Can I tempt you with a story?

I created this blog to share my fics from AO3. https://archiveofourown.org/users/TemptressOfYourDarkestDesire

[temptressofyourdarkestdesire]

Hi! I occassionally write fics and I’m going to post them here. Some fics will be posted on my whump blog @whump-collector

I wrote about:

Harry Potter - sub!Lucius/dom!Narcissa smut fic - will eventually get more chapters

Good Omens - fluffy Aziraphale/Crowley one-shot

Moon Knight - fluff with a little bit of whump and an OC, platonic relationship - finished

Once Upon a Time - Killian Jones whump - finished

Shadow and Bone - Kaz Brekker whump one-shot

Please heed the tags.

[temptressofyourdarkestdesire]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 5/6 Previous Fandom: Once Upon a Time (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Captain Hook | Killian Jones/Emma Swan Characters: Captain Hook | Killian Jones, Emma Swan, Evil Queen | Regina Mills, OC - Character Additional Tags: Whump, Blood, Knives, Poison, Magic, Angst, Pain, Killian Whump, No Sex, No Smut, just whump with a little bit of story, Choking, ropes

Summary: A former adversary of Hook opens up some old wounds.

Chapter V: The Cure

He had to get rid of the nightmares. He knew he had to. Although Emma hadn’t asked about them anymore he couldn’t miss her questioning glances every time he woke up from another one. He knew curiosity would get the better of her eventually and then he wouldn’t be able to shake her off with some made up story. Better to not let it get so far. The cure was still daunting but it was better than Emma pitying him constantly. On the bright side he would be rid of the nightmares once and for all, but he was still scared. Therefore he hesitated with going to Carmine. Then the perfect opportunity arrived. Emma was planning a trip with Henry and would be gone for two days. It was now or never. So he set off reluctantly after they’d left.

The friendly receptionist went to fetch Carmine once again, after Hook had arrived at the order. He was resolved to do this, but he was on edge. He was reminded of what had happened in the cell far too often and giving himself into the hands of his torturer once again felt terribly wrong.

“Hook, how nice of you to visit me. What can I do for you?”, Carmine said cheerfully.

“You know exactly why I’m here,” he growled.

“So you’ve finally grown weary of your nightmares. Took you long enough. Didn’t your girlfriend want to do it?”

“I don’t want her to do it. Now could we get on with it?” Carmine smiled.

“She doesn’t know you’re here, does she?”

“This is between you and me.” He hoped they would be done before Emma came back. He’d left a note that would buy him some more time. Hopefully it would be enough.

“Won’t she come looking for you? Certainly she’ll miss her little pirate after a while,” she said mockingly. Hook didn’t reply. Had this been a good idea? It was too late to turn back now, but her tone wasn’t making him more confident in his decision.

“I think we will find out, won’t we? Please follow me.” Carmine led Hook down the corridor behind the doorway. There were doors left and right and at the end of it a stair led upstairs and the corridor turned to the right. Carmine opened the last door on the left, next to the stairs. The room looked eerily similar to the cell with a bed on the right wall and two armchairs and a coffee table on the left wall, but it was a lot friendlier. The bed looked comfortable and there was a bedside table next to it.

“This room is for our clients and our staff to rest. There are more of them upstairs. Please take off your jacket and your shirt, I’ll be right back.” Carmine left Hook standing and disappeared. He undressed very reluctantly and put his clothes over one of the armchairs. Then he removed the harness for his hook. He really hated doing that, because it made him feel helpless and vulnerable. Carmine returned with another vial, but the same dagger as last time.

“Here.” She handed him the vial. Knowing what it contained he didn’t hesitate and drank it. Unsurprisingly it had the iron taste of blood. Carmine had propped up some cushions and motioned for him to get onto the bed. He sat down and was glad that he was more in a sitting position than lying.

“This is the last opportunity to back out. Are you really sure you want to do this?” The concerned tone of her voice surprised Hook. As if she’d sensed his surprise she told him:

“Look, I won’t say I’m not going to enjoy that, but I’m here in my healing function and I will try to make this as painless as possible.”

“Why?”

“Unlike you we don’t bear grudges. I caught you spying, I punished you and we’re done. In my view you’re here because you need help and I’ll help as best as I can.” Suddenly the anger Hook had felt when he first met Carmine in Storybrooke flared up.

“It was a hell of a punishment and it’s still going on!”

“The only other option was killing you, besides I’m not the only one who hurt you.” She’d laid her hand on Hook’s shoulder to calm him down and obviously sensed the wounds left by Hades.

“Someone messed you up pretty good.”

“Yeah, that was literally in hell,” he snarled. She’d moved her hand to the spot where Emma had run him through with the sword. He winced at the memory and the touch.

“You should be dead.” Carmine sounded surprised.

“How are you alive?”

“Divine intervention.” Carmine started to laugh.

“What’s so funny about that?” His anger was fading and made way for confusion.

“Well, for a start...” Carmine was still chuckling and held her hands up in front of Hook.

“...they could’ve brought you back with two hands. And they didn’t have to bring you back with poison in your blood. They could’ve cured you. They really have a strange kind of humour.” She shook her head in disbelief.

“Are you ready to start?”

Hook nodded and braced himself. Carmine took the dagger and opened the wound with a clean cut. This cut was a little deeper then the first time and the blood started to trickle out of the wound immediately. Hook had grabbed the sheet and clenched his teeth. The cut was stinging, but he hadn’t to worry about that for too long. Shortly after Carmine cut open the scar, his body felt as if something was pulled out of him that desperately clung to him. Every vein felt as if something had dug claws in them and held on for dear life. It was agonizing. He barely noticed how his chest got sticky with blood and that he started to shake uncontrollably after some time. Then Carmine healed the cut and the pain almost vanished. It was still there, but it felt like a faint memory of what he’d felt just seconds before. In exchange he was feeling now the full extent of the blood loss and the strange sensation of the potion that replenished his blood supply. He felt awful and he knew it would get worse.

“I will give you some time and then we will have to do that again.” It was too late to do anything else now anyway.

“How long will it take?”

“How long? Are you in a hurry? Do you have anywhere to be? It will take as long as the first time, so three days. And before you ask; it’s not possible to speed things up, if you want to survive this.” Three days. He closed his eyes. Emma was only gone for two days, maybe two and a half. He could only hope she wouldn’t come looking for him. He didn’t want her to see him like that. It was better to worry about Emma than to think about the fact that that also meant that he would have to spend another three days in agony.

Carmine repeated the cutting and healing a few times and slowly the poison started to withdraw from his limbs only to wreak even more havoc in the rest of his body. He lost track of time and how many times the wound had been ripped open and healed. The pain in his body grew with every cut. The poison fought with fervour against its undoing. At one point it got so bad that Hook fought Carmine with hand and feet, when she tried to cut him once more. He knew they had to go on, but he just couldn’t. He cried and wailed and tried to push her away. She had to use her whole strength to push him down and slice the scar open again.

“I’ll have to tie you to the bed, if you don’t calm down.” Her words where lost in his screams, when even more blood flowed out of the wound. His chest, part of his pants and the bed where covered with dried and fresh blood by now. He should’ve fainted from the pain or the blood loss hours ago, but the poison kept him awake.

Some hours later the pain in his body started to fade gradually. It was still burning like fire, but compared to the agony he’d felt in the worst moments, it became almost bearable. It looked like he’d soon overcome the poison. All would be well.

Then suddenly the door flung open and there stood Emma.

[whump-collector]

Fandom: Shadow & Bone (TV) Word count: 1406 Characters: Kaz Brekker, Nina Zenik, Pekka Rollins, Jesper Fahey Warnings: canon typical violence

Read on ao3 What if that scene at Pekka's club had turned out a little differently? (I haven't read the books (yet), so I don't know if Grisha powers work that way. I hope you enjoy anyway.) -----

Everything went as planned. The others had left to do their tasks; Nina had knocked out Kaz, brought him to Pekka’s club and dropped him at his feet. Now as far as she was concerned her job was done. Unfortunately, Pekka had other ideas.

“Very good, now make him scream,” he said, as casually as talking about the weather.

“What?” Nina hadn’t expected that.

“You heard.”

“I’m not a torturer.” She would’ve crossed her arms, if she hadn’t been busy keeping Kaz down with her powers. After all he wanted it to look real. But she didn’t want to actually hurt him.

“You’re already a traitor,” Pekka shrugged.

“That wasn’t the deal. How do I know you’re not going to alter it each time I do what you ask?” An angry look crossed Pekka’s face.

“Guess you don’t. Also, he will shoot you if you refuse to hurt Brekker.” Pekka gestured to one of his men who promptly pointed a gun at Nina. Nina felt a little helpless, but did her best not to show it. They were here to buy the others time, till the plan was coming into motion. She couldn’t just pretend, as she was pretty sure Pekka would notice the difference between real and faked pain. She also wasn’t sure what Pekka would do once he got what he wanted. Would he kill them both right away or take some time to gloat first? Nina decided that she didn’t want to know as long as possible, which meant she had to draw this out as long as possible. She couldn’t see Kaz’ face, but she suspected he had come to the same conclusion. She felt his heartbeat quicken as he braced himself.

I’m sorry. She looked at Pekka with an expression as cold and emotionless as she could muster when she started to focus more of her power onto Kaz. The effect was immediate. Kaz clutched his chest and curled in on himself. He had his eyes closed and Nina could see that he concentrated to breathe evenly through the pain. He didn’t make a sound.

“Keep going!”

You know, if I could have it my way you’d be laying there, she thought angrily. But she did what she was told and hoped Kaz would forgive her. He was shaking now and his breathing was ragged. He seemed even paler than usual. But he stayed silent, which was impressive. Nina didn’t use her powers often that way, but usually at that point people were begging her to stop. She wasn’t too surprised though. She’d already suspected that Kaz’ pain tolerance was higher than that of others. Also she assumed he just didn’t want to give Pekka the satisfaction of seeing him screaming from pain. Stubbornness could achieve a lot. Nevertheless Nina prayed that they would be saved by the plan soon.

“Is that all you’ve got?”, Pekka sneered. It wasn’t, but Nina never had a reason to hurt someone more than she already did now. Sure she had killed people with her powers, but inflicting pain without killing someone was something different. And she really hadn’t planned to try how much pain she could cause without killing someone on a friend. She’d saved that experience for someone she really hated. Pekka started to look like a good candidate.

Nina hesitated. She was aware that the whole room was watching them, she was also aware of the gun pointed at her and that she doubtlessly would be shot if she didn’t act soon. A dark part of her wondered how much more Kaz could take. What would run out first, her powers or his resilience? She wasn’t going to find that out. She decided she would count on Kaz to be able to take a little more and if after that they still weren’t saved by the damned plan, she’d try her luck. She’d kill Pekka’s gunman and as many of his goons as possible and try not to be shot.

Kaz couldn’t suppress a moan as Nina increased her efforts and a single tear ran across his cheek. His whole body was tense and if they somehow survived this, Nina was certain his muscles would ache like hell for a few days. Unfortunately, not even Healers could help with that. Nina hoped that he at least would grant himself some rest, but first they had to get out of this. And as if on cue, but much too late for Nina’s liking, a siren sounded outside.

-----

They’d all gathered to celebrate their “victory”, but Nina didn’t feel victorious at all. She felt dead tired, but was sure she wouldn’t sleep tonight, neither would Kaz. He hid his exhaustion better than Nina, but she’d noticed that he was moving slower and more gingerly than usual and his hands trembled when he wasn’t holding onto something. The others had noticed as well, but they hadn’t said a word. There was a strange atmosphere between them, as they all avoided talking about what they had witnessed at the club. Nina would’ve done the same, but she felt horrible about what she had done and if she didn’t talk about it now, she wouldn’t get another chance. At least she had to know, well what exactly? That Kaz was going to be okay? That he wasn’t mad at her? That they’d be all right?

Something like that, she decided.

“Are you all right?”, she asked carefully. It was a stupid question and she knew he wasn’t, couldn’t be, no matter what he told her, but she had to start somewhere. Kaz had looked lost in thought and now directed his attention to her.

“Better than all right, we won.” He grinned joylessly at her.

“I just wanted to say I’m... well, I’m sorry. And if I can do anything...” It was a poor apology, but she hoped he knew she really meant it. He merely shrugged then winced barely noticeable.

“You did what you had to do.” She couldn’t hear any trace of anger or repulsion and she was surprised how glad she was about that. She would’ve hated to lose her new friends. Although it had started as a partnership of convenience, each of them had grown on her.

Suddenly a thought crossed her mind and curiosity got the better of her.

“Did you know Pekka was going to do that?” She still had a few questions about the events and maybe she could distract Kaz a bit if she could keep their conversation going. Also the others did look equally curious.  

“No, but I knew he would take some time killing me. If he only wanted me dead, he would’ve sent an assassin. He wanted to make an example of me.” He sounded oddly proud. Nina shuddered.

Did you even consider that he could’ve done permanent damage? He probably had and had come to the conclusion that it was worth the risk. And the pain. She had to admit she was impressed by Kaz dedication. Most of the leaders she’d known liked to keep out of harm’s way and preferred to push others into it. Although, maybe she’d been pushed a little bit after all.

“How did you know Pekka wouldn’t kill me as soon as we arrived?” He looked like he was going to shrug again, but then thought better of it.

“You don’t kill your errand girl in front of everyone,” he answered matter-of-factly. Nina looked at Kaz sceptically.

“He threatened to have me shot in front of everyone.”

“That was because you dared to question the credibility of his deals publicly.” He sounded almost amused now. Nina was surprised; it just had been an honest observation. A “businessman” like Pekka should’ve known that you don’t alter deals on the fly. Obviously he’d felt save enough to break that rule or more likely he’d just hadn’t expected for Nina to call him out on it. She shook her head and shrugged.

“I keep getting into trouble for telling the truth, I really ought to stop doing that,” she said jokingly.

“Please don’t,” Jesper butted in. Nina had already noticed that he found her bluntness quite entertaining.

“Just remember that if I ever tell you something you didn’t want to hear.” She winked at him. He responded with more banter and pretty soon the tense atmosphere in the group had vanished and they were deep in conversation about past and upcoming adventures.

[temptressofyourdarkestdesire]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 2/? Previous Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black Malfoy Characters: Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa Black Malfoy Additional Tags: dom!Narcissa, Sub!Lucius, Light Bondage, Masturbation, Oral Sex, Sex, Bottom Lucius Malfoy, Top Narcissa, Pegging, Sex Toys, Butt Plugs, Blood, Anal Sex, Femdom, Bondage, Strap-Ons, Spanking

Summary:Lucius and Narcissa discover and explore their liking for BDSM. After Narcissa starts it all, surprisingly it's Lucius who'd like to continue. And it's not Lucius who tops.

Chapter II - Awoken Desires

Lucius had been unusually quiet all during dinner and seemed to be lost in thought. Narcissa was slightly worried that he resented her actions from last evening after all, although he had seemed to enjoy them at that time. Nevertheless, they relocated to the living room next to their bedroom after they had finished dinner, as they usually did. They made themselves comfortable in the big armchairs in front of the fireplace and started reading. They did this most evenings, sitting together in front of the fireplace, enjoying their company, reading books and occasionally talking before they retired to the bedroom. They had read for some time when Lucius broke the silence.

“Narcissa?” he asked almost shyly. Narcissa looked up surprised. Lucius usually didn’t talk like this. He cleared his throat. Narcissa had laid her book aside and was looking at him with wonder. “Darling, you wouldn’t maybe consider doing something like yesterday again?” That was even more of a surprise. So he had been thinking about the last evening after all, but not in the way she had feared. She had really enjoyed the last evening, but she’d never expected it to become more than a one-time occasion. “Well, of course, if you want to. What did you have in mind?” He smiled at that answer. Apparently he had worried that she might turn down his request, which confused her a little; after all, she had started the whole thing yesterday. “Surprise me, like yesterday”, he said with a smile. Narcissa took a moment to make up a plan. She found one surprisingly quick and was quite amazed by herself. She also found that she started to get wet only by the thought about what she had in mind for Lucius and herself. “Ok, I’d like you to undress yourself.” Lucius reached out to his wand. “Not by magic, love”, she said with a grin. To her astonishment Lucius complied and he not only got rid of his clothes but started to strip in front of her much in the same way as she had done the day before. First, he untied and removed his black patent leather shoes along with his socks. Then he slipped out of his dark green velvet jacket and placed it over the armrest of his chair. Next, he unbuttoned his brocade waistcoat. He laid the green, silver and black paisley patterned garment over the jacket. He locked eyes with her as he started to unbutton his black shirt. He let it slip from his shoulders and placed it over the jacket and the waistcoat. Apparently, he was pleased with her attention. He slowly unzipped his black trousers and let them drop. They too were placed neatly on the chair. He was now standing in front of her in only his pants, which showed a tell-tale bulge and his ivory skin seemed to glow from the light of the fire behind him. Slowly Lucius lowered his pants and freed his erection. “Do you like what you see?” He asked with a sly grin. Narcissa did indeed, in this light he looked like the marble statue of some ancient warlock. Though admittedly they were very seldom naked. She gulped and wondered if she really should go along with her plan. She decided to be bold and see how he’d react. “Yes, indeed I like it very much, but now I would like you to kneel in front of me.” To her surprise, he obeyed without hesitation. He seemed to be eager to find out what she had planned. “Please, put your hands behind your back.” By now he must have had some notion of what she was going to do, but clearly he had no objections as he followed her order swiftly. With a flourish of her wand, she tied his wrists. She hesitated for a moment afraid that she might go too far and that Lucius would abort the little play they had started. But after all, he had asked her for it and he seemed quite content with the course of the evening. With another flourish of her wand, she got rid of her clothes and spread her legs. “I’d like you to take care of me.” She said while watching him intently. His gaze seemed to darken and his expression became even hungrier, then he leaned forward and started kissing the insides of her thighs. Slowly he trailed kisses up her thighs, coming ever closer to the junction of her legs. She gasped as he finally got there and planted a kiss on her clit. He lingered there for a moment kissing and suckling. Before long he let his tongue wander to her entrance. She started to moan as soon as he slid his tongue inside her. This wasn’t the first time Lucius went down on her, but somehow this time it felt different. Maybe it was because she was only feeling his mouth on her and not his hands as well. Maybe it was the unusual position. Usually, she was lying on the bed. She appreciated that he did go down on her in the first place, she’d never thought about asking for another position. Or maybe… maybe it was his voluntary submission, which somehow aroused her more then she’d held possible. It still surprised her that Lucius, who liked to dominate his surroundings at all costs, would surrender to her so easily. Somehow she’d by accident uncovered a very different side of her husband. And herself as well, for she felt that she wouldn’t mind exploring this side further. As she drew close to climax, she grabbed the back of Lucius’ head and pulled him even closer to increase contact. She came with a groan, holding him still close. She didn’t let him move till her breath had steadied again. Then she pulled his head back by his hair and kissed him wildly. She broke the kiss and stood up, pulling him up as well. She turned him around and pushed him onto the chair. Before he had time to move she was on him straddling his waist. With a smirk, she lowered herself on his erection. She didn’t move but started kissing him feverishly. She could feel Lucius tugging at his restraints, wanting to pull her closer and making her move. Instead of moving she turned her attention to his nipples, which she started to lick and kiss. On a whim, she lightly bit down on one of his nipples. This earned her a groan from Lucius. “Did you like that?” she chuckled. He didn’t answer, but she guessed that he did, but didn’t want to admit it. She started to move her hips slowly and again bit down on his nipple, this time a little harder. He jerked up his hips violently in answer. “Harder!” he breathed through clenched teeth. Narcissa looked up in amazement. His expression was inscrutable, but it was clear that he was serious. She did what he had asked and he arched his hips up again with a groan. Narcissa had placed her hands on Lucius’ shoulders and now pushed herself in a more upright position. She dug her nails deep into his shoulders and quickened her pace. Lucius’ breathing started to become ragged and she felt that she as well was close to climax once again. She drew her nails over his collarbones down to his breast leaving bright red marks. At that Lucius came with a yell and Narcissa followed shortly after. They rode out their climax and as their breathing had calmed down again Narcissa stood up and untied Lucius wrists with the use of her wand. Lucius gingerly removed his hands from behind his back. The ties had left red marks on his wrists, which he eyed curiously. Narcissa sat on the armrest beside him and took a hold of one of his hands with the intention of healing the mark through magic. “Leave it; it won’t take too long to heal naturally,” Lucius said and pulled his hand away. “But it has to hurt and the scratches on your shoulders as well.” She said a little confused. Lucius stood up and Narcissa did so as well. He turned to her and said with a smile: “I don’t mind. I’d rather keep them as a reminder of tonight.” “You really enjoyed that, didn’t you?” Narcissa said and took Lucius’ hands. She looked at him curiously. “Yes, I did and I’d like to repeat it eventually if you don’t mind.” “Well, I don’t…” she kissed both of his wrists “but…” “But you’re still surprised that I enjoy that.” He nodded to his wrists and shoulders. “So am I, but as it is as it is, I’d like to explore it further.” Narcissa was content with that answer and pulled him close, starting to kiss the marks on his shoulders tenderly. Lucius embraced her and stroked her back lovingly. Eventually, Narcissa laid an arm around Lucius’ waist and they both retired to their bedroom. They both were looking forward to the further exploration of their newly found desires.

[temptressofyourdarkestdesire]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 5/5 Previous Fandom: Moon Knight (TV 2022) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Steven Grant/OC, marc spector/oc, Steven Grant (Marvel)/Original Female Character(s), Marc Spector/Original Female Character(s) Characters: Steven Grant (Marvel), Marc Spector, OC - Character, Khonshu (Moon Knight), Arthur Harrow, Taweret (Ancient Egyptian) Additional Tags: Fluff, not an au, but slightly different story, lot of sleeping going on, sleeping and cuddling, Fluff and Humor, Whump, a little bit in chapter 3, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Khonshu is mean, Kidnapping, Temporary Character Death

Summary: Kate Green meets and befriends Steven at her new workplace. She offers to watch over him while sleeping, to stop him from sleepwalking. Only then she realises what she's gotten herself into. And there's absolutely nothing that would make her turn back, not even her worst nightmare coming true.

Chapter V - Meeting Taweret

THE NEXT MORNING

“Get up, Harrow wants to see you.” Kate was woken from an uneasy sleep by the man guarding her tent. She’d been brought here last night, after Harrow had explained that Khonshu had been bound to stone by the other gods for his disruption of the night sky, which meant that Steven and Marc weren’t a threat to his plan much longer. He’d been awfully pleased and Kate had hoped that he would lose interest in her, now that he didn’t need her anymore. Apparently she’d been wrong. Grudgingly she got up from the camp bed she’d slept on. There was a little table and a chair as well apart from that the tent was empty. And so was her stomach she noticed sulkily. The last food she’d had was the sandwich on the plane. She debated on asking the guard for something to eat, but decided against it. If she was lucky she’d find something she could nick somewhere.

Kate followed the guard through the tents and out of the camp. She’d found a bread roll on a table and munched on it while walking. The guard looked at her curiously.

“What you lot don’t eat breakfast?” He just shrugged and went along.

Outside of the camp most of Harrows followers had gathered around him. They had created an opening to the tomb where Ammit had been buried.

“Good morning Miss Green,” Harrow said with an exaggerated smile. She just stared at him. She hadn’t slept well, she was still hungry, it was already too hot and she really wanted to bash in his head with his stupid cane right now. Harrow didn’t seem to be fazed by her murderous gaze.

“Today we will finally free Ammit”, he proclaimed towards his flock. And towards Kate he added:

“And you’ll get the chance to watch in front row.” The people applauded and cheered and then made their way to the entrance where they vanished.

“Come on, let’s go.” It only now dawned on Kate that Harrow wanted her to enter the tomb as well. She’d thought that he would wait for his followers to find Ammit and bring her out. After all it was only an ushabti they had to find and retrieve. It wasn’t like they had buried her corpse in there.

“No, thanks, I’m staying out here,” Kate tried. She didn’t know why, but she was afraid of entering the cave. It was almost primordial fear she was feeling. Maybe she’d watched too much television, but every fibre of her being told her not to enter the almost certainly cursed tomb. It didn’t get better when she heard shots being fired.

“What... what are they shooting at?,” she asked wide-eyed.

“We’ll find out. It will be dead once we get there. Come on now.” Harrow went towards the entrance and Kate had no choice but to follow him. One of his five remaining bodyguards was pushing her along.

The first thing Kate noticed was the musty smell, the second thing was the cool air that would’ve been welcome after the heat if it hadn’t made her shiver to the very core. Something seemed to tell her that she shouldn’t be here. The others either didn’t notice or they just didn’t care. They walked for a while through the mazy corridors. Gradually other smells mingled with the musty one. Smells of dust and decay and something else, something she couldn’t quite place yet. When they rounded a corner she got her answer. Down the corridor led a wide trace of fresh blood. It glistened black in the light of the torches the bodyguards were carrying. That would’ve been enough for Kate to turn and leave at once, but the hand of the guard was still on her back pushing her forwards. Sure enough they found the bodies belonging to the trail of blood around the next corner. To be exact they found the bodies of three of Harrows followers and something that had once been human, but now had turned into something monstrous. Kate froze on the spot when she saw the emaciated, half decayed corpse.

“Oh, no. Oh, that’s... that’s something right out of a nightmare... the worst kind. Please, let’s turn back. We’re... we’re not supposed to be here,” she stuttered. She hated how whiny she sounded, but she was terrified. Harrow only glanced at her amused.

“That’s your worst nightmare?”

“Well, we can’t exactly choose what we’re afraid of, can we?”, she answered disgruntled. She was shoved around the bodies and they continued their way. From time to time they now walked through chambers filled with artefacts. It was an archaeologists dream. Harrows followers who hadn’t been killed by the living dead had lit torches in these rooms. A lot of the artefacts shone golden in the torchlight. Steven would’ve loved it. Steven. And Marc. She hadn’t thought about them for a while, she’d been too distracted. She hoped they were far away.

But her hopes were in vain. Marc and Steven had reached the main chamber with the sarcophagus and found Ammits ushabti only minutes ahead of them. The four bodyguards surrounded Marc, Harrow and Kate stopped in front of him. Her guard preventively grasped her upper arm to make her stay next to Harrow. Harrow stretched out his hand and declared:

“It’s over, give it to me.” Marc had looked surprised when he’d seen Kate. Now his expression turned sorrowful, but determined. He swiftly took out two of the bodyguards then a shot pierced the air. Harrow had hit Marc point-blank and fired again.

“NOOOOOO” Kate broke free from the grip of her guard and ran to Marc while he was still falling. He landed backwards in the water surrounding the sarcophagus. She helplessly shook his body and took his face between her hands. But it was awfully expressionless. In the end she just laid her head on his chest, hugged his body tightly and sobbed uncontrollably. Her tears mingled with the blood on his shirt. His heartbeat was achingly absent and she got the feeling that the warmth was already leaving his body. This made her hug him only tighter.

It took all three of the remaining bodyguards to pull Kate away from Marc to give Harrow the possibility to retrieve Ammits ushabti.

“Keep your filthy hands off him you monster,” Kate screeched as he searched Marc for the little stone figurine. She tried to break free again. Hitting and clawing at everything she could reach, but she didn’t stand a chance against the three guards.

“I’m sorry it had to come to that, but Ammit would’ve taken him anyway. Come on, maybe you’ll even be granted the honour to become Ammits next avatar.”

The way out was only a blur and Kate couldn’t remember how she got on the truck that drove towards wherever Harrow wanted to free Ammit. She felt numb and exhausted. She couldn’t get Marc’s motionless face out of her head. And Steven was gone as well. Had he felt that they had been shot or had he just stopped existing? She sobbed at that thought.

Kate was so distracted by her grieving mind that she didn’t notice that they’d stopped and more people had died. She almost didn’t notice one body suddenly coming back to life and talking to her. Only when she heard Steven’s name she was pulled from her thoughts.

“Steven needs your help!”, the body said urgently. Its voice sounded weird and too chipper for a corpse.

“Oh, finally. Hello there, nice to meet you again. I’m Taweret. I’m currently on a boat in the Duat with Steven and Marc and they need your help,” the body explained quickly. Kate just stared at the corpse in confusion. Was she going insane now? On the other hand that wasn’t weirder than most of the stuff she’d seen in the past few weeks. But what did it mean by meet you again? Kate didn’t have time to brood over that, because the body already continued:

“You have to find and destroy Khonshus ushabti. You will find it in a chamber in the Great Pyramid, you’re headed that way. Oh, and then you can finally become my avatar.” The corpse now sounded almost giddy. Kate was still at a loss for words.

“We will make a great team. Did you get everything?” Kate just nodded dumbfounded.

“Great!” And with that the body sunk back to the ground unmoving. Kate looked around if someone else had seen what she’d seen, but everyone else had been distracted by whatever Harrow did. Kate had no idea if the body had been truthful or if it was just a trick or if she was just imagining things, but she would do what it had told her. It felt good to have a task. She would do everything to help Marc and Steven, even though she wasn’t sure why they needed Khonshu now they were dead. She didn’t dare to hope that they could come back. That was just impossible, but she knew of the challenges a soul faced in the Duat and if the ancient Egyptians had been right after all, the least she could do was everything for Steven and Marc to find their peace.

They drove for a while till finally the pyramids appeared out of the sand. It was an amazing view and Kate would’ve marvelled at it on every other occasion. But currently she was determined to see through her mission. Harrow and his followers departed their jeeps and trucks and started to climb the Great Pyramid. Kate followed them. They didn’t really care about her anymore. A few times one of Harrow’s men or women would push her forwards, when she acted as if she didn’t want to go with them. But generally they let her be. She was unarmed and didn’t pose any danger.

About halfway up the pyramid Harrow conveniently opened a portal into the pyramid. Kate had started to wonder how they were going to get in. And apparently they were expected. Suddenly there was a commotion in front of her. She used the moment to slip away and search for Khonshus ushabti. It didn’t take her long to find a chamber with a wall covered with nooks. In most of them sat a little stone figurine. Were these all renegade gods? Kate played with the thought of destroying all of them, but ultimately decided against it. Who knew who she would set loose on the world?

She found the one depicting Khonshu and unceremoniously crushed it under her foot. Immediately the figure of a skeletal bird emerged and towered over her. It was the first time she saw Khonshu and it was a frightening sight. She did her best to appear composed; she didn’t want to give Khonshu the satisfaction of seeing her scared.

“You?”, he asked incredulously. He bent down to her to look at her closely.

“Hm, you freed me, so I grant you the honour of becoming my avatar.” Kate meant she didn’t hear right. All her terror was replaced by anger.

“You have to be kidding me! Never ever, I saw what you did to Marc,” she exclaimed indignantly. Khonshu just shrugged lapidary.

“It was worth a try.” And vanished. Not long after the whole pyramid trembled and Kate hurried to find a way out. Suddenly the walls and roof started crumbling and she realized she wouldn’t make it in time.

“Taweret, how about now?”, she called out. Taweret had said she wanted to make Kate her avatar and that was the moment. Kate hoped Taweret could hear her or soon she would meet her in the Duat as well.

“Of course. Just one moment.” It was a strange sensation. Taweret was talking trough her to her. Suddenly she felt a kind of warmth spread through her body and noticed that her clothes were changing. Then the corridor caved in around her.

Thanks to Taweret Kate escaped the pyramid unscathed and promptly started to search for Harrow. Some of his followers tried to stop her, but she dispatched them with ease. She had two short swords and wings. Yes, wings! And conveniently she somehow also knew how to use them. It was amazing and for a moment she simply enjoyed Taweret’s gift. The moment ended when she saw someone in Marc’s suit fighting Harrow’s people. So Khonshu had already found a replacement. It felt like a punch to the gut and Kate wasn’t sure if she’d be able to fight alongside that person. When the hooded figure noticed her his mask vanished and revealed Marc’s face.

“Marc!” Kate rushed over to him at the same time his costume turned into Steven’s suit.

“Kate, wow, what...” But Kate had already reached him and grabbed him by his shoulders.

“Steven, is it... is it really you?”, she interrupted him. Tears stung in her eyes.

“Yes... yes it’s me,” Steven confirmed with a soft smile. Kate pulled him in a hug and started sobbing against his neck.

“I lost you.” She pulled him as close as possible. It was him. She could feel his heartbeat and his warmth. She couldn’t believe how lucky she was. They’d been stone cold dead, but here they were. It was impossible. It was incredible.

“Hey, it’s ok. We’re ok.” He gently ran his hands over her back. Then Marc slowly pulled away.

“I’m sorry, but we should take care of Harrow now.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” She run her hand over his cheek still a little unbelieving. But here he was his face no longer expressionless. Marc took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly, before his mask reappeared and he dashed off to find Harrow. Kate followed him swiftly.

It was a hard battle and at one point Harrow nearly got the better of them. He had Marc pinned to the ground and all seemed over when they started a violent and vicious counter-attack which devastated Harrow and his followers.

A FEW DAYS LATER

Kate was finally on her way home. She’d agreed to stay Taweret’s avatar, which meant she had to help clean up some of the mess Harrow had made. Marc and Steven had left for London shortly after their victory over Harrow. They hadn’t told Kate what happened in the Duat, but she figured that they needed some time to process by themselves. What was apparent and made her very happy was that they seemed to be more in tune than ever before. They didn’t need to talk to mirrors anymore, they just switched, sometimes mid-sentence, which was something that kept her on her toes when she was talking to both of them. It got even more confusing when Taweret showed up also. Then Kate was talking to Marc and Steven and Taweret who they couldn’t see. The hippo goddess had turned out to be quite chatty and had told her all she needed to know about being an avatar and a lot more she might not have needed to know but was entertaining anyway. When Taweret wasn’t occupied in the Duat Kate could see her like she saw Khonshu in the pyramid. It made talking to her a lot easier. She didn’t like it when Taweret was talking through her, it felt too odd. With all she had told Kate she remained silent over what Marc and Steven experienced in the Duat. What she had told her was that the woman who had talked to Kate ages ago at the exhibition had indeed been her former avatar.

“So you knew that all of this would happen?”, Kate had asked in surprise.

“No, but sometimes fate tells me, that I will meet someone again,” Taweret had explained mysteriously. She had changed the subject afterwards and Kate had been left with the notion that she was glad that fate had brought her and Steven together.

When Kate opened the door to Steven’s flat he dropped the book he had been reading and greeted her with a stormy embrace. They hoped that for the time being their dangerous adventures were over. Although there were some issues they had to deal with eventually. Firstly, Khonshu hadn’t emerged with a new avatar yet, after Marc and Steven had gotten rid of him for good. Secondly, Harrow had vanished from the mental asylum they had brought him to. And thirdly neither Steven nor Marc could remember the last part of their fight with Harrow. These were all matters of concern, but they would be concerned later. Right now they just enjoyed being home together.

[temptressofyourdarkestdesire]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black Malfoy Characters: Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa Black Malfoy Additional Tags: dom!Narcissa, Sub!Lucius, Light Bondage, Masturbation, Oral Sex, Sex, Bottom Lucius Malfoy, Top Narcissa, Pegging, Sex Toys, Butt Plugs, Blood, Anal Sex, Femdom, Bondage, Strap-Ons, Spanking

Summary: Lucius and Narcissa discover and explore their liking for BDSM. After Narcissa starts it all, surprisingly it's Lucius who'd like to continue. And it's not Lucius who tops.

Chapter I - In Vino Veritas

It was shortly after Draco had left for Hogwarts. Lucius and Narcissa had enjoyed a delicious dinner and just finished their second bottle of wine. “How can this one be already empty, we’ve just started it. Bring us another bottle, Dobby!” Narcissa commanded. “You dismissed him after he served us dinner, darling.” “Well, then I shall go and fetch a bottle myself”, said Narcissa and stood up. She wavered slightly and held on to the table. Lucius laughed at that and stood up himself. He wasn’t standing more securely. Narcissa giggled and said:

“Come with me, so I don’t have to walk two ways and the fourth bottle is nearer.”

She winked, took his hand and dragged him out of the dining room. They staggered down the stairs and through the vast entrance hall towards the stairs to the cellar. They both had to hold on to each other to get save to the bottom of this steep set of stairs. They went a little further down the dimly lit corridor before Lucius opened a door to the left. The torches in the room lighted up and revealed not rows of wine bottles but a variety of ancient torture devices. “Lucius, this is the dungeon, not the wine cellar. Don’t you know the rooms in your own house?” Narcissa chuckled, gave him a quick kiss and dragged him into the room. “It’s been ages since I’ve last been here”, Narcissa said, while walking through the rows of tables and chairs and racks and other uncanny looking furniture. The room was filled with it for about two thirds; the other third at the back was empty save for some chains hanging from the ceiling and the walls. On the left, at the far side there was a blazing fireplace and all around the walls torches were burning. All the devices looked surprisingly well maintained, although they hadn’t been in use for a very long time. This was in some part due to magic and in some part to James, their eldest houself. He was very fond of these things and liked to oil the joints of shackles, sharpen spikes and blades and nourish the leather of whips and straps. Because he wasn’t much use anymore for other things and he kept Draco from going to the dungeon when he was younger, they let him do what he liked. Actually the last time Narcissa had been to the dungeon was when she had shown the room to Draco. As he had become old enough not to hurt himself in there, she had decided to show him the last room he didn’t know on their estate. Better than having him walk in there on his own she had thought. Draco hadn’t been too impressed by this conglomeration. He’d just asked: “Why do we keep all this muggle stuff?” For most of the devices were devised by muggles, although enhanced by magic. “We’d really like to get rid of all of this, but it isn’t possible to move any of these devices out of the room with the intention of throwing them away or selling them.” She had explained. Draco had just shrugged and left the room, obviously neither interested nor scared nor moved in any other fashion. Lucius followed Narcissa into the room, looking around. He had never seen a use for this room other than maybe scaring Draco’s friends. When it came to torturing the Crutiatus curse was way more effective and made far less of a mess. However, he had to admit that the muggles had found some very creative ways to hurt each other. They had reached the far end of the room when Narcissa turned to Lucius. “You really got the wrong door, you’ve lived here all your life and you choose the wrong door!” she laughed with tears in her eyes. “I don’t see why that’s so funny. I don’t come down here often.” Lucius said a little offended. “Oh, don’t be so grumpy. It’s just funny.” With that Narcissa gave Lucius a kiss, pushing him against the wall behind. As they deepened the kiss, Lucius pulled her closer and started to roam his hands over her body. On a sudden inspiration, Narcissa drew back and grabbed her wand. With a quick movement of her wand, a pair of shackles on a chain came rushing down from where they were hanging on the wall over their heads and closed around Lucius’ wrists. With another flourish of her wand, the chain moved up again, dragging Lucius’ hands high over his head. He had no time to complain as Narcissa covered his mouth with another deep kiss. She had laid a hand in his neck; with the other, she still held her wand. She now tugged lightly on the hair on the back of his head causing him to tilt his head back, allowing her to trail kisses down his throat. She was expecting that he would demand any moment now to be released. But as she reached the collar of his shirt she looked up and saw that Lucius had closed his eyes, quite obviously enjoying what she did and not really minding that he wasn’t able to move. This surprised her a little, but maybe he was just too drunk to care and glad he had some support that prevented him from toppling over. She decided she’d carry on with her little experiment. She smiled and with a wave of her wand his clothes were gone. He opened his eyes with a gasp and he seemed to become a lot soberer in an instant. “Narcissa, what…” He was cut short by another kiss. Narcissa had put her wand away and was now trailing her hands over his shoulders and down his back. She let one hand rest on the small of his back with the other she started to caress one of his nipples. This earned her a low moan against her lips and still no complaints about his confinement. She broke the kiss and moved her mouth to his other nipple. There she started licking and suckling. Lucius was now leaning heavily against the wall and sporting a generous hard-on. He apparently liked what she did and Narcissa found that she too enjoyed it more than she’d expected. It was quite thrilling having Lucius tied up like this with no possibility to interfere in her actions. Narcissa moved the hand from the small of his back to his erection. There she started gently stroking up and down his length. Whit her other hand and her mouth she was still caressing his nipples. As she clasped her hand around his shaft and started moving it, Lucius began to moan and rock his hips back and forth. He had closed his eyes, an expression of pure bliss on his face. He made no attempt to move his arms, although the chain was softly jingling from the movement of his body. Narcissa noticed he was close to climax and decided to make a bold move. She retrieved her hands and mouth and took a step back. Immediately he opened his eyes, looking quite a little bit hurt. “Why did you stop? Don’t stop now!” he cried out exasperated. He started tugging at the chains, trying to get his wrists free. Narcissa smiled at the fruitless attempt and wondered why he hadn’t just commanded to be set free. Although the thought was tempting she wouldn’t have denied him his wish, but he didn’t ask. “Because I’m feeling a little left out.” she said, “Just watch and enjoy the show.” He ceased tugging at the chains and watched her intently as she started to undress. First, she got rid of her elegant pair of black boots. Then she slowly started to unbutton her night blue silk blouse. She let it fall to the floor and slowly got out of her tight-fitting black pants. She was now standing in front of him in only her expensive black and dark green lace underwear. She unclasped her bra and let it fall on the pile of clothes beside her. She started to caress her already hard nipples while she let her gaze wander over Lucius’ body. From his hands high above his head, over his bound wrists, along his outstretched arms, to his face and from there over his breast and belly to his erection and down over his legs to his feet. He was lean and muscular and his ivory skin was only disrupted by the black skull and serpent on his left arm. She really enjoyed the sight in front of her and was quite pleased with her idea. This seemed to be one of the better ones she’d had while drunk. She was also very surprised that Lucius responded that well to the idea. She’d expected him to start complaining very soon and then putting an end to the whole affair. She also hadn’t expected to get so turned on by it. She returned her gaze to his face and locked eyes with him. His blue eyes had a hungry expression and it got even hungrier when she, at last, removed her panties and let her hand wander south. She held his gaze as she pushed two fingers between her legs and deep inside her. At that Lucius stirred and once again tugged at his chains. “Do you enjoy the show?” Narcissa asked with a grin. “I’d rather join”, Lucius answered his voice hoarse from arousal. “No, I want you to watch. You won't miss out, promise.” Narcissa said teasingly. Surprisingly Lucius was content with that answer and watched silently as she slowly started working herself. The stripping under Lucius’ watchful gaze and the sight of him chained to the wall had made her very wet and it wasn’t long before she reached climax. “Did you like the show?” She asked after she had recovered from her climax. She didn’t wait for an answer but walked up to him, pulled his body close against hers and kissed him tenderly. He answered her kiss eagerly and rocked his body against hers desperate for his own release. She reached between them and gripped his cock with her still wet hand; with the other she was holding him close to her. He immediately started rocking feverishly against her hand till he came with a groan. Afterwards, he slumped back to the wall panting heavily. It was plain that he’d enjoyed the whole affair greatly.

[temptressofyourdarkestdesire]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 4/5 Previous/Next Fandom: Moon Knight (TV 2022) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Steven Grant/OC, marc spector/oc, Steven Grant (Marvel)/Original Female Character(s), Marc Spector/Original Female Character(s) Characters: Steven Grant (Marvel), Marc Spector, OC - Character, Khonshu (Moon Knight), Arthur Harrow, Taweret (Ancient Egyptian) Additional Tags: Fluff, not an au, but slightly different story, lot of sleeping going on, sleeping and cuddling, Fluff and Humor, Whump, a little bit in chapter 3, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Khonshu is mean, Kidnapping, Temporary Character Death

Summary:Kate Green meets and befriends Steven at her new workplace. She offers to watch over him while sleeping, to stop him from sleepwalking. Only then she realises what she's gotten herself into. And there's absolutely nothing that would make her turn back, not even her worst nightmare coming true.

Chapter IV - Meeting Harrow

ANOTHER FEW WEEKS LATER

Steven and Marc argued a lot, but they managed to work together well enough that Khonshu was satisfied. He still criticized them a lot and the animosity between him and Steven turned out to be mutual. Steven complained about him very verbosely after he first met Khonshu.

“Why on earth did you agree to become his avatar?” Steven had asked the pot Kate had been cooking noodles in at that time. Kate had noticed that it was easier for Steven and Marc to communicate when they could “see” each other. This meant that they were talking to a lot of different reflecting surfaces. Kate hadn’t realized how many different objects did cause a reflection. The strangest one somehow was the screen of their turned off phone. It was odd seeing someone hold a turned off phone in front of them and just talking to it. Although for Kate their conversations seemed like she was listening to someone on the telephone. She’d constantly to guess what the other one was saying.

“No, there’s always a choice!”, Steven had replied angrily. Marc still hadn’t told them how he had become the avatar of Khonshu. Apparently he hadn’t had another choice, but why he wouldn’t say.

“True, the suit is kind of cool, but Khonshu is a stupid git.” Steven had crossed his arms and sulked till Kate’d been finished with cooking dinner.

But that had been some time ago and now they were gone. A few days ago Steven had told her that they’d have to go to Egypt, because they as well as Harrow were closing in on Ammit’s location. Although he was sad to leave Kate he couldn’t quite hide his excitement. Kate was happy for him, but also very worried. She knew how great it was for Steven to go and see Egypt and the pyramids and everything, but she wished it wasn’t because they were on a dangerous mission. At least they called from time to time to let her know that they were ok. She missed both of them terribly. She hadn’t noticed how accustomed she’d become of having them around till they weren’t there anymore. She’d still spent most of her time with Steven, because Marc didn’t want to go to work for Steven and he got the body at night anyway. To be honest Steven was more entertaining, but she enjoyed the company of Marc as well. Sometimes she preferred his calmer presence and it turned out that he could do more with pots than just talking to them. So they made it a habit of cooking together when they found the time. Kate was revelling in these memories on her way back from work, when suddenly everything went black.

Kate woke with a headache and it took her some time to take in her surroundings. She felt that she was moving and she was seated quite comfortably. When her vision became clearer she saw a window right next to her and to her horror she only saw clouds. So a plane. By the size of the cabin and the lack of other passengers she guessed a private plane. And she had a strong suspicion where it was headed. It was confirmed when a guy came through the door she assumed lead to the cockpit. The tattoo on his arm was all she needed to see. But why would Harrow’s people kidnap her? How did they know of her anyway? Marc had told her he made sure no one followed him to her and he’d assured her they hadn’t made the connection between him and Steven Grant. Well, obviously they had somehow. And it didn’t really matter. She was here now and somehow she had to deal with that.

“You’re awake. Do you want something to drink?”, the guy asked not unfriendly. He was middle-aged and looked unremarkable. The only remarkable thing on him was the gun he was carrying in a holster on his belt. Apart from that he looked just like an ordinary guy, but Marc had told her that Harrow was recruiting people everywhere. That it was something like a cult he had built and usually people following a cult where just ordinary people. Kate thought about answering something snarky, but he’d asked friendly and sometimes ordinary looking people turned out to be serial killers in the end so she didn’t want to anger him. Apart from that she was really thirsty.

“Yes, please.” He vanished through the door and returned shortly with a bottle of water and a sandwich.

“I thought, maybe you’re hungry as well.” He sounded almost shy. Maybe not a serial killer after all. Kate took both gratefully.

“Thank you. Would you answer me some questions?”, she asked tentatively.

“Depends on the questions.” He sat down in the seat opposite of her. There was actually a seat opposite of her! The interior of the cabin looked more like a lounge than a plane. Kate would’ve been excited to get a chance to fly like that on every other occasion, but the way she’d gotten on this plane dampened her delight.

“You’re bringing me to Harrow?” The guy just nodded. Kate took a bite of the sandwich and thought about her next question.

“Why are you bringing me to Harrow? You could’ve kidnapped me and held me somewhere in London. I’m sure you have the means to get a message to Marc.” The guy grinned at her. He seemed impressed.

“You cut to the chase quickly. Harrow likes to have his friends close and his enemies closer.”

“I’m not his enemy,” Kate retorted. What did he expect? That she would wail and beg him to turn the plane around and let her go? Or ask stupid questions like; why are you doing that?, what does Harrow want from me?, etc.

“But you’re the girlfriend of his enemy. And, well, a friend of an enemy is also an enemy. Harrow just wants your boyfriend to stay away. If he does, nothing will happen to you.” Girlfriend? Boyfriend? These terms took Kate by surprise. She had never thought of their relationship in that way. Although they were more than just friends and for strangers it must’ve looked like they were a couple. She would’ve to talk with Steven and Marc about that.

“I hope he won’t. Harrows plans are insane. He has to be stopped.” That was obviously the wrong thing to say, because the rest of the flight she had to listen to why Harrow was right. She learned quite some things about Harrow’s followers and how this better world would look like, but in the end it was still the plan of a maniac.

They landed on a remote airfield, where they were awaited by three people and a jeep. Kate was nearly overwhelmed by the heat as she left the plane, although she was only wearing chucks, jeans and a t-shirt.

“Our ways part here. They will take you the rest of the way,” the guy from the plane said and motioned towards the jeep. He hadn’t told her his name and she hadn’t asked. The three people, one woman and two men, Kate could now see, walked towards them. All of them seemed to be locals and were armed with guns and rifles. In broken English and with gestures they beckoned her to follow them and enter the jeep. Kate couldn’t do much more than follow them. They were in the middle of nowhere and there was no one she could turn to for help. The woman took the wheel, the taller man rode shotgun and the shorter one sat in the back next to Kate. All of them were pretty indifferent towards her. After some time the man in the front turned on the radio and they started talking and discussing. The road was bumpy and pot-holed, but the woman drove surely and swiftly. Kate couldn’t do more than look at the slightly dreary landscape. Maybe it just looked like that, because she was in a dreary mood. Reality slowly crept up on her. Of course she’d seen the suit and they had told her about Harrow, but she hadn’t been involved. And now she actually was on her way to meet a maniac who wanted to kill everyone who was unfortunate enough to have imbalanced scales, without them ever finding out what caused the imbalance.

They reached their destination at sunset. Still in the middle of nowhere someone had put up some tents and people kept coming and going in trucks and jeeps. There was a lot of equipment that was used for an excavation. Kate had never dreamed of actually joining one. She was quite happy to work with the findings in her lab. The three people from the jeep brought her to a man with long, grey hair who was overlooking some workers. Kate was surprised how much he looked like the lunatic cult leader she’d imagined.

“Ah, Miss Green, how nice to meet you at last,” he said as he turned towards her. He was leaning on a cane with a crocodile head as a handle.

“I can’t say the same, I’d rather not be here,” she snarled.

“I’m sorry it had to come to that, but your boyfriend is getting too cumbersome.” His sorrow sounded sincere and Kate got an impression why he was able to gather such a following. But she still had an ace up her sleeve that could topple his plan. She’d mulled it over during the drive and she’d gotten to the conclusion that she just had to believe that she was right. She gathered all her courage and said:

“Marc knows you can’t hurt me,” Harrow looked at her confused and she continued, “All your people’s scales are in balance and mine are as well. So how could theirs be in balance if they hurt or killed someone whose scales were also in balance?” She was going out on a limb there and she hoped imploringly that she actually was right and that Marc and Steven had had the same thought. Harrow took a step in her direction and looked at her inquisitively.

“Are you sure?” At that moment the night sky started spinning. All of them where distracted by that spectacle. When it finished, Harrow grinned at her with pity.

“Well, that doesn’t matter anymore. Marc just lost Khonshu.”

[temptressofyourdarkestdesire]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 4/6 Previous/Next Fandom: Once Upon a Time (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Captain Hook | Killian Jones/Emma Swan Characters: Captain Hook | Killian Jones, Emma Swan, Evil Queen | Regina Mills, OC - Character Additional Tags: Whump, Blood, Knives, Poison, Magic, Angst, Pain, Killian Whump, No Sex, No Smut, just whump with a little bit of story, Choking, ropes

Summary: A former adversary of Hook opens up some old wounds.

Chapter IV - The Stuff of Nightmares

Hook had been occupied by Emma’s laptop the whole morning. It really was a miraculous thing and the internet was even more interesting. But as soon as Emma entered his attention shifted to her expression. She seemed to be lost in thoughts.

“A penny for your thoughts, love?”, he asked with a smile.

“Hm, oh, it’s nothing, really.” She smiled as well but still seemed a little distracted. Hook wondered what she’d been thinking about, but didn’t question her further. If it was important she would tell him sooner or later.

As Hook woke up the next morning he found Emma watching him with the same thoughtful expression as the day before.

“Did you sleep well?”, she asked. It wasn’t an unusual question, but something about her tone seemed off.

“Next to you? Always,” he grinned at her and pulled her closer. But his attempt at loosening up the situation fell flat. Emma still looked at him broodily.

“What is it? What’s bothering you?”, he asked and run his hand over her hair. Emma hesitated before answering.

“It’s just... you do have nightmares quite often. I wondered if we could do something about them. Maybe you could talk to Archie?” She suggested half-heartedly. Hook started to get edgy. Why was Emma asking about his nightmares? What did she know? Did she really go to see Carmine? It wouldn’t be unlike her. In fact it would be more unlike her if she hadn’t gone investigating.

“Well, I’ve lived a long life and I’ve experienced a lot. I think I’m owed a few nightmares,” he quipped. He really didn’t want to talk about them. He’d told Emma he was dreaming about the people he lost, because he had had to tell her something. He knew Archie was only an excuse. She wanted that he told her about his nightmares. But he couldn’t tell her what they were really about. That would make it definitely worse and the nightmares were bad enough as it were. He didn’t need Emma’s pity. And there was nothing more she could do then pitying him, because the “cure” wasn’t an option. He certainly wouldn’t ask Emma to do it and he didn’t want Carmine to have the satisfaction to see him suffer even more.

Of course it all had happened because he was searching for a way to kill the crocodile. He’d heard that the Order of Scarlett possessed a potion that killed instantly. Furthermore, it was able to kill immortal beings. The order gave it to immortals that had grown weary of their existence. So it was no surprise that he’d tried to get his hand on that potion.

On a rainy night he’d started a brawl in an inn nearby the order’s headquarters. Bloodied and bruised he’d dragged himself through the rain to their doors. By the time he’d arrived there, he’d been soaked and freezing. He’d been really dedicated to his quest for revenge. The order had taken him in, healed his wounds, dried his clothes and gave him a bed for the night. As soon as they’d left him alone he’d gathered his things and started looking for the potion. Unfortunately, Carmine caught him. He’d thought he’d be able to fight his way out if necessary. The members of the order weren’t armed save for a dagger and a length of rope. It would be easy to overcome them and if inevitable he would’ve left some bodies behind. They wouldn’t have been the first casualties along his way. He’d been wrong about the fighting. Almost immediately after he’d drawn his sword at Carmine he’d been laying on his back with Carmine over him holding his sword.

“You know we kill spies?”, she’d asked, the tip of his sword placed between his collarbones. The fall had knocked the wind out of Hook’s lungs and he’d been panting for air. He’d been very literally floored by Carmine’s speed.

“But that would be a terrible waste, I’ve got a far better idea,” she’d said with a malicious grin. Before he’d been able to answer, she’d kicked him in the side, causing him to roll over. She’d tied one end of her rope around his hand, twisted it behind his back and lacking a second hand looped the other end around his neck. Carmine had removed his hook, pulled him roughly to his feet and started shoving him through the corridors. It hadn’t taken long for a stinging pain to form in his shoulder, but he hadn’t been able to move his hand without choking himself. This kind of restraint had been a first and awfully effective. But still he had hoped to be able to escape someway.

Carmine had led him down to the dungeons. She’d pushed him into a cell with a sparse bed on the right wall and a bench on the left wall. The chance of escaping or talking himself out of the situation had become unpleasantly slim. Every time he’d tried veering off their way, she’d pulled on the rope, causing black dots to appear before his eyes. Carmine had been eerily calm and efficient in her actions. Wordlessly she’d turned him around and started to unbutton his vest and shirt.

“If you wanted to undress me you just could’ve asked. I’d even returned the favour,” he’d attempted to joke. Instead of answering Carmine had finished unbuttoning his shirt and then lightly touched his chest sending a bolt of pain through his body that had brought him to his knees. She’d tipped his head up slightly with two fingers under his chin. She’d looked him in the eyes and grinned. His face had been flushed and his breathing shallow. He’d been aware that she probably could see the pain from his shoulder in his expression and also the dawning realization what he’d gotten himself into. It’d suddenly sunk in that if they could fix everything they could break everything too and they could do it over and over again.

“Fear suits you. I’m looking forward to hear you scream.” She’d moved around him and slipped his left arm out of his clothes.

“Please, just let me go,” he’d attempted weakly. It had been worth a try, especially after her grim statement. Almost every movement had led to a tightening of the rope around his neck that made it impossible for him to put up a fight. He’d loathed it. If he was going down, he wanted to go down fighting. She’d taken that from him.

“You should be glad. You get to live. I promise you I won’t kill you.” Hook hadn’t been sure if that had meant to be soothing or threatening. She’d pushed him to the ground and put her boot between his shoulder blades then she’d untied his right hand and slipped that arm out of his clothes as well. The whole time she’d held on to the rope around his neck. She’d thrown his clothes onto the bench and fixed the rope around his hand again. He’d had the impression that the rope between his neck and his hand was now even shorter than before. With the rope around his neck and her boot on his back he’d hardly been able to breathe. This hadn’t gone unnoticed by Carmine; before she’d removed her boot she’d put a little more weight on it, just to see him squirm and make him gasp for air helplessly afterwards. While he’d been panting for air, Carmine had reached under him and opened the harness which held the support for his hook in place. She’d traced the red markings the harness had left on his back with her fingers, sending shivers down his spine.

“I’ll be right back,” she’d said and left the cell. Frustratingly, she hadn’t even bothered locking the door. He’d laboriously pushed himself in a sitting position and leaned against the bed. He’d felt awfully vulnerable without his hook. And all the while he’d mulled over if it was a good sign that she’d brought him to a cell and not a torture chamber. At least there had been no rack, no chains and no nasty torture devices. Before he’d been able to attempt pushing himself to his feet Carmine had returned.

Carmine had brought a dagger and a vial with her. She’d poured the transparent contents of the vial over the dagger and slowly walked over to him. He’d tried to get away from her but there hadn’t been any use. She’d pulled on his right arm making the rope round his neck tighten. He’d nearly blacked out and barely registered her slicing the dagger over his chest. She’d started below his right collarbone and stopped on his left side a little bit below his ribcage.

“We won’t need that anymore,” she’d said and removed the rope. Hook had rolled his hurting shoulder and massaged his neck where the rope had left angry red marks. He’d looked at the faint red line on his chest in confusion. Then he’d slowly come back to his feet. He’d expected a lot, but that had been strange. If he wasn’t careful with his hook he could get worse cuts. But then there had been whatever was in the vial. Certainly it’d been one of the famous potions of the order, but he’d been feeling fine.

“You better lay on the bed now.” He’d just set out to tell Carmine that he would get the hell out of that cell right now when warmth had started to spread from the cut. The warmth had turned hot and then searing. He’d doubled over, clutching his chest desperately. The potion in the vial had to have been a poison now slowly spreading through his body. Apparently the order preferred poisons to torture devices. He’d tried to breathe evenly through the pain, but his breathing soon had turned ragged.

“Hm, let’s see who else has hurt you. You know, we can sense wounds even if they didn’t leave a scar or if they were healed by magic.” Carmine had slowly run a hand down his spine. He’d flinched, but hadn’t been able to slap her hand away. The slowly spreading burning in his chest had been occupying his whole attention.

“Interesting. I would’ve thought a pirate would be more scarred. Although you’ve earned a few lashes haven’t you? Still, I’ve seen worse,” she’d smiled lost in thoughts, “actually, I’ve caused worse.” She’d pressed a hand on one of the almost invisible scars. For Hook it’d felt like the wound had been ripped open, it had felt like the wound went through his whole body. He’d screamed.

“See, I knew you’d also scream beautifully.” Then she’d dragged him onto the bed. Every time she’d more than lightly touched Hook a flash of pain went through his body from the place where she’d pressed her fingers into his flesh. By the time he’d been laying on the bed his whole body had been burning and he’d been writhing in pain. For a while Carmine had only sat on the bench and watched him contentedly. He’d given up suffering silently and had been groaning and moaning and most embarrassingly whimpering helplessly. He hadn’t been able to tell how much time passed; all he’d known was the searing pain in every vein of his body. After some time Carmine had stood up and pressed a hand right on the cut on his chest. He’d arched his back and cried out in agony. She’d only taken her hand away once his screams had turned hoarse. It’d become frightfully clear that something had been keeping him from slipping into unconsciousness. His whole body had been aching except his head. He’d always been aware of his surroundings and he would’ve been able to talk with Carmine if his teeth hadn’t been clenched because of the pain. He’d still tried.

“Please... please... make... it... stop,” he’d begged. He’d sworn himself to never beg. He’d face pain and death and accept it, not waver, never back down and certainly not beg. But this had been too much. He hadn’t believed something like that to be possible.

“I can’t make it stop; it will be over once the cut has healed.”

It had taken three days for the cut to heal. Hook had spent the time in infernal pain while Carmine had watched him intently. She’d watched every clenching of his fist; she’d watched how he kicked his legs and arched his back. She’d studied his face contorting in pain and she’d listened to his screams. She’d repeated pressing her hand against his chest, till Hook’s voice had been gone. He’d still opened his mouth to scream but no sound could be heard. She’d cherished the horror in his eyes when she stood up to go over to him. First he’d been shrieking:

“No... no... please... don’t.” After some time it had become a barely audible croaked:

“No... no...”

After the cut had healed he’d been overtaken by exhaustion and had drifted off to sleep. He’d been awake and conscious the entirety of the three days and it had felt like an eternity. He hadn’t known anything but pain and he’d been convinced that it would never end. But just like that the pain had stopped and left him aching and dead tired.

When he’d woken, Carmine had handed him his clothes. He’d shied away from her like a frightened animal and he’d cursed himself for it. But he’d been afraid that she would do something even worse to him. In that moment he would’ve done everything to avoid more pain.

“Dress! We don’t keep prisoners. Either you stay here of your own accord or you leave. If we catch you spying again, we will kill you.” He’d tediously slipped his clothes over his sweaty skin. She’d let him go just like that? But she’d sounded sincere. It hadn’t been just a trick to get his hopes up.

“Why should I want to stay?”, he’d croaked and turned to go. He’d wanted to get out as fast as possible; before she changed her mind. But Carmine hadn’t. She had escorted him through the corridors to the front door. While they’d been walking, she’d explained that the poison was still in his body and how he could get rid of it. He hadn’t known then why he should want to get rid of it. He’d learned soon enough.

At the front door Carmine had given back his sword and hook and he’d went his way. He’d still been aching, hoarse and sweaty, but most of all he had been glad to be free and to leave the Order of Scarlett behind. He’d never tell someone of his failed attempt of stealing one of their potions and of the torture that had followed. And he would attempt to drown the memories in rum as soon as possible.

Forgetting had proved to be impossible when a few days later he’d dreamed of being back in the cell, back in agony. He’d woken screaming and convinced that he’d never left. After that the nightmares had happened regularly, but never frequently enough that he’d been able to anticipate them. Sometimes he was spared for weeks, sometimes he had nightmares a few nights in a row. At least he’d stopped screaming in his sleep after some time.

[temptressofyourdarkestdesire]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 3/5 Previous/Next Fandom: Moon Knight (TV 2022) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Steven Grant/OC, marc spector/oc, Steven Grant (Marvel)/Original Female Character(s), Marc Spector/Original Female Character(s) Characters: Steven Grant (Marvel), Marc Spector, OC - Character, Khonshu (Moon Knight) Additional Tags: Fluff, not an au, but slightly different story, lot of sleeping going on, sleeping and cuddling, Fluff and Humor, more tags to follow for future chapters, Whump, a little bit in chapter 3, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Khonshu is mean

Summary: Kate Green meets and befriends Steven at her new workplace. She offers to watch over him while sleeping, to stop him from sleepwalking. Only then she realises what she's gotten herself into. And there's absolutely nothing that would make her turn back, not even her worst nightmare coming true.

Chapter III - Meeting Khonshu

A FEW WEEKS LATER

After their first night together, Steven and Kate spent almost every night with each other. Sometimes at her flat, sometimes at his. Surprisingly, Steven woke well rested every morning, even when Marc had been out for most of the night. Steven didn’t get tired of telling Kate how glad he was that he was finally able to sleep without worries. And Marc commented once or twice that it was actually not terrible that he didn’t have to wait for Steven to finally fall asleep from pure exhaustion. Kate took that as his way of thanking her. Marc still wasn’t too talkative, although he sometimes mentioned something Steven and Kate had said or done. That always took Kate by surprise; she just forgot that he was always there, listening. And he seemed to be quite happy to slip back in her embrace when he returned from wherever he was going at night. At least he told her when he wouldn’t be back the same night. Sometimes he vanished for two to three days. Till last night. Last night he hadn’t come back and he hadn’t told her anything. She went back to Steven’s flat right after work and was now walking anxious circles around the fish tank. Occasionally, she stopped and watched Gus worriedly.

Suddenly she heard someone at the door. She’d only taken a step in the direction when Marc stumbled through the door. As soon as it had closed behind him he fell to his knees. Apparently, he hadn’t noticed Kate, yet. Immediately she rushed over to him and knelt in front of him. Marc was basically curled in on himself, with his arms slung around his body and his head hanging low. She could see now that he was trembling and suddenly he groaned with pain. With two fingers under his chin she carefully tilted his head upwards so she could look in his eyes. He looked feverish and his face was distorted with pain. Only now he seemed to realise she was there.

“Go, you shouldn’t be here,” he said through gritted teeth. But it was a weak attempt; he was far too distracted to earnestly urge her to leave. Besides, Kate would’ve never left him like that. Marc stared at the air above her head and mumbled:

“Stop... I.. Please! Please I can’t!” Kate grabbed his shoulders and shook him. She wanted him to focus on her again. She had to know what was going on and why he was hurting like that. She couldn’t make out any injuries. He was still pleading with the empty space and from time to time he winced with pain.

“Hey, Marc, look at me! Who are you talking to?” Slowly he looked at her and shook his head. Only now she realised that his expression was also filled with fear. She’d only seen pain earlier. He looked forlorn and lost and it broke her heart.

“He... he wants you to leave,” he said quietly. At the same time he grasped her wrist; she’d let go of his shoulders as soon as he’d started talking.

“Who?” Was it another personality? Could they even hurt each other like that? Why should they hurt each other? But what other explanation was there? Marc bit his lip. He seemed to ponder if it was worth telling her.

“Khonshu,” he finally replied and immediately moaned in pain. Well, at least she had a name now, but it didn’t make her any wiser.

“The moon god?” Marc nodded. He was still holding onto her wrist so tightly that she knew she’d bruise even through her shirt sleeve.

“Argh, I.. I’m his avatar.” Avatar?  Kate knew about avatars in Egyptian lore, but they were a myth, weren’t they? Yet it wasn’t a worse explanation than another malevolent personality.

“Why is Khonshu hurting you?” But Marc wasn’t listening to her anymore. He was facing the air above her again. She realised that meant he saw Khonshu standing right behind her. If it really was the ancient Egyptian god that thought was a little unsettling. Suddenly Marc snapped defiantly:

“I told you, I can’t get rid of Steven!” Oh, this was about Steven! Somehow she was glad Marc defended him like that. She didn’t know if Marc really wasn’t able to get rid of Steven or if he just didn’t want to. In her case she’d be devastated if she lost Steven. Or Marc. Khonshu didn’t take Marc pushing back like that well. Marc clawed aimlessly at her shirt, as he arched his back and cried out in agony. His nails dug into Kate’s arm and if it wasn’t for her sleeve, he’d drawn blood. His breathing was ragged after Khonshu’s assault ceased. Soothingly she ran her hand over the back of his head and his neck. His hair was damp with sweat. Slowly his breathing became steadier again, although he flinched sometimes. Apparently, Khonshu had to make clear that he wasn’t done with Marc yet.

“Why does Khonshu want to get rid of Steven?”

“Because he started to interfere with my mission,” Marc answered matter-of-factly. Only now he lifted his head to look at Kate. She could see the sadness in his eyes, because he knew what she was going to suggest. And because he knew that there was no other way.

“You should talk to him. Tell him what’s going on.” Marc shook his head disheartened.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen; he was supposed to have a normal, quiet life.” Kate understood that Steven was living the life Marc would’ve wanted, if it wasn’t for Khonshu and maybe some other things she didn’t know about.

“Yes, he has a more or less normal life, but he’s also loosing time when you’re gone longer than just the night. I think he’s better since he’s sleeping regularly, but he’s still suffering. He knows that something’s not ok. And deep down he knows it’s not sleepwalking.” Marc nodded solemnly and to Khonshu he said:

“Yes, it will work. I will talk to him.” That seemed to finally appease Khonshu and he left for the moment. At least Kate assumed that happened, because mere moments later Marc collapsed on her and she slung her arms around his back pulling him close.

“So, Steven?”, Kate said after a while. She didn’t want this hug to end, but she didn’t want to find out what Khonshu would do, if he came back and they were still sitting there either. Marc nodded reluctantly.

“Can you guide him to a mirror? I can talk to him there.” He closed his eyes and when he opened them again Steven was looking at her. The difference was astounding. Kate had noticed some differences, but mainly in the way they talked and held themselves. But now she could actually see a change in his face, although it was the same face it was a different person.

“Kate, what... How...?” Steven looked at her confused then he winced.

“Oh, I feel like I was hit by a bus. What happened?” She didn’t answer him. Instead she got up and held her hand out to him.

“Come on, I’ll show you something. It’ll explain everything.” Steven looked at her quizzically, but he took her hand and let her pull him to his feet and towards the bathroom. The only mirror was in there. Kate placed Steven in front of it, stood next to him and took his hand.

“Kate what...” He fell silent abruptly and stared stunned at his reflection. Kate could only guess that he was looking at Marc right now. She herself could only see Steven’s shocked expression. Steven had squeezed her hand tightly and she reassuringly brushed her thumb over the back of his hand. Steven relaxed a little bit. He was listening intently and asked one-worded questions a few times. Apparently he was at a loss for more words at the moment, which was unusual for Steven. To be fair it was a very unusual situation.

After a while Steven turned to Kate and looked at her. She couldn’t quite grasp his expression. He didn’t look too distraught; he looked relieved and somewhat excited?

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” she said. He had every right to be angry at her after all she’d lied to him for weeks, but Steven only shook his head.

“Marc confessed that he asked you not to tell me. He seems to be pretty persuasive.” Steven smiled and laid his hands on Kate’s waist. Kate returned the gesture.

“So how do you feel?” Kate was dying to know what Marc had told Steven, but she didn’t want to push.

“Honestly? I feel good. It feels good to finally know what’s going on. Apparently Marc is..., well, we are some kind of superhero,” he grinned at her proudly. Apparently Marc had told Steven a glossed over story.

“And currently he... we are trying to stop a guy named Harrow from freeing Ammit,” Steven went on excitedly.

“Ammit?”, Kate asked baffled.

“Yeah, the crocodile goddess, who eats the souls of...”

“I know who she is,” Kate interrupted Steven, “I was just surprised, because when I was a child I was at an exhibition with my parents... I was hanging back a bit and looked at a mural which showed Ammit. Suddenly an older woman stood next to me and she explained to me what was up with Ammit and the scales and the people. And then she said: “But you don’t have to worry about her, your scales balance perfectly. See you around.” And then she left. I’ve never seen her again... It was very strange. Sorry I interrupted you. I just had half forgotten about that.” Kate couldn’t quite explain why she’d felt the need to tell this story now. But the name had taken her by surprise.

“Well, let’s hope that woman was right,” Marc snarled. Kate looked at him in surprise, she’d missed the switch. Marc rolled his eyes.

“Steven wants to see the suit.” Suit? Which suit?  Kate was taken aback when Marc’s eyes started to glow and bandages began wrapping around his body. Oh, superhero suit! So it was really true! A part of her had still wondered if Khonshu wasn’t just another personality after all. She watched the transformation mesmerized. Right now she didn’t want to think what it implicated that Khonshu indeed seemed to be real. She would deal with that later. Like Steven and Marc had to deal with the question what made them need two different personalities eventually. After the transformation was finished the mask and hood vanished and Kate could look at Marc again.

“Wow..., may I?”, she reached out towards him. Marc just shrugged. Kate ran a hand over the bandages on his arm and then both hands down his sides. She was fascinated by all the details, how intricately the bandages wrapped around his body. Finally she put both hands on his breast plate. Marc seemed to be a little touched by her attention. He watched her movements and at last laid his hands over hers. They stood like that for a moment simply enjoying each other’s presence.

“So what does it do?” Marc sighed.

“It makes me invincible.” He sounded like it was more of a curse than a gift, although he hadn’t hesitated to summon it when Steven asked. Kate had expected that Marc would be more reluctant to put on this suit after whatever Khonshu had done to him. But apparently he didn’t link the suit and Khonshu like that. He also didn’t seem to need the presence of the moon god to summon the suit. She presumed that she would notice when Khonshu appeared again. She wondered how Marc explained this relationship to Steven. He would meet the short-tempered moon god sooner or later and it quite possibly would quench his excitement. But for now she would share his excitement. Marc was looking amusedly at the mirror.

“Steven wants to try the suit.” They switched again and with them the suit changed. Steven was wearing a white three piece suit which wasn’t less intricate, but to Kate a little less impressive than Marc’s armour. Steven seemed to like it. He turned towards the mirror, running his hands over his lapels and straightening his jacket.

“That’s a suit!”, he said enthusiastically. Kate chuckled and laid an arm around his shoulder.

“Yeah, you look very dapper,” she said teasingly. Steven rolled his eyes.

“Marc is laughing at me,” he said a bit disgruntled. Kate was amazed at how quick Steven had accepted Marc and now seemed to make the best of it. She hoped it would continue like that. They were better off as a team and she felt Marc started to realise that as well.

[temptressofyourdarkestdesire]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 3/6 Previous/Next Fandom: Once Upon a Time (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Captain Hook | Killian Jones/Emma Swan Characters: Captain Hook | Killian Jones, Emma Swan, Evil Queen | Regina Mills, OC - Character Additional Tags: Whump, Blood, Knives, Poison, Magic, Angst, Pain, Killian Whump, No Sex, No Smut, just whump with a little bit of story, Choking, ropes

Summary: A former adversary of Hook opens up some old wounds.

Chapter III - About a Poison and it’s Cure

Emma burst through the second door at this day and immediately came to a halt. She seemed to be standing in some sort of waiting room. It was bustling with people. Children with scabbed knees, limping people, coughing people, everything you’d see in the waiting room of a doctor or hospital.

“How can we help you?”, said a friendly voice to her left. Emma only now noticed the young receptionist behind her desk.

“Um,... I’m looking for Carmine?” She’d been prepared for a lot, but somehow not for that. Apparently Regina was right with the healing thing.

“Oh, you’ve got the wrong entrance. Step outside again and then turn to your right. You’ll find the entrance in the alley left to the building. Have a nice day.” Emma mumbled a thank you and left the building. In the alley was indeed another door. It was black and had the same silver writing as the business card Carmine had given to Hook. The writing simply said “Order of Scarlett”. Emma opened the door which revealed a set of stairs leading downwards. At the bottom of the stairs Emma met another receptionist behind a similar desk as upstairs. This time the desk was facing her. Behind the desk was to the left a door and to the right a doorway which seemed to lead into a corridor.

“What can we do for you?”, this receptionist asked. Emma repeated her question. Without hesitation the receptionist said:

“I will fetch her, please wait here.” She stood up and vanished through the doorway. Emma pondered if she should follow her, but decided against it. She wanted to know what Carmine did to Hook; she didn’t want to upset the whole order. Of course Killian wouldn’t be too happy about her investigating, but she couldn’t get their encounter out of her head. He’d refused to tell her anything about what had happened between them and he had been subdued for hours afterwards.

“Princess, to what do I owe the honour?” The receptionist had returned with Carmine. The mocking tone of her made Emma angry.

“Stop the princess shit and tell me what you did to Hook!”

“He didn’t tell you?”, Carmine asked with feigned surprise. Emma just crossed her arms and starred at her angrily. She considered if she should conjure up a ball of fire or something to punctuate her annoyance.

“I cut him with a poisoned blade after I caught him sneaking around our premises. Evidently the poison is still affecting him,” Carmine said matter of factly. Emma was taken aback by that statement. She didn’t know what she’d expected, but somehow not that. And you either cured a poison or you waited till its effects wore off, didn’t you? But she’d known if Killian had gotten into trouble here in Storybrooke. So it had to have happened before she had met him, but a poison couldn’t last that long, could it?

“When... when did that happen?”

“How should I know? With all the back and forth and being frozen in time, I honestly have no idea.”

“But a poison can’t last that long, can it?”

“He still has nightmares, hasn’t he?”Now what did that mean? Hook did indeed have nightmares, but he’d told her that he dreamed about the time when he lost Milah and sometimes about his brother. What kind of poison created nightmares and what were they about? Was Hook really dreaming about Milah and his brother or about something else? The nightmares were bad, she knew, because Killian was always very unsettled after waking up. But what could be worse than dreaming about losing the people you loved?  After all if the nightmares were caused by a poison, they could be cured. That wasn’t too bad, was it? Better than having nightmares you couldn’t get rid of, whatever they were.

“Do you want to know how to get rid of the poison?”, Carmine asked as if she’d read Emma’s mind.

“Of course!”

“It’s quite simple. You cut the scar open and drain the poison. You heal the wound before the pirate bleeds to death and then cut the scar open again. Repeat till all of the poison is gone. Give him that beforehand. It will replenish his blood supply faster.” Carmine handed Emma a little vial she’d taken out of a drawer of the receptionist’s desk. Emma swallowed hard. That sounded bad. That sounded like the stuff of nightmares, she thought morbidly.

“Isn’t there any other way?,” she asked hopelessly.

“No and he knows there’s no other way as well.” Hook knew about the cure? Well, the cure sounded pretty nightmarish; maybe he’d decided that the nightmares were the lesser evil.

“A word of warning. If you start the procedure it can’t be stopped. He won’t be able to sleep at all till all of the poison is gone. If you don’t mind I have a client to attend to now.” Carmine left Emma standing in front of the receptionist’s desk.

“Is there anything else we can do for you?”, the receptionist asked as cheery as ever. What just had been discussed didn’t seem to concern her in the slightest.

“N..no,” Emma said and left as well. She had a lot to mull over. She’d found out what had happened between Hook and Carmine, but she didn’t quite know what to do with that. The cure wasn’t really an option, but now she knew the nightmares were caused by a poison... There had to be something she could do. If only Killian told her what the nightmares were about, she could at least comfort him.

[temptressofyourdarkestdesire]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Good Omens (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens) Characters: Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens), Crowley Additional Tags: Kissing, Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens), Hand Job, Stripping, Rough Kissing, Manhandling

Summary: Crowley still doesn't like to be called nice. At least this time Aziraphale gets an appropriate apology.

Crowley was surprised to find the bookshop still opened, when he arrived in the late afternoon. He didn’t think much of it; after all he was here for the owner not for the books.

Aziraphale and Crowley had decided to keep up their daily schedules even after the apocalypse which didn’t happen. But they meet every evening and usually went for a walk and dinner afterwards. Then they would return to the bookshop and spend the night together. They had been to Crowley’s apartment a few times, but the demon had the gnawing feeling, that tartan blankets, cosy pillows and other stuff would start to manifest, if his angel spent too much time there. And he couldn’t let that happen. His apartment had to be sleek and cool, it couldn’t be cosy. What would the people think? Not that he ever had any visitors. No, it was definitely better to stay at the bookshop. After all it was very cosy and comfortable.

Crowley had spotted Aziraphale between some shelves, a book in his hands and deeply immersed in the story. Crowley smiled as he walked towards him.

“Angel?”

“Crowley”, Aziraphale closed the book in surprise and put it back on the shelf, “you’re early!”

“I’m not”, Crowley grinned and showed Aziraphale his watch.

“Oh, I’ve completely forgotten the time. Just let me grab my coat. Would you be so nice and...”

Aziraphale didn’t get to finish his sentence. Crowley had grabbed him by the lapel and pushed him against the nearest bookshelf. Aziraphale looked as surprised as Crowley felt. He hadn’t meant to react like that. Obviously old habits died hard. The demon was just about to let go and apologize, when he realized that the angel didn’t seem to mind that much. After the initial astonishment at Crowley’s reaction he seemed pretty relaxed. Like the last time he was just standing there and looking at Crowley curiously. Suddenly the demon was aware how close they were and he decided to use the opportunity to make up for his outburst. He closed the little space left between them and leant in for a passionate kiss. Aziraphale was a little bit startled by this turn of events, but quite appreciated it. He returned the kiss and started to reach for the demon’s face. But Crowley had something else in mind.

“No!”, he said gently and pushed the angel’s hands back to his sides. Aziraphale complied reluctantly and watched intently as the demon let his right hand wander over the angel’s belly to the rim of his trousers. The left was still pressed firmly against Aziraphale’s chest, pinning him against the bookshelf. The trousers undid themselves and Crowley noticed amused that Aziraphale held his breath as Crowley slid his hand in the angel’s pants. Aziraphale gasped as Crowley closed his hand slowly around his member. Crowley could feel that the angel was starting to get hard. The demon moved his hand gently which was rewarded with another gasp. Crowley started stroking Aziraphale who had leant his head back against the bookshelf and closed his eyes in bliss. If that was the new reaction to calling his demon nice, he might do that more often. He just had to make sure not to do it in public, like the last time. Crowley traced kisses up Aziraphale’s arched throat to his chin and further along his jaw. When he reached his ear he whispered:

“Enjoying yourself, angel?” The answer was unintelligible, but Crowley took it as a yes. The angel seemed to have become completely oblivious to his surroundings, until suddenly...

...the doorbell rang and a customer walked in.

Aziraphale snapped his head back upright and opened his eyes in shook. Crowley stopped in his motion, but both of them made no attempt to move apart. They both had forgotten that the shop was still opened and therefore they were actually in public, even if the shop didn’t have too many customers. But of course a customer had to come in when you least wanted any. Fortunately the woman hadn’t walked far into the shop yet and Crowley and Aziraphale stayed hidden behind the bookshelves. They hoped she would leave, because there was no one else to be seen and humans tended to get nervous when completely alone in a place where there should be at least some people. But this specimen didn’t seem to be bothered. Instead the woman took a step forward and said:

“Hello? I want to buy a book for my niece!” Aziraphale rolled his eyes. That kind of customer wasn’t easy to get rid of. In a few moments she would start searching the shop for an employee.

“Get rid of her before she sees us!”, he hissed at Crowley.

“Why me?” Crowley wasn’t as concerned as Aziraphale. He was quite sure that the woman would leave soon, even faster if she did indeed see them. It wouldn’t bother him, as far as he knew humans got caught in these kinds of situations all the time. They didn’t have to worry about heaven and hell getting wind of their relationship anymore, so they shouldn’t have to worry about humans either.

“Because we’re in this situation because of you. Would you be so nice and close the shop. That’s what I wanted to say before you interrupted me so... so rudely”, Aziraphale whispered heatedly. Crowley shrugged. Perhaps the angel was right. The female would probably make a scene if she saw them and they would have to wait even longer till they could get on with what they were doing.

He closed his eyes in concentration. The customer left the shop in a hurry. Suddenly she was convinced she’d let the lights burning on her car. As soon as she stepped out of the shop she remembered that she neither possessed a car nor had she a driver’s license. As she turned confused to return into the shop, she noticed that the sign on the door now showed CLOSED and the door was locked.

“Finally! Thank you!” Aziraphale relaxed against the bookshelf again expecting Crowley to continue. But the demon had had a different idea in the meantime. He pulled his hand out of the angel’s pants and took a step back.

“What?” Aziraphale looked frustrated.

“See I’m still not nice,” the demon grinned diabolically.

“Please, Crowley, you can’t stop now.” He gestured indignantly to his erection, which was clearly visible through his trousers.

“Hm, I think you could try to convince me to continue by,” Crowley feigned to contemplate about a condition.

“By undressing yourself,” he finished still grinning widely.

“Undress, here?” Aziraphale sounded scandalised.

“No one will see you and the shop is locked, but if you rather take care of yourself...” Crowley teased. He hoped the angel wouldn’t be put off by the suggestion, because he’d noticed he was rather thrilled by his idea. He had seen the angel naked, but he had been naked himself in these moments. He hadn’t yet had the opportunity to just look at his angel in all his angelic glory.

Aziraphale pondered the request for a moment. He didn’t think his bookshop was the right place to get naked. On the other hand he had really enjoyed Crowley’s attention and didn’t want him to stop. Bloody tempting demon!

With a defeated sigh Aziraphale started loosening his bowtie. He pulled it from his neck and looked around for a place to put it.

“Oh, just drop it,” Crowley said irritated. The glare he got in response made it clear that Aziraphale would make him pay for that. But the angel complied and dropped the bowtie to the floor. He unbuttoned his vest and shirt and dropped them on the bowtie. Then he pulled of his shoes and socks and at least slipped out of his trousers and pants without much flourish. He stared at Crowley defiantly, but blushed when he saw the demon’s hungry gaze. Crowley took in Aziraphale’s form and spontaneously circled the angel, like he had done so many times before. Only this time he wasn’t scanning the surroundings for danger. His gaze stayed fixed on the angel.

He stopped behind him, mesmerized by the pattern of feathers ceaselessly moving over the skin of the angel’s back. The demon had lost this feature when he’d fallen and gained his snake eyes. The angels’ wings showed themselves on their backs at all times, like a bird’s when it has his wings folded. It was what set the angels apart from humans and demons. It was easier to hide, than Crowley’s eyes, but it identified Aziraphale unmistakeable as an angel. Unless humans invented moving tattoos, Aziraphale wouldn’t be able to move topless among humans without attracting attention. He had found that out, when he had attempted to visit one of the first public swimming baths.

Gently Crowley placed a hand between Aziraphale’s shoulder blades. The angel flinched slightly at the touch, but then relaxed against the demon’s hand. Crowley ran his hand down Aziraphale’s spine and then traced the feathers first with his fingers and then with kisses.

He wound his left arm around the angel and pulled him close. Aziraphale leant his full weight against the demon. He could feel the fabric of the demon’s clothes, the demon’s heat and his beating heart against his skin. With his right Crowley started to draw circles on Aziraphale’s chest and belly. With his other hand he tilted the angel’s head to the left, trailing kisses down the side of his neck.

“Crowley, would you please...” Aziraphale moaned. Crowley had deliberately neglected the angel’s erection. He wanted this to last as long as possible. He nibbled playfully at the base of the angel’s neck.

“What do you want me to do, angel?”, he inquired slyly.

“If you could apply your hand further down?”

“Show me where,” he murmured. Aziraphale grabbed Crowley’s hand and placed it where he wanted it to be. Crowley started stroking him; teasingly slow at first, then quicker as the angel started making needy noises. When he felt that Aziraphale was close to climax he stepped around the angel again and pushed him against the bookshelf once more. He laid his left on the angel’s neck, his thumb under his chin, forcing him to look Crowley in the eyes. His right he had closed around the angel’s erection again.

“Don’t close your eyes,” Crowley said hoarsely. With a few swift strokes he made the angel come. He savoured the look of bliss on the angel’s face and in his eyes. He was very satisfied, that he was the one who gave his angel so much pleasure. Aziraphale was panting heavily, but Crowley didn’t give him time to catch his breath. He kissed him stormily, with all the emotions he felt towards his angel. He made it very clear that the angel was his and he would never let him go.

[temptressofyourdarkestdesire]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 2/6 Previous/Next Fandom: Once Upon a Time (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Captain Hook | Killian Jones/Emma Swan Characters: Captain Hook | Killian Jones, Emma Swan, Evil Queen | Regina Mills, OC - Character Additional Tags: Whump, Blood, Knives, Poison, Magic, Angst, Pain, Killian Whump, No Sex, No Smut, just whump with a little bit of story, Choking, ropes

Summary: A former adversary of Hook opens up some old wounds.

Chapter II - The Order of Scarlett

It was early in the morning, well too early for Emma Swan to be bursting into her office.

“What do you know about the Order of Scarlett?,” Emma asked without a word of greeting.

“Good morning to you too Swan,” Regina said a little bit exasperated.

“You want to know about Scarlett’s harlots?,” she said with a grin. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “Obviously don’t call them that, they don’t like it. Scarlett was a powerful witch who had dedicated her life to healing magic and potion making. The members of the Order of Scarlett are her disciples. Why...”

“So they’re... good?,” Emma interrupted. She was still standing and seemed quite agitated and now confused.

“If you mean healing everyone they can get their hands on, they’re good, yes. But they are equally capable of hurting people and as far as I know quite creative. And very few of the people who tried to get their hands on their potions or the recipes survived.” Emma seemed even more puzzled.

“In short, they’re great healers, they kill spies and thieves and they like to torture. But usually they torture only their subjects who live with them willingly. They’re very stubborn with that. They don’t just torture anyone, so they’re pretty useless.” She threw her hands up. She actually had tried to hire one of them as a torturer in her days as Evil Queen, but the hags wouldn’t for the life of them work for her. But that was information Swan didn’t need to know.

“You’re saying they’re sadists with healing powers who keep masochists?”, Emma asked incredulously.

“Well, one could phrase it like that, I think. Of course, if one were a very unlucky spy or thief, they could decide to torture them before killing them. But you don’t have to worry Swan, you’re most likely not their type.”

“And what does that mean now?,” Emma asked impatiently. Regina shrugged her shoulders.

“It just means that they’re usually into men. Why are you asking about them anyway?” Emma ignored that question.

“Where can I find them?” Regina rolled her eyes. Apparently she was here to answer questions today, not getting them answered.

“I don’t know, but I know someone who might.”

“Who?” Regina just flicked her hand and conjured a phonebook, which she slapped on the desk in front of her.

“Yellow Pages.”

[temptressofyourdarkestdesire]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 2/5  Previous/Next Fandom: Moon Knight (TV 2022) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Steven Grant/OC, marc spector/oc, Steven Grant (Marvel)/Original Female Character(s), Marc Spector/Original Female Character(s) Characters: Steven Grant (Marvel), Marc Spector, OC - Character, Khonshu (Moon Knight) Additional Tags: Fluff, not an au, but slightly different story, lot of sleeping going on, sleeping and cuddling, Fluff and Humor, more tags to follow for future chapters, Whump, a little bit in chapter 3, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Khonshu is mean

Summary: Kate Green meets and befriends Steven at her new workplace. She offers to watch over him while sleeping, to stop him from sleepwalking. Only then she realises what she's gotten herself into. And there's absolutely nothing that would make her turn back, not even her worst nightmare coming true.

Chapter II - Meeting Marc

FRIDAY

Kate would’ve been lying if she’d said she wasn’t excited. She’d packed a light bag for tonight. She had her favourite pair of pyjamas consisting of long cosy trousers and a long-sleeved shirt, a toothbrush and some toiletries. She hoped it wasn’t too much. She was rather curious to see Steven’s flat. After all it could tell a lot about the person who lived there. But first she would meet Steven once more for lunch.

He waved at her when she arrived at the gift shop. She waved back and asked:

“Where do you want to eat today?” As she came closer she could see that he too seemed to be a little nervous.

“Restaurant?” She nodded and they began walking in that direction. They both started to say something at the same time. Steven motioned for Kate to go first.

“We’re still set for tonight, aren’t we?”, Kate inquired. She was slightly worried that Steven changed his mind last minute. Instead he chuckled relived.

“I was going to ask the same. Yes, we are. Only if you want to of course.” Of course she wanted, he was the most interesting person she met since, well, ever basically. And she would be very happy if she was able to help him.

“Good, I’d be disappointed if I’d packed my bag in vain.” They’d arrived at the restaurant, got something to eat and found themselves a table.

“So what do you want to do after work? Before going to bed?”

“I think I ought to buy you dinner, it’s the least I can do,” Steven said hesitantly.

“That’s a good idea. And if you slept well you can also buy me breakfast,” she grinned. Steven poked at his food lost in thought.

“Actually, I’ve never had a woman staying overnight before. I was always worried about the sleepwalking.”

“Steven, I.. Look it’s not like it’s a date. I’d rather treat that like a pyjama party, ok? And if you start sleepwalking I try to get you back to bed and not wake you.” She nodded at him encouragingly. She hoped she hadn’t disappointed him right now.

“Oh, good. I never got the hang of dating or flirting for that matter.”

“Yeah, me neither. So do you agree? We’re just two friends spending the night together. Friends without benefits.” She extended her hand towards Steven. His eyes lighted up at the word friends and he didn’t seem to mind the without benefits part. He took her hand and shook it.

“Agreed.”

“Although, I do like to cuddle.” She winked at him. Steven grinned. He looked more at ease now they’d cleared up the formalities.

“Are you sure you’re not flirting with me?” Kate just shrugged her shoulders. They then started to discuss other things, till their lunch break was over.

After work they met outside of the museum and made their way towards Steven’s flat. He’d suggested an Italian restaurant nearby for dinner. On their way Steven tentatively laid an arm around Kate’s waist and relaxed noticeably when she returned the gesture. Obviously he took her statement about the cuddling as an invitation. Kate was happy about that as it meant that he too wouldn’t mind getting a little closer physically. She always worried that she was crossing some boundaries if she hugged or touched someone. It would also make waking up if he started sleepwalking easier, when she could hold onto him instead of just lying next to him.

After a lovely dinner they finally arrived at Steven’s flat. Steven unlocked the door and before letting Kate enter he said:

“So, as I mentioned I do have some precautions against sleepwalking, which might look a bit weird.” He then opened the door and stepped aside. Kate looked around the flat inquisitively. The circle of sand around the bed couldn’t be missed and it was also apparent that Steven had tidied up as well as possible. The flat was still cluttered with stuff. It was a little dark, but cosy. She stepped towards the fish tank.

“That’s Gus.” Steven closed the door behind them and attached some duct tape at the door. Another one of his precautions.

“Hi, Gus.” Kate waved at the fish tank and stepped further into the room. Now she saw the restraint attached to a post next to the bed. And she realised what Steven had meant, when he told her he fell out of bed. A part of her imagined that it must have looked quite funny, another bigger part felt sorry for him. She was pretty sure that it hadn’t happened the first time yesterday. She focused her attention to the books, which were standing and lying everywhere.

“I like your book collection.” They spent some time looking at different books with Steven explaining where he got them and what he liked or didn’t like about them. Then they decided to change into their pyjamas as it had already gotten late. Kate had just stepped out of the bathroom when she saw Steven sit on the bed about to fix the restraint around his ankle. Kate meant she could just make out a faint mark left by the restraint which made her heart sink. She went over to Steven, sat down next to him and took the restraint gently out of his hands.

“You won’t need that tonight. I’m going to keep you in bed,” she quipped to lighten her mood.

“Yeah, how are you gonna do that?”, he asked mischievously.

“Like that.” She put both hands on his chest and pushed him on his back then she proceeded to lie straight across his chest. Steven started to laugh vigorously beneath her. Kate never had heard Steven laugh like that and she herself joined in.

“That’s... That’s pretty uncomfortable,” he told her breathlessly. Kate pushed herself up with a hand on both sides of his body, so she could look at Steven. He looked relaxed and happy.

“What’s your suggestion?”, she asked grinning. Steven laid an arm across her shoulders and pulled her down on the bed next to him. He positioned them so that Kate could lay her head on his shoulder. She draped an arm across his chest, grabbing his shirt.

“I agree. That’s better.” She smiled up at him. Steven still had his arm slung around her shoulders and with the other he held on to her hand on his chest. He hummed contently. Laying next to each other like that they slowly drifted off to sleep.

Kate woke not much later to an empty bed. Luckily Steven hadn’t gotten too far. He was standing with his back to her and was currently putting on his jeans.

“Steven,” she said softly, “you don’t have to go anywhere. Please come back to bed.” There was no reaction. Kate tried again for a few times before she decided to change her strategy. Steven had put on his jeans and was holding a t-shirt when she said with the most authority she could muster:

“Steven Grant get back to bed right now!” That warranted a reaction, but not the one she’d hoped for. Steven flinched as if she’d hit him. She leaped from the bed and gently put a hand on his back.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean that. Just please come back to bed.” She tugged lightly at his wrist with her other hand. Apparently she’d hit a nerve there. She didn’t want to think about why he’d reacted like that. Finally, Steven turned towards her. He sighed and said:

“I really hoped you wouldn’t wake up.” Kate gasped in surprise as she realised what was going on.

“You’re... you’re not sleepwalking. And... you’re not Steven.” Oh, that was unexpected. That meant...

“That was you yesterday!” Steven or better not-Steven didn’t react to her deliberations.

“Leave and forget about me!” She just stared at him bewildered. Suddenly he looked past her looking as if he listened to something Kate couldn’t hear. Hurriedly he put on his t-shirt, some shoes, grabbed his jacket and went to the door. Kate followed him.

“Wait, where are you going?” She reached out for him again. He turned to her at the door staring at her intently.

“I have to go. Don’t try to stop me. Please leave.” And with that he vanished through the door.

What the hell? Well, sleepwalking was of the table. Kate recollected what she’d just learned. So apparently Steven had a second, less charming personality, who Steven didn’t know about and who had business in the middle of the night. What was she going to do now? She certainly wouldn’t leave. She wasn’t scared away that easily. Not-Steven had to come back here eventually she contemplated. So the most sensible thing was probably just to stay here and wait. And if she was staying here, she could just as well go back to bed. She slipped beneath the blanket again and already missed Steven. She wondered what not-Steven was up to. Was he the reason for Steven’s weird dreams? Her head was full of questions, but eventually she fell back asleep.

It was early in the morning when Kate woke the next time. Someone just came through the door.

“Steven?”

“I told you to leave,” answered not-Steven annoyed. Kate sat up in the bed and glared at him.

“And what am I supposed to tell Steven when I see him the next time? Sorry for vanishing the other night, your other self threw me out. By the way, you don’t have a problem with sleepwalking?” Not-Steven crossed the room swiftly to stand in front of the bed menacingly.

“No, you can’t tell him. He mustn’t know,” he said angrily. Kate raised her hands in defence.

“Whoa, calm down. I won’t tell him. That’s between you and him, but please stop trying to make me leave.” Up close she could see that he looked exhausted.

“Please, do yourself the favor and leave, before you regret it.”

“I think I would regret leaving more. And have you thought about Steven? What would he think, what would he feel like, if I just left and never talked to him again?”She could see that he was thinking about what she just said. She’d just assumed that he didn’t want to hurt Steven. That was possibly the reason why he’d dealt with Ben yesterday.

“Promise me you won’t tell him,” he said defeated.

“I won’t, if you let me stay.” He nodded and started to undress. Obviously he didn’t care that Kate was watching him.

“He’s happy when he’s with you. He wasn’t this happy in a long time,” he said more to himself then to Kate. He seemed to look for reasons to justify letting her stay.

“You’re present the whole time when Steven’s awake?” Not-Steven shrugged.

“Yeah, pretty much.” He’d changed back in his pyjamas and sat on the bed. Mechanically he reached for the restraint.

“Wait.” Kate laid her hand on his shoulder.

“You... he didn’t put it on.”

“Right. If you could get him to get rid of that thing? It does more hurt than help.” He looked at it with disdain. Kate smiled at him warmly, tentatively running her hand over his shoulders. Not-Steven was a lot tenser than Steven.

“I’ll do my best.” She was running her hand up and down his back now and he seemed to relax slowly. Suddenly, he withdrew and said:

“I’m not Steven, you shouldn’t...”

“Oh, right, I’ve never asked your name.” He looked at her slightly confused.

“It’s Marc, my name is Marc. But what I wanted to say, you don’t know me.”

“Yes, but I know Steven. And you’re as much a part of him as he is of you, so I think I know you a little bit.” She was convinced that they weren’t so different. And if Marc had been dangerous, she’d found out by now. So she saw no reason to treat him differently than Steven. He was more closed off and seemed a little more stern than Steven, but she didn’t mind that. And he really looked as if he could use a hug and a good night of sleep as well.

“Come on, let’s go back to sleep.” She pulled Marc down on the bed. He didn’t protest, but he did look lost in thought. Was he still contemplating her statement about him and Steven?

“Well, see you around, I guess.” She still had a lot of questions, but they could wait.

“See you.” Marc replied finally.

[temptressofyourdarkestdesire]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/6  Next Fandom: Once Upon a Time (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Captain Hook | Killian Jones/Emma Swan Characters: Captain Hook | Killian Jones, Emma Swan, Evil Queen | Regina Mills, OC - Character Additional Tags: Whump, Blood, Knives, Poison, Magic, Angst, Pain, Killian Whump, No Sex, No Smut, just whump with a little bit of story, Choking, ropes

Summary: A former adversary of Hook opens up some old wounds.

Chapter I - A Chance Meeting

It was a mild late afternoon and they’d been walking and talking about their latest adventures. It was nice just sharing some time without having to worry about anything, for the moment at least. There weren’t a lot of other people around. In fact they were alone save one woman walking towards them. Emma couldn’t recall seeing her before, but she couldn’t know every resident of Storybrooke. Hook on the other hand clearly knew the woman, as he tensed next to Emma. The woman apparently recognised Killian as well. She grinned at them, clearly amused by Hook’s uneasiness. She started to say something when Hook suddenly moved. He grabbed his sword and started a hasty attack on the woman. The sudden attack seemed to amuse her only more. In the blink of an eye, Hook’s sword was clattering to the ground, he was on his knees and the woman had twisted his hooked hand behind his back.

“Come on, you know that you’re too slow,” she taunted, sounding not a little bit out of breath. Killian just answered with a pained grunt. All of that had happened so fast that Emma had had no time at all to react. The first thing she managed to do was to shout:

“Let him go.” To her surprise the woman did.

“As you wish, princess,” she said and did a mocking bow. Killian shot the woman an angry look then picked himself up and rubbed his shoulder. He was eyeing his sword, which was still lying on the ground a few feet away, but made no attempt to retrieve it. Emma looked at Killian and then at the woman in confusion. The woman was casually dressed and didn’t look too dangerous. Nonetheless, she’d just disarmed Killian in an alarming speed. On the other hand she’d let him go as soon as Emma asked so maybe she wasn’t a new adversary. But why had Hook attacked her? Why was he so affected by her?

“Who are you?,” she asked. Maybe some things would become clearer once she knew who this woman was.

“Carmine of the Order of Scarlett at your services.” That didn’t clear anything up. Carmine turned to Hook and handed him a business card, she’d pulled out of a jeans pocket.

“Visit me, if you want to get rid of it.” Hook snatched the black card with silver writing out of her hand, crumpled it and threw it away demonstratively. He looked ready to lunge at her again, only held back by the knowledge that it would again be unfruitful. Carmine just shrugged her shoulders and turned to go.

“If that’s all, I’ll take the liberty and leave.” She didn’t really wait for an answer. Left behind were a befuddled Emma and a slightly dishevelled Killian.

What was that about? And what was the Order of Scarlett and what would Hook want to get rid off? Emma wanted to bombard Killian with questions, but he seemed quite upset by the encounter.

“Are you alright?”, Emma asked instead. Hook merely nodded gloomily.

[temptressofyourdarkestdesire]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/5  Next Fandom: Moon Knight (TV 2022) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Steven Grant/OC, marc spector/oc, Steven Grant (Marvel)/Original Female Character(s), Marc Spector/Original Female Character(s) Characters: Steven Grant (Marvel), Marc Spector, OC - Character, Khonshu (Moon Knight) Additional Tags: Fluff, not an au, but slightly different story, lot of sleeping going on, sleeping and cuddling, Fluff and Humor, more tags to follow for future chapters, Whump, a little bit in chapter 3, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Khonshu is mean

Summary: Kate Green meets and befriends Steven at her new workplace. She offers to watch over him while sleeping, to stop him from sleepwalking. Only then she realises what she's gotten herself into. And there's absolutely nothing that would make her turn back, not even her worst nightmare coming true.

Chapter I - Meeting Steven

MONDAY

Kate was annoyed. She had arrived reasonably early for her first day at the museum and had promptly been hit on by a security guard. Ben was broad-shouldered, about a head taller than her and currently following her around.

“How about we grab lunch together later? I can show you all the best spots,” he said lewdly, while not very subtly checking her out. They crossed a corner where Ben collided with a shorter man, knocking the books he was carrying right out of his hands.

“Hey, watch where you’re going,” Ben huffed. Kate took the opportunity of hopefully ending the conversation and started collecting the books.

“You should watch where you’re going,” she said and to the other man, “Where were you headed?”

“Gift shop, but you can give me these.” He extended a hand to take the books from her.

“No, it’s ok. Please, lead the way,” she insisted. Unfortunately Ben didn’t get the hint.

“So what about lunch?”

“No and generally I don’t need help to find the best spots.” She turned and followed the other man. He had dark hair, was about the same height as her and looked a lot less intimidating than Ben.

“I’m Kate Green, it’s my first day today,” she smiled.

“Steven Grant, nice to meet you. Where do you work?” She couldn’t tell if he was curious or just polite, but either way it was nicer than her last conversation.

“Uh, somewhere in the labs. I’m a conservator.”

“That’s cool. What are you working on?” He sounded genuinely interested now. They had arrived at the gift shop and Kate helped Steven put the books in their place.

“I don’t know yet. It’s my first day.” She looked at Steven and considered for a moment, then she said:

“But I could tell you later. At lunch, maybe?” She didn’t know anyone yet and if nothing else it would annoy Ben if she was unfortunate enough to meet him at lunch.

“Oh, ok.” Steven sounded surprised but pleased.

“Great, I’ll drop by at twelve? I think I have to get going now or I’ll be late.” He nodded and Kate hurried towards the labs.

Kate arrived at the gift shop on time. Her first morning had been exhausting, but interesting and she actually was looking forward to tell Steven about her work. They choose to eat at the museum restaurant. Very soon they were engaged in a lively discussion. They were only interrupted once when Ben passed by.

“You turn me down and now you’re having lunch with him?”, he pointed dismissively at Steven. They shared an annoyed look, then Kate shrugged and told him:

“You’re welcome to join us. We’re just discussing the different theories surrounding the death of Tutankhamun. What’s your opinion?” Ben just huffed and left without a further word. Steven seemed to be quite amused by the exchange.

“Does seem to be the wrong topic.”

“His loss. I think it’s a fascinating topic.” They continued their conversation till they were almost late to go back to work.

“Same time tomorrow?”, Kate asked.

“Gladly.”

TUESDAY

At noon the next day Kate was looking for Steven in the gift shop. She found him between two shelves, looking dishevelled and half asleep.

“Steven, are you ok?”, she asked tentatively. He slowly turned to look at her.

“Kate, hm, I didn’t really sleep tonight. Maybe you want to go for lunch with someone else.” He sounded like he had to concentrate hard to find the right words.

“But you have to eat something. Tell you what, I’m going to grab a few sandwiches and we find us a quiet corner to eat and have a nap afterwards.” Steven nodded gratefully.

“Vega... vegi... without meat.” He waved his hand, annoyed at the evasive word.

“Will do.” She grinned and went off.

She returned shortly afterwards and together they settled into one of the niches that could be found all across the museum. They could sit comfortably next to each other, with their backs leant against the wall.

“I’m sorry for spoiling your lunch break,” Steven apologised, while they were eating.

“Hey, you didn’t spoil anything. Do you have problems with sleeping often?”, Kate inquired. They hadn’t really talked about themselves yesterday and she hoped she wasn’t being too nosy.

“Actually I have a problem with sleepwalking, that’s why I try not to sleep too much.” That sounded like the worst possible solution for that problem, but he was probably aware of that.

“Ah, well, you can sleep here. I’ll keep you from sleepwalking through the museum,” she said instead.

“That’s very kind of you.” There was a hint of sarcasm in his voice, but he leant his head back and closed his eyes. Kate searched for the book in her bag. She was always carrying a book, just in case.

“Do you want me to read to you? My nieces are usually asleep in no time when I start reading to them.” She smiled at the thought. She still wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or if her reading was just so boring.

“Yeah, I would like that.” Kate started reading and soon Steven’s breathing turned more even and he slumped against her. His head was resting on her shoulder, but his whole body was in such an impractical position that she was sure he would wake with an aching neck and back. She carefully moved back a little bit so that he tilted onto his side, his head coming to rest in her lap. That looked more comfortable. Steven looked very peaceful like that. It occurred to her that she barely knew him. Was that weird? Should she have let him sleep leant on her shoulder? On the other hand other people barely knew each other and had sex. So this was basically child’s play. Whatever, it felt nice, she was happy and Steven seemed to be content. He had laid an arm across her legs, hugging them.

After a while Kate gently nudged Steven’s shoulder.

“We have to get back to work.” Steven opened his eyes, taking in his surroundings. As soon as he realised his position he sat up hurriedly.

“I’m sorry, you shouldn’t have...”, he started to apologise.

“Don’t worry. How do you feel?”, Kate interrupted.

“Better. You should do house calls.” Kate could see by his expression that he hadn’t thought that statement through.

“I just might, if you ask nicely,” she teased. He was sitting there, looking befuddled.

“See you tomorrow.” She winked at him and left.

WEDNESDAY

Today they were eating at the museum restaurant again. Steven didn’t look as tired as the day before, but he acted broody.

“So what’s up with you today?” Sometimes asking outright was more successful than beating around the bush and it was less exhausting in Kate’s opinion.

“What you said yesterday, did you mean it?” Steven looked at her expectantly. Obviously she looked clueless because he continued:

“About the house calls. I think it could really be helpful. Having someone there who makes sure I don’t wander off.” He explained a bit sheepish. Oh, that was it. If she was being honest, she’d thought about Steven as she went to bed last night. She’d wondered what he might be doing and hoped he slept better than the night before.

“Yeah, of course. How about Friday? We could sleep in on Saturday.” She hoped, she wasn’t too bold, but she thought it would be in his interest to try this out sooner rather than later.

“Great. Friday’s perfect.” Steven sounded relieved and pleased at how readily she’d agreed. After they’d settled that, they soon were engaged in another discussion. Both of them were becoming more and more at ease with each other.

THURSDAY

“What happened to you?” Steven looked battered when Kate came around at noon.

“I fell out of bed,” he said a bit disgruntled.

“Do you sleep in a loft bed?”, she joked. Steven didn’t appear too amused.

“No, I had a very vivid dream and then I woke up and fell out of bed.” He didn’t look like he wanted to elaborate further, so she said:

“Ok, well, let’s grab something to eat.”

It was a nice sunny day and they decided to eat on a bench outside. Kate noticed that Steven was moving quite gingerly, he seemed to be still hurting.

“You don’t think you broke anything, do you?”, she inquired.

“No, just bruised a few rips.” He stretched cautiously, basking in the sun.

“They already feel a bit better, sorry I’m getting sleepy,” he said, eyes half closed.

“I don’t mind. Do you want to lie down?” She patted her lap invitingly.

“I.. oh.. really? I mean... Well.. ok.” He grinned at her then quickly settled down on the bench. He lay on his back, his head on Kate’s thighs. She chuckled amused while she rummaged for her book.

“What?”

“Just, you made up your mind pretty fast.” Steven shrugged and teased:

“It is more comfortable like that and all the other benches are occupied.”

“Careful, you’re in a bad position to annoy me,” she replied and poked him playfully.

“Hey, ouch,” he complained. He grabbed her hand and pulled it with both hands towards his chest. There he held on to it. Satisfied that she wouldn’t be able to attack him again he closed his eyes. Kate held her book in her other hand and tried not really successfully to read. Firstly, it wasn’t easy to turn pages with just one hand; secondly she was distracted by Steven’s heartbeat under her palm, the heat of his body and the rhythmic up and down of his chest. Unconsciously, she synchronised her breathing with his. She was surprised how familiar they’d become in such a short time. It was like they knew each other for years, except she didn’t feel as close to most people she actually knew for years. Kate had the impression that Steven felt similar. She was excited for tomorrow. It would be nice to spend more time together than just the lunch breaks.

Suddenly she was ripped out of her musings.

“Are you two like together now or what?” Ben had walked by and spotted them.

“That’s like none of your business,” she imitated him. She could sense that Steven had woken up, but he didn’t move a muscle. Like her he seemed to hope that they would get rid of Ben quickly.

“You turn me down and then you settle for this wimp?”, he said condescendingly. Before she could reply he went on:

“I know you’re awake by the way, Stevie.”

“It’s Steven and it’s hard to sleep with you shouting around like that,” Steven said without opening his eyes.

“Well, how about that. He gets himself a girl and suddenly he thinks he’s kingpin.” Ben started to sound angry now.

“And look at me while you’re talking to me!”

“I’d rather not look at your ugly mug during my lunch break,” Steven retorted. Kate was astonished about him being so blunt. She thought he’d be more considerate and maybe not try to make Ben even angrier. It was like Steven was determined to get Ben to lash out. Kate didn’t know what to think about that as Steven was still lying on her legs. Sure enough Ben stormed over, hands outstretched ready to get a hold on Steven. They both moved quickly. Kate dropped her book and went for a right hook against Ben’s chin and Steven dived below Ben’s hands and hit him in the stomach. They both stood as Ben sank to his knees in front of the bench. He slowly straightened and made another attack on Steven. Steven knocked him out with a few swift moves like it was nothing. Kate watched in awe. There was a glint in Steven’s eyes she hadn’t noticed before.

“Where did you learn that?” He still had his attention on Ben and as he looked up at her now, he looked like he was seeing her for the first time.

“Oh, um, self defence course. We should go.”

Kate went and grabbed her things, then followed Steven. As she caught up to him she gently nudged him with her elbow.

“I think we should be rid of him, we make quite a team.” She grinned at him. That had been exciting. Talk about still waters run deep.

“Yes, yes we do. See you tomorrow.” With a quick smile in her direction he parted ways. Kate was left a bit confused. Steven usually wasn’t that curt. On the other hand, they had enough time to talk tomorrow.