@mortalinvincible - Tumblr Blog

“I have an ass, Farrah, but I can’t be one.” she left that wide open for him, what else is he supposed to say? Anyway, Geronimo had always been some kind of idiot, but he wouldn’t dare pick a fight with Farrah. “Mmm… no wonder. Geronimo would never be able to land a hit on you without help.” he clenches his fists, mostly ignoring her movements to think. Atlas does believe her when she says she punched first, but he doesn’t understand why. Maybe he was missing a piece of the puzzle. He purses his lips before deciding to worry about that later.

Atlas snatches the shirt out of her hands and tosses it aside, “Who else was it, huh?” He closes the gap between them and wraps his arms around her, “Tell me. You know I’ll ask Squid if you don’t.”

"You talk too much," she states before leaning up to kiss him forcefully. She grips his cheeks, pulling him impossibly close and kissing him so hard she forgets to breathe.

Sometimes Atlas scared her, with how much he loved her, with his impatience and rage. But most of the time, it got her so hot she could barely think straight. When she pulls away, her cheeks are pink with desire and her eyelids are heavy. "Ask Squid, see if I give a fuck." Her cuts are already healing, thanks to their witch hunter DNA. She felt like fucking Wolverine.

His lips follow her when she pulls away, but he refuses to be distracted by promised affection. The kiss tasted metal anyway and he wasn’t exactly into that. Still, that didn’t mean he couldn’t grab her butt as she waltzed away from him.

Atlas turns his attention back to the bathroom, but turns off the light and closes the door instead of going in. He already knew the damage; he saw enough before she slammed the door in his face. The knock pulls his attention away and he smiles at Farrah’s younger sister. She was the cutest little genius he’d ever met and that gapped tooth smile was infectious. His eyebrows jump at his cousin’s name and his eyes dart over to Farrah. Why the hell did she get in a fight with him?

“Thanks, Squid!” Atlas tilts his head up to yell over Farrah in the hops that his minion hears the praise. Smiling innocently now, he looks down at the seething woman and puts his hands on her hips, “What do you mean? Swear what?”

That Squid was a problem.

She refuses to be seduced by the way he looms over her. Or by the knowledge that Geronimo was in for it. As sexy as it was that he was willing to knock heads for her, it was also dangerous. Not many were fond of the line of ascension in the Derringer household. They didn't need another reason to defy him. "Atlas," her tone is warning. "Don't be an ass."

Pulling away before he can pull any other moves that he knows placates her, she removes her shirt to replace it. Almost immediately she lets out a slew of curses as her bra literally falls to pieces. The sons of bitches had shitty aim with a knife, how was that even possible? She holds the scrap of fabric and assesses the damage. Both straps are ripped, no hope of repair. "This was my favorite," she huffs, throwing it on the ground before reaching for a new shirt. "Anyway, it wasn't just Geronimo."

One. Two. He tries to twist the doorknob again even though he knows it’s still locked. He flattens his hand against the door and leans closer to it, “Farrah Nova open the fucking door, please.”

Atlas is about to punch a hole through it, but the door swings open and his eyes rest on a very annoyed Farrah. Atlas raises his fingers, but the tips hover just beyond reach of her bruised face. He doesn’t want to cause her any unnecessary pain, and even though she isn’t indicating it he knows that it hurts. His nostrils flare up as he breathes, getting even more agitated with the sight of her. Words are flying all around, but he’s only half listening to anything she’s saying. All he is seeing are gouges in her face, marks all over her neck, and fresh blood coming out of her even though he just heard her wash it off.

He clicks his tongue before raising his arm to lean against the doorframe successfully trapping her in the bathroom. His smile bleeds sarcasm and his head tilts like he’s an annoyed parent about to lecture a child, “I just wanna talk to ‘em. C'mon babe, who was it? – You can tell me.”

Farrah takes a deep breath, only more annoyed at this charade. She grabs him and pulls him in for a searing kiss, hoping it is enough to calm him down a couple degrees. Or at least switch his focus. One hand twisted in his shirt, she pulls back just enough to look into his eyes. "Really? You think I'm that dumb?"

She presses against him as tightly as possible as she slips into the other room. The sink is full of blood and now it is in his full view but she's pretty sure there's nothing that can make him more angry right now. "Like you could ever 'just talk' to someone," she mutters, searching through the laundry pile on her bed for another shirt to wear. Hers is covered in blood and sweat. There's a knock at her door before it swings open and Squid pokes their head in, gapped tooth smile on full blast. "Oh my God, Nova you fucked Geronimo up!"

"Fuck Squid!" she all but screeches, thowing the nearest heavy item at the door so that her sibling squeaks and runs away. Huffing, she stomps over to the door to slam it closed before slowly facing Atlas with her chin tipped upwards defiantly. "Don't you dare, Atlas. I swear."

When he reaches the edge of her bathroom door, he is met with a glimpse of her bloody mug before the wood nearly smacks him in the face. Luckily he was fast enough to back up otherwise his nose wouldn’t be too happy. Atlas grabs the doorknob and tries to turn it before he pounds a fist on the door once, “Babe, let me in. What happened?”

His frustration is mounting with each second ticking by outside of the door, he hits it again harder this time causing bobbles on her shelves to shake. Farrah isn’t a fragile woman, she can take care of herself and he knows it because he trains with her sometimes. That doesn’t mean he isn’t going to smash her door to help her if he has to, “Hopkins, open the door.”

As his patience grows thinner by the millisecond, Farrah tosses water on her face to clear away the blood and some chunks she's sure are skin. It hurts like hell but she's trying to make it look a little better in hopes of calming him down. As if.

Huffing at her reflection, she takes in the raised mottled skin around her left eye and across her left cheekbone. Nail marks, there are even nail marks. Those pussies... "Fucking Derringers," she mutters before turning to the door to face the music.

Farrah yanks the door open, and looks him dead in the eye. "I threw the first punch," she says flatly. "No, I won't tell you who they were. Yes, it was more than one person. Yes, I'm fine. No, you cannot kill them." As if anything she just said is registering, his fury is so thick she could taste it.

Training was rough today, not because of the physicality but because he was pulled out of that to learn the politics of being a hunter and a cop. Atlas was supposed to protect and serve, eventually he’d also be leading his family. How many subfamilies were there again? Too fucking many to count. All he wanted to do was relax, unwind in the observatory or at the beach. Atlas roamed the halls of the Hopkins estate in search of Farrah, trying desperately to avoid anyone else.

When he found her room, he slipped in unnoticed and softly shut the door behind him, “Babe?”

Her face was on fucking fire. Blood spills into the sink as she leans over it, fingers pressing her skin this way and that to assess the damage. She of course doesn't flinch once, she's had worse. Besides, it was worth it. Where the fuck did they get off saying such stupid shit in front of her? They were goading her, and she shouldn't have reacted, but fuck all of them. Every single Derringer could go to hell except for her Atlas.

Speak of the devil.

As he rounds the corner, she kicks the door shut. But not fast enough to keep him from seeing the mess of her face. She swears it looks like raw meat. "What the fuck do you want?" she yells through the wood door, wondering why she closed it in the first place. He could easily break the lock.

Rage always brought out the worst in him, Nico nearly chokes at her reaction and realizes he is a complete numbskull. “I never said that! That’s not what I meant.” One second he’s shouting at her and the next he’s eating his words again like he always did. Sometimes he wondered how many conversations he’d save if he just thought about what he should say before blurting it out.

Everything was wrong, he was supposed to storm off without anyone knowing. He knew she wouldn’t approve, but he didn’t think he’d have to justify his relationship with her or to tell her why she mattered. “You are my best friend and you saved my life, but I need this. I feel like I’m-” He barely heard her, the words floated away in the wind and he stared at her unable to finish his sentence. Nico could have died there knowing he’d failed her and Arcadia. She didn’t need to do anything for him and he felt like a complete tool for making her think that would keep him here.

The urge to be free had always been overwhelming, but if he were being honest with himself he’d know that deep down it was just an urge to run. Bad things happened to everyone he loved and no matter how hard he tried he felt like it wasn’t enough. If he didn’t go as soon as possible, something horrible was bound to happen again. Instead, he lingers to pull her in for a hug and rests his head on top of hers, maybe this would be the last time he’d get to be with her for a long time so he tries to record it in his memory for safe keeping. “Nothing will make me stay, but I need you to understand this choice has nothing to do with you. I’ll always care about you, Farrah. You’re the bravest, most down to earth person at this stupid estate and I know you’ll survive without me. You’re going to tear them apart and show them how to really save the world.”

Just like that, it becomes to clear to her. She should have given him a chance.

Without thinking, she pulls away only to surge upwards and claim his mouth. She hadn't been blessed with the freakishly tall Hopkins gene, but that didn't mean she had to stand on her very tippy toes. Just almost. A warmth spreads in her belly, and she has no time to decipher what this could mean. Nico was leaving. Nico could be gone from her life any second, and she'd never dreamed it possible. She'd never dreamed she'd feel this overwhelming desire for him either.

Lips sliding against his own, she locks one hand behind his neck and the other in his hair. Her strength has her suspended in the air with her body pressed tightly to his, muscles in her lean arms taut. When she lets him breathe, her eyes find his and she's actually fucking speechless. One for the history books, Farrah Hopkins was speechless.

There they were again, those damn butterflies bouncing around in his stomach wanting him to do something. If he were younger, maybe he’d stay just because she wanted him to. Nico steps back to get away from her tenderness, finding her gesture slightly manipulative even if it was sincere. His love for her would always be unrequited and he had to let it go. In a world of what ifs, Arcadia missing would still eat him away until there was nothing left.

“I’ll live with my mistakes.” Nico would scour the stars and galaxies to find her, and even if he couldn’t he would die trying. He takes a page from her book and twists the knife just a little bit, “There’s no future for me here.” Her punishment set his destiny in motion and the universe was calling to him. His eyes left Farrah’s to follow the journey of Arcadia’s ship. No matter how much he cared about everyone here, he needed this more than they needed him.

Farrah feels her stomach plummet, her face going white as a sheet as she's unable to hide the hurt he causes her. No future? Did their friendship really depend on whether or not she put out? Swallowing hard, she tries to look away as quickly as possible so he doesn't see how fucking raw she is.

"Oh..." she takes a deep breath and slowly backs up, "If that's tha case then." Turning quickly, she begins to make her escape. What did she think would happen? It's not like Nico ever did what he was told. Or asked. She thought she was more to him than this. Stopping abruptly, she feels the anger tear out of her throat. "No!" She turns back around and marches towards him, shoving against his chest. "No, you don't get to say that to me!"

She's fuming, hair already a mess like when they were young and used to rough house from sunup to sundown. "Is that all I am to you?" Her voice is disturbingly quiet for how furious she is. "Are those the terms and conditions to our friendship, Nico? I put out and you stay?" She had thought he was better than that. She had thought he was better than any man she'd ever met, and that's why she didn't deserve him. Or even open up her mind to the possibility that... "I will do anything," she whispers, looking into his eyes and letting him see her. Maybe for the first time since she saved his life all those years ago.

mickeyandmumbles

I don’t fucking deserve this.

It affects him more than she would ever know. For a split second he falters and he wants to say sorry, to change his mind and stay with her because he has always loved her. Another solution would be to offer a cabin to her, but he knows Atlas loves her too. She would always have him even if Nico thought he loved her more. The butterfly feeling fades and Nico stumbles back from her shove, he readies himself for further violence but it comes verbally instead of physically. He would have rather been hit in the face, but she goes for the kill like she always did.

Steeling himself again, allowing his previous anger to boil he spits, “Spoiled… ha! You think they’re letting me leave? I’m not going to let them force me into a role I don’t want anymore. We were conditioned to think we have to live up to some cosmic fucking standards.” Funny how one moment could change his whole perspective, The three of them were born leaders and maybe he would stay if his parents didn’t wait to tell him. They didn’t even give him a chance or an inkling of hope that could have been accomplished by letting him in the damn meeting.

Nico moves close to her again now towering over her, using his height to his advantage as an intimidation method. He looks down to meet her eyes while he pushes her chin up with his knuckle, “No one is holding a gun to our heads to keep us here, you’re just making excuses because you think staying is the right thing to do. They don’t need me when they can make their own shitty decisions.”

Nico actually believing all his bullshit is what made him spoiled. Farrah stares into his eyes, anger making her skin red and her eyes narrow like slits. She could blow. She could tell him all the things he hated about himself, tell him all the thing he was afraid she hated about him. Farrah wasn't stupid, she knew how Nico felt and it would be so easy, too easy, to break his rebellious spirit right now.

But that wouldn't make him stay.

It's cute, the way he's trying to tower over her as if she hadn't fought enemies even taller than him. Besides, if there was one person in this world who would never harm her it was him. "It's not fair," she says, reaching up to hold onto his wrist. "It's not right. And it's so fucking stupid." Stepping closer to him now, her opposite hand settles on his lean torso. He's so warm. "I don't know what I would do if they took Squid, but I do know it wouldn't be this Nico. Doing this doesn't just screw them. It.." Her head ducks, unable to form the words. Emotions like these weren't like her, and they both knew it. She barely showed any affection towards Atlas or even her own siblings. "Don't make me say it," she says softly, turning her head down to kiss the thumb tucked under her chin.

Come in misery, where you can seem as old as your omens And the mother we share Will never keep your proud head from falling The way is long, but you can make it easy on me And the mother we share Will never keep our cold heart from calling

Everything was packed, everything that mattered anyway. They’d sent Arcadia away the same day he found out. His parents left him no time to protest or even beg, so he spat what they thought was an empty threat and stormed off. Nico’s not serious, he knows where he needs to be. On the contrary, Nico was absolutely set in his decision to leave and he knew exactly what he was going to do. Now he was more than angry and maybe she didn’t deserve it, but he whipped around and grabbed her shoulders to stop her.

All of the rage that had been bubbling up inside him spilled out without mercy, “They didn’t even tell me until she was already packed to go! If I’m supposed to lead, that seems like a big fucking decision to make without my input.” His voice was louder than he had ever thought it could be, more vicious than Atlas even. Nico moved his hands to the side of her face and pulled her closer to him, “You can suffer under their thumbs, but I’m done. I’ll go do what I know I am meant to.”

Everything was changing. Everything was falling just out of her grasp. Her fingers tangle in his shirt when he pulls her in, his ferocity unlike the boy she grew up with. She wanted to kiss him. Not because she had any romantic inclination to him in the least, but because he was a part of her and it felt like her limb was being torn off. Atlas. Nico. Her. Atlas. Nico. Her. Atlas. Nico. Her. Over and over in her brain, memories of their childhood. She may act like she doesn't give a shit about a damn thing but they were family.

"I know," she says quietly, unlike herself as well. "Nico, I know." It must feel like he's being torn apart too. She knew how he loved Cadi. "But please, don't do this." But the look in his eyes... There was no changing his mind. Anger swells in her stomach and she ends up shoving him. She shoves him like he's a bounty rather than her best friend.

Her voice is deep with her anger, cheeks flushed pink. "You are the most spoiled son of a bitch," she growls before shouting, "I don't have a choice!" With both her parents dead, she was the only one fit to lead her house. A house older than his own. She had a legacy to uphold, thrust upon her the moment she was conceived.

"Cut the shit Nico," she growled, following on his heels as he marches off to his spaceship. "You're not leaving!" Granted, she'd be pissed too if they sent away Squid but she wouldn't take it this far. This was just stupid. Farrah grabs his shoulder and yanks him until he faces her. "If I have to stick around and deal with these assholes then so do you!"

Maybe she was biased, it wasn't like she'd been able to look Cadi in the face since they were young children. Farrah had her reasons, and they didn't have to be spoken. It wasn't Cadi's fault, really, but it didn't change the fact that it was her powers that took away the person Farrah loved the most in the world.