#when you’re stuck in a plane on the tarmac for hours because SOMETHING is wrong

[fromunderdreamingspires]

Air travel these days really is just chanting to yourself life is not always pain and suffering over and over and over again. And you still won’t believe it until you’ve escaped.

#post pandemic travelling is the WORST #also I’m very much aware that there’s nothing post about the pandemic #which definitely adds to the specific flavour of hell #when you’re stuck in a plane on the tarmac for hours because SOMETHING is wrong #there is always something #so you sit in a metal virus tube and you can’t even sit properly because there isn’t enough space for your knees #hell

[raleighcarrera]

be mine

platinum | raleigh carrera x mc (cadence dorian)

raleigh and cadence end up on a couple’s trip together as the fifth and sixth wheels to their friends, four months after they’ve broken up.

shoutout to jade for letting me borrow her rcd mc florencia/platinum mc dom and shoutout to pj for letting me borrow her platinum mc ascendance ! the gang’s all here this valentine’s day 💕

tags: @choicesarehard ; @empressazura; @dakotawinchester ; @zigtheeortega ; @pixeljazzy ; @grigori-girl 

~9k words | E (18+)

avery was uncharacteristically squirrelly when she pressed him about who else was coming on the trip with them, evading her questions as best as he could while he herded her onto the plane.

“i don’t want to be a third wheel to you and ascendance,” cadence insisted for what was surely the sixth or seventh time since he’d first invited her along, “or a fifth wheel once seth and florencia show up, either.”

“would you relax?” avery said, waving the flight attendant over and practically shoving a drink into her hand as they settled into their seats across from each other, “seth and florencia are bringing someone with them, too. it’s going to be fine.”

“it’s not going to be fine if whoever they bring is a weirdo,” she pointed out, but sipped obligingly from her champagne all the same, sighing dramatically when the doors closed and the plane started to roll down the tarmac. “then the four of you will be off doing valentine’s day things together and i’ll be stuck entertaining some creep.”

“they wouldn’t just bring some creep,” avery assured her, rolling his eyes. “and even if they did, at least you’ll be entertaining them in palm springs, yeah? i don’t think i could’ve lasted another day below zero.”

that was true. new york had been freezing, lately, with a particularly unrelenting winter that seemed unlikely to melt into spring anytime soon, groundhog predictions be damned. as the plane took off into the air, her toes had yet to thaw out where they were like ice in her sneakers. 

avery’s girlfriend’s vacation house in palm springs was going to be a welcome respite from the place she was desperate to get away from, even if she was going to have to spend her first valentine’s day alone there -- or, worse, with some strange guy or girl she wasn’t ready to entertain.

it had been four months since her breakup with raleigh, and it wasn’t like she hadn’t tried to date again. she had. each of her friends had begged to be given the chance to set her up until she finally relented and subsequently regretted ever leaving her apartment -- every single miserable dinner date she went on felt like trying to walk around in the wrong size shoes, pinchy and unfamiliar and strange.

each of the people she’d dated were perfectly nice in their own way, but they weren’t raleigh. they never could be.

the realization had admittedly left her feeling a little glum. she’d expected to be over him, by now, or at the very least, to not still be so torn up about their breakup, especially when she was the one who’d forced his hand.

man up and make a commitment, or let me go. the words felt bitter as she recalled them, and she sighed when avery kicked her underneath the table between them, eyebrows drawing together.

“oi, none of that this weekend. this trip is going to be fun.”

“i know,” cadence said, her eyes on the window beside her. as fun as it could be, she supposed. “and i really appreciate you trying to take my mind off things, but...”

avery’s eyes softened. “yeah,” he allowed, “i get it. but i really do want you to try to have a good time. a break from new york will be good for you.”

“i hope so.” though she doubted it. if she couldn’t get raleigh out of her mind when she was home, a trip across the country was unlikely to make a difference. 

the drive to ascendance’s from the airport was short, and after only a few minutes cadence had the pleasure of watching the two of them embrace like it’d been years since they last saw each other, kissing enthusiastically while she lingered in the foyer with her suitcase.

ascendance grinned widely at her when they broke apart, laughing a little as avery kept her wrapped in his arms, lifted up off the floor with her bare feet dangling. “hey! it’s so good to see you again. you can take any room you want, okay?”

the wet sound of kissing didn’t disappear even after she rushed upstairs, dragging her suitcase down the long hallway until she could find the bedroom farthest away from the noise. 

she shut the door behind her on an airy, sun-drenched guest bedroom draped in billowy linens, the open window looking down at the pool and sprawling backyard. palm trees decorated the property, and the sight of the view alone was enough to calm her down just a little, so that her stomach wasn’t clenched into tight knots for the first time in weeks when she kicked off her shoes and sank into the bed.

her hands scrubbed across her face, rubbing at her eyes. she was makeup-free from the flight and knew she’d need to get ready before whatever chaos she was inevitably going to be dragged into tonight, when seth and florencia and their mystery guest would get in, but just then, she was far too exhausted to move. 

figuring that a nap wouldn’t hurt, she slipped under the blankets in the sweats she’d worn on the plane and immediately fell fast asleep.

the sun was setting when she woke up, a commotion downstairs alerting her to the fact that seth and florencia had gotten in early; she heard a champagne cork pop and cheers echo out just as she slid to the edge of the mattress and stretched, arching her back and righting her clothes where they’d pulled out of place in her sleep.

running a hand through her messy hair, she walked out into the hallway without thinking twice about it, figuring she’d find out the plan for the evening before she started getting ready.

cadence regretted the thought as soon as she paused at the top of the stairs. “hey, sleeping beauty!” seth crowed, throwing his hands up in the air, but she couldn’t bring herself to greet him when her eyes were focused on the mop of brown hair standing just behind him, a head taller and a commanding presence she’d recognize in any room, in any city, in any place. 

the person seth and florencia had brought with them was raleigh.

he smiled sheepishly at her, rubbing at the back of his neck before lifting his hand in an awkward wave. “hey.”

“hey,” she said slowly, resuming her walk down the stairs as if on autopilot, even though every nerve-ending in her body was screaming at her to turn back around and go to her room and put on something hotter, damnit. if she’d known she was going to be seeing raleigh today she would have taken the entire six hour flight in valentino haute couture and sat ramrod straight not to wrinkle it.

but she didn’t, and so there she was, makeup free in sweats, dreaming of all the long, drawn-out and painful ways she was going to murder both avery and seth for blindsiding her. 

“i’m gonna go pour drinks,” seth said decisively, and cadence only barely caught the look florencia shot her before they both turned away to tend to the champagne bottle in her hands, leaving her alone in the foyer with raleigh. 

it had been a few months since she saw him last. they ran into each other only once after she picked up all her things from his apartment, the shoes and makeup and guitar picks and jewelry she’d left strewn all over the place because there was no rules at raleigh’s and she’d gotten too comfortable with that. she’d spotted him from across the room at a party she didn’t want to be at and ducked out the back door before he could see her, too, walking home thirty blocks in the cold, hiccuping sobs that blew clouds of her breath into the air.

he looked more or less the same as he had in november. raleigh’s hair was still pretentiously, purposefully disheveled, his clothes the rich form of messy, distressed and slouchy that looked effortlessly fashionable, with that gaudy rolex on his wrist and hints of his tattoos peeking out at the edge of his collar.

the expression on his face gave nothing away when he said, “i didn’t know you’d be here.”

“we don’t have to talk,” she answered, because they didn’t, and she pursed her lips and looked away just as avery and ascendance entered the house from the patio door, their clasped hands swinging between their bodies.

“oh... my god?” avery said, recovering quickly from the shock on his face, his eyebrows arching to his hairline. ascendance looked to be hiding a nervous laugh behind her hand. “raleigh, good to see you. this is... a surprise.”

“it sure is,” cadence agreed with a wide, fake smile, rage pulsing in her temples. fine -- maybe she’d only have to kill seth.

as if on cue, seth reentered the foyer with the bottle of champagne still in his hands.  “oooookay, here’s the -- oh, hey avery -- ascendance, thanks for having us.” florencia passed out glasses while seth leaned in for welcome hugs, and cadence stood there numbly as the reality of the situation started to sink in.

she and raleigh were the other couple, the people who’d be paired up all weekend while the rest of their friends enjoyed the time away. she was going to be stuck with the guy who’d dumped her, on valentine’s day, and there was nothing she could do about it.

when seth stopped beside her, she made a show of wrapping him up into a bear hug, squeezing him as close and as tightly as she could. “you’re dead to me,” cadence murmured calmly into his ear, smiling innocently again when he pulled away nervously and taking one of the waiting glasses of champagne from florencia’s outstretched hand.

she stared at it for a second, unseeing, before lifting the glass to her lips and draining it in one go, knocking back the champagne while silently lamenting the fact that it wasn’t something stronger. but there was probably no amount of alcohol in the world that was going to make this weekend feel bearable. 

“i’m gonna go get ready,” she announced to no one, dashing back up the stairs as quickly as she dared.

ascendance found her a few minutes later in full meltdown mode, flicking frantically through the outfits she brought for something to wear to dinner.

“obviously i had no idea they’d be bringing him,” she said, sitting on cadence’s bed and rolling her eyes, “and i hope they didn’t know avery was bringing you, or, like, what the fuck is wrong with them?”

“please don’t even get me started,” cadence sighed, “or i really think i might kill someone tonight. which dress do you think is hotter?”

she gestured frantically at the two pieces she’d laid out over the top of her entire dumped-out suitcase, pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes until she saw stars. getting ready was going to be impossible. if she wore something too sexy it was going to look like she was trying to get back at raleigh and if she dressed too casually it was going to look like she was trying too hard to seem unaffected. the whole situation was fucked.

“i think i have something you can wear,” ascendance said slowly, “if you have the right shoes. but are you sure you want to --”

“i can’t go home,” she cut in, groaning. “that’s worse than staying. no offense -- i want to stay, i just don’t want --”

“i know,” ascendance said sympathetically, “i get it. why don’t you start on your makeup while i pull this dress out?”

“okay,” cadence sighed miserably, and then she was alone again, staring at the mess of clothes before her. 

she let herself have exactly ten seconds of wallowing and dramatically lamenting why me before she squared her shoulders and sprung into action, digging her makeup bag out of the chaos covering the bed.

okay. step one -- all she had to do was get ready. you’ve done this a thousand times before. just get ready, and go downstairs. no tears.

her hands shook as she sat down in front of the vanity.

fuck this. she wished dom was with her -- she would know what to do. at the very least, she’d have a xanax to offer.

you will not believe where i am, cadence texted her, stomach squirming. part of her would’ve given anything, just then, to be where dom was, with shane, working on whatever film they were making in whatever remote location he’d dragged her to, if only so she wouldn’t have to face the disaster waiting for her downstairs.

strip club? dom answered almost immediately, her words enough to make cadence crack a genuine smile. she felt a little calmer as she quickly filled her friend in on the situation.

fuck him, was dom’s advice, when she was done. ruin his life!!!! is that even a question? squeeze your tits up to your neck if you have to

thanks for the encouragement! cadence wrote back, setting her phone aside when only a sarcastic string of nonsensical emojis came back in response.

she did feel fortified, then, to make it to dinner, and got her makeup on in almost record time, a genuine smile fixed on her face when ascendance helped her get dressed and zipped her into the outfit she’d set aside, a stunning red minidress that was equal parts short and tight, a gentle ruffle at the hem flaring out under her ass.

they were late to dinner, but it was only in the backyard; ascendance had planned for a private chef to come to the house and cook for them so they wouldn’t have to worry about cameras following them around, and in hindsight, cadence could have kissed her for her forward thinking. 

the setup was still elaborate when they made their way outside. ascendance had gone all out in planning the evening -- the table was set with candles and flowers down the length of it, the lawn lit with string lights and music playing somewhere, softly in the distance.

thankfully everyone was already at their seats when they made their way across the grass. avery pulled out the chair across from him for ascendance, and cadence took the seat at the head of the table, opposite raleigh, who was all the way down the other end and looking right at her, a crooked smile on his face and an eyebrow arched at her outfit.

she pointedly ignored him as she dropped down into her seat and picked up the bread roll waiting on her plate, squeezing ascendance’s knee gratefully under the table when she silently passed her roll over, too.

conversation was slow to start, but ascendance kept the food and drinks coming and when cadence was halfway through her third tequila soda she felt markedly less murdery, at least enough to actually talk to seth again, who was still eyeing her warily when she asked, “so, how’s the movie coming?”

“it’s good,” he answered modestly, “they tore down our sets, like, the day filming wrapped, so we did some of the reshoots on location in cordonia. that was cool.”

“they took us on a tour of the palace,” florencia added, though cadence couldn’t look at her without catching raleigh in her peripheral vision, so she kept her eyes on seth, even when he grinned widely at her between bites of the appetizer, a sure sign that there was trouble to come.

“ryan actually asked me about you,” he said casually, “a lot.”

her eyebrows pulled together in surprise. “ryan summers? i think the last time i saw him was when the odyssey dropped.”

“well -- i guess he knows we’re close,” seth shrugged, and, fuck it. she risked a glance at florencia and found her picking her way through the salad; out of the corner of her eye, cadence was pretty sure raleigh had tuned into their conversation, too. “he said he heard you were single.”

warmth flooded her face. she lifted her drink and took another measured sip of it. “did you give him my number?” 

now it was seth’s turn to look surprised. “do you want me to?”

“yeah,” she said without thinking, turning her eyes back to her plate immediately. “florencia, how’s pilot season going?”

the tequila sodas went down easily after that. eventually, when the meal finished and she stood from her chair, cadence realized she was too drunk to be upright, wobbling precariously on the lawn in her heels. her head swam as she did her best to hold still, though judging by the look ascendance was giving her, she wasn’t quite managing it.

“you guys wanna head to a bar?” avery asked, and she looked up just in time to catch raleigh’s eye across the circle, knowing they were having the exact same thought at the exact same time.

her team was going to kill her if she was photographed with raleigh. more than that, the internet would destroy her, and she would absolutely deserve it. she shook her head.

“we’ll hang back,” raleigh said, either not noticing the glances the others were exchanging behind his back or tactfully ignoring them, “you guys go.”

then they were alone. 

“i don’t want to talk to you,” cadence said bluntly, as soon as the others had gone, the half-bottle of tequila she’d drank obliterating her filter completely.

“that’s fair,” raleigh allowed, looking around the backyard -- which was slowly spinning in her field of vision -- before asking, “can i help you upstairs?”

“you can fuck off.” she spun on her heel to storm away and promptly tumbled down onto the ground, face planting into the grass. fuck.

in an instant, raleigh was down on his knees beside her, one large hand wrapped gently around her arm to pull her upright. “hey, are you okay? jesus, that looked bad.”

“i’m fine,” cadence groaned, yanking her arm out of his grip, “and i don’t need your help, and even if i did, you wouldn’t be helping me anyway. all you care about is yourself.”

it took her a minute, but she made her way back to her feet, kicking her heels off for better balance. silently, raleigh picked them up for her, giving her a long look before muttering, “come on, let’s get you inside.”

they trudged back to the house in silence, side-by-side, cadence’s steps slow and awkward with the world fuzzy around her. raleigh hovered as close to her personal space as he dared their entire way up the stairs, all the way down the hallway until they were both alone in her room.

everything she owned was still strewn across the bed. she groaned when she saw the pile of clothes obstructing the mattress, then threw herself down in the vanity chair and poked around for her makeup wipes instead.

raleigh lingered in the doorway, watching her. “are you gonna be okay?”

she scoffed, yanking the package of makeup wipes open and pulling one out forcefully. “like you give a shit.”

“would you stop it? you have every right to be pissed at me but i’m trying to help, here. are you going to be sick?”

“sick of you,” she said, scrubbing the eyeliner off her eyes in a way her glam team definitely would not approve of, with how she was tugging at her face.

but they weren’t here. raleigh was. and she needed him to go, before she said something stupid.

when she dropped the makeup wipe into the trash at her feet, cadence found raleigh’s arms folded across his chest where he was still leaning in the open door frame. he was staring at her through slightly narrowed eyes, looking either annoyed or pensive -- it was hard to read him, now, considering the drinks she’d had and how long it’d been since they were last alone together.

maybe she’d never be able to read raleigh’s expression ever again. 

raleigh dragged a hand across his mouth, rubbing at his jaw before shrugging helplessly and saying, “i do actually want us to be friends, eventually.”

“don’t count on it,” cadence scoffed, turning back to the vanity mirror for a fresh makeup wipe and the eyeliner on her other eye. 

there was silence for a long moment before he asked, “is that really how you feel?” raleigh’s voice was quieter, this time. he was less sure of himself, maybe.

or maybe she was projecting, leaning into her own wishful thinking.

either way, she faltered, pursing her lips as she stared at her streaky, half-made up face in the mirror before her. 

no. it wasn’t what she wanted. but evidently she wasn’t able to have what she wanted, so a clean break should have been the next best thing, right? space to get over raleigh in peace, no matter how long that took. 

when she didn’t say anything, he softly continued, “it’s just that... i miss talking to you, you know? other people don’t always get it.”

irritation flashed within her, sudden and sharp. that was so like raleigh, to want all of the emotional benefits of her companionship without any of the responsibilities that came with them. “i can’t be your friend right now,” she snapped, shutting her eyes briefly when the way her head turned too quickly made the room start to spin again. “maybe ever, okay?”

there was quiet for so long that she forced her eyes open to check and see whether or not raleigh had left, peeking one eye open slowly, just a crack. cadence sighed when she saw he was still standing in the doorway, staring at her with that dark, inscrutable gaze. 

raleigh cleared his throat before he said, “i’ve been trying to give you space. obviously i knew you wouldn’t want to talk again right away, but in a few months, i thought...”

how embarrassing. she turned away in shame, biting down on the inside of her cheek. 

she wondered how long it’d taken him, to get over their relationship. had he felt they could have been friends again, like nothing ever happened, in one month? three weeks? a few days?

“well, you thought wrong. so please just leave me alone this weekend.” cadence kept her eyes trained on the wall by the closet on the other side of the room, refusing to turn back around. she could feel the tequila starting to work its way back up in her stomach.

“okay,” raleigh said finally, and she heard his hand tap on the doorframe with finality. “night, cadence.” 

only when she heard the soft sound of his footsteps on the carpet fade away into nothing did she get up, gently shutting the door to her room and slumping back against it to thump her head against the wood quietly once she was alone.

fuck.

that certainly hadn’t gone as planned.

in the morning, she woke up with a pounding headache, someone heavy sitting on her legs on the bed. the smell of coffee forced her eyes open, and cadence sat up slowly until her blurry vision focused on seth, who grinned at her again before passing her a mug that was warm to the touch in her hands when she reached out for it.

“morning,” he said, looking far too obnoxious and smug for someone who’d been out later than she had the night before. “i thought you might want to know that raleigh asked if i was really going to give your number to ryan at breakfast just now.”

“i’m going to throw up on you,” cadence mumbled, but stared into the coffee in her hands instead, lifting it to her lips for a careful sip that immediately burned her mouth. “wait -- what?”

“any idea why he’d ask me that?” seth smirked, shifting away deftly when she lifted her leg underneath the covers and kicked out at him. 

“because he’s a bad person and you’re an even worse one?” she suggested, slumping back down to the mattress with a huff when seth rolled to the other edge of the bed, out of reach. “i hope you don’t think i’m ever going to forgive you for bringing him here.”

seth cringed. “florencia said i’m lucky to be alive.” he shifted closer tentatively when she laughed. “i really didn’t know you’d be here, though. i thought you were going upstate to write.”

“i went last month,” she sighed, “it was miserable. even colder than the city and more depressing than my apartment.” the air b&b had been too empty and too quiet, just like her place back home. 

“well, we didn’t all conspire to pull a parent trap on you, i promise,” seth said, and she rolled her eyes at him before disappearing back into her coffee, hoping the caffeine would mitigate the hangover that was starting to feel miserable. “but i also didn’t think you were going to get drunk and start a huge fight or whatever.” 

“is that what he said?” she asked, glancing at the closed door of her bedroom before looking back at seth curiously, “that we had a huge fight?” she had been drunk, but the argument she’d had with raleigh had felt tame in comparison to some of the blowouts they’d gotten into when they were together, including the final explosive screaming match that’d broken them up in the fall.

“kinda,” seth shrugged, “but you know how he is. always downplaying everything.”

“yeah.” her nails tapped against the ceramic mug as she strained to listen to whatever was going on downstairs, but if there were still people in the kitchen, she couldn’t hear them, anymore. “are you going to give my number to ryan?”

“i already did,” seth answered with a dismissive flick of his hand, sending a wave of relief through her. there was something comforting in knowing that the decision was out of her hands, and that she wouldn’t have to admit, out loud, that she was reconsidering the offer after talking to raleigh last night. “but that so isn’t the point.”

“please don’t start,” cadence practically begged, “i literally don’t have it in me to think about this today.” or ever, she silently added. the what-ifs of her and raleigh’s relationship would prove to be enough to consume her, if she let them. she’d spent too many hours, over the last few months, thinking about them -- wondering how he felt, questioning whether or not he was thinking about her, torturing herself guessing where he was or who he was with. life had finally been able to start to distract her with other things again: work, friends, social events. she couldn’t afford to take a step backwards.

any question or comment he’d made was probably done in passing. he didn’t care who anyone gave her number to. 

“but --” seth tried, cutting off with a sigh when she shook her head at him, eyes wide and pleading. “fine. well... there’s more coffee in the kitchen, okay? come out to the pool when you feel like it.”

she stared off into space as she finished what was left in the mug seth had brought her, rubbing her calves together under the sheets to try and determine whether or not she needed to shave her legs again. it’ll give you some time to stall, said a voice in her head helpfully, and she headed to the shower without thinking twice about it, eager to explore ascendance’s stock of beauty products.

everyone was out by the pool when she finally emerged with her sunglasses and bikini on. the boys were splashing in the water, and cadence kept her eyes lowered as she spread out in one of the empty lounge chairs next to ascendance. 

“so,” ascendance murmured, as soon as she got comfortable, “i heard last night was a disaster.”

cadence rolled her eyes again. “good to know raleigh is still the nosey little gossip he always was.”

“if you seriously thought he wasn’t going to tell everyone you hardcore unloaded on him last night, you’re delusional,” ascendance pointed out fairly, making her pout where she was sitting next to her friend. 

fine. “i just didn’t think it was news every time we got into an argument,” she muttered, tilting her head back against the lounge chair, squinting into the sun.

“it’s always news, with you two.” 

with a sigh, cadence looked away, squeezing her eyes shut against the spots that were suddenly appearing like fireworks. evidently all sense of self preservation had completely abandoned her this weekend, both where raleigh was concerned and otherwise. “you’re not really going to make me ask about it, are you?”

she turned her head and found ascendance grinning at her. “would i do that to you?” she asked, rolling over onto her side and inching her chair closer. her voice dropped to a near whisper, and when she dipped her head so her eyes were visible over the tops of her own sunglasses cadence could see how eager she was to fill her in on the news. “the man is a mess,” ascendance said bluntly, looking almost excited about it.

despite her best efforts not to care, she couldn’t stop herself from feeling hopeful and a little relieved, just to hear that. “really?”

“yeah. i don’t think he ever thought you’d be so upset with him, and for so long. it’s kind of embarrassing, honestly. like -- for his soul.” 

“well -- what did he think, that i was just going to be, like, okay, see you? when he picked up all his shit from my apartment while i was on a shoot and told entertainment tonight we had mutual differences. what the fuck was he thinking?”

“beats me,” ascendance scoffed, slowly shaking her head. “i told him he was out of his mind many times. you know how he is. asking all of us for advice on how to talk to you when you made it clear you wanted him to leave you alone.”

“it’s just like -- what could he even possibly have to say to me, you know? after all this time. he had plenty of chances to text me, or something.”

“i don’t think he even knows,” ascendance said. “it just kills him to think anyone’s mad at him. we’re all like that, in a way.”

“i hate that you’re right,” she sighed, gaze drifting out at the sprawling view in the backyard. “he doesn’t care that it’s me. he’s just too much of a narcissist to have someone dislike him.”

“hang on, i didn’t say that,” ascendance mused, pursing her lips. “he definitely cares more because it’s you. try talking to him for ten minutes, you’ll see.”

“i honestly don’t think i can stomach looking at him for ten minutes. it’s like --”

“oi! ace, cadence -- get in here, yeah?”

they turned in unison to find avery grinning, splashing water and waving them into the pool. florencia and seth were sitting on the stairs, and her eyes scanned the rest of the space to slowly come to land on raleigh, treading water behind avery, already staring at her.

“come on,” ascendance smiled, reaching for her wrist and tugging cadence out of her chair before she could protest, yanking her forward towards the edge of the pool.

with a splash, they both jumped in, and cadence was left hovering by the wall as ascendance immediately swam over to avery and jumped into his arms, the two of them spinning away into the deep end with loud laughter.

raleigh lifted his hand to wave awkwardly at her. with a sigh, she swam over, sparing only a brief glance at seth and florencia, who were still parked on the stairs with absolutely no intention of moving and saving her anytime soon.

“you sleep alright?” raleigh asked, as soon as she was close enough to hear him. the expression on his face was sincere, his eyes resting respectfully on her face.

cadence fidgeted as she tried not to stare in return, though the broad planes of raleigh’s chest had always been a distraction -- worse when they were bisected with gold chains and dripping with water, gleaming under the sun. “yeah, i guess. sorry i got drunk and screamed at you or whatever.”

raleigh tipped his head back with a loud laugh, one large palm resting against an equally large pectoral muscle. with his eyes crinkled together under the sun, she gave in and let herself stare at his fingers, glaring bitterly at the tattoos that swirled up his forearm. asshole.

“i think i actually really deserved it, so it’s fine.” when their eyes met again he seemed uncharacteristically uncertain, his trademark shield of confidence momentarily lowered. “i feel like an idiot for not realizing that’s how you must’ve felt sooner.”

cadence shook her head. “that’s not your problem.” having an ex-boyfriend was new to her, let alone one she had to work in the same industry with and live a few neighborhoods away from, the tinny call of the subway conductor’s voice announcing the stops still making her cringe down into her takeaway coffee, even months later -- but she was pretty sure none of this was par for the course. in her (admittedly limited, defined mostly by movies) experience, ex-boyfriends didn’t concern themselves with the aftermath, and raleigh shouldn’t have been any exception.

“i know that.” something unidentifiable flashed in his eyes, and when he winced, she realized it was akin to... pain. uncomfortableness, at the very least. “but, still. i hate thinking that you felt that way... about me. or because of me, even. it’s just shitty.”

“you don’t have to feel guilty,” cadence said, that same prickly annoyance rising up in her again, too suddenly to contend with before the rude words reached her lips. “i know you think highly of yourself, but i’ve had worse things happen to me than being broken up with before.”

raleigh sighed heavily, shaking his head. “i’m fucking this up again. that’s not what i meant. i’m trying to apologize.”

her face contorted with confusion. “you are?”

“yeah, but -- this isn’t going like how i thought it would.” he shrugged, dragging a wet hand across the stubble on his face. he must’ve forgotten to bring a razor with him; it was growing out thicker than it usually did, even and dark across raleigh’s jaw. “i am sorry, though. for what it’s worth, i... really do miss you. and i know that you want me to fuck off and leave you alone and i’m being selfish by not doing that, but -- i just hate not talking to you. and i’m sorry.”

she was quiet for a moment, stunned into silence by his honesty. before she’d even fully had time to process what he’d said, cadence found herself saying, “you don’t have to fuck off entirely.”

raleigh blinked. “no?” he questioned, sounding unsure.

cadence shook her head. there were a million things she could’ve said -- that she’d missed him, too, that she hadn’t ever wanted to break up in the first place, that all she’d ever wanted from him was the promise of a future together -- but they all felt too revealing, making her feel as small as she had when she’d seen his first tabloid cover without her hit the newsstands at the corner store beneath her apartment building. yet again, it was like he was winning their breakup and she was acutely aware of the fact that she was not, and that she’d never be able to, because raleigh was raleigh and she was in love with him.

so she said nothing, and after a beat, he smiled hesitantly at her, eyes searching her face for some sign that she was going to snap at him again.

but she didn’t, and just as she smiled back at him a splash down at the other end of the pool startled them apart, stealing their attention away, and then they were both melding back into the group seamlessly, as though absolutely nothing had transpired between them.

that didn’t stop her from obsessing over it, though, analyzing every aspect of their interaction for the rest of the afternoon while she lounged by the pool, scrolled idly through her phone and made small talk with her friends. despite knowing that raleigh was only trying to bury the hatchet between them in order to appease his own narcissism, the small flicker of hope that had been inside her since their breakup, wondering if maybe he regretted what had happened between them, had been stoked back into a roaring fire.

as the sun started to set, she shivered, tugging at the ends of her damp hair. “i’m gonna go shower. what time’s dinner again?”

ascendance waved her off lazily. “whenever. you know these fools are going to start a fire and pull out a guitar as soon as it gets dark. just come back down when you’re done.”

she shouldered her bag and was surprised to find raleigh fall into step beside her, just outside the sliding back door of the house.��“hey,” he said, shirtless still and warm from the sun, smiling brightly, “you going up?”

“yeah,” she answered, trying not to stare at him, “need a break?”

“i’m exhausted,” raleigh said, as they walked up the stairs shoulder-to-shoulder, “i think i got too much sun.”

“i know, i’m going to be washing my hair for, like, a year.” her hands pulled at the split ends, hanging in wet waves around her face. “feels like i soaked up all the chlorine and took it with me.”

silence fell as they walked down the hallway together, and cadence snuck a glance over at raleigh as soon as she realized he wasn’t stopping in front of any of the other guest room doors. they both slowed outside the last one, at the end of the row -- hers.

“listen,” raleigh said, lifting a hand to rub at the back of his neck, “i was thinking about it, and i feel like i didn’t explain myself well earlier.”

great. he’d probably seen the way she was overthinking written all over her face and realized she was holding out hope for something he had no interest in giving her. cringing, she opened her mouth to insist that she was fine when he continued, “i don’t just miss you as a friend, cadence.”

her mouth snapped shut. out of the thousands of possibilities she’d been turning over in her mind, that sentence was one that had genuinely never occurred to her. “what?”

“i felt like -- what i said, i felt like it came across, like, that i just miss being around you and talking to you like we used to... which is true, don’t get me wrong. but i didn’t mean any of it platonically. and i know that’s wrong, but...” raleigh shrugged, grinning ruefully at her. “i guess i don’t care.”

she gaped at him. after a moment, raleigh’s grin faltered. “can you say something? anything is fine.”

“sorry, i’m just, um.” cadence shook her head. what the fuck? “i’m processing.”

“look, you don’t owe me anything,” raleigh rushed to say, “i know that, and -- last night, i know you said you don’t even want to be friends, let alone anything else, so the fact that you told me i don’t have to fuck off should be enough and is way more than i deserve --”

before she could think too much about it, cadence pushed up onto her toes and kissed him, backing raleigh in against the other side of the hallway. for a split second, he stayed frozen against her; then, just as she started to panic again, he kissed her back, mouth moving urgently over hers.

raleigh’s arms wrapped around her and she carefully tip-toed forward, swaying in against his bare chest and pushing her fingers into his hair to drag his head down closer, giving herself over eagerly to the kiss. raleigh answered as if he was drowning, holding onto her so tightly her knees buckled.

the door behind him opened abruptly as they both pushed against it, and they stumbled forward into a linen closet, breaking apart clumsily as towels and washcloths rained down over their heads.

“fuck,” raleigh muttered, breathing heavily. she watched his bare chest rise and fall as he lifted a hand to run his fingers through his hair. “shit, i’m sorry.”

“don’t,” cadence interjected, similarly working to catch her breath. “i kissed you.”

“yeah, but i -- fuck, i want to be able to give you your space. i know you want that.” he seemed torn by the very idea of it.

she shook her head. “i don’t,” she rushed to explain breathlessly, “i just -- i said all that stuff because i was mad at you, and i thought... i didn’t think you wanted...”

her voice wavered and then trailed off helplessly. with her eyes, she offered raleigh the most pleading look she had, begging him to take pity on her and be the one to drive the conversation, so that she wouldn’t have to feel so achingly vulnerable, like she’d just ripped her chest wide open and laid herself bare for him to examine.

raleigh sighed. “cadence... of course i want you. i always have, ever since you threw that stupid pizza party at one in a million. but i felt like i lost the right to... to even think about this.”

cadence drew in a breath, finding it impossible to tear her eyes away from raleigh’s. he looked heartbreakingly sincere, among ascendance’s racks of askew towels, and no matter how much being with him was going to eventually, inevitably destroy her, she knew she would never, ever forgive herself for turning around now.

“you didn’t.” she watched as raleigh exhaled, relief transforming his face. “i’ve thought about it -- so much -- and i’ve wondered if you ever thought about it, too, and -- i hoped that you did? but when i didn’t hear from you, i had to assume... i mean, i thought you just moved on.”

“no,” raleigh insisted, “jesus, cadence, i could never ‘just move on.’ do you have any idea --”

she kissed him again before he could continue, and raleigh stepped forward to meet her halfway, blindly walking them both out of the closet and back across the hall to her bedroom, fumbling for the doorknob behind her back without dislodging his lips from where they were doing their very best to pull every last breath from her lungs.

he kicked the door shut when they stumbled inside together, and they fell onto her unmade bed in a tangle of damp bathing suits and sunkissed limbs, the messy sheets twisting into further disarray as they rolled around amongst the pillows.

“fuck, fuck, fuck,” raleigh bit out, crawling on top of her to press her down into the mattress, the combination of his lips on her neck and his hands on her hips wiping each and every last thought from her mind. “god, cadence.”

“raleigh,” she moaned in return, sliding her hands down the bare expanse of his back, her fingertips digging into the muscles she’d sorely missed touching, “please, i want...”

his hips bucked forward, and her voice trailed off into a gasp as he pressed against her, her legs widening to give him more room to settle in. raleigh took advantage of the space immediately, and his hips circled forward slowly in a dirty grind that made her head spin, her eyelashes fluttering as her head tipped back against the pillows.

“is this what you want?” raleigh demanded, his voice low. “can you feel how much i want you?”

“yes,” cadence breathed, palms pressing against his back, urging him forward against her, “yes, raleigh, please --”

his hands made quick work of her bikini, untying the strings at the sides of her bottoms, letting the fabric fall away beneath them as his hips thrust forward again. her back arched up off the mattress, and as soon as there was space for his hands, raleigh slipped them between her ass and the mattress, squeezing. 

“you look so fucking pretty,” he sighed, sounding almost personally offended as soon as his thigh slipped between her legs and she pushed her hips up, chasing any source of friction, “jesus, cadence.”

cadence reached up and threaded her fingers into his hair, pulling his face down for another desperate kiss. she didn’t exactly feel pretty, makeup-free and wet from the pool, flushed and panting and begging for her ex-boyfriend’s affection, but the way raleigh was looking at her made her feel like a perfect ten, as stunning as she’d ever thought she was, more glamorous than she’d be for a red carpet event.

it was exactly the same as the way he’d used to look at her, a mix of warm adoration and awe in his eyes, his pride bumping up her own self confidence until she thought she could do absolutely anything.

her forehead pressed against his as they broke apart, sharing the same ragged breaths. “i want you to fuck me,” cadence murmured, just so that she could hear the pained, punched-out groan of raleigh’s that followed the words, her gaze unfocused on where raleigh’s eyes suddenly screwed shut tightly from up close.

“anything,” raleigh promised, lifting his hips so her hands could slide his shorts off, “god, come here.”

she slipped forward down the bed, into raleigh’s waiting arms, and he pulled her in close enough that her body acted on muscle memory, opening up for him to slot into place against her in that same familiar way they’d come together so many times before. 

it was as easy as breathing -- as simple and as complicated as everything with raleigh always felt. 

raleigh’s hands planted on the mattress to give him more leverage, and he shoved his hips forward forcefully, pushing her up the bed. “fuck,” he groaned emphatically, making it impossible for her head to be anywhere else but right there, with him, “you feel so fucking good.”

she knew exactly what he meant. her romantic conquests over the last four months had been few and far between, and raleigh was scratching an itch that had been impossible to manage on her own or with anyone else -- even if she’d wanted to be with someone else, there was no one who knew him quite like he did, who knew exactly what she needed and never failed to give her everything and more.

each quick thrust nudged the headboard against the wall behind her, the sharp tilt of his hips making her tense until her whole body was shaking with how good it felt. cadence turned her face away as raleigh got the angle just right, throwing her forearm over her eyes to hide the open expression of pleasure on her face, muffling her moans into the sheets under her cheek.

“oh, don’t you dare,” he breathed, reaching for her arm and pulling it away, pinning her wrist down to the bed. her head rolled back as his hips bucked viciously, compelled by the low intensity in his voice. “look at me.”

her whole body felt hot and anxious, but her eyes blinked open obligingly and locked onto his, pinned in place by the wild look in raleigh’s gaze. 

“raleigh.” his name was a moan that felt too loud in the room, her breath hitching halfway through. a full-body shiver tripped down her spine.

above her head, his palm slid the last inch up her wrist to lace their fingers together, squeezing her hand in his.

“did you miss this?” he asked suddenly, walking his free hand up the inside of her thigh in a maddeningly slow tip-toe. his question was punctuated by a thrust that shoved the bed into the wall again.

“yes,” she groaned, “god, raleigh, i --”

“say it.” his hand paused in its path, curling tight around her thigh, fingertips digging in hard enough to bruise.

“i missed this.” the words tripped out in a needy rush, the full-body flush she could feel worsening. “i missed this, i missed you.”

“yeah,” raleigh agreed with an answering moan, bowing his head to bring his lips to her neck again as his fingers finally slid the last few inches up between her legs to touch her, the rough pad of his thumb circling in time with each swing of his hips. 

in a matter of moments she was shaking, the rough scrape of raleigh’s teeth and stubble down the column of her throat making her squirm in the sheets, her legs trembling with the way he was touching her. her nails dug into the back of his hand when she tripped over the edge, and she felt her mouth work with what was doubtlessly a mindless jumble of profanities, her brain too dizzy to work out the specifics.

cadence was only distantly aware of raleigh’s hips rocking forward, the curse words he spit out in spanish when he followed her over the edge with his teeth biting at her shoulder. her head was still spinning from the ridiculous ride of it all, and when raleigh finally exhaled, lifted his head and grinned goofily at her, his hand pushing a sweaty lock of hair off his forehead, her heart joined the party, too, seizing up with a worrying tightness before beginning to do backflips in her chest.

he rolled over carefully onto his side, pulling her with him gently until she reached out and braced her hands on his chest. “you okay?”

“pretty good,” cadence murmured honestly. she felt better than she had in a long time. her eyes swept his face curiously, desperate for an understanding of what he might have been thinking. “just tell me now if this was, like, a palm-springs-only kind of thing.”

raleigh’s wide smile faltered. he sucked his bottom lip into his mouth and she saw a flash of his teeth before he resolutely shook his head, eyes still fixed seriously on her face. there was quiet for a moment before he said, “i want to go at your pace, okay? but... i’d definitely take it all back, if i could. that fight we had -- and those things i said --” he trailed off, reaching out for her arm. “i could explain this a lot better if you give me, like, an hour.”

she laughed, smiling brightly despite the heaviness of their conversation. “sorry. i didn’t mean to ruin the afterglow.”

“no, this is important,” raleigh insisted softly, “‘cause i don’t want you to go home thinking -- whatever. and i don’t want this to be just a one-time thing. i mean, i’d love for this to be at least a ten-or-twelve-time thing before our flights tomorrow, but... ideally, uh. you know. there’d be more than that, too.”

cadence leaned in to close the distance between them, gently catching his lips in a quick kiss. as soon as their mouths brushed, raleigh relaxed against her, the tension abruptly dropping out of his limbs as his hands hesitantly came to rest on her back, tilting her in closer.

“i think that sounds great,” cadence murmured, the cautious smile that was spreading across raleigh’s lips enough to set a swarm of butterflies loose in her stomach again.

“thank god,” he sighed, “because i seriously need a break before i have to put sentences together again, cadence. you killed me.”

“oh my god,” she laughed, “shut up, you’re so absurd.”

it was a long time before they finally dragged themselves out of bed and into the shower, and an even longer time before she felt like they were presentable enough to join the group, who all looked at the both of them with shit-eating, smug grins when they sat down at the fire in ascendance’s backyard together, raleigh snagging two slices of pizza out of the box on the table and dangling one of them straight into her waiting, open mouth. 

“don’t,” cadence insisted without stopping to chew or swallow, “please keep it to yourselves.”

“what she said,” raleigh agreed, finishing his own slice of pizza in a few quick bites and passing his crust over to her wordlessly.

there was a beat of silence before seth said, “okay, no,” and then a cacophony of sound exploded around them, with each of their friends talking louder and louder over each other, shouting their questions out from around the fire. 

she leaned her head on raleigh’s shoulder, chewing thoughtfully. there was certainly still a lot more to talk about -- so many things to discuss -- but she felt more on the same page with raleigh now than ever before, his palm spread out low across the small of her back with his ring and pinky finger dipped beneath the waistband of her shorts. 

as avery and the others continued to bicker around them, raleigh turned his head and pressed his lips to her temple in a sweet kiss. “happy valentine’s day,” he murmured into her ear.

cadence glanced down at the face of his watch, shrugging. her lips curved up into her own private smile -- it wasn’t quite valentine’s day just yet, at nine o’clock on saturday night. 

“we’ve still got three more hours,” she reminded him, basking in the warmth that raleigh’s fond, indulgent laugh provided, “let’s not push it.”

#raleigh carrera #raleigh carrera x mc #platinum #choices platinum #cadence dorian #raleigh x cadence #raleigh x mc #myfic #long post #ns*w #happy valentine's day ❤️

[thehollowprince]

Civil War Fixit #4

Parts One, Two, and Three (updated for easier browsing)

Notes: sorry for the long wait, but, as many of you know... life happens. Plus, ever since Endgame, I've been less than enthused about this whole universe. My love for Steve has diminished, but I still remember what was and what should have been, so here we go.

I didn't really feel like doing all of the action sequences, because I feel like the most character growth happens in those "In Between" scenes, so this takes place after the Winter Soldier was activated by Zemo and the escape from the CIA facility. It picks up just before the airport battle.

Steve, Sam and Bucky sat silently in the old Beetle, waiting for their reinforcements to show up.

Bucky eventually broke the silence. "So who's the girl?"

"Buck." Steve sighed.

"What?" Bucky asked. "Its a fair question from your old best friend." The super soldier reasoned. "This girl violates a dozen laws, steals our equipment back and you lay one on her. And judging by both of your expressions, that was the first time you two did that."

"Did I ever tell you how creepy it is that you analyze everything now?" Steve rebuttaled.

"No." Bucky plowed forward. "She must be a pretty special girl."

"You've no idea." Sam muttered under his breath.

"Sam." Steve said with a warning in his tone.

"What?" Sam fired back. "She is a special girl. You two spent the last two years dancing around each other and now is when you decide to make a move? When we're wanted criminals?" Sam huffed. "You really do have horrible timing."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, first you kiss Peggy back in the day."

"You and Peggy kissed?" Bucky interrupted.

"Yeah, just before he flew a plane into the Arctic." Sam said.

"And now you finally make a move on Sharon, just before we're going to break a whole mess of international laws?" Bucky questioned. "Sam's right, you do have bad timing."

"Oh, and we didn't even get to the part where Sharon is Peggy's niece."

"Sam!" Steve was exasperated.

Bucky, for his part, just looked from Sam to Steve and back again, unsure if this was some kind of joke or not. Thankfully, Steve was saved from any more of this awkward conversation by the arrival of a big, white, serial-killer style van.

"Oh, look, backup's here." Steve said and immediately exited the vehicle to greet the driver, who was none other than Clint Barton.

Bucky stared after his old friend before turning to look at Sam with an incredulous look.  “Her niece?”

“Yeah.” Sam sighed.  “Though, to be fair, we didn’t know that until yesterday.”  He then opened the car door and exited the vehicle.

Outside, Steve approached Clint and shook hands with his old teammate.  “Thanks for coming.”

“Cap.”

“You know I wouldn’t have called if I had any other choice.”

“Hey man, you’re doing me a favor.” Clint waved off Steve’s Steveness.  Behind him, Wanda climbed out of the passenger seat.  “Besides, I owe a debt.”

“Thanks for having my back.” Steve nodded at her.

“It was time to get off my ass.” Wanda replied. Her attention was diverted to behind Steve’s broad shoulders to where Sam was struggling to hold in his laughter, phone in hand as Bucky attempted to navigate his way out of the back seat.  This video would definitely go viral.

“What about our other recruit?”

“He’s rarin’ to go.” Clint answered, walking back to the van and slid the side open, revealing a passed out Scott Lang laying on the seat.  The moment the door was all the way open, rocking the van, Scott jolted awake.  “Had to put a little coffee in him, but...” He looked at Scott, who seemed confused as to where he was.  “... he should be good to go.”

“What time zone are we in?” Scott asked as he yawned and stretched, sliding out of the van to place his feet on solid ground.  He steps forward, ignoring the weird tingles in his legs indicating they were waking up, and immediately accepted the hand presented to him, without really realizing who it was attached to.  That is, until he realized who’s hand he was shaking and just kind of gaped at the man.  “Captain America.”  He looked both amazed and dumbfounded at the same time.

“Mr. Lang.” Steve replied, his hand still in Scott’s grip, but too polite to pull back on his own.

“It’s an honor.” Scott was still shaking Steve’s hand, and only now seemed to realize it.  “I’m shaking your hand way too long.”  Despite saying that, he continued to shake the hand in his grasp.  “Wow, this is awesome!  Captain America.”  He seemed to realize what he was doing and stopped shaking Steve’s hand, looking around him at the other people assembled in a parking garage, his eyes landing on Wanda.  “I know you, too.  You’re great. My daughter loves you.”  Wanda smiled in return as Scott turned back to Steve again, feeling up the super soldier’s epic shoulders.  “Jeez.”

Scott snapped out of his hero-worship and stepped back, hands to himself.

“Ah, look, I wanna say, I know you know a lot of super people, so... thanks for thinking of me.”  He spotted Sam over Steve’s incredibly broad shoulders.  “Hey, man!”

“What’s up, Tic Tac?”

“Uh, about what happened last time...”

“It was a nice audition, but it... it won’t happen again.” Sam said firmly.

“What happened last time?” Steve found himself asking.

“Well, you see, I, uh...” Scott started, only to be interrupted by Sam.

“It’s not important.”

Steve looked between the two, Sam staring firmly at Scott, who looked a bit sheepish.  “... okay?”  He turned back to Scott. “They tell you what we’re up against?”

“Something about... psycho-assassins?” Scott supplied, not sounding entirely sure.

“We're outside the law on this one. So, if you come with us, you're a wanted man.” Steve said, laying everything on the line from the beginning.

“Yeah, well, what else is new?” Scott said with a shrug. 

“We should get going.” Bucky supplied, finally free from the metal death-trap.

“We’ve got a chopper all lined up.” Clint said.

A voice speaking in German sounded over the loud speakers in the garage, with Bucky looking up first, “They’re evacuating the airport.”

“Stark.” Sam said with a sigh.

“Stark?” Scott questioned.

“Suit up.” Steve commanded.

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

Steve, now all suited up in his Captain America uniform, jogged across an eerily vacant tarmac toward the chopper that Clint had pointed out.  His eyes scanned back and forth, knowing that Tony and Rhodey and who knows who else was with them was lurking around here somewhere.  Less than ten meters to the chopper and some sort of electro-doohickey that he didn’t understand landed on the machine, frying the engine and rendering it useless.  Steve skidded to a stop and watched as Tony and Rhodey, Iron Man and War Machine descended from the sky.

“Wow, it's so weird how you run into people at the airport. Don't you think that's weird?” Tony joked, always with the quips, even in a serious situation, because he obviously didn’t know how to read the room... so to speak.

“Definitely weird.” Rhodey agreed, always following Tony’s lead.

“Hear me out, Tony.” Steve interjected, trying to talk sense into his former teammates.  “That doctor, the psychiatrist, he's behind all of this.”

To his left, T’Challa jumped over a parked truck and landed in a crouch before standing up to his full height in his black vibranium suit. “Captain.”

“Your highness.”

“Anyway, Ross gave me 36 hours to bring you in. That was 24 hours ago. Can you help a brother out?” Tony announced, retracting the helmet of his suit so he could talk to Steve face to face.

“We’re not brothers.” Steve countered.  “We’re not even friends.”

“Hmm.” Tony huffed.

“You’re after the wrong guy.” Steve tried to reason with him.

“Your judgment is askew. Your old war buddy killed innocent people yesterday.”

“And there are five more super soldiers just like him.” Steve tried to explain.  “If you would just shut up and listen to me, I could explain.”  Tony’s face darkened.  “I can't let the doctor find them first, Tony. I can't.”

“Steve... you know what’s about to happen.” Rhodey said, retracting his own helmet.  “Do you really want to try and punch your way out of this one?”

“Wait.” Natasha walked up, dolled out in her own tactical gear.  “What do you mean there are five more?”

“Alright, I’ve run out of patience.” Tony said.  “Underoos!”  Steve was obviously confused for a moment, until he saw a shadow flip over him.  His shield was wrenched from his hands, which were suddenly tied together with some kind of material he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know what it was.  Looking up, he saw a man in a red and blue costume with a web-like pattern, his shield in this person’s hand.  “Nice job, kid.”

“ Thanks. Well, I could've stuck the landing a little better. It's just the new suit… Well, it's nothing, Mr. Stark. It's--it's perfect. Thank you.” Steve’s eyes narrowed the more he listened to this man - this boy - talk.  On Tony’s side, Natasha’s expression was similar.

“Yeah, we don't really need to start a conversation.”

“ Okay. Cap . . . Captain. Big fan, I'm Spider-Man.” He saluted Steve.

“Yeah, we'll talk about it later. Just...”

“Hey, everyone.” Spider-Man waved at the assembled heroes.

“... Good job.” Tony finished.

“You’ve been busy.” Steve said icily, his glare directed solely at Tony.

“And you've been a complete idiot.” Tony fired back.  “Dragging in Clint. 'Rescuing' Wanda from a place she doesn't even want to leave, a safe place.” Steve snorted at that.  “I'm trying to keep . . . I'm trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart.”

“You did that when you signed.” Cap retorted.  “And when you dragged in this kid.” He nodded toward Spider-Man.  “How old are you?”

“That’s not important - “ Tony started to say.

“No, that is a good question.” Natasha interrupted.  “How old are you?” She directed her question at Spider-Man.

“I... uh...” Peter wasn’t sure what to do.  The scary redhead was on Tony’s side, but Tony wanted him to stay a secret.

“If he’s over sixteen, you can keep my shield.” Steve interjected.  Now everyone was looking at Tony, with mixed expressions of shock and even outright anger.

“Alright, We're done. You're gonna turn Barnes over, you're gonna come with us. NOW!” Tony was shouting by the end of the sentence. “Because it's us! Or a squad of J-SOC guys... with no compunction about being impolite.”  Steve looks aside, as if he’s deep in thought.  “Come on, man.”

Meanwhile, in Steve’s comms, Sam was talking to him.

“We found the Quinjet.  Hanger five, north runway.”  Steve nodded before holding up his hands, almost looking like he was surrendering.  An arrow pierced the material that bound his hands, freeing them.

“Okay, Lang.” Steve said into his comms.

“Hey, guys, something’s happening.” Spider-Man said, usure of what was going on but sensing something.  He spotted a really tiny man on Captain America’s shield, who quickly turned normal sized and knocked Spider-Man away, before flipping off the truck and handing the shied back to Steve with an exaggerated “I believe this is yours, Captain America.”

Rhodey’s and Tony’s helmets went back up.

“There’s two in the parking deck.” Tony said, using his suit’s enhanced features to spot them.  “One of them’s Maximoff.  I’m gonna grab her.”  Tony started to take off.  “Rhodey, you wanna deal with Cap?”

“Got two in the terminal.” Rhodey said as he also started to rise into the air.  “Wilson and Barnes.”

“Barnes is mine!” T’Challa snarled, immediately racing off in that direction.

“Mr. Stark, what should I do?” Spider-Man asked, sounding more and more like a frightened teenager.

“What we discussed.” Tony snapped over his comms.  “Keep your distance and web ‘em up.”

“Okay, copy that.” Spider-Man leapt off of the ground and produced another of those spider web lines and swung toward the terminal.

The fight was on.

#civil war fixit #how the movie should have gone #my writing #anti tony stark #still waiting for cap 3

[bitch-banshee]

It’s All About Family

this isn’t requested, it’s just something I brainstormed with @just-jordie-things and she thought it was good so here it is.

Word count: 2924

Summary: Nova is a successful business woman with a secret. When her family is put in danger she’s called home to Italy to resume her place as the Mafia Boss. She brings along her assistant Lydia, to keep in touch with her work while she’s away.

***A/N again sorry...: this is going to have “parts” and different points of view. I hope yall like it 😇

I stepped out of my car and headed into the building, star industries was in big red letters on the top of the 50 story building

My white stilettos clicked on the black marble floor, as I made my way to the elevators.

“Morning miss” the elevator operator said

“Good morning David” I said smoothly, checking my watch for the time

We ascended to the top floor and I stepped out. “Have a good morning David” I called over my shoulder, my cream overcoat swaying behind me.

“You too miss” I heard him call before the doors shut

“Good morning Jackson, Lydia” I said to the two seated at the desk near the elevator

“Good morning miss, I have your tea and mail” Jackson smiled “should I follow you to your office ms.star?”

“Sure Jackson, Lydia, hows my day looking?” my calculating eyes slid over to the lovely pale woman

“Well, you’ve got a meeting with Anderson Corp CEO in an hour, and lunch with your parents at noon” she looked over the schedule book and into my eyes

“Very good, phone me when Andrew gets here” I turned around and headed to the only white door

“Yes of course ms.star, will you be meeting in your office, or in the west conference room” she questioned.

“My office, it’s quite an informal meeting dear” I winked at her over my shoulder, her cheeks flushed.

“Yes ma’am” she said quietly and averted her eyes from mine

Jackson opened the door to my office, and I settled into my chair. I set my white Hermès bag in my desk and opened my computer. A few emails, a few reminders. But what caught my attention was a blinking notification in the corner

“CALL ME” in all capital letters.

Jackson was getting ready to pour my tea, “I’ll get myself thank you Jackson, I’m not quite ready to have a cup” I have a tight smile. Trying to hide the fact that my entire mood had plummeted.

“Yes ms. Star, do you want me to go ahead and open the mail” he asked, an innocent question, but I just wanted him gone

“No jackson, thank you, go down the cafe, and get you and Lydia something, no charge, tell Brayden I said so”

I nodded a dismissal to him. Please leave, please leave. Please don’t have any more stupid questions.

I watched his retreating back hoping he wouldn’t have another question. The door shut softly behind him.

I pulled out my iPhone 10X. And quickly dialed the number.

It picked up on the second ring.

“Come home nova.” Was all he said. My second in my life, my bestfriend, my extended family.

“What’s wrong Jacob” my voice was thin, hollow, calculated

“Well w-we lost...we lost Francis, well we-we didn’t lose him, h-he was taken” Jacob said

My heart stopped, my child, my son, my only reason for living.

“Who has my son Jacob” I said rising from my desk, and heading to the closet on the side.

“The Spanish” he breathed

“Why would the cartel want my son, no one is supposed to know about him Jacob. What. Did. You. Do” my gritted my teeth. And pulled off my cream coat and pulled down the zipper of my white dress.

“Nothing ma’am, they just took him, I don’t think they know he’s your son, but they know he’s important, Francis doesn’t go anywhere without at least 5 of us, they know he’s important” Jacob quickly spoke. Trying to explain, get all the words out.

I pulled on a black tank top bodysuit, black jeans and a leather jacket “find him Jacob. You better know where he is by the time I land. If not it’s your head” I hung up.

I pulled on some back thigh high boots. And shoved a knife in them, and pulled my handgun out of my bag and put it in my back, under my jacket.

I pulled open my door and stepped out of my office “Lydia” I called down the hallway, making quick steps towards her desk

“Yes ma’am” she was up in an instant

“Call my pilot, tell him I’ll be there in 30 minutes and to fuel up and be on standby we’re going to Italy, cancel my meeting with Andrew and tell him we will talk about it tomorrow, make a reservation for my parents at the Dal and let them know I will not be in attendance and that they can have whatever they please, and then grab your purse, and jacket, and meet me downstairs.” I said standing at the elevator

She looked at me trying to process “Do you understand me Lydia”

“Yes ma’am, yes” and she picked up the phone.

The elevator ride down was silent. David said nothing but let me out in the garage.

I clicked my key and my bmw started up.

I pulled out of the parking lot and Lydia was standing in front

She slid into the seat her hair frizzy from running her hands through it

She fumbled with her thumbs nervously

“Speak Lydia what is it” I said to her. As I pulled us on the freeway.

“Where are we going? Why did you bring me? What’s going on?” She said, scared

“We’re going to the airport, I’m bringing you because I need you, and someone took my son from me, I’m going to get him back” I answered her calmly

“I didn’t know you had a son” she looked towards me.

“No one knows I have a son..well no one knew I had a son, he needed to have a normal life” I merged into the carpool lane and sped up “anything else”

“Why are we going to Italy” her eyes cast down to her lap

“Because that’s where my home is” I said in a duh tone

“But why?” She pushed

“Because Lydia, I’m the boss of the Italian mafia.”

She gasped when we arrived to the airport. She hadn’t said anything since I mentioned I was the boss.

I needed her Incase someone called from work, and bringing a man around all my guys was a bad idea, considering the last time.

“Am I going to die” she whispered, I almost didn’t hear her

“No Lydia, you’re not going to die, you’re going to be fine” I patted her shoulder and pulled into the tarmac next to the plane. My door was opened immediately, my bag was taken out of the trunk by the stewardess. “Ms.Santarillo, where would you like these?” “In the back bedroom thank you Stacy”

She nodded and headed up into the plane

“Santarillo, I thought your last name was star.” Lydia questioned

“An alias” I shrugged my shoulders and ascended the stairs, I looked over my shoulder at the top “coming?”

She nodded quickly and followed me

Stacy came sauntering into the main area of the plane “champagne, ms.santarillo? For you and your friend” she looked skeptically at Lydia

“No Stacy, I’ll have a water, do you want something Lydia?” I looked over to her, asking for a response

“No thank you ma’am” she pulled a tight smile across her face. “That will be all Stacy, thank you” I waved my hand dismissively.

Stacy nodded and scurried away, the plane took off and soon we were in the air.

“You have something to say Lydia. What is it” I watched her from the corner of my eye, she was taking deep breaths and trying not to fidget.

“I just don’t understand, who are you” she looked me in the eyes

“Lydia, I will not repeat myself again after this so pay attention. When I was growing up my father was the boss of the Italian Mafia and a very successful businessman. I being his only child was set to inherit everything he had when he decided enough was enough. I was groomed, trained, and taught everything I needed to know to run the business and the mafia. On my 21st birthday it was announced that I was now the boss. A year later I had fallen pregnant with my son, Francis, I raised him for 5 years, before I’d introduced him to all of his “uncles” in Italy, where he’d be able to live a normal life, around our culture until I felt he was ready to take over the business. I’ll never tell him about this mafia nonsense. He doesn’t need to be apart of this life. But someone has taken him, and I’m going to get him back. You are here to keep me in touch with my work. You’ll stay in the house, under my protection, for the duration of our stay. If you have any more trivial questions, google it” I rose from my seat and lent over the table the separated us. She shrunk into her seat.

I tucked a hair behind her ear “Lydia, you’re going to be fine, I promise” I kissed her on both cheeks, “there’s a bedroom for you when you’re feeling tired” I stood up straight and smiled at her, then headed to my own bedroom to shower and try to figure out what hell im going to raise to get back my child.

The plane landed smoothly and I emerged from my room in a skin tight black dress that stopped at my calves, black red bottom heels, a black velvet overcoat with a satin red lining, and a black Hermès bag. Deep red lips, and my hair was pin straight stopping just above my shoulders.

“Stacy, wake Lydia and tell her I’ll be waiting in the car” I said as I walked past her

“Yes ma’am, right away, and welcome home” she smiled and made her way to the other bedroom

I descended the stairs and headed over to my black Escalade “Jarvis, lovely to see you” I kissed both my drivers cheeks. “You as well nova, welcome home” he opened my door and ushered me in.

I texted Jacob that I had landed and would soon be on my way there.

Lydia came down the stairs, looking a bit disoriented, her hair was slightly stuck to her face and her once crisp lilac dress was just a bit wrinkled. She squinted at the sun and made her way towards the car

Jarvis opened her door and she slid in

I set my phone down and looked over at her “ I trust you slept well”

She pulled her hand through her hair “Yes, thank you, that bed is heaven” she sighed and rolled her shoulders

Jarvis hopped into his seat “to the manor ma’am?”

“Yes Jarvis” I nodded and pulled up Jacobs contact

“Very good ma’am” he started up the car and left the airport

I put the phone to my ear, it only rang once

“I’m here”

“We found him, they’re still here in Italy” his confidence was illy placed.

“I should still have your head, for allowing him to be taken in the first place. Jacob it is your responsibility to essentially babysit. You’re supposed to know where he is, what he’s eating, who he talks to. That is the job I gave you. And if there is a scratch on my sons head when I get him, I will not hesitate to put one between your eyes. You better pray that he’s in perfect condition” my eyes were dark, blazing pools of green fire.

“I know, I’m sorry nova, I am, I’ll get him back, I swear” he was pleading.

“Have the twins ready, and briefed. Since you can’t handle looking after my son, you’ll be staying back with my assistant Lydia, I don’t have the patience for incompetence” I rolled my eyes. And looked over to Lydia. She was staring wide eyed at the back of the seat in front of her.

“Yes boss”

“Good” I hung up.

“Jarvis, let’s stop and get Lydia something to eat, she looks like she’s going to pass out” I smiled looking into his rear view mirror

“Yes ma’am, where to?”

“Bellàgricio, will be just fine” I nodded

“Yes ma’am”

We arrived shortly, Jarvis opened the door for Lydia and I, to the restaurant, I could feel Lydia’s awe from behind me. I owned this restaurant so the host sat is rather quickly, Jarvis stood by the door, surveying the people in attendance. “What would you like? Whatever you want” I looked over at her.

“This is a lot, I mean, I’m not dressed for this, and you look incredible and how can I be seen with you, you’re basically a celebrity and then there’s the ma-“ I interrupted her “don’t finish that sentence, pick something to eat, I’m not asking” I clipped my tone.

She gave a swift nod and I signaled the waitress

“Ma’am?”

“I’ll just have a glass of red wine....” I looked up to the waitress, at her name tag “Analisa”

“Which one ma’am” she asked

I licked my lips, and made eye contact “mmm, your favorite” she flushed. And smiled shyly

“A-and for yo-you miss?” She looked over to Lydia, but snuck another glance at me, I winked at her

Lydia ordered.

“I just have a question” she blurted out

“Sure” I settled my eyes on her

“Where is Francis’s father” she mumbled

“Pardon?” I leaned forward

She cleared her throat, squared her shoulders, and tried to look me in the eyes “his father, where is Francis’s father?”

“Mm, dead probably” I said with not much emotion.

Analisa came back and poured my wine. I took a sip, “delicious, thank you Analisa” she nodded and hurried away, her face red in the cheeks

“What do you mean dead” Lydia whispered

“I mean, someone probably put a bullet in his head” I whispered back, “why are you whispering” I laughed at her.

“There’s no need to whisper, he’s probably dead, and if he isn’t, what do I care” I shrugged.

Lydia’s plate was placed in front of her. She dug in and ate silently. I signaled Jarvis and he made his way over. “Get her another meal to go, we need to get home. Before we run out of daylight.”

“Very good ma’am”

“And make sure Analisa is given a nice tip. How much was the bill?”

“$375, ma’am”

“Tip her 1,000” I handed him the cash.

He nodded and walked over to the desk.

“I’m so sorry” Lydia said, now seemingly uninterested in her food.

“For?” I looked through my text messages and sent one to Laura, and Bethany, that I’d be at the house and to have the twins meet me.

“That bill was ridiculous” she gaped

“I must not pay you enough” I laughed. “Are you finished?”

“Umm yes” she nodded.

“Let’s go then.” I rose from my seat, and headed out but before I got to the door

“Your boyfriend is very lucky” came a slimy voice from the bar I was passing

I turned around and looked at Lydia, but he was looking at me.

“I don’t have a boyfriend” I said icily.

“Then I guess it’s my lucky day” he reached out for me. I took a step back, and went to turn around.

“C’mere bitch” he lunged for me.

Lydia screamed and stood stock still. I pulled his middle finger back, kicked in his knee and pulled out my gun and placed it to his temple.

“Give me a reason to blow your head off” I said calmly. His eyes were screwed shut, and the restaurant was silent. All that could be heard was the incoherent whispering from the mans mouth. It sounded like a prayer.

I leant down to his ear. “Prayers won’t save you now. Welcome to the lions den. Someone will come fetch you, your life is mine now.”

He nodded. I released him, “Jarvis have one of the guys come and collect this one, he can work in the kitchen” and put my gun back in my bag and breezed past Lydia. “Yes ma’am” Jarvis said and pulled out his phone. Lydia followed, in a daze.

We finally arrived at the house. Cars lined the driveway. Lydia gasped. “This is your house?”

“Welcome to Santarillo manor, Miss Lydia” Jarvis said.

We got out and walked up the stairs to the front door. I flipped up the tab on the handle and used my fingerprint. The door opened and we stepped inside.

Maids were running about cleaning and handling laundry. We walked through the foyer and into the sitting room. There were five men seated the twins Leo, and Landen, Jacob, Geovanni, and my father, Antonio.

I help my hand up for Lydia to stop.

“Daddy, why are you here?” I questioned, looking over at Jacob. He shrugged “someone took your son, my grandson, the only continuation of my bloodline. I’m here to help find him” he crossed his arms over his chest.

I rolled my eyes. I looked over my shoulder, Lydia was looking at the floor. I gestured to a maid. “Take her upstairs and show her to the room next to mine. The one with the adjoining door, get her something to wear from Jacobs sister Mia. Introduce them, and report back to me when you’re finished.”

“Yes senora” she nodded waiting to take Lydia away.

I look at Lydia “I’ll come find you when I’m finished, take any calls for me, and write them down, schedule all meetings for next week, and call Jackson, tell him you’re fine and to not expect you until tomorrow evening if all goes smoothly, we will be leaving tomorrow. Understand?”

“Yes ma’am” she nodded and was ushered away

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@youngmoneymilla @teenwolfechoes

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So that’s that...let me know what you think

Requests are open 😇

#mafia #mafia boss #woman mafia boss #italian mafia #italian #badass #assistant #kidnapped kid #son taken #plane #business #businesswoman #businessowner #owner #woman #bestfriends #underboss #part 1 #part 1 of many #my gif

[were-cheetah-stiles]

The Recruit (Chapter 26) - Mitch Rapp

Author: @were-cheetah-stiles

Title: “Day 104, Part I”

Characters: Mitch Rapp, Stan Hurley, Aiden Breen, Annika Sadik & Reader/OFC

Author’s Note: WATCH ME then read below. Also, huge thanks to @dylnsobrien for being very kind and allowing me to use the gif of Mitch taking the picture. Also thanks to @obriens for the last gif. That shit is just downright beautiful. Many, many thanks to both. 

Summary: The mission to intercept an arms deal with potentially globally catastrophic consequences begins, and Mitch has his first interaction with the man known as ‘Ghost’.

Chapter Twenty-Five - Chapter Twenty-Six - Chapter Twenty-Seven

"You're backup. You're gonna cover my ass, Rapp." Stan said as you, Stan, Aiden, and Mitch disembarked from the plane on the tarmac at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul.

"Yes, Sir."

"And nothing more. Don't fuck around with me, Rapp." Stan warned, glancing back at Mitch, who was walking next to you, behind him and Aiden.

"Yes, sir." Mitch said dryly.

Stan turned back around and kept walking, shaking his head at the fact that every time Mitch said 'Yes, sir.', it sounded more like he was mocking Stan than actually obeying him. Stan examined the woman that they were approaching and then paused a couple of feet away. "Annika?"

"Yes, Sir, Agent Hurley." The tall and stunning Turkish woman leaning against the open driver's side door of a silver SUV on the tarmac replied to Stan's question, while also opening the trunk for them to place their bags in.

"Annika is our friend from the MIT, the National Intelligence Organization here in Turkey. She's going to be your second while we're here, Mitch. Annika, this is Mitch Rapp, he's a.... he’s a handful honestly. Keep your eyes peeled." Stan said disapprovingly, and Mitch narrowed his eyes at him. Annika stuck her hand out to quickly shake Mitch's and Mitch met her half way.

Mitch glanced back at you, who also shook Annika's hand, but kept your eyes fixed on Stan. You looked bewildered and agitated. You all piled into the SUV and Annika peeled out of the airport, and towards the city center of Istanbul.

"Sir?"

"Yes, Y/n?"

"If I'm not yours and Mitch's backup, what is my mission here... Sir?"  You asked, the annoyance and confusion apparent in your voice.

"You're here to run surveillance with Aiden from this car or the safehouse. You’ll provide intelligence support and... backup if I, or Mitch, or Annika, or Aiden can't get the job done ourselves." Stan was keeping you on the sidelines and you were pissed, but in retrospect, not surprised.

"Yes, Sir." You said, barely hiding your indignation.

Mitch glanced over and saw you clenching your jaw and your fists. He felt awful that you were so angry, but a large part of him was also grateful that you were being kept out of harms way. You made eye contact with Mitch, pressed the tip of your tongue against your top lip and shook your head, exhaling loudly through your nostrils. You were irate.

You and Mitch stood in a rundown hotel room, which was serving as the team’s home base while in Istanbul, listening to Annika and Stan exchange intel about the target.

"We intercepted information that leads us to believe that they will be meeting to exchange the plutonium and the cash near Sultanahmet Square, near the Grand Bazaar, at 1200 hours today." Annika updated the group.

"Good. Mitch, you and Annika will go down there to surveil the swap and tail them. Nothing more." Stan addressed the two of them. "Aiden, Y/n, you two will be on the outskirts of Sultanahmet running surveillance from the car."

"Yes, Sir." Aiden accepted.

"What's the mission, Sir?" Mitch asked, noticing a missing key element in the assignments.

"Eliminate the target." Stan replied. "But that's my mission, Rapp. You just need to confirm that the targets are there." Stan turned his attention to you. "You need to start getting us ear pieces and phones and the other surveillance equipment."

You nodded and got Stan set up first, with all the equipment: earpiece, mouth piece, burner phone, etc., that he would need for the mission. You set Annika up next with the same equipment. You picked up the third earpiece, meant for Mitch, and pocketed it in your leather jacket. Mitch raised an eyebrow at you, wondering why you had just stolen his listening device.

"Agent Breen, we're out of earpieces." You addressed Aiden from across the room, and Mitch cocked his head to the side, even more confused as to what you were up to.

"There are extras in the black case in the car." Aiden replied.

"Come on, Rapp." You said nonchalantly, walking out of the room and down to the car. Mitch grinned and followed you happily.

"You're a tricky one." Mitch said, smirking as he followed you down a staircase to the ground floor. "Did you know that Aiden kept extras?"

You nodded as you held the stairwell door open for Mitch. "I've been with them all long enough that I know how he and Campbell and Stan all operate. I shouldn't have been so surprised that Stan was sidelining me." You complained.

Mitch followed you to the parked silver SUV on the street and contorted his face at you. "Yea, so much for us having each other's backs out here..."

"I've still got you. I'm not going to let anything happen to you, Mitch. I promise."

Mitch nodded and smiled. He glanced up at the windows of the hotel room that looked out on the street and wondered if Stan was watching. He stepped under the hood of the trunk with you and felt that the two of you were covered enough that he could have an intimate moment with you. He watched as you looked through Aiden's various equipment cases for the extra earpieces, and he felt his lips curl up.

"Hey.."

You glanced up from the black, metal case in front of you, and looked at a smiling Mitch. His smile made you smile, and you softly chuckled. "What?"

Mitch leaned down, cupping his hands against your cheeks, and pressed his lips firmly against yours. He felt you exhale through your nose against his skin and you snaked your hands underneath his black jacket, and against his soft black thermal. You melted into the kiss and he held you close. The two of you broke apart to catch your breath and you nuzzled your head against his chest, not even minding that the large silver zipper running up the front of Mitch's jacket was pressing against your cheek.

"You know, right?" Mitch asked quietly, causing you to look up into his big brown eyes, not entirely sure of what he was asking you. "You know how I feel about you, right?"

You lightly shrugged and then nodded, feeling a light blush rise to your cheeks. "I know.. I think I know..." You furrowed your brow slightly, small wrinkles forming under the bits of y/h/c locks that fell across your forehead.

"I, um, I haven't thought that there has been a right time to say..."

You looked down at the space between the two of you, you didn't even realize that Mitch wasn't holding you anymore because you were so caught up in the conversation of pure avoidance. "I know. There hasn't been a good time to." You glanced up and saw Mitch nodding and staring at the space between you as well. He planted a soft kiss on your lips, and then stared into your y/e/c eyes. "When this is all over, you can tell me then."

Mitch nodded and smiled. He was grateful that he found a woman that was willing to work with his slow timeline and was so understanding. He watched as you turned your attention back to the cases in front of you in the trunk, and he decided to tell you about a secret he had been keeping. "Y/n/n, wait..." He lightly tugged on your arm again, turning you back towards him. "If something goes wrong here-"

You cut him off, your heart immediately sinking into your stomach at the thought. "Mitch, don't even start." You put your hand up in his face, signaling to him that you didn't want to hear what he had to say.

"No, Y/n, listen, nothing is going to happen to me, but if something does go wrong, I need you to go home and check the bookshelf with the F. Scott Fitzgerald first editions. I left something there for you."

You furrowed your brow. "You left what?"

Mitch smiled and kissed you passionately once more, before breaking away and placing his arms to his sides. "I'll show it to you when we get home from here." You nodded and turned back to the cases, finally pulling an earpiece out for Mitch.

Mitch adjusted it into his ear and switched on the rest of his equipment. "Alright, I guess I'm ready." He said aloud, as you closed up the metal cases and the trunk.

"Is that really what you're gonna wear?"  

Mitch glanced back at you, who was walking behind him with a slight smirk, then glanced down at what he was wearing. "Yes? What's wrong with it? You like these jeans.."

You laughed at the frown lines forming on Mitch's forehead and shook your head. "No, I'm sorry. You look very sexy, baby, but Adidas? Really?"

Mitch playfully shoved you and shook his head, smiling again. "Oh, the Adidas thing again. In case I have to run... okay?" You nodded in a playfully serious way, as the two of you headed back up to the room.

"I think I see Sharif."

"Get visual confirmation, Rapp." Aiden said into the microphone in the backseat of the SUV, parked on the far side of Sultanahmet Square, the place where Mitch and Annika were currently trying to blend in with the tourists, but were really waiting for Hamdi Sharif, the notorious arms dealer to show up.

Mitch stood with his back to the massive and ornate fountain in the center of the outdoor plaza and lifted his phone up at an angle, pretending to take a picture of himself like the other tourists, but really snapping proof to send to you and Aiden. "Did you get it?" Mitch mumbled into his mouthpiece.

The picture loaded on your computer and you hit the talk button on the microphone that Aiden was using to communicate with the two agents. "We got it, Rapp. Facial rec is running... It's him."

"Follow him cautiously, Rapp. We don't want him spotting the two of you and spooking before he meets with the seller. This enemy dresses like a deer and kills like a lion, and that's what we've gotta do, but we’ve gotta do it better." Stan said, from an undisclosed location. He had split off from the group to follow a separate lead, but was still in communication and was still calling the shots for the surveillance mission.

"Copy that, sir. We'll be careful." Mitch said calmly.

"Try to stay in places where the cameras can follow you both so we don't lose you guys." You reminded Annika and Mitch through their earpieces. Mitch glanced up at a police camera on a street pole and nodded once.

"They're moving." Annika said, flanking Mitch and following Sharif and his bodyguard.

"Towards the cafe.." Mitch reported quickly.

"Shit, do they have cameras in there, Y/n?" Aiden asked, as he typed on his computer, trying to find any backdoors he could hack into for the cafe's internet provider.

"Nope, and we just lost visual." You slammed your hand on the keyboard of your laptop and leaned back in the backseat of the car, suddenly filled with fear that Mitch was pretty much on his own.

"Can you still hear us, Agent Breen?" Annika asked in her silky Turkish accent.

"I've still got audio on you, Agent Sadik." Aiden confirmed.

"Rapp, we still got you?" You asked quickly.

"You've still got me, Y/n." Mitch chose his words carefully for you.

"Do you still have eyes on the target?" Stan asked.

"Yes, Sir, and I believe a beardless Ghost may have just arrived too. Annika and I are sitting at a table observing." Mitch updated the crew.

"Keep your distance, Rapp. Observe only. I'm on my way to eliminate the targets."

Mitch watched as a young white man with short brown hair and a five-o-clock shadow, not too much older than him, dressed in nondescript black clothing, sidled up next to Sharif at the counter of the cafe. He and Annika sipped on their Turkish coffees and pretended to make small talk, while Mitch kept his eyes sharply focused on the subtle conversation taking place between the two men at the counter. Mitch watched Sharif slide something along the smooth wood towards the man he assumed was Ghost. Ghost picked it up and then tensed.

Mitch leaned forward and focused more, then snapped his head around when he heard Annika whisper. "I feel like someone is watching me right now."

Ghost leaned over slightly to say something to Sharif, who then searched the room for his bodyguard. "Something's wrong." Mitch said, as he slowly began to rise from the table, leaving his black bomber jacket resting on the back of the chair.

"What's going on? Report back." Aiden said frantically into the microphone.

Ghost turned and made eye contact with Mitch, seemingly the only other white male in the cafe, and Mitch's instincts went into overdrive. He reached for his Glock 17M, tucked neatly in the back of the waist of his dark blue jeans, hidden under his long black thermal, with the sleeves pushed up towards his elbows. He ducked out of the way as he saw the man, that he was now certain was Ghost, draw his gun and hold it with both hands in a very practiced, yet natural way.

Ghost fired off the first shot, just barely missing Mitch as he ran, crouched towards the floor, parallel to Ghost. His first shot hit an older local woman in the shoulder, dropping her out of her chair and onto the ground. People began to scream and scatter and Ghost fired off a few more rounds. Mitch crouched down to get out of the way of Ghost's barrage of bullets, and glanced out the open doors towards the street.

"I've got eyes on Sharif." You reported. "He's getting into a car."

"Where's Ghost, Rapp?" Stan shouted through the earpieces.

Mitch quickly surveyed the room and saw neither Ghost nor Annika. He went back to their table and saw her lying on the ground, with a bullet hole between her eyes and a pool of blood collecting around her head. "Target's gone." Mitch reported, his voice more unsteady than you wanted to hear. "And Agent Sadik is dead." Your stomach jumped into your throat, and you suddenly felt sick.

"They're getting away, Mitch." You spoke into the microphone, as you watched the black car, carrying Hamdi Sharif, pull out of the square through the cameras you had hacked into on your computer.

"What kind of car?" Mitch asked, running out of the cafe and back into your sights on your screen.

"Black Alfa Romeo, model is a Giulia Ti 2017, four door, silver rims, license number 9 Quebec Alfa Golf 1 6 Kilo." You spoke clearly into the mic. "Your eleven-o-clock, Rapp." You watched his head turn sharply to the left, in front of him, and he began walking fast towards the black Italian luxury car.

"Do you have eyes on Ghost?" Stan asked.

"No, Sir."

"Then mission terminated."

Mitch hesitated for a moment, watching the car that one of the target's was in drive away. You knew he was about to do something impulsive; you had seen that look before. Mitch caught the valet from a restaurant across the Square pull up in a slate gray 2016 4C Coupe by Alfa Romeo, and he hopped in as the valet stepped out. He shifted the car into a higher gear and took off after Sharif.

Twenty-Five <- -> Twenty-Seven

Starts out slow but boy, is shit really about to hit the fan. You all don’t even know. Let me know what you thought and if you’d like to be tagged. :) thank you!

@chivesoup @confidentrose @alexhmak @dontstopxx @iloveteenwolf24 @surpeme-bean @snek-shit @kalista-rankins @parislight @cleverassbutt @damndaphneoh @mgpizza2001 @ninja-stiles @sarcasticallystilinski @teenage-dirtbagbaby @mrs-mitch-rapp93 @alizaobrien @twsmuts @rrrennerrr @sorrynotsorrylovesome @lovelydob @iknowisoundcrazy @5secsxofamnesia @vogue-sweetie @dylrider @ivette29 @therealmrshale @twentyone-souls @sunshineystilinski @snicketyssnake @xsnak-3x @eccentricxem @inkedaztec @awkwarddly @lightbreaksthrough @maddie110201 @hattyohatt @rhyxn @amethystmerm4id @completebandgeek @red-wine-mendes @katieevans371 @girlwiththerubyslippers @susybird @theneverendingracetrack @sumcp @snipsnsnailsnwerewolftales @runs-with-sciss0rs @ssweet-empowerment @ellie-bee242 @hirafth @dailyburritos @mieczzyslaw @im-very-odd33 @anonimereader06 @itsamberh @sp00der-m00n @lolaversuslipstick @imagunative @stilinski-lover-24 @xmadwonderland @shannonwardski @nocturnalzeal

#dylan o'brien #mitch rapp #mitch rapp x reader #american assassin #the recruit aa #dylan o'brien imagine #dylan o'brien one shot #dylan obrien #dylan o brien #dob #dobedit #mitch rapp fan fic #mitch rapp smut #mitch rapp fluff #mitch rapp x ofc #stan hurley #aiden breen #american assassin au #american assassin fan fic #amas movie #amas #amasedit #the recruit #the maze runner #the internship #the first time #teen wolf #stiles stilinski #caleb holloway #stuart twombly

[coffeekeyboardsss]

(Rey x reader) Lost in the snow

Requested by: @labyrinth-of-thoughts 

A/N: IM SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG I REALLY HOPE YOU LIKE IT ALSO I KINDA DIDN’T EDIT MY APOLOGIES 

Words: 2,537

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

You leaned against one of the walls outside of the Fighter Planes, watching the training session before you. Rey and Finn had been practicing with dummy lightsabers for the past hour now, which meant you had nowhere better to be at this very moment. You watched Rey as she moved with precision, grace, and fierceness. Three things you’d always found attractive in her case. Your relationship with her however had been reduced to light flirting, and over-the-shoulder winks. Although you didn’t really mind. Besides she was always nice to look at. You’d already packed your medical supplies that you’d need on this mission and was now just waiting until it was time to take off.

Rey continued to fight Finn, eventually sweeping his legs as he hit the ground with a thump and you raised your eyebrow a little watching her.

“Whatcha lookin at?” you heard a voice behind you and you turned around in shock to see Poe standing behind you, raising his eyebrow and smirking. You rolled your eyes and sighed, knowing it was pointless to argue against him.

“Why?” you asked, crossing your arms and facing him with a playful grin plastered on your face.

“Because this relationship of yours is getting ridiculous. Would the two of you just make out and get it over with already?” he said, rolling his eyes. You scoffed, playfully slapping him on the arm which made him laugh.

“I wasn’t kidding!” he responded, brushing a strand of hair out of his face. You shook your head, slightly amused.

“Don’t push your luck, Dameron” you said, making him laugh again.

You suddenly whipped your head around when you felt a soft hand touch your shoulder and run discreetly down your arm.

“Hey there, Y/N” she said softly, walking away from you and smirking over her shoulder. You stood there smiling for a minute and then looked up at Poe, who had a massive smirk on his face.

You stared at him for a few seconds, unable to stop smirking from Rey’s latest flirting technique before you smiled at him, slightly annoyed.

“Shut up” you said, slapping him lightly on the arm again before walking around the plane, getting ready to go. Rey was getting into another ship at that moment, attacking on a different front. She noticed you getting into the ship and winked at you before disappearing into the large metal plane. Out of sight, but not out of mind.

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

“Y/N! Over here!”

Nobody had expected this to happen. All of these Storm Troopers. They’d come practically out of nowhere. You thought you’d have the upper hand. You’d all thought…

You ran over behind a tree to where Poe had called you and grabbed what you’d need out of your bag. Another man was down. Got hit with a blaster in the neck. There was more blood than you’d thought there would be. You placed your bandage on his neck, mainly to try and stop the bleeding, but it was too late. You couldn’t feel a pulse. You stifled a sob as you looked up at Poe, a broken expression on his face.

“Poe...we have to get everyone out. We’re no match!” you yelled. Poe shook his head in denial.

“We’ve been planning this for too long! If we give up now, these people...their deaths will be in vain”

“A lot more deaths will happen and a lot more will be in vain if we don’t leave now. Who knows whether the other divisions will succeed or not, but we need to get out. We stand no chance!” you yelled, trying not to focus on the crimson blood that covered your white uniform. Poe hesitated, staring out at the battle before him.

“Y-You’re right. We have to go” he said solemnly. You grabbed his hand and ran back towards the jet, struggling to run through the loose snow under your feet and stumbling every few seconds. You had to get Poe and everyone else back. You had to get back. To see Rey.

You sprinted through the snow as fast as you could, the jet now in sight. Before you could reach the jet however, you felt a burning pain in your side as you immediately fell down into the snow. You breathed heavily as you lay on the ground, looking around for help. Your hand reached down to where your wound was, trying to keep pressure on it and using your clothes to absorb the blood.

“P-Poe!?”you croaked, trying to call out to him but your voice became strained and quiet.Your head started to ache and your eyes started to become heavy, straining your vision as you looked around for help.

“A-Anyone...please” you strained out, trying to yell but your voice came out more like a whisper. Finally darkness consumed your vision as you were left alone, passed out in the snow in a forgotten battlefield.

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

Rey jumped off the ship, walking down the tarmac to the other ships, looking for any familiar faces. Her and Finn had gotten out okay, only with a few minor scrapes and bruises. Everyone mostly got out okay, with only their pride a little damaged. Rey’s hair had come undone a little bit, and strands were hanging around her face in shambles. She also had some blood on her forehead and a split lip. She walked around the scene before her, glancing at all the ships trying to find either you or Poe, panic clearly visible in her eyes.

Her eyes finally rested upon Poe, as he emerged from one of the ships. Rey relaxed a little, knowing he was okay but immediately panicked when she saw his broken expression. There was something very wrong…

Rey sprinted as fast as she could towards the ship, and Poe spotted her after a few moments of being lost in his own thoughts. Guilt flooded his heart as he spotted Rey running towards him. What was he going to say. He’d failed Rey. He’d failed you…

“Where is she!?” Rey yelled as she came closer towards him, stopping at the foot of the ship as Poe descended the ladder, planting his feet unsteadily on the tarmac.

“S-She’s okay, right?” Rey asked, panicking even more at the sight of tears in Poe’s eyes.

“We lost her. S-She could be alive...we don’t know” Poe responded after a long pause, his voice shaky and grief-stricken. Rey’s eyes widened as she digested what he’s just said, trying to comprehend what he was saying. You had to be okay. You said you’d see her again.

“W-What do you mean she ‘might’ be alive. What are you saying? H-How could you lose her!?” Rey couldn’t think straight as she started spewing all these questions at him, desperate for answers to soothe her worrying mind. Poe sighed, trying to gather his thoughts in an attempt to calm Rey as best he could.

“We were retreating back to the ship. The last I saw her, she was running right behind us at a constant pace. Then...a stormtrooper got the jump on me. I don’t know how long it took for me to get rid of him before I turned around and I couldn’t see her. I assumed she was on the ship but-”

“You ‘assumed’?” Rey snapped, interrupting him and making Poe hesitate in guilt.

“I’m sorry…we had to get all these people out in time and I didn’t think...I didn’t. I’m sorry Rey”

Rey paused, looking down as her eyes darted back and forth, trying to speak but no words came out as she began to think faster than she could talk. She conveyed her options. You could still be out there. You could be hurt. She needed to find you.

“W-We have to look for her...and any other resistance members that could still be stuck out there that we haven’t accounted for.

Poe nodded firmly and pointed over to another small ship that was the only one being set up.

“Several members have volunteered to search in the snow. We haven’t however chosen to search the First Order base”

Rey whipped her head around in shock, anger covering her face.

“Why the hell not!” she responded. Poe was immediately taken back as he tried to think of an answer that wouldn’t lead him to getting punched in the nose. ‘To be fair, it’s probably what I deserve anyway’ He thought to himself.

“It’s too dangerous, you know that. We were over run before, who knows how many stormtroopers are ready for us now! I’m sorry Rey, I can’t risk any more lives and you know Y/N wouldn’t want us to either. She was the one who reminded me that the war couldn’t be won at that moment and we needed to leave. She saved us, don’t let that be in vain”

Rey was about to argue but stopped and thought about what he had just said. He was right. She could almost hear your voice in his. It was almost uncanny.

“Right. If need be I can go in. I can use the force if need be...I just can’t stop without knowing that we’ve gone through all our options” she responded. Poe couldn’t argue with that, but he knew you wouldn’t want her to go in.

“Alright...I’ll do all that I can, but I want you to stay here”

“What! Why?”

“Because if we’re getting Y/n...I want to promise her that you’ll be here waiting for her. I don’t want to leave anyone else’s life to uncertainty.

Rey was about to argue before pausing. This wasn’t about her at this point. She nodded and leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his neck slowly and Poe reciprocated, wrapping his arms softly around her neck as well.

“Bring her home”

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

Rey sat solemnly at the foot of the stairs to one of the ship's, looking at the sky and waiting impatiently. She had fixed all of the ships that needed repairs to take her mind off things and now had nothing to do. She considered purposely breaking one of the ships in order to have something to continue to take her mind off the current situation, but couldn’t move. She was planted where she sat, staring at the sky before her. Just like she used to do back on Jakku. She thought those days were over...

“Rey..” Rey turned around and looked to see a familiar face before her.

“General…” Rey nodded respectfully as she glanced back up at the sky. Leia sighed and sat down next to Rey. Leia and Rey sat there in silence for a few moments, Rey never glancing away from the empty sky above.

“How long have you been waiting here?” Leia asked, looking sympathetically at her. Rey shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

“I’m not sure. A while” she responded. Leia nodded thoughtfully and placed her hand comfortingly on Rey’s shoulder.

“Poe’s gonna get her back. I know he is, Rey” Rey looked up at her and smiled sadly, nodding as she tried to remain hopeful. Remaining hopeful was something that she was good at nowadays. She had to be. Rebellions were built on hope after all…

“Thank you, General” Rey said, as Leia wrapped her arms around Rey’s neck, comfortingly rubbing at her neck. They both pulled away after a moment and Leia’s eyes widened as she looked up at the sky, noticing something moving towards them.

“Rey…” Leia spoke breathlessly as she looked at Rey and then back up at the sky, where a ship could clearly be seen descending towards them. Rey’s eyes widened as she moved quickly, running as fast as possible so she could be right by the ship when it landed.

After a few minutes the ship finally landed on the tarmac, the jets turning off as the engine fell asleep and the back door was opened, revealing everyone inside. Rey stood dead still in place, waiting for you to emerge. Waiting to see you. Waiting to finally tell you how she felt. She wasn’t going to wait anymore. Or ever again for that matter.

Finally, several figures emerged from the spacecraft, carrying something in their arms. Rey simultaneously was relieved and worried at the same time, when she saw that your beautiful unconscious body, lying on a stretcher. Cuts and bruises lined your face as several people including Poe, carried you out towards the medical centre.

Rey’s breathe hitched in her throat as she ran towards everyone, unable to bare staying away from you another second longer. Rey reached the medical bay and stood by your side, finally getting a closer look at you after what seemed like forever without you. Whilst nurses prodded around at your body, cleaning up blood and doing several things that Rey couldn’t understand for the life of her, she held your hand the whole time, waiting for you to wake so she could tell you everything.

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

Rey walked out into the grassy field outside the medical centre, glancing around for you. It had been precisely one day since Poe’s team had  brought you in and you’d been unconscious for that time. Poe had convinced Rey to do some check ups on some of the ships whilst she waited for you to wake up, and Poe didn’t think he’d seen anyone move fast when he told her that you were awake. Rey dropped the tool that she was working with and ran out of the ship, sprinting across the tarmac to the medical centre where you were.

Rey finally reached the centre, seeing you still laying on the bed. You were still a tad scraped up, except now most of your cuts had been stitched up. Now, instead of your beautiful glassy E/C eyes being covered by your eyelids, they were now open and staring right at her.

“Y/N…” Rey spoke breathlessly. You smiled weakly at her as Rey moved towards your bedside, kissing you on the forehead and running her hands through your hair.

“Y/N, I’m so sorry. I should have been there. I should have…” Rey’s eyes started to fill with tears as you shushed her soothingly.

“It’s okay. I’m alright now” you said, remaining a tight grip on her hand. Rey reciprocated, holding onto your hand tightly and admiring your beautiful S/C skin, kissing your hand gently.

“I know. You’re okay...You’re okay” Rey said, tears starting to fill her eyes.

A moment of silence passed between the two of you, simply holding each other's hands and looking into each other's eyes.

“Y/N...I...I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I…” Rey started to speak before you cut her off, pressing your lips against hers. Your split lip stung a little as you made contact with hers, but you didn’t care. All you thought about was kissing her. Not just at that moment, but when you were stranded in the snow and in a great deal of pain. All you thought about was getting back to Rey. You pulled away slowly, a grin on your face and a bonfire in your heart.

“I love you too..”

#rey #rey x reader #wlw #wlw imagine #star wars #star wars one shot #rey one shot #the force awakens #the last jedi

[icecubelotr44]

Surrender (Whumptober/Inktober Day 27)

As always, for the inktober whump prompts HERE.  Thanks @whumpreads! @killian-whump, @ladyciaramiggles, @cocohook38, @nothingimpossibleonlyimprobable, @xhookswenchx, @gusenitsaa, @pirate-owl All prompts: HERE Previous Days: Knees | Bag | Cell | Noose | Explosion | Bone | Guilt | Scar | Self-inflicted | Gunpoint | Sacrifice | Starvation | Sleep-deprivation | Brainwashing | Drugged | Sensory | Withdrawal | Flashback | Panic | Threats | Thrown | Fever | Grief | Drowning | Gagged | Outnumbered

Direct continuation of: Outnumbered

same universe as: Bag Over Head, Guilt, Held at Gunpoint, Drugged, Grief, Panic Attack, and The Darling Affair

Three days.

Killian Jones had holed up in a cave in the hills with little more than the supplies he’d stolen from a nomadic group of travelers and the water he’d painstakingly measured out and boiled for three days.

To be fair, he’d slept for most of the second, trying to regain some of the strength he’d need to craft an exfil plan with no resources.

But three days in a cave in the hills in a desert climate with nothing more than tattered clothes and bandages to protect him from the changing temperatures had left him miserable and feverish.

He only had one thing on his mind when he finally emerged.

Get home to Liam.

It was likely going to take a wing and a prayer.

And a new set of clothes, some money, and an identity that wouldn’t garner too many questions.

Thankfully, Killian Jones was nothing if not resourceful and could put the Boy Scouts to shame with his own level of preparedness for any situation.  

The scratch of fabric over badly-healed wounds assaulted Killian’s senses as he pulled on a clean shirt and he fought the urge to tear it off.  He was stronger than this, he had survived far worse.

Just because he couldn’t think of a time when that was true didn’t make it any less so.

Jeans next, and he nearly whimpered at the pull of the marks on his back, at the crunch of his ribs as the broken ends rubbed together while he pulled them up.

He slept an entire afternoon away in a cheap motel room after getting dressed, needing the escape as much as, if not more than, he needed to keep moving towards Liam.  Towards home.

Killian couldn’t make it home if he collapsed from exhaustion or depleted defenses first.

It was surprising what a shower with questionable water pressure and some carefully rolled down sleeves could do to make a person look trustworthy, he’d realized some time long ago.  With his ballcap pulled low to mask the score above his temple from the bullet wound that Liam still thought had claimed his life, Killian had managed to weasel his way into a local poker game and walk out with just enough to keep him afloat and not enough to convince any of the men he’d fleeced to come after him.

His ribs really didn’t need another workover any time soon.

He wasn’t healing as quickly as he should, it was in the back of his mind at all times.  He needed to get back to the States where he could safely stand down.

God, he just wanted to rest.

One last step in his plan - an identity.

Killian Jones had plenty of false identities.  Aliases that had been carefully crafted and backstopped by the analysts at JR Solutions.  He had access to any number of passports that he’d stashed before starting this godforsaken mission.

He couldn’t risk using a single one of them.

If he did, an alert would pop up back home and signal to whoever was looking - Liam, for sure, but also whomever had betrayed them to the terrorists - that he was coming.

Killian really couldn’t chance the wrong person seeing that alert.

William Smee, on the other hand, had no ties to Liam’s company and no reason to betray him.

Not with all the favors he owed Jones for not outing him, killing him, or otherwise abandoning him to the less than savory men Smee associated with on a daily basis.

An identity that would get him on a flight to the States didn’t even begin to pay Killian back for everything he’d done for the man, but he’d cash in whatever chits Smee required to get home.

To get to Liam.

James Hook.

Really?

Killian shook his head, regretting it as the world spun around him again.  His head was pounding now, the multiple concussions and the lack of nutrition over the past… how long had it been? were all starting to catch up with him.

“I can get you on a flight,” Smee cajoled as Killian opened the door.  “But you’ll owe me a favor for it.”

He thought he might regret it, but it sounded so good to just let someone else figure out the next step that he nodded before he could think too hard about it.

Smee grinned.  “Give me a couple hours to make sure she’s set and we’ll get you home, Cap.”

Killian agreed, sinking down onto a ratty old couch that had seen better days.

It smelled like cheese.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, sunk into a half-stupor that allowed him to rest while still keeping watch, hyperaware of his surroundings at all times.  But it was still light out when Smee returned, a wide grin on his face and a piece of paper clutched in his grimy paws.

“Go to this hangar and ask for Jack.  He’ll get you to New York.  I assume that will get you close enough?”

New York.  He could get to Boston from there with the money he’d won in the game.  Boston meant the T, the T got him to JR Solutions.  JR Solutions meant Liam.

Liam meant home.

“Aye, mate.  I owe you one.”

The portly little man smirked.  “Happy to help, sir,” he snarked before shooing Killian out the door.

There was no one in the goddamned hangar.

Killian was going to go back to that ratty little room and tear Smee apart piece by-

“Can I help you?” a mousey little woman peeked out from the fuselage of a half-finished plane.

Killian started.  He’d had no idea anyone was there.  He was slipping.

“I was… I was told to find Jack,” he stuttered, still trying to understand how far his senses had started to slip.

The woman beamed.  “Monterey?  Oh he’s out with the boys at the Festival.  I can help you out with whatever you need.”

What?

His vision was starting to swim, his ribs starting to scream.  He just wanted a bed.  Or a chair.  Or even just a corner where no one was going to find him and hurt him.

“Smee sent me?” he tried instead.

“Gee willikers!  You’re Mr. Hook!  Of course.  Dale said you were coming.  We’re almost fueled up over there”---she pointed to a rickety looking plane that Killian would swear had never logged a single air mile---“and I’ll get you to New York lickety split.”

Oh God.

He was going to kill Smee slowly.

If he survived the flight home.

Home.  Liam.  Home.

Could he trust her?

Killian Jones counted on two fingers the number of people in this world he counted on to watch his back.  His brother and himself.  Could he let this woman take his safety into her hands and trust her to get him home?

Killian climbed aboard the plane and collapsed into the seat afforded to him.  A spring stuck into his back and the cushions chafed against where his shirt had ridden up, aggravating the burns on his lower back.

The blackness claimed him within minutes of them getting in the air.

>>> 

“Mr. Hook?  Mr. Hook, we’re here.  Do you need an ambulance or something?”

Killian startled awake, shocked to see the young woman’s face so close to his own without him noticing.

“No, lass, I’m fine.  Are we… did we crash?”

She laughed, a light little giggle that made it seem as if what he’d asked wasn’t alarming at all.

“Gee willikers, no!  We’re here.”

Killian looked out the window of the plane, surprised to see a large airport outside instead of trees or the ocean.

“Oh,” he remarked stupidly.

She giggled again.  “I know Mr. Smee said that you needed to get to Boston, so I brought you here instead.  Seems like you needed to be here more than I needed to get to New York.”

Boston.

Liam.

Liam!

“Thank you,” he breathed out, relieved to be so close to aid.  He was chagrined to feel the sting of tears in his eyes, but blinked them back quickly.  “I never even asked you your name, lass.”

“Oh, that’s all right.  I told you when we got in the air, but you were already sleeping.  It’s Gadget.”

Right.

“Thank you,” he breathed again, disembarking and nearly collapsing on the tarmac.

Boston.

Killian eventually stumbled down into the subway, curled up in a corner of the train, and tried to breathe away the stars in his vision.

He was going home.

>>> 

Liam Jones had been many things in his lifetime.  He was an orphan.  He had been an older brother.  He had been a Captain in Her Majesty’s Royal Navy.  He was the commanding officer at JR Solutions.

He was completely, and utterly, alone in this world.

The men and women under his command now walked around eggshells around him, had done so ever since that goddamned video had come into Ops, obliterating his world around him and hardening him into the shell of a man he’d once been.

Some days he didn’t know why he even bothered coming into work anymore.

Alone in his office, the day’s itinerary was posted on his blotter as if he truly cared about the requisitions meeting or the budget committee that would keep his firm in the black for the next quarter.  He heard the bustle of the bullpen, the comings and goings of everyone under his command, and he felt completely removed from it.

He didn’t care.

He had a job to do, Killian would have torn a strip off him if he thought for a second that Liam was neglecting the other missions so that he could perfect the details of his funeral.  But it didn’t matter.  Details were all Liam could focus on without falling apart, so this last way to honor Killian would have to serve.

Liam kept a tight rein of control on the emotions that threatened to bubble to the surface again, images dancing in his memories of Killian at his first day of primary school, Killian on the rugby pitch, Killian sitting on the side of their bathtub with a black eye and a fierce glare as Liam reminded him - again - that fighting wouldn’t solve anything.

Killian as a gangly teenager, balancing on the balls of his feet and learning to box under Liam’s careful tutelage.  Killian in his Navy uniform, bright faced and proud to be following older brother’s lead.

Killian after Somalia.

Killian as he healed in Boston.

Killian on his knees in that hellhole in God-knew-where, bloody and-

No!

Liam clamped down on the memories, unwilling to fall back into the last moments of Killian’s life here at work.  He didn’t need the video to relive his little brother’s last moments, but he’d go home tonight and play it again, anyw-

The office outside his door was silent save for hushed whispers.  What was going on?  He had just stood up to go and see, thankful for the distraction, when his door creaked open painstakingly slowly.

Who the bloody hell dared to enter his office without knoc-

Liam’s breath caught in his chest.  He was hallucinating.  It was the only explanation.  He’d been daydreaming about the past, allowed his memories to wander down that path, and had snapped.

There was no way that his lit-

“Liam?”  Killian asked in a hesitant whisper, as if he, too, weren’t sure how real this was.

Killian.

Killian.  There.  Just there.  Alive and standing in his doorway.  Alive.

Alive!

Liam couldn’t move.  Rooted to the spot at the side of his desk, one hand clenching against the wooden top - to keep him from flying off the handle or grounded in reality, he wasn’t sure - Liam couldn’t move.

His little brother was standing in - leaning against, rather - the doorway and he was, quite literally, a bloody mess.  Liam’s eyes tracked immediately up to the badly healed gash at his hairline, the sound of the gunshot that had caused it echoing in his ears.  There were bags and dark bruises under Killian’s eyes, a hitch in his stance that Liam was well accustomed to equating with his brother hiding injuries.  His clothes were ill-fitting and rumpled, days of wear out of them.  One arm wrapped tightly around his ribs, the other still holding onto the door handle as if it were a lifeline.

None of it mattered one bloody bit, not when Killian was standing mere feet away from him.

“Liam?” his brother asked again, biting back a grunt when he finally, finally, took a few steps forward, hand outstretched as if he could summon his older brother to his side.

Liam Jones had been many things in his life, but he’d never been able to ignore his baby brother’s pleas.  He stepped forward, begging silently for this to be real, for this to be true, not some cruel trick or dream - nightmare - where his brother was going to be ripped from him as soon as he tried to touch-

Killian sank to his knees, a little cry of pain the only warning.

No.

No!

Liam raced the last few steps around the desk, skidding to his knees and catching his little brother in his arms before he could fall prostrate to the floor.

No!

But it was real.  Liam didn’t wake up, he didn’t startle himself out of the hallucination, he didn’t lose his brother to the mists of daydreams.  Killian was real and solid in his arms, his head lolling to Liam’s shoulder with a cheeky little grin of relief before his eyes rolled back into his head and he surrendered his strength.

God, Liam had never been so afraid in his- yes, he had.  All those weeks ago when he’d seen the video and realized what was going to happen as soon as Killian had over the airwaves.  But this was a damn close second.

His little brother had always been small, lanky and nearly scrawny, but he felt tiny in Liam’s arms.  Most of his muscle tone was gone, weeks of starvation and torture tearing it away from him.  He was radiating heat, every inch of skin that Liam could reach was burning with fever.

He was terrifyingly and startlingly limp, passed out in Liam’s embrace.

“Help!” he screamed, uncaring if his subordinates heard the emotion in his voice, needing them to hear the emotion in his voice.  “HELP!”

He pulled Killian further into his arms, backing them both up until he leaned back against his desk and sat there, helpless.  He had Killian.  He could fix this, now.

“Killian,” he nearly wailed when his brother didn’t respond.

Will Scarlet stuck his head around the door.  “We already called a medic when we saw him, boss.  Should be here any minute.”

Liam barely managed a nod, cuddling his little brother closer to keep him off the cold floor.

And then hands were tearing his from his brother, pulling him away from Killian, trying to get him to stand and leave Killian’s side.

He couldn’t.  Goddamn it, didn’t they see that?  He was Killian’s older brother and he needed to…

No.  He wasn’t what his brother needed right now.  That was for later, when Whale put Killian back together and sent him home for Liam to heal him.

But, right now, Liam didn’t have antibiotics and pain meds.  He didn’t have warm blankets and antiseptic.  He didn’t have the keys to the bloody ambulance so he could drive Killian to the hospital himself.

He had to leave his brother to the capable hands of the medics trying to save his life.

God, I’m bloody well going to kill him this time, he thought in exasperation, moving his brother to the floor and kneeling as far out of the way as he could while still holding Killian’s hand.

His brother would be all right now.

And then Liam was going to shackle him to the goddamned bed and then a goddamned desk until they were both old enough to retire.

(Well, maybe not.  But still.)

#brothers jones #liam jones #whumptober #inktober #ouat ff #my fic #one shot #whumptober ff

[letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked]

Live (Part 1/2)

Peter Parker x Stark!Reader 

Father!Tony x Daughter!Reader

A/N: I have the flu and I am bored. So, here you go! I could not think of a title, so just ignore the title. Has lines from CA:CW. I googled them, so if they are not quite right… oh well! LOL This is not my best writing, but what do you expect with me having the flu?

Summary: During the fight at the airport, Y/N Stark was told to keep out of the way. She tries, but between being on Team Cap, going against her father, and trying not to fight her boyfriend, can she come out unscathed?

Warnings: Violence, etc etc.

Masterlist

 I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t have agreed to this. Any of this. I was about to go fight against my family. I was about to go fight against my father, Tony Stark. The one who has supported everything I have ever done… except this. One of the last times we had spoken, he had tried to use the fact that I was a minor against me and force me to sign the Accords. I refused, and ran away with Steve.

As if to punish me, then he asks my boyfriend of a year, Peter Parker, to join his little team to arrest us. Of course, my father wasn’t going to tell me, until Peter called me and told me that he was worried about fighting against me, and that he refused to harm me. I was furious, not that Peter said yes to fight with my father, but because my father – whom I only told about Peter being Spiderman because he caught him in his suit in my apartment – chose Peter out of all the vigilantes. There were so many other choices just within New York, but he had to ask my boyfriend.

“I cannot believe he asked you to fight, and didn’t think to tell me!” I yelled into the phone, drawing attention from Sam and Steve. I quieted down a little, “When I told him I missed you, I didn’t think that this would be his solution.”

“You’re not mad at me for saying yes, are you?” He asked, shyly, “Because I love you and if you don’t want me to fight, I will say no.”

I sighed, “Of course not, babe. I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“Let’s not fight each other, then, okay?”

I had called my dad from a burner shortly after and gave him a piece of my goddamn mind. Needless to say, I was pretty pissed.

When we got to the airport to pick up the recruits – Wanda, Scott, and Clint – I hung back with Bucky. He looked so guilty, and I knew that Sam being a dick did not help any. I leaned against the car, running my fingers over a smooth, round, polished stone that Peter had got me from a cute little shop in Queens, “This fight isn’t your fault, you know.”

Bucky looked over at me, turning and mimicking my stance against the small car, “I know. Doesn’t make me feel any better.”

I shoved the stone in the pocket of my black uniform, “They were going to fight over the Accords no matter what. The only reason that things turned out this way, with you, is from that creepy man who framed you.” I looked over to him and quoted Will Bowen, “’Hurt people hurt people. People hurt others as a result of their own inner strife and pain.’”

He smiled, “How old are you again?”

Smirking, I held out my hand, “Y/N Stark. I’m seventeen years old, and I can move rocks, and stuff.”

He shook my hand, raising an eyebrow, “’Move rocks, and stuff’?”

Taking the stone back out of my pocket, I made it levitate over my hand, “I don’t really know the extent of it, but something happened to me when I was little and I could suddenly manipulate earth-related objects. Kind of like the little, blind, earthbender girl from Avatar: The Last Airbender.” He looked at me confused. “Oh, yeah. I forgot you don’t understand modern references.” I laughed, shoving the stone back in my pocket.

Suddenly, someone was talking in the overhead speakers. Bucky looked over to Steve, “We should get moving. They are evacuating the airport.”

“Stark.” Steve said, tensing up and looking over at me. I took a deep breath, holding it for a second, and let it out slowly to calm my nerves. “Suit up.”

Steve quickly pulled me aside, “Y/N, I know that you agreed to fight, but you aren’t trained like the rest of us are. I am not asking you to not be here, but please, do not put yourself in unnecessary risk.”

I grimaced, “Unfortunately, you’re right. I’m not trained, and I barely know how to fight, but I can be useful. I’ll be a good distraction.” I’m not about to accidentally kill myself.

He nodded, putting his hand on my shoulder, “Be careful out there.” He pulled me along, “I guess we should see what your dad has to say…”

When we approached the tarmac, I heard my dad’s suit and immediately tensed, putting my fingers in my pocket to rub my stone for comfort. “Wow.” Dad’s voice held his usual level of sarcasm, “it’s so weird how you run into people at the airport. Don’t you just feel weird?” Looking up, I saw Dad and Rhodey standing next to each other, my Dad giving Steve a sharp look.

“Definitely weird.” Rhodey agreed, sharing a look with my dad.

“Dad, hear Steve out, please.” I said, stepping closer to Steve, “That doctor, the psychiatrist, he’s behind all of this.”

My father’s eyes narrowed, and suddenly a man in a cat suit came leaping from behind a beam and landed near my dad. “Captain. Miss Stark.” The man greeted.

“Your Highness.” Cap nodded. I just smiled.

“Anyway. Ross gave me 36 hours to bring you in. That was 24 hours ago. Can you help a brother out?” Dad said to Steve.

“You’re after the wrong guy.” He replied.

“Your judgment is askew.” Dad’s eyebrows were pulled together in anger, and the bruising on his face became more prominent. “Your war buddy killed innocent people yesterday.”  

“And there are 5 more super soldiers just like him.” I said, crossing my arms and glaring at my father and Rhodey.

“I can’t let the doctor find them first, Tony. I can’t.” Cap finished, looking a little defeated.

“Steve.” Natasha’s voice came from behind us, making me jump a little, “You know what’s about to happen. Do you really want to punch your way out of this one?” She looked at me, “Do you, Y/N?”

“All right, I’ve run out of patience.” My dad said, sounding annoyed. As usual. He put his hands in front of his face and yelled, “Underoos!” Next, I heard the sound of Peter’s web shooters and saw the web attach itself to Cap’s shield, pulling it away and shooting his hands to make handcuffs. Peter landed on a random car with the shield, a little wobbly and awkward. I noticed he had a nice new get-up. Still all nice and tight. “Nice job, kid.” My dad said to him.

“Thanks. Well, I could’ve stuck the landing a little better. It’s… just the new suit… Well, it’s nothing, Mr. Stark. It’s-It’s perfect, thank you.” Peter’s stammering was just too cute. You smiled, trying not to chuckle.

“Yeah, we don’t really need to start a conversation.” My dad shook his head.

“Okay.” Peter replied, but his eyes got wide when he looked over and gave Steve a small salute, “Cap… Captain. Big fan, I’m Spider-Man.” He looked over at me, “Hey Y/N.”

“Hey, babe.” I gave him a small wave, “I like the new suit.” Cap gave me a weird look. I had forgotten that they didn’t quite know I had a boyfriend. Let alone him being Spiderman. Only my dad knew.

I stopped listening to what Dad and Steve were saying up until Dad started yelling, “Alright, I’m done. You’re gonna turn Barnes over and you’re gonna come with us. NOW! Because it’s us!” He sounded just like he did when he yelled at me for doing something I was not supposed to be doing.

Sam said something about the jet over the comms, and Steve rose his arms up so that Clint could shoot away the webbing. “Alright, Lang.” Scott, who was sitting on the shield ant-sized, suddenly became big, hitting Peter in the face and coming up next to Steve, handing him his shield.

Did he really have to hit him?

“I believe this is yours, Captain America.” Scott said in a serious voice. He looked over at me and put a comforting hand on my shoulder. I must look really nervous. I need to calm down.

When the fight broke out, Peter was heading for Barnes and Wilson, so I went to follow, but I saw Cap was fighting with T’Challa and Rhodey alone. I used my ability to try and ground Rhodey for a little bit by hooking his foot with concrete, and kept running. I made a chunk of the tarmac lift into the air with me on it and smashed through the windows into the building. Only to be immediately webbed up by Peter onto a pillar.

“Oh, come ON, Peter!” I yelled, attempting to reach my knife to cut myself out.

“I told you, Y/N, I am not fighting you!” He called, following Barnes and Wilson out of sight.

               “For fuck’s sake.” I looked around, and saw a sharp looking chunk of rock. The rock immediately did as I wanted and cut the webbing off of me. “At least no one saw this but Peter.” I mumbled, running towards the fight, just to see Peter go flying out of the building by Red Wing.

               “You couldn’t have done that earlier?” Barnes groaned, trying to get out of the webbing they were both caught in. At least I’m not the only one.

               “I hate you.” Sam grumbled, struggling to get out, as well.

               I barked out a laugh, coming up in front of them. “If only I had my camera to document this hilarious moment.”

               “Shut up and get us out of this crap.” Wilson complained, as I pulled out my knife.

               When we made it down to the tarmac and fell in line with Cap, we ran towards the jet. Vision had finally joined the fight and blocked our way, letting my dad’s team fall in line opposite of us.

               After a brief stare-down, Wilson asked, “What do we do Captain?”

               “We fight.”

               I ran with Bucky and tried to help him with T’Challa, but hand to hand was not my strong suit. I tried to use my ability to distract him, giving Bucky an in to heading towards the jet, but T’Challa was not letting up. When he went to use his claws on Bucky, Wanda was faster than I was, and she flung T’Challa away from Bucky. We ran towards a plane and I made a formation on one side of us to block on-coming shots.

               “You okay?” Bucky asked, checking over you.

               I nodded, “Barely been involved, just like Steve asked. I’m fine.”

Steve ran towards us and shouted to Bucky, “We got to go.”

“That guy’s probably in Siberia by now.” Bucky called back, trying to catch his breath.

“I’m gonna draw all the fliers.” Steve replied, looking around, “I’ll take Vision. You get to the jet.”            

“No, you get to the jet!” Sam said through the comms, “Both of you! The rest of us aren’t getting out of here. ”

“As much as I hate to admit it, if we’re gonna win this one, some of us might have to lose it.” Clint agreed with Sam. Shit. He is right. I’m not making it out.

“This isn’t the real fight, Steve.” Sam said, grunting as he blocked a hit.

“Alright, Sam, what’s the plan?” Steve asked.

“We need a diversion, something big.”

“I got something kind of big, but I can’t hold it very long.” Scott chimed in, “On my signal, run like hell. And if I tear myself in half, don’t come back for me.”

“He’s tearing himself in half?” I turned to Bucky, grabbing his arm in panic. Bucky shook his head, shrugging, and suddenly Scott was fucking huge. As tall as a building. “What the hell?”

“I guess that’s the signal.” Steve said, running over to us and looking over at me, “Are you coming?”

“No.” I took a deep breath, “You guys go. I’m needed here.”

Steve nodded, running off with Bucky towards the jet. I looked around at all the fighting and saw that T’Challa had spotted them leaving. Scott tried to kick him away, but he kept coming. Clint had also tried to keep him busy, but he would not let up. Fucking hell, this man is annoying.

Vision was the only one that was the wild card. He was more powerful, and had stronger abilities. Vision went through Scott and damaged the building to stop the boys from getting to the jet. I threw my arms up summoning all my concentration into the rubble that was falling to keep it suspended in air, and Wanda did the same thing with her scarlet force. Wanda had taken some of the pressure off, but Rhodey hit her with something, and it all fell onto me to keep it up. I grunted under the force it was taking, and fell to my knees. This was not going to hold much longer. This was the most I had ever tried to carry at once. It was exhausting.

Rhodey must have realized I had been helping, once it didn’t fall, and shot at me, too. I cried out as the pressure in my head became too much, and the deafening waves caused me to lose my concentration and cover my ears.

I felt the ground shaking with the rubble falling, and could only hope that they had made it. I could not hear a thing. I was disoriented, but when I stood I saw that Peter was crawling on mega-Scott. I chuckled, watching him swing around and took off towards them. Someone above caught my eye, and I looked up for a second, but when I looked towards Scott, again, I saw he had accidentally kicked a chunk of an airplane wing, and it was coming right for me.

“Shit.” I muttered, attempting to dodge out of the way, using my abilities to move the chunks, but the heat from the explosions was extreme. The heat had distracted me, and I was blown back by something hitting my stomach. I gasped, flying back behind something large out of sight from the others. I felt the comms unit get blown out of my ear, not that I would have been able to hear anything on it, anyways, from Rhodey’s hit. I landed hard against the tarmac and couldn’t catch my breath. My vision was getting blurry, but I needed to stay awake and help.

The jet! My vision cleared a little as it flew over me, and I tried to smile. They had made it.

Pain coursed through my entire stomach. Oh shit. How bad is this? Not wanting to move my neck too much, I slightly looked down to see something lodged in my stomach. Oh my god, is that in me?! When I tried to move my arm, my ribs cried out in protest, and I saw that I had also been burned. “Shit.” I hissed, trying to catch my breath as the panic took over me. I’m hit. Really badly.

“Dad.” I wheezed, seeing him fly up and in the wrong direction. Taking off towards the jet. Tears slid down my face. I can’t breathe. I felt a cough burning up my chest, but my ribs would not allow me to cough properly. I need my dad. I need help. “D-dad.” I tried again, but instead, I felt something run out of the sides of my mouth as I tried to speak. I brought my arm up to my mouth, ribs blinding me with pain, and wiped my mouth. Blood. Blood is not good! Nobody can see me! I was hidden, and they were all distracted by the fighting.

“Y/N?” I vaguely heard Peter call after a few minutes. It sounded like I was underwater. “Where are you? You okay?”

I can’t breathe. SOMEBODY HELP ME. I was getting too panicked for not getting enough air in my lungs.

“Y/N’s HURT, I can feel it! Vision, let go!” I heard Wanda scream out, “Y/N!? Where are you?”

Help… My vision was starting to go dark with the lack of oxygen.

“Oh my God!” Peter screamed, “Sh-she’s over here! Help!” Peter’s bruised face came into my spotty view. “Y/n, baby, come on. Stay awake.” He pushed a button on his comms, “Tony, Y/n is hurt! It’s bad!”

“P-Peter-” I breathed out, feeling the blood staining my lips.

“Shh,” He swept my hair out of my face, hands shaking, “Just keep breathing. Stay awake.”

Wanda’s face came into view, and it was streaked with tears, “Y/n, hold on. Medical is on it’s-” She suddenly gasped, looking away, “Rhodes is hurt!���

Rhodey?! I felt my panic rise, and my vision was getting really dark. My whole body was starting to get cold, and my lips started quivering.

“You guys, I think she is going into shock.” Peter cried, “Y/N, please.”

“Y/N….” Peter’s voice is the last thing I heard before the darkness took me…

Part 2

#peter parker x reader #peter parker #reader insert #angst #civil war #stark!reader #father!stark #tony stark #fanfic #fanfiction #fan #fiction #spiderman x reader

[nyc-uws]

Modern air travel is all about choices. What movie do you want to watch? What craft beer do you want to drink? What remaining middle seat would you like to sit in? Would you like to put your carry-on bag in the overhead bin (for a small fee of $37)?

There is only one truly wrong choice you can make, though: Buying a flight that departs later than 8 a.m.

I can hear the protests already: If I leave Friday after work, I don't have to take another vacation day! If I return on a Sunday night, I can maximize my time in the Bahamas! The whole day will be ruined if I have to wake up at 3:30 a.m. to get to the airport! I love sleep! These are rookie mistakes.

Flying in the morning is cheaper, faster, and strategically wiser than traveling at any other time of day, Travel + Leisure reports. Not only are flights less likely to be delayed because there is no other air traffic to contend with, but morning flights are also generally cheaper than late morning, afternoon, or evening flights (not to mention less turbulent). Heading to the airport before rush hour, you can additionally halve or quarter the time spent in city traffic. Even wait lines at ticket counters are usually nonexistent in predawn hours (as early-airport-arrivers like myself are probably aware, you can make the mistake of getting to the airport so early in the morning that the counters aren't even open — don't do this).

Then there is the improved experience on the airplane. Some of the most beautiful flights I've ever taken have been as dawn is creeping into the sky; a boiling red sunrise over Istanbul, seen from the tarmac before it illuminated the city below, is especially imprinted in my memory. After takeoff, you will hopefully be tired enough from waking up at 4 a.m. to pass out right away in your seat. That being said, if you, like me, can't sleep in a gravity-defying metal tube hurtling 33,000-feet above the surface of the Earth, then you can drink copious amounts of coffee, which is the only acceptable in-flight beverage (if you want alcohol on a night flight you have to put it in your coffee, I don't make the rules).

But that's just to address the practicalities of flying itself. Counterintuitively, morning flights on both ends of your trip can actually end up maximizing your time at your destination. It is better to leave on a Saturday morning, say, than a Friday night because, let's face it, traveling after work means you're already starting your trip exhausted and cranky, and the quality of your experience is diminished. Further, instead of landing late at night, when you're not going to have any time to do anything at your destination anyway and are still stuck paying for an extra night's stay in a hotel, you can arrive off a morning flight early enough to hit the ground running. The early morning hours spent in the air would have in all likelihood been underutilized — or slept through — with that Friday arrival.

Departing your vacation in the morning is maybe even better. While it's tempting to try to milk as much time out of your trip as possible, early morning departures mean you don't spend the whole day thinking about how you're going to have to go to the airport in a few hours, calculating and re-calculating what time you'll need to catch a cab. With a morning departure, you also won't be left figuring out what to do with your bags between check out (11 a.m.) and your departure (5:30 p.m.), or eating a hurried meal because you tried to cram in one last experience only to realize belatedly that you don't have the time for it (if you're going to miss a meal for a flight, too, wouldn't you rather it be breakfast than dinner?). The early morning departure will also hopefully dissuade you from the series of decisions that leads to the dreaded last-day-of-the-vacation hangover.

Plus there is the fact that leaving in the morning gives you some precious "padding" to get resituated at home upon your return. Leaving yourself this buffer is the true difference between an amateur traveler and someone who knows that a trip isn't just about the number of hours you can stuff between two flights, but the quality of that time. Take it from me, someone who's done a few too many transatlantic Sunday night returns: leaving in the morning is always, always the better call.

Admittedly, location is everything with travel. The morning departure is ideal for west-bound domestic flights due to the time zones (you can leave New York City in the morning and land in San Francisco by 9:30 or 10 a.m.). But I'd caution against anyone thinking they can outsmart time zones by taking that seductive west coast red-eye back east; there just aren't enough hours on the plane, which gets an extra giddy-up from the jet stream, for the minimal sleep you earn to be worth it.

There is one exception to the "before 8 a.m." rule for Americans though: The Europe- or Africa-bound red-eye. In certain circumstances, when the timing is just right or you're leaving nonstop from the west coast, you can squeeze enough in-flight hours onto a transatlantic east-bound trip to actually fall asleep, get a quality rest, and then wake up ready for the day when you land in the morning. By all means, buy that flight if that's your style! I can't help you with your pre-flight jitters, or temptation to then pack the morning before the flight, though. (Flights to Asia, I ought to mention, are going to be a mess no matter what you do, so all this strategizing really goes out the window).

The golden age of air travel is long behind us, and it is important not to let something like the flight get in the way of having a great time during your precious few vacations a year. As hideous as 3:15 a.m. might look on your alarm clock the night before, it will all be worth it when you land.

https://theweek.com/articles/847812/only-take-morning-flights?utm_source=links&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=tumblr

[idontownabike]

Planes.

My luck with flying has been the worst, and I am NOT being dramatic.  Typically, flying is fun and exciting. I like to guess where I am; I'm always wrong but it's fun to act like I know my geography. So, how is it so bad?? Well, I have too many examples but I'll take you back in time (like 10 years back).

 BAD EXPERIENCE NO. 1

 I was about 12. For Christmas, my parents surprised all of us children with a trip to Mexico. I had only been to Canada so this was so so exciting for me. I know it was summer time, but couldn’t tell you what month it was. We drove all the way out to NYC to fly out, Laguardia to be exact, got through security and customs, got to our gate and as we were getting ready to board our flight, there was an announcement; "Any passengers traveling to Cancun, you will not make your connecting flight." GREAT. We are instructed to go back to the main check-in area because they had rebooked everybody for a different flight. What they didn’t tell us was that the flight was for the next week. Why they assumed that we could just go to Mexico for a week the WEEK AFTER we had booked our rooms and stuff was and is still beyond me. When we (when I say we, I mean my stepdad) said we needed a flight out that day/night, they told us they didn’t have any flights until the next week. Now, my stepdad is a pretty laid back guy, very calm, definition of a dad… so what happened next was 100% unexpected. He got behind the counter and started flipping out at the guy behind the desk, demanding that they find a flight for us. Us small children were scared. The man usually says "Hi hungry, I'm dad!" was now acting like a crazed maniac and, to this day, do not understand how he didn't get arrested. After hours and hours of looking for a new flight, we were able to be booked for a flight 1st thing the following morning.

Now, you would think it would end there, but it does NOT.

We arrive back to the airport the next morning and get up to the desk to check in and the women asks if myself and my brother have permission from our father to leave the country. My mom is confused since she is our real life mom and asks why we need permission if she is already there and has primary custody. Because she got remarried and has a different last name than us, there was not really any real proof that she was our mom. We called and called my dad who never answered. Great, I'm gonna have to sit in NYC while the rest of my family has a fun time in Mexico. We are able to reach my oldest brother who tells us that he will sign something and send it over. That's the day that I learned that my brother doesn't know cursive. Long story short; we made it to Mexico after 27 hours of pure panic.

 BAD EXPERIENCE NO.2

 Yes, I have another one, and more to come.

I went to visit my step-sister in Mississippi back in December of 2017 and we had a plan to drive back to NY with a puppy to surprise our parents. We were going to spend the night in Oxford and hangout and then leave and hangout in Memphis the next day and then continue the drive from there. I don't know if you all remember the snow storm that hit Atlanta, and then NYC and then everywhere else, but that is when I attempted flying out. The night before I flew out, I received a notification that my flight was cancelled due to the storm in Atlanta and I could rebook. I didn't think much of it so I just rebooked thinking I'd be just fine. I flew out to JFK and had a 5 hour layover. Everything was great, I got some food, a drink or 2, watched a movie. My next stop was Detroit and then Memphis. As it was getting closer to my departure time, other flights began getting delayed, but I checked mine over and over again. ON TIME. I was supposed to fly out at around 5:15pm and then leave Detroit at around 8:00pm. 4:00 come around I get the notification: FLIGHT DELAYED. My worst nightmare. 4:30, flight even more delayed. My flight continued being delayed and the snow started coming down harder and harder. It was now 6:00pm and I would be cutting it extremely close making my connecting flight so I hoped and prayed for a miracle. It was 6:30 and we began boarding. I checked to see how much time I’d have to book it off the plane and make it to my next flight before they left, roughly 15 minutes. What I didn't know was that our plane had to be de-iced. I was hoping that would take like 5 minutes. I also didn't know that it took about 20 minutes and that we were about 4th in line to be de-iced. That took ONE HOUR. To add to my wonderful time, we then taxied on the runway for another TWO HOURS. By the time we took off, my flight to Memphis had already landed. I spent the night in Detroit in a fabulous hotel, made it Memphis and got into a car and drove 15 hours back to New York…

 BAD EXPERIENCE NO. 3

 This story is a tad shorter. You're welcome.

 I went to Mississippi again to actually spend time there with my stepsister and booked a flight for a Friday late in the afternoon. Little did I know we were getting a snowstorm, with an estimated 4ft of snow. I got on the phone with the plane company and expressed my concern about not making it and explaining that it happened the last time I tried flying. One women told me that she didn't see a storm anywhere on the radar so I tried another customer service rep. He was so kind and put me on a 6am flight and put me in 1st class, all for free. I fly out, no problem, just to find out there was about an inch of snow on the ground and my original flight had no delays whatsoever.

 BAD EXPERIENCE NO. 4

 I travelled to Huntsville, AL for work at the end of March and had an crappy things happen on the way there and on the way back. On my way there, I was placed next to the family with 5 children who didn't know what personal space was or how to be quiet. The entire flight, all I heard was MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM and the child next to me elbowed me the entire flight and when I pointed it out to him, he continued to elbow me. His mother even saw me say something and didn’t do anything.

On the way back, I had a connecting flight in DC to Boston and had very little time to get off the plane and make it to my next flight. I told the flight attendant and she told me  "oh, you have 30 minutes, you'll be fine." I took her word for it, but didn’t realize that I was seated all the way in the back of the plane. We land and we slowly deplane. I get off the tarmac and began looking for where I need to go. I had to go to the terminal one over from the one where I was so I start doing a light jog; I had about 15 minutes until the doors closed. I turn the corner and noticed that I had to go back through security to get into the terminal! I panic because the line was very very long. I see the TSApre boarding lane and go in and tell the guy there that my flight left in 10 minutes. He was very nice and let me go ahead but then I was stuck behind a family with 3 kids and they were taking their sweet time. I was able to tell the security guard that my flight was leaving in less than 5 minutes and he let me skip the line and run through. I barely made it, but I made it.

 BAD EXPEREIENCE NO. 5

 Almost done, I swear.

 When I flew out to Boston for a quick visit, I had no issues until I had to fly back home. It was about 10:00pm and there was an announcement that our plane and another plane were arriving at the exact same time at the same gate  and it was like a fight to see who got to board first. Luckily, it was my flight and I got home at a decent hour.

 BAD EXPERIENCE NO. 6

 This is the last one!!

 I am currently flying home from a trip to Florida and the child in front of me is yelling and standing on his seat and jumping up and down and his mom and dad are not doing ANYTHING to control him and it is beyond annoying.

My flight on the way there was smooth sailing except for the fact that  we were supposed to fly out at 6:45am and didn't leave until 7:30 because they didn't have anyone certified to tow the plane to the gate. How on earth????

 Update: Little boy mentioned before just got told to sit down by a flight attendant and he then proceeded to scream at the top of his lungs. This is NOT what I signed up for.

   Stay tuned for more horrible flight experiences that I have, I'm sure there are more to come!

[adventuresinmorocco]

So the big trip has officially come and gone. I actually went to Ireland! This is going to be a pretty lengthy chat, so I’ll get right into the adventures!

It all began Tuesday morning at 11:30 am when my friends Abby and Nicole joined me in a taxi ride to Tangier’s Ibn Battuta airport for our flight from Tangier to Amsterdam. Everything was going smoothly. We checked in for the flight, went through security and passport control, and were sat waiting for our boarding to be called. Of course, this is when problems began to arise. When you live in Tangier for a little while, you notice that things run on Moroccan time which is the same as saying everything runs late. We finally boarded though, getting settled onto the plane 40 minutes after we were supposed to have left the tarmac. We weren’t worried though; our layover gave us plenty of time to make up for those 40 minutes. Boy were we wrong! It was at that moment that the pilot announced over the intercom that due to air traffic control problems at Amsterdam airport, our flight would not be taking off for another hour! So we were left to nervously await the departure time and hope with all our hearts that we would make our connecting flight to Dublin or that it would be delayed. When we finally made it to Amsterdam, the sprint began. Abby and I raced through the airport, separated from Nicole who had to go get her checked bag since the flight was a self-transfer. Our connection hadn’t been delayed at all! We made it to the gate, panting and sweaty, begging the flight attendants at the desk to let us on the plane that was still standing at the gate. Unfortunately, because it was a self-transfer and we had missed boarding, they were unable to put us on the flight. Luckily, they put us on one for the next morning, but they were unable to get us a place to stay in Amsterdam so we were stuck for 12 hours in Amsterdam airport rather than being in our hotel in Dublin. 

We spent an uncomfortable night trying to sleep in the airport before we finally got up and went to wait for our flight Wednesday morning. But in the end, the important thing was that we made it to Dublin eventually and we headed straight for the taxi line after landing to head to our hotel. We got in the taxi and were on our way... or so we thought. About 5 minutes into our drive, the taxi driver was forced to pull over because of a flat tire! Just our luck, huh? Thank goodness he had a spare in the trunk and was able to fix it up quickly and get us to our hotel. Once we had checked in and settled, we immediately headed off into the city for our first destination: the Guinness Storehouse. 

After a lengthy walk through the pouring rain, we finally made it to our destination. The storehouse was really neat. Each room took you through a different step in the process of making Guinness from the individual ingredients to the roasting to the bottling and advertising. We had such a fun time going through each floor and learning about how this internationally famous beer is created. We then took advantage of the amazing restaurants within the storehouse and our vouchers for a free beer and headed to get some lunch which was delicious. 

Our plan after the factory was to get a ride to the train station to purchase our tickets for our train to Waterford the following day, but we got lucky and our friendly cab driver informed us that it was easier to book online, taking us to an internet cafe near our hotel where we could get internet to check out the prices (our hotel wifi took a while to figure out). Once that was done, it was starting to get late so we did some brief shopping on our walk back before we headed into our hotel room, passing out way earlier than we expected. We obviously were super tired after the whole airport fiasco and then exploring Dublin. The next morning, though, we were up early to check out and on a train to Waterford. 

The moment we set foot in Waterford’s beautiful, riverside city, I was hooked. This place is seriously one of the most amazing places I’ve been. Sitting proudly along a beautiful river, the oldest city in Ireland is a sight to behold. There’s nothing super fancy or special about it in a factual sense, but to me it felt like I was right at home and I loved every second of being in that city. We checked into our hotel and immediately began to explore. Our first stop was the famous Waterford Crystal factory where we had a tour booked. This tour was one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced. I got to walk through each section of the factory and watch the men and women work right up close. Every stage from molding the crystal to cutting it was right there for me to watch live. After the tour, we were able to take a look around their sales floor and their Christmas ornaments definitely caught both our eyes. 

After that first plan had been completed, it was time to finish up one other plan I had in store while we were in Waterford: getting my hair cut. Now, I know what you’re thinking... “Why couldn’t you just wait for when you came home?” I could’ve for sure, but to be honest, I was getting really, really sick of having my hair long and I found a walk in salon so I thought, “why not?” So now my hair is short again and I can actually say I’ve gotten a haircut in Ireland of all places!

After this, we headed back to the hostel for what was supposed to be a quick stop, but ended up being pretty stressful in the end. Our original plans involved heading to the Cliffs of Moher from Waterford on Friday so we were working on the hostel’s desktop to figure out the travel plans and make sure we were set for the next day. Unfortunately, that’s when things began to fall apart again. We both realized that the cost was going to be much much more than we thought and we began to second guess our choice. After a tear-filled conversation with my aunt and some more debating about buses, trains, and taxi rides, we made the final decision to stay another day in Waterford and skip the Cliffs. We immediately felt a huge weight lift off our shoulders. Although we had both really wanted to go to the Cliffs, we ended up being very happy with our choice to stay in Waterford, especially because we were enjoying it so much already. 

The rest of our Thanksgiving day was spent wandering the streets of Waterford, experiencing the churches and other sights along the way and stopping at several of the little shops. That night, we were ready to head out to a pub for dinner, hoping to treat ourselves to a Thanksgiving type dinner. I’ll tell you right now, the pub around the corner from our hotel that was recommended by our hostel hosts did not disappoint. When we walked in, it was still fairly early for a pub so not many people were there, but I can tell you now that the owner was tickled to death that he had two Americans in his pub. While he took our orders, he happily chatted with us about our visit and study abroad experience. On top of his cheerful friendliness, he served us some amazing food. I personally had some vegetable soup with Irish soda bread to start, followed by the classic bangers and mash, ending with a scrumptious sticky toffee pudding with hot custard. Everything tasted so delicious and I got to check off several of the foods I had hoped to try in Ireland off my list! After our meal, we bid the owners a fond farewell before heading back to the hostel where we both separated to chat with our families and spend some time with them on the holiday, both of us needing the family time to get over the homesickness of missing Thanksgiving. 

The next morning, we woke to a freshly cooked full Irish breakfast, another thing I had hoped to try, made by our hostel hosts and had the dining room to ourselves to enjoy the yummy food. We then headed out into the town, spending the whole day exploring more of the tourist sights, stopping into almost every little shop we passed to see what they had to offer, and chatting to some of the locals. We were quite amused by the amount of signs exclaiming huge Black Friday sales when we were in a country that doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving, but we weren’t complaining about some of the sales we managed to get! By the time we stopped for lunch, our ankles ached and our bellies rumbled. I was very excited to try this lunch, though, because back when I first started researching this trip, I discovered something Waterford is known for called the Burzza. Now, the Burzza is a pepperoni pizza calzone that is stuffed with a hamburger. Abby and I happily ordered one of these to share, along with a glass of Prosecco which I enjoyed, and were blown away by how good it tasted. After our late lunch, it was getting dark outside but the people in Waterford were just getting started. 

By chance, we had arrived in Waterford just as their Winterval (winter festival) was starting. The streets were filled with thousands of Christmas lights, tons of food stands cooking up delicious smelling and tasting treats, and rides for all the kids to enjoy. They had music playing from a DJ stand, a host calling out for people to win prizes by competing in a dance off, and tons of people just enjoying the atmosphere. We joined in on all the festivities as we headed towards Waterford’s ferris wheel. The night time view of the city was gorgeous from the top of this ferris wheel and a perfect way to end our walk before dinner. That night for dinner, we wanted to be sure to go to another Irish pub and ended up at one that was fairly modern, filled with colorful lights and the best Christmas music. We both ordered huge plates of fish n chips to go with our drinks, beer for Abby, wine for me. I enjoyed the wine and fish n chips, but found myself not enjoying the taste of the dark Guinness beer that Abby gave me. We spent the evening laughing and enjoying the atmosphere of the bar before heading back through the festive streets to our hotel. 

We were both sad to be leaving Waterford on Saturday morning, but we had plans to attend to in Dublin for our last day in Ireland. After the quick train ride Saturday morning, our first stop was Dublin’s National Botanic Gardens. The gardens are free and open to the public. We headed in and took our time walking around the expansive outdoor gardens and the indoor greenhouses. After the gardens, we headed to the Museum of Natural History which is also fondly known as the Dead Zoo. Filled with skeletons and stuffed animals, the museum gave us a lot of information about different animals, their evolution paths throughout history, and even their significance to Ireland/other parts of the world. After we had finished the last few stops we wanted to make, we walked the streets and went into different shops. We eventually stopped for a late lunch at a well known and busy restaurant called Gotham Cafe where I feasted on a prosciutto and goat cheese calzone paired with a bottle of Irish apple cider. Once we had finished eating, we finished up the last of our shopping, including a quick self-indulging trip to the Disney store on Grafton Street. Since it was getting late and our hotel was close to the airport, aka far from the city center, we decided to head to a grocery store and grab some dinner and other snacks before we called it a day and headed to the hotel. On our way, we happened to come across a huge crowd in front of a hotel where bagpipes were playing patriotically into the cold air. As we got closer, we realized that everyone was clustered to try to catch a glimpse of the Irish National Rugby team! How cool is that? 

Soon after, though, we headed back to our hotel for the night, getting ready for our flights back to Tangier the following day. The flights home went smoothly, thank goodness, and we met up with some other UNE students on our way. Although I never wanted to say goodbye to Ireland and its beautiful landscapes and kind people, it was time to head back for, get this, my last three weeks abroad! Now all that’s left is the last 2 weeks of classes and final exams before I’m back home in Maine. It doesn’t feel real and I find myself never wanting to leave and wanting to be back home with all my family and friends at the same time. It’s weird how the travel bug works in your system, making you want to go everywhere at once while another part of you wants to stay in one place and be with your loved ones. Anyway, thank you so much to everyone who has kept up with all my posts and adventures these past few months. This will be one of my last posts. I may post once more about these last weeks in Tangier if anything more exciting than exams occurs and I will definitely post one last time about my trip home, but for the most part, my adventures in Morocco are coming to an end. 

For anyone out there reading this who is on the edge of an adventure, go for it. Don’t wait. I can tell you from experience that you will regret it if you don’t and you will never regret it once you’ve gone. 

#adventuresinmorocco

[were-cheetah-stiles]

The Recruit (Chapter 25) - Mitch Rapp

Author: @were-cheetah-stiles​

Title: “Day 103″

Characters: Mitch Rapp, Stan Hurley, Irene Kennedy, Aiden Breen & Reader/OFC

Warnings: This is the last god damn chapter in which I label for cursing. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE CURSING. 

Author’s Note: I would watch this or this (Or both) before reading any further chapters. Just a nice brush up, you know? Also anyone who loves The West Wing as much as I do should catch the shout out to a super fake terrorist organization.

y/f/i = your first initial

Chapter Twenty-Four //-// Chapter Twenty-Five - Chapter Twenty-Six

"Y/n!" Stan knocked loud and hard, making sure to announce his presence as he opened the door without permission from his niece. You snapped up in bed and reached for your Glock, pushing your hand next to your bed, your new hiding place for it while you slept, only to pull away when you realized that it was just Stan waking you up abruptly. You looked around the room, it was barely light out.

"The fuck is going on?" You said groggily, pushing your hair back from your forehead and rubbing your eyes, a permanent frown living on your face.

"You've got a half hour to pack a go-bag with moderate climate gear." Stan told you.

"What is this? The Assateague Island camping trip? Isn't it still a little too early in the year for that?" You questioned, not fully grasping what was about to happen.

"No, kiddo, this isn't the camping trip. Training is over. You've been called up to the big leagues...” Stan glanced down at his watch, tilting his mug almost too far to the side, just to check the time. “And now you’ve got twenty-eight minutes to pack and meet out in the driveway." Stan nodded, with a fake half-smile. "I gotta go get your partner up." Stan didn’t close your door all the way and you heard him make the same demands across the hall. You smiled as you realized that Mitch was your partner and you didn’t have to worry about finding a way to warn him that you had gone on a mission.

"Shit." You sprung to your feet, after you heard Stan’s footsteps growing fainter in the hall. You began ripping through your bedroom to find the proper gear for the vague tip of 'a moderate climate'. You placed The Great Gatsby on the top of your go-bag and zipped it up. You threw the black, lightweight duffel over your shoulder and walked down to the driveway. Stan opened the door to the large indistinguishably black, American-made SUV idling in the dirt driveway in the front of the Main House. You, turned and saw Aiden descending the stairs behind you, and you snapped your head back when Stan said your name and gestured for you to give him your bag. You stepped up into the car and saw Mitch half-smile at you from a seat in the last row, and Irene turn her head to smile from the front passenger seat. You climbed in the back with Mitch and had to fight the urge to take his hand in yours. Aiden and Stan loaded in after you and before you knew it, the car was moving on the gravel road that led in and out of The Barn towards Williamsburg, Virginia.

"Does anyone want to fill me in?" You broke the long silence in the car.

Irene turned around, and gave her best calm and reassuring smile. "The two of you have been tapped for a mission. Mitch has already been briefly caught up, but you'll both get your packets with the full parameters on the plane."

"The plane? Where are we going? How have we been tapped for a mission? Neither of us are technically agents yet." You were not usually this questioning of authority, but you were very caught off guard by all of this news and you knew this was not how this sort of thing worked usually. A large part of you never thought that Stan would ever actually let you leave The Barn, and if he did, you were certain you would be stuck behind a desk at Langley.

"Y/n, when you get back from this mission, Irene is going to put you in with the next graduating class from The Farm and you will be a full-fledged member of the Central Intelligence Agency." Stan explained, and you glanced over at Mitch, who was boring holes into the front of Stan's skull trying to keep his mouth shut, but curious what this meant for him. You glanced back at Stan.

"What about Rapp?" You asked.

Stan shook his head. He was certain he was right, and Irene was wrong, but she was his superior and what she said was what was going to happen.

"Mitch, you're also done with training at The Barn. You've been done for some time, we just needed to wait until the mission was ready for you. You are Orion now. We'll make that official on the plane." Irene said to him confidently.

Mitch nodded once at Irene. He felt that he was ready too. You were feeling less prepared somehow. Maybe because Mitch seemed to have a better grasp on what was going on. You continued with your line of questioning. "What plane ride? Where are we going? What is this mission? Someone has to tell me literally something, anything."

"We're going to Istanbul." Stan explained, finally giving you some insight into what you were pretty sure that Mitch already knew.

"Why Turkey?" You asked.

Irene spoke up again. "Four days ago, fifteen kilos of plutonium went missing, weapons grade. We think a catastrophic attack is imminent."

"We've been tracking an arm's dealer named Hamdi Sharif, who has ties with the Bahji terror group-" You couldn't help but allow those names to elicit a quick reaction from you. You glanced over at Mitch, who remained stoic, and you quickly mimicked his expression. Stan continued explaining. "-who have had a vendetta against Israel since the creation of the state in the 40s. We think that he is trying to smuggle it into Israeli state borders, set it off, and hold Palestine responsible..."

You cut him off. You understood Middle Eastern relations, and suddenly, you also understood how you fit into the mission. "...Essentially setting off World War III and basically, wiping the Middle East off the fucking map." Stan nodded grimly at your deduction.

"We're trying to make sure that the sale is not final." Irene interjected.

"Who's selling it?" You asked, catching an odd exchange of glances between Stan and Irene.

"We're pretty certain that a man by the name of Ghost is the seller." Irene explained. You glanced up at Mitch, who, for a nanosecond, glanced back, and you realized that this was the mission that Mitch had been training for for months.

"You have forty-eight hours to track Sharif and Ghost and make sure that the sale is not completed." Stan explained. "The rest of the details and your exact assignments are in the files that I'll give you on the plane."

"There's a fucking nuke in play. Don't fuck this up." Irene warned as they pulled onto the tarmac at Andrews Airforce Base in Virginia.

Irene dropped you all off and Stan and Aiden sat on one end of the small private jet, while you and Mitch sat across from each other on the opposite end of the plane. You were somewhere over the Atlantic, five and half hours into your ten and half hour flight to Turkey, when Mitch leaned forward and closed your mission folder.

"Y/f/i, you've read it, like, thirty times. I know you understood and memorized everything after the first. You need to sleep." He reached forward and gently cupped your hands in his, eliciting a soft smile from the woman across from him.

"I'm nervous."

"I kind of gathered that." Mitch smiled, one side of his mouth curled up a little higher than the other, the kind smirk that always made you feel woozy.

You couldn't help but smile back at him. You loved that he knew what was going on in your head without you having to say. "I've wanted this for years... to be in the field, to be on a mission... to be a real agent, and now it's happening and I'm fucking nervous? It's frustrating as shit."

"I know it's nerve-wracking, but Y/n/n, you've trained longer than any other CIA recruit. You've trained longer than me. You're one of the best, and they wouldn't have brought you on this if they didn't think you were ready." Mitch tried to ease your nerves.

"You've actually been out there though, Mitch. You've been in the field without the backing of the Agency. All the training in the world can't compete with actual field experience."

"And now you're getting your actual field experience. Plus Stan and Aiden are here, I doubt you and I will even get any real action." Mitch hoped that wasn't true. He had a lot of pent up aggression after everything that went down with Brunski, and he was pleased with the person that was going to be the target of his violence.

"You're probably right.... although, Sharif.... how are you so calm about the fact that he's the one that we are going after?"

Mitch shrugged and leaned back, breaking his physical connection with you as his thoughts went to the beach the day that Katrina was killed. The weapons used by the terrorists on that sandy expanse that day were supplied by none other than Hamdi Sharif. This was the first step in Mitch’s plan for revenge. "I've been prepared to kill him and wipe out the Bahji terror cell for years. If that day is today, then I'll be ready." Mitch said clinically, trying to hide the fury and inclination towards violence bubbling underneath the surface.  

You nodded and went to open your mission folder again when you saw Mitch close his eyes. Mitch snickered and quietly slammed his hand on top of it, keeping it closed. He gathered your hands up in his once again. He glanced behind you to check if he had woken Stan or Aiden, but they were still asleep. "Let me just go through it once more. Last time, I promise."

Mitch smirked and shook his head. "You don't need to. Listen, Y/n/n, it'll be alright. I've got your back, always." Mitch swore, holding your hands up to his lips, so you could feel his promise.

"And I've got yours." You replied, in a calmer and more confident whisper.

"Always?"

"Always."

Twenty-Four <- -> Twenty-Six

Please please please let me know what you thought of this chapter and also, please go see American Assassin. :)

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