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mydearestdaryl · 13 days

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𓇢 𓆸 𝑚𝜎𝑛𝑠𝜏𝜀𝑟

summary: daryl blames your daughter for your death. warnings: birth complications, blood, gore, death, daryl hating your daughter, grief. pairing: daryl dixon x reader. setting: prison. a/n: i had been planning this fic for a while and since @louifaith asked for angst and she shall receive, i finally decided to finish it! broke my heart and in the kindest way possible i hope it breaks your too.

“i think i'm gonna die!” you cried, eyes shut as you pushed, encouraged by carol and maggie while daryl held you, your back against his chest. hershel hovered above the two women on his crutches, giving them instructions and supervising the birth.

daryl was breathing heavily, his entire body tense, eyes frozen open, and his mind raced for a solution to ease your pain but he couldn't find any. he wanted nothing more than to yell at the other three to stop and leave you alone, but he didn't want to scare you, and he knew it was a stupid idea.

“make it stop,” you weakly sobbed, interrupting yourself with a grunt to push once again.

it felt like you were being ripped in half. the pain was like nothing you had ever experienced, and you had been shot once before. no matter how much you screamed and pushed, it seemed pointless, and the happiness of finally meeting your baby was being supplanted by fear and discomfort.

“breathe, (y/n), please,” carol's soothing voice reached your ear, concerned but encouraging eyes finding yours.

“push, (y/n), i can see the head!” maggie motivated you.

still, daryl remained silent. too afraid. afraid that if he spoke, he might ruin the moment, that if he moved, he could hurt you. his heart was hammering in his chest, and he licked his lips over and over but they remained dry.

with newfound determination to meet your baby, and an agonizing cry that was probably heard by the entire prison cell, you gave a final push, hearing flesh rip in your womanhood as the baby's head came out, the rest of their body slipping out with ease.

“it's a girl!” daryl heard one of the two women exclaim, not caring who as he was only focused on you, who so weary and exhausted to your very core collapsed on his chest.

your eyes fluttered, trying their best to stay open as you watched maggie quickly but gently wrap your baby girl in a towel as carol carefully cleaned her face with a washcloth. “a girl,” you mumbled with a scratchy and strained voice, wincing as you tried to get comfortable in daryl's embrace.

as carol approached with the newborn to hand her to you, you reached your arms up, yet, they barely made it halfway as you slowly began to struggle to breathe.

“wha's wrong?” daryl begged, “hershel, wha'- wha's wrong?”

“there's to much blood... maggie!” and the vet's voice barking orders at his daughter turned into white noise in daryl's ears.

“stay with me, sunshine, stay, please,” he panicked, incoherently pleading as his red eyes pooled with unshed tears. “DO SOMETHING!” he crowed at the trio that was just as panicked as himself trying their best to save you somehow, but you were inevitably slipping away.

yet, even at that moment, when speaking and breathing were impossibly hard for you, you implored them to make sure the baby was okay. and without warning after one last adoring caress to daryl's cheek, the light in your eyes dimmed.

your body went limp in his hold, and your chest ceased its up-and-down motion that indicated you were breathing.

“(y/n),” he choked out as realization set in, cupping your face oh, so delicately as he always did, trying to cling onto the fading warmth his hands were always welcomed by.

he heard carol gasp, bringing her hands to her mouth as tears streamed down her face. maggie was a mirror, sobbing as her dad held her, and he too, let tears roll down his cheeks.

they all looked broken, but not as much as daryl.

the hunter wept, his body shaking uncontrollably as he squeezed you tightly but still careful not to hurt you, as if you could still feel it. the word no left his lips as the most heartbreaking mantra.

they had lost lori no more than 6 months ago and now you were gone too, ripped away from him the same way the latter had been from her family.

the wail from the newborn was suddenly louder than daryl's sobs, and he looked up to see carol bringing her to him. “you need to cut the cord,” she suggested softly between sniffles, but the way the hunter glared at the baby left no doubt that he wanted nothing to do with her.

his chest burned when he looked at her, but not in a good way; not in the way a father was supposed to feel when his kid was born.

without making eye contact with carol and his teeth grinding, daryl gently laid you back down onto the mattress, delicately brushing the hair out of your face and giving your cooling lips one last kiss.

he sniffled, drying his nose with the back of his hands as he got his red rag from his back pocket to dry off the beads of sweat off your forehead with utter affection, lips twitching as he held back tears from seeing your pale, unexpressive face.

carol bit her lip as more tears streamed down her cheeks, “dary-” she began, but the sudden, jerky way he turned around to face her made her stop.

face red and eyes narrowing, he snapped, “she killed 'er,” he pointed almost aggressively at the unaware baby in carol's arms. “ya cut it or whatever.”

“son...” hershel stepped closer to the archer, but he backed away, shaking his head frantically.

“ain't gonna repeat myself,” he warned, his fists balled before turning back around to sit at the edge of the bed, getting his hunting knife out, gulping as he prepared himself to stop you from turning, however, it only caused tears to make the way back into his eyes again.

he cursed, turning away from you, still sitting on the bed and leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, slumped forward as he hyperventilate, his cries echoing on the walls and mixing with his daughter's.

“i don't want you to do it,” you said suddenly, voice hushed to not disturb your group.

it was the middle of the night the day lori had died and judith was born. you had found out about your pregnancy a few weeks ago, and it had made you fear you could end up like the late mother.

daryl, who was just falling asleep tightened his hold on you, pulling you closer. “whatchu talkin' 'bout?” he inquired in a whisper.

“if i die too, i don't want you to... put me down,” you answered, looking up to meet his sapphire eyes, being welcomed with a confused and almost offended frown on his face.

“stop, tha's not happenin'.”

“if it doe-”

“it won't,” he concluded, preventing further discussion with a sweet kiss to your lips, “sleep, peach.”

sparing your body one last lingering glance as he tried to dry his red, puffy eyes, he left the cell.

as if soothing himself, he rubbed the nape of his neck while walking to the kitchen, eyes searching for rick immediately when he got there, whose eyes, as everybody else's, looked at daryl with pity, though the fellow widower could actually relate.

with slow, careful steps, rick stepped closer to daryl, who shook his head, gulping down the lump in his throat before he spoke, “she- someone has to put 'er down. she didn't wan' it to be me,” he said with a tight and unsteady voice as he fought to control his emotions. “can't,” he added with a tearful rasp.

rick's head dropped momentarily, hiding his watery eyes before he took the knife daryl was offering him. after hugging the archer shortly but tightly, rick walked upstairs to finish the task.

you were so loved by everyone.

it showed in the way the entire prison seemed to be in a permanent state of grief. even the ex-woodburians seemed sorrowful, but it was no surprise, you were friendly to everyone. kind and cheerful.

daryl hadn't cried again since the day you died. but that day he couldn't stop.

in the privacy of his room, he cried all night and stayed there, isolated for almost a week. it was so unfair. he protected you and kept you safe from walkers and bad people, but the one thing that killed you was someone he created. someone you were so excited to meet and hold, but didn't even get the chance to.

he only left his room to stop listening to carol and rick beg him to, but instead, he isolated himself in the woods. he spent almost all day hunting in nature, keeping his mind off you, off the baby he had yet to look at, let alone hold.

he left the prison as the sun was rising and returned when it was setting. when he brought back game he skinned it, and if not he went to clean up and go to bed. he ate sometimes. again, just to get people off his back about it.

he couldn't sleep. not with the baby crying every two or so hours. he didn't mind when it was judith, and he learned how to tell the difference, but when it was the other baby, he hated it because it made him think of you.

sometimes he tried to sleep with the pillow on his head, some other times he walked outside to smoke a couple of cigarettes, hating himself by the end of the night, remembering you wanted him to quit it.

a month and something went by slowly this way until the governor attacked the prison again.

he fought with his you in mind, hoping to keep the prison safe since he knew you liked it there, and you would want the baby to grow up there, so when it was all gone and the baby was nowhere to be found the guilt that ate him from the inside was massive.

yet, there she was. the little monster wrapped in a cloth with flower print in the arms of the youngest greene.

“i went back for judith and (y/n) but i only found-” the blonde girl started, but the archer interrupted her.

“(y/n)?”

she stammered, eyes widening, “uhm, it's... that's what we call her, 'cause you never named her,” she explained. “you should see, she looks just like her.”

but he didn't. he couldn't. so he just turned around and walked away, expecting the teenager to follow, which she did, baby in arms.

daryl looked in disgust and discomfort as beth tended to the crying infant, feeding her some formula they were able to scavenge from the ruins of the prison.

they were now in a little cabin in the woods daryl had found with you months ago, one of those times when you asked him to take you for a walk in nature when it felt overwhelming to be within the thick and dark walls of the prison. he loved those moments when it was just you and him. the memories made his heart ache.

“she has (y/n)'s whole face with your eyes,” beth commented shyly, trying to spark some conversation since other than the newborn sounds and her crying every now and then, they had been in silence for two whole days.

“didn' ask,” he said dismissively, taking another sip from the moonshine in his cup.

still, the blonde girl didn't give up, firmly believing that if he could just look at his daughter, or get to know her, he would change his mind. she was so easy to love after all.

“well, they look lighter than yours, but carol says they might get darker when she gets older,” beth giggled, moving the baby to burp her when she was finished eating, missing the killing glare the hunter was shooting her way. “the rest is (y/n), one hundred percent. except the hair, it looks like yours, but maybe it's because she is still bald and-”

abruptly and aggressively, daryl threw the glass he was holding toward a wall. the bang interrupting the girl successfully and scaring her and the newborn in the process. beth sighed, disappointed and annoyed as she stood up to soothe her, “she had just calmed down,” she muttered.

“AND I JUST TOLD YA I DUN' GIVE A FUCK ABOUT 'ER,” he snapped, stabbing his finger in the air as he pointed at his daughter.

bouncing the baby gently in her arms whose cries were ceasing, beth's eyes watered, her browns knitted in an exasperated frown, her lips pursed as she looked like she considered if speaking her mind was a good idea.

“why are you like this?” the young greene snarled. “you're not the only one who lost someone!”

silently, he scowled, almost challenging her to keep going. beth accepted the challenge with a glare of her own, newborn settling on her chest.

“you lost (y/n), but at least she left you with half of her! not many of us can say that about the people we've lost,” she hissed, trying to keep her volume down to not disturb your baby further. “you know (y/n) wouldn't have w-”

“ya dun' know shit!”

“yes i do, and you know that too!”

he stilled.

she was right.

his eyes were filled with unwelcomed tears as he chewed on his bottom lip, “she killed 'er,” he choked out.

“no, she didn't,” beth whispered, taking a tentative step in his direction.

“she's a monster,” he fumed, anger masking where his composure truly laid.

“she's your daughter. (y/n)'s daughter.”

his daughter. his baby girl. the life he made with you.

that was like the arrow to his chest that made him break into tears. all this time he had been seeing her as the murderer of the love of his life, forgetting she was half of her. she was the life made out of the love he felt for you and you had once felt for him.

hesitantly, beth handed him the baby, carefully helping her settle her in his arms. he felt like his arms were made for this moment; to hold this little bundle of joy that did, in fact, look exactly like you.

had he had been acting like his own father? hating the little innocent life he brought to the world. the thought made his scars feel like they burned, yet they were soothed with the gentle touch of beth's hand on his shoulder.

“she hasn't left you, see?” she smiled at him, and he nodded, letting the tears stream down freely, one landing on the baby's cheek, making her smile. “look, she loves you already. she loves her daddy.”

he brought the baby closer carefully, pressing his lips ever so gently on her forehead, letting them linger as he took in the warmth of her skin and the sweet baby scent of her head.

“an' i love 'er.”

taglist. @ledgeria16 @poisonmedixon

#daryl dixon #daryl dixon x reader #daryl dixon imagine #daryl dixon fanfiction #twd daryl dixon #twd fanfiction #daryl dixion imagine #dad!daryl

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sidekick-hero · 1 month

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As Steve waited in an impersonal hotel room for his new client to arrive, things began to feel a little off.

In truth, the term "client" there was somewhat unconventional. Three guys had hired him to surprise their friend Eddie on his birthday.

Just moments ago, Steve had received a text message from the guys telling him that they were about to bring Eddie to this very room under the guise of getting his present. What Eddie didn't know was that Steve was going to be that present.

One of the trio, a younger man named Garrett or Gareth, had only half-jokingly suggested that Steve should greet Eddie wearing nothing but a bow around his dick. Thankfully, the others had vetoed the idea, calling it cheesy and lame and saying it would only scare Eddie off. Steve couldn't help but feel a little offended by that because the last time his dick had frightened someone away had been in high school. He had been her first and she had been too intimidated by his size. Other than that, he had never had any complaints, thank you very much.

He hadn't talked to them directly when they had asked for his services; that was Robin's domain. She handled the initial negotiations, background checks, and vetting of potential clients before Steve even learned of their existence. Trusting Robin's judgment, he assumed these men were legitimate. Yet, there was something off about the whole situation.

Their lack of experience with this kind of thing was evident, demonstrated by their inquiry about kissing etiquette like this was Pretty Woman ("you have to tell Eddie if kissing is not okay dude") and their less-than-tactful remarks. When Steve had entered the hotel room, one of them, whom they had referred to as Freak, had made a comment about Steve certainly not being Eddie’s type, prompting Garrett/Gareth to reply "Nah, he secretly likes those pretty frat boy types, he'd just never admit it".

But it had been the quiet, earnest demeanor of Jeff, the third man, that had given Steve pause. Jeff had pulled him aside with a solemn plea to be careful with Eddie.

"Hey, man, you seem like a nice guy, and your manager Robin assured us that you'd take good care of Eddie. Just. Be gentle with him. He acts tough sometimes, but he deserves someone to be sweet to him, okay?"

Steve had just nodded dumbly, thrown by the unusual request. Most of the time his clients booked him directly, and while some had asked him to fuck them soft and slow, Jeff's request had sounded different to him. As if there was something they weren’t telling him about this Eddie.

Perhaps the guy had been hurt before, scarred by a past relationship, and now he approached any kind of intimacy with trepidation. Steve had had a few women hire him to help them get over something like that, so it wasn’t totally unheard of. No men had, but then again, he had only been offering his services to men for a few months, so maybe Eddie was just the first of his male clients with these kind of issues.

If Eddie was indeed struggling with past hurts, then Steve was determined to make him feel cherished and desired once again.

Lost in his thoughts, he almost missed the sound of voices growing louder outside.

Fuck, Steve thought startled. Even though he had been waiting for them, it still came as a surprise that they were already there. One for which he felt completely unprepared, because it was only then that he began to think about how to position himself.

"I don't know why you couldn't just give it to me later or tomorrow, guys," someone said with amusement just outside the door. That must have been Eddie, he thought, and found that he liked his voice.

The next voice was Garrett/Gareth's. "Believe us, Eds, you want it now. Come on, hurry up."

"Okay, okay, fine. Since when are you more excited about me getting presents than I am?"

Steve opted for simplicity and decided to sit on the bed, leaning back with his hands behind him. It was casual and easy, but also showed off the long line of his body.

The sound of someone inserting their key card into the slot was followed by the handle being pushed down. Then the door to the room opened, revealing the lucky guy who would have him for the next two hours.

He’s pretty, was the first thing that came to Steve’s mind. Tall and slender, with a small waist and very nice arms decorated in black ink. Most stunning, however, was his face. The pale skin was a tantalizing contrast to his pink lips, dark hair framing high cheekbones and deep brown eyes that looked at him like a deer in the headlights.

Then, the door closed with a bang.

“Guys? There’s some dude sitting on my bed, you might wanna call security. I’ll hold down the door but you gotta hurry.” Eddie’s voice trembled slightly and Steve was torn between worry and amusement.

Faintly he heard the other men laughing and Eddie's indignant squeak. "What the hell are you laughing at? There`s a crazy stalker in my room! Probably armed and dangerous!"

"Oh yeah, I bet he has a big gun," Garrett/Gareth snorted, and Steve rolled his eyes at the very obvious, very bad joke. The guy probably thought he was really funny.

Eddie seemed to agree with Steve, even if unknowingly. "Har-bloody-har. Jeff, c'mon, tell me you at least take this seriously!"

This was one of those nights when Steve wished he had been smart enough, or at least ambitious enough to go to college, so he wouldn't have had to make money on the side dealing with shit like this. At least most of his clients were easier to deal with, if not as easy on the eyes as this Eddie.

"Eddie, trust me, you can open the door. He's harmless."

"How do you know?"

"Because he's your birthday present!" Freak interrupted, clearly losing patience. "Gareth's right, we should have just made him put a bow on his dick and be done with it. At least then we wouldn't be standing here arguing."

Steve wondered if they knew he could hear every word they were saying. Like everyone else in the surrounding rooms, because they weren’t exactly quiet. He just hoped nobody called the cops.

"He's... What the fuck? You can't just give someone a person, that's human trafficking!"

Obviously tired of making a scene outside a hotel room, Jeff just opened the door and pulled Eddie inside, trusting the others to follow. They did, closing the door behind them, and then they all looked at Steve, who was still sitting on the bed, regretting all his life choices that had led him there.

He gave a little wave with his fingers. "Surprise."

Eddie blinked at him, speechless, his mouth slightly ajar. Despite the situation, he remained unfairly attractive, his wide eyes stirring something in Steve that he hesitated to explore further. Steve's knowledge of Eddie was limited to his questionable choice of friends, yet he felt an inexplicable urge to shield him from the world, to keep him safe. The urge was unexpected in itself, but even more so in the intensity with which it hit him.

"This is Steve," Gareth introduced, stumbling over his words. "And, uh, well, he... yeah. Guys?" Gareth glanced around, hoping for support from the others, but they remained silent.

With the air of someone who didn’t expect any different, Steve rose from his spot on the bed and approached Eddie. As he stood before him, Steve was enveloped in a mixture of clean body spray, shampoo, and a faint whiff of cigarette smoke. Eddie's eyes, even larger up close, held a warm hue that was quite captivating.

Steve flashed a smile, aiming for a blend of reassurance and flirtation.

"I'm Steve, and for the next two hours, I can be whatever you need," he declared, though technically, twenty minutes had already elapsed. Nevertheless, for Eddie, Steve was willing to make an exception.

Eddie, inexplicably, horrifyingly, burst out laughing before slapping a hand over his own mouth, his eyes even wider than before as they looked at Steve in abject horror.

"Oh my God, I am so sorry. I wasn't laughing at you, it's just this whole situation is so... and then that sounded like... I feel like I stumbled into a porn plot."

Eddie looked embarrassed by his reaction, but Steve had to agree. It all felt a little ridiculous all of a sudden and he thought he could use that to his advantage, to make Eddie feel more comfortable.

"I guess you're not wrong," Steve laughed playfully, rubbing a hand across his neck. "That was a line that could have come out of a bad porno. Let me try again." He took Eddie's hand in his own and gave him a smile, a real one this time. "Hi, I'm Steve, and your friends hired me to be your birthday present. What that means is that I'm here to make sure you have a good time, a great one even. Just tell me what you'd like to do, as long as it's nothing crazy, I'm in. I don't do pain play, nothing that leaves bruises or cuts, no breath play, no hard kink of any kind and no barebacking."

"Oh my God, you are here as a sex gift," Eddie exclaimed way too loudly as Steve finished listing the things he wouldn't do, turning even paler. Steve was so focused on Eddie that he hadn’t even noticed the other men leaving the room, but upon seeing Eddie's shocked reaction, he realized they were already gone.

"I can't believe they hired a sex worker to deflower me. I told them to leave it the fuck alone. God, this is so fucking embarrassing," Eddie whined, burying his face in his hands with a long and anguished groan.

It tugged at Steve's heartstrings, the way Eddie pulled away from him, clearly embarrassed. His first instinct was to pull him into his arms and tell him it was okay, that Steve got him. But Eddie's words continued to ring in his ears as the puzzle pieces began to fall into place. Deflower me. As in, he was supposed to take Eddie's virginity. That's why the others had been so weird about it, and why Eddie had been so shocked and clueless when he found him in his room.

Jeff's words came back to him, "be gentle with him" and "he deserves someone to be sweet to him". It wasn't that Eddie was necessarily recovering from past hurts, but that there were no past experiences. Or maybe there had been, and that was why he had never gone all the way. Because looking at him, Steve had a hard time understanding how anyone could not want to sleep with Eddie.

"Eddie," Steve tried gently, "are you...have you ever had sex with anyone?"

Peering at Steve through his fingers, Eddie shook his head.

"Did you, I mean, have you done things like handjobs, blowjobs, anything like that?"

Another anguished groan as Eddie shook his head again.

"Making out? Kissing?" Steve had to know what he was working with here, because the last thing he wanted was to do something Eddie wasn't ready for.

This at least made Eddie lower his hands so that Steve could see the expression on his face. He looked even more embarrassed, his flushed cheeks red, but there was some indignation in his eyes. "I've kissed before. And made out with someone. Well, above the waist. And fully clothed. But it still counts!"

Eddie's voice sounded almost pleading and it left Steve aching for him. He had no idea why someone as gorgeous as Eddie hadn't had sex yet, but he knew he shouldn't act like there was something wrong with him because of it.

"Hey, man, it's okay. Really, I'm not judging you," Steve tried to reassure him. He was tempted to reach out and offer some physical comfort as well, but he wasn't sure how welcome that would be as Eddie laughed bitterly at his words.

"Oh, please. I'm judging me! I'm turning 30 today and no one's even touched my dick. I'm pathetic."

Steve did reach out to him then, placing a comforting hand on Eddie's shoulder. "Hey, come on now. There's nothing pathetic about it. Everyone's journey is different, and there's no rush."

Eddie sighed, his shoulders slumping under Steve's touch. "Easy for you to say. You've probably had more action than you can count."

Steve chuckled softly. "Maybe, but that doesn’t mean anything. Quality over quantity, right?"

Eddie gave him a weak smile, but the tension in his expression remained. "I just feel like I missed out on something, you know? I grew up in a small and even more small-minded town in Indiana where it was impossible to find another gay kid without risking getting beaten up or worse. They had it out for me anyway because...well, it doesn't matter. By the time I finally left and moved to Chicago, I was 21 and hadn't even kissed anyone except Lisa Green in eighth grade, which only confirmed what I already suspected. I made out with a few guys in clubs and bars here, but it always felt... wrong. I didn't need to be romanced or anything, but I just... I wanted to feel some kind of connection, y'know? But anyone who wanted to date me, I was too scared to tell them that I had no experience whatsoever, too in my head about it. And before I know it, I'm 30 years old and my friends are hiring an incredibly hot guy to pity-fuck me."

Steve nodded sympathetically. "It's not a pity fuck, Eddie. But I get it. Just, believe me, sex isn't everything. And it's definitely not a measure of your worth."

Eddie let out a bitter laugh. "Tell that to my libido."

Steve couldn't help but laugh along with him. "Fair point. But seriously, Eddie, there's nothing wrong with taking your time. When the right moment comes along, you'll know.”

With an expression of utter defeat, Eddie mumbled. “Figured not even someone getting paid for it would want to sleep with me.” Then, he turned around and walked over to the door. “I’m sorry I wasted your time, Steve. Thank you for being so nice.”

“Whoa, wait a second. I never said I don’t wanna sleep with you. I just assumed, y’know, that you’d want to wait for the right guy.”

Eddie looked like a kicked puppy. “It’s fine Steve, I understand. There’s nothing sexy about a 30 year old virgin, you don’t have to lie.” Then, hanging his head, he pulled his shoulders up to his ears and put his hands in his pockets, making himself as small as humanly possible while still standing.

Steve couldn't stand to see Eddie so down on himself any longer, so he decided to show him exactly how much he wanted to sleep with him by simply pulling his shirt over his head, leaving him naked from the waist up. Then he reached down, unzipped his pants and stepped out of them as well, so that he was standing in front of Eddie in nothing but his underwear. He hoped to make himself at least a quarter as vulnerable as Eddie must have felt at that moment.

"Eddie, please look at me." When Eddie did, his eyes roamed over Steve's body as if he couldn't help himself, and Steve felt their gaze like a physical touch. He was accustomed to people looking at him with hunger and desire, and while Eddie's face showed signs of both, there was something else in his expression—a hint of longing, if Steve were pressed to put a name to it.

As the seconds ticked by, Steve wondered if Eddie would ever grow tired of drinking him in, since he showed no signs of being done anytime soon. But Steve began to suspect that maybe Eddie wasn't doing anything else because he didn't know what or how, so Steve had to take the lead here.

Closing the distance between them, he took Eddie's hands again, but this time he didn't hold them; he placed them on his hips. "You can touch me, Eddie. I want you to. I want you. So if you want me too, all you have to do is tell me." When Eddie continued to look at him wide-eyed, Steve asked him in his softest, most encouraging voice, "What do you want, Eddie?"

"I don't know." Eddie's hands on his hips trembled slightly, but his grip tightened, thumbs running up and down Steve's flanks. "You. Whatever you want."

Well, that was easy. "I want to make you feel good. Can I?"

"Please."

No one had ever looked at Steve the way Eddie did at that moment. It was as if Steve was the last drop of water in the desert—not like he wanted Steve, but like he needed him.

Steve cupped his face in his hands and pulled him close, whispering in the infinitesimal space between them, "I got you, baby," before sealing their lips in a tender kiss.

True to his words, Eddie kissed him back as if he had kissed people before, even if not very often. His lips still moved a little awkwardly against Steve's, but what he lacked in experience he made up for in feeling. Not even his actual girlfriends had ever kissed him the way Eddie was kissing him right now - like he couldn't believe he was allowed to do it, wavering between greedy hunger and grateful adoration that made Steve's head spin.

As they kissed, Steve felt a rush of warmth flood through him, a sensation he hadn't experienced in a long time. It was more than just physical attraction; there were the first stirrings of an emotional connection forming between them, one that felt utterly inappropriate within the confines of their current situation.

On the other hand, Steve reasoned with himself, Eddie deserved someone who would be sweet to him, as Jeff had put it. Given how he was starting to feel about Eddie, that wasn't going to be a challenge at all.

Breaking the kiss reluctantly, Steve rested his forehead against Eddie's, their breaths mingling in the space between them. "You're amazing, Eddie," he murmured, his voice barely above a whisper.

Eddie's cheeks flushed a deeper shade of pink and he smiled shyly. "Thank you. You're not so bad yourself."

Steve chuckled softly, a warmth spreading in his chest at Eddie's response. "What do you say we take this to the bed?"

Eddie nodded eagerly, his eyes shining with a mixture of excitement and nervousness. "Yeah, I'd like that."

"Good," Steve said, taking Eddie by the hips as well and beginning to slowly walk them backwards, their eyes never leaving each other's.

As they made their way to the bed, Steve's heart pounded with anticipation. He couldn't shake the feeling that this was a pivotal moment, one that could change everything for him.

Once they reached the bed, Steve gently guided Eddie to sit down, their knees touching as they faced each other. The air between them crackled with tension, charged with the promise of what was to come.

Steve took Eddie's hands in his own, his touch gentle yet firm. "Eddie, I want you to know that we don't have to do anything you're not comfortable with," he said softly, wanting to reassure him.

Eddie met his gaze with a mixture of gratitude and desire. "I trust you, Steve," he replied, his voice filled with sincerity. Steve had no idea how Eddie could trust him so easily after just meeting him, but he vowed to do right by him and not betray the trust placed in him.

With a gentle smile, Steve leaned in to kiss Eddie again, his lips meeting Eddie's with a tender urgency. This time Steve took the opportunity to deepen the kiss, sliding his tongue into the wet heat of Eddie's mouth, gently coaxing Eddie to join him in exploring each other.

The first tentative touch of Eddie's tongue to his own sent sparks of electricity through him and he would have been embarrassed by the moan that fell from his lips had it not been for the almost violent shudder that went through Eddie at the simple touch. When their lips parted, Steve glanced at the other man and found him looking tense, his hands clenched into fists on his thighs, and suddenly his reaction made sense.

"Baby, you can touch me. Don't hold back, I want you to show me how good I make you feel."

Closing his eyes with a pained expression, Eddie sighed deeply, defeated. "I feel like I don't know how. I don't want to mess it up. I mean, you must be used to incredible sex and then there's me, probably accidentally pinching you or something."

"Eddie," Steve said, wrapping his own hands around Eddie's clenched ones, "I'm sorry to break it to you, but you'll never learn if you don't try. It's like riding a bike. You can't learn it in theory, you have to get on it and ride it." And because Steve worried that might have been a little harsh, he added: "I'm your training wheels, and after tonight you can upgrade to a bike without them." Uncurling Eddie's hands and intertwining their fingers, Steve nudged their shoulders together. "Soooo. Wanna go for a ride?"

Eddie's lips twitched into a small smile at Steve's analogy, and some of the tension seemed to ease from his shoulders. "Okay, maybe I can give it a try," he said, his voice uncertain but determined.

Steve couldn't help but admire Eddie's bravery in the face of his own insecurities. He leaned in to press a gentle kiss against Eddie's forehead, offering silent encouragement.

With a deep breath, Eddie tentatively began to explore Steve's body, his touch hesitant yet eager. Steve guided him with soft murmurs of encouragement, reassuring him every step of the way.

At some point, Steve shifted back onto the bed and lay down on the sheets, offering more of himself to Eddie's curious hands. They were especially drawn to his chest, scratching the thick hair, and when Steve made an appreciative sound, Eddie let them wander to Steve's nipples.

"Start slow, run your thumb over them." Eddie did as Steve told him, and Steve noticed how every encouragement from him seemed to hit Eddie with another wave of arousal. His eyes darkened even more after Steve told him, "Just like that, baby. You're doing so good, learning so fast. Now try adding some spit so your thumb glides easier."

Eddie had been eagerly and obediently following his instructions the whole time, so Steve wasn't surprised when he immediately went to put Steve's latest order into action. What he didn't expect, however, was that Eddie would simply put his mouth on his nipple instead of wetting his thumb with it.

"Fuck," he moaned, his hands digging into Eddie's hair without his conscious decision, desperately trying to keep his mouth on his chest. "So good for me, such a good boy, just like that."

His words only spurred Eddie on, who moaned needily at his words, and as his confidence grew, so did his boldness. Steve felt the first tentative touch of teeth against his skin, setting his nerves on fire, and he encouraged Eddie to keep going by tugging at his curls. "Harder, baby."

Being the wonderful, beautiful, good boy that he was, Eddie went harder, his teeth making sure to leave marks on his chest. It was an intoxicating feeling to be laid out here, almost naked, while Eddie was still fully clothed, and yet it was Steve who was in control.

So far he had been able to ignore his cock, hard and heavy and leaking into his trunks. But it was getting harder and harder, pun intended, to keep his need for relief in check. It wasn't often that a client made him feel like he was about to lose his mind with lust, but Eddie was shaping up to be his exception in so many ways.

"Baby, you're incredible. I'm so hard for you, I need you to touch me or I'll lose my goddamn mind."

That finally gave Eddie pause. Pulling back from his mission to cover every inch of Steve's chest in bruises and bite marks, he lifted his head and looked down at where Steve's hard cock was obscenely tenting his trunks.

Watching Eddie wet his lips with his tongue, Steve decided to take a chance. "Can you take them off for me, darling? They're getting awfully uncomfortable."

That startled Eddie out of his silent reverie, his big brown eyes, which had captivated Steve from the start, turning to him. "You mean..."

"Only if you want to. We're not doing anything you're not ready for," Steve made sure to reassure him once again that while Steve was taking the lead here, Eddie was the one calling the shots. If he told him to stop, Steve would, no questions asked. "But if you're afraid of getting it wrong, I want you to know that nothing has ever felt as right as your hands and mouth on me. You couldn't get it wrong if you tried, baby."

It seemed to be just the right thing to say because Eddie leaned down to capture Steve's lips in another kiss, his weight balanced on his forearm next to Steve's head. His hand, still resting on Steve's chest, began to move again, fingertips dancing across his ribs and down his stomach until they reached their destination just above his waistband.

Eddie had moved to lie more comfortably next to Steve when he had let his hands and mouth map Steve's body, but now he positioned himself next to Steve's knees.

He looked up at Steve as his fingers curled around the waistband of his trunks, and tougher men than Steve would have had a hard time not falling in love with him right then and there. His lips, still slick with spit from their kiss, were slightly parted while his bottomless eyes looked at Steve with something akin to worship. Steve's fingers had done a great job of making his dark curls look even messier, and he was almost as proud of that as he was of the red flush that adorned Eddie's throat and cheeks.

"Do it," he order-pleaded, and Eddie listened as he had all night, pulling down Steve’s last piece of clothing and throwing it on the floor next to the bed.

The expression on his face was almost comical, breaking the thick tension in the room for a moment. Steve knew he wasn't exactly small. Not even average, but it had been a while since anyone had stared at his dick like it was a venomous snake.

"It won't bite you, I promise," he joked as the silence between them stretched on.

That at least got a snort out of Eddie, even if his eyes were still glued to his hard and leaking cock, which didn't seem to mind being stared at with a mixture of apprehension and wonder.

"I know that. It's just..." Eddie began before trailing off.

A thought occurred to Steve. "You've seen a dick before, right?"

In retrospect it might have been a bit insulting and a lot stupid to ask, but then again this wasn't exactly his area of expertise.

"Yes, Steve. Besides my own, I've seen dicks. Just not... y'know... a monster dick like that. I mean, fuck. Are you sure this thing will even fit?"

His first reaction was to laugh, because Eddie was funny and adorable in his incredulity, but the laughter died rather quickly as the rest of his words registered with Steve.

"Fit? As in - do you want me to fuck you?"

That finally made Eddie blink up at him, tilting his head like a confused puppy. "Um, yeah? I thought that was the plan all along."

It wasn't. Steve thought he'd show Eddie the ropes, how to handle another body, so he could experience his first time with someone he genuinely cared about. Not that Steve had that when he lost his virginity, but he thought Eddie deserved it.

But if Eddie was sure, Steve was more than happy to oblige. "Just checking in. And don't worry. It'll fit. It always has, it just takes a little patience and a lot of lube." When Eddie still looked a little doubtful, he added, "Do you trust me?"

"Yes." No hesitation, and that made the dangerous feeling in his chest glow brighter.

"Good, that makes it even easier. You need to be comfortable, relaxed. The more you can let go, the easier it will be."

Eddie nodded, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed. "Okay, Steve. You're the expert. I trust you. Just. Remember, I have no idea what I'm doing, okay?"

Steve sat up and cupped Eddie's cheek in his hand. "I know, and I'll take good care of you, I promise," Steve promised, sealing it with a kiss.

After they parted, he tugged at Eddie's shirt. "You're awfully overdressed, sweetheart. Mind if I help you get out of these?"

With Eddie's consent, Steve undresses him, slowly, reverently. He removed each piece of clothing with the same care as he would handle a precious gem, his hands gentle, making sure to appreciate every inch of skin that was revealed to him. And after his hands have had their fill, his mouth follows, his lips branding his ownership in invisible writing all over Eddie's body.

He paid special attention to Eddie's tattoos, and when he found the nipple piercings, Steve's brain short-circuited. He only stopped playing with them when Eddie was writhing and whimpering from the stimulation, his arousal clear in the way sweat slicked his skin and the outline of his hard cock was visible through his skin-tight jeans.

"Steve, please," he begged, and Steve was pretty sure Eddie didn't even know for what.

"Shh, I got you, baby," Steve had cooed in reply before continuing his mission to get Eddie naked and under him.

Soon the positions were reversed and Eddie was spread out on the bed, naked and wanting, while Steve was kneeling beside him, his hand stroking Eddie's thigh soothingly as he drank him in.

"Fuck, Eddie, I wish you could see yourself right now. You're so fucking beautiful, the prettiest thing I've ever seen. I can't believe you let me have you."

Eddie squirmed, clearly turned on but still self-conscious. Steve vowed to make the latter go away and replace it with nothing but mindless pleasure, helping Eddie let go and float on all the good feelings Steve would make him feel.

He had gotten the lube and a condom out of his bag while Eddie had made himself comfortable, placing them both next to them on the bed. Now he spread some lube on his fingers and warmed it up as he moved to climb between Eddie's legs. His own cock had gone back to half hard, but showed some renewed interest when Eddie immediately spread his legs wider to make room for him.

"Such a good boy, you're just perfect, you know that?"

Then Steve rewarded his good boy with the first finger in his virgin whole. He didn't want it to matter, and it didn't, not in the way Eddie thought it would. But the thought that he was the first to see Eddie like that, to feel him clench around the foreign intrusion before slowly, gradually relaxing as Steve continued to stroke the inside of his thigh with his other hand? It all made more heat pool in his groin, his cock full and heavy again between his own legs.

"That's it," Steve encouraged him as his finger sank in to his knuckle, " taking it so well. How does it feel, baby?"

"Weird," Eddie said truthfully, before wriggling his hips. "Full. Not bad, just. Weird."

Steve took that as all the encouragement he needed to start pumping the finger in and out in imitation of what he planned to do to Eddie with his cock. It went easily and soon Eddie was matching his thrusts with his hips. "That's right, take what you need. You look so good fucking yourself on my finger, sweetheart. You'll look even better on my cock."

Judging that Eddie was ready for a second finger, he leaned forward and softly called for Eddie to look at him. When he did, lifting his head from where he had pressed it into the pillow, Steve caught his eyes and held them as he slowly closed his lips around Eddie's hard cock, taking it into his mouth inch by delicious inch.

It worked like a charm as Eddie was too busy throwing his head back with a broken moan to even notice Steve adding another finger. It was only when he started pumping both fingers in and out while still licking and sucking on Eddie's cock like his favorite ice cream that Eddie seemed to notice, tightening around him for a moment before relaxing again.

Steve rewarded him with a clever swirl of his tongue and a well-aimed crook of his fingers that made Eddie scream.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, what the fuck was that," Eddie gasped as Steve pulled off of him with an obscenely wet sound.

With a third finger prodding at Eddie's slick hole, Steve grinned up at him. "Your prostate."

"I thought that was a myth."

"Nope, not a myth. Just hard to reach by yourself."

He took Eddie back into his mouth, his finger persistently nudging at his entrance until it finally slipped in alongside his other two fingers. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Eddie balling the sheets in his clenched fists, trying not to thrash around too much. The thought of feeling that around his cock was almost too much, as Eddie was incredibly responsive and Steve had to think of something unpleasant for a second to calm himself.

Steve continued to blow and finger Eddie until he could feel Eddie's cock hardening even more in his mouth, signaling his impending orgasm. His three fingers sank into him like a warm knife into butter, no resistance whatsoever, so Steve considered Eddie ready to try and take his 'monster dick' as he had so eloquently put it earlier.

Eddie's whimper as he pulled his fingers out of his body sounded desperate, and when Steve also pulled off his dick, Eddie was right back to begging.

"Please, Steve, I was so close, so fucking close, I need you, please," he babbled, exactly in that mindless place where only his own pleasure mattered instead of his own insecurities.

In a true display of multi-tasking, Steve managed to stroke Eddie's thigh soothingly while simultaneously ripping the condom wrapper open with his teeth. It was almost a shame that Eddie was so far gone that he didn't even notice.

Next time, Steve thought, immediately chastising himself for getting ahead of himself. There was no guarantee that Eddie would want to go out with the guy his friends had paid to deflower him.

"Shh, baby, almost there, just getting ready to make you feel really good. I can't wait to be inside you, Eddie, you have no idea."

Slicking his condom-covered cock, Steve took a pillow from the bed and placed it under Eddie's hips before wrapping Eddie's right leg around his waist as he positioned himself. Eddie looked up at him with dazed eyes, like he was still floating somewhere, not quite here. And even though Steve wanted him to remain there, he needed Eddie's attention right now.

"Sweetheart, I need you to listen to me, can you do that?" He could tell it was a struggle, but shaking his head like he was clearing cowebs, Eddie came back to him. "Thanks, baby, you're still so good for me, aren't you?" Eddie nodded eagerly and Steve continued. "I need you to be a good boy and do what I tell you. When I push in, I need you to press down on it as if you were trying to push me out. Can you try that?" Another nod, this one firm, determined. "And breathe, baby, deep breaths. I got you, we'll take it as slow as you need."

And with that, Steve began to push in, trusting Eddie to work with him. And he did, beautifully, doing exactly what Steve told him to do. Still, it was clear that it was a lot to take, his cock even thicker and longer than his three fingers. It was slow going, every inch fought for, and by the time Steve was halfway in they were both covered in sweat, so Steve decided to take a short break.

Eddie was having none of it, though, and looked up at him pleadingly. "Steve? Please don't stop. I want you inside."

"But I am already inside," Steve reminded him, as if Eddie had forgotten how he was being impaled on Steve's cock right now.

"More." Reaching out for Steve with his hand, Eddie replied with only one word, but it was enough to make Steve fall forward, inadvertently sinking a little further.

He didn't try to stop again.

Then, finally, blessedly, Steve sank all the way in, Eddie's muscles relaxing enough to let him in entirely. It wasn't his first time, far from it, but it could very well have been from the way it made him feel to be enveloped in Eddie's tight heat. Steve couldn't tell who was looking more starry-eyed, Eddie or him, as they stared at each other in wonder.

"You feel," Steve began, suddenly at a loss for words. "Like nothing I've ever felt before."

"Move," Eddie pleaded in reply, his eyes traitorously bright. "Please, Steve."

Steve could never deny him, not when he begged like that, so he simply kissed Eddie's cheek, his nose, and then his lips as his hips withdrew before sinking back in. Picking up a slow and easy rhythm, Steve began to move and soon Eddie was meeting him thrust for thrust.

They moved together in a slow, sensual dance, each touch and caress igniting a fire within them. Each thrust tore another sound from their throats, muffled by each other's lips, because try as he might, he couldn't stop kissing Eddie. And as they lost themselves in the heat of the moment, Steve knew he wouldn't come back from it unchanged. He already felt a sense of connection unlike anything he had ever experienced before. It was as if they were two pieces of a puzzle finally coming together, fitting perfectly.

He just hoped that Eddie felt the same, that it wasn't just the magic of firsts that made him gasp and beg and say things that made Steve's heart soar as much as his cock twitch.

"Steve, Steve, Steve," he cried, his voice cracking, "oh God, I never thought...fuck," another moan as Steve hit his prostate once more. "How do people do anything but this?" Eddie marveled as he tightened around Steve, desperately wanting him to press against that wonderful spot inside him. "I never want to leave this bed again, just let you fuck me all day long."

Oh, how much Steve would love that too. To stop himself from saying something crazy like 'yes, please move in with me so we can fuck as often as possible', he reached for Eddie's hand on his hip and intertwined their fingers next to Eddie's head, squeezing his hand instead of spilling all his messy feelings.

The new position had him sinking further down on Eddie, Eddie's hard cock trapped between their bellies and the added friction had him gasping and panting. "Fuck, Steve, I'm so close."

"Yeah, me too, baby. Can you be a good boy and hold on a little longer for me?"

Unable to form any more words, Eddie just nodded. Steve rewarded him with another deep kiss as his hips picked up speed, his thrusting becoming more powerful as he finally allowed himself to chase his own pleasure. He wanted, needed them to come together, and judging by the copious amount of pre-cum smeared against their bellies and the way Eddie's cock kept twitching, Eddie was really close.

As he felt the telltale signs of his own orgasm spreading through him, his balls tightening and the feeling of a coil in his groin being pulled tight enough to snap at any moment, he lowered his face to Eddie's ear, took the lobe between his teeth and tugged at it to get his attention. Then, putting every ounce of heat, lust and desire he felt right now into his voice, he rasped, "Come for me, baby."

Without a hand on him, Eddie came with a sound that burned itself into Steve's memory and would surely haunt his dreams for weeks and months to come.

Overwhelmed by Eddie's sounds as he lost himself in his own pleasure, his hips bucking and grinding, Steve couldn't help but follow him over the edge. When he finally came, it was almost painful in its intensity and he could barely keep himself upright.

It took him an embarrassingly long time to catch his breath, and even longer to pull himself away from Eddie long enough to get rid of the condom and fetch a washcloth from the bathroom to clean the cum from their bellies and chests.

Then he turned off the light, crawled back into bed with Eddie and pulled the covers over them before drawing Eddie into his arms, who went willingly, still suspiciously quiet. Steve would have been more concerned had it not been for the dazed smile on his face, so he decided to let him be for the moment, basking in the afterglow as he continued to stroke Eddie's back.

What felt like hours later, as they lay tangled in each other's arms, bathed in the soft glow of moonlight filtering through the window, Steve pressed a gentle kiss to Eddie's temple, feeling a surge of affection and contentment wash over him.

"I'm glad you decided to go for that ride," he whispered, warmth coloring his voice.

Eddie snuggled closer, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "Me too," he murmured, his voice filled with a mixture of happiness and wonder.

And as they drifted off to sleep, wrapped in each other's embrace, Steve knew he had found something truly special in Eddie. Tomorrow he would tell Robin to give the guys their money back because Eddie hadn't been a client from the start. It was way too soon to even think about it, but deep down he hoped that theirs would be the kind of love that was as beautiful and enduring as the stars in the night sky.

#steddie #steddie fanfic #steddie smut #sub eddie week #sub eddie munson #dom steve harrington #eddie x steve #stranger things fanfiction #my writing #nsft

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rayshippouuchiha · 2 months

Note

Dino and Jean Havoc give the same vibes and I think Ed and Al extensively vet all of his girlfriends, should he get any, due to unresolved trauma they didn’t even know they had

Reborn introduces Dino to the Sawada Trio and by the time he blinks the idiot horse has been adopted by the chaos gremlins and neither of them is sure how or why but Dino's kind of just rolling with it and ends up calling Ed big brother despite that being very much incorrect

#Full Metal Sky AU #FMA #KHR #RayRambles

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lilliyoona · 3 months

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Help a brother out. I need slice of life fanfics or fan comics featuring Erwin, Hange, Levi, Nile, and Miche. Not in the mood for romance or smut (yet). God I wish there were more OVAs featuring these guys. I want to know more about their training corp days and their friendship. Hello?? Mr Perfect Stoic Erwin mothering fucking Smith used to get drunk with the guys at the bar?? And they're not going to elaborate on that?!

I've read all the smart passes, listened to the Drama CDs that have translations, pilfered through the non canon parody of Junior High only reading the parts with THEM in it for some CRUMBS, AND ITS NOT ENOUGH 🔫

#erwin smith #aot vets #snk vets #veteran trio #mike zacharias #levi ackerman #nile dok #hange zoe #fanfic recs #commander handsome #send help

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five-rivers · 1 month

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Cracked Clay Cup Chapter 15

@greatbigolhampuckjustforme

“Only one left,” said Danny, uneasily. Working by the process of elimination… If any of the people on this list were his actual, biological parents, as Frostbite had feared, then it was these two.

Jazz, obviously, wasn’t his mother. He’d known that from basically the moment they’d met. Vlad, Frostbite, and Pandora had confirmed that fact, and their stories had matched too well with each other for them to be lying. Unless, of course, the whole trial was a lie and they were all working together, and Danny was hesitant to go down that path.

The Observants, too, could be crossed off with ease. The Observants were public and impersonal enough that Danny had remembered them despite his amnesia. He’d never heard of them having children. And their behavior during his trial… well. Maybe they’d behave that way around their actual children, but Danny doubted it.

Vlad hadn’t even claimed to be his father. Of course, he’d also heavily implied that Danny’s biological parents were dead. So there was that. He was also a liar. So there was that. But, again, Danny didn’t think Vlad was his actual parent. The Dairy King would have told him if he was.

Frostbite and Pandora had also denied any blood relationship with him, although they still both wanted him to pick them. Pandora did, at least. Frostbite had seemed more lukewarm about it. Maybe even cool, to use a pun. Not that Frostbite disliked Danny. He was participating in this to help Danny. Just… Yeah.

Then there was the trio, which, um. Yeah. Definitely not.

So. If his parents were actually involved, and not dead, then they had to be these two. Unless Pandora or Frostbite or Vlad was lying about not being his parent, which he didn’t think any of them would do, because that would be counterproductive. Wouldn’t it?

Double-think made his head hurt.

“Yes,” said Clockwork. “Only Jack and Maddie Fenton are left. Then, when you have seen them, you must make your decision.”

“And I can choose anyone?”

“Yes. You may choose anyone you wish to choose.”

“Hm,” said Danny. He spread himself out over the couch and dropped the file folder on the coffee table. “Anyone, anyone?”

“That is the policy, to ensure that children are placed appropriately.”

“So, like, if I decided I wanted to go with the Dairy King but not Vlad…?”

“That is a possibility,” said Clockwork. “As in, you could choose for Dairy King alone to have custody of you, with the understanding that Vlad would likely still be a significant part of his social circle and afterlife.”

“Huh,” said Danny. “What if I picked, like, Ember?”

“You could do that.”

“But you wouldn’t recommend it, huh?”

“My recommendation is immaterial,” said Clockwork. “I am a neutral party.”

“Yeah, but I can still ask you questions. What if I want your opinion?”

“I am not allowed to give it.”

“Right,” said Danny. He looked over the file. “You know, they have, like, the least stuff on their little cheat sheet out of anyone. Except the Observants. Theirs was really… lackluster.”

“Indeed?” said Clockwork, with just the faintest inflection at the end to turn it into a question instead of an agreement.

“Mhm.” Jack and Maddie, no listed last name, didn’t have much written on their page of the file. Apparently they liked making cookies, stargazing, needlepoint, sewing, and… that was it. Nothing about jobs, titles, other interests, other things they enjoyed. Nothing.

The stargazing was a good point, though. Danny was pretty sure he liked stargazing. If only he’d had a chance to do it… Ugh. Being stuck inside was getting more and more annoying.

Distressing.

Almost as distressing as Frostbite thinking that Danny’s biological parents were abusive.

“You said before, everyone is, like, vetted? So they won’t be… dangerous?”

“That is correct.”

“But the Observants still were allowed to do whatever it was they were trying to do.”

“Unfortunately, persons who possess authority will on occasion use that authority to put themselves in even more positions of authority.”

“Except you can’t tell me any of your opinions.”

“Correct,” said Clockwork.

“You’re funny.”

“Not many would say that.”

“That’s because you’re really– really oblique about it.”

“Perhaps.”

Danny sighed. “I should just go right away, shouldn’t I? I should stop agonizing about this.”

“It is up to you, Daniel.”

“It is, isn’t it?”

Danny made no move to get off the couch. “What are you doing over there, anyway?”

Clockwork twisted his hands around to show Danny a net of white string. “I’ve taken up lacemaking.”

“Ugh, see, I’ve been wasting so much of your time that you’ve picked up a new hobby. That’s crazy.”

“I wouldn’t say that it’s new,” said Clockwork. “Lace has been around for a long time.”

“New to you, then. Like, your original hobby is making clocks, right?”

“I also enjoy candlemaking and gardening. But this,” Clockwork held up the lace, “was always within my plans.”

“Uh huh,” said Danny.

“It is almost time for lunch. You could stay until then.”

“See? I’ve wasted the whole morning. I came back last night. And that was a day trip.” He sighed. “What would lunch be?”

“I was planning on fried rice, using the remaining rice from last night.”

“I thought you’d made a lot of rice that time,” said Danny. “Yeah, let’s do that.”

Jack and Maddie’s house was… Well, it looked like it had been a normal house. The entryway was done up with plain tile, and opened up into a high-ceilinged living room. Danny could see a set of stairs leading up one side of the living room to the second floor, where there were a number of doors. On the ground floor, there was an open doorway leading into a kitchen.

That was all fine. However, the walls, ceiling, and floors all looked like they’d been torn apart and put together again. Sometimes with proper tools like plaster and drywall, and sometimes with cardboard and duct tape. There were dark squares and ovals where picture frames may have hung. He could see an electrical outlet that had been pulled out of the wall and hastily put back in, without all the wires fitting. Near his elbow were the remains of what looked like a doorbell. Bits of insulation hung out of gaps between the original walls and the repairs.

It wasn’t quite as strange or as messy overall as Ember, Skulker, and Technus’s place, but the contrast was… weird. Everyone else was obviously trying to put their best foot forward and had cleaned up or acquired a whole new house. This… this was not that.

At least, he hoped it wasn’t. Because if this was their best, then what was their usual?

He turned his attention to the two humans who had been waiting for him to arrive. They were human. The man was tall and broad, with dark hair. He was wearing overalls over an orange button up. His sleeves were rolled up, and he was scratching at a rash on his arm. The woman was slim and much shorter, her auburn hair cut in a chin-length bob. She had a pale blue blouse on, and dark jeans.

He caught their eyes, one after another.

“Hi,” said the woman, in a wavering voice. “Welcome home, Danny.”

“Um,” said Danny, “hi. Are you Maddie? The file didn’t really say which one of you was which… or really anything about yourselves…?”

“Yes,” said Maddie, with a painful smile. She looked like she was about to cry. “I’m Maddie, this is Jack. We’re so happy to have you here. So happy.” She took his hands in hers and squeezed them.

“Okay?” He looked around. “So… You’re remodeling?”

“Yes,” said Maddie. “We’re sorry about that, but all of this came as such a surprise.”

“A big surprise, son,” said Jack. His voice sounded rough, like he’d been crying. “All of the important things are done, though! Everything’s safe! Just not very pretty, that’s all. Just looks different.”

“Like you,” said Maddie, quickly. “Not that that’s a bad thing, is it? We’re very– The ears and the tail– Those are new but not bad. This is just like that.”

Danny nodded, hesitantly. “Right. That’s cool. So, um.” He looked around the entryway again. “Show me around?”

“Right, right,” said Maddie. “Of course.”

“Sorry about that!” said Jack. “It’s just that you grew up here and all. You don’t remember that, but it’s hard for us to remember it. To remember that you, er, don’t remember.” Jack patted Danny’s shoulder gingerly.

“Yes,” said Maddie. “We’ll– We’ll do the main floor first, then the bedrooms upstairs.”

The tour of the ground floor went much as expected. He saw the living room, a number of closets (which looked like they’d been ransacked), the garage (suspiciously empty), a bathroom (strangely untouched), a dining room (dusty), and the kitchen.

His initial impression of the kitchen matched his impression of the house in general. Normal, but hastily altered. There was a long strip of torn-up wall near the refrigerator. The microwave was brand new to the point that the box it came in was still sitting next to it. There was a door-sized patch of new wall that matched up with scratches on the floor that strongly suggested the patch had been a door up until fairly recently.

This… this was suspicious. Should he ask about it? Play dumb?

“Now, up to the rooms!” said Jack, sweeping Danny out of the kitchen.

“Usually,” said Maddie, “your sister Jazz would be here, but right now she’s away, so it’s just the three of us.”

“Why?”

“Why what, Danno?” asked Jack.

“Why is she away?”

“College,” said Maddie, quickly. “She’s a couple years older than you are, so she’s away at college. The two of you were very close, though.”

“Best friends!” shouted Jack from his position at the top of the stairs.

Well, there was that confirmation. Jazz was definitely his sister.

… Jazz actually looked a lot like Maddie, so that was also a point in favor of Maddie and Jack being his actual parents. Which, uh. Did being shady run in the family? Did he come off like this to other people? He hoped not.

“Which one was her room?” asked Danny.

“This one,” said Jack. Then he pointed towards a room two doors down. “And this is yours! You two shared the bathroom, but she’s not here, so it’s all yours, too!”

“Cool,” said Danny. He slipped past Jack to the door and opened it.

The walls and ceiling of the room were a pale blue gray, glow in the dark stars just barely visible in contrast. Posters for bands and spaceships were taped to the wall, some of them in better repair than others. There was a dresser with a drawer sticking part way out, the sleeve of a shirt stopping it from fully closing. Model rockets, most of them clumsily made, sat on shelves beside other knick-knacks. A corkboard on the wall had schoolwork, ribbons, and a few crumpled tickets to movies and concerts pinned on it. A scooter and telescope were propped up in one corner.

“They had us take down your photographs,” said Maddie. “But we left everything else the way it was. Except for cleaning.”

“Something about being biased! As if knowing things is going to make you biased! Maybe if we’d known–”

“Jack, honey,” said Maddie. “Not the time.”

“Oh, right, sorry, son.”

Danny nodded, then stepped in to walk a circuit of the room. This room, more than any of the others he had stayed in, felt lived in. Like it was a home.

But he couldn’t forget Frostbite’s warning. Or the chaos downstairs.

“So, um,” said Danny, before he could wimp out. He held the pocketwatch in one hand. Just in case. “In the kitchen, you have a door covered up. What’s with that?”

“Uh, nothing,” said Jack.

“Just an unfinished basement,” said Maddie, her smile going brittle and fake. “That’s all. It wasn’t– It wasn’t safe down there. For children. It wasn’t built right. So we decided to just cover it up. To show that we’re prepared to keep you safe.”

There was a mad science lab down there, wasn’t there?

What if that was where he had died?

Danny swallowed and pasted on a smile. “Cool. So… what do we do together?”

They stared blankly at him.

“You know, for fun? Or hanging out?”

“We used to stargaze together a lot,” said Maddie.

“And we’d go fishing!” boomed Jack.

“Yeah, but we can’t really do either of those, right? We’re stuck inside.”

“That’s true… But we do have our movies, don’t we? And some games.”

“Righto!” said Jack. “I’ll go get the stuff!”

The movie they had finally settled on was a space documentary. Watching it was nice, even if the popcorn was a little burnt.

Watching Jack and Maddie try to cook dinner afterward, though… They seemed to keep reaching for things that weren’t there, or bumping into each other, like they expected there to be more room, or, well. The food looked presentable enough, but there was a mess. A big one.

Still, the macaroni and cheese looked and smelled fine.

“One of your favorites!” said Jack, proudly. “After this, we’ll have some fudge!” He served Danny a scoop bigger than his head, then took a big ceramic mug from the cabinet and filled it with soda.

Danny mentally shrugged and picked up his fork. If he couldn’t eat it, he couldn’t eat it.

“So,” he said, after eating a few bites, “how did the whole ghost thing happen?”

“Pardon?” asked Maddie, looking a little pale.

“Well, my situation is a bit weird, isn’t it? I was just wondering if you knew how it happened.”

“No,” said Maddie. “I’m afraid not. It’s a mystery to us, too. Like we said, we were surprised by all of… this.”

That was weird. If Jazz knew, shouldn’t they know, too?

Or maybe they just didn’t want to tell him.

He fiddled idly with the mug. There were clumsy, childish stars and moons painted on its side.

“Do you like it?” asked Maddie. “You painted that. We went to one of those pottery places for Jazz’s seventh birthday. You were both so young back then…”

“I did?” asked Danny.

“You did,” said Maddie. “If you look at the bottom, you’ll see your initials.”

Danny held the cup up over his head and looked at the bottom. The letters DJF were painted on the bottom.

“What do the J and F stand for?”

“James Fenton,” said Maddie. “James was Jack’s father’s name.”

“And Fenton?”

“Our name. Our family name.”

“Huh,” said Danny. He set the mug back down, but kept his fingers looped around the handle of the mug. It was… grounding, somehow, to touch something from his childhood, from his past. “Do you know why this, um, trial was started?” He took another bite of the macaroni and cheese so he had something to do with his other hand.

“No,” said Maddie, quickly.

“Maddie…”

“We don’t.”

Alright, then.

It was suddenly very hard to swallow.

“We don’t know. We don’t know why any of this happened. But we’re so glad you’re with us again. We’re so glad this is almost over.”

“I know!” shouted Jack, suddenly, making Danny, already tense, jerk sideways in alarm. “When this is over, we can go back to that place and make another–”

Danny had still been holding the mug, and when he flinched, he took the mug with him. He fumbled it briefly before it hit the ground, interrupting whatever Jack was saying and plashing soda everywhere.

“Oops,” said Danny, stricken. “Sorry. I’m really sorry, um.” He had telekinesis. Why couldn’t he just–

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” said Jack, kneeling and picking up the pieces.

“I can do that,” said Danny. “You don’t have to–”

“No, no, I’ve got it,” said Jack. “We’ll just put it right back together! A little superglue and it’ll be as right as rain.”

“I’ve got the mop. You just stay there and eat, okay, Danny?”

That was, like, the exact opposite of what he wanted to do. He wanted to do something to help, but something about the situation held him paralyzed.

“Yeah!” said Jack, rinsing the shards in the kitchen sink. “We just need some glue, then we’ll put it right!”

“Make sure it dries first,” said Maddie, maneuvering a large mop.

“Oh, right!”

He put the pieces on a dishtowel and began to pat them off. Danny, slowly, reluctantly, began to eat again.

“What were you saying before, Jack?”

“Oh, I was thinking that we could go back to that pottery place after all this. Make a few new pieces. It looks like we’ll need it, huh? What do you think, Danny?”

“Um, it sound like it could be fun?”

“Then it’s a plan! We’ll have to rope Jazz in, too, when she’s back in town!”

Speaking of Jazz… Danny had to wonder why she was competing separately from these two. She definitely wasn’t at college, after all. Was it because of what Frostbite had said? Or some other rule of the trial that Clockwork hadn’t mentioned? Or just a strategy to give the family two chances?

He had no idea how to ask those questions.

But then… maybe there was something in Jazz’s room? Or even in his room.

“Want to help me put this back together?” asked Jack. “I’ve got to go find my tools, so if you could just arrange them…”

“You both need to eat first,” said Maddie, “before our food gets cold.”

“Right you are, Maddie!”

Danny had, somehow, lost most of his appetite, but he ate anyway, knowing that if he didn’t he’d be hungry later. When he estimated he’d eaten enough, he pushed aside his plate and went over to the shards of the mug.

It had broken unevenly, which meant that it would be easier to figure out what went where. He started sorting the pieces, and as he did so, he felt himself start to calm down again.

Jack ruffled his hair when he was about halfway through, making Danny freeze, his ears canting backwards.

“I’ve got the super glue!” he said before sitting back down at the table.

They worked together to put the mug back together after that, stars reemerging from scattered shards. It was… peaceful. Sort of like watching Clockwork work in his workroom. Eventually, the mug was, more or less, together, although the cracks were still very visible.

“There we go! Just like a puzzle, huh? How’d you like working with your old man again?”

“It was good,” said Danny.

“Yeah, it was good,” said Jack, beaming. “Maybe I’ll show you how to h– Ahem. I’ll show you how to knit next! I do love knitting. And needlepoint. Fiber art is great, Danny. Never let anyone tell you otherwise.”

“That sounds nice,” said Danny, smiling. Then he yawned.

“Oh, wow, you’ve got some fangs in there! That’s new.” He cleared his throat. “It’s getting pretty late, though, isn’t it? You should get into bed. You’ve had a long day!”

Danny wasn’t sure how long the day had been, but he was tired. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

“We have your toothbrush and everything up in your bathroom,” said Maddie.

“Thanks,” said Danny. “I’ll go up, then?”

“Wait!” shouted Jack, making Danny jump again. “The fudge! Can’t go to bed without fudge!”

“I’m actually pretty full…”

“Nonsense! There’s always room for fudge.”

So, they ate fudge, and then Danny went upstairs to the bathroom.

As promised, there was a toothbrush, floss, and a hairbrush already set out. There was a cabinet set into the mirror, and another under the sink.

He hesitated for a moment before opening the one over the sink. There was a bottle of aspirin and a few boxes of bandaids, but it was otherwise empty. Next, he looked under the sink. Mostly, there were cleaning supplies. But there was also a large first aid box. It had a bright green stain on one corner.

Danny sucked in his lips, then pulled it out and started to look through it as he sat on the closed lid of the toilet. It looked like it had been used frequently. Most of the refillables were mostly empty.

What had happened that he’d used so much of this? Because it had to be him. No one else living here would have left an ectoplasm stain on the lid.

Frostbite’s claim was looking more and more plausible the more he learned.

He closed the lid and put the box away. He was going to give the Fentons the benefit of the doubt until he got actual evidence one way or another. Frostbite had said that he’d never actually met them. So.

Jazz’s room. While he was still mostly awake. It was getting late.

He walked through the wall into the room next door. Jazz’s room was… less empty than he would have expected, given that she had her own house. But it looked like someone had moved out of the room in an awful hurry. More of the drawers in the dresser were opened than closed, clothing was strewn over the bed, the chair had been knocked over, the desktop computer tower had been opened up and the hard drive removed.

Danny searched the room, but didn’t find anything but a note in Jazz’s handwriting, something about reminding him of a school assignment. Everything else was just… clothing, books, his sister’s knick-knacks. Nothing important.

Defeated, he went back to his room, curled up in his bed, and went to sleep under the fake stars.

Danny was going to give the Fentons a week, just like he’d given everyone else, unless they did something really unbelievable or dangerous, like the Observants, or forgot to feed him or something. He’d already decided that, and he’d stick to it, even if they were being sketchy.

So, he stuck with Maddie’s frantic baking, and Jack interrupting himself whenever he, apparently accidentally, mentioned engineering or science. He let it go when they dodged his questions about what they did for a living. He knitted with Jack, and watched documentaries and movies, and helped Maddie make lunch and breakfast, and slowly started working through the comics he’d found in his room. He listened to Jack as he monologued about this and that and letting the broken mug ‘set.’ He helped with the ‘remodel’ as much as he could, and looked for clues about what, exactly, Jack and Maddie had removed.

He also searched his own room, but the Observants, or whoever had prepared the trial, had been very thorough when making sure there was no direct physical evidence of Danny having ever lived here. Not only were there no pictures, the schoolwork on the walls was old enough that Danny couldn’t say if the handwriting really was his, and it wasn’t like he’d found a journal or anything anywhere. There was just a feeling.

What he didn’t do, though, was look through the walled-off door in the kitchen.

If there was a mad science lab anywhere, it was there. And if a mad science lab was here, it was probably where he had died. He… Didn’t really want to see that. He wasn’t sure he could see that and stay… reasonable… with Jack and Maddie.

But… he had to know.

So, just the day before he’d ‘scheduled’ himself to leave, he stood in front of that patch of wall and stepped through.

It was predictably dark. But Danny had both good night vision and the ability to create balls of light, so he called one up.

The basement wasn’t unfinished. It was, in fact, a mad science lab.

He hated being right.

It wasn’t just a mad science lab, though. It was a half destroyed mad science lab. Shelves had been knocked over, machines had been partially disassembled. One area in particular looked as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to it and then dumped ectoplasm and something gross and brown on it. He couldn’t even tell what some of that stuff was.

And then there was the inactive portal.

Danny floated towards it, despite remembering Vlad’s warning about his portal. It looked almost exactly the same. Maybe a little less shiny, but still…

He yanked himself away from it, not liking how it seemed to grab his attention, and floated over to where filing cabinets had spilled over. He grabbed a piece of paper at random and read it. Then he read it again. Finally, he dropped it back onto the pile.

Jack and Maddie made their money inventing weapons. Good to know.

He floated over to the particularly wrecked area. Was this the result of a weapons test? That would make sense… sort of… so much of this was just meaningless without context, and he couldn’t get context.

There were papers here, too, in a binder half embedded in one wall. Danny pulled it free easily and started to read it.

When he realized what he was reading, he almost dropped the binder. This was– But it had to be for an animal, a dangerous animal they were hunting, or– There were animal ghosts. Frostbite even had the skins and furs of a few.

Danny’s hands were shaking. He wasn’t sweating. Ghost form was good for more than his looks. But he was shaking. And his tail had fluffed out to its fullest extent.

His eyes wandered down the pages, shying away from the worse things, until, finally, he reached a name.

It was his.

Phantom.

He turned to the last page, skipping most of the binder, and read–

This time, he did drop the binder, and he gagged, too. No. No, that didn’t happen to him. He flew backwards, over the bloody mess that had– He ran into one of the walls, and an alarm started up, a broken thing, clearly not working quite right.

Danny fled up the stairs, through the shut, metallic door, through the hasty drywall and into the kitchen. The kitchen, where the alarm was also blaring, and Jack and Maddie were walking through the door in matching bathrobes.

“Were– Were you in the lab?” asked Jack, uncertainly.

“You,” said Danny, struggling to get the words out. “You–”

“Are you hurt?” asked Maddie, reaching for him. “Do you–”

“No!” shouted Danny. “Don’t touch me! Don’t come near me!”

She backed off, immediately, raising her hands so he could see them. He hated that it did make him feel better.

“Danny,” she said. “Danny, I don’t know what you saw–”

“I saw what you did. You hunted me down like– like an animal. You tried to– to–” Danny sagged against the counter, one hand clutching the pocketwatch. He should just hit the button. He should hit the button now. But part of him needed to know why.

“It was a mistake,” said Jack.

“A mistake? You didn’t do that by mistake. You can’t just trip and then do that. There’s planning there, and preparation–”

“No, no,” said Maddie, “not– We didn’t know it was you. You didn’t look like yourself–”

“I don’t look like myself now, are you going to do it again?”

“No,” said both Jack and Maddie, vehemently.

“But you would’ve done it to someone else, is that it?”

“That’s,” said Jack. “Not anymore. Not anymore, son. We’ve made mistakes. We were wrong about so, so many things, but we’re trying. We’re trying, and we never wanted to do anything that would hurt you.”

“We’re trying to make amends,” said Maddie.

“By hiding this?” demanded Danny. “By pretending you didn’t do it?”

“Only because this is our only chance,” she said. “It’s our only chance, and you didn’t even remember. What good would apologizing have done?”

“More good than this. Why did you even do it?”

“We’re scientists,” said Maddie.

“We just wanted to know how ghosts work,” said Jack. “But we’ve sworn all of it off, forever. We even took out the anti-ghost security system! We don’t want to have anything to do with something that hurt you.”

“You hurt me.”

“Please, Danny, you have every right to be angry with us,” said Maddie, “but give this family a chance. We know it’s our fault that things turned out the way they did, but… We’re sorry. We’re sorry, and we love you, and we want to fix this, and doesn’t that count for something?”

“We want to be a family again,” said Jack, openly crying. “We want to show you what that’s like. What it would be like, now that we know. You are our family, Danny.”

“Family,” repeated Danny, suddenly feeling cold, as if all the ice in his core had built to an unbearable level.

He turned around, towards the counter, eyes flicking back and forth until he found what he was looking for.

Danny picked the repaired mug up off the kitchen counter. “This cup,” he said. “It’s like this cup.”

“What do you mean?” asked Jack.

“Please,” said Maddie. “We know that what we did was wrong, and we want to– We just wanted to move past it. We want to be a family again, Danny. We always just wanted you to be safe.”

Danny shook his head and turned the sink on. He put the cup under it and filled it with water. That done, he turned off the sink and he set the cup on the counter. It leaked, horribly. Some of the cracks leaked slowly, seeping water. Some, near the bottom, spurted.

“It’s still a cup,” said Danny. “But you can’t really use it like one anymore, can you? It’s not– It’s probably not even safe to use anymore, is it? With the glue, and the cracks.”

“But it’s still something you made,” said Jack. “It’s still something important, isn’t it? It’s worth saving, for the memories.”

“Maybe,” said Danny. “But you still can’t use it to drink. You, um. You have to get another cup.” He wiped tears from his eyes. “You can remember it, and it can be good to remember it, but it won’t work anymore. It can’t be fixed.”

He turned back to them.

“Please, Danny,” said Jack. “Don’t go. We love you.”

Danny gave them a tiny, pained smile, then said, “Goodbye.”

#danny phantom #phic #phic phight

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