They lifted their swords at once, circling one another. Emma was uncertain if he would actually strike her first, if he was just like any other man who was fearful of hurting a lady. So, she lunged at him almost immediately, taking away that moment of indecision. His eyebrows raised in shock as he parried her aggressive, but not altogether well thought out attack. They carried on like this. Her attacking and him defending the blow. The ring of metal echoed through the gardens and the courtyard and attracted a crowd. They did not notice, still wrapped up in each other, in their own little dance.
I love how Simmons says that she “didn’t know how to respond” when Fitz confessed his feelings for her like she didn’t immediately hug him and kiss him all over his face. Like you did respond, that was a choice
the robbery that we got scenes of Fitz as the doctor in the framework by her bedside after aida got quaked out the window but couldn't even get one flashback of Jemma by Fitz's side when he was in his coma
i will never get over how much i hate neal. he dated a 16 year old, got her into a life of crime, lovebombed the shit out of her, got her pregnant and left her to rot in jail. while he was 23 (technically older if you consider the time he spent in neverland).
AND THEN THEY MAKE HIM OUT TO BE A HERO???????? AND H O O K IS THE BAD GUY??????
for @anidalaweeks day three: everything goes sideways/free day
Trapped and frozen in time after the events of Mustafar - Padmé Amidala wakes in the arms of her husband Anakin Skywalker. For him, two excruciating years have passed. But for her, a near lifetime of nothingness has passed in the blink of an eye.
star wars | canon divergence | anidala | wc: 1032
Read on AO3
or continue below
Laughter bounded off the hills of the meadow. Padmé tucked herself further into the warmth surrounding her as she saw the boy and girl chase one another, shrieking their glee. A light pressure pressed against the crown of her head. The love that poured through that delicate touch of lips was boundless as the horizon around her. She pressed closer to that warmth—to the love and joy wrapped into it as her cold hands trembled and clutched for purchase on the centre of warmth—a warmth so pure and safe that it felt like the power of a thousand suns compared to what awaited her.
The darkness threatened to close in on her once more, as she pressed her ear to the reassuring thump of the heartbeat that belonged to her. The bodies around her were nameless and faceless as even their outlines too slowly faded into nothing. She couldn't look up; couldn't see the face connected to the arms that held her so softly yet firmly. Her body clung and clung as she cried and wrapped her arms and legs tighter and tighter. But the wave of suffocating dark would wash over her once more, and her short reprieve here would die.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
The tall figure robed in black cut through the swarm of guards who dared still obey the orders from their old master. His legs clanked against the durasteel floor with an unwavering pace in a singular pursuit.
Walking over a body that had caught a deflected blaster bolt to the head, he planted his boot right on its head, caving in the skull that blocked his way. They were disgusting. Nothing but vermin to squash under his boot.
And they would all suffer. For what they had made his angel suffer.
His steps faltered as he finally took in the sight at the end of the hallway, to the room that opened up into her prison.
There she stood, frozen in time, framed in a twisted beauty as the carbonite entrapped every square inch of her delicate skin. The pain on her face was palpable, even etched in stone.
He slammed the mechanism that released her. It began thawing her with an agonisingly slow hiss. Each heartbeat spanned an eternity, each one separating him from the angel that haunted him every time his eyes closed.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
Padmé woke slowly, her clothes smelled of smoke. That was the first thing that returned to her. The smell of terror and destruction that made her tense and made bile rise up her throat.
And then she heard him. His voice so beautiful and comforting that warm tears brought awareness back to her cold and clammy cheeks. And she finally could feel the calming presence wrapped around her, pressed against her arms and legs and chest and face as it banished the emptiness like bolts of lightning through her veins.
The memory flashed like a light through her mind. "Are you an angel?"
Her eyes traced what was in front of her, trying in vain to scan the face that belonged to the voice and the warmth surrounding her in a blanket of safety and love. They blurred and jerked erratically back and forth, her muscles unused to the movements as her sight failed her.
"Ani." She whimpered as he kissed her brow, awareness slowly returning to her. "Ani?"
"Yes." Anakin rocked her back and forth in his lap, pressing another kiss to her cheekbone. "Yes, my love, it's me."
Her hands curled around the tunic he was wearing, feeling the smooth fabric of it. Her brows furrowed. The Jedi never concerned themselves with such fine fabrics before. Especially not her Anakin. No matter how much she tried to coax him into a fashionable state before.
But then he squeezed her again, reassuring each other of both their immediate presences. And her face burrowed further into his robes, searching for that constant heartbeat beneath them. He smelled like battle and the underlying scent that was undeniably him, no matter what terrors he went through. He would always crawl back to their bed after each fight in the war effort, smelling like himself as he curled up next to her. And then smelling like them as he left. That never changed.
Her cheeks felt the smile on her lips before her mind could even process it.
"Ani." This time his name was said, not from the sudden lift of the confusion that clouded her mind before, but from relief.
Her body relaxes fully into his as she let him hold her. She trusted him implicitly to protect her—to hold her up when she was unable. Her arms, still shaky and oddly damp, wrapped tighter around him. Something was stopping her from being as close to him as bodily possible and she was not having it.
She moaned as the aforementioned something kicked her stomach—hard. It was followed in quick succession by two more kicks and Anakin wiped the hair that clung with sweat from off of her forehead and behind her ear.
Bending down, he kissed her. A kiss full of longing, desperation, and above all—love. She hummed into the kiss, the warm and steady arms that held her so long ago at Varykino calming her mind now.
Anakin pulled back, panting his love for her in her ear. Warm fat drops of moisture dropped onto her cheek and temple, and trailed down her neck as he openly wept over her. They stayed like that for a time. Anakin desperately rocking them and Padmé never letting her tight grip of him go. Her fingers twitched, no longer cold and rotting with the source of Anakin's heat so close.
She gradually untucked her head from his embrace, still near him but allowing her enough space to gaze up at him. And her eyelashes fluttered with the effort, as she forced her eyes open again.
Her breath stopped as her eyes finally focused. A shadow of a memory threatened to wrap around her neck.
Anakin's eyes were rimmed red, his irises a shocking shade of yellow against the deep dark circles surrounding them.
Claire stood upon the hill of standing stones and the wind did rise. She placed her hands upon a forget-me-not, and travelled to a far, distant land. The folk had stolen her over again. Claire wakes up in darkness, with only Jamie's voice to guide her. or, what if Claire had been abducted from Craigh na Dun, as Frank had originally thought?
have a little jamieclaire get abducted together (such an adorable meet-cute) oneshot as a treat my friends <33
she was not mind tricked, she did not pity him, she was not naive, she did not 'ignore' his red flags, she saw a man who was inherently kind and human and honest and messy, as all humans are, and wanted the man who saved her world, twice, who respected her as a person, not just as a figurehead
anyway padme definitely was the one who proposed to anakin I don't make the rules
