coffeeshop superpower/villains & heroes trope but make it wuxia au
chapter two. of welcome, what can i get for you - beautiful stranger
synopsis: [reader] works at a rundown inn tucked away in the mountains of huashan, serving chinese cuisine and doing every single shift herself, seeing as the entire staff abandoned their posts to either chase their dreams of becoming "swordmasters" or died in a clash of duels. the workload is manageable enough because on a regular day she's lucky if she sees one or two customers walk through the door. it's peaceful and quiet, exactly how she likes it. though that peace, unfortunately, does not last, because somehow, through what cosmic joke or divine punishment [reader] has yet to determine, great masters, sect leaders, every sword-swinging glory-hungry aspirant with dreams of being "the best in the world," and even the leader of "maninbang" decided that her humble little inn is a marvelous place to eat at.
the morning after was a different kind of disaster.
chung myung couldn't stop thinking about it. which was, objectively the worst possible outcome for someone who was very good at not thinking about things.
he had made it a skill, actually. a skill you develop when you've lived two lifetimes and learned that feelings were mostly inconvenient. and yet here he was, halfway through the city, tripping over sidewalk cracks like a drunkard, his mind stuck in a corner he'd been actively avoiding.
he thought about last night.
the food had been incredible. that much he could admit, no problem there. the alcohol had been good too, it loosened up something in his chest which he usually kept locked down tight. and the woman—
jiejie...
nope. he's not going there.
he just chalked it up to the effects of the alcohol. he tries to convince himself.
it's just a temporary possession, a brief moment where he wasn't entirely himself. the flirting didn't count, the way he'd looked at her across that weiqi board, the soft thing in his voice when he'd called her jiejie—none of it happened, okay?!
it was just the drink talking and he'd be laughed out of mount hua if anyone found out he was acting like a thirteen year old boy who just discovered that girls existed!
he blushed furiously at the thought and nearly walked into a vendor's stall.
"watch it, kid." the vendor called after him.
the thing was, he couldn't figure out how to go back. if he showed up again with his usual confidence, she might think he was continuing...whatever that was from yesterday.
if he didn't show up at all, that would be its own kind of answer and he wasn't about to let someone, anyone of that matter, make him look like a coward! so he was stuck in this weird limbol where his stomach kept doing backflips and his core felt hot and there was absolutely, definitely nothing wrong with him.
it's probably just the food still sitting heavy. (yes really)
he stopped in the middle of the street with hands shoved in his robes and made a decision.
information first! he thought with a clear head.
he'd find someone who knew something about her, some thread he could pull, and then everything would make sense again. people always made sense once you knew their story. this would be the same.
he found a familiar beggar on the street, an old man whose network of contacts and gossip sources probably rivaled half the sect intelligence divisions in the kingdom. the head of the beggars union branch in louyang.
chung myung approached him casually.
"hey you. beggar," he called out.
hong daekwang recognised him immediately. "mount hua's divine dragon!" and sent out a greeting, asking what was it he needed.
"i want information." chung myung responded simply.
they settled down inside, and chung myung sat on a chair like he's the boss.
"do you know of the inn past the east market? ch...chen inn. the one with the plum blossom trees, with a sign nobody can find, and a path that eats wrong turns for breakfast?" he blurted out.
hong daekwang blinked at him slowly with a dumb expression. "...what inn?"
chung myung described it again more careful and detailed, describing the location more precisely as it might suddenly jog the man's memory. plum trees in full bloom. wooden sign brushed in plain black characters. the kind of path that required either insider knowledge or a small miracle and decent luck.
the beggar squinted and thought about it harder than previously but then casually shrugged. "i've never heard of it."
which should have been the end of it, except chung myung wasn't done. no, he was determined!
he tried two more beggars from a different location, a tea seller, a chestnut vendor who seemed to know every breathing soul in the district by name and reputation.
but...
no nothing. no inn.
...what was up with that?! fine, that made sense, the location alone would explain why nobody had heard of it.
so he changed his approach. he asked about the girl instead, just her. divorced entirely from the location. a woman with long hair and a calm voice, she hits like she means business when someone calls her old—
and got absolutely nothing!
not "i don't know her," not "she keeps to herself," not any of the usual half answers people give when they're being polite about not knowing something.
just blank. fucking blank. the same blank you'd get for asking someone what they had for breakfast on a tuesday three years ago because there's literally, nothing to say! and there was no name circulating, no rumors, and no history.
and as far as the entire gossip network of the district was concerned, this woman didn't exist and never had at all.
which made zero sense to him.
everyone existed in somebody's gossip! chung myung had information on people he had talked to for thirty seconds a decade ago.
and this woman who worked in a business, served food, presumably bought supplies and paid someone something—had left behind less of a trail than a damn ghost!!
he fussed about it.
he stood in the middle of the street with that thought in his hands, turning it times and times over with his arms crossed. not knowing whether he wanted to chase it or let it drop.
is there really nothing? he questioned himself finally.
suddenly, his stomach growled, loud and undeniable. reminding him that the inn's food like the pork jiejie cooks dissolves in your mouth like water.
and whatever mystery that woman was and has, it could definitely wait until after lunch...hehe.
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[reader] had woken up late.
the sun was already high when she dragged herself out of bed and by the time she had made it to the inn to open up, it was already past nine.
she stood there at the door for a moment with a key in her hand, wondering if the universe was trying to tell her something. the day had started strange and in her experience, strange mornings led to strange days and strange days were the exact kind of thing she's been trying to avoid her whole entire life.
so exhausting... she grimaced.
but she opened the inn anyway, because, duh, that was the only option available to her.
the morning had been quiet, which should have been good...except she'd spent most of it cleaning and thinking about yesterday which was absolutely not good.
she had gotten curious, which was never a trait that served her wel, and it was that particular curiosity that had her leaving the inn mid morning to track down one of the beggars that congregated near the east market.
she found one easily enough.
[reader] offered him a handful of coins that she'd gotten from her unexpected benefactor the night before, and asked him about mount hua sect's disciples. specifically, about the ones who'd been circulating in people's mouth as of lately.
the beggar had plenty of things to say, which would have been great...except none of it was actually useful!
and everything took twice as long as it needed to. ugh.
jo gul had apparently grown another two inches tall and could supposedly uproot trees now, a claim that had passed through so many mouths it was probably unrecognizable by the time it reached her ears.
yoon jong was described as the steady one. the senior disciple that somehow made everyone around him look bad just through sheer existing without anyone actually resenting him for it.
baek cheon got more of a reverence in the beggar's tone which was usually reserved for retired generals and temple statues. mount hua's righteous sword and according to him, "the only one of them with any sense, which isn't saying much."
yu iseol came up quieter and careful. he went on about her silence was intimidating and that she had beaten a tang clan family member, tang hak, in a duel, completely overpowering him.
and then there was tang soso, who had apparently walked away from her own clan, given that women didn't have much of a future there, to study the sword under a sect best known for nearly getting wiped off the map. the beggar called her "promising" and [reader] had gotten the distinct impression he didn't actually know what that meant and had just liked the sound of it.
but that was all preamble.
the real performance started the moment mount hua's divine dragon came up. the beggar's whole posture changed. his shoulders came up, his voice dropped into the register and then he told her things she already knew...
the divine dragon had dominated the worldly murim competition, cleaned house so thoroughly it was almost embarrassing for everyone else. the divine dragon had hauled mount hua's reputation back from the dead in under a year singlehandedly blahblahblah, the divine dragon could probably flatten a mountain (the beggar wasn't entirely sure on that one, but he wasn't ruling it out either)
[reader] had nodded along to all of it. (painstakingly)
great, she'd thought. and not one word about why he face planted into my compost pile.
she sighed when she got back to the inn, the first of many sighs that would pepper the rest of the morning.
she was secretly hoping that the devil incarnate wouldn't show up at the inn to cause a mess again.
and although he had given her more money than necessary, she preferred to keep her distance anyway. unpredictable people are risky and dangerous to be around. they disturbed the peace and quiet. and quite frankly, you wouldn't really know what to expect around them.
at least he hadn't shown up yet. she was grateful for that much.
except there was a bang outside...
her heart jumped, stupid thing, hoping it wasn't him, not yet, not when she was still so uncertain about how to handle yesterday's events.
but the source turned out to be infinitely more manageable.
two fat raccoons came trotting through the door like they owned the place, riding in on a gust of cool mountain air. their little feet tapping out a rhythm on the wooden floor.
"what do you guys want, hm? i already fed you three sweet potatoes, one corn and two apples," she called out, exasperated.
though they both flinched at the sound of her voice, they came to her feet anyway. snuggling up looking kind of cute that clearly worked on her because she fed them regardless.
"...trash pandas." [reader] clicked her tongue.
at some point, she decided to give them a name properly instead of just "raccoon one" and "raccoon two" .
heizi and baizi.
(heizi = little blackie/black stone)
(baizi = little whitey/white stone)
they had grown on her, these two. but she wasn't about to admit out loud how fond she had become of them.
watching them eat made her stomach growl. she hadn't eaten that morning as she had been in too much of a rush to go find information and now her body was staging a quiet rebellion.
she chose to ignore it and turned her attention to cleaning up the vegetables she had pulled earlier, the ones she'd meant to sort for the raccoons before getting distracted by something else entirely.
her fingers had been reaching for a basket when one piece fell, and that's when she saw it.
a ginseng, old and gnarled, nestled among the regular vegetables as if its not the odd one out.
she picked it up and turned it over in her hands, wondering how something like that had ended up mixed in with her regular supplies. maybe it had come with a shipment, gotten muddled up somehow, she thought.
she paused as she looked at it. and made a decision that would, in retrospect, turn out to be profoundly stupid.
the second she bit into it and swallowed, she knew she had made a mistake.
what the fuck?!?!?!
the poison hit her like a physical thing. spreading from her stomach outward in waves of discomfort that became agony in seconds. her skin had started turning black, the corruption moving outward from her core and she had dropped the ginseng with a gasp.
how am i so unlucky?
[reader]'s legs gave out and she had fallen hard on the floor, ass flat. the impact was jarring and for a moment she just laid there wondering if this was actually how she was going to die, poisoned by a suspicious ginseng.
but her instinct naturally kicked in.
she closed her eyes and focused her qi on expelling the poison through sheer force of will, burning it out of her body in a burst of golden light and power.
heizi and baizi had scattered immediately, their fat little bodies booking it for the exit the second the light started emanating, and she had been left alone on her kitchen floor, gasping, covered in black soot, smelling absolutely horrible.
UGH. [reader] revolted in disgust.
when she had finally caught her breath, and when the black stuff had stopped seeping out of her skin, she looked at what was left of the ginseng with something close to awe.
holy shit.
that was some serious powerful stuff.
damn it... mere poison would be destroyed the moment it entered my body back in the day. she narrowed her eyes. ...have i gone weak?
[reader] sighs and looks up at the ceiling in annoyance. it's been a century since i unsheathed my sword...
then...
this was training material!
so of course she would eat the rest of it.
the second dose had gone down easier. though it still burned on the way through and forced her qi to work overtime to process it, she could feel her core stabilizing, growing denser—stronger, and more resilient than it had been in a century. a warm up, she thought.
finally, something that would actually push her.
"this is really tasty," she breathed out, still crouching on her kitchen floor covered in black residue. "how unfortunate, other people cannot eat such delicacy."
and because the universe had a sense of timing, a familiar voice drifted in from the entrance.
"delicacy? i would love to taste whatever jiejie is eating."
her entire body had gone rigid. she whipped around so fast her neck had cracked audibly, and there he was...
standing in the doorway like some kind of romantic male lead in a stallion novel she reads during her free time, grinning and leaning against the threshold with his arms crossed as if he owns the place.
mount hua's divine dragon.
he was back.
her stomach had done an unhelpful flip (organ failure) she'd been sitting on her kitchen floor covered in poison soot, looking absolutely ridiculous.
even if she knew he'd be back since he always keeps his promises (albeit mostly the bad ones) did he really have to come back when she was stuffing her face with this ginseng looking like a chipmunk?
chung myung, for his part, had taken all of about two seconds to process the situation in front of him.
jiejie was on the floor with a mess scattered all around her and black something seeping out of her clothes and the whole place reeked. and she was eating something that looked suspiciously like it could be poisonous.
"what, why are you—spit it out!" he shouted, his eyes nearly popping out of his skull.
"uhh??"
"do you want to die?! spit that out right now!!!" he roared but she didn't obliged. she just shoved the rest of it in her mouth and swallowed before he could do anything about it.
he stared at her in disbelief, his hands flying to his hair in sheer frustration. "you crazy woman! are you insane?!"
he closed the distance between them in about two strides and grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her as if that would somehow make her cough it back up.
"are you crazy? do you want to die?" he kept saying, words tumbling out in a rush, something that almost sounded like, concern if you squinted at it right.
he cupped her cheek with one hand, opened her mouth to check with the other and examined her face with an intensity that made her forget how to breathe for a second. but still somehow managed to maintain a sort of gentlemanly distance despite clearly freaking out about the whole situation.
"i'm fine," she tried to say, her voice muffled against his fingers. "there's no need to be worried, young disciple. i have experience with—"
"you...you!" he snapped, throwing his hands up. "first you hide an inn where no human being can find it and now you're snacking on lethal weeds like they're candied hawthorns! is this a hobby for you?!"
she flinched so hard she've practically folded in on herself, suddenly smaller, suddenly very aware that she was covered in black poison soot and he was very much not. she hadn't understood what he meant and chose to stay quiet rather than escalate things.
she could feel the fraying edges of his patience, the moment he was about to start yelling again.
he rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "why is she treating me like a child"
"you smell like you swam and danced with rats." he declared, pinching his nose with a look of dramatic disgust. "go take a bath! right now! move move move!"
now that he mentioned it, yeah she does smell like she swam and danced with rats, but did he really have to say it like that?
[reader] tried to argue but he was already grabbing her arm and steering her towards the wash basin room.
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by the time [reader] finished bathing and returned to the main inn, properly dressed and only mildly mortified, chung myung had finished cleaning up the kitchen disaster and was now settling himself at a table as he planned to stay for a while.
she almost wanted to thank him for the cleaning up before remembering that he was the one who bullied her into bathing in the first place.
"you can stop doing that," she said instead, trying for pleasant, trying for professional, trying not to think about the fact that he was now watching her work with such intensity.
"while we see nothing wrong with customers cleaning up, it's my duty to do such things."
chung myung scoffed at her. "i'm all done, there's nothing for jiejie to clean."
she accepted that and moved forward, busying herself with work while he relaxed at his table, rolling his shoulders.
"right...uh, what can i get for you?"
naturally, he ordered his meal next, and it was clear he learned absolutely nothing from his previous visit because he ordered enough food for a small army. two bowls of chicken noodle soup, four steamed dumplings, one spicy marinated tofu, three ribs, and five bottles of aged shaoxing rice wine.
it was lesser than last night's but still a lot for one person.
she stared at the order. damn.
"...the young disciple eats with enthusiasm," she finally managed to say.
"it's good food," he said around a mouthful of something before she even finished serving it. "and don't call me 'young disciple' again." he muttered with distaste.
[reader] didn't understand what he wanted to imply by that. what does he want me to call him then!
so she went to make the rest of the meal, moving through the kitchen with practiced efficiency, and when she returned with everything balanced carefully on her arms, he had already settled into the rhythm of absolutely devouring his meal as if someone would come steal it.
"ahaaha... i'm glad you're enjoying it," she sweatdropped.
[reader] felt a sense of deja vu.
they had fallen into a comfortable quiet after that. with just the sounds of him eating and her sipping her tea at the counter. she had been watching him from behind her cup when he have suddenly spoken.
"you're not drinking with me," he said, not even looking up from his meal.
"...well i'm working."
"you ate poison this morning." now he looked up with his eyebrow raised, staring at her like she was an absolute lunatic. "a whole damn stalk of it. while i was right there screaming at you. people who eat poison don't get to use the 'i'm working' excuse, jiejie." he rolled his eyes.
[reader] nearly choked on her tea, her grip tightening around the ceramic cup until her knuckles went white. her heart gave an unhelpful, frantic thud against her ribs. does he know? no no, no, he can't possibly...
"that was... an accident," she managed, her voice a little too tight, forcing her face into a smooth, blank mask.
"an accident?" he scoffed, pointing a chopstick at her. "you shoved the rest of it in your mouth after i told you it was toxic! throwing it out would’ve been wasteful, you said! who thinks like that?!"
"...a frugal business worker?" she said unsure, her chest squeezing with anxiety.
[reader] quickly grabbed the teapot, her fingers trembling just enough that the porcelain rattled against the tray. she desperately needed him to stop talking about it. "a little poison is... manageable."
he set his cup down with a sharp clack that made her flinch half an inch. "a little poison," he repeated, mostly to himself, shaking his head in sheer disbelief. "you're out of your mind. truly."
her shoulders had crept up half an inch, defensive, her mind racing to find a way to redirect his attention before he started digging deeper into her identity. "i am perfectly ordinary, young disciple. the young disciple exaggerates."
"i don't exaggerate!" he barked, leaning forward over the table, his gremlin energy returning at full force. "you live in a ghost town. you run a tavern that requires a compass and a prayer to find. you play weiqi against yourself and you eat death roots for a morning snack! what part of that is ordinary?!" he said all of that in under five seconds. (impressive)
[reader]'s stomach did a miserable flip. please just eat your soup. please just drop it.
"more tea?" she asked hesitantly, her customer service smile plastered onto her face like a desperate shield as she stepped forward to pour, hoping to drown out his questions with hot water.
he accepted with a grunt and she poured.
chung myung turned his attention toward the weiqi board still sitting at the end of the counter, its stones scattered mid game from yesterday.
his entire face had lit up, the probing tension instantly vanishing into childish excitement. "hey, is that from yesterday?"
[reader] turned to what he was saying. "yes, it is."
"you didn't finish it?"
"i was going to..."
"play me." he demanded suddenly, slapping a hand on the table.
"i, i'm working!" [reader] blurted out, the excuse slipping out automatically because the thought of sitting that close to mount hua's divine dragon while her nerves were already frayed was terrifying.
"you're always working!" he complained loudly, throwing his head back like a toddler being denied a toy. "does this place ever close?! are you a ghost? play a game with me, i paid you enough to buy the whole inn!"
"it closes at night..."
"that's not what i meant!" he groaned, slumping in his seat.
[reader] just opted to chuckle nervously, her heart finally slowing down by a fraction as she quickly retreated behind the safety of the counter.
he looked at her a second too long before deciding the food in front of him was a more of a pressing concern. he got right back to eating.
he randomly pointed at random dishes and asked what was in them, and every so often he'd announce through a mouth full of food that the soup was "almost too good" which she recognized as the highest praise he was capable of giving.
at some point, two small shapes had appeared at the kitchen doorway with noses working overtime, trying to weigh the smell of pork against the very real risk of getting caught.
"..are those the raccoons from yesterday?" he asked, following her gaze.
"yeah, uh, they live around here."
he chewed obnoxiously loud. "they live here?"
"around... there's a difference."
chung myung hummed thoughtfully. "what're they called?"
[reader] debated on giving him the information before deciding it was probably harmless. "heizi, and baizi." she pointed to each.
he contemplated about it for a moment before an idea sparked in him. "oh, like the stones?"
"like the stones."
something flickered across his face. "hmmm. not bad. not bad at all."
"your approval means so much," [reader] said dryly.
heizi had taken that as permission and waddled fully into the room, planting himself directly under chung myung's chair on the very reasonable theory that meat occasionally fell from tables.
chung myung looked down and heizi looked up. neither of them moved for a solid moment.
"don't feed him from the table," she warned, already knowing exactly how this would go.
"i wasn't going to!" he said with a tone that didn't sound convincing at all.
a piece of pork had hit the floor four seconds later.
...brat.
she didn't comment on it and heizi hadn't wasted the opportunity either.
three bottles of shaoxing wine in, the alcohol was loosening his tongue, and chung myung was propping his chin in his hand, squinting at her with that annoying, persistent curiosity of his. "hey. how long have you even lived out here anyway?"
[reader] froze mid wipe, the rag halting against the wooden counter.
the anxiety, which had briefly settled, spiked right back up into her throat. don'tsayanythingsuspicious.
"a—a while," she said carefully. damn it! i stuttered. she cursed herself inwardly.
he visibly frowned. "how long is a while?"
"a while-while."
chung myung let out a loud, frustrated groan, slamming his fist on the table so hard the empty soup bowls rattled. "what the hell is 'a while-while'? is that a number?! just say the number of years!"
she blanched, the color draining entirely from her cheeks and chose not to give an answer. instead, her mind went entirely blank with panic, and she instantly channelled all of her terrifying anxious energy into the rag in her hand. she kept her eyes glued to the counter and began scrubbing a spot that was already perfectly clean with absolute, furious intensity, hoping that if she pretended to be deaf, he would disappear.
he opened his mouth like he wanted to yell but decided against it as it was too much work to argue with a literal brick wall. he slumped back, muttering loudly, "crazy, difficult woman. no wonder you only have raccoons for friends."
[reader] hid her face behind her teacup, allowing herself a tiny, relieved smile, though her hands were still cold from the adrenaline.
i swear i'm a dull and tedious person! there's absolutely nothing suspicious about me!
(and somewhere, in a distant part of her mind, she'd been faintly aware that this was the exact thought that had gotten every protagonist in every story she'd ever read into catastrophic trouble, but she'd chosen, wisely, not to dwell on it.)
eventually the food had run out. chung myung had leaned back with both hands pressed to his stomach, looking like a man who had just won a war against an enemy made entirely of dumplings and his own appetite.
"that," he announced to the empty room, "was good." patting his own belly that gained, like what, five pounds?
[reader] offered an anxious smile. "i'm glad."
he stood up and stretched until something in his back had cracked audibly, before reaching into his robes.
she braced herself for the sound of coins, and was still somehow not prepared enough for when an entire second pouch hit the counter.
[reader] picked it up and felt the weight of it. she stared at him. "...really? are you serious—this is too much again."
"keep it," he said, already moving for the door, rolling one shoulder out as to relieve physical tension. "...call it an apology for yesterday." he murmured so very lowly.
she paused, looking up from the heavy pouch. the lingering anxiety from his interrogations made her want to push back, just a little to regain her footing. (lol)
"...an apology for what, exactly?"
okay somehow that was the worst thing she could have possible said at that time because chung myung froze right at the threshold.
he didn't look cool or mysterious at all. instead, a massive, furious flush of red hit his ears and he whipped around, looking entirely caught off guard and completely scandalized at what she actually said out loud.
he looked less like a grandmaster and more like a red tomato.
"you—! i was drunk!" he barked out, his voice cracking slightly as his usual loud bravado went entirely out the window. "forget it! wipe it from your brain!"
"well i really can't..."
after shamelessly doing those things?
"well, try harder!" he roared, his face entirely red now as he stomped across the threshold. "stupid inn! stupid jiejie! don't expect me back!"
don't threaten me with a good time...
and then he was gone, the door slamming shut behind him so hard the little bell rang aggressively.
she stood there holding a pouch heavy enough to run the inn for a two months (if she counted last nights payment, that'd be five), staring at the space where he had been as if he might materialize again if she looked hard enough.
"huh." she said to nobody in particular.
she looked at the pouch thoughtfully. this kid could probably fund this entire inn for the rest of time and never even notice the money was gone. should i ask the young disciple to be my benefactor?
he was younger than her by roug̵̨̥͍̭̼̳̊͋̀̐͜ͅͅh̵̨̖̭̮̘̪̀̃l̷̥͎̜̱̘͔̋͆̍y̵̧̨̨̰̬̼̖̣̟̾́̿̅̓̒͘͘ ██5███ ŷ̵̥̭̹̣̱̺̊̈́̆̊͗̉̑̕e̵̪͍̪̼̦͚͙̭̜͐̍͆͘ͅa̷͖̒̌̎̿̎͝rs, he drank like it was a competitive sport, and called her an old hag within ten minutes of meeting her.
absolutely not. she had standards!
if anything, it should go the other way around. she should be the one tossing him a pouch of coins and telling him to enjoy himself. that was how the natural order of things worked.
[reader] cleaned up the place rigorously. she swept where he had tracked in dirt and put the go board away properly this time since no one would be coming back to it today. heizi and baizi had relocated to a sunny patch by the stove and curled into a single lump of fur, completely unbothered by the chaos that had unfolded just hours earlier.
"sigh. you two have it easy," she told them, meaning every word.
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by the time she finished closing up, the light had shifted again, that same gold and long quality it had yesterday, the plum trees casting soft shadows across the path. she locked the door and flipped the sign, before she started the walk home with her basket on her arm and two raccoons trailing behind her.
the forest was quiet. the creek caught the last of the light in scattered gold pieces. somewhere above her, a bird called twice then went silent.
she had no idea that several hundred meters up and to her left, on a rock outcropping that offered an unreasonably good view of the path below, someone was watching her go.
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chung myung had found the spot by accident the first time, scrambling up whatever rock was closest just to put distance between himself and his baek sasuk who was chasing him for stirring trouble. (yet again)
he hadn't planned on coming back. and yet here he was again with a bottle in hand, watching a woman walk home with two raccoons trailing behind her as if it's the most natural thing in the world for a person to do.
he sat on the edge with one knee drawn up, the other leg dangling, a half empty bottle hanging loosely from his fingers.
below, [reader] paused at the creek and crouched down for a moment. she said something to one of the raccoons that he couldn't hear and kept walking.
he drank but he couldn't really taste anything.
something was happening in his chest and he didn't have a name for it.
it wasn't poison, he'd checked that twice already as his core was completely clean. not hunger, not after the meal he'd just put away, (though admittedly his appetite operated on different rules than normal people)
whatever he was feeling, it sat low and warm and refused to leave. and the longer he watched her disappear and reappear between the trees, the worse it got.
he frowned at the bottle as if it provided answers he wanted.
he had met a lot of people in his time. understatement! considering he lived two lives now, the first one ending on a battlefield that smelled like blood and plum blossoms, the second one currently in progress. sect leaders, emperors, one man who'd insisted with total sincerity that he was actually three people stacked inside a coat.
chung myung liked to think he had a fairly comprehensive catalog of human behavior by now.
but this woman didn't fit anywhere in it.
it wasn't the strength. he had plenty of suspicions there, but he was filing those under later for now. plenty of people were strong (in a way...)
it wasn't the strangeness either and although she was plenty strange, what kind of person lives this far out, runs a place nobody can find, and treats an old poisonous root like a snack? strange people were usually the interesting ones in his experience.
it was something underneath that.
he hated not knowing things. that was just true about him, same as his preference for good food, same as his hatred of the nine great sects, same as never once in either of his lives developing anything resembling a soft spot for someone who wasn't from mount hua.
he was bad at this whatever this was. he had known that about himself for over a hundred years and made his peace with it.
below, [reader] reached the bottom of the path. the trees swallowed both her and the raccoons. she was gone.
he sat there a while longer anyway. (thinking about her...)
chung myung drank again and lay back against the rock with the bottle balanced on his chest, before watching the sky start to bruise purple at the edges.
he told himself, with all the confidence of a man about to be catastrophically, spectacularly wrong, that there was absolutely no way some strange woman running an inn in the middle of nowhere was going to be that someone who finally cracked through years of him simply not caring about people.
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murim secrets: y/n is ancient! is she who she believes herself to be?
[a/n]: sorry for the late update (T-T) school is killing my ass. also i had fun writing this🫶 was giggling all the time
hii! can I request a crush x reader fic? This is gonna be kinda specific but one where reader is crying in the hallway over period cramps, and crush comforts them; but reader is surprised bc they thought crush didn’t like them? But rlly crush is just kind of a very nonchalant, casual jokes, not expressing affection well kinda of person
Comfort for period cramps, comfort for PMS, Friends to lovers yada yada
Thank u sm! I love ur fics and I recently read the Jason one and rlly loved it.
xoxo Rae <3
Cramps
Pairing: crush x reader
Summary: req^^
Warnings: period cramps
Word count: 1.4K (short, sorry)
First crush x reader fic tell me if u hate it lol
You didn’t expect it to be bad that day, but you were already at school. With only two periods left in the day, you figured you could tough it out.
Boy, were you wrong.
It was in your Pre-Calculus class that your cramps got really bad. The sharp, stabbing pain in your abdomen hit almost halfway through the class and you didn’t have any pain killers to make it better.
Asking your friends for anything only got you a strict scolding from your teacher, so you just raised your hand and asked to go to the bathroom.
You had originally planned to just go to the nurse, your cramps got much worse along the way so you were forced to find a secluded corner to duck into. Sitting silently with your knees hugged against your chest, you tried to hold in the bile that threatened your throat.
You could do nothing at the moment other than tuck your head into your folded arms and cry.
Somehow, a pair of footsteps had found your cry corner. You didn’t so much as notice that you had another person in front of you until you lifted your head to wipe your eyes only to be met with a pair of legs.
You flinched back at the unexpected presence, hitting your back against the wall behind you before realizing that you knew the person there.
“How long have you been standing there?” You tried to make a light joke of the situation, but it came out more depressing than you intended.
“Only a few seconds.” He dropped his backpack onto the ground next to you and knelt down so that he was at your level. “Are you okay? What happened?”
Letting out a wet laugh, you wiped a stray tear. “It’s nothing.”
“If it was nothing, you wouldn’t be sitting here crying.” His eyebrows knitted in concern. You didn’t know why, but the simple motion caused butterflies to erupt in your stomach— almost enough for you to forget about your cramps. Almost.
Your face flushed red. You knew that he wouldn’t give in until you told him, so you accepted your fate. “‘M on my period,” you muttered quietly.
Your crush stared back at you blankly. “I, uh, didn’t hear that.”
“I’m on my period, okay? I have really had cramps so just- it’s fine.
“Oh.” You could see on his face that he expected you to tell him about some friendship drama or boy trouble and quite frankly, t made you want to crawl in a hole and die. Of all people, your crush found you crying in the school hallway over period cramps and you just told him about it.
You groaned in embarrassment, regretting not making up a story and preparing to get up and go back to class in shame.
The second you reached for your backpack, though, he stopped you.
“No! Sorry, I… I don’t really know how to reach cause I don’t really… get those.”
“Oh.” That made you backtrack slightly. “So you’re not grossed out or anything?”
“No, I just don’t really… do you want me to get something from the nurse? I have Ibuprofen in my bag, but I don’t know if-“
“Ibuprofen would be a lifesaver.”
He wasted no time ruffling through his backpack to grab out the small bottle and dropped a few small pills in your hand.
You took them quickly and sat back against the wall to wait for the pain relievers to kick in. C/n joined you after a moment, following your gaze towards the opposite wall.
“Thanks for uh, not being weirded out or anuthing. I swear this isn’t a thing I do often.” Once again, your joke unfortunately fell flat.
You felt a hand on yours in the next moment. It wasn’t unwelcome, but it was a surprise. I mean, he was holding your hand. The guy you like is holding your hand and looking so cool and- you looked at your crush curiously, but didn’t protest and let that moment of peace just breathe between the two of you.
Of course, it wasn’t long before your curiosity was simply bursting out of you, so you just had to ask.
“Y’know, I kind of thought you didn’t like me.” His head turned to you curiously, silently prompting you to go on. “You’re always so… stoic, and we don’t really talk much- well, you don’t really talk much when I come up to you.”
He cracked an almost incredulous smile. “Are you kidding? Of course I like you- you’re one of the coolest people I’ve met in a while.”
“Then why’re you so-“
He scratched the back of his head nervously. “It’s stupid, but I don’t really know how to act around you. My brain kind of… short circuits if that makes sense? So I just keep quiet.”
“Well,” your face flushed but you turned away so that he couldn’t see. “I think that’s kind of cute.”
Echoes of a Past Slayer — Demon Slayer Various X Reader
Chapter One — Was It Fate? Or Your Own Stupidity?
Previous — X // CHPTR 1 — You made it! // CHPTR 2 — Here!
Masterlist — Here!
Directors' Cut — Heyyyyy! Welcome to the first chapter of my Demon Slayer Canon insert! I have read a couple in the past, and they are just so much fun, I finally got the courage to write one myself! Mainly, @ islandsofviolence on AO3 was a big factor of me wanting to create my own tale. Please check out their Demon Slayer Isekai called, "Kimetsu no...Isekai? [Demon Slayer Various X Reader]" on AO3, it is a super fun read. I hope you stick around to read more as I intend to write many more chapters to this because this was very fun to do~! Thank you for taking the time to read my work.
Word Count — 6.9K Words
Reader Gender — Female (She/Her)
Warnings — Cursing (from Reader and various other characters), Canon-typical violence, slight changing of the actual story of Demon Slayer
What is Fate?
The order in which one’s life will progress is the base understanding of our existence. We appear through the lens of existence for a brief moment in time, this exact moment, and we get to experience life. Thriving and full, or empty and tragic—such is the balance we must endure. Our entire world dangles on a thread barely standing on the precipice of succeeding to breathe another time or fall into the icy cold grip of demise. Though only two things in life are a guarantee, something that everyone and everything shares together. You are born, and you die. We never know when either event is going to be, where it is going to be, but it’s there.
Can you control it? Can you avoid a predetermined path? Invisible to your eyes, but straight in front of you at every moment? Should you avoid it? Will life become even more of a hellhole if you defy nature?
Can you even begin to declare making the choice of defying Fate if that is exactly what Fate had in mind for you? The “choice” to deviate and be “different from the rest”; is it even a “choice” at all?
Fickle and fleeting is the life of the fool who labors over such mundane concerns.
Well, a fool you certainly are, if that’s what you’re thinking about when a pair of sharpened talons and vicious eyes honed in on your throat is in front of you at the moment.
You’d be lying if you said you had “no idea” how you got caught up in this whole ordeal. Earlier that day, your crow had given you the task of hunting another demon in the next town over. You’d kicked up a fuss at the time, having only just finished a mission an hour prior, begging the warden keeping your downtime locked away from you for one extra night to recuperate.
“Quit pouting,” your crow, Hoshiko, squawked as it dived to deliver a peck right to the top of your head, barely missing when you hastily ducked its ambush, “You must head off! Slayers just beginning their journeys with the Slayer Corps have been dying in much too numerous amounts as of late, so you must provide aid to the slayer in need!”
“You realize I've also only recently passed the trials too, right?” you sassed to the bird. A yelp escaped you as the bird persisted you to move on with threats of more pecks. You decided to stop complaining, if only for the sake of being able to help the new recruit. You remembered how grueling your first set of missions were after you’d completed the horror show known as the Final Selection. It’s only been a year since you passed, but the visions of those seven nights have yet to leave your mind. You’re not sure they ever will. Thinking back, you would have been eternally grateful to the Corp for sending a more experienced slayer to provide aid if things got out of hand. A particularly nasty injury you got on your back, that has since healed, began to ache at the reminder of the battles you faced. Fixing your breastplate to sit comfortably again on your torso after it had moved during your fight, you decided to shove the memory back into the vault, and focus on packing up.
You took off not too long after, waving to the family you’d rescued during the wee hours of the morning. The two children, a young boy and a girl slightly older than him, were sobbing into your shoulders, gripping your uniform with their tiny, shaking hands. Their overwhelming relief made perfect sense, you had just saved their lives from the clutches of the snarling demon only a few minutes prior. The parents were no better off, throwing their arms around the three of you in a frenzy of tears and wails of gratitude. “Thank you for saving our babies!”, they profusely sobbed over and over to you. You took their sopping thanks with as much grace as you could provide after feeling exhausted and sweaty from the battle. Though, seeing the parents fuss over their children and plant wet kisses all over their red faces made it worth it.
Miraculously, as thanks, they sent you away with a huge helping of the dinner they were so rudely interrupted during. That act gave you all the strength you needed to take off and tackle the next horde of beasts you would face. You walked for hours, observing the rolling hills of grass and the forests you passed through bursting with life. The trees stretched tall and expanded wide, showing the thriving health of the woods. Life thriving never fails to make you smile.
You passed by farm after farm, most harvesting their latest crop of rice, some growing sweet potatoes. Children playfully chased each other through the fields, laughing together. Young adults—their parents, no doubt—hollered at them to be careful to not hurt the budding crops. An older couple passed you as you moved onward. You gave them a formal bow, wanting to show respect by bidding them a good day. The woman giggled at your action, expressing her delight in how nice of manners you possessed, and placed two hard candies into your palm with only the gentleness a beautiful woman could. She gave your head a gentle pat and she and her husband bid you a nice day. You watched them walk off, arm in arm, conversing about this and that, just sharing their time and love with each other. It made you smile how they shared the little pleasures that they knew would make their other half happy. You stopped only a handful of times after that to munch on the helping of dinner you received and poke fun at Hoshiko, eventually reaching the town you were assigned to investigate. Crossing a large wooden bridge arching over the lapping river below, you see the town.
It was dusk, the sun slipping slowly behind the mountainous landscape. Pinks, oranges, yellows, and blues bled into each other in the darkening sky. Clouds began to blot the skyline, not dark enough to suspect rain, but thick enough to blanket the world in darkness. The perfect time to begin the hunting of a demon.
From the little light that was left for the day, your eyes scanned about. Well built, sturdy buildings filed together in singular lines in uniform fashion. Dozens of homes and shops with blue roofs stand firmly. Shops had big painted signs displayed outside with their names brushed in bold colors. Wares were dotted along the busier roads in front of shop doors to entice curious onlookers inside. Power lines draped along the streets like curling vines dangling from their place in the high treetops above. A looming peak stood proud on the border of the city, its jagged crown stabbing the cloudy sky.
The faint waft of freshly cut pine wood filled your senses. Earthy and heady, it grounded you. Various insect chirps buzzed through the air and electricity surging through the lines gave the night a familiar comfort. The shuffling of people’s feet as they make their way home for the night, the creaking of branches with the budding life of spring, a wind chime singing far off in the distance—all of this spelled out the signs of a peaceful village. But, you knew better, as a monster lurked in the shadows somewhere, threatening to desecrate the happiness of these townsfolk.
Rather immediately rushing in to behead the demon, you bide your time. As much as you want to slay the demon on your own to get this mission over quicker, this wasn’t your task. The task you were assigned to, you made sure to clarify with your crow, was to interfere as little as possible with the fight that will ensue, and simply provide aid to the new recruit. This was meant to be their fight, but if the battle began to prove fruitless, then you had permission to take the helm.
To make use of yourself, you decided to walk through the desolate alleyways of the village in search of clues of the demon’s whereabouts that may have been left behind. A torn scrap of attire of a poor victim of the demon’s slaughter, a lost shoe, a splatter of blood, dried or fresh—anything. You had the awareness to keep an eye and ear out for the slayer that was supposed to already be around somewhere. You saw and heard nothing for a while. Lights that had been flickering in windows of the townsfolk’s homes were now beginning to be snuffed out for the evening. Chattering died into meager whispers.
The hour drew much later into the night, and the lack of sleep was starting to get to you. Two nights and a full day of walking in the hot sun drained the life out of you, not to mention the fight with a whole different demon the day before was nothing to lift your nose at. The only thing keeping you awake at this point is your game of gently humming a familiar tune and quizzing yourself on if you could remember where it was from. You were starting to wonder if there really even was a slayer being sent to this location. Hell, maybe there wasn’t even a demon in the first place! Who knows. Funny thought, but you knew that the higher ups wouldn’t waste your time with a fake mission.
“Hmm…,” you rounded another corner. Nothing. Nothing but pitch black emptiness and a couple pieces of litter. Random glass bottles tipped over and broken, a half-eaten fried fish on a stick from one of the local vendors no doubt, and a few crumpled up sheets of, now drenched and grossly stained, paper. Your eyebrows pinched down, a dirty look forming on your features. You moved on, a complaint ready to dig at nobody on your tongue.
“Ugh,” you sighed, “Demon sure is takin’ its time. Is it not hungry? Is that why it hasn’t begun hunting? Hm, not likely. Demons are always gluttons,” you glowered as you carefully lifted your foot high and forward enough to avoid stepping in a sticky clump of some garbage plopped on the ground.
You continued to rant to yourself, “Hoshiko better give me a smoother mission next time, or I swear on that bird’s life, I’ll add a new fashion statement to my uniform. A feather boa! I mean, is it so hard to say, ‘Hey, (Y/N)! Since you’re such a great slayer, the big boss decided to send you to a bustling, bright town! You can relax, and eat all the delicious food you desire—aw heck, you know what? You don’t even have to hunt the demon here! Just take the day off, you’ve earned it!’. Would be much nicer than sifting through…whatever this stuff is,” your face pulled into another disgusted twist as you saw two rats fighting over what looked to be an old, moldy pastry.
“Okay. Quit complaining, (Y/N). Now, which way haven’t I gone yet? I think I’ve checked the whole West and North ends. Maybe move more towards the East—,” a shrill grating sound pierced the deafening silence that had swallowed the land. That shut your mouth tight. Your head shot over in its direction. East. Damnit. You left no time for hesitation, already darting out of the alley and rushing off into the darkness enveloping the roads towards that terrible noise that was rattling off.
You raced along, jumping up high to sprint atop the thin walls lining streets, sharp eyes scanning for any sign of a fight breaking out. Hopefully the new slayer isn’t inept enough to get themselves killed before you arrive. You didn’t want to arrive and see a gory massacre. You ran faster at the harrowing thought, closing in on the beacon. The sound was more aggravating than scary, if you were being honest. It made the back of your tongue unconsciously curl up like a viper ready to strike, the muscle trying to block the vicious resonance from bouncing around in your skull. You pull a face at how ugly it rang, your highly trained ears wincing at the intrusion of such an awful shriek as you neared. Finally, you arrived at the epicenter.
You hopped down from the ledge of the fence into the mouth of a street hidden behind a few residential housing structures. The road was rather lack-luster from an architectural standpoint. Only the wooden fencing surrounding the backyards of the houses and a few entrances to more homes that were latched shut for the night. Though, the scene that lay before you was anything but ordinary.
There were two people, a man and a woman, cowering off to the side. The woman appeared to be passed out in his arms, judging from the limpness of her posture. The man was trembling but not looking at the woman in his arms. Instead, he gazed out further into the road as if just having seen something horrific. Telltale signs that you're exactly where you need to be. Demons spark that primal fear in humans, and only a demon can drag that expression out of someone.
A few paces ahead of the couple, a boy with a large wooden box on his back and a green and black checked haori draped on his back was pointing a blade at something hidden in shadow. The color of the metal was as black as the night sky. That told you he was most likely the beginner slayer you needed to aid. From what you’ve heard from your personal swordsmith, only indecisive and inexperienced slayers get that color of blade gifted to them from the Gods. At last, your final obstacle. A creature halfway poking out of the ground was the recipient of the end of the slayer’s blade. A portal of some kind shields the rest of its body from your view, murky black water lapping at the edges of the foe’s torso. Its hideous face was constrained in a deep frown, its brow bone framing blood red eyes that practically glowed with intensity. Blue hair draped long down its back in a repulsive waterfall. Its stare was beaming straight at the boy with mahogany-colored hair, hardly acknowledging the man and the woman nearby.
Your heart said to jump in and protect the boy and those caught in the crossfire of the fight, but you held back. Remember. You were tasked with aiding the slayer in case they could not handle the mission, not to rush in and risk yet another life. You’d just get in the way. You had to stay put. No matter the ache you felt, no matter the fear or worry about another person’s life. Your loyalty was to your master, not some random boy.
Though…why does it feel like you know him, even though you know you have never met?
You stalked closer into the fray just as the demon began hollering in anger. Not at you, but at the boy pinning him to his spot with his sword.
“You bastard!” The demon shouted at the slayer staring him down. As you neared, you noticed that with the hellish eyes and furrowed non-existent brows, two horns sat crudely across from each other on its forehead, jabbing outward with the same likeness as the mountain at the edge of this town. You locked your dominant hand steadily along the shaft of your weapon, your beloved naginata, lifting it from its resting spot on your shoulder and lifting up your other hand to firmly grasp the pole. You’d long since removed the scabbard from the blade, so there was no hesitation from not being prepared. The red gloss of your naginata’s pole glinted in the moonlight. You continued to examine the scene. You wanted to test the idea of an ambush approach as the demon hasn’t shown that it's noticed you yet.
The creature clenched its fists and pointed at the girl helplessly asleep in the arms of the civilian, “Back off for crying out loud! That girl’s gonna go stale on me, dammit! That girl’s already 16, okay? If I don’t devour her soon, she’s gonna lose flavor by the second!” You wanted to rush in already at the vulgar words spat out by the wretched beast. Absolutely disgusting, all of them. Vile cretins being shit out by the dozens by the demon lord’s work. None of them were salvageable. You wanted to roll your eyes, but another mucky puddle appearing from seemingly out of nowhere swept the thought of showing the demon a thing or two away.
“Calm down, my other self. So what? There are going to be nights like this.” You couldn’t see its face—no doubt it was just as hideous as the other one before you, but you could tell that it was nearly a mirror image of the other demon not too much further ahead. You could faintly see a singular horn sticking straight up from its skull rather than mirroring the dual horns of its “other self”. It was wearing slightly different clothes than the same demon a few yards ahead, it wore a greyish blue nagagi with mesh forearm sleeves, while the other wore a shinobi-style fighting uniform with a mesh undershirt. The same long blue hair hung down its back, the same sickly grey skin tone, the same tones in its vocal inflection. This demon must have spent quite a long time working with its own mutation blood art. Some were better at manipulating their skills than others, but all demons were capable of using it.
You moved your naginata further outward to have a clear shot at the new guest’s neck. If this added threat decided to get cocky, rush backwards, and go for you instead, you’d be ready.
It raised its hand to cup its chin, “I’ve already fed on plenty of 16-year-old girls in this town. They were all quite meaty and delicious~. I’m satisfied.” You could practically hear the smirk in its voice. You bit down a curse, so many innocents lost. Too many good young women lost to these disgusting things. Unclean, unfaithful, unworthy. You hoped it suffered wherever it ended up once it was slain. It wants a reaction. You know this. You inhale and exhale slowly. The slayer and the demon had yet to say anything about your appearance on the outskirts of their fight, nor did they give any indication that they knew you were standing there. You would like to keep it that way for the latter party.
With a pathetic whine, the demon with two horns on the opposite end groaned, “Well, I’M not satisfied, my other self! I wanna consume more!” It panted and shivered with its lust for the flesh of the living.
“You monster…,” the man who had been shaking like a poor leaf near the wall grit out. You didn’t blame him for his fear. Monsters were supposed to be fictional. And yet, here you are, stuck in a beautiful nightmare.
He took a defiant step towards the monster ahead, though his voice cracked under the pressure of confronting the beast, “Return Satoko to me. The one you abducted the night before last!” The man demanded, but it came off as more of a plea rather than any threat.
Shooting from the darkness, the terrible grinding began again. You cringed and saw a third demon nastily crushing and gnashing its own teeth together in a frenzy on the roof to the left of you. Its lower jaw ran at an unbelievable rate, rubbing and scraping to send out an ear-splitting rattle. It did not speak actual words, but it sure took the attention of the room. Soon after, the demon with two horns on its head joined in the decrepit language of poor dental hygiene.
Speaking through its co-partners' chittering, the seemingly most level-headed of the three demons—the one with the singular horn—took the helm, “Satoko? Which one are you babbling on about?” The leader lifted the left side attire, revealing something you couldn’t see because of your position. It was then that the demon slayer and the man turned around to face both you and the demon. Both of them shared a surprised look in their eyes at your arrival, but you raised a hand to silence any comments they could make to blow your cover. You slowly lowered your hand into position again, and winding back your stance. You naginata glistened with an opalescent sheen along the blade of your Nichirin ore. When you received your naginata from the swordsmiths that day so long ago, you surprised everyone around with the color the blade took on. From the nature of the Breathing style blooming throughout your body, it influenced the metal to turn an opaque white. A white so pure it rivaled that of the stars. The quality of the blade was evident in the power it stored slowly ramping up. You felt the wind around you churn into a spiraling wall surrounding you on all sides as you thought these words in your head.
Instinct Breathing…
“If her hairpin is among these collectibles of mine, then I’ve devoured her~,” A cruel snicker followed these harrowing words.
Third Form…
The silence that followed the monster’s haunting reveal gave you your answer. You couldn’t sit by and leave these people in the threat of danger. Demon slayer, or not. You’re better than that. A breath sent straight to the depths of your core was the finish of your long wind up.
Honed Vigilance of the Sturdy Soldier.
You launched forward, having built up so much force behind your swing that the singular step alone carried to the monster’s weak point. In a flash, you brought down the blade of your naginata, lining up perfectly to land the first and final blow. Without warning, all three demons slink back into the swampy muck. However, you anticipated this. Though your blade couldn’t fully connect with its intended target, you stuck it further forward than the demon thought you could. With the added length of the shaft of your weapon, you were able to at least slice open part of the soft flesh of the demon’s neck. It was a warning—no, a promise. A promise that your perfect blade wouldn’t miss next time.
Your gaze darts around, searching for any sign of the triplets, but nothing appears yet. You lifted your eyes to acknowledge your fellow slayer, but were greeted with the eyes of pure hatred. It stunned you for a second. How strange. After a lifetime of seeing the eyes of malicious people with ill intent, human and demon alike, you wouldn’t have expected such passionate eyes and rosy cheeks to be torn apart with such a ghastly rage. Given the situation, you can’t say you’re entirely surprised that the boy is expressing such powerful emotions, but did he know this poor girl? Does he share the same grief of the man who looks beyond shattered after the reveal of its master plan? Why is he so devastated? You’re intrigued, but the questions can come later.
“Unforgivable. Vermin like these cowards don’t deserve to be graced with the honor of a quick death my blade brings,” you say, mostly to yourself, but the slayer catches your words. You care not to give him an explanation, especially when a dripping puddle forms just to the right of you. One of the demons clambers out with a swift leap. It aims for your face, its claws lashing out to strike. You move quicker, propelling your torso backward and smacking the roach with the pole of your naginata. The hit forces the demon to miss your body and instead lodge its outstretched arm into the stone wall beside you. The slayer thankfully catches on to your evasion and helps by slicing the demon’s arm clean off. A rather refreshing splash of cool water dripped onto your arms after his attack. Making sure it was not the blood of the demon, you can guess what his Breathing style is now. Always helpful to have a Water Breathing user around.
While he did manage to hit the target, it wasn’t exactly the right spot. You saw the flaws in his form. It was obvious he did have formal swordsman training, but he was still rather clunky in his preparation for the finishing blow. You saw him attempting to move his body into the correct position to match up with the timing of his Breathing technique, wiggling a squirming as his legs and arms fought against the natural power his body held. It left too many openings for his enemy to evade the slice that matters the most—the one to the neck. Demons weren’t like humans, cutting off a limb or slitting their throat wouldn’t prove fatal. You have to sever the spine from the skull with a true Nichirin blade to ensure a definite kill. That, or the sun—but only idiotic or regretful demons allow themselves to be burnt alive by its warmth.
With not a single peep of distress, the demon slunk back into its home in the mud. No time is given to either of you to process the retreat as another well of water forms next to the slayer. You watch as the slayer reacts with stunning efficiency, flipping his body up and over the attacking demon. As the vermin tries to launch back into the ground, it gives you just enough time to swipe at its throat again. Though, the demon tucks down its head, and your blade only meets its back. You decorate its left shoulder blade all the way to its right hip with a deep slash. You bit back a curse again, damn. They’re quick.
The slayer dodges a swift jab from below from one of demons hiding in a pond, but it proves to be a distraction as the opponent with two horns takes a stab at him from behind. Oh no. You can’t get there fast enough. You can’t bring your blade up quick enough to slash off its arm. The boy is going to be attacked and you can’t reach him. No. You can’t stop the attack without potentially harming the other slayer, you don’t stop. You can’t explain why you did this because no thought drove you to. Your body just moved on its own. It was just instinct.
You put yourself between the slayer and the oncoming attack.
However, the attack that connects doesn’t quite come from the angle you expected.
Nothing prepares you for the moment the slayer’s box he’s been lunging around on his back swings open with a ferocity you haven’t seen in awhile. You also couldn’t have been prepared for a strong leg to come out lightning fast directly after and CRACK across the demon’s face dead on. That hit quite literally sent it spinning, its head swiveling in circles on its spine and its body launched back a couple yards. You saw it lay there motionless on the ground. No way it's dead, right? As you picked up your jaw up off the ground and turned your gaze to whatever the hell could be hiding in the box, all you saw were claws.
This is where we found you when we first started. A pair of sharpened talons and vicious eyes honed in on your throat as you prepare to be torn apart by a demon draped in a pink kimono with black and orange hair.
You don’t have time to prepare your weapon for any attack. The demon is too close to get a good hit either way. It’s too fast, faster than any opponent you’ve faced before. All you can do is stare as she guns to swipe her knife-like nails across your delicate throat and end your days. Though, that blow is never completed. You blink, and suddenly, the demon doesn’t look so monstrous anymore. Suddenly, she’s just a girl. Gentle pink eyes with round irises gaze at you, blown out from their previously cinched slits. The deep veins previously thrumming on her forehead that carry her potent demon blood now smooth down into soft, flawless skin. Her expression doesn’t look nearly as petrifying anymore. In fact, you’d go so far as to say that her eyebrows are no longer furrowed downward in anger, rather, they’re pinched up in…worry? Concern?
…What the hell?
You stand scared stiff as the girl fully exits her home in the box. She stands on sturdy legs and shuffles slowly closer to you. You can only watch as the girl directs a kindhearted ‘hmm?’ through a muzzle made of bamboo at you. Yeah, you think you’re seeing things too. Is that the new fashion trend of this era for demons? Safe to say, you’re not gonna jump on the bandwagon for that one anytime soon.
Sassy thoughts aside, you continue to stare perplexed at the girl. Why is a demon standing in front of you and not attacking? Matter of fact, why has the only thing she, a DEMON, attacked so far been another demon? Weren’t there wars or some shit between demons that outlawed them hurting each other? Hey, don’t judge, mystical mind reader! You’re not a demonologist or anything, you don’t know all the thousand-year wars between demons and their blood feuds…WAIT A SECOND, THAT SLAYER WAS—!
“Why would a mere human be accompanying a demon?” The leader demon with one horn muttered to itself in boiling fury. The demon girl took a battle stance, facing the demon still laying on the ground. You glanced over at the demon barely poking its body out of the puddle and barely caught its look of disdain before it slunk back into the void. With a quiver and a shake from the motionless foe still on the ground, the two-horned demon’s head began to whirl wildly in the opposite direction that it had originally been sent spinning in. She must have pummeled the wretch good because its head took a few seconds to finally slow to a stop once it reached its natural position. The body was then consumed in a sludgy mess of ick, disappearing from sight. Back into the darkness the demons fled.
With the fleeting moment of rest, you took a second to gather yourself. A cold sweat had broken out all over your body at the appearance of the girl and from nearly escaping death by her hands. You steadied your grip on your naginata. She’s a demon. There’s no way she’s not. A kick that powerful cannot be human. It also explains why she can curl up inside a box for who knows how long. The box. The slayer. He had to have known she was in there, the weight alone would have given it away. If he knew she was in there…he must know. He has to know she’s a demon. He’s harboring a demon instead of killing it. He’s hiding the enemy. He’s an enemy.
The demon girl had taken the chance while you were in shock to wander over to the man and the woman. She had raised up her hands to their faces, almost like a mother trying to sweetly cup the cheeks of her babies. Oh my God, she’s going to rip their faces off. She’s toying with them.
She’s going to hurt them.
They only hurt people.
Help them.
Protect the innocent.
Yet again, you don’t think, you just move.
With no warning, you rocket forward. Your naginata is outstretched to reach the creature quicker as you aim straight for the demon’s vertebrae. This time, you won’t miss.
Too bad the “hapless little” slayer you were tasked to babysit stops your onslaught with a hefty block of his own katana. A mighty CLASH of steel on steel echoes throughout the walls of the back alley road. Your breath is steady and calm as you draw it in to fuel your Breathing technique. Years of training has led you to breath this deeply unconsciously, it has been like this for you for since you were young. The boy’s is shaky and uneven. He tries to catch your eyes with his own, trying to reason with you through a wordless plea for mercy, but you don’t give him the chance. You stare through his head with a thousand yard stare. You’re honed in on her neck peeking through her unbelievably long black locks. He’s not a threat, he’s just an obstacle. A hiss resonates from your blades dragging against one another. Though his stance is weaker than your own, the fire you can sense blazing within his soul confirms your suspicions from before. His passion extends to everything, not whether or not he personally knows the woman who died. He’s just that kind of soul. It would be honorable, if he wasn’t being such a deplorable little nuisance.
“Let me explain—,” he tries to reason, but you hold your own. Only when he speaks up do you finally greet his nervous irises with your own infuriated ones.
“Explain what? That you’re as dishonorable as they come? Harboring a demon? Not only refusing to slay the enemy, but also preventing another slayer from cleaning up the mess you left behind?!” You step back. The movement forces the boy to nearly trip over from how hard he was pushing back against you. You bring down a harsh swing of the wooden pole of your weapon straight into his side. He coughs and hacks, the air shoots out of his lungs. He noticeably struggles from the force of your blow. Yet, he continues to stand tall. He blocks the incoming swipe of your blade with a counter slash of his own and delivers a hard shove with his weapon. You stumble back, witnessing him form a defensive wall in front of the girl, stance wide and body ready to retaliate your advances with more strength than ever before.
“I refuse to hurt you, but I won’t let you kill Nezuko!” The boy yells at you with incredible volume. After gasping for air from when you slammed your staff into him, you’re surprised he can even speak. You continue to observe him, processing his words. Nezuko. That’s the girl’s name. Hm. How the hell did you learn the name of the girl who's not supposed to even BE here and haven’t caught the slayer’s? The Corps needs to get better at disclosing what nutcases you’re going to be saddled with in the future.
Before you could shout your own overflowing anger back out at him, your little spat is interrupted by the swamp demons. Two of them slither back up to the surface like writhing worms both holding frustrated expressions upon their faces. You sigh, eyeing who you now know as “Nezuko”. It pisses you off. You don’t want to stop trying to slay the demon, but there are more pressing matters at hand. Namely, the three demons who are actively trying to kill you all right now. The only thing good about Nezuko so far is that she hasn’t actually tried to eat you yet, so, small blessings, you suppose.
The slayer seems to have noticed them too. With a smack of your lips, you cut away from the duo. You ready up your naginata, aiming at the demons lingering in the background and charging up another form, when the girl demon does another thing that surprises you.
You distantly hear the slayer calling Nezuko’s name, but you don’t acknowledge it as you see her face toughen up the same way it did when she first attacked the demon gunning for the boy, rush forward with miraculous speed, lift her right leg up almost perpendicular to the ground, and slam it back to the spot where the closer demon had been. You hear the ground splinter, and it physically caved underneath the incredible force of her stomp. Sadly, the coward fled away from her attack into the swampy marsh below, leaving behind no trace of its existence.
Okay. Maybe there’s more than just one good thing about Nezuko. Point taken, universe.
You shake your head to clear your mind, dash over to the slayer and barricade in the man and the woman he is still clutching onto. The second demon, the one with one horn, chuckles with a sinister grin and slinks back into the darkness as well. Nezuko goes to chase after her foe, but the boy calls for her to cease her hunt.
“Nezuko! Don’t chase after him! Get back here!” You hear the boy call out to her. She halts, looking back with a deceiving aloof stare, and begins her brisk jog back to the four of you like a dog following their owner’s commands. On her way back, the swamp demon tries to take a cheap shot at her by popping out of a puddle and swiping at Nezuko’s legs.
“Nezuko!” The boy cried, and even you got a bit nervous at how close the ingrate got. However, Nezuko somersaulted high into the air, practically floated back down into a safe landing on her knee, and carried on her merry way. Like nothing even happened! She reached you guys, having completed her journey back to the slayer’s side. Even the swamp demon shared the same shocked expression as you had at her amazing feat. The boy had a troubled look on his face as he stared at Nezuko, some plan obviously swirling in his mind. He took a second to look around. Apparently, the demon decided he was taking too long to admire the scenery. Another puddle appeared directly below him. It tried to latch onto his foot, no doubt attempting to drag him under, but he jumped back as quickly as it appeared.
“Watch out!” The slayer’s shout doesn’t reach either of you in time. Out of nowhere, another pool appears next to you and Nezuko, and the demon with two horns catapulted out. He swipes his claws at you both, Nezuko fending off the brunt of the attack as you stepped in front of the bystanders. You forced them further back from the confrontation.
“Careful!” you yelled back at the civilian. You felt his shaking through the woman he carried as you pressed them away. Your legs are bent and your hands are grabbing your weapon with a tight grip. You train your eye on the demon, watching him lift his upper body up from the ground and squat deeper into a fighting stance.
“Nezuko,” the boy catches both of your attentions with her name, “I’m going underground! I want you to protect these two! You can do that, right?” Nezuko stopped to give him a knowing look, nodding her head in agreement with his plan. Though, you didn’t share the same kindness with him. From the vicious look you branded him with, he decided in that moment he would much rather face a hungry demon than endure the wrath of a pissed off woman.
“Leaving a demon in charge of protecting the humans? Man, what numbskull trained you?!” You snarled at the slayer with even more animosity than an angry bear possessed.
“Well—um…I’d have asked you to take care of them too, if I knew who you were, miss!” The boy shook his hands back and forth, sweating up a storm and stuttering over his flaws. A fleet of “I’m sorry”’s spilled out of his lips, upset at how bold he was being to a woman he had just met. He appeared to be trying to reconcile all the broken bridges you had between you two thus far, but that plan didn’t seem to be going super well at the moment. You’d have laughed at the nervous expression he now donned if you weren’t currently in a life or death situation.
You deadpanned at him. You looked over at Nezuko, who only gave you a slight tilt of her head as if asking ‘What do you want me to do about it?’.
“Oh, don’t agree with him!” You muttered while shooting a much less intimidating glare at the cutesy girl. You’re sure if Nezuko could laugh through that freak muzzle holding back the maw of razor-sharp teeth she probably hid away, she would have. With a now hardened expression, the slayer lifted his foot and stepped forward into the swirling puddle of sludgy black goop sitting right in front of him. As he sunk further and further down, and bit your lip in worry. Hey, he might be a dumbass and a fugitive by the Corps laws, but if he was going to die down there, you might as well give him your name.
“Hey!” The boy glanced back up at you.
“I’m (Y/N) (L/N)! Don’t die down there before I get yours in return, okay?!” You yelled over at him. He didn’t have time to give you his name back, so all he could do was give you a wide smile. Those damn bright eyes and rosy cheeks. There was that passion again. The same drive that sent your brain floundering for an explanation. He is so odd.
“What a dreadful start to this evening,” You let out a deep sigh as you readied up for a dicey battle fighting alongside your sworn enemy.
~ To be continued… ~
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I do not own the story of Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba). I do not own the characters of Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba). I am not a part of the crew who has participated in the creation of the manga or anime of Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba). I am not making any profit off of this story.
Summary: Continuation of Services/Goods of Equivalent Value. You have opened a teashop near an off record military base and this is a bunch of snippets of your life there.
Words: 7.5k (HOW?!)
You hadn't slept in a real bed in so long and you were not prepared to get out of it. It smelled good and it was warm and you were tired right down to your bones from all the work of the past 6 months finally culminating in the busiest and happiest evening you had possibly ever had. Only half awake you nuzzled into the pillow with a happy little sigh of contented comfort.
"Feels better than sleeping in a chair doesn't it?"
At first you smiled sleepily and made a sound of agreement. And then your brain caught up and you shot up, eyes opening and darting around madly to find you were in a small, simple bedroom and Simon was sat in the chair in the corner, book in hand being dogeared and set on a little table now that you were awake.
You had seen most of his face before when he was drinking or eating so seeing the whole thing wasn't any more of a shock than the situation you had found yourself in. It was a little strange seeing the skin around his eyes cleaned and bright, no smudges of black. He looked softer like this you thought.
"I um, I don't um… ah ha I must have fallen asleep in the chair right? Must have just been so tired! You didn't have to move me, but thanks, it wouldn't have been good for me to sleep there right? Ha ha."
God you were adorable when you tried to lie. Heart was far too prominent on your sleeve for it to ever work. You were clearly flustered way more from trying to lie than from waking up in his bed and such a fondness settled in him knowing that you trusted him so easily. You trusted that he had carried you here to help, that he would never have done anything to hurt you.
"Gaz would have carried you to your bed, but come to think of it there doesn't seem like any sort of bedroom in your shop."
Was he teasing to watch you scramble to try and explain yourself? Maybe a little, sue him.
"Oh right! It's in… the basement, it's in the basement."
You had a nanosecond of being relieved you had thought up a lie so quickly before being horrified at what a bad lie it was. What if they wanted to go into the non-existent basement now? But you had gotten away with it for now and you relaxed as Simon just nodded with an "Ah, of course, the basement".
Maybe you were good at this whole lying thing!
When it was time to get up and get a ride back home to the shop Simon got the little tub of eye black to smear on. You took it from him and started dabbing it on with your fingers for him since he had let you sleep in his bed.
"It's like finger painting" you grinned, sitting back to admire your work.
He took your hand in his before you could fully withdraw it, pressing a kiss to your knuckles that had the tips of your ears on fire. You gave him a wide eyed stare in question.
"Services/goods of equivalent value remember? This one was worth at least a few days of moving furniture."
You smiled shyly, thinking he meant applying the eye black for him. Simon let you think that, knowing himself that the payment he was taking was being able to press his lips to your skin.
-
You felt your lie was under attack when, after being driven back to your shop by Price with Soap in tow, they started talking about your basement as they helped you with all the dishes from the night before.
"Didn't you help with a lot of the building Soap? Going to have to give you extra observation training, missing a whole basement."
"Och Captain dinnae, ye know that training is the worst! I'll do better next time, ye'r spot on that it's unacceptable for me to miss something like that."
Oh the way you went dead silent while you scrubbed at a plate, clearly being eaten alive by guilt. It was cute up until you genuinely seemed in distress, and although it was fun to tease Johnny was thankful when Price laid off.
"Ah I'm only taking the piss Sergeant, easy thing to miss in an old place like this."
Some of the tension bled from your shoulders and oh if Soap didn't suddenly remember the little shy kiss you pressed to his cheek the night before. Such a sweet thing, genuinely getting upset at the idea he might have to do training because of a lie you told to protect yourself. As if him and Gaz didn't lie all the time to try and get one another in trouble just for the hell of it.
"Opening is in an hour aye? Think we could get a wee out of hours tea?" Soap asked.
You dried off your hands, smiling brightly now. Making tea always made you forget all your worries and you were wildly delighted that confessed coffee person Soap was the one asking. You went straight to work, grabbing and typing off your apron and throwing your hair up.
Price and Soap shared a conspiring look as they watched you work. They had gotten good at speaking without words. Right now their look was saying "isn't she just the loveliest thing you ever saw? I think I might scream if she does one more cute thing."
With the tea steeping you sighed in contentment, jumping a little when Price's hand found the small of your back. You hadn't even realised he was so close, for such a big man he was so light on his feet! He tapped a finger to his cheek.
"Think helping wash one load of dishes works as equivalent value."
You popped onto your tip toes and planted a soft peck to his cheek and as Soap bounded forward for the same Price shoved him away with a grin.
"Got payment in advance last night if I recall Soap, can't have our favourite girl overpaying."
-
Price and Soap left just as you officially opened for the day, but to your soft delight already Horangi and Farah were waiting outside for the sign to be flipped. They were bundled up, must have walked over. Now that you knew the distance from here to the base it made you swell with pride to know they had made the trip on foot.
"Two of ye are here awful early naw?"
"Is there a problem with that MacTavish?" Horangi asked with a smirk, suspecting that the problem was Soap was about to leave you alone with him and Farah.
He had thought it would only be him, everyone else using their morning to work out and get fed. Obviously Farah had the same idea though, both of them feeling a sense of challenge from the other. He was sure you would like learning to make his Korean sweets over her Urzik ones.
"Course naw, always happy tae see paying customers for my girl here" he responded, clearly proud of himself for managing to find a subtle way to tell Horangi and Farah to back off because you were his.
Farah raised an eyebrow at Price when he smirked at Soap's little claim and his lip twitched slightly. The exchange was barely noticeable and yet the unspoken conversation had went something like this:
"Really John? She's a little young for you is she not?"
"Really Farah, what would Alex say?"
"Me and Alex have always been very good at sharing, ask Gaz."
"Don't remember you being this much of a brat Karim."
Farah thought it was a shame you had been subject to all these boorish men for so long. Soft, sweet thing like you deserved some soft and sweet companionship. She had hoped that she could get to know you while teaching you how to make the halva she had fed you bites of last night any time you had paused in your hectic running about to pour her tea.
You had been very complimentary of the simple sweet, wanting to know all about the cultural history of it. Farah was no stranger to the uncomfortable looks she got when she would pour her heart out about her passion for her home country. She had half expected you to nod politely and excuse yourself. Only you hadn't, you had been genuinely and unabashedly happy at how passionate she was about her home, eyes sparkling with interest as you made her promise that she'd visit again and tell you more.
Of course Hong-jin would be equally as fond of you, she had spied how he had made you try a bite of bukkumi and how he had cried laughing when it was chewier than you expected and you had bitten your tongue. That giant beside him had acted as if you were mortally wounded until you had calmed him down and Farah was observant if nothing else, she had seen how your easy way with the larger man had Hong-jin simmering with fondness.
Price and Soap realised they couldn't very well stay without it being obvious they were only doing so to stop Farah and Horangi from being left to work their charms on you, so with a grumble they departed.
You were honestly a little nervous about your first real customers after opening day, but you thought you did a great job of hiding it and welcoming them inside.
Farah and Horangi could both tell you were nervous, it was glaringly obvious, so an unspoken pact was made that they would only compete with each other in ways that you wouldn't notice so wouldn't make you anxious.
An hour later and you were so delighted that they had been kind enough and patient enough to teach you how to make the sweets they had bought the night before, oblivious to the amount of sabotage and subterfuge in the silent war between your two customers.
Still they did eventually have to admit defeat, they were due in meetings and couldn't stay forever. You squeaked and shook your head rapidly when they tried to pay for their drinks.
"Oh no please, you were both so wonderful to have shared your recipes with me! Think of this as payment for that."
"I already said I would teach you did I not? Of course I have to pay properly for the tea you made me."
“It would be very rude not to, I can pay for both of our teas.”
“No no, I can pay for both. After all you are technically a guest with the 141 aren't you?”
“As are you.”
“Oh I would say more a long distance member. Actually since this is so near the 141 base and you've been so good to the team, I'd say that makes you basically an honorary member!”
“Oh! That's such an honour for you to say Farah, it's more that the team has been good to me though” you explained in a rush, a pretty flush of colour dusting your cheeks.
“Ah but you also have adopted the little cat with us, so it makes you more a member of Kortac than anything else.”
“I think Herzogin adopted me, she just came in one day and decided to make herself at home and I couldn't say no” you said, now feeling so flustered there must be steam coming out of your ears.
There was something so touching about what they were saying even if it was light hearted and meant more as a joke you thought. Even the thought of somehow being a part of their lives, some little silly civilian branch of their teams, made your hummingbird heart flutter.
It was also very sweet how they both wanted to cover each others bill even though you really could not let them go unrewarded for teaching you their recipes. They must be quite close these two teams. Definitely not two people who had only properly met last night and were now locked in a bitter rivalry over you or anything.
“But regardless I need to repay you somehow for the lessons! Don't make me start pulling out a contract again” you laughed.
When they asked you explained about your hastily written contract with Soap, how it had kept expanding after that. You even showed them the copy as messy as it was.
“I, the undersigned, agree that I will pay in full Mr John MacTavish* for works carried out either in monetary value or services/goods of equivalent value**** as soon as I have the means to do so.
*& Mr Rudolpho Parra**
**and any members of the Los Vaqueros team***
***who are to be superceded in priority by any members of TF141
****as defined in value by the party being reimbursed”
It didn't feel much like a contract anymore what with Simon's messy scrawl and the massive pen stroke from when Soap had shoved Rudy as he was trying to add his addendum. But it always made you smile to look at.
You thought your heart might burst when they both very reverently take turns adding their own addendums on.
“I, the undersigned, agree that I will pay in full Mr John MacTavish* for works carried out either in monetary value or services/goods of equivalent value**** as soon as I have the means to do so.******
*& Mr Rudolpho Parra**
**along with any members of the Los Vaqueros team***
***who are to be superceded in priority by any members of TF141*****
****as defined in value by the party being reimbursed
*****including Farah Karim and Alex Keller who shall be deemed members TF141 for the purposes of this contract.******
*****Any works or services carried out by members of Kortac PMC (inclusive of Herzogin) are to be subject to the same terms of payment as above.”
After that they both paid in full for all the tea meaning you were left blustering about the double payment. And when before they left they pressed a kiss to your cheek, sandwiching you between them for a moment, you were sure you have melted right into the floor.
“That's your debt settled for the recipe” Farah teased as her and Horangi left.
–
You spent the day warmed by the smattering of visitors. Some drove out, some made the trip on foot, Gaz stopped by in the middle of his run and the sight of him shirtless and sweaty made you scald yourself when you accidentally overpoured and splashed hot tea over your hand.
“Ouch luv, c'mere and let me see” he said, immediately taking your hand delicately in both of his strong ones to do a quick inspection and then leading you over to the sink to run it under cold water.
“It's not that bad” you hissed as the water hit, it was freezing and you were really just trying to get out of having to hold it there for 10 minutes.
“Hush, don't know how deep it's went so need to make sure it cools down properly.”
You didn't feel like you were cooling down with his naked torso right there beside you, one hand still holding yours and the other resting absentmindedly on your waist. All of these customers of yours really would be the death of you.
You huffed a little and stuck your tongue out at him, knowing he was right but not liking it one bit. He laughed at you and gave you a light little headbutt into your hair, the easy affection making you smile despite yourself. You smiling made him smile and it was as always like looking at the sun when this man smiled. So much so you did not even hear the door go until you were crowded by another body, the new arrival slotting against your other side in a mirror of Gaz and sighing.
“What happened here then princess?”
Gaz narrowed his eyes at Alex albeit playfully at the pet name, feeling his pinky brush again his hand now also settling in on you.
“Ah just clumsy! Not a very good omen to be spilling tea on the second day huh?”
“You know Ghost and Soap once got so drunk they passed out on the sofa and we found them all tangled up the next morning, said they must have moved in their sleep.”
You nearly choked on your own saliva at that, blinking up at Alex who was only grinning back at you.
“There now, we've both spilled tea, so I can take all the bad omens off of you.”
Goddamnit, Kyle always forgot how stupidly handsome and charming Keller was. Even being right in your space shirtless, having been meticulous in his work out this morning to ensure his body would look just right to get you flustered, you weren't even looking at him anymore. Too busy giving a soft smile to the American playboy. Well if you can't beat them…
You jumped when you felt Kyle's breath right at your ear. He had leaned over a little to join the conversation but it meant he was even closer than before and it was suddenly very, very warm.
“Just to make sure though, Keller here will deny it ever happened but he once kissed a man right in front of his girlfriend! Right scandalous if you ask me. How's that for tea?”
“i-in front of your girlfriend?!” you asked, somewhat in shock that this man who had been nothing but sweet to you was a cheater.
“As I recall, my girlfriend was the one that put in the request” he laughed, seeing your look of suspicion and softening. “I promise she was happy about it princess, we've always been open to sharing.”
Him and Gaz shared a look then, both obviously noticing that you were probably about to faint from the no doubt tame (scandalous in your head) images the idea of sharing was conjuring. While it was very endearing the way you reacted, the thump thump thumping of your heart almost perceptible, they couldn't find it within themselves to tease you more. Sweet little thing like you deserved better.
“Come on luv, let's get it dried off and wrapped up.”
Kyle lifted your hand away from the cold water and you realised they had completely distracted you from the discomfort. You wondered if it had been on purpose as he took you over to one of the stools and made you sit while Alex fished out the first aid box.
“Oh, how did you know where that was?”
“Military princess, reckon about everyone scoped out the exits, fire extinguisher and first aid kit last night. Laswell had me order some safety signs for express delivery, should arrive today actually.”
“Oh I didn't even think! How much did it cost? I’ll pay you for them straight away.”
Kyle sighed as he wrapped your hand, knowing exactly what was about to happen and not able to think of one reason to stop it. Besides, it's not like he didn't think you and Alex looked cute together and he didn't even bother to hide his grin of disbelief at how outrageous Keller was when he caressed your face.
“Farah said we could get a kiss in payment as long as it was an equivalent value. Would a kiss be OK princess?”
You didn't really remember nodding even though you had, but you were pretty sure you'd remember Alex Keller pressing a heart achingly soft kiss to your lips as long as you lived. You felt like your brain was flowing with syrup when he laughed lightly and fondly after kissing you, like he was happy he got to do it.
“Medical fees as well luv, yeah?”
And then you were nodding and Kyle Garrick was kissing you while Alex still had one hand on your cheek and everything was a little too hot and overwhelming.
Thankfully both men were merciful and didn't mention it when you blinked back into consciousness from fainting onto the counter. If Gaz had had to scream into Alex's shoulder because of how adorable he found it, well they didn't mention that either.
–
You were in trouble now. Kate Laswell was giving you a look that you were sure meant she could read your mind.
“You're not in trouble, but you need to tell me the truth. Why were you staying at the base last night?”
Of course Laswell knew, she knew everything about everyone. You were the kind of soft she knew it was easy for hard soldiers to love, but if she thought for a second that one of the 141 had taken you to bed last night she was inclined to use them for shooting practice. You had been dead on your feet after opening day, not in any fit state for clandestine meetings.
Plus she felt protective over you, maybe a little possessive. You reminded her fiercely of her wife and she had already called her last night to tell her about you, suggesting they make the time to visit together when work was less hectic for her.
“Oh I-” you paused, desperately hoping you were not going to get anyone into trouble but itching to tell this woman the truth, “they found me asleep in one of the chairs so instead of waking me they let me use one of the beds. It was my fault for falling asleep where I did! They were just being kind.”
“Why didn’t the move you to your own bed?” Kate asked with a long suffering sigh. It would be just like the 141 to jump to the extreme option.
“It's um, they didn't know where it was.”
Kate had scoped out the place last night without crossing a line into snooping, but she had thought the door next to the stove would be a bedroom. The boys would have known that though, Price said Riley and MacTavish had helped a lot with construction and moving furniture. So either she was really going to have to leather them for taking you back to base when your bed was right there, or the room was a storage space.
“And where is that?”
“Hm?”
“Where do you sleep?”
“Oh hang on, I'll get you another cup!”
Kate watched you stumble away with the poor excuse of getting the pot to pour another cup of tea for her. Her teacup was still half full. And she was indeed going to have to skin the 141 alive. How did it take them so long to figure out that you didn’t have a proper place to sleep? The quiet fury she felt at thinking how long you had been curling up on one of the chairs surprised her for only a moment before she let it settle in. Kate Laswell had always been very good at quickly identifying who she considered her people and her knack of it hadn’t let her down yet.
“How long have you been sleeping here?”
You froze as you were reaching for the teapot.
“I-i the basement? Since I got the place.”
Kate was well aware there was not a basement, not unless there was a magical hidden hatch to it. Even if she hadn’t been 99% certain, the fact that you were the worst liar she had ever encountered and the look of alarm she saw on Alejandro’s face as he slid through the door gave her assurance she was right. The question at this point was how to gentle you into telling her what was going on and why you didn’t have somewhere to sleep. She wished her wife were here, between the two of them she was more the people person.
“Try again cariño, there is no basement in this building.”
Your ruse was rapidly falling apart with Alejandro now here as well. You had been so sure you had gotten away with it as well, and you were just stuck to the spot gaping trying to get your brain to come up with some sort of excuse.
“Well um, I know I said basement but I- the thing is maybe it’s just a plan to have a basement. Right. That’s what I meant, that I’m going to put in a basement and have a bed there. Yeah. And that means that right now I don’t have one. A basement I mean, or uh, yeah a bed. But it’s totally fine, that chair by the fire is super comfortable and it’s not that bad for my back and Herzogin likes being able to curl in my lap anyway and actually I really like it because the blanket would be a little too small if I was all stretched out anyway and-”
Alejandro had known you long enough to see when your brain was absolutely catching fire. It was one of the things he loved because he knew he was always able to calm you down and it made him feel overwhelmingly content whenever he did. Right now though he at least wished your brain was catching fire over something small like offering him a new type of tea or short circuiting when Rudy had poured water over himself to cool down in the summer (Ale had nearly throttled him, little shit had known what he was doing) and not over something that made him want to smuggle you home to Mexico and make sure you never wanted for anything ever again.
He could put aside his own feelings right now though, walking over and enveloping you in a warm hug, squeezing just the right amount to make your words trail off and your brain slow down now that it felt safe and comfortable. You clung to him almost instantly, burying your head in his chest and fighting tears. You were so embarrassed to be caught, it made you feel like you couldn’t look after yourself at all.
It wasn’t that you had meant for it to all work out this way, but you were chasing a dream and you sort of came second to that. Last night you had finally made it and it had been better than you ever dared hope, it had been beyond perfect. You hadn’t even thought to include your own comfort in that dream of yours, and now when you really thought about how you had been living it all caught up and made you feel awful and exhausted.
“There come on now, it’s ok” Alejandro said softly, leaning a cheek against your hair and sharing a look with Kate, “we’re going to make sure you’re looked after ok? Just until we can sort something a little more permanent out for you.”
“I couldn’t, I don’t… I just need a little time to save up and I can get stuff” you sniffled, doing your best to keep it together.
You were fully out of money, last night had made a small fortune but that needed to go towards overdue bills and restocking. It was enough that you would be in the clear at least, and then you could actually start saving if you managed to make any profit. You wanted to say you could survive a few more cold nights, but now that it had finally hit you, that you had spent a night in a warm, cosy bed, you didn’t know that you could.
Alejandro just hushed soothingly at you, petting your hair and letting you cry it out. He knew for a fact Kate was taking advantage of knowing he would not do anything right now that was not solely with the purpose of your comfort in mind, he could see her typing away on her phone and glancing at him as if to say “I’m going to make sure she’s looked after, but it’s nice that you can distract her while I do that I suppose.”
Would he say he was happy when Nikolai showed up to whisk you off to a B&B for the night? Mixed feelings really. He was happy that you would spend the night safe and warm nearby. He was furious it wasn’t going to be with him. And then that vanished when he melted fully to a puddle as you darted quickly back after locking up and saying goodbye to them to nervously press a kiss to his cheek.
“It’s in the contract that I should repay you for things. I hope this works to repay you for being so kind to me.”
If Kate’s snort of amusement at his scream into his hands after you had left was anything to go by, it worked far too well.
–
“We only have a double room left, will that be ok sir?”
Nikolai had taken one look at you all cried out and sniffling outside that tea shop and decided there and then that he was going to feed you the largest meal of your life and then tuck you into a nice, warm bed and let you sleep for as long as you wanted. If he had known when he got the message from Price about the tea shop opening that you were the little thing behind the Captain and Gaz calling in all their favours he would have told the general he was flying to a critical mission to walk so he could attend.
As it was he had been on his way to visit and apologise for not making it when he had gotten the message from Kate that she was giving him a new assignment. He didn’t know the full background, he did know that the 141 was in big trouble whatever had happened. Not his problem, he was focused on you.
He had teased that he was going to fly you out of there at first and you had about passed away on the spot before he scrambled to tell you he was joking. The B&B wasn’t too far, it was in the nearest little village an hours walk from the teashop in the opposite direction of the base. You told him you were ok to walk and he had scooped you onto his back anyway, let you wrap your arms around his neck and rest your head on his shoulder as you chatted away about anything and everything.
Your attempts at learning some Russian was adorable, trying to wrap your tongue around the words he would give you before even asking what they meant (he had gotten you to say ‘I am very cute’ perfectly and then told you it meant ‘thank you’, so delighted when you said it frequently that it overrode the guilt at being so duplicitous about it. He’d tell you one day. Maybe).
“Of course, double is perfect.”
Not that you would protest given that you were fast asleep on his back now, the weight of your head on his shoulder comforting. You deserved the rest he imagined, he had gotten pictures from Price of the opening. It wasn’t easy to have so many big personalities in one place, much less have them all vying for your attention. He took great glee knowing that every single one would be chewing glass when they found out he had you all to himself right now.
You woke up when you were put down onto the bed, blearily blinking as you tried to work out your new surroundings. It was a cosy little room, the bed you were on was like a marshmallow with the perfect firm to squishy ratio and Nikolai who you had come to like very much in the last hour was laying out a frankly disgusting amount of room service onto the little table, so much of it that you could see some had already needed to be put on the vanity.
It was wonderful to exist in a sleepy, happy haze as you ate your weight in comforting pub food, soaked in the bath he had run for you and then fell into bed. Only there was only one bed. And he was already settling himself in the armchair and putting on reading glasses that made him look adorable to start one of the little romcoms from the tiny library in the foyer. In truth Nikolai was more inclined to share, but he knew that even the act of asking you would put pressure on you. He knew a people pleaser when he saw one.
“...the bed is big enough for you as well. Would it be ok if we shared?”
Well he hadn’t expected you to be the one asking him and it took him by surprise enough that he put down his book and just blinked at you for a moment, brain short circuiting and answering in Russian instead with a heartfelt speech about how he did not want you to feel you had to offer and how he would love to hold you if you’d let him because you seemed like you should always be held and if he got to be the one to do that for only one night he would be so grateful for the trust you had given him.
You had no clue what this handsome man was saying, but it sounded nice. You hoped you hadn’t overstepped.
“I’m sorry I didn’t understand. I… have a bit of a contract with the 141. It’s for services and goods of equivalent value when they help me out. And you’ve helped me out a lot tonight so I know sharing the bed isn’t exactly, well I mean it’s really your bed, so I should be the one in the chair really, so it’s not me repaying you at all to share it” you rambled, very sleepy from the abundance of food and the warm bath.
“Oh lapposhychka, it is no wonder I got such warm messages from the Captain” Nikolai sighed, seeing how a light blush dusted across your nose when you got yourself worked up about a problem. “I do not want you to make yourself uncomfortable because you think to repay me with it.”
You brought the blankets right up to the bridge of your nose to hide your little shy smile, feeling somehow like you could tell him the truth that you could never say out loud to anyone else.
“It doesn’t make me uncomfortable. I was the one who wrote it down to be vague just incase… people wanted to be creative with interpretation.”
Nikolai took a moment to understand and then laughed so loudly that you could hear the neighbours laughing at his boisterous laugh. He was happy to slide into bed beside you then and you were using his chest as a pillow and listening to the steady thrum of his heartbeat beneath your ear. When you tried to thank him in Russian he only laughed lightly and hugged you as you drifted off to a peaceful sleep.
–
“Open bonnie.”
You automatically opened your mouth to let Soap feed you another bite of pastry, eyes not leaving the accounts you were pouring over. Johnny wasn’t complaining at how concentrated you were, not when it meant you had let yourself be hand fed by him after being manoeuvred into Simon’s lap. It was almost enough to make up for his plans being ruined to offer you his bedroom after Kate and Alejandro (and then very swiftly via Rudy’s big mouth everyone) had found out about your sleeping arrangements.
You had been back to open the next morning and were going over what it would cost to stay in the B&B and build an extension versus the cost of just renting or getting a mortgage on a place in the village. Him and Simon had shared several looks to the tune of “we are going to need to get it into her pretty head somehow that we can pay for everything and actually wouldn’t it be easier for her to always have access to everything she needed if she married one of us?” and then getting into an argument about who that should be.
It was idyllic and wonderful and then of course Simon had to be Simon and have an admirer who was jealousy pawing at the beautiful thing in his lap.
“Oh! Ah Herzogin, I’m so sorry, I’ve taken your space haven’t I?” you said with a little scritch behind her ears as you stood and stretched.
Immediately the cat was up in Simon’s lap and purring aggressively, making biscuits into his thigh. The look between him and Johnny then was more to the tune of:
“Jesus Si dae ye have tae be such a bloody cat magnet?”
“Well what do you want me to do Johnny? Shove König’s cat onto the floor?”
“Wait… wait we need tae steal König’s cat.”
“I’m listening.”
“Well if we want tae have her pick us…”
The unspoken conversation did not make it much further because you were asking if they wanted a drink. Johnny ordered an Irish coffee, Simon ordered an earl grey tea with steamed milk, vanilla and a touch of honey.
“Oh, you mean a L-” you started, Simon looking at you like he may commit homicide if you said the words ‘London Fog’ to refer to his drink order.
“Llllllarge earl grey tea with steamed milk, vanilla and a touch of honey,” you finally said, desperately improvising.
“A large, yes sweetheart” he said with a grin that nearly knocked you unconscious anytime you saw it on his unmasked face. “Although I’ll take payment for looking after the cat just now.”
While one hand was scritching at said cat he used the other to grab your waist and pull you closer, tilting his head up and smirking. Honestly he had mostly expected you to blush brightly and if he was very lucky kiss his cheek, so when you leaned down and pressed your lips to his beautifully gently the scariest solider the SAS had ever seen was reduced to blushing brightly himself.
Soap was only too eager to remind you of his services of feeding you bites of food so you wouldn’t simply waste away while you were working and your bravery only stretched so far to give him a quick peck before fleeing to the kitchen absolutely ablaze to make the coffee and London Fogarge earl grey tea with steamed milk, vanilla and a touch of honey.
–
It had been less of a fight than you thought for you to stay in the shop. Price had insisted they get you an air mattress and a proper duvet at least, but they had all been respectful of your wishes even if not happy about it when you had said you really would be ok. They were already doing so much now that you had decided to build an extension instead of renting or buying somewhere else (you loved this place so much, you didn’t want to be so far away). Already they were grumbling about contractors and how they’d do a bad job so you may as well let them do it and honestly? A little part of you felt like this was as much their baby as it was yours, so you were warmed that they wanted to help.
And you were also warmed by how they had listened. They hadn’t overruled you like you were worried they might, they had just made sure that you were safe and as comfortable as possible. Mind you their idea of safe was overkill (the locks on the door they had installed in record time were something out of a sci-fi movie and more often than not the past few weeks you had not been alone on that air mattress in the shop), but you still felt so listened to and respected in your own right.
This was the first evening in the last 5 you had spent just you and Herzogin. Well just you since she had slinked out to go cause mischief somewhere no doubt. You were honestly a little relieved when there was a knock at the door, feeling a little strange being alone now as you got up, jumped through hoops to unlock all the security protocols and opened the door.
“I didn’t know where else to go.”
You did not know the American on your doorstep in the torn skull balaclava, but you could see he had been beaten badly.
“Who did this to you?” was spilling out of you as you reached out your arms to him to try to take some of his weight since he was slumped against the doorway.
“If I told you that I’d have to kill you sweetheart” he said, somehow managing to sound condescending even though he was hissing the words through gritted teeth.
It was probably a strange thing to think, but he reminded you of Simon. Something about the way he held himself, the way he handled this situation. The pet name. Maybe it was some transferred fondness that had you taking as much of his weight as you could handle and stumbling inside with him, dropping him on the sofa (a new addition thanks to Nik) and rushing over to get the first aid box that thankfully had been upgraded to a full military grade mini medic bay by Kate and Farah.
“I mean you could try, but you’re not looking so hot” you said, bringing the kit over and kneeling by the sofa to try and figure out the worst of the damage.
“Ouch sweetheart, never had anyone tell me I don’t look hot on a first date.”
Oh this man was ridiculous, but at least if he was flirting he was probably not dying.
“What can I say, high standards.”
You felt his eyes scrutinising you as you checked him over. You had trained in first aid before you had even bought this place, knowing that it would be legally required but also that morally you could not have people in your premises without knowing you could look after them. Not that your customers generally needed looking after. Even the ancient book club that had started coming in from the village on Sunday afternoons were tough as old nails.
“You’ve not called anyone.”
“Well I’m assuming you don’t want an ambulance involved, and I wanted to at least be able to say how bad you were before calling someone else.”
“Who are you gonna call?”
“Ghostbusters.”
He laughed and you hissed at him to stop when it clearly put him in more pain to do so. Poor Nik had been so proud when he had arrived with this sofa, had really been gloating to everyone about how you had reacted by launching yourself at him in a hug, and the chances of the blood stains ever coming out were very slim.
“And if I asked you not to?”
You looked at his eyes to find them staring back at you, almost in challenge. This guy sure was a piece of work, but you really wanted him to be ok. As you tried to pack the stab wound (you thought at least) with gauze, you mused that maybe this time somebody might owe you and not the other way around.
“Then I’d wait until you passed out and then call him when you couldn’t say no if I asked.”
“Good girl.”
Oh. Oh. That was not something you were going to be exploring while your hands were covered in blood. You just levelled him with a glare that very much screamed ‘behave yourself’ and grabbed your phone to call Simon. He answered on the second ring.
–
You know when you really sat down to reflect, your life had gotten so strange. Fake dating König because some wildly charming man called Graves had called you “little darlin’” and that was apparently a security threat, having to smack Soap with one of those squeaky toy hammers any time he scratched at his stitches after coming back fully banged up from a mission, having to referee a tricycle race between Ale and Valeria (your first time meeting her had been wild in and of itself), mediating the all out war between the book club made up of 80+ year olds and the 141.
One thing you could say for sure though when Price took your blind fold off to reveal the brand new extension finished with the absolute cosiest living space you could ever have wanted is that you were incredibly happy. It was a strange family that you found yourself in, but with that now almost illegible from all the additions contract proudly on the wall of your teashop, you found that it suited you just fine.
