a way around the memory block, because she was smart and Magnus knew she wouldn't have done that if no one would be there as a backup. She had been planning this for a while, hadn't she? How- how many years had it been? He didn't know. That scared him, just a little. One part of his mind said that he had been in Raven's Roost the whole time and the other was remembering his mother's garden, their little house that he never managed to find on any of his jogs.
She had to have had a good reason. He couldn't- she wouldn't betray them if she didn't have a good plan. Like, Magnus wasn't a magic person, but maybe she had thought her idea could work? Maybe? From what he knew, it deffo wouldn't have, but maybe? But that begs the question of why. Why did she have to do it alone? Why couldn't she just talk to them? Why... why hadn't she trusted him? Why did she stash him away in Raven's Roost-
"Magnus, baby, look at me," there was a hand cupping his face. Magnus looked up. Julia. And next to her, Steven. "Are you okay?"
"We fucked up," he said.
"No," Julia said. "No, we didn't. It's not our fault that Kalen-"
"No," Magnus said. He felt like he was shifting through the static with each blink. Blink, he grew up with two suns and that's why he was always so cold. Blink, he and Taako and Merle were sitting around a campfire, the Light stored in Magnus's backpack. Blink, Davenport was teaching him how to drive the Starblaster. Blink, he was watching Barry and Lup perform. Blink, meeting Lucretia, annoying her to the point of friendship, the late nights they spent up together reminiscing about home, the teary look on her face as he entered the room- "Not- not you. Me. My- my family."
"You're family," Steven repeated, his eyebrows creased. There was a little bit of a crowd around them now, watching him. "Your moms?"
"No," Magnus said again. He tried to get up and another rush of dizziness went through him. Julia caught him on his way down.
"Mags, just take a deep breath-"
"Julia," he said desperately, gripping her arm. "The Relics."
"The Relics?" Julia said, sounding confused. "Oh, the- like the Phoenix Fire Gau-"
"Yes," Magnus said. "We- Julia, I made one of those."
"You're not making sense, Magnus," Julia said.
"We had to make them," Magnus said, holding her a bit tighter. "The Hun-"
"Alright," said a new voice. Magnus jerked towards the sound. From the midst of the crowd around them came a man in a full three-piece suit. He had a big book open as he came through. He spoke a little louder this time, raising a hand to catch the attention. "Everyone from Raven's Roost, we're going to form a separate line." He gestured to a space off to the right. The velvet ropes dripped away. "Let's see here-"
"I can't be dead," Magnus said. Julia turned back to him, a worried look on her face. Steven was on his tiptoes, looking over the crowd as they moved to the new line.
"I'm sorry," Julia whispered, squeezing his hand. "It's- it's really shitty-"
"I- I can't be," Magnus said. "I have to figure out what the fuck Lucret-"
"I'm so sorry for your- well, your loss, I suppose, but we do need to move lines," said the suited man, pushing Julia along. He held out a hand for Magnus and Magnus took it, stumbling slightly. "Now, once everyone is situated, I can start getting a more organized line in place-"
"I can't be dead," Magnus said to him. "My family-"
"Ooh, sorry," the man grimaced, "but that's now how it works, is it? Listen, I'm sure you've got tons of family here waiting for you already. What's your name?"
"Magnus Burnsides," Magnus said, looking past the man. "If I wanted to get back-"
"Magnus Burnsides," the suited man said. He clicked his tongue a few times, flipping through the book. Julia tugged on his hand to get him to come to the other line. "Burnsides, Burnsides... oh. Burnsides, you say?"
"Yes, but-"
"Oh, no, you won't be in that line," the man said, standing up a little straighter.
"What d'you mean he won't be in that line?" Julia said. "We're both from Raven's Roost-"
"I'm not," Magnus said at the same time the man said,
"Oh, it doesn't really matter where Mangus is from, does it?" He shook his head, using his finger to point to something in his book. He read out loud, "Magnus Burnsides, twenty deaths, no accounts of visiting the Astral Plane before today. I suppose we'd be willing to wager this death off, since you have finally decided to visit us, but the rest?" The man grimaced, though he didn't really look all that upset. "That's not just some rule we can let you off for breaking, is it?"
"Magnus has never died before," Julia said, pushing past Magnus slightly.
"Julia," Magnus said, shaking his head. "I did kinda, uh-"
"I'm sorry, but the book doesn't lie," the man said, snapping said book shut. "The rest of you, I will deal with in a second, but you, Magnus? I have been dying to get to know what your whole deal is."
"Pun-intended?" Magnus tried.
"Oh, pun definitely intended," the man said. "I'm going to have to ask you to come with me peacefully, Magnus."
"And if we say no?" Julia said, now standing in front of Magnus. Magnus caught her hand in his and squeezed.
"If he says no," the man said, grinning. The skin from his face began to drip off, vanishing into smoke at his feet, until all that was left was a skull. He tucked the book under his arm and held out his hand to summon a sharp-looking scythe. The people in line around them shuffled away to avoid getting hit. "Then I supposed I'm going to have to take him in by force."
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driftward · 8 months
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Title: FFXIV Write 2023 - Free Day 4 - 24. Lionize Characters: Aemilia sas Valentina, Katerina van Tullia, Nyx Blackmoon Rating: Teen Summary: On the right side of history, just at the wrong time Notes: Incomplete.
Her career started quietly.
A full blooded Garlean citizen of no note, joined the military to make a difference. Grew up under the shadow of Emperor Solus and his Magitek miracles. A few sorties, some success, canny intelligence, honorable but vicious.
No especial note was made of her. Another ambitious officer.
She climbed the ranks, if not easily, at least steadily. She learned from her errors and corrected her mistakes. She was a reliable part of the Garlean war machine, moving with her legion into new territories, conquering in the name of the Empire, forwarding the cause of Garlean hegemony.
Notes began to be made and compiled. It was important to know who she was, where her loyalties lie, guess at what she would become.
She gained a reputation as Garlemald gained its empire, and soon she was not a part of her legion, she was her legion, and then her legion was hers by right and in name, its Legatus, and she rode forward to victory, iron will riding her steel pride.
Now of course she was known, and the instruments of the Empire were at her disposal. The Iron Lion had become.
Conquering done, she switched to rule, and in this, the steel hammer was replaced with the velvet glove. While the rule of the day was to command with an iron fist, the Iron Line did no such thing. She was merciful in her leadership, showing an uncommon compassion to her subjects and subjugated. Work programs were put forth that paid fair wages and provided paths to, if not citizenship, at least comfortable and safe homes. Conscripts were treated well, and their tours were kept short. She did not turn on her populace with secret police and harsh adjudicators, instead allowing them largely to manage themselves, only the most egregious of offenses drawing the ire of Imperial ruthlessness. Many Legatuses on her position expanded, but the Iron Lion instead consolidated, and slowly, her province went from a war torn land to a rich source of food and material with which to feed the empire.
The Iron Lion no longer roared, and as she handed off her fiefdom to another Legatus - one hand picked by her to continue her efforts - she changed her aims, from military to political. With a groundswell of popular support and the loyalty of those who had known her, the Iron Lion sued for a spot in the Senate, and won.
The Frumentarium, of course, took careful note of this new trajectory.
An empire was not built in a day, neither Garlemald nor a more personal one. The Iron Lion, retired from a life of duty, now took up a life of service, as Katerina van Tullia. She took her place among the Imperial senate. Her power base was small, at first, buoyed by a successful military career and popularity at home. However, her views proved popular with an increasingly progressive Garlean citizenry, grown fat on military conquest and now warming to a life of leisure, as well as a sense of burgeoning responsibility, as conquerers now enjoying the fruits of their labors.
Power flowed and some with power began to view their privilege with a sense of noblesse oblige, and chief among those voices was that of the former Iron Lion.
"How are we to show the savages the value of civilization if we do not allow them the chance to participate in it? How can we uplift them from their dependence on their false gods if we cannot share with them the fruits of Imperial rule? We conquered them, yes, not only to retake our ancestral homes, but also, to prevent the ravaging of the land by their dread Eikons. But we must turn our faces towards the future, and I would reach out a hand, and offer it to them. Show them the benefits of being free, free from false worship and false deity. Then, I assure you, we need not conquer them anymore. They will come, of their own free will. This I decree!"
Katerina raised a hand to a cheering crowd, gray mane framing a proud face. The Iron Lion roared, and her voice could still be heard, it seemed.
Aemilia sas Valentina was amongst the crowd, and she clapped along as they cheered, even if somewhat less enthusiastically. No frown creased her forehead, because she was a professional. But she looked around, noting several in the crowd, noting how this meeting had been larger than the last, and larger than the one before that. Despite herself, she did allow herself to spare a glance up into the ceiling. High above the meeting hall, she looked - and saw.
In the dark, a gleam. The silvery ring of the eye of the lever she would need.
She sighed. Well. The Empire needed yet to grow, and to continue to do so, it seemed it would need some pruning.
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